GLENN

Zuhdi Jasser Fires Back: 'Give Us Some Breathing Room'

Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, host of Reform This! on TheBlaze and longtime guest of The Glenn Beck Program, joined Glenn on radio today in response to a provocative article published online by Pam Geller, who went after Dr. Jasser, calling him the “Grand Mufti of the Stealth Jihad.” Largely silenced by the left and mainstream media for not being the "right" kind of Muslim, Dr. Jasser is now under attack from a faction of the far right that doesn't accept the possibility of a moderate interpretation of Islam.

"I admit, Islam has a major problem within it. We're frustrated. It has cancer. We are in the 15th century. But we need at least a little oxygen. Give us some breathing room to say, you know what, maybe reform is possible," Dr. Jasser said.

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

GLENN: Something came to my attention yesterday, and I wanted to get Zuhdi Jasser on right away. Zuhdi Jasser has been a friend of mine for, I don't even know. Fifteen years, maybe?

He is, I believe, one of the bravest Muslims in America today, one who still practices his faith. There are many people who used to be Muslim who left their faith. He is a guy who still practices his faith and is a reformer, is somebody like Martin Luther, who says we have to reform this.

There is a difference between Islam and Islamists. If you are a Muslim, that's not necessarily a problem. If you're an Islamist, it is always a problem.

Zuhdi Jasser seems to understand this. But apparently, on his radio show on TheBlaze this last weekend, he went off on a few people here in America. Let me give you the -- let me give you just the headline and a little bit of this story.

The Grand Mufti of stealth jihad, Zuhdi Jasser says there's no greater threat than Pamela Geller and her colleagues. This is from Pamela Geller: In one fell swoop, moderate Muslim, in quotation marks, Zuhdi Jasser has dropped a Moab on the most effective counterjihadist in the West. The Grand Mufti of the stealth jihad has devoted an entire episode of his show on TheBlaze network Reform This to smearing me and many of my colleagues, including Robert Spencer, Andrew Bostom, Claire Lopez, John Guandolo, and others as alt-jihadists.

He says there are no greater jihadists than the alt-jihadists when it comes to living in the land of freedom because they seem to want to kill us and knock us off at the knees. Who even knew he had a show on TheBlaze? Why is Glenn Beck giving this vicious saboteur a platform? Wow.

STU: Vicious saboteur. Wow. That's impressive.

GLENN: Yeah.

Frank Gaffney immediately wrote to a group of us whom Jasser targeted, telling us to hold off in the interest of peacemaking. It was striking how quickly Gaffney jumped to Jasser' defense. I've never seen him jump to my defense like that. What a Stepin Fetchit boy Gaffney is for Jasser. It epitomizes how much people who recognize the jihad threat have been fooled into thinking that they have to have a moderate Muslim on board, or their efforts will be criticized by the left as Islamophobic.

So she is making the point that Frank Gaffney is afraid of being called Islamophobic

STU: Oh, yeah. Frank Gaffney seems like he has a lot of fear about being called things. If I were -- yeah, that's his defining characteristic.

GLENN: So let me welcome to the program the Grand Mufti of the stealth jihad, Zuhdi Jasser.

JEFFY: Right.

STU: Or Zuhdi Jasser. One of the two.

GLENN: Yeah, Zuhdi, how are you?

ZUHDI: Great, Glenn. Thank you for having me. Boy, you know, those responses sort of make me feel like I did the right thing by calling these guys out.

You know, I mean, listen, I get it. We're a minority movement. I get it that we're underdogs. But the issue and the reason why I finally needed to speak out, you know, listen, over the last few months, from Stephen Kirby posting on Spencer's website, others. There's two characteristics that need definition of the alt-jihad.

Number one, they view Islam as monolithic, a one-entity, a monopoly. No other ideas within it. And, two, they view reformers as having no hope, as liars. They constantly call me a liar about my scripture that I interpret and reinterpret in a different way from the original Arabic.

So fine. I'm not trying to take away their free speech. I know they're anti-jihad. But how do they differ from the useful idiots on the left who say that Islam is one, it's beautiful. There's nothing wrong with the misogyny in Saudi Arabia. Islam is peaceful. How does that monopoly on Islam being positive, how is their yang not the ying to the saying that Islam is all one and the Mufti of Islam is it and Zuhdis are just aberrations? I mean, they're actually doing the same thing by taking the oxygen out of what we're trying to do in reform. And when there's no hope for our work, we have to call it out.

GLENN: So, Zuhdi, I have to -- I'm sorry I haven't been following this -- this trial that you're going through right now, until last night.

And I tried to figure out what this was about. And apparently, you sent out a declaration of principles to all the mosques or many of the mosques. And you asked them to sign on as -- as cosigners. And many of them didn't. In fact, I think only, what was it? Forty did. And what they're trying to say is, see, Islam is a sham. And there's nobody behind you. When if I have this right, I look at it in a different way. That you are Martin Luther, who has just nailed the demands up on the church door. And they're expecting Martin Luther to have all of the -- how many of the priests decided to join Martin Luther? Well, not very many. Especially at first.

And they would call Martin Luther a failure. Am I reading this right?

ZUHDI: Yeah, pretty close. I think our role model for what I do are John Locke, Thomas Paine, Jefferson. We're trying to create the space for Martin Luthers. I realize I don't have a degree in Sharia, but the reform -- reformation in Europe gave space to the enlightenment scholars to have room to do their work.

When we sent that declaration out, these guys were writing at -- Spencer was publishing Kirby's work that said we were dead on arrival, that basically we were hopeless. And we nailed those declarations out, knowing that the establishment, the Islamic establishment would definitely reject it. But we proved our point.

If they were moderates, they would have signed on. And actually the Islamists on the left would have proven us wrong by saying, "Oh, they are peaceful." Well, no, we proved her right, that Islamists are supremacists. And as Geller says, they're Nazis. But she's not fighting the Naziism of Islamism. She thinks all of Islam is hopeless and a monopoly. And us Muslims are lying that are trying to reform from within.

GLENN: So you're --

ZUHDI: And all we're trying to do --

GLENN: So let me give you a clearer example. She says that she's fighting Naziism. But actually, what she's fighting is all Germans. And if anyone who says I am not a Nazi -- I was fighting against the Nazis, they're automatically lying because all Germans are Nazis.

So anybody who says that they are trying to reform, I'm a peaceful Muslim, even though you're proving the -- the sun shine and lollipops left wrong and saying, "Look, no. These -- these guys are not who the left is saying they are. These -- this is part of the Nazi party. But there are these -- these Germans here that are fighting. But there are many Germans inside of those -- those mosques, if you will, that are only there because they're afraid they're going to be killed by the storm troopers." Am I right on that?

ZUHDI: Exactly. I mean, this is why -- her verbiage, her messaging is exactly what comes out of the supreme counsel of Iran, the Saudi Wahhabis. The Al-Azhar Universities, the establishment that whips and flogs Muslims like myself. In a country where we can do this work, there's actually an alt-jihad movement that is basically doing the bidding of those governments by saying, "Oh, the Mufti of Islam is it. There are no reformers. There is no reform possible." So, therefore, yes, they ignore the fact, Glenn, that we are contrite.

I admit, Islam has a major problem within it. We're frustrated. It has cancer. We are in the 15th century. But we need at least a little oxygen. Give us some breathing room to say, you know what, maybe reform is possible.

But when they say it's terminal -- when John Guandolo posts on his site and says Sebastian Gorka, because he said that reformers need to be supported, is unfit for duty and says that the Jassers of the world are utter nonsense and calls us a fantasy Islam, how does that actually then give us room to operate and let Americans see a solution?

I mean, I'm a doctor. When I see patients that have cancer, I don't just say, oh, that's it. Call a hospice. See you later.

No. Everybody needs hope. Our movement is about hope. We admit we're a minority. But give us some hope, for crying out loud, or else you're part of the alt-jihad.

GLENN: And I see now why you're calling it the alt-jihad because it is part of the alt-right movement. This all-on-nothing, Nazi kind of mentality of the alt-right needs all Muslims to be bad.

ZUHDI: And, you know, I didn't call it right because I think it sort of exists throughout the left and the right in America, that we -- there are two groups on each extreme that view Muslims in a monolith. Either Muslims are all peaceful, no problem, psychiatric or criminal. Or on the other side, they're either terrorists or terrorists in waiting.

And that's not the Islam I teach my kids. Granted, they can say I'm a liar about the narrative of the Prophet Muhammad. But do you think that the Islam I teach my kids demonizes and says the Prophet Muhammad is irredeemable? That's not how you reform Islam.

We have to come up -- call it mythology. Call it what you want. We have to come up with narratives of the Prophet Muhammad that are 21st century narratives and call that reform and renew the branding of Islam to an American type of Islam that's compatible with our Constitution. And if we can't make that distinction, Americans are going to get confused that there's no solution, except this cataclysmic battle against 25 percent of the world's population. And that's just absurd.

GLENN: Tell me one last thing: Is it Ali -- is it Allah Jah Izetbegovic (phonetic)? I don't know how to say it.

STU: Huge fan. We're huge fans.

GLENN: Yeah, huge fan.

Do you know the name? By the way, I butchered it.

ZUHDI: Yes, Alija Izetbegovic. You know, listen, on my podcast, I talked about many scholars that affected me. And Izetbegovic was the president of Bosnia. He was in prison 15 years. He talked about humanism and Islam. You know, was he an Islamist? Yeah, he was. He said, so, listen, I'm not an Islamist. But there's books that affected who I am.

Martin Luther was an anti-Semite. Justin had slaves. There are many people that affected who we are, that had things in their lives -- so then Spencer then publishes that I used an Islamic supremacist as a source of reform. That's absurd. We don't take authors, in toto. We take some of their messages.

I mean, if there was an author I could tell you is a reformer, we would just use him and say, let's follow him. But, no, we had to create or invent the Muslim reform movement that has 30, 40 different scholars that we use to inform what we're doing. Izetbegovic's book, Islam Between East and West, has a defense of secular humanism. The ideas of humanism being central to part of Islamic ideas. I don't buy his declaration. I reject it. Our Muslim reform movement rejects it. But what they want to do is cherrypick things I say to say, oh, that proves that I'm a stealth jihadists. So, therefore, forget the last hundreds of articles and books and speeches I've given, this proves that Jasser is actually lying. I mean, that's not American. That's not --

GLENN: Zuhdi, I have known you -- was I the first national host to bring you to the forefront?

ZUHDI: Absolutely. Back in 2006, on CNN.

GLENN: Okay. So 2006. I've known you since 2006. And I've heard you passionate about many things. I sense something different in your voice this time. A real sense of not despair, but overwhelming frustration here from people who you would hope that would be reasonable. Am I -- am I sensing something here, or is it just hogwash?

ZUHDI: You're right. I mean, I was blessed to have parents that came to the freest country in the world. And I'm getting squeezed from both sides of the political spectrum. And folks that are with me with a common enemy -- I don't care if they believe Islam is evil or whatever as a faith, but at least give us room to operate. And don't say the same things about me that the theocrats of Saudi Arabia and Iran say. Give us a little bit of room. And say, well, okay. Fine. A little benefit of the doubt that maybe there are versions where minority -- and in this country, when I hear this discourse between these two extremes, where are we supposed to operate? It's frustrating.

GLENN: Zuhdi Jasser, I admire you, sir. And if Pamela Geller doesn't know why Glenn Beck gives airtime to this voice, maybe the rest of the country can understand it, in just the last ten minutes. I think you have an important voice that has been silenced by what was the left for most of the last ten years.

And now apparently, being silenced by the right or wanting to be silenced. The alt-right. And it's just as wrong. And I stand with you, Zuhdi. And anything I can do to help expose you to more people, I will do. Anything I can help, I will do. I think you have an important voice. And I sure appreciate your willingness to continue to stand.

ZUHDI: Well, God bless you, thank you, Glenn. Appreciate it. Be well.

GLENN: You bet.

STU: And his podcast is on TheBlaze.com/radio. You should listen to it. Another thing, he threw out a lot of names, and a lot of them you may not be familiar with. One that he did mention that said, hey, you know, we need to give Zuhdi Jasser room to move and show that this can be reformed was Sebastian Gorka. That is a top adviser to Donald Trump, is what he's talking about there. So you talk about where this battle is happening. It's not on the right. It's not on the Donald Trump level. It's way out in the wilderness of Richard Spencer and Pamela Geller and all these other people out there. But it's important to know, that in the Trump administration, they're looking at Zuhdi Jasser as someone who is a real hope to solve this problem. And, you know --

GLENN: And thank God for that.

STU: I think you're right to sense that despair in him. But that's encouraging, right?

GLENN: Oh, it's very encouraging.

This is the guy I've been since 2006, I've been saying, Bush needed to listen to. Obama needed to listen to. The world needs to listen to. He gets it. He really gets it. And if you just want to hate Islam, he's not your guy. But if you believe -- I mean, I was just in a land where people are worshiping a half elephant, four-armed lady. I mean, I don't even -- I mean, you know. What the hell is that? Is what I was thinking.

Okay. What are the people like? If I'm going over, my job is to destroy all those people that have the elephant idol. Well, good luck with that. I don't want to join you. If you would like to help people get closer and closer to the truth and out of error, then let's have a conversation. I don't want to just be the destroyer of anything, unless you're trying to destroy everybody else. And that's what Islamists do. That's not what Zuhdi Jasser and millions of good Muslims do.

TV

Unmasking Antifa: The Dark Truth Behind Its Well-Funded Network | Glenn TV | Ep 461

The cities of Portland and Chicago are turning into war zones. Federal agents have been ambushed, police have been ordered to stand down, and mayors are defying the Constitution. It’s insurrection in plain sight. Glenn Beck heads to the chalkboard to uncover the hidden support and funding networks propping up Antifa. Glenn debunks the myth that Antifa is decentralized and leaderless, tracing connections from Soros to Tides and other shadowy nonprofits. Plus, independent journalist Nick Sortor joins from outside an ICE facility in Portland, where he was wrongfully arrested by police following attacks by Antifa members.

RADIO

Katie Porter's interview meltdown: A campaign killer?

Katie Porter, a Democratic candidate for governor of California, was the most favored candidate to replace Gavin Newsom. But her recent meltdown during a basic interview may have cost her everything. Glenn and Stu give their commentary on this trainwreck...

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Can we play the audio of Katie Porter?

Katie Porter, she's a Democrat representative from California, who ran for Senate and lost. And now she's running for governor. Yesterday, about this time, she was the frontrunner.

Today, she's not. I just want to play a clip of the interview she did yesterday.

VOICE: What do you say to the 40 percent of California voters who you'll need in order to win, to vote for Trump?

VOICE: How would I need them in order to win?

VOICE: Unless you're going to get 60 percent of the vote.

Everybody who did not vote for Trump, will vote for you.

VOICE: In the general election?

VOICE: Yes.

VOICE: If it's me versus a Republican, I think that I will win. The people who did not vote for Trump.

VOICE: What if it's you versus a Democrat?

VOICE: I don't intend that to be the case.

VOICE: So how have you intended that not to be the case? Are you going to ask them not to run?

VOICE: No, no, I said, I will build the support. I have the support already in terms of name recognition, and so I will do the very best I can, to make sure that we get through this primary in a very strong position. But let me be clear with you.

I represented Orange County. I represented a purple area. I even stood on my own two feet and won Republican votes before. That's not something every candidate in this race can say. If you're from a deep blue area. If you're from LA or you're from Oakland, you don't have --

VOICE: You just said you don't need those Trump voters.

VOICE: You asked me if I needed them to win. I feel like this is unnecessarily argumentative. What is your question?

VOICE: The question is the same thing I ask everybody, that this is being called the empowering voters who stop Trump's power grab. Every other candidate has answered this question. This is not --

VOICE: I said, I support it.

VOICE: And the question is, what do you say to the 40 percent of voters who voted for Trump?

VOICE: Oh, I'm happy to say that. It's the do you need them to win part that I don't understand. I'm happy to answer the question as you have it written, and I'll answer it.

VOICE: And we've also asked the other candidates, do you think you need any of those 40 percent of California voters to win? And you're saying, no. I don't.

VOICE: No. I'm trying to say, I will try to win every vote I can. And what I'm saying to you is that -- I don't want to keep doing this. I'm going to call it. Thank you.

GLENN: She gets up and walks away.

VOICE: You're not going to do the interview with us?
VOICE: No. Not like this, I'm not. Not with seven follow-ups to every single question you ask.

STU: Oh, God forbid.
VOICE: Every other candidate has --

VOICE: I don't care. I don't care.

I want to have a pleasant, positive conversation, which you ask me about every issue on this list.

And if every question that you're going to make up a follow-up question, then we're never going to get there.

I've never had to do this before, ever.

VOICE: You've never had to have a conversation with a reporter --

VOICE: To any interview.

VOICE: Okay. But every other candidate has done this.

VOICE: What part of, I'm me -- I'm running for governor because I'm a leader. So I am going to make --

VOICE: You're not going to answer questions from reporters?

Okay. Why don't we go through -- I will continue to ask follow-up questions because that's my job as a journalist. But I will go through and ask these, and if you don't want to answer, you don't want to answer.

So nearly every legislative --

VOICE: I -- I don't want to have an unhappy experience with you, and I don't want this all on camera.

VOICE: I don't want to have an unhappy experience with you either. I would love to continue to ask these questions so that we can show our viewers what every candidate feels about every one of these issues that they care about.

And redistricting is a massive issue. We're going to do an entire story just on responses to that question, and I've asked everybody the same follow-up question.

GLENN: Didn't go well.

STU: Wow.

GLENN: Didn't go well.

STU: This is somebody who is -- she kind of even says it. She's never had to deal with follow-up questions before.

GLENN: No. No.

STU: What an amazing -- we sometimes don't appreciate what -- what a great life it must be on the left.

GLENN: Oh. I've thought about that a lot.

STU: You just go -- oh, my God. You never have to deal with anything. No one ever asks you a follow-up. No one ever pushes you on anything. You just say whatever you want, and everyone just walks away, as if it's the greatest thing of all time.

That must be so fun.

GLENN: You would be so intellectually weak. So intellectually.

STU: Oh. I mean, you see it there. She asked one minor follow-up question that isn't adversarial at all, and she pulls the plug on the interview. I'm not going to do this. I don't want all of this on camera.

GLENN: Well, there's a lot that I haven't wanted on camera. It didn't stop anybody else.

STU: Right. That's when they get most excited with you.

GLENN: Yeah, I know. I know. I know.

STU: That's so bizarre. The reporter wasn't even going at her hard. It was like, hey. What do you mean, you don't need -- it's such a -- what a layup of a question, Glenn. No offense. But it's like, do you need the 40 percent of people to -- Trump voters to win.

You say, well, I want to get as many of them as I can. And, of course, I want to get as many as I can.

But I want to stand on my principle.

Any politician. That's not even a follow-up question.

It's like, "Do you want more voters?"

That's the hard question she walked out of an interview for?

GLENN: But remember who she is. Remember who she is.

Okay.

STU: Must we?

GLENN: Well, I mean, I think we have just proven, everything they said wasn't true. According to people who had worked in her office, she has made several -- multiple staffers cry. People are so anxious to even -- to even staff her, because if anything goes wrong, she flips out on whatever staffer is present. She just talks to staffers however she wants. One criticism of Porter is that she allegedly is a terrible person, according to some accounts, abusive and racist. Separate text messages surfaced in which Porter scolded a staffer for giving the congresswoman COVID.

One message said, she was rage-prone and had a tendency to disparage staffers. Others suggested her expectations were wildly unrealistic. One message accused her of making racist comments.

Those are from her staffer. And remember, those are from 2022. I mean, we've seen this. And they just buried all of that. And now you're starting to see it. You know, when you force people into uncomfortable situations, you generally see who they really are.

And that wasn't really an uncomfortable. That was a normal situation for anybody who is -- you can't handle that, sweetheart, you can't handle anything.

But imagine, you're in California. She was the front runner yesterday!

That's who everybody was like, "Yeah, I'll probably vote for her."

It was yesterday!

STU: Yeah. Looking at Kalshi, running the prediction markets, and she was at a 40 percent chance to win, which was double anybody else in the race.

And today, she's now a slight underdog in the race from that interview. It was that bad.

Now, we don't know how the electorate actually responds to it --

GLENN: We don't know how much people will actually see it.

It can run and go away.

STU: Oh, conservatives will see that today. Because conservatives will play it like crazy. Will people who might actually vote for her see it, is a totally different question.

GLENN: How do we -- you know, we watch ABC, CNN. We have MSNBC on in front of us all the time. We listen to NPR. We listen to -- you know, the New York Times. We read the New York Times.

STU: Maybe it's time to appreciate us a little bit more. Just saying. We do that for you, every day.

GLENN: Yeah. We do it, so you don't have to. However, we bring those things up all the time. On the air.

We know where the other side stands.

There are stories that just don't hit that side.

STU: Yeah. They have no idea.

GLENN: And they don't listen to anything else. And so there are stories like that -- that stupid story of -- the judge's house burning down. There will be people forever, that believe that was a hate crime.

STU: Okay.

GLENN: There is no evidence of anything.

STU: Even of arson.

GLENN: There's nothing.

STU: Let alone some conservative that did it.

GLENN: It was a house that burned down.

That's all we know now.

They had to immediately jump to, it's a house of a judge. That judge stopped Donald Trump. Harmeet Dhillon wrote a really, absolutely innocuous, you know, hey, this judge just made this ruling.

We will fight that every way, we possibly can. That can't stand!

They took that and said, Harmeet Dhillon was targeting this judge. So somebody went on the right, and burned that judge's house down.

None of that -- there's no evidence of any of that. They don't even know what caused the fire yet. And I'll bet you, you're going to find out, that it wasn't arson, it was just a normal fire.

It was 11 o'clock in the morning.

It was just a normal fire. The house burned down. A tragedy. Glad that nobody was hurt. Well, her husband was hurt in it.

He had some broken bones and stuff, as he tried to get out of the house. And we wish them the best. But you're going to find, I think. And I'll correct it if we find differently. It wasn't any of those things.

But they have reported that now as fact. How many people are going to believe that forever?

I can guarantee you, I have members of my own family, who will bring that up to me. Well, you say violence. What about burning the judge's house down?

And I have to say, that's not true. Yes, it is.

And they won't believe me, because they heard it on MSNBC. They heard it on CNN. They heard it on the Washington Post. And so they just believe it. There are no facts to back them. None! Now, there may be in the future. Maybe in a couple of days. Let the process work. But there's none. These journalists on the left are so unbelievably irresponsible. And then because they have zombified their entire base, their base will not listen to the other side.

There are stories, I guarantee you. Think about how many people are going to believe from here on out, that Charlie Kirk was either killed by a Jew or somebody in his own camp or it was a left-winger. It was a Donald Trump MAGA killer.

Because that's what they said. And they're not listening to you.

They're not watching Fox. They're not getting their news.

They don't -- all news from major traditionally trusted sources. They watch all of that. And they think they're getting a variety.

Well, I read the Times and the Post. Oh, New York Post or Washington Post?

Well, not the -- the New York Post.

The Washington Post. There's no variety there.

STU: It's the same thing.

And this is how something like you can change your gender with a series of magical words comes into effect.

GLENN: It's how global warming is real.

STU: A liberal hears something like the gender stuff, for example. And they hear it for the first time.

And they just like you, react the same way. They -- what? What do you mean, you can just become a girl? What are you talking about?

They, in their minds, react the same way when they hear that. And then they hear it 500,000 times unchallenged.

GLENN: And saying, science is settled.

STU: And they're like, wow. I must have been wrong about that.

GLENN: If they have nothing to back it up, like in this burning down the house. They just say it over and over. And people go, well, they wouldn't say that, if it wasn't true.

STU: Right. And I don't hear anybody else. Oh, except for the crazy conservatives. That's what they're saying.

So, I mean, this is why -- I have hope, again. There's a lot of work to be done. She has a difficult job. But I hope for the Bari Weiss situation. It would be great if there was just an organization out of all of the ones that exist, that just comes out and gives you fair -- you know, balanced stuff. Now, I know Fox does that. But they're seen more as a conservative network obviously. But their slogan for years was fair and balanced. And it was seen by people who watched it and watched other networks. As the most balanced.

GLENN: Yeah. I think it was 40 -- 30 or 40 percent of the audience was Democrat.

STU: Democrat. So there's plenty of people who -- who will actually go and read and listen to other things.

But it's not particularly common. And I don't know -- what might happen is if the coverage by Bari Weiss over at CBS is, quote, unquote, too fair. They will be --

GLENN: They will be --

STU: They will be seen as a right-wing network and dismissed again.

GLENN: Yeah. That's how they will make them. And, by the way, congratulations, I was so glad to see GLAAD and everybody else, you know, LGBT celebrate Bari Weiss getting that position.

STU: Smashing another glass ceiling.

GLENN: Another glass ceiling. Yeah, it is amazing, what can be done.

STU: Too much fanfare. I was really overwhelmed by it.

GLENN: It really was. Yes. It's a first. But do we have to make that big of a deal out of it?

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: Or did you hear anything?

STU: I didn't hear one word about it. Not one word of celebration. No one -- no one -- again, this is a person who founded the free press. With her wife!

It was just bought by a major media organization for nine figures. And she's now the editor-in-chief. Or, yeah.

Is it editor-in-chief of CBS News.

Not a -- no flowery discussions about her sexual preference.

GLENN: No. No.

STU: Her sexual orientation.

GLENN: And she's not even conservative.

STU: No. She's not.

GLENN: She's just fair.

STU: She describes herself as center left. And this is how desperate we are in the race.

Wait. Someone who is center left, and actually kind of means something with her. She will actually say it, because sometimes conservatives are right on stuff.

We're like fine. We're not even asking for --

GLENN: Look at how desperate we are. But look at the other side. How authoritarian they are, on the other side.

You can't even say, occasionally they get it right!

No! Never.

STU: Never.

GLENN: And we're the authoritarians.

RADIO

Under Biden, the FBI secretly spied on GOP senators

According to newly released information, the FBI under President Biden secretly obtained the phone records of 8 Republican senators as part of an investigation called “Arctic Frost.” But while the FBI claimed it was about “election integrity,” Glenn has another take: This could be a WORSE scandal than Watergate…

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: I fell compelled to tell you today, that if your church, your synagogue, you know, is -- is not telling you these things and -- and helping you deal and navigate through the waters today, and showing you how the Bible actually is the answer to the things that you're dealing with in real life every day, you need to go find another church or synagogue. You must!

You must.

Anyone who is ignoring this, at this point, is either so under-equipped for the times. And so blind to the times, and clearly not getting any promptings from the spirit. Or they don't get it, or they are afraid because they're afraid of controversy. You know, in times where the truth is controversial, there's nothing you can do accept tell the truth. I mean, if you want to fix things. The truth right now is the most controversial thing you can say. A man is a man. Never will be a woman. Never.

The problem is: We keep conflating all of these problems with politics. And that's the problem!

I want you to just for a second play this monologue for your friends, who don't agree with me: You don't have to like Donald Trump to see the danger we're now in. You don't have to vote Republican or wear a red hat or cheer at rallies. You just really, all you have to do is love the idea of America. Not the flag-waving. The idea that man can rule himself, that we do not have a king or a dictator, or a cabal of people that run things.

There is no master. Government serves us! We are in charge of government, not the other way around. That's -- that's the American dream. That's what makes us different.

You also have to believe, that the scales of justice must stay balanced. I have told you from the first day, you know, after 9/11 when things got serious. I stand with the Constitution. Anyone who violates the Constitution, I will stand against. And I am a hawk on that! If the story that I'm about to tell you is true, and so far, all signs point that it is, then something has gone very, very wrong in our constitutional republic. The FBI under this administration, secretly obtained the phone records of nine Republican lawmakers. Sorry. Not this administration. The former administration.

They've released it, Trump has just released it. They have the phone records of nine Republican lawmakers, eight sitting US senators. They were not suspected terrorists. They're not foreign spies. They're elected officials. They're public servants. They work for you. People who work to represent millions of people, just like you.

And the FBI had a -- a vet investigation that we have now just found out, and all of the documents are there. It was called Arctic Frost.

The bureau said, this is about election integrity. But we now know, it swept up elective representatives, all from one party, without any -- anybody's knowledge.

Now, this is not 1972. We're not talking about a couple of thugs, that broke into a file cabinet, at Watergate.

This is much bigger than Watergate. And I want anybody who disagrees with Donald Trump to ask themselves: The documents are here.

If this was Donald Trump doing this, I would be with you and saying, this is authoritarianism, and it must stop now!

Why will you not join my voice with this? We're talking about digital surveillance. Invisible, vast, far more powerful than a hidden microphone in the Watergate building.

Chuck Grassley said, "It's arguably worse than Watergate."

And he's right! Because this time the government did not just spy on its political enemies from a smoky back room in DC in a hotel. It did it from inside the federal agencies that we're supposed to trust, that are supposed to protect people's rights. Now, if you have been told all your life that the real danger only comes from the right, that corruption, dishonesty, abuse of power is exclusive to conservatives, then I'm asking to you pause and to look again. Because the documents have just been released. When one side can weaponize the justice system and the other side cheers it on, justice dies for everyone. And it makes people who now want to say, "But look what they did."

They feel justified to get revenge. "Well, if they're doing it, we can do it."

And that leads all of us to hell. Then we're all in trouble.

People have been defending James Comey and have been saying, then this is just a political hit job by Donald Trump.

No, it is not. Again, look at the facts. He was accused to lying to Congress. It's not political persecution. When a grand jury recommends charges, that's not politics, that's the process! That's how our system is supposed to work. Now he goes to trial. That doesn't make him guilty. But it does mean, he has to face the same standard of justice, as you or I would! In America, no one is supposed to be above the law. Not Donald Trump. Not James Comey. Not Joe Biden or Hunter Biden. Not anyone sitting in the White House today or yesterday! Because in America, no one is above the law!

Now we have candidates. One running for attorney general in Virginia. Who openly flirt with violent rhetoric. And the media yawns! They call it, quote, colorful language. Quote, that's just politics!

No, it's not. When threats and intimidation become normal, when justice becomes selective, when the press decides who's innocent and who's guilty before the evidence is even in, the republic begins to rot from within.

So many people -- so many of our neighbors are just exhausted. And they've tuned everything out because it all sounds like noise. You know, they all lie. And nobody is going to pay.

That's what people say to themselves.

You stop caring, because the truth seems impossible to find. But when documents are -- are produced. And prove the truth! There is no argument. And the truth still does matter! If you want a civil society, justice still matters! And whether you voted for Trump or can't stand him. Whether you think Biden was a saint or a disappointment. None of that matters. What matters is: Do we still believe in equal justice under the law? Because if we lose that, we lose the promise of America itself, and you will get a dictator on the left or the right!

So I'm asking you, not as a conservative or a liberal, but as an American: Do not look away from this story. This is worse than Watergate. What happened in Watergate?

We had all kinds of hearings. Not to get the president. We had all kinds of hearings, to make sure that never happened again!

I can't tell you how many private conversations I have had with senators, who have said to me, whispered in my ear, they're monitoring everything I do and say!

No senator should ever feel that! No Republican, no Democrat, no independent, no communist. No one should ever feel that way in America!

But that will only stop when we demand fairness, when it makes you and your side uncomfortable, when you hold power accountable, even if it's your team holding it!

What will happen is: This story will go out. People will talk about it. The right will talk about it. They'll try to show the evidence. The left will not listen. The media will not report it. And then when it is all proven to be true, the media will say, "That's all old news."

And everyone will move on. And what does that do to the machine? It means the machine is never turned off. It means the machine gets more power. It means, next time, it could be you. If you don't punish whichever side is doing it, what happens? If you don't -- if Democrats don't tell the AG in Virginia, "This is unacceptable, and we do not tolerate that at all," what happens next? Stop dealing with what's happening now. Look over the horizon. What does that mean for tomorrow?

Justice can never be partisan. Never! Truth must never depend on who's in office. And America, this beautiful, fragile idea will only survive if both sides refuse to let blindness become loyalty.

Okay? Whether you like it or not, we are in this together. Gold just hit $4,005 an ounce. I have told you for 15 years, if gold hits $5,000 an ounce, you don't want to live in that world. That means the world is coming apart at the seams. Goldman Sachs just said their prediction is gold at $5,000 an ounce. That means, the trust of all of our institutions, the trust of our dollar. The trust of our government. The trust of our banking. The trust of our business.

All of that is up for grabs. You do not want to live in that world.

I told you yesterday, when I was talking about Civil War. That's not a TV show!

That means the end of all of the dreams that you have had for your children, coming to an end!

You no longer will be able to predict what their life will be like!

Now, you may not like it the way it is. But believe me, it is better than living in Somalia or Haiti!

Haiti is what revolution looks like.

Haiti is what Civil War leaves behind. Start looking at the news. What does this mean on what's coming next? And because of what that will lead to, what must I do today?

Today, you must look at the facts. Today -- today is an easy day. You must look at the facts of what was released yesterday on Operation Arctic Frost. And then you must demand Republican and Democrat, this must end!

TV

Dr. Oz DEBUNKS government shutdown lies about health care

Democrats are playing "high-stakes poker" with the government shutdown, and they’re "running out of chips," says Dr. Oz, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services administrator for President Trump. He joins Glenn on this week’s "Glenn TV" Friday Exclusive to debunk the Left’s lies — like is the shutdown REALLY about providing "lifesaving" care for illegal migrants? (Hint: No, no it’s not.) Plus, Dr. Oz explains why Americans are paying higher prices for medicine than Europeans and what the Trump administration is doing to remedy the situation, WITHOUT losing medical innovation here at home (there’s a reason why wealthy Europeans come to America for cancer treatment). He explains how TrumpRx — to be launched next year — will "bring transparency to the process" of finding affordable medicine, in an effort to ensure that no U.S. citizen has to "decide between groceries and medicine." Plus, Dr. Oz explains why the initiative will begin with Pfizer, despite the dark cloud COVID left over the pharmaceutical giant.