The Context
Back live on the air following Presidents Day, Pat and Stu filled in for Glenn on The Glenn Beck Program. Top on their minds was the most recent GOP debate in South Carolina, particularly Donald Trump's performance, which took political discourse to an all-time low.
"The guy is despicable," Pat said. "And has he proven it any more than he did on Saturday night? I mean, just despicable."
Stu agreed.
"The single worst debate performance of any candidate I've ever seen," he said.
The Boos Have It
Trump was booed nine times for his behavior which bordered on angry and psychotic. Rather than focus on issues and solutions, Trump took to name calling and attacking his fellow presidential hopefuls. The audience responded accordingly, especially when the real estate mogul attacked Jeb Bush on foreign policy, blaming his brother, President George W. Bush, for the terror attacks on 9/11 that brought down the World Trade Center buildings.
"Has that ever happened? Has there ever been a debate in the history of politics in which one of the candidates was booed six, seven, eight, nine, times?" Stu asked.
Trump --- seemingly without evidence --- blamed the booing on lobbyists and donors supporting Bush.
Double Standard
During the previous presidential debate, Marco Rubio suffered a loss in polls and votes in New Hampshire after what the media labeled a bad debate performance. He was blasted for repeating talking points multiple times in an exchange with Chris Christie, who has now dropped out of the race.
"It's the end of his life. The man might as well just move out of the country because he's such a disgrace to this nation," Stu joked about Rubio.
Yet Trump's despicable debate performance in South Carolina hasn't seemed to hurt him in the polls or with his supporters. Likewise, the media has given him a platform to complain about the Republican Party and threaten a third party run --- which he promised not to do.
Common Sense Bottom Line
Donald Trump is not fit for the presidency. He is not the man of character and honor we need at this hour. He is not a true conservative, and has changed his opinions to suit the political climate. Learn the truth about Donald Trump's character --- in his own words and actions --- in our Donald Trump series. The choice for president has never been more critical.
Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors:
PAT: Glenn is off today. So Stu and I are filling in. Pat and Stu and Jeffy is here too. A lot, of course, happened over the weekend. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died. And we have to get to the G.O.P. debate from Saturday. We do that, right now.
(music)
PAT: Welcome to the GlennBeck.com Glenn Beck Program with Pat and Stu and Jeffy too. So, yeah, Antonin Scalia died over the weekend. That was tragic, of course, for his family. It's horrific for the country. I mean, we'll get into that coming up. Also, we'll have the debates -- we should stop doing the debates on Saturday night. I hate the Saturday night debate. Can we do it during the week? I don't want to watch a debate on Saturday night. First of all, I don't care about the debate on the weekend, okay.
JEFFY: You don't care about it on the weekday.
PAT: I care about it on a weekday, okay? Don't bother me about your dumb debate on a start Saturday night. I have other stuff going on. Okay? I got other stuff.
STU: Is it connected to the Democratic proposal to like make sure nobody watches it?
PAT: I guess that's what it is.
STU: I mean, they got really big ratings. 13.8 million or something watched it, which is five million more than the last Democratic debate. 5 million more. Pretty impressive.
PAT: Pretty good. The Democrats, I don't know where they get off thinking they have this thing in the bag or they can pummel the G.O.P. like they are because all indications are otherwise. All indications are that they're in trouble.
STU: I think a big part of that is the current frontrunner of the Republican Party.
JEFFY: Yes.
PAT: That could be.
STU: They're like, "Oh, we're running against that guy."
PAT: We got this in the bag.
STU: Oh, okay. We should be good. Let's run the socialist. Let's see how that works out this time.
PAT: And it might work out for them okay if they do, if Trump gets the nomination. The guy is despicable. And has he proven it any more than he did on Saturday night? I mean, just despicable. Was that not angry, mean --
STU: The single worst debate performance of any candidate I've ever seen.
PAT: I thought it was.
STU: Think about it from the perspective of -- Marco Rubio came out, and he apparently repeated a line from his stump speech a couple times in a debate, and it's the end of his campaign. It's the end of his life. The man might as well just move out of the country because he's such a disgrace to this nation.
PAT: Yeah, go back to Cuba.
STU: Donald Trump was booed more than over a half dozen times, where his own party was supposedly the one holding it.
PAT: Over and over again.
STU: Which I say supposedly, because I don't see how there's any evidence other than the fact that he apparently registered as a Republican, there's any other evidence that he actually is a Republican.
Has that ever happened? Has there ever been a debate in the history of politics in which one of the candidates was booed six, seven, eight, nine, times? Those are your lobbyists.
PAT: I don't think so. And that's his thing. That's his thing.
Those are Jeb's donors. Those are Jeb's donors. I don't have any donors. I just have my wife and my son here. I'm just a little guy. I don't have a bunch of big donors. I'm self-funded.
STU: Yeah, which is weird because then someone should go to his campaign team and figure out where the embezzled funds are going that are coming from the giant donate button on his website. They should really track that one down. Because someone is funneling millions of dollars to some vacation resort, some, I don't know, Bugatti. Someone is buying something awesome with the money coming in. Because for some reason they continue to have a donate button even though they claim they're self-funding.
PAT: Yeah, he's despicable. Here's what he said. They started out the debate in a very somber way, talking about Antonin Scalia.
DONALD: Well, I can say this. If the president -- and if I were president now, I would certainly want to try and nominate a justice, and I'm sure that -- frankly, I'm absolutely sure that President Obama will try and do it. I hope that our Senate is going to be able to -- Mitch and the entire group is going to be able to do something about it in times --
PAT: Mitch and the entire group. It's Mitch and the Entire Group performing today. One show only! Mitch and the Entire Group!
STU: That's really bad.
PAT: The guy doesn't know Mitch McConnell's last name is. He doesn't know what the US Senate is called. He can't think on his feet.
DONALD: We could have a Diane Sykes, or you could have a Bill HEP Pryor. We have some fantastic people. But this is a tremendous blow to conservatism. It's a tremendous blow frankly to our country.
PAT: Conservatism.
VOICE: So just to be clear on this, Mr. Trump, you're okay with --
STU: Stop for one second. I love that he's naming a couple of justices there. Obviously he knows that last time he tried to improv that answer, he named his sister, which he now claims was a joke, which it was not a joke at all.
PAT: No.
STU: He claimed his sister who was a hard-core abortion activist in the courts.
PAT: Big-time leftist.
STU: Big-time leftist. Overturned the partial-birth abortion ban. To remind you, partial-birth abortion is opposed by about 90 percent of the American people. They overturned that. He initially names her as a good Supreme Court justice. Now he comes back with a couple of names. I really wish -- you know, Cruz did okay in the debate, I thought. He wasn't unbelievable, but did pretty well. I would have loved to have seen Cruz push back on those names because you know he knows who those people are.
Really, Don, so what exactly makes you think Diane Sykes would be a great choice? Can you name any one of the -- how about this, give me one way she ruled once? How about that?
PAT: It's so easy to take this guy apart, and nobody will. Except Jeb. I mean, Jeb is the only one with the giblets to do something about him.
JEFFY: He's trying. Yes, he is.
PAT: And I think it's because he's so far behind, he's got nothing to lose. With Cruz, it's just too risky right now. And so I think he's trying to walk that fine line of not pushing too hard because you don't want the blowback coming from that blowhard. So it's a tough line to walk. But he had more to say --
JEFFY: It's already coming.
PAT: I know. I know.
VOICE: -- nominating somebody.
DONALD: I think he's going to do it whether I'm okay with it or not. I think it's up to Mitch McConnell and everybody else to stop it. It's called delay, delay, delay.
PAT: Oh, he did -- it's called we have a country, okay?
STU: It's called we have a country.
Featured Image: Republican presidential candidates (L-R) Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Donald Trump and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) participate in a CBS News GOP Debate February 13, 2016 at the Peace Center in Greenville, South Carolina. Residents of South Carolina will vote for the Republican candidate at the primary on February 20. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)