Much to his critic's surprise, Glenn was not afraid to speak out against the policies of George W. Bush during his presidency. Glenn was invited to the White House during in time at CNN to discuss some of the topics on which he was very critical of the Republican president.
One of these topics was the Middle East.
"He told me things that were going on in the military, and he told me why he was not saying those things. It was because of a promise that he had made to the Pentagon — that he would do it their way because they didn't want to make the soldiers into monsters. And he said if we really release all the information, that's exactly what the left will do," Glenn explained.
"I understood that," he added.
It was when President Bush started talking about what the next president would do that he was alarmed. The day Glenn was speaking to President Bush was the same day that Barack Obama made the claim that, if elected, he would just bomb Pakistan. President Bush told Glenn that no matter who was elected the policies would basically remain the same.
"George Bush said to me — he was standing in the Oval Office and he pointed to the Resolute desk — 'Any man who sits behind that desk, anybody, doesn't matter who it is, Hillary Clinton or anybody, when they sit behind that desk, they'll realize they have very few options. Their hands are tied. Don't worry. Whoever sits in that chair will execute things pretty much the same way I have.' And he smiled like, see? We're all good. And I thought to myself, no, that's not good. That's really not good," Glenn recalled.
"First of all, I don't want it executed this way," he continued. "Second of all, who's tying the hands of the president? Who is tying the hands?"
After the news broke about how the NSA has been collecting private information from millions of American citizens, Glenn's conversation with George W. Bush was highlighted in his mind.
"I was thinking about what I wanted to tell you this morning on the NSA whistleblowers," Glenn said to his radio audience. "This is a story we've been on for a long time. We've told you all these things, but we were called 'conspiracy theorists' by the mainstream media. And we had very brave whistleblowers come out and talk about this. And we've tried to report it in a responsible way. But that conversation came to my mind because off the air with some of these whistleblowers they have told me it will never be dismantled, Glenn."
They told Glenn that because of both the Republicans and the Democrats, it will never be dismantled. Both parties are doing it.
"Who is George Washington, and will stand up and say, 'I'm going to give up all of that power. I'm going to shut it down.' Who will do that?" Glenn asked. "And who will he got to support him? Because the NSA and everybody else has all of the information on all of them. You really think they're going to be able to shut it down? Anybody who tries will be destroyed. The whistleblowers we have talked to had guns pointed at their heads by our FBI for trying to tell you the truth."
"Thank goodness people are starting to listen."