GLENNMarch 13, 2017

Mike Lee on Repealing Obamacare and His Wild Curiosity About Wiretapping

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) joined The Glenn Beck Program on Monday to talk about why the GOP won't resurrect the Obamacare repeal bill passed in 2015, his wild curiosity about evidence the administration might have about wiretapping, and why Republicans are suddenly in love with infrastructure spending.

Enjoy the complimentary clip above or read the transcript below for details.

GLENN: Senator Mike Lee who is at an airport getting ready to board a plane. We're glad you would take the time to hop on the phone with us. How are you, sir?

MIKE: Doing great. Thanks so much, Glenn.

GLENN: Good. Let's get to Obamacare repeal and replace. This thing is nothing like what the Republicans were promising us they would do. Nowhere even close.

Do we have a chance of getting something good out of this?

MIKE: Sure. Something good can come out of it. What happens, whether something good comes out of it, the extent to which it might be good depends entirely on how members of Congress handle this in the next few days, on how they choose to cast their votes.

Now, look, you're right. What we promised was to repeal Obamacare, as much of Obamacare as we possibly could, and then to start trying to find new ways to put the American people back in charge of their own health care.

Well, what this bill does is it doesn't repeal nearly as much of Obamacare as we could. It leaves all kinds of things intact. It leaves most of the Obamacare regulations in place. Most of -- many of the Obamacare taxes remain in place, at least for a time. It leaves expanded Medicaid intact for a period of time. And then doesn't make as many adjustments to it long-term.

Meanwhile, it comes up with a new refundable tax credit, which we don't know the cost of yet. We don't know how many people are going to take it.

There are a lot of unanswered questions, which begs the question: Why are we not just repealing? Why are we not just passing the same repeal bill that Republicans in the House and in the Senate voted for in December of 2015? That's what I'd like to see.

STU: Mike, is it true that you can't just repeal it unless you have 60 votes? You can't do it through reconciliation with just a full repeal?

MIKE: There is some ambiguity as to how many of the insurance regulations of Obamacare could be repealed through reconciliation. So there's an open question on that. But we do that know we could repeal all the taxes and all of the subsidies and possibly some of the regs through reconciliation. We know that because the reconciliation bill we passed in 2015 repealed all of the taxes and all the subsidies.

GLENN: So why aren't we doing it?

MIKE: That's a very good question. That's what I believed we were going to do. That's what many of us were told -- otherwise led to believe.

GLENN: Why aren't we doing it?

STU: He said it was a good question.

MIKE: There are those in Congress who chose to take a different path. Now, I can't speak for them. I can't speak to what their intentions are. I think the easiest, simplest way of explaining it is, they had other priorities that they wanted to attach to this. Priorities that were perhaps higher than simply achieving repeal, at least to the degree that --

GLENN: Can you give me an example of what might be more important than what you promised the American people?

MIKE: Okay. So here's how I think they would explain it, and I want to be clear, I'm always careful not to try to speak for somebody else. But I think if they were here with us, they would probably say, look, we don't want people to be in a state of too much uncertainty and doubt. We don't want them to be afraid. We want them to have a degree of confidence about what comes next after Obamacare repeal. And so we want to provide a soft landing spot for them. And that is so important. It's important enough to them, apparently, that they're willing to go a little softer on some of the repeal and provide more programs through this bill right now.

The problem with that is, it's -- it's not going to pass. And it probably shouldn't pass until they can answer more of these questions, more of these questions about why we can't repeal more of Obamacare than this bill does.

PAT: And the other problem with that, Mike, is that that's not what they promised us. That's not what they said they were going to do. They didn't say, well, we're going to think about this and provide a safe landing spot for people. It's going to take a really long time. We're going to not repeal -- it was repeal and replace. That's what they ran on. That's what they were elected to do. And now, again, as so often happens with the Republican Party, they're not doing it. Frustrating.

MIKE: Yeah, that's right. By the way, I love the Kermit the Frog imitation that both you and Glenn do.

GLENN: Thank you so much. Thank you. That's what happens when your best friend since 1980 --

PAT: Yeah.

MIKE: Well, he has, in fact, been the spokesman for the AHCA, so it's appropriate that we use his voice when doing this. But, no, you're exactly right, this is what we ran on, this is what we promised. Now, to my great dismay, to my great surprise, on many instances over the last week or so, we've had legislators from the House and the Senate somehow saying that this bill, the AHCA is somehow what we campaigned on, what we ran on. Well, that's news to me. That's news to me because we've had this bill for only a few days.

PAT: Me too.

MIKE: That's news to me if we somehow ran on this specific bill, a bill the score of which we still don't know. We still don't know how much this thing is going to cost. We still don't have any idea how many people will take this refundable tax credit. And, therefore, how much it's going to cost. So that's news to me, that that's somehow what we ran on.

What I remember that we ran on was that we would repeal every scrap of Obamacare that we possibly could, the whole thing, if we could get away with it under our procedural rules in the Senate. And that's what we should be doing.

STU: We're talking to Senator Mike Lee. And every time you're on, Mike, I like to ask you the nerdiest, most boring, uninteresting question to see --

GLENN: So please keep this answer short. Please, for the love of Pete.

STU: So I apologize in advance for this.

But when the Bush tax cuts were passed, they were passed under reconciliation. And because of that, they expired after ten years. Would the same thing happen here? If we repeal all these Obamacare taxes, in ten years, are we going to be talking about the expiration of the Obamacare repeal, and then it's going to be back into effect again?

MIKE: No, not necessarily. In fact, almost certainly not.

GLENN: Good end to that.

MIKE: Because of the fact that we were dealing with taxes in that circumstance, rather than something else. So that wouldn't be it.

STU: I thought it was a tax, which is the only reason it was constitutional. Wasn't that -- tax versus fee. Wasn't that a big conversation with Roberts?

MIKE: I'm sorry. I didn't hear that question. Can you say that again?

GLENN: Good. No, no, let's move on.

STU: Let's move on.

GLENN: So, Senator, let me ask you about the intelligence committee has given the president until this afternoon, they say they can't find any evidence that Barack Obama was spying on Donald Trump. And to present some evidence -- and we'll go pursue that. Any indication that he's going to present that evidence? And is there any reason to believe that he couldn't present the evidence if he had it?

MIKE: Okay. That's a good question. I'll answer the first question, I have no idea. I would love to see what the evidence is. I'm wildly curious about it. As to whether he could present it, that depends on what the "it" is.

I will tell you, my first reaction to this, when I very first learned about the tweet, my first reaction was, he's probably not talking about a traditional wiretap, where somebody actually goes to a judge and the judge orders a phone line to be tapped. Perhaps he's talking about a foreign intelligence surveillance court order issued pursuant to Section 702 of the FISA amendments, which would say, you know, here is an identified agent of a foreign government. Let's monitor this person's communications. And that there might have been some incidental communications with some US citizens, perhaps including people who were involved in one way or another with the campaign. That incidentally got pulled into that. That was my first reaction is that seemed the most plausible possibility. If, in fact, it's that, there might be some reasons why we might be reluctant to share that. Or --

GLENN: No, but he could share it with the intelligence committee, could he not -- or committee?

MIKE: Yes, yes, they've got the clearance to do that. So there's no reason why he couldn't share something like that with them. They've got clearance to see pretty much all of that. But as far as his ability to share that publicly, that would seem less likely if my theory is correct.

GLENN: And there's nothing that the president can't get, right? If he said, I want to show it, but, you know, this agency won't let me, you know, have access to this. There's -- everybody in in the Senate, would be like, okay. We need to see this. Behind closed doors. But you will open these books or whatever it is that he's saying the evidence is -- there's nothing the president couldn't get to, is there?

MIKE: I assume so. Because -- and, look, he's the commander-in-chief. There's nothing that he doesn't have access to. And so if he can -- if he can back this up, if he knows what it is that he's referring to, there's no reason that I'm aware of why he couldn't come up with something that he could produce to these Intel Committees. Now, whether he will choose to do so or not is a different question. Perhaps there are those close to him advising him, hey, you don't have to do this if you don't want to. But that --

GLENN: Why wouldn't you?

MIKE: -- that requires rank speculation.

GLENN: Why wouldn't you?

MIKE: I don't know. If perhaps he didn't want to set a precedent that he could just be required to answer questions every time the Intel Committee wanted to hear something. But I would think in this instance, he would want to, particularly because these questions are going to be raised from time to time.

GLENN: Right. And we're talking about national security. I mean, we're talking about something that he's accused another president of doing. And if that president was doing that, that needs to be stopped.

MIKE: Yes. Yes. Exactly. And that's -- that's -- all the more reason why I suspect he'll provide them with what they want to know because you're right. Look, this is one of the things I've been worried about for years. And I've expressed this concern on your show previously. But if you remember the Church Committee, the Frank Church Committee back in the '70s --

GLENN: Yep.

MIKE: -- conducted a series of hearings to look into abuses by our intelligence-gathering agencies, and what they concluded was startling, which was that in every administration from Ford -- from FDR through Ford and Nixon, who was in power at about the time they concluded their research, that the US government's intelligence gathering apparatus had been used to engage in political espionage. Now, look at what's happened since then. Our technology has improved dramatically. Our technological means of gathering intelligence have grown by leaps and bounds. And our laws haven't always kept up with that.

And so to me, it would be almost surprising if some of this were not occurring. That's why we need to be watchful of this. That's why I was concerned, immediately, when I saw the president's tweet was because I considered it plausible, if not likely that this kind of thing would be going on.

GLENN: One last question, let's go to infrastructure. The G.O.P. went out of their gourd -- and I believe rightly so -- for a stimulus package for roads and bridges and tunnels and everything else for $787 billion. I remember that number. It's burned -- seared into my memory of $787 billion. Now the president is proposing a trillion dollar stimulus package, and the Republicans are very excited about it. Can you tell me what made the 787 billion-dollar stimulus package an affront on the Constitution and this one a dream come true?

MIKE: Well, I can't point to any distinguishing characteristic between the two, as to why this one would be good and that one bad.

In fact, look, when I look at the Constitution, I see the powers of Congress being limited. They're enumerated powers, most of them in Article I, Section 8. And they talk about things like the power to provide for our national defense, to declare war, to regulate trade between the states with foreign nations and with Indian tribes. I don't see anything in there that says that it's the prerogative of Congress to create all infrastructure.

Now, look, it's one thing if we're talking about an interstate corridor here or there. But it's another thing entirely if we're talking about wholesale, top to bottom, soup to nuts transportation infrastructure, even intrastate projects.

I think whether we're talking about under the Obama administration or any subsequent administration, headed by a Republican or a Democrat, I think we've got to look carefully at what we're doing there. Not every transportation infrastructure is necessarily outside of Congress' authority. Because some of them do involve a distinctly interstate function. But where they don't, we have constitutional problems.

GLENN: Mike Lee, always good to talk to you. Thank you so much, sir. Appreciate it.

MIKE: Thank you very much, sir. It's good to be with you.

STU: So positive.

GLENN: Yeah. He is. Boring as snot.

STU: Thank you very much.

Oh, I love him. He is saving my hope in the entire country right about now.

GLENN: He is so good and so smart. And, you know, he's just tickled pink by, you know -- I love -- I love because you know he's accurate. But when you're talking to him -- because he's like this all the time, well, I mean, in section 508, subsection B, paragraph four --

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: -- you'll see -- and he did that like four times during this. You just have to get used to, that's the way he is.

STU: He's that guy.

GLENN: And that's why he is so good and so needed in the Senate. Want to give you this from the New York Post today. Bank fees rise to an all-time high. The average customer now pays $666 a year in banking fees.

STU: Satan.

GLENN: Right. Right.

STU: This is how it happens.

GLENN: The overdraft revenue from the top three banks has surged from 5.1 billion to $5.4 billion. That's what they make if you overdraft.

$5.4 billion. Does anybody remember that we're providing them? It's a service that we're providing them as well. We're giving them our money.

JEFFY: No. No.

GLENN: So they can loan it out to other people. No, they don't care anymore.

JEFFY: No, they do not.

RADIO

5 DISTURBING Questions After Biden Dropped Out & Endorsed Kamala Harris

President Biden has dropped out of the 2024 presidential race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to take his place. But something doesn’t seem right about this, Glenn says. Glenn reviews the 5 questions that he has after Biden’s announcement: Was Biden forced out and did he get anything in return? Will Kamala Harris actually be the candidate come November? Why didn’t Biden also resign from office? Are the Democrats stuck with Harris because of DEI? And how can the Democratic Party say they’re “saving democracy” when – for the THIRD election in a row – party elites are choosing the candidate, not the people: “The ordinary Democrat, do you realize you don’t have a voice anymore?!”

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: So it was interesting, wasn't it, this weekend?

PAT: Hmm.

GLENN: We started Friday with someone releasing that Joe Biden would on Sunday, resign.

Now, this is not what Joe Biden said. In fact, nobody in the White House agreed with that, on Friday. In fact, just before the tweet went out, nobody in the White House even knew he was going to. I'm going to get back to that here in a second, because I think something descended smell right. Now, the reason why they say, is because of money, polling, it would wipe out the Democratic Party, staff, friends, donors, all abandoned Joe Biden. I don't think that's it. Why -- why did they announce on Friday, and who announced on Friday that the -- that a missive would be coming from the White House, and he would resign.

Now, this is why this bothers me. When you do something this dramatic, first time in American history.

When you do something this dramatic, you don't usually just spring it on everyone.

You usually will go in and have a speech. And they will announce that the president -- and they will speculate what he is going to say, et cetera, et cetera. Then he gives a speech from the Oval Office.

In his -- in his stepping down, from the party, he said, he would be addressing it later this week. Why?

Why didn't he address it, from the Oval, like all other presidents. Why would he just pop it out?

My guess is, there was another gun waiting to go off. You have until noon. You have until 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, to resign.

Or what?

What did Joe Biden get in return, for resigning?

Was there -- were there promises made by anyone, that we will make sure that you're not -- you're not held responsible for any of those crimes, that you might have committed?

And was it said, this way. Look, Joe. You and I both know. There are some real flaming hot evidence here. That you're selling your country out. We will make sure that goes away. And you and your family will be pardoned.

But you have until noon on Sunday. I don't know. That feels like speculation.

But it feels like there was a gun that was going to go off on Sunday, at some point.

And there was also, you know, they can -- they can pardon him, if he steps down from presidency. I don't think he's going to be president until the end of the year.

Or until January 20th. But they can pardon him, if he's not the president. They can pardon his family. And they can very easily blame that now, on if Trump gets in, it will just be revenge. He will just put all the Biden's in family. And we had to. And that will be good enough, apparently, for a lot of Democrats. Nancy Pelosi was the driving force behind all of this. And I love Nancy Pelosi in the last few weeks, where she was like, you know, we want Joe Biden to make the decision himself.

I made the decision. I'm staying. Yeah. Right. But he'll make that decision. And we're waiting for that decision.

I already made that decision. As like I said, he'll make it. And we're very excited for him to make that decision. (laughter)

It's -- it's like Barack Obama used to say. You know, we can get along. You just have to get in the boat with me.

Oh, wait. So wait. I'm a radical that needs to be destroyed, but you'll forgive me if I sign up for everything you want to do?

Oh. Okay.
All right.

So she was the driving force hipped this. Now, Alex Soros said he would not endorse Kamala Harris. Yet, he did. Right away, yesterday.

In fact, people are lining up. Barack Obama strangely did not endorse Kamala Harris. Hmm.

Hmm. Hmm. I personally don't think, and I would love to hear your just on this. I don't think Kamala is going to be the -- the candidate in the end.

PAT: Who do you think it's going to be?

GLENN: I don't know.

PAT: I don't see how they pass her up. Because she's a black woman. So you've got double identity politics going there.

She's the next in line. She would be really tough to jettison. But if they open it up at the convention, pretty much anything could happen.

So I think they like it to be Gavin Newsom.

GLENN: Yeah.

PAT: Or Gretchen Whitmer.

GLENN: Oh, I hope.

PAT: Yeah.

GLENN: You know, here's the thing, you know, they -- they -- first of all, why didn't Biden step down? There's a couple of questions. Why didn't he step down as president of the United States?

If he is not capable of running a campaign, he is certainly not capable of running the White House.

Now, that may have been the gun that was going to go off. Twenty-fifth Amendment, we are going to take you out of the Oval. We will leave you as president, so you can finish your term, and we will have parades for you, and everything else, and you will be remembered as one of the greatest presidents of all time. And, gee, look at how George Washington you are, by stepping aside for the good of the country and the good of the party. That is a possible gun that could have gone off. Otherwise, the 25th Amendment is going to be exercised. So there's no reason why the man can't run a campaign.

You know, because all of this is he's cognitively not there. He can't do it. He can't debate. Well, if you can't debate, I don't want you in a room with Putin, or Xi! I don't want you on the telephone with anybody!

PAT: Uh-huh.

GLENN: But the Democrats are suddenly fine with that. Because they say, he can't win.

Well, Pat, look at Kamala Harris' poll.

Kamala, she is -- she is below Joe Biden. She is more unliked than Donald Trump is!

So why would they go for somebody else, who has this horrible, horrible image and likability problem, who polls just the same, if not a little below Joe Biden?

Why would you have that as your replacement? That doesn't make sense.

PAT: No. Really, nobody makes sense though, on the Democrat side. Who does make sense? Gavin Newsom has a terrible record in California, that can be exploited easily.

Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan, I mean, she's terrible.

GLENN: Horrible.

PAT: They have nobody on the bench.

GLENN: Right. But I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about, what doesn't make sense to am, is why you jettison somebody, and you say, because he's not capable.

Okay? We'll lose. He's not capable. He's not capable of running a campaign.

But he's okay to run the country the next six months.

PAT: Yeah. It doesn't make sense.

GLENN: That bothers me. That's an inconsistency. Also, the other thing that bothers me, the honest ones will be like, well, he just can't beat Donald Trump.

His poll numbers are too horrible.

Well, Kamala's poll numbers are just as horrible. So why wouldn't you -- why would you let him in, and then accept this person?

And why wouldn't you push for him to retire?

Is it because then you lose the first female black president, to be president, as a -- as a -- an election trick?

I mean, why wouldn't he just resign, and her take over?

And then she can run. And she'll have, you know, she'll be the president. And you can show what she can do. And that, you know, people get used to it. Or do you need the fact that she'll be the first black, you know, Asian president? Female.

I mean. I don't think they want to waste it on her. I honestly don't.

They are holding that back, and I don't know how they get away with not running her as president. Because of that.

Wait. Wait. Wait. You took her on. You know you took her on because of DEI. You took her on for DEI purposes, and now you're not going to let her go because you say she's not qualified?

You want, what? A white woman?

A white man? They can't get away with that. They're so screwed.

PAT: They are. Yeah. It's going to be a fun convention. I mean, if you thought 1968 was chaos, wow. I mean, they didn't have the kind of chaos within the party, that in 1968, that they have now. This -- this is unprecedented stuff. And this is something that you really want to pay attention to. Because this is American history, in the making.

GLENN: So how is it, Pat, that we have Democrats, that have been saying that this is the end of democracy. And yet, the -- the same ones that have been telling you, he's fine. He's fine.

Are you now the ones saying, boy, he's not fine. They called us a conspiracy theorist to say that he was not fine. Then when it was exposed, they're the ones saying, it's -- it's okay.

They were also the ones -- or, that it's not okay. They were also the ones that said, no. He doesn't need to have a primary.

We don't primary him. He doesn't need to go and actually campaign and primary.

They wanted to keep this quiet for as long as they could.

So they're the ones, because remember, when there was no primary, the reason why people were talking about it. Because a lot of democratic voters didn't want Joe Biden!

They didn't think that he -- but those people were crazy and dangerous.

Their own voters. So they had 14 million people vote for Joe Biden.

And now, for the third time, the presidential election and the Democratic Party is going to be decided by elites.

The first time it occurred was 2016. When the Democratic National Committee manipulated money and the process, to help Hillary Clinton beat Bernie Sanders.

Remember that?

And all the Sanders people were pissed off.

PAT: Superdelegate.

GLENN: Right!

The second time was 2020, when the party elites pushed out Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar. So Elizabeth Warren, would split the progressive vote with Bernie Sanders.

Which then made Biden the candidate. Both times, both times, people knew this was happening. Now, this time, even though, she was deeply, deeply unpopular with democratic voters. Remember, she came in last. She bailed. Nobody liked her.

She's now apparently going to be the candidate, because they thwarted the primary system. So they didn't let the people speak. And now, they're going to go to an open primary. That's what they're actually calling for.

GLENN: It is crazy for the democratic party, the ones that are shouting that, you know, we're headed towards a dictatorship, where the elites will call all the shots.

They have the elites calling all the shots.

You know, it was a very small number of Democratic Party donors and the media. That chose Hillary Clinton, Biden, and Harris.

It was the media, that influenced the donors and decided, Biden should go after, you know -- they should go after him, on the disastrous debate performance.

The ordinary Democrat really -- do you realize you don't have a voice anymore?

When the media insisted he was fine, you just jumped on board with the media, saying, yeah. See. You guys are liars.

How many times do they have to do this to you, before you wake up and go, gosh, these guys are really not good people?

They're just not good people. Well, Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump.

You are sacrificing your own influence, your own liberty, your voice.

What? At the altar of not Trump.

How many people do you think in China and Russia, and Iran, right now, were like, well, I don't know.

I mean, now it's a toss-up. Do we go for Kamala or Trump?

They're all going for Kamala Harris!

It's going to get even easier for them.

And here's how this is going to work. So the -- in early August, they're trying to put this together.

And early August, they're going to have an open primary.

So it will be an open convention. And they will go out, and say, to all the delegates, who do you want to be president?

If they come up with Kamala Harris, then they'll all be like, Kamala is the one. But then on the second vote, it is open to the superdelegates.

These are about 5,000 of the super elites.

And the super elites get to vote.

And whatever the super elites get to vote. Whatever they vote, well, that's going to probably be. Well, that's more important than the other delegates, I'll tell you that.

So you have about 5,000 people, total, that are going to be making the decision in Chicago on who you can have, as your choice for president of the United States.

And it's all caused by the same people, who are now voting.

They're all the ones who told you, he was fine.

They're all the ones who said, no, no, no, no. He's super, super moderate.

This is the fuddy-duddy. He's just a little old man, that just means well.

PAT: And these are the people who are saving democracy. Let's not forget.

This is all about democracy. And how they're trying to save this country.

From the non-democratic Donald Trump.

And you know that that's right.

I mean, the superdelegates will decide this thing next month.

They're -- it's absolutely what's going to happen. And I don't think the superdelegates and the super elite in the Democratic Party. I don't think they want Kamala Harris.

GLENN: Oh, I don't think so either. I don't think so either. You'll notice, that Barack Obama did not endorse --

PAT: Right. And they spoke yesterday.

GLENN: Kamala. Yeah. And it's interesting to me.

I don't think that she's going to be the nominee. I could be wrong. But I just don't think -- something -- something is going to happen, that will make it easy for her not to be the presidential candidate. At least that's what I -- that's what I think.

I mean, they just -- they don't want. The American people aren't going to stand for another cramdown. They're not. Oh, she's the first female black Asian president. Nobody cares anymore. They just don't care anymore.

And she's wildly unlikable. Wildly.

I mean, first of all, the first female president didn't work with Hillary.

Because she's as likable as Kamala Harris, okay?

The two are just. You put them in a room together. I think they cancel each other out. I think they just disappear. And her policies are -- are a little crazy.

She does have policies kind of.

At least we can look at her record and see what she was for. And what she was against.

And it's going to be a -- well, it's not an easy transition to make. For most Americans, and I believe most Democrats.

RADIO

Glenn Beck’s Message to Liberals After the Trump Assassination Attempt

In the wake of the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump and the media’s turning on President Biden, Glenn extends a hand to those who think differently from him. Have you noticed the media’s narratives turn on a dime? Do you want the madness to end? Well, you’re not alone. But in order to become a truly united country once again, we need to define a few things first: Everyone is claiming the other side is fascist and wants to destroy America. So, what is fascism? Is Trump a fascist? Is America a democracy? Glenn answers these questions and more …

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: I want to welcome you.

Especially, if you think differently. Welcome to you. Perhaps, perhaps you have been somebody who has been following the mainstream media. Or has tuned it all out, until recently. Because it's just all bad news.

It's all the same.

Well, it's not.

I mean, yes. I know. Crazy stuff is happening in our world. But I'm glad you're here.

Thank you. It's hard to step out. Isn't it?

It's hard to step out of the crowd, and think differently. Especially in today's world. To risk thinking anew, is really, really difficult.

Or to question with boldness, as Thomas Jefferson said. Question with boldness. Even the very existence of God. For if there be a God, he must surely honest questioning over blindfolded fear.

It's essential.

But honest questioning is not really done in today's world.

Honest questioning is replaced with good questioning even in our own lives. We don't really talk to one another. We don't listen to one another. We're trying to get to our point. We're trying to win. And that's not honest questioning.

Honest questioning, means the kind of questions, that if the answers lead your feet. Your head. Or your heart into a different direction, you'll have the courage to follow that direction.

Nobody is looking to do that. Nobody is really looking to learn anything new. I am.

If you're here, I think you are too. It's hard. Especially in today's society.

But you're here for a reason. You're listening today for a reason. And we have a lot to share with one another.

You may disagree if you're a new listener to much of what I'm about to say.

But that's all right.

We're taught not to listen. We're taught that, you know, you can't disagree. Yes, you can.

Yes, you can.

In fact, it's essential. It's essential. Opposition in all things. But if you're listening for the first time today, I would like you to do something that you're not encouraged to do on either side. And that is, give me, as I give you, the benefit of the doubt. Assume that you and I have something really basic in common. That we just want madness to end.

We want to be able to feed our family. We want good jobs. We want other people to be successful. We want people to pay their fair share. If you will.

We want justice to be served. We want bad guys, no matter which side they're on, to go to jail. We want our children to have a good life, and a better life than us. We want good education for our kids. And what's good for my kids, isn't necessarily good for your kids.

But I want good stuff for your kids as well.

That we want strong families, and a strong country.

I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt, and please give me the benefit of the doubt. That we love our country. That we recognize that we've made a ton of mistakes.

But we basically want the same things for our family. And if that's the way you are, and you have found that there's just nobody you can trust. I agree with you.

And I don't ask for your trust. I don't want your trust. I don't ask for it. And I don't want it.

I'm a human. And I make mistakes all the time. I try to lead with my mistakes. If I make one, I try to let you know.

Right up front. You know what I said yesterday, was wrong. Or I thought this through. Or somebody said something to me. And I think differently on it.

And I'll lead with my mistakes.
Because I don't want you to trust me. I want you to do the same. I want you to question everything that I say.

And then look it up for yourself.

But that takes a lot of work. But you're among friends if you're listening.

I'm glad you're here. If we're going to start a new relationship, however, we need to talk about definitions. Of things.

We need to be able to discuss certain things, and know what we mean. And right now, the world is concerned with fascism.

Donald Trump -- somebody tried to kill him over the weekend, because that person has been convinced that he's a fascist.

So let's start with the definition of fascism. Shall we?

I -- look this up for your benefit today.

And it seems as though, some of the definitions have changed, recently in the dictionaries.

But let me just read what they now say fascism is.

Because I -- in reading them, I can see why you might think Donald Trump say fascist.

Here's the encyclopedia Britannica. Fascism is a political ideology and a mass movement, dominated by many parts of Central, Southern, Eastern Europe between 1919, 1945. Although, fascist parties and movement differed significantly from one another.

They had many characteristics in common. Including extreme militaristic nationalism.

Now, this is an easy way for people to say, oh, well. Donald Trump is a fascist. Because he wants a strong military.

Yes. But it's also another thing to say, you're -- you're only left alone, if two things happen.

One, you have the strength and nobody wants to hit you.

Because they know you'll hit back. And probably hit back harder. So you have to be the tough guy on the playground.

However, tough guys are the -- become fascistic. We don't want to be the tough guy anymore. And that's what makes Donald Trump different than most conservatives. Donald Trump hates war. And hates the conflict of war.

He always has. In fact, that's why he separated from so many people on the -- on the right for so long. But luckily, many of us have woken up. And realized, these war never end. They're ridiculous to fight.

We always seem to lose in the end, one way or another. Because it's not our responsibility to go in and tell other people how to live.

That's not fascistic. I just think that's right. They also -- fascists, according to encyclopedia Britannica, they have contempt for the electoral democracy. Contempt for the electoral democracy. Well, I know we've been having a discussion recently about what a democracy is. Are we a democracy, or are we a republic?

And you can do your own homework on this. The Founders were very clear. In fact, Ben Franklin was walked down the street after the constitutional convention, and some woman said to him, well, Mr. Franklin, what have you given us?

And he said, a republic, if you can keep it.

Now, this has been something that we all understood, up until Woodrow Wilson started changing things.

Democracies last revery -- a short period of time. But our Constitution is coming up on its 250th anniversary. The average Constitution lasts 17 years.

That's the average in the world. Seventeen years.

We're coming up on 250 years.

Why? Because we have balanced democracy, with a republic. So you have the one man, one vote. And you vote in a representative. Once you are done voting. Then they begin to vote, on your behalf.

That's where it's gotten screwed up. Because we're not electing good people.

And honest people, and people with our own values. And also, it's screwed up, because we can't trust our vote.

And if you can't trust your vote, well, you don't have any. You don't have a democracy. You don't have a republic. You have nothing.

This is why the Republicans have been saying, that we need paper ballots, we need to have ID. And this is not something that fascists do.

This is something that they do at your 7-Eleven, if you try to buy a beer. This is something you have to have, if you're driving a car. This is something you have to have, if you're going to college. Or you're going to work in many places.

You need to have an ID. That's not racist. This isn't 1841. The government wants you to some sort of vaccine ID. Well, isn't that racist, then?

How could you be for a vaccine, to let you into buildings, if you have had the vaccine, and keep you out of buildings, if you haven't had the vaccine.

How could you have something so personal to you, be a requirement, is what the Biden administration wanted, to be in a requirement.

But you don't want people to have any form of ID, to show that they're a citizen, and they're a registered voter?

Really?

That's not fascism. And that is not a democracy.

That's just corruption. The other thing they have, in -- in the encyclopedia Britannica. It's a belief. Fascism is a belief in a natural, social hierarchy. And the rule of elites.

Now, this is something that I used to disagree with. On -- vehemently for a long time.

With -- with liberals.

They used to say, oh, well. These corporations. They're going to take over the world. And they're so powerful.

You know what, you're right.

I never thought a corporation, in my lifetime. I'm 60.

But in my lifetime, I never thought a corporation could be as powerful as the government.

Or could be so corrupt and so controlling, before AI. Before Google. They didn't have that power.

But they have that power now.

So it's a ruling of elites, if you didn't go to the right college. You're not an elite. If you didn't go to the right -- if you don't hold the right opinion, you're not an elite. You're an idiot. And we only listen to the elites.

So there's a belief if fascism, on a natural, social hierarchy. And the rule of elites. And the desire to create the people's community.

Now, this is where it gets interesting. Because this is where Donald Trump and his nationalism, as they would call it. I would call it love of country.

Always gets in trouble, from the left. They think that that is -- he wants to have the people's community. He's trying to be like Germany. And we're the best.

And we're the best race and everything petroleums we're not. We're not.

What makes us different is our heritage, for the most part. And this is changing.

And unfortunately, changing far too rapidly, to be able to pass these good characteristics on.

This society came here, from all over the world. So how could we possibly be anti-immigrant?

We came here from all over the world.

But those who self-selected to come here, they conquered. Have you watched a Western?

Have you watched a cowboy movie? Have you watched 1892? Have you watched the Magnificent Seven, even the new one? Have you watched any of these things? Have you seen Horizon, the new Kevin Costner film?

These people were insane. I have a grandmother who lost an eye, crossing the mountains. She just like yanked it out, and was like, keep moving. I mean, these people were nuts.

That's what made us. That's what makes us the different. Is that our heritage is one of explorers, of risk takers. That's why we're good entrepreneurs.

But in Germany, with fascism, and in Italy, it meant that the individual interest would be subordinated to the good of the nation. So the individual didn't matter. It was the collective, that mattered.

That's a key sign of fascism. I have more on this. But I also want to get to the news of the day. Because yesterday was an amazing thing, with Donald Trump.

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(music)
All right. Welcome back to the program. You know, before we move on. I just -- I want to emphasize two things on fascism. Because we are having this argument, each side is looking at the other side, going. You're going to destroy the rights of people.

And it's important that we really understand, before we start throwing terms around, that we understand what those terms mean.

Fascism prioritizes the nation over the individual. And that's what spooks people, even me.

When people start to get nationalistic. If there are conservatives. And there are. That say, you know, we need a -- we need a prince of Christ to think in, and be our -- be our leader.

No. No. We really don't. We really don't. We don't need a religious leader.

We need somebody of good, moral standing. That would be nice. Have you found one lately?

But we don't need a vicar of Christ. What we need is somebody who reflects the best of us. I used to say, reflect us.

But that's not really good. Because there's -- moral sentiments actually matter. And you don't prioritize the nation over the people. However, the nation is important. Without a nation to protect your family, you can't have a family.

So we need to make sure that we have a strong family. And I'm sorry. A strong nation. With strong currency. Because if the currency goes down, you don't really have a job where you can make any money. You might have plenty of money. But nothing your money could buy. Because it's worthless.

So prioritize the nation. Not over the individual rights.

But to make sure that the nation is strong and healthy. And safe.

And we're doing none of that.

RADIO

Is THIS the Democrats' Plan to Remove Biden From the 2024 Ticket?

Rumors are spreading fast that President Biden may soon drop out of the 2024 presidential race. But who would his replacement be? Are the Democrats stuck with Kamala Harris? Will they tap California Governor Gavin Newsom or Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer? Or will their reluctant knight in shining armor, Michelle Obama, be drafted in an open Democratic National Convention? Glenn, Pat, and Stu speculate. Plus, they also discuss whether Biden will step down willingly...or if the Left will use a much dirtier trick ...

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Listen to this. The Republican vice presidential nomination included J.D. Vance, and he dropped an Easter egg of white nationalism. An Easter egg. Quoting, I know there was not the same red meat sort of blood and soil nationalism you might hear in I don't know, other parallel universe Republican conventions. So now we're into parallel universes.

But I do think there were sort of Easter eggs of white nationalism in his speech. One of the things that stuck out to me, was when he started talking about what America is. He said America is not just an idea.

It's a group of people with a shared history. And a common future.

The thing about America is, it's not a group of people with shared history. In fact, I think a lot of people would argue, it's quite the opposite. It's a lot of people with different histories and different heritages. Oh, my gosh. And then she goes into how he wants to be buried in Kentucky.

But not in San Diego, where his wife's foreign parents are from. And it's like, are you out of -- I mean, these people have literally gone insane. Literally gone insane.

STU: Again, gone is an interesting way. I don't know that they were ever -- was there ever a moment of sanity that -- I may have missed that show that they put on.

GLENN: Yeah.

STU: But, yeah. It's interesting.

And here's a thing. And I don't know if you guys feel this way. But I will just throw this theory out here for a second. While I, of course, mock them relentlessly for these crazy theories. And honestly, some people on the right, are coming up with crazy theories, and I mock them a little bit as well.

I feel like everybody comes up with crazy theories. At least that's how I would normally react in this particular situation. This particular story though is so bonkers. They're so -- it's so hard to believe, that they just were like, eh. I guess let's leave that roof unattended.

These things are so crazy, that I give a little bit more grace on conspiracy theories here than I normally would. Do you buy that one, Glenn?

GLENN: Yeah, but that one at least makes sense. Doesn't it, Pat?

I mean, the one, we didn't go up on that roof, because it had a slant to it. I mean, you want to talk about safety first.

PAT: I know. I know.

GLENN: Holy cow. It had a slant to it. Yeah. Like a 3-degree grade.

PAT: And forget the fact that it had a slope.

GLENN: It's nuts.

PAT: What about, I don't know. Station somebody at the ladder that leads to the roof. Could you do that? You're so worried about -- about your agents not being able to stand or sit or lay on that slope, that you wanted them inside the building instead. But you couldn't put somebody out where the ladder is that leads to the roof?

Kind of insanity.

STU: Yeah. And I don't know if you guys saw this, but sorry -- the New York Times had a video that they put out of this -- this whole incident. And they showed the two pairs of snipers on -- from the Secret Service or police on the two buildings. One of the sniper teams was set up in a position in which a tree blocked that building.

PAT: Hmm.

STU: This is why the farther away sniper team is actually the one with the successful shot. But like why on earth would you set up in a position in which there was a tree in between you and the one elevated position in the entire field?

Like, I just, it's impossible.

GLENN: Because we have sniper Sam and sniper Sid. Right, Sniper Sid? You're there with the Secret Service. I'm there. Sniper Sam and Sniper Sid.
(laughter)

STU: It's bizarre.

GLENN: Who is running that place? Who is running that place? And then the other one that, you know, just gets me. They're not talking about a conspiracy of COVID.

He's got COVID.

Come on. How many times has that guy had COVID?

I don't know anybody who has COVID anymore, and is like, oh, I'm just wiped out with COVID. I just can't handle it. I think that guy could die in his sleep in the next week. It's like, you know, he'll have to decide if he will die or not. He will have to decide, will he drink the medicine we'll give him every night or not? Because it will be his decision.

I mean, I just think that they're serious about getting rid of him.

STU: And to add to this, it was immediately after an interview he gave, in which for the first time he opened up the possibility of stepping down for a health crisis.

Like, it was -- it was literally the last thing he did, before the COVID isolation, was to say, yeah, if a big health crisis came along.

But then he went -- and, excuse me.

Then he went and got into people's faces at a Mexican restaurant, and gave them all COVID. But after that, he went into isolation. I mean, it is -- every single story is impossible to believe. That's where we are.

GLENN: So what happens from here?

Pat, what do you -- I mean, I think that there is a real chance.

Remember, Abraham Lincoln was elected the nominee, by the Republican Party on the 50th ballot.

PAT: Yeah.

GLENN: And that's when they all just started going crazy. And they're like, I don't know. The guy with a wart on his face.

And I could see that happening with Michelle Obama. They go through, and they're just doing an open convention. And they can't decide on somebody. And somebody is like, Michelle Obama.

And everybody is like, yay! The next ballot Michelle Obama wins, and she's drafted.

I mean, I just think that's so plausible.

PAT: Except, I don't think she will run.

She doesn't want it. She does not want it! She hates this country too much to do that kind of work. She loves her life too much to do that kind of work.

STU: But if the hatred of the country is a big feature --

PAT: She could continue to destroy it.

GLENN: Reason to do it.

STU: Yeah.

PAT: The other aspect is, how much she loves the life of a 100 million dollar deal from Netflix, and all the fruits of that deal.

And the life they're living now. She doesn't want to give that up.

STU: And I think we can all realize that she deserves can that life.

PAT: She does. Yes. Please.

STU: She should continue to enjoy it forever. There's only reason to be involved in politics, Michelle. You're above this now!

GLENN: The only reason you're saying that, is Stu just doesn't want to lose the $6,000 bet.

STU: Six! You keep inflating this. It's three, and you know it's three.

GLENN: It's Bidenflation, I don't want it to keep going up. But it's Bidenflation.

STU: I think very much you do at this point. We're at the point almost, where I can't win the bet.

That's the problem. Because I had -- as Biden would be on the ticket. You had Michelle. And there is this in between ground where Biden steps down, and it's Kamala Harris, and neither of us win. And we're getting into that ground right now, and it does not make me comfortable.

PAT: Yeah.

GLENN: You know what is amazing to me?

Is that if you look at this, with Michelle Obama, what you just said, she loves her lifestyle too much.

She hates America so much.

But she loves her lifestyle more than she hates America.

So she would never do it. Okay?

PAT: Uh-huh.

GLENN: Look at Donald Trump. He's got an amazing lifestyle. They've destroyed it. They've destroyed his family. They've hauled him in front of court after court after court.

And then they shoot him. And he stills gets up on the stage, and says, I'm running, because we've got to stop this insanity.

PAT: Yeah. Big time difference. Big difference.

GLENN: Which one? Yeah, what a difference!

PAT: Yeah. It does look like -- I'm sure you guys mentioned it earlier. It does look like this weekend might be it though, for the Biden campaign. I don't know. That's what they're saying. And there's a pretty detailed -- where did I see this?

I don't know. MSNBC, I think. No! It was NewsMax. It was NewsMax.

They were talking about this really detailed plan now, to open up the convention and bring in Kamala Harris.

And she's already preapproved her running mate, supposedly. And also, there would be Gavin Newsom and Gretchen Whitmer.

And those are the three that are going to battle it out on the floor, at the convention. Do you buy that?

STU: I think it goes right to Kamala Harris, honestly, which is not an exciting opportunity for the Democrats. That sort of plan that could lead to Glenn winning this stupid bet, which I never agreed to.

GLENN: Wait.

STU: Which is that Glenn, you have those three. Fighting it out.

It gets so ugly. No one can make a decision. Then Michelle comes in over the top, and says, oh, here I am. She comes down from the sky. With clouds and light beams.

PAT: And people are like, look at those arms. Look at those arms. They need to be in the Oval Office, those arms.

STU: Yes, that's the only they can live, and then she winds up coming in over the top and then just wiping all of this out and winning. It's still -- I think it's a long shot for it to happen.

PAT: She's not going to do it.

STU: There is some scenario, where it gets so chaotic. They need something like that. I mentioned to Glenn, I think off the air. I don't know if we talked about it on the air again today. I'm very confused. It was a very late night last night.

But all of the reporting about the Biden stuff, about him stepping down this weekend, is all nonsense.

It's all like, one headline from the New York Times yesterday was, Biden now is warming to the belief, that he may have to step down.

That isn't saying anything! What do you mean he's warming to the -- this is like one of those old School Al Gore statements, that is filled with so many disclaimers. It doesn't mean anything about the climate. It's all this tough. It's all leaked by Nancy Pelosi. She wants him out. She's leaking every negative thing about him. His own -- his own people inside. Like his close advisers. And everyone says, are the people around him. Are all saying, this stuff is all fake. It's just all included in the paragraph. Like paragraph 12 of these stories. Like Nancy Pelosi screeds against this guy, and the New York Times wants him out, and the Washington Post wants him out. And MSNBC wants him out, and CNN wants them out. So they're just all running with it.

He may very well get pushed out by all this pressure. It may work.

But they have a plan. It is very consistent with what the left does, when they want an outcome. Which is lie and leak. And then force the person out, with the pressure.

I don't know that he'll survive this. Almost nobody can.

Can't remember a politician who survived this much pressure. The only one I can remember is rod --

PAT: Doug.

STU: Trump is a good example. That's a good example actually. Trump, they hit him with everything.

It was opposition pressure.

PAT: Yeah. It wasn't his own party.

STU: But Blagojevich was hit in his state, and by everybody to the point that he got to a 4 percent approval rating.

Four. It's the lowest I've ever seen of any -- I think Jeffrey Epstein might have five.

4 percent is about as low as I've ever seen for a public figure.

GLENN: Yes. Yes.

Which is also his dating age.

STU: He stuck it out the whole time -- it was. It is.
(laughter)
Oh, people. No. No.

GLENN: Oh, that's just wrong.

RADIO

"I've Never Seen Him Like This": Glenn Beck's Biggest Takeaways From Trump's RNC Speech

When former President Donald Trump took the stage at the RNC, it was obvious that something had changed. "I've never seen him like this," Glenn says. "He was humbled." Surviving an assassination attempt sure seemed to change him, and made him realize that only God's will matters. But it wasn't just Trump. Glenn says he also has never seen a Republican National Convention like this. Glenn and Stu review why they have hope for the future of America after this event. But of course, the Left immediately returned to the narrative that Trump will be a fascist dictator. So, Glenn and Stu review the facts, along with the Left's latest conspiracy theory: that Trump staged his own assassination.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: I've been watching the convention, this week.

And it is the best convention I have seen, and I think it was better than the Reagan conventions. And those were regulated. This -- this had everything you needed in the Republican convention.

It had all of the right people speaking, I thought. All the way through the week. If people spent the time and watched it, actually listened to it.

They saw a very different party, than what they have ever seen before. At least I did. And last night, a very, very different Donald Trump.

I've never seen him like this. Never heard him speak this way. I've never seen him, take the stage the way he did.

He was humbled. And I think, you know, he pushed back on the crowd.

Or the crowd pushed back on him, halfway through the speech. He said, you know, I was not supposed to be here tonight. I'm not supposed to be here.

And they started chanting, yes, you were. Yes, you were. And he said, no. I wasn't.

An assassin wanted me gone. And I wasn't supposed to address you today. But God saved my life. And it was not a moment of boasting. It was a moment, I thought of clarity.

Now, there's something else that happened, that I haven't heard a lot of people talk about. In fact, I haven't heard anybody talk about this yet. And I think it's very, very telling.

Donald Trump has kind of shifted gears into this -- into this zone of, I know what I know. I know what I feel.

And I know who the other side is, and they're dismissed. He's not fighting them like he was before. Now, that doesn't mean that he's not fighting -- the one thing about Donald Trump, is he's a fighter. But it's almost as if he feels like the outcome is already there.

And he doesn't need to -- he doesn't need to push the envelope anymore. He just needs to say the truth.

So he came out quiet, humbled. He did about 30 minutes of just riveting material, that he wrote himself. He tore up the speech. Wrote the speech himself. Which is also not Donald Trump. He usually will ad-lib. He doesn't usually write his own material. But he wrote the first 20 minutes. And probably the last 20 minutes as well. The rest of it was kind of a stump speech. But he -- he came out, humbled. And told the story of the assassination. He said at one point, Joe Biden's name. And at one point, when he said it, he said, I'm only going to say this once.

And he talked about telling the story of the assassination, and said, it's too painful. So I won't tell this story again.

You'll hear it the first and last time from me.

Tonight. When he brought up Joe Biden, do you remember the context Stu, on when he first brought up Joe Biden, and then apologized, and said, I'm not going to say his name anymore?

STU: Yeah. He was talking about the 10 worst presidents of all time, and how all of them added up together, wouldn't get to Joe Biden, and that's when he said his name.

GLENN: Right. Right.

And he said, you know, I didn't want -- I didn't want it to be unclear, who that president was, that was worse than the ten worst combined.

He said, but I'm not going to mention his name anymore.

And to me, that may be lowering the temperature, a little bit. I think that's one way to read it. But I think more importantly, I think he strategically is now looking at the fact that Joe Biden is not going to be the nominee.

I just don't believe he's going to be the nominee.

And it's only a matter of time. And Donald Trump, why waste his hour of television, or in his case, 90 minutes of television, making a case against a guy who is not going to be running?

And that's why he kept saying, they. They made these things. This administration did this. And did not say, Donald Trump. Or, did not say Joe Biden.

And did not say Kamala Harris. Now, that -- the Kamala Harris thing, I think is because he just doesn't know that Kamala is running. And why look back at the people that are so far behind you, at this particular point?

But the hopeful side of me says that he didn't mention Kamala. Because he knows it will be Michelle Obama. And I only say hopeful, because Stu will owe me -- I think it's four grand, isn't it, Stu?

STU: Three. It's definitely three. It's 100 percent three. And even that, with inflation, I don't even know if we can really count 3,000. I think we can probably lower.

GLENN: It should be five. It should be five.

Yeah, because three just wasn't what it was six months ago, when we made this bet.

STU: I will say, thank God for Bidenflation. Because by the time I paid this bet off, it will be worth nothing. The three thousand dollars will be like what a loaf of bread is.

GLENN: We won't be able to buy a sandwich. No. We won't. We won't.

All right. So there's a couple of -- a couple of stories here that explain the speech. The first one is the New York Times. And the New York Times, Trump in an RNC speech struggles to turn page on the past. Well, it's a little difficult, you know, when the past involved assassination attempts. You know, a little difficult there.

Donald J. Trump has been a man long undone by himself. He imperiled his presidency and political campaigns with personal grudges, impulsiveness, and an appetite for authoritarianism. You know, it's really strange how they keep saying authoritarianism in Donald Trump, when he's not done anything authoritarian.

I mean, he might say, you know, we should go after the press and take away their license. Until he's reminded, they don't have a license. And he wasn't serious in the first place.

Lock her up!

Until he wasn't serious in the first place.

I can't find the authoritarian streak in him, high school. Of anything that he's actually done.

And then they say, also, he's caused himself problems for his casual approach to the rule of law.

Now, Stu, out of he who shall not be named. And Donald Trump.

Which one has the casual approach to the rule of law?

STU: I don't know. Should we go over the latest cord to overturn his student loan debacle?

GLENN: I know. I know. I read that this morning, in the New York Times, after reading the casual approach to the rule of law. And then, you know, the next story is, oh. Another court said, you can't do that with student loans.

He just keeps trying to go around the law, over and over again.

STU: Yeah. The courts overturned his attempts at student loans. The same day, he announced another attempt, for I think it was $1.5 billion of student loan relief. I mean, he's addicted to giving away money to these people, it's incredible.

GLENN: His unwillingness to accept electoral defeat, and his actions that have resulted in $83 million in penalties, nearly three dozen felony convictions, and additional legal trouble ahead. I mean, that's how they start. And, I mean, you've got to be -- I mean, you're just under the spell of witchcraft.

If -- if you buy into any of that. But on Thursday night, with his right ear still bandaged five days after he was wounded by a would-be assassins bullet. Okay. Can we talk about that for a second, Stu?

STU: Sure.

GLENN: The bandage. What they're trying to say here is he didn't need the bandage.

Do you think he needed the bandage still?

STU: Yes. My guess is, that his ear looks pretty funky right now. And he doesn't necessarily want to walk out on stage looking that way.

GLENN: Yeah. I was actually hoping that he would take off the bandage. Because I think his ear probably looks worse. He lost the top of his ear. And, you know, that's kind of a -- you know, you have to be -- I mean, there's conspiracies thrown around. Now, a third of Democrats believe that he set this up with the Secret Service. What?

To have his ear blown off? I mean, how delusional do you have to be? First of all, he's not the guy who has the in with the Secret Service, and, you know, the spy agencies and everything else.

The conspiracy doesn't -- it falls apart pretty quickly, you know.

STU: Yeah. It's not rational by any means, and this is something, Glenn, you see in polling every single time.

If there is a conspiracy theory about your political opponent, about a third of people will believe it, no matter what it is. Now, you can get higher than that. The Democrats, about 50 percent of them believed that 9/11 was an inside job, when George W. Bush was president. You can find numbers that get higher. But like the baseline number for a conspiracy theory for your political opponent is about a third. It just is.

A lot of people just taking the position they think hurts their opponent more than them actually believing it, I hope.

But there are a lot of people. I mean, Joy Reid is on television every single day, talking about this stuff. I mean, they threw poor Joe Scarborough off the air. What did they think this guy was going to say? I mean, what do they think of Joe Scarborough, if they leave Joy Reid on the air?

GLENN: I never thought of it that way. You're exactly right.
(laughter)
STU: That's amazing.

GLENN: So let me just switch gears here. Joy Reid posted a video of herself, working through a bizarre conspiracy theory, suggesting that the Secret Service helped Donald Trump to create the defiant photo image from the shooting.

She noted the Biden campaign released a lot of detailed medical information about his condition within minutes of the announcement. That he had contracted COVID-19 again.

But when it comes to what happened on Saturday, with former President Donald Trump, this assassination attempt we know almost nothing about his medical condition. Bum-bum-bum.

How come no one has any information about this wound?

We still don't know for sure, whether Donald Trump was hit by a bullet, or whether he was hit by glass fragments. Whether he was hit by shrapnel. We don't have any of those details.

Glass fragments?

Where were the glass fragments from?

Was that the teleprompter, that they say was hit?

STU: There was an initial report. And I don't remember who reported it. But there was a report that it was glass fragments. And it wasn't even a liberal reporter. I remember reading it like, what? What are you talking about?

Then about five minutes later, you can see pictures of it, where both the teleprompters were fully intact. It was a crazy theory. That was debunked immediately. But people who are like Joy Reid who are impossibly stupid continue to believe it.

GLENN: And we have a picture unlike anything we've ever seen. A picture of the bullet, in flight. As it's about to hit his head.

STU: Right!

GLENN: I mean, it's incredible.

STU: Yeah. I think it's actually just --

GLENN: It could have been a fly. A really big mosquito. We don't know. We don't know.

STU: It's just after it passes his head. But, yes, it's about as -- I mean, it's one of the most incredible photos ever taken, and the photographer who took it has basically the most impossible photo you can take.

And it's still not the iconic photo of the incident. Which is kind of -- you go through -- you caught a bullet in your picture. And still like, somebody else got the picture of him standing up with his fist up. With the blood streaming down his face. Which is still the iconic photo of that day.

It's so tuned.

They believe everything.

They believe that, you know, the bandage is fake, that he didn't actually get injured.

Like, I don't know. I thought it was glass that hit him. Now he didn't get injured at all. He doesn't need the bandage. It's just, everything they come up with is dumber and dumber.

GLENN: They're just crazy. Really, truly crazy about him. They lose all reason. And for Joy Reid to be on the air, on MSNBC is remarkable. And not because they should fire her because of her points of view. I don't believe that.

Just because she's dumb as a box of rocks, man. She's crazy. She is crazy.

STU: Yeah. To be fair, I don't believe that Joy Reid has lost all reason. She just didn't have it any point, so it's impossible for her to lose in particular.

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