Senator Ted Cruz thumps Chuck Hagel

February 01, 2013

Writer

Chuck Hagel has had a rough time trying to get confirmed as the next Secretary of Defense and leading the charge yesterday was Senator Ted Cruz. Cruz hammered away at Hagel and his flawed vision of the world in which America is the ‘biggest bully’ on the planet. Glenn interviewed Sen. Cruz on radio today.

Watch the interview at the top of the page.

TheBlaze reported on Hagel's questioning:

In some of the most talked-about fireworks to come from defense secretary nominee Chuck Hagel’s Senate confirmation hearing Thursday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) asked Hagel whether he thinks the state of Israel has “committed war crimes” — after confronting him with an old clip in which he seemed to agree with the characterization.“The caller suggested the nation of Israel has committed war crimes. And your response to that was not to dispute that characterization but indeed to describe what he said as, quote, “Well I think that’s exactly right,” Cruz said to Hagel after the 2009 clip from Al Jazeera English played. “Do you think the nation of Israel has committed war crimes?”
“No I do not, senator. I’d want to look at the full context of the interview, but to answer your question, no,” Hagel said.
Cruz objected that the clip contained all the necessary context, then went on to say that “a suggestion that Israel has committed war crimes is particularly offensive, given that the Jewish people suffered under the most horrific war crimes in the Holocaust.”

The rough transcript of Glenn's interview with Senator Cruz is below:

GLENN: Yesterday I actually saw somebody in Washington D.C. earn their money. Yesterday I saw a guy who we have to keep honest. Somebody who is actually going in there and fighting the good fight. I'll tell you there's a handful of them that are pitbulls now, and they are small government, independents and liberty minded and they know the constitution, and they also know what's going on. They know what the score is. It's not like these old timers that have been in Washington for a long time, and think they're playing the same game. I talked to a congressman Glenn, it's a different world here. He's a freshman. It's Chris Stewart. I've never seen anything like that. They actually think that things are generally okay. And they actually think that it's not as bad as you think it is. You've got to strengthen these guys, and in particular one guy yesterday who made a huge, huge difference in the Chuck Hagel confirmation, and just took him apart. And even if you were for Hagel, afterwards you're like, I don't think I'm for this guy at all. Senator Ted Cruz from the great state of Texas. Hello Ted.
CALLER: Glenn, it's great to be with you.
GLENN: You are on fire.
CALLER: Thank you. And there are a lot of challenges and they're happening all at once. And stop some bad things that seem to be coming down the pike.
GLENN: There's an op-ed about Chuck Hagel. Why don't you give us the highlights why Chuck Hagel should not be the secretary of defense.
CALLER: Hagel certainly has a distinguished military career, and he's a Vietnam veteran. Volunteer anyone questions his personal courage or record. But his foreign policy views have been really extraordinary dangerous. And they have been contrary to the security of the United States.
GLENN: He would not last night or yesterday with the John McCain admit he was wrong with the surge.
CALLER: That was really quite remarkable. It was an easy opportunity for Chuck Hagel what he could have. He prominantly posed the Iraq war, and the surge was the greatest foreign blunder.
GLENN: Since Vietnam.
CALLER: McCain got him to prove that the surge proved successful. Even with the antiwar views that the Hagel had expressed on the Iraq. I was against the surge and I'm grateful that it produced success. He refused to say it. He wouldn't say anything good about prevailing, and that was -- it was certainly a remarkable exchange between him, and John McCain.
GLENN: He refused to sign a letter to Clinton and Bush. Today he says that the mosque. Hezbollah in 2006. He declined to join a group of 96 senators urging President Clinton to express solidarity with Israel with the crucial moment, and done Democrat the Palestinian campaign of violence. He has gone on al-Jazeera we are the biggest bully on the planet. He has called the military response by Israel a sickening slaughter. He is --
CALLER: That's correct. If you contrast Chuck Hagel with John Kerry. I was one of three votes against him. Kerry's views are very, very lethal. And yet Hagel's views are tremendously more radical than that.
GLENN: May I say this is not your characterization. It is mine. But I'd love to hear your response on it. They are almost anti-American.
CALLER: Well, what they reflect is the typical contempt for Americans -- I think contempt. Embarrassment for American strength that you see among the extreme. Among the radicals. You mentioned the al-Jazeera exchange. I played two excerpts from an interview he did on al-Jazeera. And Hagel heard that, and didn't dispute that characterization at all. The second which was jaw dropping which was on the al-Jazeera, and the reality that the United States was the world's bully, and he explicitly agreed, he said yes I agree that point is relevant. It's a good one. I agree.
PAT: Then he lied to you Senator about not hearing that part. It was so obvious.
GLENN: It was so clear when you listen to the audio, and you see the interview. It's up on "The Blaze" by the way. Senator Cruz's questioning is up on "The Blaze", and also we've added the video from al-Jazeera. It was so clear he knows exactly what's going on, then he strangely had the courage to look you in the eye I didn't know that. I didn't hear that. What were you agreeing with then?
CALLER: It was really remarkable, and it's worth under scoring. This is a man who is being put forward to be the secretary of defense for the chief civilian officer of the United States military, to go on al-Jazeera a foreign network that is broadcasting propaganda to countries that have extraordinary hostility to us.
GLENN: No, Al Gore says they're for us.
CALLER: To explicitly agree with the statement that American is the world's bully. That statement undermines the legitimacy of the young men and women that are protecting our rights. For our secretary of defense to say that I think it is the sort of leadership specs from a secretary of defense.
GLENN: Is he going to be confirmed?
CALLER: I don't -- that depends on the 100 Senator. It depends on two thing. I hope Republicans stand together. I think his views on Israel make him the most antagonistic Senator to Israel in the time he served. And I think his views on national security, on terrorism put him as a "The Washington Post" at the fringe. Republicans need to stand together. And number two, I hope that some Democrats I was disappointed at the hearing yesterday that none of the Democrats seemed to be willing to give him any scrutiny. I understand it is hard to oppose a nominee from your own party when your President has put him up. There are a lot of Democrats who sincerely and genuinely care about insuring that Iran doesn't get nuclear weapons capacity, and I hope that the Democrats will look closely at his record. I think Chuck Hagel's record is.
GLENN: A message for firearms, and manufacturers from the Chicago Rahm Emanuel. Texas welcomes you. And gun control invited executives to consider the warmer friendlier climate of the Lonestar state of the Bank of America, and TD /PWAFRPBLG. And Smith & Wesson. In Texas we have a more modest view of government. You are inviting the arms manufacturers to move down to Texas.
CALLER: That's exactly right. This was in response to the widely reported letter that the Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel sent to two major banks urging them to cut off the lines of credit to two venerable gun manufacturers. Smith & Wesson. And Ruger, and pressure them into supporting President Obama's aggressive gun control agenda. When Rahm Emanuel wrote that letter. I think that letter was abusive. I don't think that's the proper role of an elected official to be trying to bully private companies to enlist in a political lobbying campaign. So my response was to write a letter to those gun manufacturing companies, and to the Rahm Emanuel in Texas we have the view and that elected officials work for the people. The people don't work for the elected officials. And I encourage the banks if they want to bring more business to Texas, and bring more jobs to Texas there's a reason a 1,000 people a day are moving to day. I'm proud that one of you was you Glenn.
GLENN: Move to Texas for the freedom. Not the jobs. I mean if you're coming here just for a job I don't want you here. If you're coming here because you understand that the jobs are being created because we are free in this state, come to Texas. Because this is the last -- this is the last bastion of real freedom.
PAT: Don't come here just for a job, and turn it into a New York.
GLENN: There's a reason that Texas is creating 50% of all of jobs in America. There's a reason for it. It's freedom.
CALLER: I think you're exactly right, Glenn. I have joked as you know know I'm very worried about border security, and at times I'm concerned about our western border. And all of the Californians if they're coming here to embrace freedom. There should be an entrance exam when someone is fleeing another state, and do you understand what has happened from the place you're fleeing, and not to bring those misguided policies, and ruin the freedom.
PAT: For me that's not tongue and cheek at all.
GLENN: I'm dead serious on that. But I'm glad to say hear it was slightly tongue and cheek.
CALLER: I have to tell you that the Hagel hearing yesterday, some liberal activist on Twitter sent was my favorite tweet of the entire day. Which is that this individual said now Cruz is going all Glenn Beck in the hearing. Which I took that as a high, high compliment. I guess it was that I tried to intrude on the hearing with facts, and put Chuck Hagel's own record and words on the stand.
GLENN: That is a real compliment. I'm sorry they used me to try to smear you.
CALLER: I was honored by the comparison.
GLENN: Thank you very much, Senator. Keep up the good work. You just shout out. If somebody is trying to corner, if somebody -- if you start to feel like I'm --
PAT: Darkness is closing in.
GLENN: It will it will absolutely close in around you. Know that there are millions of Americans that are praying for you, and praying for other senators and Congress none must not just like you. Just don't lose your soul, and cry out for help.
CALLER: Well Glenn, in three weeks the "New York Times" to attacking me. Rachel mad oh, and morning Joe seems to devote to attacking me. And I'll tell you that I view that as a sign we're doing something right.
GLENN: We're trying to fast and furious without getting in bed with the drug lords like our administration has. We're working as fast as we can to build an alternative network that is beholden to parties and not beholden to any kind of liberal nonsense.
CALLER: I appreciate that. And you're being lifted up by the prayers of men and women across America, and all of us and what you're doing, and what I'm doing. We're fighting to save our country. I feel incredibly to have an opportunity to make a small difference.
GLENN: I respect what you're doing. I will leave it at that.
CALLER: I appreciate you, and thank you and let's get it done together.
GLENN: Thank you. Senator Ted Cruz from Texas. If you haven't seen what he did yesterday, go to the website

Where were Rachel Maddow's tears for immigrant children in 2014?

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I think we can all agree, both on the Left and the Right, that children who have been caught up in illegal immigration is an awful situation. But apparently what no one can agree on is when it matters to them. This past weekend, it suddenly — and even a little magically — began to matter to the Left. Seemingly out of nowhere, they all collectively realized this was a problem and all rushed to blame the Trump administration.

Here's Rachel Maddow yesterday:

Rachel Maddow chokes up and cries on air as she struggles to deliver news that migrant babies and toddlers have been sent to "tender age" shelters pic.twitter.com/O6crm8cvyR
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) June 20, 2018

I seem to remember getting mocked by the Left for showing emotion on TV, but I'll give her a pass here. This is an emotional situation. But this is what I can't give her a pass on: where the heck was this outrage and emotion back in 2014? Because the same situation going on today — that stuff Maddow and the rest of the Left have only just now woken up to — was going on back in July 2014! And it was arguably worse back then.

I practically begged and pleaded for people to wake up to what was going on. We had to shed light on how our immigration system was being manipulated by people breaking our laws, and they were using kids as pawns to get it done. But unlike the gusto the Left is using now to report this story, let's take a look at what Rachel Maddow thought was more important back in 2014.

On July 1, 2014, Maddow opened her show with a riveting monologue on how President Obama was hosting a World Cup viewing party. That's hard-hitting stuff right there.

On July 2, 2014, Maddow actually acknowledged kids were at the border, but she referenced Health and Human Services only briefly and completely rushed through what was actually happening to these kids. She made a vague statement about a "policy" stating where kids were being taken after their arrival. She also blamed Congress for not acting.

See any difference in reporting there from today? That "policy" she referenced has suddenly become Trump's "new" policy, and it isn't Congress's fault… it's all on the President.

She goes on throughout the week.

On July 7, 2014, her top story was something on the Koch brothers. Immigration was only briefly mentioned at the end of the show. This trend continued all the way through the week. I went to the border on July 19. Did she cover it? Nope. In fact, she didn't mention kids at the border for the rest of the month. NOT AT ALL.

Do you care about immigrant kids who have been caught in the middle of a broken immigration system or not?

Make up your minds. Is this an important issue or not? Do you care about immigrant kids who have been caught in the middle of a broken immigration system or not? Do you even care to fix it, or is this what it looks like — just another phony, addicted-to-outrage political stunt?

UPDATE: Here's how this discussion went on radio. Watch the video below.

Glenn gives Rachel Maddow the benefit of the doubt

Rachel Maddow broke down in tears live on her MSNBC show over border crisis.

Obama's tribute center in Chicago will cost taxpayers $200 million

Scott Olson/Getty Images

Progressives think the Obamas are a gift to the world. But their gift is apparently more of the metaphorical kind. It doesn't extend to helpful, tangible things like saving taxpayers money. Illinois has approved $224 million to pay for street and transportation upgrades around the planned site of the Obama Presidential Center. The catch is that Illinois taxpayers will have to cover $200 million of that cost. For a presidential museum.

Eight years of multiplying the national debt wasn't enough for Barack Obama. Old fleecing habits die hard. What's another $200 million here and there, especially for something as important as an Obama tribute center?

That's all well and good except Illinois can't even fund its pension system. The state has a $137 billion funding shortfall. That means every person in Illinois owes $11,000 for pensions, and there is no plan to fix the mess. Unless Illinois progressives have discovered a new kind of math, this doesn't really add up. You can't fund pensions, but you're going to figure out a way to milk the public for another $200 million to help cover the cost of a library?

It's hard to imagine who in their right mind would think this will be money well spent. Well, except for maybe Chicago Mayor and former Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel who said, "The state's… investment in infrastructure improvements near the Obama Center on the South Side of Chicago is money well spent."

Some presidential overreach lasts longer than others.

The spending has already been signed into law, even though the Obama library has not received construction approval yet. Part of the holdup is that the proposed site is on public land in historic Jackson Park. That doesn't seem very progressive of the Obamas, but, you know, for certain presidents, you go above and beyond. It's just what you do. Some presidential overreach lasts longer than others.

Here's the thing about taxing the peasants so the king can build a fancy monument to himself – it's wrong. And completely unnecessary. The Obamas have the richest friends on the planet who could fund this project in their sleep. If the world simply must have a tricked-out Obama museum, then let private citizens take out their wallets voluntarily.

As the Mercury Museum proved this weekend, it is possible to build an exhibit with amazing artifacts that attracts a ton of visitors – and it cost taxpayers approximately zero dollars.

'The fool builds walls': China blasts Trump over tariffs

NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images

I can picture it now: Thousands of years ago, Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, standing before hordes of his followers, in the Qin Dynasty, with a bright red bamboo hat on, and chanting, "Build that wall!"

It took a couple centuries to build the thing, but it got built. And it has been carefully maintained over the last 2,000 years, but, today, the Great Wall of China is so massive that astronauts can see it during good weather conditions from the lower part of low Earth orbit. The wall boasts over 3,000 miles of towers and brick embankments, with over 1,200 miles of natural defensive barriers. It's worth mentioning that the Chinese government is also exceptionally good at imposing digital walls, so much so that China ranks worst in the world for internet freedom.

So it's a little strange to hear an editorial run by a major news network in China criticized President Trump for his proposal to build a large wall along the southern border of America.

"Following the path of expanding and opening up is China's best response to the trade dispute between China and the United States, and is also the responsibility that major countries should have to the world," the author wrote. "The wise man builds bridges, the fool builds walls."

Similarly, the Pope told reporters in 2016, "A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian. This is not the gospel."

Don't throw stones at people who want to build walls when you live in place surrounded by walls.

If you've been to the Vatican, you know that it is surrounded by enormous walls. The same goes for all the celebrities who live in heavily walled compounds—a safety measure—but who have also vehemently criticized President Trump's plans to build a wall.

You know the adage: "People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones at other people's glass houses." Perhaps the phrase needs an update: Don't throw stones at people who want to build walls when you live in place surrounded by walls.

Pope Francis compares abortion for birth defects to Nazi eugenics

TIZIANA FABI/AFP/Getty Images

An immaculate Nazi doctor hovers over newborn. He probes and sneers at it. "Take it away," he says. This is the very real process that Nazi doctors undertook during the era of Nazi Germany: Nazi eugenics, the studious, sterile search to find children who would define a pure breed for the German lineage. The Übermensch.

During a speech to a delegation of Italy's Family Association in Rome on Saturday, Pope Francis referred to this cruel Nazi practice, which he used as a comparison to the increasingly popular process throughout Europe of "ending" birth defects, by offering abortions to women who have babies with chromosomal defects.

Here are two passages from the Pope's remarks:

I have heard that it's fashionable, or at least usual, that when in the first months of pregnancy they do studies to see if the child is healthy or has something, the first offer is: let's send it away.

And:

I say this with pain. In the last century the whole world was scandalized about what the Nazis did to purify the race. Today we do the same, but now with white gloves.

When CNN got the quote, and it shocked them so much that they had to verify the quote with the Vatican—in other words, it didn't fit the usual narrative.

It didn't fit the usual narrative.

The Pope also addressed claims that he has dedicated himself to LGBTQ causes:

Today, it is hard to say this, we speak of "diversified" families: different types of families. It is true that the word "family" is an analogical word, because we speak of the "family" of stars, family" of trees, "family" of animals ... it is an analogical word. But the human family in the image of God, man and woman, is the only one. It is the only one. A man and woman can be non-believers: but if they love each other and unite in marriage, they are in the image of God even if they don't believe.

The media have largely seen Pope Francis as the cool Pope, as the Obama of Catholicism. It'll be interesting to see how abruptly and severely that perspective changes.

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