Glenn: “I am not dying for something I don’t believe”

Being in the spotlight has been both a blessing and a curse for Glenn. On the one hand, it allows him to reach millions of Americans across the country with vital messages of hope and information. But on the other, he has had to have constant security for the better part of a decade. On Monday’s TV show, he described one of the worst death threats he ever got and a terrifying close call that changed his life.

Glenn: Let me tell you a story. I think, David, you know this. Remember when I did The Christmas Sweater?

David: Yes.

Glenn: I was getting hate from all kinds of people. It was amazing. I had gone on the air shortly before, maybe three months before this tour, and I had talked about the 9/11 truthers. I said I think this is nuts. I think this is nuts. Well, at the time, at least, those guys were, at least in New York, they were really dangerous. A video came out about me. I’ll never forget, it was slowed down, distorted, and had driving hard rock music behind it. The voice, a disembodied female voice, said, “All traitors must be executed. All traitors must be executed.” And then the word traitor came on my face.

So, security went crazy, and I’m going out to do this book tour. I’m on the bus, and it was the first time I had to wear a bulletproof vest. I put on the bulletproof vest, and I have to go out into these crowds, shake hands, and do my thing, and we don’t know who’s in the crowd.

The second one, a guy comes up, and we had security like nobody’s business. A guy comes up, and he has his hands in his pockets. My security is all up. We all were focused on just that. He comes up, and he says hey. I try to screw my courage, and I’m like okay, there’s nothing wrong here. I put my hand out, and I said, “Merry Christmas.” He said, “Merry Christmas. All traitors must be executed,” empty hand. Well, he was on the floor by the time he had his hand here.

I went back into the bus, and I thought I don’t know if I can do this. I really don’t know. This was when I was still at CNN. I pictured in my head for that month of Christmas—my wife didn’t know this until much later—what’s the worst thing that could happen to you? And so I pictured myself, the worst-case scenario, only on those things that I truly believe. I made the commitment to myself at that point I am not dying for something I don’t believe. I am never going to say the things that I’m like yeah, I think that’s pretty good, I think that’s pretty close. No, unless I know it, I’m never going to say those things.

I had the extreme case to be able to do that, and I’ve had the extreme with my family and security to be able to do that. So, when they come to me and somebody says are you willing to die for it? I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure. You know what I mean? Most Americans will not have that opportunity. How do we get them, David, I mean, this is kind of why we’re doing this show and trying to show people that are just like you that have changed things and didn’t necessarily weren’t the winners, weren’t necessarily the winners.

David: Not at all. We were talking a minute ago whether faith precedes courage or courage precedes faith and now willing to die for things you believe in. Let me give you one more example because it deals with both of those. This next guys is a guy named Elijah Lovejoy. Elijah Lovejoy was active particularly in Missouri in the 1820s, 1830s. So, you’ve got the Missouri Compromise where the federal Congress for the first time turns around and says hey, we’re going to grow slavery. He’s opposed to this. He’s a preacher. His brother, Owen, is a preacher. He does not consider himself an abolitionist, but he’s a preacher.

He has a weekly magazine called The Observer, and he does religious articles. He started touching on the slavery issue and started talking about what he thought about the slavery issue. His press—

Glenn: Burned down?

David: Three times, came and smashed it. Each time, he’d put it back, go back to it, but you come face to face with what do I believe in? I want you to see this letter he wrote. This is what he said after this. He says, “In The Observer of Thursday, I shall come out openly, fearlessly, and as I hope in such a manner as becomes a servant of Jesus Christ when defending his cause, and whatever may be the consequences, I think, I trust, that through the grace of God, I am prepared to meet them—even unto death itself.”

He says, “My friends are trembling. My enemies, numerous and influential, are open and fiercer in their threats, but I can truly say I was never more calm. I have fasted and prayed. I have earnestly sought the path of duty and think, I am assured, that I have found it, and now I am determined that not all the fury of men or devils shall drive me from it. Yet you need not be disappointed to hear that I have fallen a victim, at least to the lash or the tar barrel.”

He says, “If they content themselves with whipping, I will not run until I have been whipped as often, at least, as Paul was—eight times.” So, he’s prepared himself for all that’s coming, except the next time, they killed them, they shot him. They just assassinated him and then burned his press down over his head.

Glenn: That’s very interesting because the same time and for many of the same reasons, not alone, but many of the same reasons, that’s what Joseph Smith went through, same time, Missouri. They were tar and feathering. They burned down the press because they were also anti-slavery. A lot of people think that happened because of Mormonism, but partly it was because of the Missouri Compromise. He was tarred and feathered, and I don’t think people understand what that was.

David: Oh man, are you kidding?

Glenn: Oh my gosh.

David: Man, if you’ve got any skin left—

Glenn: You’re lucky.

David: Do you know how hot tar has to be to melt and then pour that over somebody? Why don’t we just heat honey to boiling and then just go ahead and pour that on you? He said well, I may get lashed, I may get tarred and feathered, I may get hung.

Glenn: That’s okay.

David: That’s all right. I’ve talked to God about this. I’ve decided this is the right thing to do.

Glenn: That’s the attitude of the people that we’re trying to stand up for in the Middle East. Those people, we win. I mean, ISIS, I’m told that ISIS is freaked out by the Christians in the Middle East because they can’t get them to break. They keep doing these things worse and worse and worse, and nobody is crying, nobody’s begging for their lives. They’re all going quietly, and they can’t figure it out. If we can get to the place to where—somebody taught me once in negotiations, the best negotiation thing I’ve ever seen, and that is never threaten. Make promises. Never bluff, never. Never bluff.

So, when you can sit at a negotiation table or you can sit in this situation or any situation and you can look another man in the eyes and say I’m not moving, I don’t wish you ill, I don’t have any problems with you, but I’m not moving, there is something dog-like in each of us that makes you go crap, they’re serious; they are serious.

David: And that’s that standalone courage. We’ll close this segment out with one more quote. It’s a Texas one, so I’m going to go to Texas, going to go to the Texas rangers for a minute because when the Texas rangers were organized, Texas was a home for all sorts of lawless folks. Let’s back up one to the picture before. These are the guys, man. These are the tough guys that have to take on all the outlaws and the Santa Anna dictators and all the stuff they did.

The guy in the front row, the second guy in, right there, him, that is Capt. Bill McDonald. He runs the rangers. Bill McDonald, and this is what he taught the rangers, and this is where we are today as individuals. This is his quote, Capt. Bill McDonald: No man in the wrong can stand up against a fellow that’s in the right and keeps on a-comin’.” That’s the deal, you stand up, and you don’t back down.

Whether it’s in negotiations, whether it’s in the American Revolution, whether it’s in the anti-slavery cause, whether it’s ISIS, anything else, you stand up, even if it’s by yourself. You don’t back down, and you keep on coming. That overcomes them.

America’s moral erosion: How we were conditioned to accept the unthinkable

MATHIEU LEWIS-ROLLAND / Contributor | Getty Images

Every time we look away from lawlessness, we tell the next mob it can go a little further.

Chicago, Portland, and other American cities are showing us what happens when the rule of law breaks down. These cities have become openly lawless — and that’s not hyperbole.

When a governor declares she doesn’t believe federal agents about a credible threat to their lives, when Chicago orders its police not to assist federal officers, and when cartels print wanted posters offering bounties for the deaths of U.S. immigration agents, you’re looking at a country flirting with anarchy.

Two dangers face us now: the intimidation of federal officers and the normalization of soldiers as street police. Accept either, and we lose the republic.

This isn’t a matter of partisan politics. The struggle we’re watching now is not between Democrats and Republicans. It’s between good and evil, right and wrong, self‑government and chaos.

Moral erosion

For generations, Americans have inherited a republic based on law, liberty, and moral responsibility. That legacy is now under assault by extremists who openly seek to collapse the system and replace it with something darker.

Antifa, well‑financed by the left, isn’t an isolated fringe any more than Occupy Wall Street was. As with Occupy, big money and global interests are quietly aligned with “anti‑establishment” radicals. The goal is disruption, not reform.

And they’ve learned how to condition us. Twenty‑five years ago, few Americans would have supported drag shows in elementary schools, biological males in women’s sports, forced vaccinations, or government partnerships with mega‑corporations to decide which businesses live or die. Few would have tolerated cartels threatening federal agents or tolerated mobs doxxing political opponents. Yet today, many shrug — or cheer.

How did we get here? What evidence convinced so many people to reverse themselves on fundamental questions of morality, liberty, and law? Those long laboring to disrupt our republic have sought to condition people to believe that the ends justify the means.

Promoting “tolerance” justifies women losing to biological men in sports. “Compassion” justifies harboring illegal immigrants, even violent criminals. Whatever deluded ideals Antifa espouses is supposed to somehow justify targeting federal agents and overturning the rule of law. Our culture has been conditioned for this moment.

The buck stops with us

That’s why the debate over using troops to restore order in American cities matters so much. I’ve never supported soldiers executing civilian law, and I still don’t. But we need to speak honestly about what the Constitution allows and why. The Posse Comitatus Act sharply limits the use of the military for domestic policing. The Insurrection Act, however, exists for rare emergencies — when federal law truly can’t be enforced by ordinary means and when mobs, cartels, or coordinated violence block the courts.

Even then, the Constitution demands limits: a public proclamation ordering offenders to disperse, transparency about the mission, a narrow scope, temporary duration, and judicial oversight.

Soldiers fight wars. Cops enforce laws. We blur that line at our peril.

But we also cannot allow intimidation of federal officers or tolerate local officials who openly obstruct federal enforcement. Both extremes — lawlessness on one side and militarization on the other — endanger the republic.

The only way out is the Constitution itself. Protect civil liberty. Enforce the rule of law. Demand transparency. Reject the temptation to justify any tactic because “our side” is winning. We’ve already seen how fear after 9/11 led to the Patriot Act and years of surveillance.

KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI / Contributor | Getty Images

Two dangers face us now: the intimidation of federal officers and the normalization of soldiers as street police. Accept either, and we lose the republic. The left cannot be allowed to shut down enforcement, and the right cannot be allowed to abandon constitutional restraint.

The real threat to the republic isn’t just the mobs or the cartels. It’s us — citizens who stop caring about truth and constitutional limits. Anything can be justified when fear takes over. Everything collapses when enough people decide “the ends justify the means.”

We must choose differently. Uphold the rule of law. Guard civil liberties. And remember that the only way to preserve a government of, by, and for the people is to act like the people still want it.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

In the quiet aftermath of a profound loss, the Christian community mourns the unexpected passing of Dr. Voddie Baucham, a towering figure in evangelical circles. Known for his defense of biblical truth, Baucham, a pastor, author, and theologian, left a legacy on family, faith, and opposing "woke" ideologies in the church. His book Fault Lines challenged believers to prioritize Scripture over cultural trends. Glenn had Voddie on the show several times, where they discussed progressive influences in Christianity, debunked myths of “Christian nationalism,” and urged hope amid hostility.

The shock of Baucham's death has deeply affected his family. Grieving, they remain hopeful in Christ, with his wife, Bridget, now facing the task of resettling in the US without him. Their planned move from Lusaka, Zambia, was disrupted when their home sale fell through last December, resulting in temporary Airbnb accommodations, but they have since secured a new home in Cape Coral that requires renovations. To ensure Voddie's family is taken care of, a fundraiser is being held to raise $2 million, which will be invested for ongoing support, allowing Bridget to focus on her family.

We invite readers to contribute prayerfully. If you feel called to support the Bauchams in this time of need, you can click here to donate.

We grieve and pray with hope for the Bauchams.

May Voddie's example inspire us.

Loneliness isn’t just being alone — it’s feeling unseen, unheard, and unimportant, even amid crowds and constant digital chatter.

Loneliness has become an epidemic in America. Millions of people, even when surrounded by others, feel invisible. In tragic irony, we live in an age of unparalleled connectivity, yet too many sit in silence, unseen and unheard.

I’ve been experiencing this firsthand. My children have grown up and moved out. The house that once overflowed with life now echoes with quiet. Moments that once held laughter now hold silence. And in that silence, the mind can play cruel games. It whispers, “You’re forgotten. Your story doesn’t matter.”

We are unique in our gifts, but not in our humanity. Recognizing this shared struggle is how we overcome loneliness.

It’s a lie.

I’ve seen it in others. I remember sitting at Rockefeller Center one winter, watching a woman lace up her ice skates. Her clothing was worn, her bag battered. Yet on the ice, she transformed — elegant, alive, radiant.

Minutes later, she returned to her shoes, merged into the crowd, unnoticed. I’ve thought of her often. She was not alone in her experience. Millions of Americans live unseen, performing acts of quiet heroism every day.

Shared pain makes us human

Loneliness convinces us to retreat, to stay silent, to stop reaching out to others. But connection is essential. Even small gestures — a word of encouragement, a listening ear, a shared meal — are radical acts against isolation.

I’ve learned this personally. Years ago, a caller called me “Mr. Perfect.” I could have deflected, but I chose honesty. I spoke of my alcoholism, my failed marriage, my brokenness. I expected judgment. Instead, I found resonance. People whispered back, “I’m going through the same thing. Thank you for saying it.”

Our pain is universal. Everyone struggles with self-doubt and fear. Everyone feels, at times, like a fraud. We are unique in our gifts, but not in our humanity. Recognizing this shared struggle is how we overcome loneliness.

We were made for connection. We were built for community — for conversation, for touch, for shared purpose. Every time we reach out, every act of courage and compassion punches a hole in the wall of isolation.

You’re not alone

If you’re feeling alone, know this: You are not invisible. You are seen. You matter. And if you’re not struggling, someone you know is. It’s your responsibility to reach out.

Loneliness is not proof of brokenness. It is proof of humanity. It is a call to engage, to bear witness, to connect. The world is different because of the people who choose to act. It is brighter when we refuse to be isolated.

We cannot let silence win. We cannot allow loneliness to dictate our lives. Speak. Reach out. Connect. Share your gifts. By doing so, we remind one another: We are all alike, and yet each of us matters profoundly.

In this moment, in this country, in this world, what we do matters. Loneliness is real, but so is hope. And hope begins with connection.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.


Russell Vought’s secret plan to finally shrink Washington

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Trump’s OMB chief built the plan for this moment: Starve pet programs, force reauthorization, and actually shrink Washington.

The government is shut down again, and the usual panic is back. I even had someone call my house this week to ask if it was safe to fly today. The person was half-joking, half-serious, wondering if planes would “fall out of the sky.”

For the record, the sky isn’t falling — at least not literally. But the chaos in Washington does feel like it. Once again, we’re watching the same old script: a shutdown engineered not by fiscal restraint but by political brinkmanship. And this time, the Democrats are driving the bus.

This shutdown may be inconvenient. But it’s also an opportunity — to stop funding our own destruction, to reset the table, and to remind Congress who actually pays the bills.

Democrats, among other things, are demanding that health care be extended to illegal immigrants. Democratic leadership caved to its radical base, which would rather shut down the government for such left-wing campaign points than compromise. Republicans — shockingly — said no. They refused to rubber-stamp more spending for illegal immigration. For once, they stood their ground.

But if you’ve watched Washington long enough, you know how this story usually ends: a shutdown followed by a deal that spends even more money than before — a continuing resolution kicking the can down the road. Everyone pretends to “win,” but taxpayers always lose.

The Vought effect

This time might be different. Republicans actually hold some cards. The public may blame Democrats — not the media, but the people who feel this in their wallets. Americans don’t like shutdowns, but they like runaway spending and chaos even less.

That’s why you’re hearing so much about Russell Vought, the director of the United States Office of Management and Budget and Donald Trump’s quiet architect of a strategy to use moments like this to shrink the federal bureaucracy. Vought spent four years building a plan for exactly this scenario: firing nonessential workers and forcing reauthorization of pet programs. Trump talks about draining the swamp. Vought draws up the blueprints.

The Democrats and media are threatened by Vought because he is patient, calculated, and understands how to leverage the moment to reverse decades of government bloat. If programs aren’t mandated, cut them. Make Congress fight to bring them back. That’s how you actually drain the swamp.

Predictable meltdowns

Predictably, Democrats are melting down. They’ve shifted their arguments so many times it’s dizzying. Last time, they claimed a shutdown would lead to mass firings. Now, they insist Republicans are firing everyone anyway. It’s the same playbook: Move the goalposts, reframe the narrative, accuse your opponents of cruelty.

We’ve seen this before. Remember the infamous "You lie!” moment in 2009? President Barack Obama promised during his State of the Union that Obamacare wouldn’t cover illegal immigrants. Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) shouted, “You lie!” and was condemned for breaching decorum.

Several years later, Hillary Clinton’s campaign platform openly promised health care for illegal immigrants. What was once called a “lie” became official policy. And today, Democrats are shutting down the government because they can’t get even more of it.

This is progressivism in action: Deny it, inch toward it, then demand it as a moral imperative. Anyone who resists becomes the villain.

SAUL LOEB / Contributor | Getty Images

Stand firm

This shutdown isn’t just about spending. It’s about whether we’ll keep letting progressives rewrite the rules one crisis at a time. Trump’s plan — to cut what isn’t mandated, force programs into reauthorization, and fight the battle in the courts — is the first real counterpunch to decades of this manipulation.

It’s time to stop pretending. This isn’t about compassion. It’s about control. Progressives know once they normalize government benefits for illegal immigrants, they never roll back. They know Americans forget how it started.

This shutdown may be inconvenient. But it’s also an opportunity — to stop funding our own destruction, to reset the table, and to remind Congress who actually pays the bills. If we don’t take it, we’ll be right back here again, only deeper in debt, with fewer freedoms left to defend.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.