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UPDATED: ‘It is a horrifying place to be’: Glenn reflects on his visit to the Rio Grande River with Louie Gohmert

July 21, 2014
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The Glenn Beck Program

Update: On Glenn's TV show Monday night, he played video from his visit with Rep. Gohmert:

Original Story:

Before the sun had even risen on Saturday, Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-TX) took Glenn to the border in McAllen, Texas. Met by a pungent stench and piles of discarded clothing and personal items, Glenn toured the scorpions and rattlesnake-ridden bank of the Rio Grande River. It took just a few moments for Glenn to realize anyone – politician or otherwise – claiming the border is secure is telling “the biggest lie.” On radio this morning, Glenn recounted the life changing impact of this 4am trip.

Below is an edited transcript of the monologue and some pictures from the border:

It was a powerful weekend for those of us here at Mercury and those who volunteered their time and went down to the border. We went down with Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Rep. Randy Weber (R-TX), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). It was pretty shocking. And I want to take you through a few things.

I want to take you through, first, what we did when we first got there at 4 o’clock in the morning. We went to the border. Anything about anybody telling you that the border is secure is the biggest lie you've ever heard in your life. It is so far out of control. It's incomprehensible.

1407016_01_137Photo Credit: George Lange/Lange Studio 

Two hours before we got there, there were .50 caliber machine gun rounds were lobbed on to the American side by the drug cartels. .50 caliber machine gun. I don't know. Does that sound like a secure border? The reason why that was happening is they were laying down suppressing fire while they smuggled illegals in. And I want to ask you one question that I think will change your view of what's happening on the border.

Right now we all think about is what's happening with these illegals coming across and swimming across the Rio Grande. And we think about these people who have traveled 30 days on foot. And then they pay $7,000 for a family to go across the Rio Grande. Have we thought about that $7,000 and where that $7,000 is going? The things that our government is now encouraging through their lack of enforcement is reprehensible. So these families go across the river. How do they afford $7,000? They can't. So then how do they get across? They pay the drug lords $3,000 and the drug lords say, ‘Don't worry about it. You know what? You just get over and then we'll work it out.’ Now, what does that mean? I mean, it is Al Capone stuff. You owe us a favor, and so I'm going to call on you and you're going to do these things or I'll kill your whole family. Or they come in and they are doing the drug lords' business here in the United States. Those are two options. I'm sure there are more. But those are two options.

So how do we stop this? Well, we have to be clear on the border. We have to be clear that you don't stay here. But that's not happening anytime soon. Nobody in Washington has any interest. I shouldn't say nobody. The guys I was with, they have interest. But very few people have interest in actually stopping this, because there's a lot of money to be made. And there's a lot of political votes to be had before you just stop what's going on.

Here's the question that I asked. I haven't received an answer on this. We were driving underneath the International Bridge at 4 o’clock in the morning. We are in the woods. We're right at the river. We are looking over the river to Mexico. We're hearing the sounds of coyotes and chickens. I mean actual coyotes, not human coyotes, and chickens in the morning. We're hearing the wild dogs running through this area. It's hot. It's humid. It's 4am. We're seeing the rafts. We're seeing the little teeny children's life jackets that have been discarded all over, piles of them, all over the border. One of them had a scorpion on top of it. There are tarantulas and rattlesnakes. We were told, ‘Make sure you're wearing boots. Make sure you wear long sleeves and you button up your collars.’ It's horrible. It is a horrifying place to be.

1407016_01_089Photo Credit: George Lange/Lange Studio 

The border guards have to go and clean this area up all the time. They haven't had the time to go pick up the sacks of clothes that have been left by them after they cleaned it up. It is a mess. As we're in this area, there is this mile-long international bridge. And it goes from the Mexican side to the American side. And at the end of this bridge is the I.N.S., the border security. Now, we have been told the whole time, ‘All you have to do is come over and turn yourself in. They are seeking out our border patrol.’ Now, two hours before we got to the border, at 2:00am or midnight, somewhere in this area, there was suppressing fire fired into the American side with .50 caliber machine gun. Now, why is that happening? Hang on. Come back to the bridge for a second. They're smuggling people across the water, and those people are looking for the border patrol to turn themselves in and say, ‘I'm here because I'm escaping oppression.’ That's what we're told, right?

1407016_01_123Photo Credit: George Lange/Lange Studio 

Why are they going across the river when there's a bridge right there that is free? You don't have to pay anybody to smuggle you across the bridge, all you have to do is take your family and walk across the bridge and go to the same exact people and say, ‘I'm escaping oppression. I need help.’ And they let you in. Why are they coming across the river? They're coming across the river because the drug cartels benefit from it. The drug cartels will never hear any message except the message from the government of the United States of America. I said, ‘How can we tell the people to stop?’ And the border patrol laughed at me. You're not going to be able to. ‘Do you have the resources that the United States government or the drug cartels have?’ Well, of course not. You're not going to be able to beat the drug cartels with a message. The message the drug cartels want is, ‘Come to us. We will get you across.’ They're making money on this.

More importantly, why are they hitting us with .50 caliber machine gun rounds? Why are they doing it? Why are they on boats? They'll take the weakest swimmer, the one who cannot swim, and when they're coming across the boat with all of these people who paid them, they take the weakest swimmer and throw them out of the boat. They do it so the border agents have to swarm. They only throw that person down into the river so they'll die, so the border patrol – out of compassion – have to come. But then they have their people on the other side. It's called rocking. And what they do is they stand around with stones. And they start pelting our border agents with stones as they're trying to save that individual. They're trying to drive all the border patrol into that one area – misdirection – so people elsewhere can smuggle God only knows what across our border.

1407016_01_114Photo Credit: George Lange/Lange Studio 

So if you don't care about the border because of the people coming across, somebody on the left has got to care about the border because of what else is coming across. And if you don't care about securing our border, let me tell you two stories. Let me tell you about the 15-year-old boy that was found on the shores of the Rio Grande. The 15-year-old boy that was found dumped on the side of the river. Our side. Where was his parents? I don't know. Where was his family? I don't know. How did he get across? I don't know. He was strapped to a wheelchair, and he's a quadriplegic. He couldn't move anything but his head. Luckily, the border patrol found him, dumped off on the American side of the river. Everybody else had left. But the cartels or smugglers completed their contract. They dumped him and his wheelchair face down on the side of the river. The kid would have died had it not been for the border patrol that actually found him. It was 110 heat index when we were there. It's one of the hottest places I've ever been. You don't have water. You die.

Ask yourself: Why aren't people just coming over the bridge? Once you answer that question, you realize what's really going on. I'm going to give you another question: Why is it the president of the United States wants you to know there's a humanitarian crisis? He's the first one to declare it. ‘There's a humanitarian crisis on the border.’ Correct? We've all heard that. We've all heard the left making a very big deal out of it. Why is it no one in the press is allowed to see it? It has been something that has bothered me until I went down.

Is the U.N. plotting to control 30% of U.S. land by 2030?

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

A reliable conservative senator faces cancellation for listening to voters. But the real threat to public lands comes from the last president’s backdoor globalist agenda.

Something ugly is unfolding on social media, and most people aren’t seeing it clearly. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) — one of the most constitutionally grounded conservatives in Washington — is under fire for a housing provision he first proposed in 2022.

You wouldn’t know that from scrolling through X. According to the latest online frenzy, Lee wants to sell off national parks, bulldoze public lands, gut hunting and fishing rights, and hand America’s wilderness to Amazon, BlackRock, and the Chinese Communist Party. None of that is true.

Lee’s bill would have protected against the massive land-grab that’s already under way — courtesy of the Biden administration.

I covered this last month. Since then, the backlash has grown into something like a political witch hunt — not just from the left but from the right. Even Donald Trump Jr., someone I typically agree with, has attacked Lee’s proposal. He’s not alone.

Time to look at the facts the media refuses to cover about Lee’s federal land plan.

What Lee actually proposed

Over the weekend, Lee announced that he would withdraw the federal land sale provision from his housing bill. He said the decision was in response to “a tremendous amount of misinformation — and in some cases, outright lies,” but also acknowledged that many Americans brought forward sincere, thoughtful concerns.

Because of the strict rules surrounding the budget reconciliation process, Lee couldn’t secure legally enforceable protections to ensure that the land would be made available “only to American families — not to China, not to BlackRock, and not to any foreign interests.” Without those safeguards, he chose to walk it back.

That’s not selling out. That’s leadership.

It's what the legislative process is supposed to look like: A senator proposes a bill, the people respond, and the lawmaker listens. That was once known as representative democracy. These days, it gets you labeled a globalist sellout.

The Biden land-grab

To many Americans, “public land” brings to mind open spaces for hunting, fishing, hiking, and recreation. But that’s not what Sen. Mike Lee’s bill targeted.

His proposal would have protected against the real land-grab already under way — the one pushed by the Biden administration.

In 2021, Biden launched a plan to “conserve” 30% of America’s lands and waters by 2030. This effort follows the United Nations-backed “30 by 30” initiative, which seeks to place one-third of all land and water under government control.

Ask yourself: Is the U.N. focused on preserving your right to hunt and fish? Or are radical environmentalists exploiting climate fears to restrict your access to American land?

  Smith Collection/Gado / Contributor | Getty Images

As it stands, the federal government already owns 640 million acres — nearly one-third of the entire country. At this rate, the government will hit that 30% benchmark with ease. But it doesn’t end there. The next phase is already in play: the “50 by 50” agenda.

That brings me to a piece of legislation most Americans haven’t even heard of: the Sustains Act.

Passed in 2023, the law allows the federal government to accept private funding from organizations, such as BlackRock or the Bill Gates Foundation, to support “conservation programs.” In practice, the law enables wealthy elites to buy influence over how American land is used and managed.

Moreover, the government doesn’t even need the landowner’s permission to declare that your property contributes to “pollination,” or “photosynthesis,” or “air quality” — and then regulate it accordingly. You could wake up one morning and find out that the land you own no longer belongs to you in any meaningful sense.

Where was the outrage then? Where were the online crusaders when private capital and federal bureaucrats teamed up to quietly erode private property rights across America?

American families pay the price

The real danger isn’t in Mike Lee’s attempt to offer more housing near population centers — land that would be limited, clarified, and safeguarded in the final bill. The real threat is the creeping partnership between unelected global elites and our own government, a partnership designed to consolidate land, control rural development, and keep Americans penned in so-called “15-minute cities.”

BlackRock buying entire neighborhoods and pricing out regular families isn’t by accident. It’s part of a larger strategy to centralize populations into manageable zones, where cars are unnecessary, rural living is unaffordable, and every facet of life is tracked, regulated, and optimized.

That’s the real agenda. And it’s already happening , and Mike Lee’s bill would have been an effort to ensure that you — not BlackRock, not China — get first dibs.

I live in a town of 451 people. Even here, in the middle of nowhere, housing is unaffordable. The American dream of owning a patch of land is slipping away, not because of one proposal from a constitutional conservative, but because global powers and their political allies are already devouring it.

Divide and conquer

This controversy isn’t really about Mike Lee. It’s about whether we, as a nation, are still capable of having honest debates about public policy — or whether the online mob now controls the narrative. It’s about whether conservatives will focus on facts or fall into the trap of friendly fire and circular firing squads.

More importantly, it’s about whether we’ll recognize the real land-grab happening in our country — and have the courage to fight back before it’s too late.


This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

URGENT: FIVE steps to CONTROL AI before it's too late!

MANAURE QUINTERO / Contributor | Getty Images

By now, many of us are familiar with AI and its potential benefits and threats. However, unless you're a tech tycoon, it can feel like you have little influence over the future of artificial intelligence.

For years, Glenn has warned about the dangers of rapidly developing AI technologies that have taken the world by storm.

He acknowledges their significant benefits but emphasizes the need to establish proper boundaries and ethics now, while we still have control. But since most people aren’t Silicon Valley tech leaders making the decisions, how can they help keep AI in check?

Recently, Glenn interviewed Tristan Harris, a tech ethicist deeply concerned about the potential harm of unchecked AI, to discuss its societal implications. Harris highlighted a concerning new piece of legislation proposed by Texas Senator Ted Cruz. This legislation proposes a state-level moratorium on AI regulation, meaning only the federal government could regulate AI. Harris noted that there’s currently no Federal plan for regulating AI. Until the federal government establishes a plan, tech companies would have nearly free rein with their AI. And we all know how slowly the federal government moves.

  

This is where you come in. Tristan Harris shared with Glenn the top five actions you should urge your representatives to take regarding AI, including opposing the moratorium until a concrete plan is in place. Now is your chance to influence the future of AI. Contact your senator and congressman today and share these five crucial steps they must take to keep AI in check:

Ban engagement-optimized AI companions for kids

Create legislation that will prevent AI from being designed to maximize addiction, sexualization, flattery, and attachment disorders, and to protect young people’s mental health and ability to form real-life friendships.

Establish basic liability laws

Companies need to be held accountable when their products cause real-world harm.

Pass increased whistleblower protections

Protect concerned technologists working inside the AI labs from facing untenable pressures and threats that prevent them from warning the public when the AI rollout is unsafe or crosses dangerous red lines.

Prevent AI from having legal rights

Enact laws so AIs don’t have protected speech or have their own bank accounts, making sure our legal system works for human interests over AI interests.

Oppose the state moratorium on AI 

Call your congressman or Senator Cruz’s office, and demand they oppose the state moratorium on AI without a plan for how we will set guardrails for this technology.

Glenn: Only Trump dared to deliver on decades of empty promises

Tasos Katopodis / Stringer | Getty Images

The Islamic regime has been killing Americans since 1979. Now Trump’s response proves we’re no longer playing defense — we’re finally hitting back.

The United States has taken direct military action against Iran’s nuclear program. Whatever you think of the strike, it’s over. It’s happened. And now, we have to predict what happens next. I want to help you understand the gravity of this situation: what happened, what it means, and what might come next. To that end, we need to begin with a little history.

Since 1979, Iran has been at war with us — even if we refused to call it that.

We are either on the verge of a remarkable strategic victory or a devastating global escalation. Time will tell.

It began with the hostage crisis, when 66 Americans were seized and 52 were held for over a year by the radical Islamic regime. Four years later, 17 more Americans were murdered in the U.S. Embassy bombing in Beirut, followed by 241 Marines in the Beirut barracks bombing.

Then came the Khobar Towers bombing in 1996, which killed 19 more U.S. airmen. Iran had its fingerprints all over it.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, Iranian-backed proxies killed hundreds of American soldiers. From 2001 to 2020 in Afghanistan and 2003 to 2011 in Iraq, Iran supplied IEDs and tactical support.

The Iranians have plotted assassinations and kidnappings on U.S. soil — in 2011, 2021, and again in 2024 — and yet we’ve never really responded.

The precedent for U.S. retaliation has always been present, but no president has chosen to pull the trigger until this past weekend. President Donald Trump struck decisively. And what our military pulled off this weekend was nothing short of extraordinary.

Operation Midnight Hammer

The strike was reportedly called Operation Midnight Hammer. It involved as many as 175 U.S. aircraft, including 12 B-2 stealth bombers — out of just 19 in our entire arsenal. Those bombers are among the most complex machines in the world, and they were kept mission-ready by some of the finest mechanics on the planet.

   USAF / Handout | Getty Images

To throw off Iranian radar and intelligence, some bombers flew west toward Guam — classic misdirection. The rest flew east, toward the real targets.

As the B-2s approached Iranian airspace, U.S. submarines launched dozens of Tomahawk missiles at Iran’s fortified nuclear facilities. Minutes later, the bombers dropped 14 MOPs — massive ordnance penetrators — each designed to drill deep into the earth and destroy underground bunkers. These bombs are the size of an F-16 and cost millions of dollars apiece. They are so accurate, I’ve been told they can hit the top of a soda can from 15,000 feet.

They were built for this mission — and we’ve been rehearsing this run for 15 years.

If the satellite imagery is accurate — and if what my sources tell me is true — the targeted nuclear sites were utterly destroyed. We’ll likely rely on the Israelis to confirm that on the ground.

This was a master class in strategy, execution, and deterrence. And it proved that only the United States could carry out a strike like this. I am very proud of our military, what we are capable of doing, and what we can accomplish.

What comes next

We don’t yet know how Iran will respond, but many of the possibilities are troubling. The Iranians could target U.S. forces across the Middle East. On Monday, Tehran launched 20 missiles at U.S. bases in Qatar, Syria, and Kuwait, to no effect. God forbid, they could also unleash Hezbollah or other terrorist proxies to strike here at home — and they just might.

Iran has also threatened to shut down the Strait of Hormuz — the artery through which nearly a fifth of the world’s oil flows. On Sunday, Iran’s parliament voted to begin the process. If the Supreme Council and the ayatollah give the go-ahead, we could see oil prices spike to $150 or even $200 a barrel.

That would be catastrophic.

The 2008 financial collapse was pushed over the edge when oil hit $130. Western economies — including ours — simply cannot sustain oil above $120 for long. If this conflict escalates and the Strait is closed, the global economy could unravel.

The strike also raises questions about regime stability. Will it spark an uprising, or will the Islamic regime respond with a brutal crackdown on dissidents?

Early signs aren’t hopeful. Reports suggest hundreds of arrests over the weekend and at least one dissident executed on charges of spying for Israel. The regime’s infamous morality police, the Gasht-e Ershad, are back on the streets. Every phone, every vehicle — monitored. The U.S. embassy in Qatar issued a shelter-in-place warning for Americans.

Russia and China both condemned the strike. On Monday, a senior Iranian official flew to Moscow to meet with Vladimir Putin. That meeting should alarm anyone paying attention. Their alliance continues to deepen — and that’s a serious concern.

Now we pray

We are either on the verge of a remarkable strategic victory or a devastating global escalation. Time will tell. But either way, President Trump didn’t start this. He inherited it — and he took decisive action.

The difference is, he did what they all said they would do. He didn’t send pallets of cash in the dead of night. He didn’t sign another failed treaty.

He acted. Now, we pray. For peace, for wisdom, and for the strength to meet whatever comes next.


This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Globalize the Intifada? Why Mamdani’s plan spells DOOM for America

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

If New Yorkers hand City Hall to Zohran Mamdani, they’re not voting for change. They’re opening the door to an alliance of socialism, Islamism, and chaos.

It only took 25 years for New York City to go from the resilient, flag-waving pride following the 9/11 attacks to a political fever dream. To quote Michael Malice, “I'm old enough to remember when New Yorkers endured 9/11 instead of voting for it.”

Malice is talking about Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist assemblyman from Queens now eyeing the mayor’s office. Mamdani, a 33-year-old state representative emerging from relative political obscurity, is now receiving substantial funding for his mayoral campaign from the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

CAIR has a long and concerning history, including being born out of the Muslim Brotherhood and named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror funding case. Why would the group have dropped $100,000 into a PAC backing Mamdani’s campaign?

Mamdani blends political Islam with Marxist economics — two ideologies that have left tens of millions dead in the 20th century alone.

Perhaps CAIR has a vested interest in Mamdani’s call to “globalize the intifada.” That’s not a call for peaceful protest. Intifada refers to historic uprisings of Muslims against what they call the “Israeli occupation of Palestine.” Suicide bombings and street violence are part of the playbook. So when Mamdani says he wants to “globalize” that, who exactly is the enemy in this global scenario? Because it sure sounds like he's saying America is the new Israel, and anyone who supports Western democracy is the new Zionist.

Mamdani tried to clean up his language by citing the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, which once used “intifada” in an Arabic-language article to describe the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. So now he’s comparing Palestinians to Jewish victims of the Nazis? If that doesn’t twist your stomach into knots, you’re not paying attention.

If you’re “globalizing” an intifada, and positioning Israel — and now America — as the Nazis, that’s not a cry for human rights. That’s a call for chaos and violence.

Rising Islamism

But hey, this is New York. Faculty members at Columbia University — where Mamdani’s own father once worked — signed a letter defending students who supported Hamas after October 7. They also contributed to Mamdani’s mayoral campaign. And his father? He blamed Ronald Reagan and the religious right for inspiring Islamic terrorism, as if the roots of 9/11 grew in Washington, not the caves of Tora Bora.

   Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

 

This isn’t about Islam as a faith. We should distinguish between Islam and Islamism. Islam is a religion followed peacefully by millions. Islamism is something entirely different — an ideology that seeks to merge mosque and state, impose Sharia law, and destroy secular liberal democracies from within. Islamism isn’t about prayer and fasting. It’s about power.

Criticizing Islamism is not Islamophobia. It is not an attack on peaceful Muslims. In fact, Muslims are often its first victims.

Islamism is misogynistic, theocratic, violent, and supremacist. It’s hostile to free speech, religious pluralism, gay rights, secularism — even to moderate Muslims. Yet somehow, the progressive left — the same left that claims to fight for feminism, LGBTQ rights, and free expression — finds itself defending candidates like Mamdani. You can’t make this stuff up.

Blending the worst ideologies

And if that weren’t enough, Mamdani also identifies as a Democratic Socialist. He blends political Islam with Marxist economics — two ideologies that have left tens of millions dead in the 20th century alone. But don’t worry, New York. I’m sure this time socialism will totally work. Just like it always didn’t.

If you’re a business owner, a parent, a person who’s saved anything, or just someone who values sanity: Get out. I’m serious. If Mamdani becomes mayor, as seems likely, then New York City will become a case study in what happens when you marry ideological extremism with political power. And it won’t be pretty.

This is about more than one mayoral race. It’s about the future of Western liberalism. It’s about drawing a bright line between faith and fanaticism, between healthy pluralism and authoritarian dogma.

Call out radicalism

We must call out political Islam the same way we call out white nationalism or any other supremacist ideology. When someone chants “globalize the intifada,” that should send a chill down your spine — whether you’re Jewish, Christian, Muslim, atheist, or anything in between.

The left may try to shame you into silence with words like “Islamophobia,” but the record is worn out. The grooves are shallow. The American people see what’s happening. And we’re not buying it.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.