The next great American leader? Glenn interviews him on radio today...

June 28, 2013

Writer

Glenn interviewed pastor and former NFL player Ken Hutcherson on radio today, a man Glenn feels will be (and already is) one of the great American leaders. He understands the time in which we live and speaks with authority, profound logic and reason.

Full transcript of interview below:

Ken, welcome to the program. How are you, sir?

PASTOR HUTCHERSON: Good morning, guys. You-guys work awful early.

GLENN: I know. I'm sorry. Well, you're in Seattle. You get up at, like, what? Noon? Ken, I wrote you last night and I said, I've been saying this stuff for a long time and they've never attacked me before. I think they're starting to be afraid. I think this is starting to connect and make sense to people, that civil rights are the rights that are outlined in the Bill of Rights and they are violating the First Amendment, the Second Amendment. They're violating the Fifth Amendment, the Fourth Amendment, the Tenth Amendment. They're violating those civil rights.

PASTOR HUTCHERSON: You've got to understand pressure always determines the true character of any person. Good pressure, bad pressure, opposite pressure, but on this earth, Glenn, everyone better understand one thing: You won't feel pressure like you're going to feel　-- can you imagine any nonbeliever, any atheist, standing in front of Christ, trying to explain why they rejected him? Now, that's pressure, my brother. And as a Christian, I don't have that. I　-- Hey, I walk into a Ku Klux Klan meeting with gasoline unwound. That's just me, because I've got the greatest and the baddest one in the valley on my side. That's Jesus Christ. And Sharpton? Come on, guys. What a joke. He's turned into a joke.

GLENN: You have　-- you were there　-- you hated Martin Luther King while　-- while Al Sharpton says he started the, you know, youth movement for Martin Luther King. When you were 12, you were trying to break the bone of every body of every white concern you could. You were more of a panther person. You changed, but I really, truly believe that you have　-- Pat and I were talking about this the other day. We are not in the civil rights movement that you went through. I mean, I hope to God no man of any color or any religion or nonreligion ever in this country has to go through what African-Americans went through and, really, in some places, are still going　-- going through.

PASTOR HUTCHERSON: Yep, uh-huh.

GLENN: But this is　-- this is the same path and the time so to stop it is before it gets to the dogs. Am I not right on that?

PASTOR HUTCHERSON: The main problem that we have is there's a lot of people, Glenn, in our society that is being discriminated against. Now, they don't mind throwing other groups in called the civil rights movement and the lawyers and the land group that they are fighting for is homosexuals and I don't like to call them gay because they have taken that word. Gay means you're happy, you're frolicking around, enjoying life, and they have stole that word and we need to take it back because when you allow those that are in opposition of you to take and determine what definitions are, then you will lose. We can't let Al Sharpton and others take the definition of what civil rights is. Civil rights is　--

GLENN: So what is the civil rights movement?

PASTOR HUTCHERSON: 　-- you should the Constitution.

GLENN: Say it again. What is the civil rights movement? What is it really?

PASTOR HUTCHERSON: The civil rights movement is understanding your freedom under the Constitution of these United States and if anyone tries to take those freedoms from you, you better rise up and fight and that's what we're doing together.

GLENN: You said to me on the plane, I've struggled too long as a black man to be an equal member of this society. Do you remember?

PASTOR HUTCHERSON: Oh, exactly. I said, Glenn, I fought for years and years and years as a black man to become equal. We're still fighting, but we won that fight, even in the courts, years ago, and I have felt that freedom and I'm going to use that freedom. I did not become a Christian, Glenn, to fight that same fight again as they look at me as a second class citizen.

GLENN: So help Al Sharpton out here, Glenn, on　-- I mean, he doesn't　-- because his religion, whatever his religion is, I believe it's a religion of collectivism in the state. I don't know how he　-- I don't know how he says he believes in the salvation of Jesus Christ but then talks about collective salvation. I don't understand that, but explain to him, just on the religious front, how this is a civil rights movement.

PASTOR HUTCHERSON: I think he has to understand that he has to open his eyes and open his heart because, for example, let me give you a good example. The President of the United States, if you remove his blackness, then just ask the question, is he a good President or is he a bad President for the United States? Just remove the blackness and make that decision. When it comes to Al Sharpton, Glenn, you've got to understand something. If you remove Al Sharpton's blackness, he disappears. He's transparent. There's nothing there because he bases his whole life on his blackness. Me, I'm a black man; but my blackness has submission to my Christianity. I am an American, proud to be an American, proud to be a black American. I'm not African-American. I've never been to Africa. I'm an American that is black and my　-- and I'm proud to be a black that submits to my Christianity. I am proud to be just a man. I mean a man's man, not a metro sexual, not one that gets his nails done. I mean a man that used to get out there and knock heads and get his fingernails dirty. I'm proud of being a man, but my manhood submits to my Christianity, but I don't see that in Al Sharpton. Any time anything happens that attacks his blackness, he fears it and　-- because he has nothing else to stand on. Thus, when the real civil rights movement of everyone steps up, when we're saying the Tea Party, don't take being discriminated against. If a black person was kicked out of a hotel for being black down in Florida, it would be an uproar, but since the Tea Party was kicked out because of their political views, that's going against America. That's why we're here going against the Constitution, with certain unalienable rights. That is the true fight we must start and we must fight today like never before.

GLENN: Here's the thing, Ken: Most of　-- most Americans have not been discriminated against. We have been　--

PASTOR HUTCHERSON: Oh, woe, woe.

GLENN: No, no. I'm saying growing up　--

PASTOR HUTCHERSON: 　-- that's why we don't fight.

GLENN: Well, I know growing up, I grew up in Mount Vernon. You live in Seattle now. You know Mount Vernon. And Mount Vernon back in the Sixties and Seventies, I don't think I was discriminated against at all

PASTOR HUTCHERSON: Not compared to what I went through.

GLENN: Exactly right.

PASTOR HUTCHERSON: But are we going to go with the greed or are we going to go with right and wrong?

GLENN: Where was I discriminated against as a　-- I mean, I don't want to be a victim. Let me just say -- let me just start there. I don't want to be a victim. I don't want　-- what did you say?

PASTOR HUTCHERSON: I said, please don't go there with me.

GLENN: Right. So when you're talking about, you know, the Sixties and Seventies, I guess if you go back and look at it -- and I just asked you to show me where I was a victim.

PASTOR HUTCHERSON: There you go.

GLENN: I don't care what happened in my past. I care what's happening right now.

PASTOR HUTCHERSON: Absolutely. And you better stand like we're going to and get ready for the shots. Get ready to be disliked. You know, the greatest　-- do you know what the greatest blessing in the world is, Glenn?

GLENN: The greatest blessing in the world, let me see if I can answer this, at least for me. The greatest blessing　--

PASTOR HUTCHERSON: Outside of Jesus Christ being your savior, do you know what the greatest blessing in the world is?

GLENN: Yeah. The greatest blessing in the world is for me to have him as my constant companion.

PASTOR HUTCHERSON: The greatest blessing outside of Jesus Christ, my brother, is to have　--

GLENN: Oh. Outside of　--

PASTOR HUTCHERSON: -- is to have people dislike you.

GLENN: Oh, okay. Yeah. I'm glad to say I think we have all of the right people hate us. I mean, I　-- you know, when George Soros threatened us and when the administration doesn't like us, when the GOP doesn't like us, I wear that as a badge of honor. I really do.

PASTOR HUTCHERSON: Please, Hey, can you get two badges? Let's wear them together.

GLENN: Ken, thank you. I appreciate it, man. Thank you so much and --

PASTOR HUTCHERSON: My pleasure, my brother. Let's go get them.

GLENN: You got it. Thank you. Pastor Ken Hutcherson, he is, I warn you, a lightning rod, a lightning rod, but he has Stage 4 cancer and is not afraid, is not afraid, and I　-- and I　-- you have to experience him. He's actually coming down to Salt Lake City next week and he's going to be speaking at a couple of places and one of those we added a couple of days ago and I don't even know if there is any tickets left. What is the name of that event for Hutcherson and David Barton in the speaker series? Do you know what the name of that particular one is? Go to mercuryone.org -- somebody do that for me. Would you do that for me real quick, Alex? Go to mercuryone.org and look in the speaker series and most of these are sold out, but you can still get tickets. They are　-- by the way, I think they're, like, $15 a seat but all of the money goes to Mercury One and that pays for the infrastructure of Mercury One. We do this event every year so we can pay for the administration of it and we give you something in exchange. So I'm not asking you for on a donation. We pay for the administration, so then all of the rest of the years　-- the year when there's a tragedy or there's something, I can say to you 100% of that goes to pay for　-- goes to this particular cause and we don't take any money. So that's why we're charging for the speaker series, but I want to give you something in return. But there's one in the speaker series that we just added a couple of days ago. I don't know if there's tickets left, but it is with David Barton, Rabbi Lapin, myself, and Ken Hutcherson and I said I think there's only about 2000 tickets to that and I said to somebody the other day, I said, I think this is the one　-- there are 2000 people, 20000 people coming to the Man in the Moon. I think this is the one that those　-- the people are going to　-- this and Pat's education seminar that people are going to say holy cow, holy cow, they're coming, they're coming and I want to be a part of that because we are　-- we're going to take the bull by the horns and I beg you, be prepared. Prepare any way that you　-- you would do that in your faith, but get the bad things out of your life, clean up your life, make amends for those things, ask forgiveness for those things. If you're an alcoholic, do the 12 steps. Do it all over again. Do it in the next couple of months. Get it all out of your life. If you're a Christian, renew your baptismal covenants. Understand the atonement. Get it out of your life, clean it up so you have nothing to fear, because if you are hiding from yourself, you're never going to be able to stand what's coming and we'll give you more on that. And you can get the tickets at mercuryone.org.

Twitter mob goes ballistic over Father's Day photo of Caitlyn Jenner. Who cares?

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

Here's a question unique to our times: "Should I tell my father 'Happy Father's Day,' even though he (she?) is now one of my mothers?"

Father's Day was four days ago, yes, but this story is just weird enough to report on. One enjoyable line to read was this gem from Hollywood Gossip: "Cait is a woman and a transgender icon, but she is also and will always be the father of her six children."

Imagine reading that to someone ten — even five — years ago. And, honestly, there's something nice about it. But the strangeness of its having ever been written overpowers any emotional impact it might bring.

"So lucky to have you," wrote Kylie Jenner, in the Instagram caption under pre-transition pictures of Bruce Jenner.

Look. I risk sounding like a tabloid by mere dint of having even mentioned this story, but the important element is the cultural sway that's occurring. The original story was that a band of disgruntled Twitter users got outraged about the supposed "transphobic" remarks by Jenner's daughter.

But, what we should be saying is, "who the hell cares?" Who cares what one Jenner says to another — and more importantly and on a far deeper level — who cares what some anonymous Twitter user has to say?

When are we going to stop playing into the hands of the Twitter mob?

When are we going to stop playing into the hands of the Twitter mob? Because, at the moment, they've got it pretty good. They have a nifty relationship with the mainstream media: One or two Twitter users get outraged by any given thing — in this case Jenner and supposed transphobia. In return, the mainstream media use the Twitter comment as a source.

Then, a larger Twitter audience points to the article itself as proof that there's some kind of systemic justice at play. It's a closed-market currency, where the negative feedback loop of proof and evidence is composed of faulty accusations. Isn't it a hell of a time to be alive?

These 5 governors are refusing to send national guard troops to the border

CAITLIN O'HARA/AFP/Getty Images

These days, when Americans decide to be outraged about something, we really go all out.

This week's outrage is, of course, the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy toward illegal immigration along the southern border. Specifically, people are upset over the part of the policy that separates children from their parents when the parents get arrested.

Lost in all the outrage is that the President is being proactive about border security and is simply enforcing the law. Yes, we need to figure out a less clumsy, more compassionate way of enforcing the law, but children are not being flung into dungeons and fed maggots as the media would have you believe.

But having calm, reasonable debates about these things isn't the way it's done anymore. You have to make strong, sweeping announcements so the world knows how righteous your indignation is.

That's why yesterday, the governors of Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island and Connecticut declared they are withholding or recalling their National Guard troops from the U.S.-Mexico border until this policy of separating children from their parents is rescinded.

Adding to the media stunt nature of this entire "crisis," it turns out this defiant announcement from these five governors is mostly symbolic. Because two months ago, when President Trump called for 4,000 additional National Guard troops to help patrol the border, large numbers of troops were not requested from those five states. In fact, no troops were requested at all from Rhode Island. But that didn't stop Rhode Island's Democratic governor, Gina Raimondo, from announcing she would refuse to send troops if she were asked. She called the family separation policy, "immoral, unjust and un-American."

There's so much outrage, we're running short on adjectives.

The governors of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York all used the word "inhumane" in their statements condemning the Trump administration policy. There's so much outrage, we're running short on adjectives.

In a totally unrelated coincidence, four of these five governors are running for re-election this year.

I've made my position clear — separating these children from their parents is a bad policy and we need to stop. We need to treat these immigrants with the kind of compassion we'd want for our own children. And I said the same thing in 2014 when no one cared about the border crisis.

If consistency could replace even just a sliver of the outrage in America, we would all be a lot better off.

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

Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images

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.

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