Brad Thor: We Can Survive Hillary Clinton, Not Donald Trump

March 30, 2016

Writer

Outspoken conservative author and New York Times best seller Brad Thor joined Glenn's radio program to share his thoughts on the 2016 presidential election Wednesday.

But first, he had to clarify something.

“I got to tell you, I may be outspoken, but I haven't threatened to stab anybody, Glenn," Thor said, referencing the time Glenn jokingly threatened to stab his co-host, Stu Burguiere. Certain media outlets took the comment out of context and went so far as to accuse Glenn of threatening Donald Trump with violence.

With that out of the way, Glenn dove into the deeper subject of who we are as Americans and what's at stake in the upcoming election.

Listen to this segment from The Glenn Beck Program or read the transcript below.

My Fellow Americans

GLENN: So, Brad, give me your take. I want to hear about, who are we? Do you even recognize your fellow Americans right now?

BRAD: You know what, I -- there are moments that I do and moments that I don't. And I had a talk with my wife over the dinner table the other night, and I said, "Let's take a moment and just put ourselves in the shoes of people who are in small towns across the country where the factory has closed. And they feel the American dream has slipped away from them."

And this rugged individualism that we used to encourage in people, we don't anymore. You know, the whole Andy Warhol, people are going to be famous for at least 15 minutes in their life. I think social media and all the other craziness out there has convinced everybody that they deserve certain things, regardless of what actions they take. So the spirit of getting up and moving, you know, leaving the Dust Bowl and finding jobs, whether it's in California, so on and so forth, we don't instill that kind of get-up-and-go self-determination.

So I said, if I was a person in one of these towns and I'm looking at my wife and my two lovely children and I can't feed them and I don't -- what might I do? That doesn't mean I agree with Trump at all. Because I don't. But I am trying to be at least somewhat empathetic and say, why might there be people who do support him?

But there are things we're seeing across the country, the violence, and all that, that's terrible. And regardless of who you are and what your job is situation is, you should demand more of a candidate than the Trump followers are demanding of Trump, particularly honesty, integrity, and accountability, which is not being asked for by anybody who follows him.

No Apologies for Lewandowski

GLENN: Well, he's saying that yesterday he would not apologize for Lewandowski. I'm sure you followed this.

BRAD: Absolutely. And, by the way, there's a great article up on The Blaze right now that's talking -- it's Mark Levin talking about, "Is this the kind of person you want in the White House?" And one of the points that Mark makes in the audio that's up -- I believe it's on the front page of The Blaze right now -- is saying, "You know what, Trump, you didn't give these tapes to the police. The police were going to get them either voluntarily, or they were going to get them under subpoena."

And the real big problem here is that Trump said originally, "It didn't happen." Blah, blah. And Lewandowski actually tweeted out to Michelle Fields right after she made these allegations, before even a police report, said she was delusional. He's never met her. He never touched her.

So he outright lied. And Trump -- this is a representative for Trump's campaign. It's his campaign manager. If he wants to work security, let him take that role. The campaign manager shouldn't be putting hands on anybody.

Do Not Tweet #TrumpLovesPecker

STU: Brad Thor has done a lot of good work, Brad, you have, on kind of opening people's eyes on the relationship between Donald Trump and the guy who is the head of the National Enquirer. And his affinity -- Trump's affinity for David Pecker. You really, I think crystallized that.

BRAD: Stu, first of all, I don't want this large audience to think that Trump loves Pecker. Because if we say Trump loves Pecker and it's not in context, then people start going around saying, "Trump loves Pecker. Trump loves Pecker." It could be misunderstood, and it could hurt --

STU: Right. And he's saying we don't want to say that.

BRAD: Absolutely. So please if I could just let everyone listening, to say Trump loves Pecker, to tweet it, to retweet #TrumpLovesPecker would be a horrible disservice to Trump and to Pecker. I mean, they have a very close relationship. And I do believe Trump loves Pecker, but I think it's inappropriate to put that out there without context.

GLENN: Okay. All right. This may beneath a number one New York Times best-selling author, you know, Brad Thor.

BRAD: But, Glenn, I do believe it was Saul Alinsky who said, "Ridicule: Do it."

War Gaming the Presidency With Brad

GLENN: Okay. Brad, one last thing. You are a guy -- you were part of the government's red cell program. Which, war games. Tell me a little about -- war game what happens if Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton are president.

BRAD: Well,it -- yeah, you've got two very, very different -- different outlooks on the world. The one thing, and I think it would be a disaster to have Trump as president. I think the way he overreacts to every single thing that happens makes you question how -- how stable he would be as president. And the last debate where he had said -- or the previous debate where he said that the military will carry out my orders, believe me, they'll do what I'll tell them to do is terrifying.

Now, does Trump become kind of a George Bush figure or a Reagan figure in that our enemies see him as a cowboy and unpredictable and they don't want to cross him? There's a potential there. That's the silver lining in a very bad, bad storm. Very bad cloud if Trump gets elected.

Narcissist in Chief

GLENN: Wait. Wait. Hold on. Do you believe there's a -- an equal chance that he becomes a Vladimir Putin here in America?

BRAD: I think there's absolutely no question. If you look at how Trump is using the press and using the media to bully his enemies -- listen, Glenn, Donald Trump is on his best behavior right now. It's not going to get better in the White House. This is his best behavior. This is all he's capable of.

He is, in my opinion, narcissistic personality disorder, and if you look the all the boxes that need to be checked for narcissistic personality disorder, it's a very dangerous person to hand basically unlimited power to. And if you think he'll intimidate the way he's done other foes around him, you're deluding yourself.

GLENN: People will say that's a good thing. He'll get things done.

BRAD: No way. This is not a country of men. We are a country of laws. And that is what a republic is. And he needs to respect those laws. And I don't believe he will. And I will do everything in my power to make sure he does not become president of the United States. He is bad for America. And he doesn't want it. I encourage everybody to read that open letter to Trump supporters from his former top strategist.

We Can Survive Hillary, Not Trump

GLENN: Hillary Clinton, if it's between him and Hillary.

BRAD: Well, I got to tell you, listen, I will never vote for Donald Trump. I will never -- Hillary is a thorough progressive. I mean, she was on TV last night talking about her progressiveness. I think Hillary would be a disaster for the country but we could survive and come out on the other side stronger. I don't think we can survive Trump. I'm even at the point now where if a third party or a write-in wouldn't guarantee that Trump loses, I might even vote Hillary Clinton if that's what it takes to stop Donald Trump because I think she's the lesser of two evils.

Featured Image: Hillary Clinton appears at 'The Ellen Degeneres Show' Season 13 Bi-Coastal Premiere at Rockefeller Center on September 8, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images)

How private stewardship could REVIVE America’s wild

Jonathan Newton / Contributor | Getty Images

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

Barbara Davidson / Contributor | Getty Images

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.

EXPOSED: Your tax dollars FUND Marxist riots in LA

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

Protesters wore Che shirts, waved foreign flags, and chanted Marxist slogans — but corporate media still peddles the ‘spontaneous outrage’ narrative.

I sat in front of the television this weekend, watching the glittering spectacle of corporate media do what it does best: tell me not to believe my lying eyes.

According to the polished news anchors, what I was witnessing in Los Angeles was “mostly peaceful protests.” They said it with all the earnest gravitas of someone reading a bedtime story, while behind them the streets looked like a deleted scene from “Mad Max.” Federal agents dodged concrete slabs as if it were an Olympic sport. A man in a Che Guevara crop top tried to set a police car on fire. Dumpster fires lit the night sky like some sort of postapocalyptic luau.

If you suggest that violent criminals should be deported or imprisoned, you’re painted as the extremist.

But sure, it was peaceful. Tear gas clouds and Molotov cocktails are apparently the incense and candles of this new civic religion.

The media expects us to play along — to nod solemnly while cities burn and to call it “activism.”

Let’s call this what it is: delusion.

Another ‘peaceful’ riot

If the Titanic “mostly floated” and the Hindenburg “mostly flew,” then yes, the latest L.A. riots are “mostly peaceful.” But history tends to care about those tiny details at the end — like icebergs and explosions.

The coverage was full of phrases like “spontaneous,” “grassroots,” and “organic,” as if these protests materialized from thin air. But many of the signs and banners looked like they’d been run off at ComradesKinkos.com — crisp print jobs with slogans promoting socialism, communism, and various anti-American regimes. Palestinian flags waved beside banners from Mexico, Venezuela, Cuba, and El Salvador. It was like someone looted a United Nations souvenir shop and turned it into a revolution starter pack.

And guess who funded it? You did.

According to at least one report, much of this so-called spontaneous rage fest was paid for with your tax dollars. Tens of millions of dollars from the Biden administration ensured your paycheck funded Trotsky cosplayers chucking firebombs at local coffee shops.

The same aging radicals from the 1970s — now armed with tenure, pensions, and book deals — are cheering from the sidelines, waxing poetic about how burning a squad car is “liberation.” These are the same folks who once wore tie-dye and flew to help guerrilla fighters and now applaud chaos under the banner of “progress.”

This is not progress. It is not protest. It’s certainly not justice or peace.

It’s an attempt to dismantle the American system — and if you dare say that out loud, you’re labeled a bigot, a fascist, or, worst of all, someone who notices reality.

And what sparked this taxpayer-funded riot? Enforcement against illegal immigrants — many of whom, according to official arrest records, are repeat violent offenders. These are not the “dreamers” or the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. These are criminals with long, violent rap sheets — allowed to remain free by a broken system that prioritizes ideology over public safety.

Photo by Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg | Getty Images

This is what people are rioting over — not the mistreatment of the innocent, but the arrest of the guilty. And in California, that’s apparently a cause for outrage.

The average American, according to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, is supposed to worry they’ll be next. But unless you’re in the habit of assaulting people, smuggling, or firing guns into people’s homes, you probably don’t have much to fear.

Still, if you suggest that violent criminals should be deported or imprisoned, you’re painted as the extremist.

The left has lost it

This is what happens when a culture loses its grip on reality. We begin to call arson “art,” lawlessness “liberation,” and criminals “community members.” We burn the good and excuse the evil — all while the media insists it’s just “vibes.”

But it’s not just vibes. It’s violence, paid for by you, endorsed by your elected officials, and whitewashed by newsrooms with more concern for hair and lighting than for truth.

This isn’t activism. This is anarchism. And Democratic politicians are fueling the flame.