Glenn questioned on GMA
May 30, 2008 - 13:34 ET
GLENN: Did anybody see Good Morning America today? I was actually surprised on how fairly they treated me, but Claire Shipman showed up in my office a couple of days ago. She's from ABC. She used to be the White House correspondent and everything else. She comes to my office and I thought, "Oh, boy, I'm in trouble." I mean, you know, they set up a library in the conference room. All of a sudden the conference room table is gone. You know, I come into the room, they've got these bookshelves, they've -- I don't even know where they found the books. They trucked books in and all of a sudden it looks like a library in my conference room. And I said, this isn't a cute little piece, is it? Spent about 35 minutes with Claire Shipman and she shows me all kinds of video and all kinds -- I went back in the archives of my program and, you know, tried to find things that I had said against Hillary Clinton, and there was the one thing that is, you know, always played where I was talking about how she sounds, how she sounds like the stereotypical, excuse the expression, bitch. But she does. You listen to her and she just grates on you at times when she gets -- when she gets tough. And we're going to, "You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to take these money from these companies." She starts to sound like voice that says, "Take out the garbage." So that's -- you know, I said that, I don't know, about a year ago or whatever and Claire brings that in along with some of the things that other people had said on the air. And I said, I feel like this is 60 Minutes. I mean, somebody get some water so I can put it on the top of my lip, will you?
Well, here is the piece that ran on 60 Minutes today about sexism in America. This, I guess, is the last cry of, no pun intended, of Hillary Clinton. This is where she falls on her sword. At the end she lost because we're sexists. Here it is.
REPORTER: The apparent twilight of Hillary Clinton's candidacy has opened the floodgates on profound anger for a lot of women. Protests are planned for this weekend, chat rooms are on fire. We decided to check out this charge of sexism but we should warn you, you might want to cover your children's ears. Depending on your point of view, you could find some of the language offensive. Both Clintons are leveling the charge.
BILL CLINTON: Nobody told Jesse Jackson he should drop out in 1988. Nobody told people that ran against me in 1992 they had to drop out. This is really interesting. Why are they doing this?
HILLARY CLINTON: So much of what has occurred that has been very sexist --
REPORTER: Sexism. Suddenly the S word is everywhere. --
GLENN: Stop for a second. Stop, stop. Does anybody believe this sexism? Is that why Hillary Clinton is losing? It's not because of sexism. It quite honestly is because she's not as real as Barack Obama. Barack Obama just looks like a guy who you would hang out with, you can talk to. He's talking to you like a human being. That's why he's so far ahead. He's also cool. He's the cool guy. Everybody wants to hang out with a cool guy. It's exactly why Bill Clinton won against Bob Dole and George Bush, because he was the cool guy. We vote like we vote for American Idol now. It has nothing to do with the fact that she's a woman. I mean, jeez, for the love of Pete, are we really a country that's not going to vote for somebody because she's a woman? Are we really not going to vote for somebody because they're black? Are we really the country that's not going to vote for somebody because of their religion? Come on. I have more faith in America than that. There are those dopes out there, but that's not what's going on here. You know who she is. You don't like her. You don't trust her. It's not sexism.
Roll the tape, Dan.
REPORTER: Debating its existence and impact. This election means you've not gotten anywhere, girl, blogs one frustrated woman. Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan jumps in calling the sexism charge Sissy blame gaming. The media center which doesn't endorse a specific candidate has put together a greatest hits video called "Sexism Sells."
VOICE: She was calm, she was charming, her haired, cosmetic, her hair looked great.
VOICE: When she comes on television, I involuntarily cross my legs.
REPORTER: Wow, extreme examples to be sure, but --
GLENN: Stop, stop, stop, stop. Extreme examples to be sure? Her hair looks great? How many comments did we have on Mitt Romney? How many comments did you hear on Mitt Romney's hair, it's never out of place? That's not an extreme comment. People have been talking about her hair forever because she changes it all the time. Just like people talked about Mitt Romney's hair. Just like people talked about John Edwards' hair. Was it sexist when you talk about John Edwards' hair?
REPORTER: We did some digging ourselves and came up with more.
MATTHEWS: Is it smart politics for Republicans to demonize Hillary Clinton?
VOICE: Is being covered by -- there we go.
GLENN: Wait, wait, wait, wait, stop. Could you go back to that Chris Matthews demonizing comment? Play that again. Did he say the Republicans or the Democrats? Go ahead.
REPORTER: Digging ourselves and came up with more.
MATTHEWS: Is it smart politics for Republicans to demonize Hillary Clinton?
GLENN: Stop. Can I tell you something? The Republicans are not engaged in this anymore. The Republicans, most -- I don't know about you, but are you following, are you really watching this? I mean, you're watching it because you're like, okay, well, I've got to pay attention because I've got to see what these people are really all about. But nobody's out there -- the people who are demonizing Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for the most part are the Democrats because they're in the -- they're in the battle. Right now that's not happening. Right now it's not happening with the Republicans, generally speaking. I mean, I talk about it. You know, I talk about Barack Obama. I talk about Hillary Clinton. I'm doing it now. But we're not the ones leading this. We're not the ones blogging -- do you know anybody that's blogging right now about Hillary Clinton and sexism? "Oh, well, she's just, she's a racist. No, no, he's a sexist." Do you know anybody that's doing that?
VOICE: About the one thing we learned about the Bobbitt case is there's a great deal of resentment. That's why Oprah's huge. Women are angry. I'm serious.
REPORTER: Is that stuff sexist, funny or really bad taste? We asked Chris Matthews and Tucker Carlson if they wanted to talk about it. The only personality, though, who manned up to talk about his words with us, radio and TV host Glenn Beck.
I'm going to show you some examples. One thing you said -- don't get nervous.
GLENN: She's a stereotypical bitch. You know what I mean? She's a stereotypical nagging... you know what I mean?
VOICE: Do you know what I mean?
REPORTER: What did you mean?
GLENN: We were watching one of her interviews or whatever she was doing, a speech. And she had that tone of voice. She just sounds like -- I can't listen because it sounds like my wife saying, "Take out the garbage."
REPORTER: But what about the B word? Is that okay to use? Do you think I should say it? I don't want to say it. I don't like it.
GLENN: No, you know what? Here's the thing. Calling her that, no. I don't think I'd call her that. Hope I've never called her that. Saying, sounds like the stereotypical -- probably a better word was nag.
REPORTER: One of the problems is sexism is hard to define. The virtue of name-calling, if you will, or slurs like "Iron my shirt" is that sexists are so obvious. But what about the very saying, Hillary's crackling, Hillary nutcracker, her legs lined with spikes? In the bigger picture even Obama supporters like leading feminist Naomi Wolf is feeling unfair pressure but she thinks it's self-defeating for the candidate to talk about it.
VOICE: When you're saying I want to be President of the United States of America, what you also have to be telling the American people is "I can handle anything" and you can't expect fairness.
REPORTER: And on that point the feminists and the provocateur agree.
GLENN: Hold on just one second. The provocateur. This is when I held up the Hillary Clinton nutcracker and I held it up right to the camera and this is what I said.
GLENN: If I'm Hillary Clinton, instead of saying sexist, sexist, sexist, I walk on stage and go, "You're damn right." That's what I want from the President of the United States.
REPORTER: This is such a divisive issue. Even at Good Morning America we've had heated debates sometimes accompanied by surprise blasts.
GLENN: Stop. This is not a divisive issue, because Claire said that to me. Claire Shipman when she was doing the report, she said, "You know, we've had these arguments at the office" and I'm thinking to myself, boy, get a life. People at the office, you are having these arguments? This is a manufactured argument. Do you know any real person, and I mean this sincerely, do you know any real person that really, truly believes that Hillary Clinton is losing because she's a woman? She's not. She's losing because Barack Obama seems to be a better candidate. When I say "Seems to be," he's not a better candidate but he's the cool candidate. And in our American Idol world, that's what people are going for, "Let me be Simon." "Oh, dreadful. I don't think you're going to make it."
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