GLENNMarch 15, 2017

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.

RADIO

THIS move by Ron DeSantis DEVASTATED Gavin Newsom in debate

California Governor Gavin Newsom entered enemy territory and debated Florida Governor and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis on Sean Hannity's Fox News show. But was that a good decision in the long run? Glenn and Stu review the debate and reveal who they believe won. Glenn also points out the strategy that DeSantis used in the debate that he believes was most effective.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: So the New York Times, their buying takeaway with the debate with Gavin Newsom and DeSantis is. That it was unfair. It was stacked -- of course. It was on the Sean Hannity show, on Fox.

That would be like me saying, you know what, I'm going to go on. And I'm going to debate Gavin Newsom, on CNN.

And then the big takeaway from TheBlaze was, it was unfair. Of course it's unfair.

STU: And I don't even know if it's fair to say it was unfair.

GLENN: You're on Fox. He's a conservative.

And, quite honestly, you've got DeSantis, who is really good.

STU: Yeah. Really good.

GLENN: Really good.

STU: So the taking of this debate by Newsom is a high degree of difficulty, right?

It's not an easy task to go on the Hannity Show and beat Ron DeSantis in the debate.

I will say, it's one of those things going in. If you don't think you can absolutely dominate. Absolutely dominate Ron DeSantis. You don't take this opportunity. Quote, unquote, opportunity.

So a couple of takeaways from this. From the big picture. And we should play some of the clips. Number one, Newsom blew up his career last night.

GLENN: He had a good chance.

You don't take this on, unless you're somebody that can actually, you know, do it. Knock him out.

You have to have -- you had to be so confident, that you could walk in, to an opposing field.

You know, where things are going to be stacked against you. Just because.

STU: Right.

GLENN: And take him on. And have a couple of knockout punches. Did he have any?

STU: No. It was really a catastrophe for him.

So you had -- the interesting part of this. If you're going to take this in a way that will make you understand the Newsom choice. This was basically the last wall here, for the person who wants to say, we need to replace Joe Biden.

Like, this is not working with Biden. We need someone who is going to do something different than lose with an 81-year-old candidate. Right?

Like, you need somebody who will do something impressive. Let's just -- let me give you a different scenario here.

GLENN: Okay.

STU: You have a situation where Gavin Newsom comes into this very unfriendly room. Against a tough candidate. And destroys Ron DeSantis in the debate. Let's say that happens.

There would be people excited to say, guys, look, we love Joe Biden.

He served our party for 50 years.

But come on. He's losing to Donald Trump. Gavin Newsom would destroy Donald Trump. We have to make that move.

This is about the last chance you have, to make a move like that.

GLENN: All right. Let me go on a couple of things.

STU: It didn't happen, though. Right?

So we had an opportunity here. It didn't happen.

GLENN: So here is a clip. DeSantis versus Newsom. Watch this.

VOICE: The stats are very clear. On a per capita age-adjusted basis, California and Florida, basically the same. Now, why is that important?

Because Gavin Newsom did huge damage to people in California. He ruined livelihoods. We reopened it very quickly.

We saved thousands of jobs. We saved hundreds of thousands of jobs. Thousands of businesses.

We had our kids in school. He had the kids locked out of school, because of the teacher's union.

That is having a generational impact. California is one of the lowest literacy rates in the country, and the most recent nape exam, Florida came in number three for fourth grade reading.

California was far, far hidden.

So you should apologize for not getting your kids in school.

Why didn't you get the kids in school, in the summer of 2020, like we did?

STU: The only person --

GLENN: That didn't do the job you should have --

I mean, that's what would happen in any debate.

STU: Right.

GLENN: So that's not unfair.

And I don't think Hannity was unfair.

STU: No. Look, he's a conservative. Everyone knows he's a conservative.

GLENN: Right. It's just stacked against you.

It is going -- it's Gavin Newsom going into enemy territory.

But I have news for you, gang.

That's what Republicans do, every debate. Every debate.

STU: All the time! Every debate is that way for conservatives.

GLENN: Right.

So here he is on the gender books in schools. Cut five.

VOICE: Or is it the role of the school? What is the role?

VOICE: The role of the school is to educate kids.

Not to indoctrinate kids. It's not to impose an agenda. It's to do the basics.

And what we've said in Florida is, it's inappropriate to tell a kindergartner that their gender is a choice. It's inappropriate to tell a second grader, that they may have been born in the wrong body.

Now, California has that. They want to have that injected into the elementary school. My wife and I have a seven, five, and a three-year-old. And we don't think that's appropriate.

And I know most parents do not think it's appropriate.

It's also important to respect, parental rights, to know what curriculum is being used in the classroom. And everything should be age appropriate.

I actually have something that I brought, that some parents have objected to.

So this is a book in some of the schools in California. Florida, this is not consistent with our standards. Called gender queer. Some of it is blacked out. You would not probably be able to put it on air.

This is pornography. It's cartoons. It's aimed at children. And it's wrong.

So this should not be at schools. When people like, on the left, say, somehow you're banning books. When you're removing this from a young kid's classroom. No, this is not age appropriate.

So we will stand for the rights of parents. I think we will do that nationwide. I don't think you can have a situation where some states just trample on the rights of parents.

Parents have a fundamental right to direct the education and upbringing of their kid.

GLENN: I have to tell you, I think DeSantis should take this, as a massive win.

What Gavin Newsom was trying to do with be to -- to tell the Democrats, I'll destroy these guys.

DeSantis just did.

STU: This should be DeSantis entire campaign right now.

Show people what it would look like, if he were the candidate. If you were in the general, this is what you would get.

Remind people, that this is what he should do. Now, look, you won't get idiotic governors to come and debate you.

It wouldn't make sense to do debates with governors. You do have an entire liberal media. You have The View. You have a million opportunities where you can go and do these types of things.

It's like, take those opportunities. And show those -- it's difficult to walk the line. Right?

As a Republican candidate in this primary. We've seen zero people be successful as Trump walked in. Dozens have candidates have tried this.

It's really hard to walk this line. A lot of people like Trump. You can't really say anything bad about him. It's just a difficult thing to do.

This is not difficult. There are a million people on the left, that want to take their shot at Ron DeSantis.

Go in there. Mix it up with the left constantly.

Act like you're the general election candidate.

Go there and show everybody, how much better you will be than any of the other candidates. That's probably his about best path to winning this thing.

GLENN: Let's go to cut seven.

VOICE: Do you think 100 percent. 100 percent.

VOICE: By the way, results matter. Inflation now is down to 3.2 percent. Wages are up to 4.4 percent. The economy is booming.

5.2 percent GDP growth in the last --

GLENN: Booming.

VOICE: Those are facts you don't hear on Fox news, 14 million jobs.

VOICE: That was a lightning round. Now, on March 31st.

GLENN: Bidenomics. He's selling.

STU: Yeah, by the way, Biden has stopped saying this. You notice this. He's not said it in a month.

He's touted Bidenomics constantly. All of a sudden, he completely stopped saying it.

GLENN: Right. Let me play one more here. This is DeSantis showing a map of San Francisco.

Watch this.

VOICE: This is a map of San Francisco. There's a lot of plots on that. You may be asking, what is that plotting?

Well, this is a map that they plot the human species on the streets of San Francisco.

STU: He's horrible.

VOICE: Because that is what has happened in one of the previous, greatest cities this country has ever had.

Human feces is now a fact of life. Except when a communist dictator comes to down. Then they cleaned up the streets. They lined the streets with Chinese flags. They didn't put American flags there. They cleaned everything up.

So they're willing to do it for a communist dictator. But they're not willing to do it for their own.

STU: Incredible.

GLENN: Just he was stunning. He was stunning. Last night.

STU: And this is one of the things. Gavin Newsom in theory, is much better than Gavin Newsom in reality.

This idea, he's a younger guy. He's a good-looking guy. He's well-spoken.

Watch him. All you can say watching that television screen last night, any rational observer would look at Gavin Newsom, and just think of the word douche. That is who that guy is.

I know it's not the nicest way to put it. I got it. But that's all you would think about watching him. And the idea that this is their bench. This is the guy that they're defending on for the future of the party, should give you incredible optimism for the future of conservatism.

RADIO

What the media got WRONG about Elon Musk's 'go f*** yourself' statement

Elon Musk shocked the media when he told companies that are trying to use advertising money to blackmail him to "go f*** yourself." But that's not how the media is reporting it. They're suggesting that Musk just doesn't want advertisers who disagree with him. But Glenn, who has faced these kind of attacks before from the likes of Media Matters, explains what he really meant: "He’s saying, 'if you want me to bend and silence people so you could pose and you won’t be boycotted, screw yourself.'" "I'm not selling my soul," Glenn says. And he encourages Elon to continue doing the same.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: The Elon Musk audio yesterday, CNN is saying he said to advertisers that didn't want to advertise on X, to F off. That's not what he said. Listen.

Do we have it?

VOICE: Apology tour, if you will.

That this had been said online.

There was all of the criticism. There were advertisers. We even talked to Bob --

VOICE: Don't advertise.

VOICE: You don't want them to advertise?

VOICE: No.

VOICE: What do you mean?

VOICE: If someone is going to try to blackmail with advertising, blackmail me for money, go (bleep) yourself.

VOICE: But.

VOICE: Go (bleep) yours.

I hope it is. Hey, Bob. I'm sure he's in the audience.

GLENN: So what was he saying? He wasn't saying, if you don't want to advertise. He's saying, if you want me to bend and silence people so you could pose and you won't be boycotted, screw yourself.

I'm not playing that game. I don't want your money that badly.

This is the way Americans, all Americans should be.

I don't want your blood money.

No, thank you.

I don't want it. If you want me to sell my soul. Because that's what's happening here. You are selling your soul.

Every time somebody tells you to compromise, to just go along to get along.

Angel Studios is coming out with a movie on boon horrify. And I can't wait. I saw the trailer yesterday.

I can't wait.

But Bonhoeffer said, our silence in the face of evil is evil itself.

We're by remaining silent, by not standing up. By compromising. By just letting the bullies win. It's evil.

What you're doing. And it will cost your soul. So I'm sorry. But if somebody is coming to me and he's driven by what he truly, really believes -- and I'm not saying Disney isn't. But if you come to me with a threat, and say, you better change this, or we're going to all boycott you.

We're going to destroy you.

Is there a bigger definition of evil than that? I'm not selling my soul.

I wouldn't -- he's saying, I'm not going to sell my soul, for what? $55 billion.

It's a pretty high price tag. But I'm not going to sell my soul.

My number is a lot smaller than that.

It's amazing. Tomorrow, I want to talk to you about it. Because Stu and I have been talking about, has a a genius. He's a genius of geniuses, okay?

And we rarely see these people.

But there is something to Tesla. He picked Tesla, for a reason.

And I don't think enough people. They're like, oh, yeah. Well, he was, you know, the electric guy. And he wanted to electrify things. And, you know, Tesla.

No. There's a lot more to Tesla's story than that. And I think if you really want to understand him.

I could be wrong on this. I think if you really want to understand him, you have to understand Tesla.

You have to understand Edison. Tesla.

You have to understand Howard Hughes.

You have to understand Orson Wells.

You have to understand these people, who when their back was against the wall went, screw you!

I will talk a little bit about that tomorrow.

STU: Yeah, this is the ultimate power, to be able not to care about this. And this just doesn't come with his money for Elon Musk.

GLENN: No. There's a lot of people. There's a lot of people.

If he cared about money, he would fold.

STU: Yeah. And everything -- everybody from his younger years, says he never talked about money, when he was trying to develop these ideas.

It was never the idea that drove him.

He figured, eventually, it would come from this.

He at one point, said, I'll either end up incredibly wealthy or have $0.

GLENN: I think I've been quoted saying that too.

STU: Zero for you than him.

GLENN: We'll -- we'll be living the high life or I'll be living under a bridge.

STU: Right. But I think that's essential to understand his mindset. You know, at some -- it's like, one of the reasons why I started reading the book about him. Was because I don't fully understand some of the stuff that happens with him.

At some point, I'm like, is he the most amazing businessman in the world? Or is he not really good businessman at all?

It's not even a criticism. It's like, he doesn't care about the business side of it, in some way. It's not exactly true. Because obviously he's built these giant companies, and he's been very successful.

GLENN: He's a genius.

He's just -- he doesn't seem to care as much about the business side.

STU: Right.

The priority for him is whatever emission he's decided. And he, early on in life, believed.

It was three things that he believed were really important.

One was space travel. One was the environment. I'm trying to think what the third one was.

GLENN: It wasn't chicks.

STU: No.

GLENN: No. Again, he seemed to have participated in this book a lot.

So I don't know how -- if he would say it was completely fair.

They definitely make him out. At times to be pretty rough. On some of his -- of his mates.

As throughout life. Like, they had some pretty rough relationships on both sides.

GLENN: Look at the way he was raised. Both sides.

STU: Of course, I think it was central to who he is.

GLENN: It is. It is.

STU: Look, I don't think he's the easiest person to deal with. People in his life say that. But also, that's part of the way he's been able to achieve what he's been able to achieve.

GLENN: I knew a guy who was a genius. Absolute genius.

STU: Thanks, man.

GLENN: No. Nothing like you.

An absolute genius. The guy could do and think in levels you can't even imagine. Okay?

He so many times, would just be frustrated. You know, I would talk to him and think -- and he would be like, oh, God. No. Glenn. This.

And I said to him at one point, you -- you get tired of people talking to you, who just cannot think as fast. I don't think -- I've never seen Elon talk down to people.

I mean, he may, in his private life. I have never seen him in public, talk down to people. I've never seen him frustrated.

But he's got to be.

Because he's thinking it -- it -- at different levels.

And all of these press people. How -- how frustrated are people who actually are trying to do something, they believe in.

And then, everyone around them, is trying to make it about something that is so much smaller.

STU: Right.

GLENN: Your fame. Your fortune. Whatever. Politics.

Yeah. You've got to just be, oh, God.

Would these people, shut up. They -- I mean, open your mind a bit. And see a bigger picture.

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: I -- I -- he has to go through that, a lot. A lot.

STU: I think he does.

I think that's definitely true.

RADIO

THIS is who the government is TARGETING instead of REAL terrorists

Instead of protecting our skies from actual threats, the Department of Homeland Security has ordered federal air marshals to focus on 2 things: doing menial tasks at the border and following people affiliated with January 6th. But if that isn't frustrating enough, Glenn speaks with former federal air marshal Sonya Hightower-LaBosco, who is blowing the whistle about who our government is targeting. According to her, the list of people affiliated with January 6th includes an 8-week-old BABY who wasn't even conceived at the time of the riot. Sonya explains the insane illogic behind that decision as well as what she believes all this nonsense may lead to: "My biggest concern is we're going to have another 9/11."

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Okay. So last night, I was having a conversation, with Sonya Hightower LaBosco. And this is how it ended. Listen to this.

This person returned to the hotel. It is important to know that, blank, never set foot in the Capitol grounds. In fact, suffered from a disability that makes it difficult for her to walk.

This air marshal, the 27 years of experience. Do you remember this case?

What was he assigned to do?

SONYA: I do. And that's his wife we're talking about, Glenn. He's a special air ops marshal, and he assigns the teams of air marshals to follow these individuals that are on Quiet Skies or Select D. So this air marshal actually came in. It was his job to assign the missions for that day. Opened his computer and saw a photograph of his wife listed as a suspected domestic terrorist, knowing that she had nothing to do with the Capitol. She didn't even go to the Capitol that day. And we proved that through many, many different ways from geo tracking, her cell phone, her Uber receipts. You name it. We proved it.

GLENN: All right. I have less than a minute. You have to tell me if this is true. Did we actually use the air marshal to track a four -- what was it? A four-month old, four-week-old baby?

SONYA: Yes, Glenn. We're doing that now. The baby is eight week old. The baby was not even conceived. An eight-week-old baby, who is on the terrorist watch list. That is correct.

GLENN: I didn't have time to fully delve into why our air marshals are following. And I bet it's not hard to track, the eight-week-old newborn that is now on the terrorist watch list.

Now, one of my kids, well, two of my kids, they were born with I believe explosive stuff in their system.

And when they would drop a bomb, sometimes, it was nasty. But I never thought, we should call an air marshal.

But apparently, at eight weeks, I mean, that's basic boot camp, isn't it?

Eight weeks. What can these babies do to us?

Sonya is with us again.

Sonya, tell us the story of the eight-week-old baby.

SONYA: Okay. So, Glenn, this story was just broke by Uncover DC and Wendy Mahone. This eight-week-old baby is on the terrorist watch list. And it's not just one air marshal that will be signed. It's a minimum of three. So you will have three air marshals following this eight-week-old baby. No matter if the baby travels with the grandparents. If the baby just travels with cousins. It doesn't matter. Once the baby is on the list, by their name, the baby is going to stay on that list.

GLENN: Okay. Hang on. Hang on.

Did the parents do something?

SONYA: The father, I think the father was -- I think they got him for parading on January the 6th. I think he faced a charge. Yeah. He either walked through the Capitol. Or he did something of that nature, on January the 6th.

GLENN: Parading. Oh, my gosh. Not parading.

SONYA: And this is -- I think it was his fiancé that booked the ticket for her and the baby. I don't know if they're married. I think this was his fiancé. But she booked the tickets for her and the baby to go on, I think a holiday vacation down to Puerto Rico.

GLENN: So he wasn't even with them?

SONYA: No, he wasn't with them then. He wasn't. No. He wasn't.

GLENN: Huh.

SONYA: So he's with them now, they are a family. So they were flying down to visit family, I just in Puerto Rico. And lo and behold, you know, they get to the airport. She gets to the airport. They print out the boarding passes.

And here's the baby. As you can see, I think I sent you the picture.

It's the infant on the boarding pass. It says INFT, and it has the four showcasing that they're on the watch list.

GLENN: Well, has the baby blown anything up? I mean, just I have to ask. Has the baby -- is the baby involved in things right now? I mean, you never can tell.

SONYA: I mean, Glenn, the baby wasn't even born. The baby wasn't even conceived. Wasn't even thought at that moment.

This was back in January of 2021. We're going three years later.

GLENN: This is unbelievable.

SONYA: I mean, I knew -- I knew that we had been following a 6-year-old boy and a 9-year-old child. I knew that. That was the all-time low for the information we received. But when we received the information on the eight-week-old baby, I mean, how -- how low can you go, within the government, for these -- these -- to pacify the swamp, right?

Because this is what we're pacifying with TSA and the air marshals.

We're pacifying the swamp members that want Americans targeted because they exercised their First Amendment right or they attended a rally, or they weren't even there. Anyone affiliated with January 6th, whether you were at the Capitol or the rally. It does not matter. The swamp wants you targeted.

GLENN: So to give people perspective, and Sonya, I believe one of the most -- I think we did two things right after 9/11.

We put air marshals on the plane. And we made the -- the door to the pilots bulletproof. Those two things, I think are the best things we ever did.

Everything else was just government nonsense, for the most part, I think. At least the way it's been executed.

The -- the air marshals are not on board of our planes now.

Because they're not only just following babies and children. But they are also on our border.

Correct?

SONYA: That is correct, Glenn. We have been forced to go down to the border for over two years now.

The Air Marshal National Council, the group I've worked with. We've been fighting that because we know that we have very limited resources in the first place.

I mean, the air marshals are only a couple of thousand, specialty group, inside of TSA, which TSA is a big administrative 65,000 bureaucratic agency.

I mean, you have this little small law enforcement component, inside of this administrative agency. And they're smothering, our duties as law enforcement, with all their bureaucratic administrative red tape that they are using for a political agenda.

GLENN: And our air marshals are doing what, on the border?

SONYA: They're doing non-law enforcement duties, non-law enforcement. They are driving people to the hospital. They are walking around the facility once an hour, and checking -- while everything is quiet. I didn't see any doors unlocked. They were at the front gates, signing vehicles in and out.

Okay. Well, there's a delivery. All right. This first came in at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. They left at 2:30. They're handing out water. They're making sandwiches. They are doing nothing, nothing that they should be doing to thwart hijacking in the aircraft.

GLENN: What's your biggest concern on all of this?

SONYA: My biggest concern is that we're going to have another 9/11, Glenn. We're blinking red. If there was ever a time in this country. It's not even incompetence.

This is not incompetence. This is intentional.

How can you take the only resource we have from the air. And put them down on the border, to do no duty.

That's the thing.

We're not even doing anything down there, and we're letting the American people. We're ushering in illegals. We're catering to the illegals.

And the American people who buy train tickets. And pay security fees. And expect to be safe. Have nobody looking out for them.

GLENN: You know what is amazing to me is I didn't even put the air -- I didn't even think of the air marshals. Story after story, sometimes it feels like it's once a week.

We'll hear about some crazy person on a plane. That started an argument. Or whatever.

And not once have I thought, wait a minute.

Where is the air marshal?

Because the air marshals are the ones that -- hey. Sit down. If there's a problem. You don't usually have to land the plane right away. For some jerk, which the airlines have been doing.

These -- all these incidents of these jerks on planes, that's maybe happening more often, because we don't have an air marshal. Is that logical?

SONYA: Glenn, that's logical. Look, and these have been some very serious incidents. If you look over the last two years. Just alone, when we're fighting. We know the air marshals are on the are border.

We have had flight attendants stabbed. We have had breaches of the cockpit.

GLENN: Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait.

What?

SONYA: Yes. We've had -- United Flight 2609 from Los Angeles to Boston, in 2022, there was a flight attendant stabbed on that aircraft. That's correct.

GLENN: How -- what did they use? A plastic knife?

SONYA: He -- he went in, we're not sure where he got it.

He made some type of homemade shank in the bathroom. We don't know if he had it on him or did he get a spoon. We don't know how he -- he made a shank.

GLENN: Okay. So that happened in the last two years, and we still don't know how he did that.

Okay. And then the cockpits have been breached?

SONYA: Yes. Well, there's been level four threats, that's been called out, with the captain stating that the cockpits, they were trying to reach the cockpit.

There has been incident after incident that has happened. And every one of these incidents were normal flights air marshals would have been on. The long hall flights. Remember, that's when al-Qaeda took our planes for, when they took them. They took the planes with the most fuel, so that's east coast to west coast. Those are flights we normally would have been on. But we're not on those flights. Because we're at the border, or following January 2021 people that were at the rally or at the Capitol. That's what our duties are doing.

GLENN: Your organization.

You know, you represent the federal air marshals, and you've done this.

How -- how worried are the air marshals about -- I mean, you know, the country is at red alert. We know this.

We've heard it. We've heard the -- the Homeland Security say, we're on high alert right now.

For terror.

What are they saying? What are the actual air marshals saying?

They have to be going crazy.

SONYA: They're going nuts. They're going nuts, Glenn. This is 22 years they've been fighting.

22 years. A lot of the women who came over, came over after 9/11. Went to -- we tried to prevent this from happening again.

And we are being handcuffed by this administration, totally handcuffed. There's nothing we can do.

Because this administration doesn't want us to do anything.

GLENN: Okay. So what do we do?

I mean, besides expose us.

SONYA: Glenn, we have to get out of TSA.

This is what happens when you have an administrative bias. Political bias association. Like TSA, running a law enforcement program.

They weaponize -- they weaponize the air marshals for their political gain.

GLENN: Well, we won't send them to the FBI or any other government institution. I think they should be locally -- you know, wherever they're living, that airport should possibly do it.

You know, San Francisco is the only airport that doesn't hire the TSA to run their security. And they catch more things than any other airport.

And I can't believe I'm giving credit to San Francisco. You can't give it to another government agency.

Sonya, thank you so much. I would like to talk you to again, on how we can serve you, and help get our air marshals back our planes.

Something is going to happen. And there will be no doubt, no doubt, who exactly is responsible for terrorist activity in this country.

I can name them right now.

Sonya, thank you for exposing this. God bless you.

RADIO

3 examples of EXACTLY why CBDCs are a THREAT to your freedom

Despite the popularity of private monetary systems like Bitcoin and payment systems like Venmo, governments around the world are still pushing for the creation of "central bank digital currencies" (CBDCs). But what are these currencies and what would they mean for societies? Glenn plays 3 clips from officials around the globe who have explained exactly why CBDCs — which ARE coming — are "imprisonment dressed up as freedom."

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: So I just saw that Bitcoin is down, what $537 today?

STU: Panic!

GLENN: Yeah. I know. Panic. It is incredibly -- it's almost up to 40,000 again. It's like 38 or $37,000 now per Bitcoin.

STU: Legitimately incredible.

Considering, there's been a slew of bad news over the past year. People may know Sam Bankman-Fried. There's a big finance thing that happened last week.

GLENN: But you also have the government saying, we're never going to do that. We're going to introduce our own fed coin.

STU: Yeah. Elizabeth Warren, is not on board.

So if Elizabeth Warren is on board, should you be?

I mean, shouldn't you agree with whatever Elizabeth Warren says.

GLENN: She's not on board for --

STU: She's not a big fan of Bitcoin. I'm sure she would be fine with that.

But does not want Bitcoin.

This is decentralized. They don't have control of it.

So, of course, people don't like it. But it is interesting to see. This is a big part of what the Argentinian, the guy Milei has done there.

He's a big Bitcoin guy.

You know, there's --

GLENN: I would love to see.

STU: A lot of the candidates are pretty good on this topic as well.

Including, even, I would have to say, RFK Jr is good on this. I'm not a fan of.

Ramaswamy is big on this.

DeSantis has been really good on the Central Bank Digital Currency.

People are like, why is he even talking about this a year ago is if

Well, I think we've seen how important it is.

GLENN: Let me show you. Because I want to put together a show next year on CBDC. And show what it really is.

Let me just show you a couple of things that I've found here recently.

Cut 11. This is a Dutch political commentator. On Central Bank Digital Currencies.

Because this is happening all over the Western world. Listen.

VOICE: If we accept the fact that a QR code grants us access to society, what makes you think, that they won't link that to anything else except for your vaccination status?

What if that green screen on your phone, that grants you access to society, turns red the moment you take a flight. Or you eat meat too much. Or you didn't recycle your plastic yesterday? How dare you.

What if that green screen on your phone, that is linked to your digital wallet. That's filled with nothing more, but -- I'm going to say it.

Central Bank Digital Currencies.

Will turn red, the moment you say, something the government classifies as hate speech.

What if they can turn off your life, at the push of one button.

If they can do it to China, they can do it here.

Ladies and gentlemen, freedom that is limited to those who do and say exactly what the government wants to do and say, is no freedom.

It's imprisonment, disguised as freedom.

And we need to see it for what it is. If we want to turn this around, that is.

We need to wake up. We need to speak up.

We need to say no. Draw a line. And disobey these laws.

GLENN: Now, listen in Australia, here's a politician in Australia, warning the Australians about Central Bank Digital Currencies.
Cut 50.

VOICE: Every month, the Trusted Digital Identity Bill represents a watershed moment in Australian history. We stand at the divide between a free personal enterprise future and a digital surveillance age.

If nothing is done to stop this bill, government will sit in the middle of every interaction Australia has had with each other and with the world.

And achieves this in the same way that China does.

By creating a digital identity, that forms a central part of a person's life. You can call it a license to live.

What began with perfect contact tracing, vaccine passports, and QR check-ins will soon be formalized by an inescapable digital identity.

It signals the complete end of consumer privacy, the end of citizen enormity, and the beginning of a Big Brother digital age that treats the people of Australia as products rather than free human beings.

The government intends to build a complete digital record of every Australian, to be shared and used.

Our medical history. Our shopping preferences. Who we associate with.

Whether our choices are really so-called green. Social Security. Veteran services.

Travel records. Website viewing. Employment data. And social media comments.

Everything will go on the record, and be available to any large corporation that can pay for access.

GLENN: Now, let me give you one from the United States.

This is a member of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve. This is the president of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank.

This is what he says about CBDC's. Central Bank Digital Currencies.

Do you think that that is something you should be looking into seriously? And to what degree should you be looking into it seriously?

What are your thoughts on CBDC?

VOICE: My colleagues at the Federal Reserve may have talked about it. We are examining it.

I'll tell you, my personal bias is I'm pretty skeptical. I keep asking anybody, anybody, at the fed. Or outside the fed. To explain to me, what problem this is solving.

I can send anybody in this room, $5 with Venmo right now. No, seriously. So what is it that a CBDC can do, that Venmo can't do?

And all I get is a bunch of hand waving. Like, well, maybe it's better for financial inclusion. Maybe, it's better for cross-border -- maybe. Is there any evidence that it is?

And, you know, they say, well, what about China?

China is doing it. Well, I can see why China would do it. If they want to monitor every one of your transactions, you can do that with the Central Bank Digital Currency. You can't do that with Venmo.

If you want to impose negative interest rates, you can do that with the Central Bank Digital Currency. You can't do that with Venmo. And if you want to directly tax customer accounts. You can do that with the Central Bank Digital Currency. You can't do that with Venmo.

I get why China would be interested. Why would the American people be for that?

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: So this kind of goes into what I'm talking about tonight, on TV. Gaslighting. Do you know what that term even means?

STU: Yeah. I did. I didn't for a long time. But I do now.

GLENN: Yeah.

STU: Mainly because so many people say it, I made myself look it up. And I was like, what does this even mean? I don't even understand it. And it is. I mean, it is -- it is really -- it seemingly is really going on.

GLENN: Oh, my gosh.

I'm going to prove it to you tonight.

STU: Okay.

GLENN: First of all, I'm starting this show tonight, going back to the 1940s, and showing you where, you're being gas lit. They're gaslighting you. Where that term came from. Where that went.

It's important context. Because the polls are in.

The two issues Americans are most concerned about right now. Number one, the economy. Number two, immigration.

And the gaslighting on these two issues from the Biden administration and the media, are -- it's crazy.

It is crazy town. Bonkers. We're being lied to about the state of the economy. We're being lied to, about what's happening at the border.

Tonight, I will show you the real numbers. And they are a little shocking.

They're a little shocking.

Don't miss tonight's Wednesday night special. 9:00 p.m. Eastern on Blaze TV.

9:30 on my Eastern channel. YouTube.com/GlennBeck.

Are we still running TheBlaze TV cyber, that was just on Monday?

You can join us now, and you will save 20 bucks with the promo code Glenn at BlazeTV.com/Glenn.

We'll see you tonight, at 9:00 p.m.

Glenn's Show Prep

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Transcript

What the media got WRONG about Elon Musk's 'go f*** yourself' statement

Transcript

THIS is who the government is TARGETING instead of REAL terrorists

Transcript

3 examples of EXACTLY why CBDCs are a THREAT to your freedom

Transcript