Chuck Hagel has had a rough time trying to get confirmed as the next Secretary of Defense and leading the charge yesterday was Senator Ted Cruz. Cruz hammered away at Hagel and his flawed vision of the world in which America is the ‘biggest bully’ on the planet. Glenn interviewed Sen. Cruz on radio today.
Watch the interview at the top of the page.
TheBlaze reported on Hagel's questioning:
In some of the most talked-about fireworks to come from defense secretary nominee Chuck Hagel’s Senate confirmation hearing Thursday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) asked Hagel whether he thinks the state of Israel has “committed war crimes” — after confronting him with an old clip in which he seemed to agree with the characterization.“The caller suggested the nation of Israel has committed war crimes. And your response to that was not to dispute that characterization but indeed to describe what he said as, quote, “Well I think that’s exactly right,” Cruz said to Hagel after the 2009 clip from Al Jazeera English played. “Do you think the nation of Israel has committed war crimes?”“No I do not, senator. I�’d want to look at the full context of the interview, but to answer your question, no,” Hagel said.
Cruz objected that the clip contained all the necessary context, then went on to say that “a suggestion that Israel has committed war crimes is particularly offensive, given that the Jewish people suffered under the most horrific war crimes in the Holocaust.”
The rough transcript of Glenn's interview with Senator Cruz is below:
GLENN: Yesterday I actually saw somebody in Washington D.C. earn their money. Yesterday I saw a guy who we have to keep honest. Somebody who is actually going in there and fighting the good fight. I'll tell you there's a handful of them that are pitbulls now, and they are small government, independents and liberty minded and they know the constitution, and they also know what's going on. They know what the score is. It's not like these old timers that have been in Washington for a long time, and think they're playing the same game. I talked to a congressman Glenn, it's a different world here. He's a freshman. It's Chris Stewart. I've never seen anything like that. They actually think that things are generally okay. And they actually think that it's not as bad as you think it is. You've got to strengthen these guys, and in particular one guy yesterday who made a huge, huge difference in the Chuck Hagel confirmation, and just took him apart. And even if you were for Hagel, afterwards you're like, I don't think I'm for this guy at all. Senator Ted Cruz from the great state of Texas. Hello Ted.CALLER: Glenn, it's great to be with you.
GLENN: You are on fire.
CALLER: Thank you. And there are a lot of challenges and they're happening all at once. And stop some bad things that seem to be coming down the pike.
GLENN: There's an op-ed about Chuck Hagel. Why don't you give us the highlights why Chuck Hagel should not be the secretary of defense.
CALLER: Hagel certainly has a distinguished military career, and he's a Vietnam veteran. Volunteer anyone questions his personal courage or record. But his foreign policy views have been really extraordinary dangerous. And they have been contrary to the security of the United States.
GLENN: He would not last night or yesterday with the John McCain admit he was wrong with the surge.
CALLER: That was really quite remarkable. It was an easy opportunity for Chuck Hagel what he could have. He prominantly posed the Iraq war, and the surge was the greatest foreign blunder.
GLENN: Since Vietnam.
CALLER: McCain got him to prove that the surge proved successful. Even with the antiwar views that the Hagel had expressed on the Iraq. I was against the surge and I'm grateful that it produced success. He refused to say it. He wouldn't say anything good about prevailing, and that was -- it was certainly a remarkable exchange between him, and John McCain.
GLENN: He refused to sign a letter to Clinton and Bush. Today he says that the mosque. Hezbollah in 2006. He declined to join a group of 96 senators urging President Clinton to express solidarity with Israel with the crucial moment, and done Democrat the Palestinian campaign of violence. He has gone on al-Jazeera we are the biggest bully on the planet. He has called the military response by Israel a sickening slaughter. He is --
CALLER: That's correct. If you contrast Chuck Hagel with John Kerry. I was one of three votes against him. Kerry's views are very, very lethal. And yet Hagel's views are tremendously more radical than that.
GLENN: May I say this is not your characterization. It is mine. But I'd love to hear your response on it. They are almost anti-American.
CALLER: Well, what they reflect is the typical contempt for Americans -- I think contempt. Embarrassment for American strength that you see among the extreme. Among the radicals. You mentioned the al-Jazeera exchange. I played two excerpts from an interview he did on al-Jazeera. And Hagel heard that, and didn't dispute that characterization at all. The second which was jaw dropping which was on the al-Jazeera, and the reality that the United States was the world's bully, and he explicitly agreed, he said yes I agree that point is relevant. It's a good one. I agree.
PAT: Then he lied to you Senator about not hearing that part. It was so obvious.
GLENN: It was so clear when you listen to the audio, and you see the interview. It's up on "The Blaze" by the way. Senator Cruz's questioning is up on "The Blaze", and also we've added the video from al-Jazeera. It was so clear he knows exactly what's going on, then he strangely had the courage to look you in the eye I didn't know that. I didn't hear that. What were you agreeing with then?
CALLER: It was really remarkable, and it's worth under scoring. This is a man who is being put forward to be the secretary of defense for the chief civilian officer of the United States military, to go on al-Jazeera a foreign network that is broadcasting propaganda to countries that have extraordinary hostility to us.
GLENN: No, Al Gore says they're for us.
CALLER: To explicitly agree with the statement that American is the world's bully. That statement undermines the legitimacy of the young men and women that are protecting our rights. For our secretary of defense to say that I think it is the sort of leadership specs from a secretary of defense.
GLENN: Is he going to be confirmed?
CALLER: I don't -- that depends on the 100 Senator. It depends on two thing. I hope Republicans stand together. I think his views on Israel make him the most antagonistic Senator to Israel in the time he served. And I think his views on national security, on terrorism put him as a "The Washington Post" at the fringe. Republicans need to stand together. And number two, I hope that some Democrats I was disappointed at the hearing yesterday that none of the Democrats seemed to be willing to give him any scrutiny. I understand it is hard to oppose a nominee from your own party when your President has put him up. There are a lot of Democrats who sincerely and genuinely care about insuring that Iran doesn't get nuclear weapons capacity, and I hope that the Democrats will look closely at his record. I think Chuck Hagel's record is.
GLENN: A message for firearms, and manufacturers from the Chicago Rahm Emanuel. Texas welcomes you. And gun control invited executives to consider the warmer friendlier climate of the Lonestar state of the Bank of America, and TD /PWAFRPBLG. And Smith & Wesson. In Texas we have a more modest view of government. You are inviting the arms manufacturers to move down to Texas.
CALLER: That's exactly right. This was in response to the widely reported letter that the Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel sent to two major banks urging them to cut off the lines of credit to two venerable gun manufacturers. Smith & Wesson. And Ruger, and pressure them into supporting President Obama's aggressive gun control agenda. When Rahm Emanuel wrote that letter. I think that letter was abusive. I don't think that's the proper role of an elected official to be trying to bully private companies to enlist in a political lobbying campaign. So my response was to write a letter to those gun manufacturing companies, and to the Rahm Emanuel in Texas we have the view and that elected officials work for the people. The people don't work for the elected officials. And I encourage the banks if they want to bring more business to Texas, and bring more jobs to Texas there's a reason a 1,000 people a day are moving to day. I'm proud that one of you was you Glenn.
GLENN: Move to Texas for the freedom. Not the jobs. I mean if you're coming here just for a job I don't want you here. If you're coming here because you understand that the jobs are being created because we are free in this state, come to Texas. Because this is the last -- this is the last bastion of real freedom.
PAT: Don't come here just for a job, and turn it into a New York.
GLENN: There's a reason that Texas is creating 50% of all of jobs in America. There's a reason for it. It's freedom.
CALLER: I think you're exactly right, Glenn. I have joked as you know know I'm very worried about border security, and at times I'm concerned about our western border. And all of the Californians if they're coming here to embrace freedom. There should be an entrance exam when someone is fleeing another state, and do you understand what has happened from the place you're fleeing, and not to bring those misguided policies, and ruin the freedom.
PAT: For me that's not tongue and cheek at all.
GLENN: I'm dead serious on that. But I'm glad to say hear it was slightly tongue and cheek.
CALLER: I have to tell you that the Hagel hearing yesterday, some liberal activist on Twitter sent was my favorite tweet of the entire day. Which is that this individual said now Cruz is going all Glenn Beck in the hearing. Which I took that as a high, high compliment. I guess it was that I tried to intrude on the hearing with facts, and put Chuck Hagel's own record and words on the stand.
GLENN: That is a real compliment. I'm sorry they used me to try to smear you.
CALLER: I was honored by the comparison.
GLENN: Thank you very much, Senator. Keep up the good work. You just shout out. If somebody is trying to corner, if somebody -- if you start to feel like I'm --
PAT: Darkness is closing in.
GLENN: It will it will absolutely close in around you. Know that there are millions of Americans that are praying for you, and praying for other senators and Congress none must not just like you. Just don't lose your soul, and cry out for help.
CALLER: Well Glenn, in three weeks the "New York Times" to attacking me. Rachel mad oh, and morning Joe seems to devote to attacking me. And I'll tell you that I view that as a sign we're doing something right.
GLENN: We're trying to fast and furious without getting in bed with the drug lords like our administration has. We're working as fast as we can to build an alternative network that is beholden to parties and not beholden to any kind of liberal nonsense.
CALLER: I appreciate that. And you're being lifted up by the prayers of men and women across America, and all of us and what you're doing, and what I'm doing. We're fighting to save our country. I feel incredibly to have an opportunity to make a small difference.
GLENN: I respect what you're doing. I will leave it at that.
CALLER: I appreciate you, and thank you and let's get it done together.
GLENN: Thank you. Senator Ted Cruz from Texas. If you haven't seen what he did yesterday, go to the website