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Real-Life Heroes Turned Movie Stars Share the Story That Became ‘The 15:17 to Paris’

Three young Americans were at the right place at the right time to thwart a terrorist and save a train full of people. Now, their story of real-life heroism is a movie directed by Clint Eastwood.

Spencer Stone, Anthony Sadler and Alek Skarlatos are playing themselves in the movie version of their trip on Aug. 21, 2015 on a train headed from Amsterdam to Paris.

The three 25-year-old friends recently chatted with Glenn about that fateful train trip and how Eastwood talked them into starring in the film.

“It was quick thinking, everyone else was running the other way, and they ran toward the problem and saved hundreds of lives,” Glenn said on today’s show.

Listen to their full interview here:

This article provided courtesy of TheBlaze.

GLENN: Do you know why you were born? Do you know why you're here?

You ever -- have you ever thought your whole life is leading toward one moment, and you never know when that moment is coming?

August 21st, 2015, three American friends, really average guys. They boarded a train from Amsterdam to Paris. They had no way of knowing that their lives were building to that moment. And they would be worldwide heroes, later in the day.

The three friends, Anthony Saddler, Alek Skarlatos, and Spencer Stone, they were on a train, going to Paris. They took a lone gunman down who had 300 rounds of ammunition on board.

It was quick thinking. Everyone else was running the other way. And they ran toward the problem and saved hundreds of lives.

I spoke with them about that fateful day and how their story eventually caught the attention of Clint Eastwood. Alek, Anthony, Spencer, welcome to the program. How are you?

VOICE: I'm great. How about you?

GLENN: Very good.

All right. So I want to talk to you about one thing that, you know, I -- I had a problem with, with the story. And I just want to hear it from, quite honestly, Experience, I want to hear it from you, and then I want to hear the excuses from Alek and Anthony. At some point, you're on this train with this terrorist. And Alek says, go!

And then you go. He's got a gun. And I noticed, at least in the movie, Alek and Anthony, I'll give it to you, Anthony, you were asleep. But where the hell were you, Alek?

VOICE: I've been asking him the same thing for a few years now.

GLENN: Right.

VOICE: He asked me to go. And then he waits for me to make it to him.

GLENN: Look -- no, no, no. Just didn't wait to make it to -- then you're wrestling. And you're trying to hold on to the guy. And, I mean -- I mean, I know that you took the butt of the gun to his head after a while, Alek. But it was a little sloppy and slow.

(laughter)

VOICE: Thank you! America speaks, finally.

STU: Yes. Let's hear the rebuttal, please.

VOICE: All right. Yeah, let's do this.

VOICE: So, first of all, Spencer was on the aisle seat. So he had to go first. I wasn't going to, like, climb over him and then trip in the aisle and just get shot.

GLENN: Right. Right. Usually, that is -- then that phrase should have been, go. I'll meet you in about five minutes.

(laughter)

VOICE: Well, obviously, I was using him as a human shield.

GLENN: Right.

VOICE: I wasn't trying to get shot. And if he was dumb enough to go first, I mean, it's his own fault for getting shot, right?

VOICE: Natural selection.

(laughter)

GLENN: It's -- you know, it's -- it's an incredible story from -- from start to finish, with the three of you. Your friendship. But also the -- what happened on that day.

I was struck by the fact of how many people didn't do anything. I mean, really didn't do anything.

Some people were just paralyzed by fear. But -- but everybody else just ran. And there was no one that stepped to the plate.

VOICE: Kind of hard to ask people to do that, we know. We're all unarmed. And so nobody was really expecting that. So it's kind of a crazy situation to find yourselves in, that's for sure.

VOICE: Yeah, but, I mean, truthfully, we cannot even say that we would have done the same thing, if we hadn't had the confidence in ourselves, just based on the experiences that we had in life. And the skills that we had.

You know, the only thing that really gave me, you know, the confidence to run up at the guy and get up in his face was because I had been practicing Jiu-Jitsu for the last year. And all I said pretty much to myself was, man, if I could just get up in his face, I know I could do something.

You know, getting too close to him. He won't be able to be as effective. So I just -- that's what really gave me the boost.

VOICE: And also too, that I think our friendship -- I mean, we had been friends for so long. I think we knew we would kind of have each other backs. And we all kind of talked about similar situations before.

And we all knew we were kind of, of the same mindset.

GLENN: Do we -- what do we know about the terrorist that was the guy that you took down?

VOICE: Actually, he was later found out to be connected to the Brussels airport bombing and the Bataclan Theater Attack. He was from the same village in Morocco as those guys. And one of the first to come out of that terrorist cell. And so, I mean, he's being held in French custody right now. And he's become a much larger investigation. And hopefully we'll be able to get some more information and be able to relay that soon.

STU: One of the things I remember of when this happened -- because obviously a terrorist attack starts. You start hearing about how bad it could have been. And there's such a moment of pride as an American, to hear that it was three Americans who stopped this.

GLENN: And can I tell you something, when I first heard it, thought it was, okay. Three Americans. And because two of you have background in the service, you just assumed, okay. They're probably Navy SEALs. And I know a lot of Navy SEALs. And they're just going to snap your neck if you get out of line.

VOICE: You're a wannabe Navy SEAL.

GLENN: Right. You guys are not that. I mean, no offense, but you're --

VOICE: Oh, thanks. I'm still infantry.

GLENN: Right. I mean, you're not me. But you're -- but you were -- you were not drilled over and over and over and over again to kill.

I mean, Spencer, you were drilled to heal.

VOICE: Yeah. I mean, but it was -- it was truly a life or death situation. I mean, we had no options. You're on a moving train going 200 miles an hour. This guy has an automatic weapon. I mean, Option A, you sit there, wait till he shoots you. Or you get up and try to do something. And, I mean, that was -- the fight was a fight for survival. It was either he was going to kill us, or we were going to kill him. But luckily, we were just able to subdue him and choke him unconscious.

VOICE: I think that's the best thing about the movie. Because like you said, of course, people remember the headline. And they're like, of course, two off-duty servicemen, of course they would.

But the movie does a good job at showing that we're three ordinary guys that none of us have ever seen anything traumatic like that before.

And I think that that's wild to speak to more of the masses of people, because they'll be able to identify with one of us or all three of us and see just how ordinary we are. And that we were really faced with an extraordinary situation.

GLENN: So, Anthony, if you were -- if -- you know, when they ask -- when Spencer said, hey, come to Europe. And you guys thought that there was a chance something like this would happen. Would you have thought that you were the three guys that would have stood up and done what you did?

VOICE: No.

That would have -- that would have definitely been hard to pay. I would have never thought nothing like that would have happened. But I guess hindsight being 20/20, I guess me being the civilian that I didn't have formal training.

I couldn't have picked two better guys to go on the trip with. So I couldn't have imagined being in that situation with any other two people. That's for sure.

VOICE: That's one thing our families kind of joke about, is that, oh, it would be -- it would be us that did something like that. Not just because of like our training or, you know, anything like that. But just because we're always getting in trouble together and always --

VOICE: And something always happens when we hang out.

GLENN: Yeah. You should stop hanging out.

STU: And stop getting on trains. Please, planes.

GLENN: The other interesting thing is, off of that is in the -- you know, in the movie, it shows that you are troublemakers.

I mean, none of you excelled in school. You were always in trouble. And been most likely -- not your moms. Your moms come off as wonderful mothers.

VOICE: They are.

GLENN: But, you know, besides your moms, doesn't seem like anyone with any authority in your childhood expected anything like this from you guys.

VOICE: That's for sure.

(laughter)

VOICE: There's one thing in life, we never being, like, told what to do. So, I mean, we were difficult kids to raise. But we all are super thankful for the parents that we had, feel like they really shaped us.

VOICE: That's a good theme to draw from the movie too. It's just that, you know, even our success, our failures, they were all part of the bigger plan.

And I think people would be able to identify like that. Like, if they feel like they're on the wrong path, that could be something pushing you in a direction that, for all, you know, could be working in your favor in the future. So it's all part of the bigger plan.

STU: What was it like when you were approached with the idea of actually acting?

GLENN: No. Go before that.

First, what was it like, when Clint Eastwood said, hey, I want to make your story?

VOICE: Well, honestly, we were just extremely excited. Because we've all been -- I mean, we were raised on Clint Eastwood movies. So it was kind of a no-brainer for us. And even when we were talking to him about, how they're going to do the movie. Sully had just come out. So I watched sully. And once I saw how good of a job he did on that, especially, it was just kind of like, let's just let the man work. And let's do it. We were just -- we were just so excited. Because, I mean, you couldn't have picked anybody better to do it.

STU: Definitely. Clint Eastwood, he's legendary first as an actor. And now as a director.

But he made this choice. And in case people don't know, the movie stars -- the three guys you're hearing, the real people who are in the incident are the actors portraying themselves in a movie.

GLENN: Clint Eastwood, you know, didn't get Sully. He got Tom Hanks. So when he said to you, hey, guys, why don't you do it? What were your thoughts?

VOICE: I mean, we were just totally blown away and shocked. We never considered it a possibility because that's not the normal thing. And we also just really didn't want to risk the success of our story. Because we knew it was going to be forever, so we wanted it to be good.

And so, I mean, it's just something that totally came out of nowhere.

But how are you going to tell Clint Eastwood no playing yourself in your own film? It's just something we couldn't turn down. We just jumped at it.

VOICE: Nobody wanted to get that death stare from Clint Eastwood.

GLENN: No, I know. I understand that.

Spencer, you were -- you were wounded, seemingly in the movie pretty badly. I mean, at least painfully

VOICE: Just a flesh wound.

GLENN: Just a flesh wound. And then you went on and stuck your hands in a wounded man's throat to save his life. How long did that actually happen?

VOICE: On the fight took place probably tops two minutes. And then from the point when the attack started until when we got to the next train station, it was about 25 to 30 minutes.

GLENN: Holy cow.

VOICE: And so -- I was over with Mark. I would say it was, yeah, a solid 20 minutes, I had my hand in his neck.

GLENN: And he is -- and he is okay?

VOICE: He is good. And actually, that is another thing about this film. Is, you know, it's not only us playing ourselves. But Mark plays himself. His wife plays herself. We have Chris Norman, the British man who tied up the terrorist playing himself.

One of the same train employees. We had a lot of the same police. Had the same exact medical team that brought us up to train two years ago.

GLENN: Wow.

VOICE: And oftentimes, people, you know, think that we were the only ones that really did anything. But, I mean, without all those people contributing and doing what they did that day, we would have never been in the position to do anything ourselves and be successful at it.

So it's really awesome that they're going to be able to finally get the credit they deserve in such a big way.

GLENN: He did a good job of taking the television footage at the end with the president of France awarding you the legion of honor. Because he was, you know, mixing new footage with real footage. And I couldn't help, but wonder, are your parents the ones in that crowd in the new footage?

VOICE: No. They are -- they were actors portrayed. They were actors.

GLENN: No, no, no. I know that those -- I know the actors. But I mean the other people in the crowd. Did they include your parents at all in this, your moms?

VOICE: No. They weren't able to. But also, on the day of the actual ceremony, there's no footage of the crowd. It was just us.

GLENN: Right.

VOICE: And we have, you know, Judy Greer and Jen Fisher playing our moms throughout the movie. So it would probably throw off the audience at the end if they would have put our real parents in.

GLENN: What was it -- what was it like when, you know, this happened and then you're called to receive the -- you know, the legion of honor award and you're standing how many days, three days later, a week later?

VOICE: Three days after.

GLENN: Three days later.

VOICE: It happened on Friday. And we're receiving the medal on Monday.

So we're going from hostels and doing the cheap way all through Europe, to terrorist attack on Friday, until all of a sudden, in the Élysée with the French president on Monday. So it's -- it's a quick turnaround, that's for sure.

VOICE: Yeah. Staying in the ambassador's personal residence, like, we were sleeping in the same bed like Charles Lindbergh slept in when he crossed the Atlantic. And it was honestly just, like, the coolest experience.

VOICE: My room was called the Benjamin Franklin room, okay? That's where the president stays, when he comes to France.

We really got an upgrade.

GLENN: Wow. And more importantly, the French people were nice to you.

VOICE: We love the French people.

VOICE: Yeah, we love them.

I mean, I feel like that's a common misconception these days, actually. It's very cliche to say. But they're very nice people.

VOICE: But our experience is a little different.

VOICE: Yeah.

STU: You're saving their lives, of course, they're be nice to you.

GLENN: They're going to be nice to you. Trust me, they're not going to be nice to me.

VOICE: We'll be the ambassadors for you, don't worry.

GLENN: Yeah, my wife and I are taking our kids over to Europe this summer for the very first time.

And just last week, we planned a trip from Paris to Amsterdam and back, on that same train. I'm not sure I want to take it now.

VOICE: Same thing.

VOICE: It's a popular thing.

VOICE: Well, now you know what to do.

GLENN: Yes. And here's the role I'll play, go!

(laughter)

GLENN: God bless you guys, thank you so much. And it was -- it was -- it's really stirring -- your story is really stirring. And it was really a great moment, I think for all Americans to -- to watch the French say the truth about Americans. And sometimes, you know, the rest of the world doesn't -- doesn't see us like this. But I think that's -- we all at least want to be in that -- in situations like that. And you guys actually did it. So thank you so much, God bless.

VOICE: Thanks for having us. God bless you too, man.

(music)

GLENN: The new Clint Eastwood movie, 1517 to paris, opens up a week from today.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

Ron Paul EXPOSES How the Federal Reserve Keeps Up its Scam!

Former Congressman Ron Paul breaks down how the Federal Reserve operates and how it has become so entrenched in the American economic system. He tells Glenn Beck that the problem is continuing to get worse and offers up his advice on what really needs to happen to begin to fix this situation.

Watch Glenn Beck's FULL Interview with Ron Paul HERE

RADIO

Canada FORCED this hospice center to EUTHANIZE its patients?!

Canada is forcing its Medical Assistance in Dying program, which offers euthanasia as a “medical treatment” option, on hospice centers. Delta Hospice Society executive director Angelina Ireland joins Glenn Beck to give the horrific details of how far the government went to try and get her to bend the knee: “I call it a culling. It’s a Canadian cull.”

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Let me take you to Canada for just a second.

And I want to -- this is a story that happened a while ago. But I want to just show you the dangers of public/private partnerships.

You're hearing this all the time. And every time, Joe Biden would say, public will she private partnership. It was all the Green New Deal and everything else.

I kept saying, that is fascism. That is exactly the deal that Mussolini and Hitler made. That's the difference between Communism and fascism.

They let you do your own thing. But you're a partner with the government. And as long as you abide by all of their rules, you're fine!

But the minute you disagree, you don't have a say. They'll throw you out on the street, so fast, your head will spin.

And that's exactly what happened to a hospice center. The Delta Hospice Society.

I have the -- the executive director on. Angelina Ireland.

And I asked her to come on today, to tell us the story of what happened, to her hospice facility.

Angelina, thank you for joining me.

ANGELINA: Hello, again. Thank you so much for having me today.

GLENN: You bet. You bet.

So you -- the hospice society is a public/private partnership with Canada.

You guys raised $8.5 million to build this property. And you negotiated a 25 or 35 million-dollar lease for the property. Right?

Tell me about this.

ANGELINA: Right. So we're a private society. So a 34-year organization.

Palliative care is basically, you take care of people, when they're chronically ill or terminally ill. You take care of them well.

So we fundraised over a couple -- a few years ago, $8 million to open a hospice and a palliative care support center next door. And so we raised that money.

We got a 35-year land lease with the public health authority. We built two buildings. A ten-bed hospice, a 7500 square foot supportive care center, where we did our counseling, all the supportive programs.

And then the service agreement was for operating costs. So every year, they give us $1.4 million, and we built those buildings. We opened them, and we operated our program, at the hospice for ten years.

Everything went fine, until this thing they called, the state euthanasia program called MAID. Right?

GLENN: Maid.

ANGELINA: And then the province basically came to us and said, you will have to start providing euthanasia. You will have to start killing your patients in the hospice. Because you're getting -- you're getting public money, right?

We said, absolutely not. We absolutely will not.

At which point, you're exactly right.

The fascism kicked in. I just call it stone cold communism.

And said, you're not getting any money, if you don't start killing your patients.

So then they cancelled that service agreement.

Which means, that's fine.

Look, we don't need your money. We'll be fine without your money.

Which apparently is the wrong answer.
(laughter)

GLENN: Yeah.

ANGELINA: Then they went after the lease. And we had 25 years left on that land lease, and they cancelled it.

And now, these incidentals like the buildings on them, they just consider those to be some kind of an old shack or fence, and they expropriated. So at the end of the day, they evicted, the organization from our buildings. They expropriated those assets, which were valued at eight and a half million dollars. Kicked us out, and took -- took our stuff.

And then they -- they started to operate our hospice, and they put in the euthanasia.

GLENN: Unbelievable.

They give no money for the buildings. I mean, it was their land, right? That's kind of the public/private partnership. You're taking money from them to run it, but you said to them, we don't need it.

But also, that was -- was that not federal land, that you were on? Or some sort of medical kind of preparedness of Canada.

JASON: It was. Well, it was.

Which is considered to be -- well, it was belonged to the health authority, but it was a registered lease. The titled office with 25 years left.

GLENN: Right. Right.

ANGELINA: So we had a right to be there. And of course to continue on for another 25 years.

But, of course, no, they didn't allow it.

GLENN: So when you went to the court. What did the court say?

ANGELINA: Well, you see, we didn't that get far. Because we went to three very, very prominent lawyers. And they told us straight-up.

You're not going to win.

You understand this, people?

You might walk in with one lawyer. They're going to walk in with 15 lawyers, all funded by the taxpayer.

GLENN: The government. Yeah.

ANGELINA: And you may win the first round. But you will not win -- they will tie it up. And it's called lawfare. They advised us again and again and again, to just move on. Take our punches. Take the licking from the government, and move on.

The important thing for us, was to hold on to our organization.

Because then the euthanasia after this, came for us. To try to take everything.

And we still have assets. But we did lose our bricks and mortar in the moment.

GLENN: That is crazy.

You know, I have described what's happening all around the world. With the -- with the extreme left.

With Islamists.

Not Muslims.

Islamists.

What is happening with the Communists and the fascists, is a death cult. It all seems to revolve around death. They take glee in death.

And Canada is shockingly, in many ways, leading the way on this with MAID.

You don't even know how many people are killed now with MAID a year, do you?

ANGELINA: No. We don't. We do not. I call it a culling. It's a Canadian cull. They're killing the sick people, the mentally ill, the disabled. Veterans. Homeless. The poor.

And then they're going after the children. But we do not know the numbers, exactly. I mean, the government is admitting to 60,000. There's absolutely no way it's 60,000.

I think they forgot a zero.

It's widespread. It's now considered a health care option.

When the doctor comes to a sick and vulnerable patient and saying, how would you just like to die? It's gotten completely out of hand.

It's truly a national horror for Canadians. For certainly people of faith in my country.

Pro-life for my country.

That we have no control over this.

We have no access to authentic true numbers, information.

And this whole consortium, that I call empire MAID has taken over the health care system.


GLENN: What is the -- what's the goal of this?

Do you think?

What's really behind it?

ANGELINA: Certainly. You know, so they want to talk about -- they -- they have captured the moral high ground on this, right?

If you want to be compassionate. You will have to start to kill people.

That's the only way to be compassionate. That's the only way to provide human rights.

So that very potent message, they've been able to roll it to a narrative, which is incredibly horrid.

The word is like -- it aches me. It's overwhelming.

GLENN: Yeah. Right.

ANGELINA: But why? Our public health care system, which is what happens when any government goes completely public. We have no private available.

It is illegal. It's bankrupt. We have --

GLENN: Hold on just a second. I want Americans to hear this.

Private health care, being a doctor and providing private health care is illegal in Canada.

ANGELINA: Yes, it is. The only thing you can do is to have cosmetic things done privately. That's it. You want a boob job, a nose job. You can go ahead, get a doctor and pay for that.

Everything else, it must be administered through the state, period. It has to go up to the Supreme Court of Canada. So this is undisputable.

Private health care is illegal.

GLENN: You know, I look at -- we're -- you have several states that are now trying to pass much of this.

And they are in the laws, that are being passed.

It is -- it is -- it's a requirement not to put assisted suicide down on the death.

So you have cancer.

But you didn't die of cancer.

You had cancer.

You have depression. And the doctors said, well, you can kill yourself over that.

It does not say, assisted suicide.

It is going to be illegal to put that on the death certificates.

It just has to say, depression.

Cancer.

Whatever it is.

That they helped you kill yourself over, that's -- that's what the cause of death is.

So you'll never, ever be able to count it!

You'll never be able to track it!

It is just evil, evil what's happening.

ANGELINA: It's true.

And how many people will be killed by the state? That is going to be the question. You will never know, that you are giving far too much power to the state.

Unaccountable.

Unquestionable.

GLENN: Are you -- are you shocked at the -- because I am here in America.

I mean, we just -- New York just voted for an Islamist who is saying, you know, he is for Hamas.

He is also a communist.

And they just elected him, or, you know, chose him as the Democratic candidate.

And nobody really seems to care!

When it comes to death all over, when you're seeing these things happen, I am shocked by my own citizens! Do you feel that way in Canada?

ANGELINA: Well, I personally am not shocked.

Because I know that the only thing that the socialists and the Communists ever do well, was kill people.

This should not come as a shock to anyone.

The -- the short sightedness unfortunately of a people. Is that they tend to get rewarded in the short term.

They give them stuff, money. Benefits.

It's only crops.

Ultimately, it will -- at the literal demise to allow, this kind of philosophy, political ideology.

To come into your country. Somewhere are you hopeful for the future, Angelina?

ANGELINA: You know, I love my country. To be honest with you, I am not. I am not.

We have seen in my country, an overwhelming immigration. That has come in. Talking about millions of people in a very short time.

That has literally destroyed our infrastructure, brought the health care system, to its knees.

A lot of people in my country, don't even have a family doctor.

They can't find a family doctor. They have to wait for months, upon years for the simplest of procedures.

And it isn't getting any better. So, you know, I pray because, of course, I am a person of faith. And I'm an apologetic Christian.

This is, again, very unpopular in my country.

But, you know, only God will be able to help us.

At this point.

GLENN: Thank you for ending it that way. Angelina, I appreciate it. Thank you for standing up and being vocal, and letting people of the world know that light still does exist, even though the darkness is growing.

Darker, faster. Thank you, Angelina. Appreciate it.

From Canada.

RADIO

Did the Swamp RUIN the Big Beautiful Bill?

The Senate just sent the “Big Beautiful Bill” back to the House. But Rep. Chip Roy joins Glenn Beck with a warning: This isn’t the same bill President Trump proposed! The Swamp has made sure to cut back on its reforms. But are Trump’s tax cuts too important to fail?

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Chip Roy is with us from the great state of Texas.

Chip is a congressman, and welcome to the program. How are you, Chip?

CHIP: Well, Glenn, I'm -- you know, I'm continuing to work through, and trying to deliver the American people. But it's getting hard.

I'm with you. I'm tired of this bill right now.

GLENN: Yeah, you're living the dream, brother.

You are just living -- who doesn't want your job?

My gosh, what's -- what -- a glorious. Glorious, fun-filled life you must live.

CHIP: Yeah, there's -- there's been -- no, no, no.

GLENN: So tell me.

Tell me, is this thing gotten better or worse?

CHIP: Unfortunately, Glenn. I believe it's gotten worse.

Now, we've not seen the final product of the Senate. We don't have the tax. We've got to review it.

I try to be level-headed during these things. I had enormously strong and good friends in the administration, who in good faith, want to see this pass. Just as you do. Just as I do, just as the American people do.

They want to see a move forward in legislation to make tax cuts permanent. To deliver on the border funding that we need. You know, Steven Miller is a long-time friend. I've known him 25 years.

Russ Voit is a long-time friend. I've known him for 25 years. We've been working together in the trenches for as long as I can remember. We all want to deliver.

The problem is, the swamp is going to swamp.

And right now, we have a bill, that in my estimation, violates the house framework.

But more importantly, would add significantly to the deficits. Now, we have differing views.

GLENN: More. More than it did. More than it did, right?

CHIP: Quite a bit, in my view.

And look, there is going to be a debate about this. About tax cuts. And revenues. And all the stuff.

And I get it. Baseline. CBO. All these different things. I'm just telling you, Glenn, as objectively as I can, I look at the math, and I look at how you factor in economic growth, which I'm doing. Factor in revenues. And expenditures.

And what we're doing, on mandatory spending.

Which is not enough.

The fact that we're only repealing half of the green new scam, if we're lucky.

The fact that we're continuing to allow Medicaid. To go to illegals. Because of some arcane center rules.

The fact that we're continuing to allow Obamacare subsidies to fund transgender surgeries.

The fact that we're going to -- in my estimation, have probably a couple of trillion of deficit spending in the first four years.

Which means, you will have more interest.

Which means, it's going to stack up, all to get savings, in five years.

That's not what you and I signed up for.

Now, I'm looking at this, trying to say, okay.

The president wants tax cuts. So does I.

The president wants borders, so do I.

I think the president wants us to repeal the entire Green New scam. I think the president wants us to get good reforms. Be careful.

Like handle Medicaid appropriately, and all of that, for our American citizens that depend on it.

But we haven't delivered. Because the Senate has a bunch of people in it, who don't want to deliver, and they are hiding behind the parliamentarian, and they're delivering the product that I didn't come to Washington, to sign up for, Glenn.

GLENN: All right. So let me ask you this. They're hiding behind the parliamentarian.

Is that -- I mean, they -- they say, there was a change in the bill, because of the Medicare paid to the illegals. And the parliamentarian said you have to keep it in there. Some arcane rule or whatever.

Couldn't the Senate Republicans just ignore that?

Is it fair -- what?

CHIP: They could overrule the parliamentarian. They could make a change, if they wanted to do so.

GLENN: Right.

CHIP: Now, some of these things take 60 votes. If they want to address this, they can address it.

But the real issue here is that behind the closed doors, what you know, is that there are senators, who don't want to make the reforms.

Don't want to make the changes. They're making their own policy choices. Based on what they want.

Right? You've got Lisa Murkowski right now. Instead of wanting to reform Medicaid, she wants to get a special carve-out for additional spending, for people in Alaska.

You've got, you know, Tillis. You've got others. They want us to go the wrong direction, when it comes to Medicaid reform.

And, Glenn. I've got to be honest. How many times have you and I been on the phone over the last decade, talking about shutdowns by discretionary spending. Like every two years.

GLENN: Oh, I know.

CHIP: Countless times. Every time we have one of those fights. The people of this town say, Chip, you need to shut up because the real problem is mandatory spending. Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid.

It's not fighting over all this stuff. You're wasting all our time.

I didn't think it was a waste of our time.

I didn't think we should be funding weaponized government.

I didn't think we should continue to jack up spending for the alphabet soup of regulations in America.

But I said, okay. Guys, here we are.

We are going to do this reconciliation package. We will reform Medicaid, right? We ended up fighting like cats and dogs to get the reforms, the work requirements we got out of the House. It was good. Not great.

The Senate, now they're working through it. And they are fighting every inch. And it got actually a little better in certain respects, thank to Rick Scott.

He's been fighting hard. Mike Lee, Ron Johnson. We've got a little bit more of what's called provider taxes. But overall, we're not meeting the moment.

We're not getting enough Medicaid reform.

We're getting watered down, somewhat on illegals. How about missed taxes, Glenn?

We passed a measure in the House, to tax money going from America, so people going here illegally back to their own country.

The Senate -- it's crazy!

GLENN: Why? Why? Why?

CHIP: Because they don't like the policies, Glenn. Because here's the thing, there are bankers. Banks. Who came here and said, guys, this would be really hard on us.

If we had to enforce this policy.

Money flowing from our banks and institutions.

Mexico.

And Columbia.

And places. We really need a carve out, so the banks won't be taxed by this, and then they will go.

It would be way too burdensome on the people who come here and they're working hard, and they want to spend money on their families. But you and I both have a heart for what people face. And want to say, hey, I get it. You've got an honest person here, who is following the law, who came here illegally. They want to send money back home to their country. They can still do that. They can still find a way to do that, but we're taxing. Instead of saying, no, we're not going to do it.

But the biggest thing at the end of the day. Deficits go up, and I didn't sign up for deficits to go up.

GLENN: So you're not going to vote for them?

You're not voting for this.

CHIP: I can't. I cannot vote for this as it's currently structured. If we can come to some agreement.

And, Glenn, this is important.

The president rightly wants us to find a way to get a bill up. I get that. And I want to deliver. For six months, I've been busting my butt.

I voted for a bill that came out of the house, that I didn't like. It wasn't good enough. But I thought it was an important step.

I worked to come up with a budget framework with Jerry Harrington and others, to figure out, how to get this done and get it out of the House.

I think we made progress. We did get Medicaid reforms that are good. We did get some tightening down on the green new scam, and others didn't want to do it.

But we are now fighting a Senate that's watering down important stuff.

And importantly, the way they tax to spend policies. Overall, I can't look at this any way objectively, without telling my voters, the people that sent me to Washington to represent them. That the deficits will go up.

Now, last point, the president and the administration will say, look, guys, don't worry about that. We'll make it up with tariffs, and we will pay higher economic growth. Well, two things.

Number one, on the economic growth front, we assumed growth in our bill, Glenn.

We assumed 2.6 percent growth.

Now, you might say, well, gosh, we need three or four. Yeah, but we have to do a ten-year budget. 2.6 percent growth is a lot higher than what we've been experiencing the last two decades on average.

We picked a sweet spot of 2.6 percent growth. It is true, that if we have 4 percent growth for a decade, we will have much more of it.

I hope that's true. You hope that's true.

And if it is true, then great. It's gravy, that will give us money to buy down the debt. And save money. And get the deficits down further.

But I can't budget to two and a half percent. Sitting at 2 percent growth

It would be irresponsible.

GLENN: So I'm with you, Chip. I'm with you. And I've said this for a long time -- the Republicans are going to lose. They are going to lose, and they're going to lose because you're just not delivering for the American people, what you promised you would.

Donald Trump seems to be.

You know, at least he is trying.

He's doing a lot of the things he promised he would do.

I don't see that happening with the Republicans.

And so, you know, I don't know what -- what the midterm is going to look like.

But I will tell you this. He has to have that tax cut passed.

He's got to have it.

If we don't get that tax cut. Everything the Republicans have been trying to do. Or the Republican voters have wanted.

It's over. It's over.

Because the economy will spiral out of control without that tax cut. Agree or disagree?

CHIP: So I agree we must deliver on the tax cut. And I believe we will. When push comes to shove, there's no way we will get to December, and not provide an extension of tax cuts, that were so important in 2017.

Now, I'll remind everybody, the corporate rates were made permanent already.

Right?

What we're talking about dealing with is the expiration of certain personal tax issues. Marginal rate. But also child tax credit. Also standard deduction, et cetera. Now, I'm not sure.

I've got different views, on different ones of those policies.

Overall, we want to ensure, this stays in the pockets of the American people.

We have to deliver on that.

I will tell you this, if we don't address the inflation tax.

If we don't address the extent to which people are fleeing the American bond markets.

Because we are so irresponsible.

Then we're going to be doing a disservice to our kids and grandkids who can't afford a house.

They can't afford a house because the mortgage rates are too high.

GLENN: They can't afford it now, Chip.

They can't afford it now.

CHIP: So I think what we need to do, is I'm prepared to go back to the drawing board today. I want to go home tomorrow, or the next day.
Let's just get busy. We've been working on it.

Let's tighten down some of the spending.
Let's tweak what we've been doing and get the tax policy done. Get it set. Let's go back to the House bill, for example, that we passed.

It was a good, solid bill.

And get the Senate to adopt it, and pass it.

Or make some modest changes. But we have to get rid of some of these ridiculous things. Like Medicaid for illegal aliens, like pork that's going to Alaska.

Like specific giveaways.

And, you know, get rid of those things.

Go back to the House bill.

Make sure the inflation act is getting terminated.

Deliver on the tax cuts. Deliver on the border.

Deliver for the president.

I'm prepared to do that. But I will not swallow a crappy bill because the Senate tries to jam me with it.

GLENN: I have to tell you, I don't know how it's unpopular to say, no. We're not giving illegals any Medicare.

We're not.

Do you remember -- who was it, when we were in Congress. Barack Obama talked about Obamacare. He said, you lie!

Joe Wilson, wasn't it?

And everybody had a cow. Well, look at what we're doing. Look at what we're doing.

Look at what we're giving illegals.

The answer is no.

No, no, no, no. And I don't understand how that is not so simple.

I don't understand any Republican that doesn't understand, the green new deal, no! No!

USAID. No!

DOGE. Cut it. Why can't they see what -- I mean -- there is -- I mean to tell you, Chip. I don't mean to take this out on you. You're one of the good guys. You're trying to do this.

We're in between a rock and a hard place.

The president has to have what the president needs. To get the economy going.

We wait until January. You're right on top of the midterms.

You have -- the president is not turning this economy around, fast enough.

Because he can't get anyone in Congress to do Jack crap on anything!

You need to cut the freaking spending. And the waste. And the garbage.

And I tell you, I am with Elon Musk 100 percent.

100 percent.

You are one of these weasel Republicans, who don't -- who just go along, and just be like, you know what, we're going to have another five or $6 trillion to our debt.

I'm done. I'm done.

And Elon has said, I will -- if it's the last thing I do. I will make sure that none of these people get reelected. That's not going to be good.

That's not going to be good. For the republic.

Let alone, the Republican parties.

But, you know what, I've had enough. I've had enough.

And I think the American people have too.

CHIP: Well, Glenn, I will tell you this, July 4th is obviously Friday, Independence Day. Two hundred forty-nine years ago, and we already celebrated. We celebrate their courage. We celebrate Lexington and Concord.

We celebrate all the things -- we celebrate the men that stormed the beaches in Normandy.

And we celebrate all of the great courage that our men in women in uniform have done to fight in this country. How can I say, no, sorry, I'll have to vote for this bill, because there will be some political pressure.

When I regale the boys at the Alamo, sitting there, taking bullets. Knowing they were going to die.

But ran into a wall of bullets in Normandy.

Look, we have to deliver.

We have no choice. We all agree on that.

I'm sure I'm going to get labeled, you know, a -- any number of things.

That I'm not delivering on the president's agenda, that I'm jamming up a bill. Look, and I get it.

And I won't get defensive about it. The president wants this bill. And he is right to want this bill.

The Congress has to deliver a bill worth sending them. And I'm prepared to stay here, until we do.

But I won't vote for a bill, because I'm told I have to. Because a bunch of losers who are swamp creatures, who want pork and giveaways. Who don't have the cojones to stand up and deliver for the American people. And to actually reduce spending, and not hide behind parliamentaries. Not hide behind tax cuts.

They want to hide behind a tax cut, to tell me at the border, to tell me, you have to vote for this bill. Don't worry about this spending.

No, kiss my ass.

I will stand up and fight for the border and the tax cuts and the spending cuts. We've got to do it!

STU: It was very reminiscent of Daniel Boone there for just a second. Or I'm sorry. Not -- Davey Crockett, not Daniel Boone.

So thank you for that. Chip, God bless. Have a great holiday. Stand -- stand firm in what you believe in.

And just keep the fight. I appreciate the attitude that you have towards the president.

Give the president what he needs. Fight for the president, what he's asking for.

But you got to fight the swamp at the same time. Have to. Have to. Thank you, Chip. Appreciate it.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

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Watch Glenn Beck's FULL Interview with Brandon Darby HERE