“Sir, your presentation was far and away the best Tucker has aired to date”

“Sir, your presentation was far and away the best Tucker has aired to date”

My full-hour segment on Tucker Carlson Today, which is now streaming on Fox Nation.

The segment is promoted with a focus on “Doctoring Medical Schools,” reflecting our extensive work at CriticalRace.org on CRT in medical schools. But medical schools were only a small portion of the hour discussion. Most of it was about me, me, me.

Here is Tucker’s introduction to the interview:

Tucker: Welcome to Tucker Carlson Today. One of the saddest developments in the past 20 years is watching the total destruction of American journalism. Journalism is protected explicitly by the First Amendment for a reason. It’s what keeps our system at least theoretically free, open and fair. And it’s pretty much dead. It’s now an instrument of one of the two political parties. But the good news is that real journalism has emerged in its place to fill that vacuum, and it’s being practiced by people who aren’t strictly speaking journalists.

And one of the best journalists of our time is about as far from a trained journalist as you can get. He’s a law professor at an Ivy League school. His name is Bill Jacobson. He runs Legal Insurrection, and he has been one of the people covering the woke destruction of education for the rest of us.

Bill Jacobson, we’re really glad to have you…. A frequent guest on our nighttime show. Thank you so much. So I’ve been wanting to ask you this since you first started coming on. Like how did you get into [this] what is your life trajectory? I have a feel you’re not doing now what you expected to be doing with

WAJ: No part of my life has been planned. No part has been a clear trajectory…

We then spent an hour talking about everything.

• My days at Harvard Law School witnessing the birth of Critical Legal Theory and the foundations of Critical Race Theory
• my career as a plaintiff’s contingency fee lawyer
• the illness that forced me out of law practice and into Cornell Law School
• the founding of Legal Insurrection, how my early writings about Obama have been vindicated
• the work Legal Insurrection has done on Elizabeth Warren and Gibson’s Bakery
• the decade-long harassment I endured at Cornell as a result of speaking out
• the attempt to “cancel” me in June 2020 and the betrayal by work friends,
• Our CriticalRace.org and EqualProtect.org projects
• and more

It was the most expansive and revealing interview I’ve ever done. At points, it felt like a therapy session, not an interview:

Tucker: Why do you, it’s just meta question, super quick. I would say, my guess is maybe one in a thousand people can handle that. It’s one thing to have people criticize you, but to have people on your hall, your friends, your boss, all denounce you in public. Only a tiny percentage of people can continue working under those circumstances. Why you, what is it about [you], like what was your childhood like? … What is it about your makeup that allowed you to keep going in the face of that?

WAJ: I don’t know. To tell you the truth, I think that part of it was, oddly enough, my upbringing studying in the Soviet Union where we were surveilled, where we were in a repressive environment. And I think you have to be able to create some sort of mental shield around yourself. So I don’t know what it was….

So, I don’t know what got me through it. I can tell you that when you’re going through it, it’s an out-of-body experience. And obviously the support of my wife and friends was extremely important. And the fact that I had a website where I was getting an outpouring of support from readers. I got hundreds and hundreds of emails from around the country supporting me. So that kind of gave me strength, and emails from students assuring me that people don’t, not everybody agrees with what’s being done to me.

Tucker: Did you ever think it’s one thing to have your political views or your journalism, because it is journalism whether you admit it or not, but maybe it’s just not worth it? Did you ever think that?

WAJ: Uh, no, actually, I didn’t <laugh>.  I mean it’s just, I don’t know what it is. I guess it was just my personality not to give in and give up. But it was tough.

Tucker: Everybody gives in, everybody. Even people I know who I thought so much of and still like, but don’t think much of anymore, they all bend the knee. Have you noticed this?

WAJ: Yes. I, I have. And it’s tough. I did stand strong. I did beat the boycott [of my course by 15 student groups]. My class signup was over-subscribed, like it always is. So the boycott of my course failed. And I think I emerged from this whole thing stronger with my head high. Had I apologized. Yes, I agree….

I am an anomaly at Cornell. I am an anomaly at Cornell Law School and I wear that badge proudly because I’m ready to defend my viewpoints.

Tucker: Wow. Really a pretty extraordinary story.

Watch the whole thing.

The reaction from Fox Nation viewers has been supportive. Someone I don’t know who watched it emailed me:

“Sir, your presentation was far and away the best Tucker has aired to date.”

Another viewer wrote to me:

Just wanted to let you know that you are an inspiration. At times like these, which will undoubtedly get worse, it becomes painfully obvious that people of strong character are few and far between. I grew up in communist tyranny, I lived and experienced the tactics you described.

I built a life in a free country from nothing, arriving here alone at 18 years old with $300 in my pocket, only to see it start slipping into the same patterns leading to tyranny and fundamentally disintegrating due to apathy, ignorance, and overall moral weakness. I’ve been noticing the unmistakable signs of oncoming destruction for close to two decades now. Warning others appears futile. I feel like I am nearing the spot where I started. The disappointment I’m feeling in the absence of any spine, feeling of self-preservation, situational awareness, and respect for the gift the Founders and many generations after them left us, on part of the American public cannot be described. Gifts paid with unimaginable personal sacrifice, pain and suffering in the name of freedom being wasted away.

The strength, courage, and decency of the very few people like yourself brings me to tears. It’s so exceptional. It’s why I came to the US. Not for wealth, not for riches, for freedom and the American exceptionalism that people of most profound character built.

I watched the long interview with the warmest feeling in my heart. You represent what being American means to me. Good, strong, unapologetic for doing the right thing, unwavering, courageous, solid, and very unselfish. I know the genuine appreciation and admiration from strangers like myself will never make up for the disdain, disloyalty, and disrespect of those who surround you but know that you have it, nevertheless. You are inspiring.

I’d call you and tell you all of this in person, but I know you don’t answer the office phone 😊.

I’ll pray for you and your well being and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

A Fox Nation subscription is needed to view the show, but they offer a free trial subscription so you can watch my segment at no cost. (We have had a Fox Nation subscription for a while, and consider it worthwhile for the modest cost.)

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