Evangelical leader Franklin Graham had a very personal encounter with Ebola

October 02, 2014

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Glenn was with Franklin Graham, son of the renowned evangelical preacher Billy Graham, at the opening of the Green Foundation Bible Museum in Oklahoma City. While they were at dinner, Franklin Graham explained that it was once of his doctors, Dr. Kent Brantly from Samaritan's Purse, that was infected with Ebola and brought back to the United States. The doctor has now made a full recovery, but how was Graham involved in getting him back to the U.S. for treatment? It's an incredible story, one that Glenn told on radio today.

Below is an edited transcript of this segment

GLENN: A couple of other people and Franklin Graham was sitting next to Tania. And Franklin Graham is Billy Graham's son and he runs Samaritan's Purse. And so we're talking about world events. And the program hadn't started yet, so what's coming in the world. What's happening. And, you know, the idea that I was from Dallas, and here's Ebola in Dallas. We started talking about that.

And that's when Steve Green said: Well, you know that was Franklin's doctor, you know, from Samaritan's Purse that was brought in on that plane. And I had completely forgotten.

And I said, oh, my gosh, Franklin, what was that like?

He began to tell the story. And we'll try to bring him in hopefully next week. I want him to tell the story because it was -- coming firsthand it was electrifying.

I said: So what happened?

He said: We had -- I don't remember how many -- 35 people over working and trying to help these people over in West Africa. And he said: So we have our people over there, and the doctor gets it.

Now the first thing that I asked him was: How did he get it? Because there's speculation. He's all suited up. How did he possibly get it?

He said: The problem over in Africa is, everybody is running a fever. He said, and that's one of the early signs, you get a fever and have flu-like symptoms. But everybody --

PAT: Because of malaria too.

GLENN: Right. So he said everybody has malaria at some point so everybody has a fever. So it's not something that's a warning sign there. And he said these doctors they go over and help the Ebola victims, and then we suit them up, we spray them down with chlorine. We put these giant trays down on the ground. When you walk into these bays, you have these giant trays with an inch of chlorine. So your feet walk through the chlorine and then they spray you down with that. So that kills the Ebola.

He said the problem is he didn't get it from those guys, he got it from working over in the hospital. They would take their suits off and they would spend extra time helping the people in the hospital. Well, you don't know who has Ebola and who doesn't. Apparently that's where he contracted it. So he gets it and has it bad and he's dying, and they start calling, is there anything anybody can do? What resources are available? Anything.

They get a call from this company in San Diego. And they say, we have an experimental drug. Never been tried on a human before, and apparently it involves mouse blood and tobacco leaves. I mean, it sounds crazy.

So they start talking about it. And it's decided not to give him this vial. But the company ships it over. Now, it's kept at, you know, super low temperatures. I don't know 200 or 600 degrees below zero. Some crazy temperature. And so he comes and it's shipped there and it's got to be kept that cold the whole time. And so it's sitting over there, and the doctor gets sicker and sicker and sicker. And they realize. We're going to lose him. We're going to lose him tonight. He's going to die. It's just violent.

They get back on the phone with this pharmaceutical company in San Diego, they get back on the phone with attorneys. And all the attorneys are like, 'you can't give him this. You don't know what it will do. It's never had a human trial. You have no idea.'

PAT: But if a guy is going to die anyway.

GLENN: Finally, They said, 'look, he's going to die. He's going to die tonight. He'll die maybe an hour earlier? What? How bad being it be? We know his outcome he's going to die tonight.' All the attorneys again in France and America they're all saying, don't give it to him. You can't do it. You can't do it.

Well, they do.

Now, he's so bad he's within hours of dying. Vomiting. You just, you're done. You're bleeding from your eyes. You're bleeding from every orifice of your body. What they do is they open up this refrigeration tank, these three bags of this ZMapp is in, it has to be put in intravenously. So there's three bags of it and you take one bag, I guess day number one. Next bag and then the next bag.

PAT: It's frozen solid though?

GLENN: Frozen solid, 200 degrees below zero. Whatever it is. They have to that you it out quickly. They have to get it in a liquid state. You can't put it in the microwave. What do you do?

So they take turns actually sitting on these IV bags and they start to thaw it out from their body warmth. They get it into this guy's arm.

As this thing is going into his system, by the time that bag is finished, he gets up by himself and goes to the bathroom. He was so sick just a few hours before. He was going to die and couldn't do anything.

PAT: He was literally at death's door. And now, he's getting and up going to the bathroom.

GLENN: As soon as he gets this bag of this serum, he gets up and goes to the bathroom himself. It happens that fast. So they finish the three bags. They put him on a plane and bring him over here, and he's fine.

Now, here's where this story gets interesting. He said opening up that refrigeration tank was like a sci-fi movie. We opened that refrigeration tank and the smoke is coming out. It was a spooky sci-fi movie. While they're doing all of this, Franklin is on the phone, and he's trying to get a plane to bring the doctors to the United States and trying to get them help.

There's only one plane I guess that the United States has perhaps in the world, but there's one that the United States has. It's a G3, Gulf Stream 3. And it is specially equipped to contain, you know, I guess this is Level 5 or something disease. So, in other words, I got the impression this is a plane that can crash, and the compartment is sealed. So nothing is coming out of this. And there's only one plane. And I can't remember whose responsibility in the government it is. I want to say it was the State Department's plane, but I'm not sure.

And Franklin is calling and trying to get a plane, and he realizes nothing can fly this guy unless it's this Level 5 plane. So he finds out and he's calling John Kerry. He's calling the White House. Calling everybody trying to get this plane. Nobody will help. Nobody will help. He finally gets a hold of somebody at the I think it's the State Department, and he said, 'do you know about this plane?' And he said, 'yes, I do.' And he explained the situation. And he said, 'well, today is your lucky day because I'm in charge of that plane.' And Franklin said, 'who do I have to call above you to get this signed off.' He said, 'nobody. Me. I'm in charge of it.' He said 'I can't pay for it.' He said, 'you're going to have pay for it, but I'll okay the plane to fly over if you pay for it.' He said, 'fine we'll play for it.'

So it cost him a couple hundred thousand dollars to fly over to Africa, pick him up, fly back. Problem. That plane now has been taken by the CDC so now the CDC is the only one that has that plane. And they apparently don't like to share.

The CDC is also, I get the impression, way out of control and way over their head on this.

When Franklin got the doctor to the hospital, it was in [Atlanta]. Right? When he gets him over into the hospital, they come in and they quarantine this guy. Now, there are, I think, 35 others that have returned from Africa that were working in that hospital, the same as this doctor. They've been around this doctor. They've been around the hospital. They've been in the Ebola places. They bring him to the hospital. The CDC is there and everybody is there. And we all saw the caravan, but what we didn't see is this: Franklin says, 'okay, we've got 35 people. Where do we keep them for 21 days?'

The CDC says, 'oh, don't worry just send them home.'

Now, here's Franklin not a doctor. 'I don't think that's a good idea. I don't think sending them home is a good idea. What are we doing sending them home? What do you mean send them home? They should be in the quarantine for 21 days. We don't know if they have the Ebola.'

'Yeah, they're fine. Send them home.'

So Franklin decides to find a place right around this hospital and quarantines the people himself and says, everybody is staying here for 21 days and it's close to the hospital, so if we start to see symptoms, you just pop in and go over to the hospital.

Well, apparently, several days into this, the hospital finds out that they've done this. And the hospital is upset because of PR. How is this going to look? That we've got 21 people right around this hospital? PR. This goes to exactly to what Rand Paul was saying yesterday: Political correctness.

We've got -- we've got to stop the political correctness. We've got to stop this. Political correctness is stopping us from restricting air travel to West Africa. There is no reason why we have people traveling to and fro to West Africa. Now, I know that you can't stop all air travel. It's impossible, but if you have anything around West Africa on your passport, you should also be quarantined.

If you've been to West Africa in the last 21 days, you need to be quarantined. We used to do that -- what do you think Ellis Island was for? We would quarantine people. The president and the White House yesterday came out and said, 'well, we've got safety measures at the border now. We make sure that if all the border guys' -- really? You don't even have -- most people aren't even coming across the border. But our political correctness is stopping us from quarantining people. Our political correctness -- the president stopped all air travel to Israel on the threat of a missile almost possibly, maybe, might, shoot down a plane over Ben Gurion Airport in Israel. He shut it down for a week. And they did it that fast.

Why are we not shutting down the airspace? Why are we not saying, you cannot enter the United States of America. You cannot fly to West Africa. You cannot return unless you've been quarantined, period.

STU: Wouldn't you say thought that the impulse to isolate countries may make the Ebola epidemic worse?

GLENN: No, I wouldn't say that.

STU: That's what the CDC director said. "The impulse to isolate the country --

PAT: So the impulse itself -- like if I feel like isolating it, that will make it worse?

STU: Right. Ebola will get much worse.

PAT: Does Ebola know my intention?

GLENN: That's ridiculous. The CDC is out of control. Everything. Look at the woman who just resigned from the secret service yesterday. If this isn't political correctness, how did this woman get her job? And, by the way, she wasn't fired yesterday because the secret service is out of control.

PAT: Of rampant incompetence.

GLENN: She was fired because of optics. She didn't let the administration know that there was a problem.

STU: Yeah, the elevator incident, she did not inform them of until it got out to the press. They weren't able to fight the PR battle on that.

PAT: So it wasn't because they allowed an armed criminal with the president of the United States-

GLENN: It was because of political correctness. It was because of the press. It was because of the optics. This is literally going to kill all of us. This is why we're -- I'm telling you we're going to be humbled because we won't recognize reality anymore. And when you won't recognize reality, reality has a way of sneaking up behind you.

Front Page image courtesy of the AP

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.

Could China OWN our National Parks?

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The left’s idea of stewardship involves bulldozing bison and barring access. Lee’s vision puts conservation back in the hands of the people.

The media wants you to believe that Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) is trying to bulldoze Yellowstone and turn national parks into strip malls — that he’s calling for a reckless fire sale of America’s natural beauty to line developers’ pockets. That narrative is dishonest. It’s fearmongering, and, by the way, it’s wrong.

Here’s what’s really happening.

Private stewardship works. It’s local. It’s accountable. It’s incentivized.

The federal government currently owns 640 million acres of land — nearly 28% of all land in the United States. To put that into perspective, that’s more territory than France, Germany, Poland, and the United Kingdom combined.

Most of this land is west of the Mississippi River. That’s not a coincidence. In the American West, federal ownership isn’t just a bureaucratic technicality — it’s a stranglehold. States are suffocated. Locals are treated as tenants. Opportunities are choked off.

Meanwhile, people living east of the Mississippi — in places like Kentucky, Georgia, or Pennsylvania — might not even realize how little land their own states truly control. But the same policies that are plaguing the West could come for them next.

Lee isn’t proposing to auction off Yellowstone or pave over Yosemite. He’s talking about 3 million acres — that’s less than half of 1% of the federal estate. And this land isn’t your family’s favorite hiking trail. It’s remote, hard to access, and often mismanaged.

Failed management

Why was it mismanaged in the first place? Because the federal government is a terrible landlord.

Consider Yellowstone again. It’s home to the last remaining herd of genetically pure American bison — animals that haven’t been crossbred with cattle. Ranchers, myself included, would love the chance to help restore these majestic creatures on private land. But the federal government won’t allow it.

So what do they do when the herd gets too big?

They kill them. Bulldoze them into mass graves. That’s not conservation. That’s bureaucratic malpractice.

And don’t even get me started on bald eagles — majestic symbols of American freedom and a federally protected endangered species, now regularly slaughtered by wind turbines. I have pictures of piles of dead bald eagles. Where’s the outrage?

Biden’s federal land-grab

Some argue that states can’t afford to manage this land themselves. But if the states can’t afford it, how can Washington? We’re $35 trillion in debt. Entitlements are strained, infrastructure is crumbling, and the Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service, and National Park Service are billions of dollars behind in basic maintenance. Roads, firebreaks, and trails are falling apart.

The Biden administration quietly embraced something called the “30 by 30” initiative, a plan to lock up 30% of all U.S. land and water under federal “conservation” by 2030. The real goal is 50% by 2050.

That entails half of the country being taken away from you, controlled not by the people who live there but by technocrats in D.C.

You think that won’t affect your ability to hunt, fish, graze cattle, or cut timber? Think again. It won’t be conservatives who stop you from building a cabin, raising cattle, or teaching your grandkids how to shoot a rifle. It’ll be the same radical environmentalists who treat land as sacred — unless it’s your truck, your deer stand, or your back yard.

Land as collateral

Moreover, the U.S. Treasury is considering putting federally owned land on the national balance sheet, listing your parks, forests, and hunting grounds as collateral.

What happens if America defaults on its debt?

David McNew / Stringer | Getty Images

Do you think our creditors won’t come calling? Imagine explaining to your kids that the lake you used to fish in is now under foreign ownership, that the forest you hunted in belongs to China.

This is not hypothetical. This is the logical conclusion of treating land like a piggy bank.

The American way

There’s a better way — and it’s the American way.

Let the people who live near the land steward it. Let ranchers, farmers, sportsmen, and local conservationists do what they’ve done for generations.

Did you know that 75% of America’s wetlands are on private land? Or that the most successful wildlife recoveries — whitetail deer, ducks, wild turkeys — didn’t come from Washington but from partnerships between private landowners and groups like Ducks Unlimited?

Private stewardship works. It’s local. It’s accountable. It’s incentivized. When you break it, you fix it. When you profit from the land, you protect it.

This is not about selling out. It’s about buying in — to freedom, to responsibility, to the principle of constitutional self-governance.

So when you hear the pundits cry foul over 3 million acres of federal land, remember: We don’t need Washington to protect our land. We need Washington to get out of the way.

Because this isn’t just about land. It’s about liberty. And once liberty is lost, it doesn’t come back easily.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

EXPOSED: Why the left’s trans agenda just CRASHED at SCOTUS

Anna Moneymaker / Staff | Getty Images

You never know what you’re going to get with the U.S. Supreme Court these days.

For all of the Left’s insane panic over having six supposedly conservative justices on the court, the decisions have been much more of a mixed bag. But thank God – sincerely – there was a seismic win for common sense at the Supreme Court on Wednesday. It’s a win for American children, parents, and for truth itself.

In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court upheld Tennessee’s state ban on irreversible transgender procedures for minors.

The mostly conservative justices stood tall in this case, while Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson predictably dissented. This isn’t just Tennessee’s victory – 20 other red states that have similar bans can now breathe easier, knowing they can protect vulnerable children from these sick, experimental, life-altering procedures.

Anna Moneymaker / Staff | Getty Images

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion, saying Tennessee’s law does not violate the Equal Protection Clause. It’s rooted in a very simple truth that common sense Americans get: kids cannot consent to permanent damage. The science backs this up – Norway, Finland, and the UK have all sounded alarms about the lack of evidence for so-called “gender-affirming care.” The Trump administration’s recent HHS report shredded the activist claims that these treatments help kids’ mental health. Nothing about this is “healthcare.” It is absolute harm.

The Left, the ACLU, and the Biden DOJ screamed “discrimination” and tried to twist the Constitution to force this radical ideology on our kids.

Fortunately, the Supreme Court saw through it this time. In her concurring opinion, Justice Amy Coney Barrett nailed it: gender identity is not some fixed, immutable trait like race or sex. Detransitioners are speaking out, regretting the surgeries and hormones they were rushed into as teens. WPATH – the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, the supposed experts on this, knew that kids cannot fully grasp this decision, and their own leaked documents prove that they knew it. But they pushed operations and treatments on kids anyway.

This decision is about protecting the innocent from a dangerous ideology that denies biology and reality. Tennessee’s Attorney General calls this a “landmark victory in defense of America’s children.” He’s right. This time at least, the Supreme Court refused to let judicial activism steal our kids’ futures. Now every state needs to follow Tennessee’s lead on this, and maybe the tide will continue to turn.

Insider alert: Glenn’s audience EXPOSES the riots’ dark truth

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Glenn asked for YOUR take on the Los Angeles anti-ICE riots, and YOU responded with a thunderous verdict. Your answers to our recent Glennbeck.com poll cut through the establishment’s haze, revealing a profound skepticism of their narrative.

The results are undeniable: 98% of you believe taxpayer-funded NGOs are bankrolling these riots, a bold rejection of the claim that these are grassroots protests. Meanwhile, 99% dismiss the mainstream media’s coverage as woefully inadequate—can the official story survive such resounding doubt? And 99% of you view the involvement of socialist and Islamist groups as a growing threat to national security, signaling alarm at what Glenn calls a coordinated “Color Revolution” lurking beneath the surface.

You also stand firmly with decisive action: 99% support President Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to quell the chaos. These numbers defy the elite’s tired excuses and reflect a demand for truth and accountability. Are your tax dollars being weaponized to destabilize America? You’ve answered with conviction.

Your voice sends a powerful message to those who dismiss the unrest as mere “protests.” You spoke, and Glenn listened. Keep shaping the conversation at Glennbeck.com.

Want to make your voice heard? Check out more polls HERE.

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