BLOGAugust 14, 2017

GOP Senate Candidate: We Need to Send 'a Huge Message to the Establishment'

President Donald Trump and Republicans need to remember what they promised the American people during the election. The Senate must send a “huge message to the establishment” about keeping promises like repealing Obamacare, Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) said on radio Monday.

During his presidential campaign, Trump vowed to undo the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran, and Republicans up and down the ballot swore they would repeal the Affordable Care Act in order to win votes. These key promises and other campaign talking points have not yet been turned into action by Republicans, who now hold the White House as well as the House and Senate.

“I am baffled again,” Brooks said of Trump’s inability to follow through on the Iran deal promise.

Brooks, who is running for the Alabama Senate seat vacated by Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions, said he would bring limited-government principles to the table if elected.

“If we get a principled conservative in the United States Senate … that is a huge message to the establishment, and they will be shivering in their boots,” he said of his campaign.

GLENN: Hello, America. A lot to talk about. Of course, what happened with the white nationalists. The Justice Department has opened the civil rights investigation into this. I don't know how much there is to investigate: They're Nazis, and they killed somebody.

But did the president go far enough? Was his statement also true? What role do we play in this? What is the future of a small government constitutionally minded people? Does that even exist?

Mo Brooks is a congressman who is running now for the Senate. And the election is happening tomorrow. He's a congressman for Alabama. He's running for the seat vacated by Jeff Sessions. And there is an interesting race going on and a battle inside this conservative movement. The election is tomorrow. Mo Brooks joins us right now.

(music)

GLENN: Welcome, Congressman Mo Brooks. How are you, sir?

MO: I'm doing great, Glenn. How about yourself today?

GLENN: Very good. As you probably know, you have our favorite clip of anyone ever on MSNBC, when you were trying to explain the economic crisis we were in. And this is what happened.

VOICE: We were looking at going -- reverting into a depression at that point. Everyone -- the fed chairman --

MO: Well, I disagree that we were going into a depression, but go ahead.

VOICE: Well, do you have a degree in economics?

MO: Yes, ma'am, I do. Highest honors.

VOICE: Okay. So --

PAT: I love that.

STU: "Okay. So --"

GLENN: You can tell us, Mo. That was satisfying, wasn't it? That moment was just like, "Oh, yeah, that felt good?"

MO: Every now and then, they pitch a softball.

(chuckling)

GLENN: So, Mo, tell us, first of all, your thoughts of what happened over the weekend in Virginia.

MO: Well, you know, it's very disheartening that there are still people out there who judge other people based on inherent qualities that those people have no control over: A skin pigmentation is not a basis for defining who we are. Ethnicity is not a basis for defining who we are. Sex is a basis for defining who we are. We should all be judged based on our conduct and how we interact with other people.

Unfortunately, there are still people in our society, on both sides of the fence, that look at skin pigmentation, sex, and ethnicity, when those should not be factors of concern.

GLENN: You reject outright nationalism and the national socialist Nazi movement?

MO: Well, I don't agree with socialism. I don't agree with Nazis. I don't agree with any group that says that your skin pigmentation alone makes you superior to another group. That's silly. I mean, skin pigmentation is skin pigmentation. You know, I've got freckles. Does that make me good or bad because I've got freckles? That's a form of skin pigmentation. It's so absurd.

And so, yes, I agree -- I disagree -- I disagree with anybody -- anybody who tries to define somebody else based on characteristics that they were born with. That is not what defines a human being.

GLENN: Now, you were -- you were a congressman who in 2016, endorsed Ted Cruz.

MO: I was his Alabama state chairman, and I was one of his national spokesmen for his campaign. So, yes.

GLENN: Okay. So now here comes this opening in -- you know, in the Senate. And you want to run for it. You're a great conservative small government guy.

And the president -- a couple of weeks ago, you were scheduled for an interview with us. Last week, President Trump endorsed your opponent Luther Strange. Any idea why that happened?

MO: It's baffling to me. Luther Strange is a decades' long Washington, DC, lobbyist. We all knew when President Trump declared that he was going to Washington, DC, to drain the swamp, the swamp was going to fight back. And Luther Strange is the swamp's candidate. So to me, there seems to be a conflict between draining the swamp and endorsing the swamp's candidate on the one hand.

And on the other hand, the president most recently was, rightfully so, complaining about Mitch McConnell and the do-nothing Senate. And the 60-vote rule that prevents us from passing our agenda. And I agree with the president, in that regard.

Yet, he endorses the person who supports the 60-vote rule that kills President Trump's agenda over the next three and a half years. So, yes, I'm puzzled by it. I don't know who gave President Trump this bad advice, probably Mitch McConnell. I do know the president is spread rather thin. He's got a lot of different issues he's got to focus on. But whoever it is that led him to endorse Luther Strange led him astray.

GLENN: If you go in, who do you caucus with?

MO: Well, I'm a Republican, so I'm going to caucus with the Republicans in the United States Senate. I do prefer a different leader. Mitch McConnell may be a nice guy. I really don't know him that well personally. But his job is to get through the United States Senate a repeal of Obamacare. His job is to get through the United States Senate funding for the border wall and stronger security measures. His job is to get through the United States Senate tax reform. His job is to do what must be done to get our deficit and debt under control. And, quite frankly, he has failed miserably on each of those different public policy issues. So it's time to try somebody knew, someone who perhaps can get the job done, someone more aggressive, more conservative, somebody who is able to persuade a majority of the United States Senate to do what our country needs doing.

Otherwise, it's going to be a wasted opportunity with us having the House, the Senate, and the White House.

GLENN: I've never seen anything like this in my lifetime, where they have more opportunity and a president who is providing total coverage for the Congress, just to -- just to snowplow through stuff.

MO: I don't get it either. It's baffling to me. It's puzzling to me. We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reverse Obamacare, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to try to get our deficit and debt under control before we suffer debilitating insolvency and bankruptcy that will do great damage to a country that our ancestors took centuries to build, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to secure our southern border. Just go down the list of things that you, in 2009 and 2010, are focused on, as you helped the Tea Party movement that gave us the House of Representatives in 2010, where we gained 63 seats, if my memory serves me correctly.

And this is our chance. And to date, over seven months of President Trump's presidency, we have had zero -- zero significant legislative achievements that pertain to the major issues that face our country, the issues that I just itemized. And that's because the 60-vote rule in the United States Senate has empowered Chuck Schumer and the Democrats to control our agenda. And that's just craziness. You've got a choice: You can either support an archaic rule that was born in the 1800s, while there was still slavery, or you can go with America. And I choose America.

GLENN: We're talking to Congressman Mo Brooks who is running tomorrow the election in Alabama. Running for Jeff Sessions' Senate seat.

Let's talk a little bit about North Korea. What do you think is -- what are we headed with this, Mo?

MO: I believe that you're going to see a relationship between the United States and North Korea, akin to what we saw with China under Mao Zedong and the Soviet Union, under Josef Stalin and all of his successors.

In my judgment, the mutually assured destruction doctrine will work to deter North Korea from ever launching a first strike at the United States of America. Because a first strike by North Korea against America results in a retaliatory nuclear strike by the United States, that would turn North Korea into a sea of glass. And every single North Korean leader would be dead. The North Korean leadership acts crazy. But I tend to think they act crazy in order to achieve a smart purpose. I don't believe that they won't commit suicide.

So mutually assured destruction doctrine ought to work with them to prevent a first strike from ever being launched by either party, just as it has worked with the United States and the Soviet Union -- now Russia and China over the decade. However, to be on the safe side, we need to bolster our radar systems and our interceptor systems so that we can shoot down any missiles that may come from North Korea. Having said all that, we must not be distracted from the bigger threat. The bigger threat is Iran.

Iran -- mutually assured destruction doctrine may not work because of their religious beliefs, where they believe that giving up their own life in the furtherance of Allah's will is worthwhile. And if Iran gets nuclear weapons, with missile delivery systems that can knock out what Iran calls the little Satan, Israel, and knock out the United States of America, even if it means the total and complete annihilation of Iran, some of these Iranian leaders may do it as a matter of religious belief. And so I would tend to focus a little bit more on Iran and the threat that they pose, given that Barack Obama has empowered Iran to get nuclear weapons and the delivery system sometime within the next ten to 15 years.

GLENN: So do you have any insight at all on why President Trump ran on I'm going to tear up that Iranian deal, and then has come out and said, "No, no, we can't do that." Do you have any insight, any feelings on that, Mo?

MO: Well, I am baffled again. Once you make a campaign promise, I'm one of those who believes you ought to keep it. And I do not understand why the president may have said one thing on this particular issue, dealing with the Iran nuclear agreement, while he was a candidate, and not fulfilling whatever his campaign promise may have been, during the campaign.

That's -- that's akin to repealing Obamacare. We promised the American people we would repeal Obamacare. But apparently, there are a lot of people in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives that didn't really intend to keep that promise.

And the American people need to hold their feet to the fire to ensure that we deliver on the promise to repeal Obamacare. You just can't go through the motions and say, "Well, I tried. I voted that way."

In the Senate, you have tremendous power to force things to happen. And unfortunately, we don't have enough people in the United States Senate right now, fighting hard to force that repeal of Obamacare.

GLENN: Talking --

MO: There's nice guy stuff going on, instead of real fighters to achieve our goals.

GLENN: Talking to US congressman from Alabama, Mo Brooks, who is running for the Senate seat vacated by Jeff Sessions. That election happens tomorrow.

Mo, what happens to the -- the conservative movement or the Republican Party should voices like yours be brushed out and lost? And -- and voices -- and voices like Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan or even worse, the Steve Bannons of the world are held up.

MO: I'm going to flip it a little bit and talk about what happens if we prevail. If we get a principled conservative in the United States Senate -- and as an aside, if anyone wants to help, please go to MoBrooksforSenate.com. MoBrooksforSenate.com.

But if we are able to prevail, that is a huge message to the establishment, and they'll be shivering in their boots. Okay?

This 60 percent rule that blocks us from repealing Obamacare, from funding the border wall, from dealing with deficits and debt, from getting rid of a lot of these giveaway programs that cause people to no longer respect the work ethic and that encourage the breakup of families, and having kids out of wedlock, because you get more money that way -- we can make huge strides, if we win -- if you elect Mo Brooks from the state of Alabama in this election, because it sends a message to Mitch McConnell, that he better get on the ball, that he better start working. And this recess, this vacation that the Senate is on right now, they should get back to work and continue to confirm every single one of President Trump's nominees to various positions. They need to get back to work on repeal of Obamacare. They also need to start thinking about new Senate leadership because it will be a debacle and an embarrassment for Mitch McConnell if after spending 5 to $10 million in attack ads against Mo Brooks and against Judge Roy Moore, if their handpicked establishment candidate, Luther Strange, does not win.

So we can send a huge positive message to the United States Senate and Washington, DC, that it's time for a change. We're not satisfied with a do-nothing Senate. We're not satisfied with allowing Chuck Schumer and the Democrats to be obstructionists because we let them. That's the message.

We have to win this race tomorrow. Then that message gets to Washington, DC. And they like keep their jobs, they might start working better.

GLENN: Mo Brooks for Senate. Mo -- M-O -- BrooksforSenate.com is where you can go and get more information and help out. And get to the polls if you're in Alabama. If you like what you heard, those -- that -- those polls open tomorrow. And if somebody doesn't get 50 percent, there will be a runoff. MoBrooksforSenate.com.

Mo, thank you so much. Best of luck to you. And, sir, thank you for the years of good service in Congress. And we hope that --

MO: Thank you, Glenn. Thank you for all your help.

GLENN: Thank you. We appreciate it.

RADIO

Shocking train video: Passengers wait while woman bleeds out

Surveillance footage of the murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte, NC, reveals that the other passengers on the train took a long time to help her. Glenn, Stu, and Jason debate whether they were right or wrong to do so.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: You know, I'm -- I'm torn on how I feel about the people on the train.

Because my first instinct is, they did nothing! They did nothing! Then my -- well, sit down and, you know -- you know, you're going to be judged. So be careful on judging others.

What would I have done? What would I want my wife to do in that situation?

STU: Yeah. Are those two different questions, by the way.

GLENN: Yeah, they are.

STU: I think they go far apart from each other. What would I want myself to do. I mean, it's tough to put yourself in a situation. It's very easy to watch a video on the internet and talk about your heroism. Everybody can do that very easily on Twitter. And everybody is.

You know, when you're in a vehicle that doesn't have an exit with a guy who just murdered somebody in front of you, and has a dripping blood off of a knife that's standing 10 feet away from you, 15 feet away from you.

There's probably a different standard there, that we should all kind of consider. And maybe give a little grace to what I saw at least was a woman, sitting across the -- the -- the aisle.

I think there is a difference there. But when you talk about that question. Those two questions are definitive.

You know, I know what I would want myself to do. I would hope I would act in a way that didn't completely embarrass myself afterward.

But I also think, when I'm thinking of my wife. My advice to my wife would not be to jump into the middle of that situation at all costs. She might do that anyway. She actually is a heck of a lot stronger than I am.

But she might do it anyway.

GLENN: How pathetic, but how true.

STU: Yes. But that would not be my advice to her.

GLENN: Uh-huh.

STU: Now, maybe once the guy has certainly -- is out of the area. And you don't think the moment you step into that situation. He will turn around and kill you too. Then, of course, obviously. Anything you can do to step in.

Not that there was much anyone on the train could do.

I mean, I don't think there was an outcome change, no matter what anyone on that train did.

Unfortunately.

But would I want her to step in?

Of course. If she felt she was safe, yes.

Think about, you said, your wife. Think about your daughter. Your daughter is on that train, just watching someone else getting murdered like that. Would you advise your daughter to jump into a situation like that?

That girl sitting across the aisle was somebody's daughter. I don't know, man.

JASON: I would. You know, as a dad, would I advise.

Hmm. No.

As a human being, would I hope that my daughter or my wife or that I would get up and at least comfort that woman while she's dying on the floor of a train?

Yeah.

I would hope that my daughter, my son, that I would -- and, you know, I have more confidence in my son or daughter or my wife doing something courageous more than I would.

But, you know, I think I have a more realistic picture of myself than anybody else.

And I'm not sure that -- I'm not sure what I would do in that situation. I know what I would hope I would do. But I also know what I fear I would do. But I would have hoped that I would have gotten up and at least tried to help her. You know, help her up off the floor. At least be there with her, as she's seeing her life, you know, spill out in under a minute.

And that's it other thing we have to keep in mind. This all happened so rapidly.

A minute is -- will seem like a very long period of time in that situation. But it's a very short period of time in real life.

STU: Yeah. You watch the video, Glenn. You know, I don't need the video to -- to change my -- my position on this.

But at his seem like there was a -- someone who did get there, eventually, to help, right? I saw someone seemingly trying to put pressure on her neck.

GLENN: Yeah. And tried to give her CPR.

STU: You know, no hope at that point. How long of a time period would you say that was?

Do you know off the top of your head?

GLENN: I don't know. I don't know. I know that we watched the video that I saw. I haven't seen past 30 seconds after she --

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: -- is down. And, you know, for 30 seconds nothing is happening. You know, that is -- that is not a very long period of time.

STU: Right.

GLENN: In reality.

STU: And especially, I saw the pace he was walking. He certainly can't be -- you know, he may have left the actual train car by 30 seconds to a minute. But he wasn't that far away. Like he was still in visual.

He could still turn around and look and see what's going on at that point. So certainly still a threat is my point. He has not, like, left the area. This is not that type of situation.

You know, I -- look, as you point out, I think if I could be super duper sexist for a moment here, sort of my dividing line might just be men and women.

You know, I don't know if it's that a -- you're not supposed to say that, I suppose these days. But, like, there is a difference there. If I'm a man, you know, I would be -- I would want my son to jump in on that, I suppose. I don't know if he could do anything about it. But you would expect at least a grown man to be able to go in there and do something about it. A woman, you know, I don't know.

Maybe I'm -- I hope --

GLENN: Here's the thing I -- here's the thing that I -- that causes me to say, no. You should have jumped in.

And that is, you know, you've already killed one person on the train. So you've proven that you're a killer. And anybody who would have screamed and got up and was with her, she's dying. She's dying. Get him. Get him.

Then the whole train is responsible for stopping that guy. You know. And if you don't stop him, after he's killed one person, if you're not all as members of that train, if you're not stopping him, you know, the person at the side of that girl would be the least likely to be killed. It would be the ones that are standing you up and trying to stop him from getting back to your daughter or your wife or you.

JASON: There was a -- speaking of men and women and their roles in this. There was a video circling social media yesterday. In Sweden. There was a group of officials up on a stage. And one of the main. I think it was health official woman collapses on stage. Completely passes out.

All the men kind of look away. Or I don't know if they're looking away. Or pretending that they didn't know what was going on. There was another woman standing directly behind the woman passed out.

Immediately springs into action. Jumps on top. Grabs her pant leg. Grabs her shoulder. Spins her over and starts providing care.

What did she have that the other guys did not? Or women?

She was a sheepdog. There is a -- this is my issue. And I completely agree with Stu. I completely agree with you. There's some people that do not respond this way. My issue is the proportion of sheepdogs versus people that don't really know how to act. That is diminishing in western society. And American society.

We see it all the time in these critical actions. I mean, circumstances.

There are men and women, and it's actually a meme. That fantasize about hoards of people coming to attack their home and family. And they sit there and say, I've got it. You guys go. I'm staying behind, while I smoke my cigarette and wait for the hoards to come, because I will sacrifice myself. There are men and women that fantasize of block my highway. Go ahead. Block my highway. I'm going to do something about it. They fantasize about someone holding up -- not a liquor store. A convenience store or something. Because they will step in and do something. My issue now is that proportion of sheepdogs in society is disappearing. Just on statistical fact, there should be one within that train car, and there were none.

STU: Yeah. I mean --

JASON: They did not respond.

STU: We see what happens when they do, with Daniel Penny. Our society tries to vilify them and crush their existence. Now, there weren't that many people on that train. Right?

At least on that car. At least it's limited. I only saw three or four people there, there may have been more. I agree with you, though. Like, you see what happens when we actually do have a really recent example of someone doing exactly what Jason wants and what I would want a guy to do. Especially a marine to step up and stop this from happening. And the man was dragged by our legal system to a position where he nearly had to spend the rest of his life in prison.

I mean, I -- it's insanity. Thankfully, they came to their senses on that one.

GLENN: Well, the difference between that one and this one though is that the guy was threatening. This one, he killed somebody.

STU: Yeah. Right. Well, but -- I think -- but it's the opposite way. The debate with Penny, was should he have recognize that had this person might have just been crazy and not done anything?

Maybe. He hadn't actually acted yet. He was just saying things.

GLENN: Yeah. Well --

STU: He didn't wind up stabbing someone. This is a situation where these people have already seen what this man will do to you, even when you don't do anything to try to stop him. So if this woman, who is, again, looks to be an average American woman.

Across the aisle. Steps in and tries to do something. This guy could easily turn around and just make another pile of dead bodies next to the one that already exists.

And, you know, whether that is an optimal solution for our society, I don't know that that's helpful.

In that situation.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

Max Lucado on Overcoming Grief in Dark Times | The Glenn Beck Podcast | Ep 266

Disclaimer: This episode was filmed prior to the assassination of Charlie Kirk. But Glenn believes Max's message is needed now more than ever.
The political world is divided, constantly at war with itself. In many ways, our own lives are not much different. Why do we constantly focus on the negative? Why are we in pain? Where is God amid our anxiety and fear? Why can’t we ever seem to change? Pastor Max Lucado has found the solution: Stop thinking like that! It may seem easier said than done, but Max joins Glenn Beck to unpack the three tools he describes in his new book, “Tame Your Thoughts,” that make it easy for us to reset the way we think back to God’s factory settings. In this much-needed conversation, Max and Glenn tackle everything from feeling doubt as a parent to facing unfair hardships to ... UFOs?! Plus, Max shares what he recently got tattooed on his arm.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

Are Demonic Forces to Blame for Charlie Kirk, Minnesota & Charlotte Killings?

This week has seen some of the most heinous actions in recent memory. Glenn has been discussing the growth of evil in our society, and with the assassination of civil rights leader Charlie Kirk, the recent transgender shooter who took the lives of two children at a Catholic school, and the murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, how can we make sense of all this evil? On today's Friday Exclusive, Glenn speaks with BlazeTV host of "Strange Encounters" Rick Burgess to discuss the demon-possessed transgender shooter and the horrific assassination of Charlie Kirk. Rick breaks down the reality of demon possession and how individuals wind up possessed. Rick and Glenn also discuss the dangers of the grotesque things we see online and in movies, TV shows, and video games on a daily basis. Rick warns that when we allow our minds to be altered by substances like drugs or alcohol, it opens a door for the enemy to take control. A supernatural war is waging in our society, and it’s a Christian’s job to fight this war. Glenn and Rick remind Christians of what their first citizenship is.

Glenn's Show Prep

GOP Senate Candidate: We Need to Send 'a Huge Message to the Establishment'

Shocking train video: Passengers wait while woman bleeds out

Transcript

Max Lucado on Overcoming Grief in Dark Times | The Glenn Beck Podcast | Ep 266

Are Demonic Forces to Blame for Charlie Kirk, Minnesota & Charlotte Killings?

Here’s what we know about the suspected Charlie Kirk assassin