Republican Presidential hopeful and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal spent a full hour with Glenn on radio Tuesday, discussing many topics to help listeners get to know him a little more.
As a Catholic who has made strong statements in the past about the preservation of religious freedom, Jindal dedicated a good portion of his interview with Glenn to the topic of religious oppression, particularly toward Christians in recent years.
Listen.
Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors.
GLENN: Bobby Jindal joins us now. And I want to start with some faith things. Let me play a clip from the debates last week where Bobby Jindal listed the jobs that Christians can't have. Listen to this.
BOBBY: I'd like the left to give us a list of jobs that Christians aren't allowed to have. If we're not allowed to be clerks, bakers, musicians, caterers, are we allowed to be pastors anymore? We're not allowed to be elected officials. I just want to make this important point. The First Amendment right -- the right to religious freedom is the First Amendment of the Constitution. It isn't breaking the law to exercise our constitutional rights. America did not create religious liberty. Religious liberty created the United States of America. It is the reason we're here today.
GLENN: So a lot of people believe that. A lot of people -- I mean, religion is under attack. And that's saying something now that the pope has arrived here in the United States, and Bobby Jindal, who is a Catholic joins us now. Hi, Bobby, how are you?
BOBBY: Glenn, it's great to be on the air with you. I'm glad that we're still allowed to be radio hosts, and we're still allowed to run for president in our country. I'm glad that they haven't disqualified us from doing that.
GLENN: You just add one word to that: Yet. And I'm comfortable with it.
BOBBY: Don't give them any ideas.
GLENN: Bobby, you're a dear friend. And we don't want to say too much nice about you because we've discovered that anytime we like a candidate, it's the kiss of death. So, just for the record, we hate your guts and we hope you never become president of the United States. Hopefully, that will work in reverse psychology, and you will become the president.
Bobby, you are really, truly one of the real, true conservatives that are getting the job done. In Louisiana, you have stood fast on Common Core. You are -- you're a guy who has a tremendous story of American exceptionalism, but you see the trouble just as much as I do and the next guy. Let's start with religious liberty. And the pope is coming to the United States. And as a non-Catholic, I love this guy. At the same time, I'm really concerned because he doesn't like capitalism all that much. He is a guy --
BOBBY: Sure.
GLENN: He is the guy that is the polar opposite on Pope John Paul and his stance on capitalism and communism. What do you think about this, as a Catholic?
BOBBY: Well, a couple of things. First of all, thank you for those wonderful comments. Look, I'd much rather be praised from Glenn Beck than praised from the New York Times or the Washington Post. I worry -- I love when you say good things about me. I worry if they -- they don't, but if they ever were to write something good about me, then I would be worried.
GLENN: No, don't lose any sleep. They'll never write anything nice about you.
BOBBY: That's right. There's no danger of that happening.
GLENN: Yeah.
BOBBY: Two things about the pope. And, one, you know, the liberal media loves when he does say things that they view as being less than conservative, whether it's about capitalism or global warming or immigration. And they ignore when he says more traditional things on marriage, on being pro-life, and on the sanctity of life, and on religious liberty. And I'd be curious to see how the mainstream media, whether they'll mention those things that he talks about.
But, secondly, I will say this as a Catholic, I respect him. I admire him. I encourage every religious leader to weigh in on important political and social issues. I don't think their voices should be excluded. I don't always agree with them. And the reality is I'm not always required to agree with them. And certainly when the church teaches on faith and morals, like things about being pro-life or the sanctity of marriage, between a man and a woman -- those things, we are required, you know, as Christians, as Catholics, to hold to those truths. When he gives his opinion on capitalism, when he gives his opinion on the relationship between --
GLENN: Air-conditioning.
BOBBY: -- America and Cuba, I'm not obligated -- I don't agree with that. And I don't think that -- for example, he played a critical role in the negotiations between the Castros and this president. I think that was a mistake for America, and I think that was a mistake for people who are fighting for human rights in Cuba. So, look, I'm glad he's coming. I'm glad he's going to challenge folks. I really hope his folks hear him challenging us on matters of faith, especially on Jesus Christ, on the gospel. I just hope people really hear his gospel message. But you're exactly right, the mainstream media loves to take his visit and turn it into an excuse to try to get Republicans and conservatives.
GLENN: And, quite honestly, Bobby, this is why I'm a little torn on him. I'm not a little torn. I'm very torn on him. Because I really, truly believe he's one of the more -- I mean, I love Pope John Paul himself. But one of the more truly Christ-like figures we have seen in my lifetime. He really does move like Christ when it comes to compassion and to care for one another. Just truly love one another. He's remarkable. But when he comes out and says things like global warming -- I know he just came out recently and said that air-conditioning is an evil. I don't even begin to understand that. And then we know that next week -- and let's kind of move from the pope to kind of the UN. Next week, he's talking about a Palestinian state. They're going to raise the Palestinian flag at the United Nations. We're abandoning our Jewish and Israeli allies, the strongest friend we have in the Middle East. And the only ones in the Middle East we should really be standing with, besides maybe the Kurds. And we're abandoning them. Where do we go from here?
BOBBY: Look, you're right when you describe the Jewish people, you describe the state of Israel. You think about how this president has treated them. As to the question of a Palestinian state, I think it's clear that we will only begin to start to talk about a two-state solution and encourage Israel and the Palestinians to negotiate once the Palestinians reject violence and terrorism and explicitly recognize the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state.
Until they do that, how can any American president encourage them -- how can we encourage our allies, the Israelis, to negotiate with a group that says explicitly -- look, Hamas, they're not timid about this, Glenn. They have explicitly said, I want to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. How do you negotiate with people that will blow up -- that will send out suicide bombers to blow up your civilians? You can't negotiate with terrorists. So I think it has to be a requirement before we push for any negotiations. But, you know, our foreign policy is so backwards. You take important allies like Israel, President Obama treats our friends like dirt. And he let's our enemy, like Iran, walk all over him. He's completely backwards. We need to get back to the days where our friends trust us, our enemies fear and respect us. You talk about Pope John Paul II. You just think about how amazing it was to have him, to have Maggie, to have President Ronald Reagan. You and I were blessed. Growing up with those kinds of world leaders, what an amazing -- maybe we took them for granted, not realizing how exceptional they were.
GLENN: Do we -- I -- I wonder as you look at Europe and you see what's happening in Europe and you see how far gone they are. And now with the refugee problem. I mean, the Saudis need to take the refugees. The Muslim countries of the world need to take the refugees until this war is over. But we have a -- we have a responsibility -- the world said, "Never again is right now." It's happening again. There's a genocide with Christians. And I have -- I've seen many Christians open their hearts. Many Americans open their hearts. But a lot of people, rightfully so, Bobby, are seeing what's happening in Europe and are thinking, it's over in Europe. And it could very easily be over here in America. We'll have a piece of audio that we'll play later from a school board meeting in New Jersey where the Muslims are demanding that in ten days, the school dismiss for the -- for the ten days of, what is it, Eid?
PAT: Eid.
GLENN: Eid for ten days. And they do it right now. And the school is like, "We can't do that." And they're getting upset and saying, "You know, soon we'll outnumber you, and we're just going to do it." What's happening to us, Bobby? Can we go back to a place where America was what we thought it was?
BOBBY: Well, Glenn, I'm going to say something politically incorrect. I know you'd be shocked, and I know you've never said anything politically incorrect on your show. But I want to say something politically incorrect, and I know it's incorrect because Hillary Clinton doesn't like it. So I'm going to say it again anyway.
Look, immigration without assimilation is not immigration. It's an invasion. What you're seeing in Europe, second, third generation folks there that don't consider themselves parts of those societies, we must not let that happen here. I don't think America can be beat by any external enemy, but I think we can lose our freedoms internally if we give them away. It is foolish. I know this is politically incorrect, but it is foolish for us to let people come into our country unless they come legally, they learn English, they adopt our values, they're ready to roll up their sleeves and get to work. And unfortunately, the left is trying to preach to us. We're not a melting pot. We're somehow supposed to be a salad bowl. That's nonsense. And they will tell you that you and I are culturally arrogant. We're xenophobic. We're anti-Muslim. That's all nonsense.
What we are is saying that America is a unique -- we have a unique Judeo-Christian foundation and heritage. And there's nothing wrong with saying we want to continue American exceptionalism and folks should only come here if they want to be Americans. And if you don't want to be an American, no one is making you come here. But you're right, we watch what's happening in Europe. We must not let that happen here. The other thing, while we're talking about the refugee issue, let's not forget the reason this is happening is because the president's failed policies. He said there would be a red line, and he did not enforce it. He said if Assad crossed that red line, there would be consequences. That void allowed ISIS to grow. It's allowing Russia now to come into Syria. And he still refuses to arm and train the Kurds, which is amazing to me. He continues to believe that leading from behind is leadership. Weakness creates a void. It's provocative to evil. And that's what we're seeing in the world today. American weakness is provocative to evil and our enemies all over the globe.
GLENN: So, Bobby, I'm not going to play the game that the media wants to play on whether the president is a Muslim or not. I just want you to tell me what -- how can a guy have this bad of a record. He runs to support the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. He fails to support at all the uprising in Iran. He runs to arm the -- the al-Qaeda people -- the people who are fighting al-Qaeda who end up being Syrians. I'm sorry. Who end up being ISIS. Now we're running to arm ISIS. It takes him a year to decide whether or not we're going to kill Osama bin Laden.
Here's the latest on the story in the school in Irving, Texas, that kid who did the, quote, science project, which wasn't a science project, wasn't an assignment at all. Was told by the science teacher, "Put this away in your locker. Don't take it out, and don't ever bring this to school again." The latest is, his father, who we now know is an Islamic activist, has pulled him and his two siblings out of the school. Then he's taking his son to the UN to meet with the dignitaries on the Palestinian state. From there, they're going on a pilgrimage to Mecca to Saudi Arabia. And then they're getting on a plane from Mecca and flying right directly to Washington to meet with the president of the United States.
BOBBY: You know, Glenn, you asked about this president. And look, I've long wondered, is he just extremely incompetent with radical liberal ideology. He's told us, he's the first president that doesn't believe in American exceptionalism. Now, take a step back and understand what that really means. He does not believe in American exceptionalism. You and I believe America is the greatest country in the history of the world. We have a president who when asked directly about that, didn't just quickly and affirmatively say, "Yes, obviously."
Instead, we have a president who truly believes that -- America -- I think if you look at his policies, he truly seems to believe that America causes all these problems. If we retreat from the world, if we have less influence, less power, things will turn out better. Well, in that void, we've seen Russia go into the Ukraine. We've seen ISIS grow in Iraq and Syria. We've seen China ascend in Asia. And we've seen our allies. They're so confused thinking -- you know, they want America to lead. And they want a stronger America. And they can't have that, they will hedge their bets and go elsewhere.
We see the idea of America slipping away in front of us. Glenn, the last seven years, we've seen things I never thought we'd see. We've talked about foreign policy. You're seeing Planned Parenthood selling baby's organs across the country. We've seen $18 trillion of debt. We've seen them create a new government mandate and entitlement when we can't afford the government we got. We've seen this president, he won't even say the words "radical Islamic terrorism." Fort Hood is still a workplace issue. We've seen this president more than happy to criticize crusaders and medieval Christians and criticize and apologize for America, and yet, he won't -- we won't go out there and stand with Israel. He's declared war on transfats, truce with Iran. We've seen things we never thought we'd see in seven years. It's not too late. The hour is getting late. We had better save the idea of America --
GLENN: Okay. So --
BOBBY: -- because it has created more wealth than any other civilization in the history of the world. It's done more to fight for freedom than any other civilization in the history of the world.
GLENN: Okay. So I want to talk to you -- we want to take a quick break. I want to come back and talk to you about something that I think is more disturbing than everything you just talked about. And that is, either the apathetic nature of the average American, where baby parts don't seem to offend them anymore. Or on top of that, if it's not the apathetic nature, it is the nature of maybe 10 percent of the people who say they would agree with me and Tea Party values that are running to people like Donald Trump because they say, "Well, he'll fix it. I'm tired of it. I want somebody who is a little bully on our side who will fix it." Kind of frightening stuff. We'll talk about that here in just a second and find out what your view is on what's happening to the American people themselves.
Featured Image: Republican Presidential hopeful and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal speaks at the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition 15th Annual Family Banquet and Presidential Forum held at the Iowa State fairgrounds on September 19, 2015 in Des Moines, Iowa. Eight of the Republican candidates including Donald Trump are expected to attend the event. (Photo by Steve Pope/Getty Images)
