Glenn’s debate preview with Rick Santorum

October 03, 2012

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Rick Santorum has participated in countless debates over the course of his career, most recently during the GOP primary race. What does he think are the biggest problems caused by the format? How will Mitt Romney do tonight? Check out the conversation from radio today in the clip above.

Rough transcript of interview is below:

GLENN: I have on the phone Rick Santorum. Let talk about the debate.

VOICE: I would say that this is going to be the an important debate that and I'm hopeful that they give the opportunity to have a real engagement. I mean one of the big problems I have with the debates the 20 debates I was involved in that the media decided they were the story, and not the candidates. They didn't allow the type of interaction that is really important to get a sense of who these candidates really are. I'm hoping they try to get these guys engage each other.

GLENN: President Obama has not been questioned except by Univision in four years. Nobody has really pushed him up against the wall, and questioned him. Romney I believe the goal should be if I'm a strategist, and I'm not saying Romney he's got to be very careful. Through the power of prayer should be to get the President to reveal who he really is. He's not a likable person and he's an arrogant, arrogant guy. And you know when we were thinking about this. There's only two candidates that ran on the right that Barack Obama absolutely 100% despises, and that is you, and Mitt Romney. You're Christians. You're good practicing Christians. You're white males. You might as be wearing a pilgrim outfit, and bringing a turkey. You are Mr. Colonialist in his mind. Mitt Romney is a big businessman. He's got to despise Mitt Romney. His faith, anti-abortion, anti-Planned Parenthood helped with the proposition 8 in California. There's nobody he hates more. Do you think.

VOICE: It gets to why. I think you sort of laid it out. Barack Obama is a fundamentally different vision for America. He wants to transform America. But what he's not been clear about. He's been clear on the policy but is his vision for America he sort of hides the ball. What his real vision. His vision he'd like us to be the French -- the culmination if you will of the French Republic as opposed to the American Republic. One of the reasons I wrote this book. I do I'm sort feeling I'm pro-Glenn Beck, and teaching us American history. But I thought it's just really important for us to get out there, and lay out who we are. Our founder's vision versus Obama's vision, and Obama's vision is the French Revolution now in its current iteration versus the American Revolution which is the founding principle as you mentioned God given rights, you know people being responsible for the problems they have, and their families and their communities. And government is there to provide an atmosphere for these great treasures of family and faith and community to be able to knit a society as opposed to the French vision which is not liberty from the beginning. But liberty in the end and the folks who're going to craft that liberty and equality is the government. That's European socialism which has adopted the French model is all about. That's what we mean. That's Obama's vision. Romney vision my vision your vision hopefully your listener's vision is something that is more akin to the American one that made us the greatest country in the world.

GLENN: The heroes by Rick.

VOICE: Disappeared.

GLENN: They're erased.

VOICE: Again, again, I feel like I'm repeating the words you say all the time on the radio. They've erased it because this is the elites in our culture who're trying to transform America and you can't do it with one President. You've got to do with it education system, and with entertainment, and Hollywood and news media. So I tip to my hat to you, and to be out there and be willing to provide a place for the truth about who we are, and what America is, and what's going on in the world today.

GLENN: I will tell you Rick that I look for books that I can read to my son that will get him involved in the American movement, and you know so many times you'll pick up a history book and they're boring as snot and they go and on and on and on and he just loses interest. Great, great book. Short, sweet. To the point. Well done.

VOICE: Thank you. Well, look again I don't want to be sucking up to you here. One of the things I do learn in looking at you, and how you've effectively communicated is I thought some of your most powerful books from some of the little books that did that short sweet, delivered a message did it clearly and had the biggest impact. Trying to follow in the footsteps of great steps of great fuss.

GLENN: It's available everyone but you can get it Patriotic voices. The name of the book is Patriotic voices answering the call to freedom. What is the one thing that Mitt Romney has got to do tonight.

VOICE: You know, I really do believe this, and I saw it in me and my debates. The debates I did well I was comfortable. I was confident. I wasn't arrogant but you conveyed a message by how you handled yourself. And I think that is really important for -- how Obama is able to pull it off in so many cases is that he can pull it off he just -- he looks the part. And I think Romney -- as much as you think people know Mitt Romney they don't. And a lot of people for the first time are going to size him up in this kind of intense atmosphere, and see what is this guy made of, and I think it's really important for Romney just to relax, to be as natural as he possibly can.

GLENN: Let ask you this. How hard to relax. Mitt Romney has to know if he blows it tonight he's blown it. He's worked eight years. As much as you say you want him to relax. How hard to do that moment.

VOICE: It's really hard. In that moment for me I did particularly well. I had a debate where that was sort of I thought one of the key points for me we had just done very, very well. We were starting to gain momentum and I didn't come across well. I didn't connect and communicate well. I think it cost me a lot. And I'll be honest with you. It was the same thing for Mitt Romney, and he did. He did very, very well. It was my first moment to be in the kind of spotlight, and be under that kind of intensity. I did okay. I didn't do well as I could have. I didn't do as well he could have. I think it's hard but he's been through this. He's done it with the debate with me. But he did it in other debates with other folks at other times and Obama hasn't had that. He hasn't been in the situation for four years. Even when he was he has been so cobbled by the media that if Mitt Romney can have that AURA I think you're going to see the real people come out in this debate.

GLENN: You're the President. Let's say you're Mitt Romney, and you're standing against the President of the United States. Mr. Romney you said 47%. It appears that you don't care about 47% of this nation. How would you respond.

VOICE: You respond from the truth which is truth is that Mitt Romney is dedicated his career in creating opportunities and serving the public not and trying to help people experience a part of the American dream. Mr. President you're the guy that's caused highest level of poverty in history. You're your policies. My career has been about successfully taking on and giving opportunities for those to get off the programs you want to put people on. I think you've got to paint the positive vision what he's done, and what he's about. Don't run away from dependency. It's not that people want to be dependency. They make short-term economic decisions that where the government has come in with such largesse it makes the economic choices very, very difficult to go out and work, and sacrifice things in the short-term that which may end up long-term.

PAT: How hard is that to turn the thing around in a positive light. You went through the debates in the Republican debates. First of all they never went to you. Because you had two% support. And then at the end when you were actually leading the race, then it was all spun in a negative way you had the war on women. Is it hard to turn it around, and get your message out there and push forward your agenda.

VOICE: It is. But governor Romney has been prepping for this, and the lines of attack are going to be pretty obvious, and he has to be comfortable with again -- it's not just not what he says. Does he come across Asner /SRUS and off balance when he's answering. Or does he come across as Reagan would do. He's not Ronald Reagan. To slough it off, and take it seriously but sort of turn it into something that.

GLENN: Make sure you have a twinkle in your eye.

VOICE: Those are important. It's hard to do. That's what you've got to do. If you want to be President of United States.

GLENN: Rick Santorum. A book that everyone should read. Thanks Rick. We'll talk again.

How did Trump's would-be assassin get past Secret Service?

PATRICK T. FALLON / Contributor | Getty Images

Editor's Note: This article was originally published on TheBlaze.com.

Former President Donald Trump on Saturday was targeted in an assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. It occurred just after 6:10 p.m. while Trump was delivering his speech.

Here are the details of the “official” story. The shooter was Thomas Matthew Crooks. He was 20 years old from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. He used an AR-15 rifle and managed to reach the rooftop of a nearby building unnoticed. The Secret Service's counter-response team responded swiftly, according to "the facts," killing Crooks and preventing further harm.

Did it though? That’s what the official story says, so far, but calling this a mere lapse in security by Secret Service doesn't add up. There are some glaring questions that need to be answered.

If Trump had been killed on Saturday, we would be in a civil war today. We would have seen for the first time the president's brains splattered on live television, and because of the details of this, I have a hard time thinking it wouldn't have been viewed as JFK 2.0.

How does someone sneak a rifle onto the rally grounds? How does someone even know that that building is there? How is it that Thomas Matthew Crooks was acting so weird and pacing in front of the metal detectors, and no one seemed to notice? People tried to follow him, but, oops, he got away.

How could the kid possibly even think that the highest ground at the venue wouldn't be watched? If I were Crooks, my first guess would be, "That’s the one place I shouldn't crawl up to with a rifle because there's most definitely going to be Secret Service there." Why wasn't anyone there? Why wasn't anyone watching it? Nobody except the shooter decided that the highest ground with the best view of the rally would be the greatest vulnerability to Trump’s safety.

Moreover, a handy ladder just happened to be there. Are we supposed to believe that nobody in the Secret Service, none of the drones, none of the things we pay millions of dollars for caught him? How did he get a ladder there? If the ladder was there, was it always there? Why was the ladder there? Secret Service welds manhole covers closed when a president drives down a road. How was there a ladder sitting around, ready to climb up to the highest ground at the venue, and the Secret Service failed to take it away?

There is plenty of video of eyewitnesses yelling that there was a guy with a rifle climbing up on a ladder to the roof for at least 120 seconds before the first shot was fired. Why were the police looking for him while Secret Service wasn't? Why did the sniper have him in his sights for over a minute before he took a shot? Why did a cop climb up the ladder to look around? When Thomas Matthew Cooks pointed a gun at him, he then ducked and came down off the ladder. Did he call anyone to warn that this young man had a rifle within range of the president?

How is it the Secret Service has a female bodyguard who doesn't even reach Trump's nipples? How was she going to guard the president's body with hers? How is it another female Secret Service agent pulled her gun out a good four minutes too late, then looked around, apparently not knowing what to do? She then couldn't even get the pistol back into the holster because she's a Melissa McCarthy body double. I don't think it's a good idea to have Melissa McCarthy guarding the president.

Here’s the critical question now: Who trusts the FBI with the shooter’s computer? Will his hard drive get filed with the Nashville manifesto? How is it that the Secret Service almost didn't have snipers at all but decided to supply them only one day before the rally because all the local resources were going to be put on Jill Biden? I want Jill Biden safe, of course. I want Jill Biden to have what the first lady should have for security, but you can’t hire a few extra guys to make sure our candidates are safe?

How is it that we have a Secret Service director, Kimberly Cheatle, whose experience is literally guarding two liters of Squirt and spicy Doritos? Did you know that's her background? She's in charge of the United States Secret Service, and her last job was as the head of security for Pepsi.

This is a game, and that's what makes this sick. This is a joke. There are people in our country who thought it was OK to post themselves screaming about the shooter’s incompetence: “How do you miss that shot?” Do you realize how close we came to another JFK? If the president hadn't turned his head at the exact moment he did, it would have gone into the center of his head, and we would be a different country today.

Now, Joe Biden is also saying that we shouldn't make assumptions about the motive of the shooter. Well, I think we can assume one thing: He wanted to kill the Republican presidential candidate. Can we agree on that at least? Can we assume that much?

How can the media even think of blaming Trump for the rhetoric when the Democrats and the media constantly call him literally worse than Hitler who must be stopped at all costs?

These questions need to be answered if we want to know the truth behind what could have been one of the most consequential days in U.S. history. Yet, the FBI has its hands clasped on all the sources that could point to the truth. There must be an independent investigation to get to the bottom of these glaring “mistakes.”

POLL: Do you think Trump is going to win the election?

Kevin Dietsch / Staff, Chip Somodevilla / Staff, Kevin Dietsch / Staff | Getty Image

It feels like all of the tension that has been building over the last four years has finally burst to the surface over the past month. Many predicted 2024 was going to be one of the most important and tumultuous elections in our lifetimes, but the last two weeks will go down in the history books. And it's not over yet.

The Democratic National Convention is in August, and while Kamala seems to be the likely candidate to replace Biden, anything could happen in Chicago. And if Biden is too old to campaign, isn't he too old to be president? Glenn doesn't think he'll make it as President through January, but who knows?

There is a lot of uncertainty that surrounds the current political landscape. Trump came out of the attempted assassination, and the RNC is looking stronger than ever, but who knows what tricks the Democrats have up their sleeves? Let us know your predictions in the poll below:

Is Trump going to win the election?

Did the assassination attempt increase Trump's chances at winning in November?

Did Trump's pick of J.D. Vance help his odds?

Did the Trump-Biden debate in June help Trump's chances?

Did Biden's resignation from the election hand Trump a victory in November?

Do the Democrats have any chance of winning this election?

What is the Secret Service trying to hide about Trump's assassination attempt?

KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI / Contributor, Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

This past weekend we were mere inches away from a radically different America than the one we have today. This was the first time a president had been wounded by a would-be assassin since 1981, and the horrific event has many people questioning the competency and motives of the supposedly elite agents trusted with the president's life.

The director of the Secret Service apparently knew about the assassin's rooftop before the shooting—and did nothing.

Kimberly Cheatle has come under intense scrutiny these last couple of weeks, as Secret Service director she is responsible for the president's well-being, along with all security operations onsite. In a recent interview with ABC, Cheatle admitted that she was aware of the building where the assassin made his mark on American history. She even said that she was mindful of the potential risk but decided against securing the site due to "safety concerns" with the slope of the roof. This statement has called her competence into question. Clearly, the rooftop wasn't that unsafe if the 20-year-old shooter managed to access it.

Glenn pointed out recently that Cheatle seems to be unqualified for the job. Her previous position was senior director in global security at America's second-favorite soda tycoon, PepsiCo. While guarding soda pop and potato chips sounds like an important job to some, it doesn't seem like a position that would qualify you to protect the life of America's most important and controversial people. Even considering her lack of appropriate experience, this seems like a major oversight that even a layperson would have seen. Can we really chalk this up to incompetence?

Former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI / Contributor | Getty Images

The Secret Service and DHS said they'd be transparent with the investigation...

Shortly after the attempted assassination, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees the Secret Service, launched an investigation into the shooting and the security protocols in place at the rally. The DHS promised full transparency during the investigation, but House Republicans don't feel that they've been living up to that promise. Republican members of the House Oversight Committee are frustrated with Director Cheatle after she seemingly dodged a meeting scheduled for Tuesday. This has resulted in calls for Cheatle to step down from her position.

Two FBI agents investigate the assassin's rooftop Jeff Swensen / Stringer | Getty Images

Why is the Secret Service being so elusive? Are they just trying to cover their blunder? We seem to be left with two unsettling options: either the government is even more incompetent than we'd ever believed, or there is more going on here than they want us to know.

Cheatle steps down

Following a horrendous testimony to the House Oversight Committee Director Cheatle finally stepped down from her position ten days after the assassination attempt. Cheatle failed to give any meaningful answer to the barrage of questions she faced from the committee. These questions, coming from both Republicans and Democrats, were often regarding basic information that Cheatle should have had hours after the shooting, yet Cheatle struggled with each and every one. Glenn pointed out that Director Cheatle's resignation should not signal the end of the investigation, the American people deserve to know what happened.

What we DO and DON'T know about Thomas Matthew Crooks

Jim Vondruska / Stringer | Getty Images

It has been over a week since 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks narrowly failed to assassinate President Trump while the president gave a speech at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennslyvania. Despite the ongoing investigations, we still know very little about the would-be assassin, which has left many wondering if the agencies involved are limiting the information that Congress and the public are receiving.

As Glenn has pointed out, there are still major questions about the shooter that are unanswered, and the American people are left at the whim of unreliable federal agencies. Here is everything we know—and everything we don't know—about Thomas Matthew Crooks:

Who was he?

What we know:Thomas Crooks lived in Bethel Parks, Pennsylvania, approximately an hour south of Butler. Crooks went to high school in Bethel Parks, where he would graduate in 2022. Teachers and classmates described him as a loner and as nerdy, but generally nice, friendly, and intelligent. Crooks tried out for the school rifle team but was rejected due to his poor aim, and reports indicate that Crooks was often bullied for his nerdy demeanor and for wearing camo hunting gear to school.

After high school, Crooks began work at Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center as a dietary aide. In fact, he was scheduled to work on the day of the rally but requested the day off. He passed a background check to work at the facility and was reportedly an unproblematic employee. Crooks was also a member of a local gun club where he practiced shooting the day before the rally.

It was recently revealed that sometime before his attempted assassination, Crooks posted the following message on Steam, a popular computer application used for playing video games: "July 13 will be my premiere, watch as it unfolds." Aside from this, Crooks posted no warning or manifesto regarding his attack, and little other relevant information is known about him.

What we don't know:It is unclear what Crook's political affiliations or views were, or if he was aligned with any extremist organizations. Crooks was a registered Republican, and his classmates recall him defending conservative ideas and viewpoints in class. On the other hand, the Federal Election Commission has revealed he donated to a progressive PAC on the day Biden was inaugurated. He also reportedly wore a COVID mask to school much longer than was required.

Clearly, we are missing the full picture. Why would a Republican attempt to assassinate the Republican presidential nominee? What is to gain? And why would he donate to a progressive organization as a conservative? This doesn't add up, and so far the federal agencies investigating the attack have yet to reveal anything more.

What were his goals?

What we know: Obviously we know he was trying to assassinate President Trump—and came very close to succeeding, but beyond that, Crooks' goals are unknown. He left no manifesto or any sort of written motive behind, or if he did, the authorities haven't published it yet. We have frustratingly little to go off of.

What we don't know: As stated before, we don't know anything about the movies behind Crooks' heinous actions. We are left with disjointed pieces that make it difficult to paint a cohesive picture of this man. There is also the matter that he left explosives, ammo, and a bulletproof vest in his car. Why? Did he assume he was going to make it back to his car? Or were those supplies meant for an accomplice that never showed up?

The shocking lack of information on Crooks' motives makes it seem likely that we are not being let on to the whole truth.

Did he work alone?

What we know: Reportedly, Crooks was the only gunman on the site, and as of now, no other suspects have been identified. The rifle used during the assassination attempt was purchased and registered by Crooks' father. However, it is unlikely that the father was involved as he reported both his son and rifle missing the night of the assassination attempt. Crooks' former classmates described him as a "loner," which seems to corroborate the narrative that he worked alone.

What we don't know: We know how Crooks acquired his rifle, but what about the rest of his equipment? He reportedly had nearly a hundred extra rounds of ammunition, a bulletproof vest, and several homemade bombs in his car. Could these have been meant for a co-conspirator who didn't show? Did Crooks acquire all of this equipment himself, or did he have help?

There's also the matter of the message Crooks left on the video game platform Steam that served as his only warning of the attack. Who was the message for? Are there people out there who were aware of the attack before it occurred? Why didn't they alert authorities?

We know authorities have access to Crooks' laptop and cellphone that probably contain the answers to these pertinent questions. Why haven't we heard any clarity from the authorities? It seems we are again at the mercy of the federal bureaucracy, which begs one more question: Will we ever know the whole truth?

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