Tucker Carlson: Church's Action in Border Crisis 'Appalling'

On Thursday’s “Outnumbered” on the Fox News Channel, panelists Tucker Carlson and Kirsten Powers had a heated exchange over the ongoing border crisis and whether or not it was this country’s so-called Christian duty to grant those unaccompanied minors entering the United States asylum.

Carlson questioned Powers’ suggestion as it being the Christian obligation of the country to accept these minors into the United States. He argued that it wasn’t “Christian” to shirk those cost onto the American people through the use of their tax dollars and called out church groups encouraging those fleeing Central American countries to seek government assistance.

Partial transcript as follows:

CARLSON: You are saying the United States have an obligation – anyone who is suffering around the world has a right to come here and be supported by you and me?

POWERS: Hey, have you ever been to the Statue of Liberty?

(CROSSTALK)

CARLSON: So, you are saying, in Congo for example where there has been a war for 20 years, every Congolese has a moral right to come here?

POWERS: We have a refuge to the people of the world who look to us as a shining city on a hill – does that sound familiar to you?

GUILFOYLE: Those people did it legally – legal immigration. Why does everybody get to break the law?

POWERS: It is so radically different and immigration and asylum are not the same thing.

CARLSON: So I have a moral obligation to share my earnings and my country with people I have never met because they are suffering?

POWERS: Are you a Christian?

CARLSON: I am absolutely a Christian.

POWERS: OK, have you read the Bible?

CARLSON: This is not a theocracy.

(CROSSTALK)

CARLSON: You are not saying that. What you’re saying is the U.S. government has a responsibility. Now you may have a Christian obligation. You can give charity money. That is a massive difference.

GUILFOYLE:  We are a nation of laws.

(CROSSTALK)

POWERS: I did not make this up. … You have never heard of America as a refuge of people who are persecuted?

CARLSON: I have seen the bumper sticker. What does that mean? … What does that mean, precisely? I have seen the suffering. How many?

POWERS: Why did Ronald Reagan say that we are a shining city on a hill to the world?

GUILFOYLE:  Because we are a nation of laws.

CARLSON: Does any other country have this obligation or just ours?

POWERS: Other countries? Of course they can, but we we’re talking about our country. Are you saying people who have been fleeing persecution in our history have not come to the United States?

CARLSON: Of course they have, but they don’t have a moral right to American tax dollars and physical asylum in the United States. They just don’t.

(CROSSTALK)

POWERS: So you don’ think that Jewish people fleeing pogroms should have been allowed into our country? You just said we have no moral option.

CARLSON: Oh come on, now. That’s just completely silly … I’m not even going to engage on that.

POWERS: That is persecution.

CARLSON: That’s just talking points.

GUILFOYLE:  No, Kirsten. What we’re trying to say is … if you’re a Christian and you’re a good Christian, then you let everybody come in and break the law … There is a way to do it. There is a way to seek asylum legally.

CARLSON: Then why don’t they pay for it? When church groups encourage people to come to this country and then they go on the dole, when they go on taxpayer assistance, it’s appalling.

POWERS: The church groups are the only ones handling these kids.

CARLSON: Really? No, because they are referring them to government subsidies. I have seen it. Talk about shirking your Christian duties.

POWERS: One-hundred percent of the people who taking care of these kids that I have interviewed are with Christian organizations – Catholic charities.

CARLSON: And how many of those organizations sign them up for public services?

POWERS: They have to work with the government.

CARLSON: Really? They do? That is your Christian duty – to shirk the costs, to send the costs to someone else you have never met?

POWERS: You’re now attacking the Catholic Church for —

CARLSON:  I am not attacking any specific church. I’m only saying your Christian duty entails your work, your money, your effort, your charity – not that of others.

POWERS: It is their effort.

CARLSON: No it’s not.

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor