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Ben Shapiro Officially Dubs the Trump vs. CNN GIF War 'Clowntastic'

Ben Shapiro is an author, journalist, and Editor in Chief of the Daily Wire, but his specialty is getting under the skin of liberals. The conservative powerhouse joined Glenn on radio Thursday and the two couldn't help but notice the blatant hypocrisy from both sides in the story of Trump's retweet of a video clip of him beating up a guy for a WWE stunt with the CNN logo superimposed on the victims face.

"If Barack Obama would have retweeted something that had an old clip of him beating the snot out of somebody and it superimposed a teabag over a guy's head, we would have gone ape crazy. We would have become animals and gone nuts. Right?" Glenn asked.

As always, Shapiro put the nail right on the head.

"For sure... Because we don't care about how we're acting anymore. All we care about is the reactionary nature of politics right now. It's why President Trump has like a 90 percent approval rating among Republicans and a 10 percent approval rating among Democrats. And the same thing by the end of the Obama term, was basically true. We're so polarized that we're using the polarization as an excuse for bad behavior," Shapiro said.

According to Shapiro, this behavior by the right is disappointing for an interesting reason.

"And, listen, I've spent my entire life -- my entire adult life fighting the left, and I was not expecting moral leadership from the left. I've never expected moral leadership from the left. Because they don't believe in the same values that I believe in. But I did expect moral leadership from the right. And I don't really see how moral leadership is advanced by tweeting out, you know, GIFs of WWE wrestling CNN logos. I mean, this was once an office occupied by George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. It's a little bit clowntastic to watch the president," Shapiro said.

Enjoy the complimentary clip or read the transcript for details.

GLENN: Ben Shapiro. Good to have you on the program.

BEN: It an honor, of course.

GLENN: Good to have you here.

So I just want to run down just a few of the things that are going on in the world and just get your take on where we are, what we're headed towards.

First of all, quickly, let's touch on the topic that we've been on all day. Charlie Gard, the little 11-month-old child whose parents have the money to take him to America to get the treatment. The courts and the national health care system in Great Britain says no. He's got to die in a British hospital. Literally, he's got to die in a British hospital. Slate magazine just said that the right is going to use this as a case for death panels and against socialized medicine. Yeah.

(laughter)

Where do you stand on this?

BEN: I mean, it seems like a pretty solid case against death panels and socialized medicine. I don't see why we wouldn't possibly use that as a cutchall (phonetic). But, yeah, I mean, I think that -- my wife is a doctor. She's in residency, and she works in a hospital. And she deals with, you know, terminal people all the time.

And doctors will say that it's -- that -- they'll give -- they'll lay out all the choices for people who are terminal and they say, maybe you'd prefer not to be poked and prodded every five hours. Maybe you want to die at home. But this is all about the choice of the patient.

And here, in Charlie Gard's case, obviously, it's not the choice of the patient. It's not about the choice of the parents. When a government and a society decide that the quantity of life is less important than quality of life, you end up in a really dire situation. Because the goal of government at least should be to preserve quantity of life. It's your job to decide what sort of quality of life you want to enjoy. And we all have our different moral standards on that. But once the government decides that it gets to decide what quality of life is worth living, then you run into serious --

GLENN: You're in trouble. So I had my staff reach out to leaders of churches and faith over in England yesterday.

BEN: Uh-huh.

GLENN: And I got several responses. One of them was from a pastor who said, look, the churches and the pulpits, they are not dealing with this. They are not talking about it at all.

However, the Christians in England are talking about it. It's interesting that he -- he hoisted the white flags and said, the pulpits, including mine, have surrendered on this. But the people are talking about it.

BEN: Yeah.

GLENN: So there's a huge disconnect there. But he said, please tell Glenn that this is not a case of the government just taking away the rights of a child -- or, rights of parents. It is -- it is more so that the government has paid for this child's health care. And he said now that they have the money to take him to America, I see no reason he can't go to America. However, there isn't enough money to work on cases like that here in England.

So he was making the case that if you don't have money, that it would be right and righteous to say, let him die.

If you are in a socialized health care system and you don't have the money, is it wrong? What do you do?

BEN: Well, I mean, this is why socialized health care systems don't work. I mean, eventually someone is making the final call. It's not as if these parents were born into wealth. I mean, they raised this money from a bunch of charitable people so that they could take their kid out and try and save the kid.

As far as the issue with the pulpits, I mean, this is something that happens in the United States also. I think one of the great tragedies of the latter half of the 20th century is that pulpit figures across-the-board in Judaism, in Christianity, have fled from crucial moral battles that are happening in the now, in order to keep on the good side of government because they're afraid that the government is going to come against them. And so they've run from these moral battles. And you see it all the time. And it's really devastating. It sucks the marrow from the bones of religion.

GLENN: So then let's go to another moral question, of much less importance.

The CNN battle with the WWF video. Okay? I don't -- I'm having a really hard time with this because I don't see a good guy on either side.

BEN: Uh-huh.

GLENN: I see the president doing something that if Barack Obama would have had -- if he just would have retweeted -- not saying that Donald Trump did anything, but retweet it. If Barack Obama would have retweeted something that had an old clip of him beating the snot out of somebody and it superimposed a teabag over a guy's head, we would have gone ape crazy. We would have become animals and gone nuts.

BEN: Oh, yeah.

GLENN: Right?

BEN: For sure.

GLENN: So why don't we see now that we would have reacted the same way that the left is reacting to this and -- and forget about how others are acting, worry about how we're acting?

BEN: Because we don't care about how we're acting anymore. All we care about is the reactionary nature of politics right now. It's why President Trump has like a 90 percent approval rating among Republicans and a 10 percent approval rating among Democrats. And the same thing by the end of the Obama term, was basically true. We're so polarized that we're using the polarization as an excuse for bad behavior.

And, listen, I've spent my entire life -- my entire adult life fighting the left, and I was not expecting moral leadership from the left. I've never expected moral leadership from the left. Because they don't believe in the same values that I believe in. But I did expect moral leadership from the right. And I don't really see how moral leadership is advanced by tweeting out, you know, gifs of WWE wrestling CNN logos. I mean, this was once an office occupied by George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. It's a little bit clowntastic to watch the president --

GLENN: Clowntastic. So have we just surrendered to clowntasmia --

BEN: Yeah, I think the Republican Party is broken down into -- and the conservative movement has broken down into maybe three groups: Group number one are people who say this is ridiculous and silly and there's no way he should be doing this. Group two is, this is ridiculous and silly, but at least we got Gorsuch. And then group three are the people -- and this is the growing group -- this is the one that I actually worried the most about is people who actively celebrate this, where this is a feature, not a bug. It's not, well, you're going to get the stupid tweet from time to time. But at least you get Scott Pruitt over at EPA, paring back the regulations. It's the people who say, I don't really care what Scott Pruitt is doing so much. Like, I don't pay attention to that. And Gorsuch, yay. But what I'm really interested -- what really gets you jazzed up is the tweets about Mika Brzezinski's bloody face lift or Trump tackling a CNN logo. Like, that's really what gets me going.

GLENN: Well, it's amazing because we used to say, when I was at Fox, watch the other hand. And the other hand -- well, A, I don't think they're coordinated. I think both hands are just flailing, doing whatever they want. But you could make the case that they're very strategic because as we are -- we're not talking about a health care reform that is absolutely awful. It's not -- it's not any better.

BEN: Well, I'm always hesitant to credit strategy to President Trump when sheer unbridled id would do it. You know, I think this wasn't, he thought, you know what, I really need a distraction for my health reform bill. So I'm going to tweet out a dumb gif. I think it was, somebody forwarded me a dumb gif. Ha-ha-ha-ha. Wouldn't it be hilarious if I put it up on my Twitter feed? And it really was that amount of consideration.

GLENN: Right. Right. Right.

BEN: So in order for it to be a diversion, a diversion usually requires something for you to divert attention from. I don't think he's diverting attention necessarily from the health care bill because that's a giant -- like, right now, it's a cluster.

GLENN: But what kills me is that there are a lot of people that are willing -- very smart people that are willing to say -- and help me understand it, Ben.

BEN: Uh-huh.

GLENN: That are willing to say, this is okay. The health care bill. Let's just say everything else is sane. But this is -- the people I trust now are not Mike Lee. They are what's-his-face? Turtle face from Kentucky.

BEN: McConnell.

GLENN: Okay. McConnell. They're trusting McConnell over people like Mike Lee. Help me figure that out.

BEN: Yeah. So, not to break too many groups down to other groups. But I think there are two groups of people here: One is the people who just want to see a win for Trump. And that means something has to pass. And since we're not going to pass simple repeal because Trump basically foreclosed that -- I mean, he forbade that during the campaign. He made a bunch of promises that are not in coordination with simple repeal. And he said, we're not going to let anybody go without health care. The government is going to make sure everybody is covered. I mean, he said this stuff in the campaign.

GLENN: Yeah.

BEN: So it's kind of difficult to say then now we're going to repeal and we're going to cut back Medicaid. So there's group number one that just wants to see Trump get a win. And then there's group number two who say, okay. Now we're going to be honest. We were lying for seven years. Republicans were lying for seven years when they said they were going to repeal this thing. Now we got to be honest. We're not repealing it. But the best that we can do is Medicaid restructuring and a tax cut. And that's the best we'll do here. And we'll call it Obamacare repeal so that all the idiots --

GLENN: Do you believe -- is there a group -- a growing group of conservatives that believe in socialized everything?

BEN: Yeah. I think there's a growing group of conservatives who at least don't care, who are apathetic. Who are more interested again in the fight in what they perceive to be the left than they are the fight against leftist policy. There's been a mistake that's been made, which is you identify the entirety of leftism as residing in the halls of CNN or the New York Times or at the universities. But when leftism actually starts to infect your party, then it can't be infecting your party because, hey, we're Republicans. We're conservatives. We don't believe in the -- we're not leftists. I mean, come on. We hate those guys.

And it doesn't matter -- this is why Steve Bannon, the White House chief strategist, he was out there floating trial balloons about raising taxes on the rich. And there were a bunch of people going, well, yeah, why not do that?

What? I've been here for a while. This is a new one. But people saying, well, I mean, if that's good policy and if that will help us win Democratic voters and all the rest of it, then why not do it?

Again, I think that what people -- the stuff that you and I were looking at during the campaign, we were saying, this is really -- like, some of the activity that Trump was pushing or things like Gianforte, the Montana body-slamming reporter. Things where you and I were going, this is crazy. How is this happening? There were a lot of people who were seeing that not as -- in spite of that, we're happy because we're getting good policy. The policy doesn't actually matter. All that matters is that we have for so long hated losing to the left, that people literally body-slamming reporters or just going out there labeling everything fake news, all of this stuff is -- that's what we wanted. We elected that. Right? What we wanted was the Twitter.

Okay. The Twitter is not an obstacle to getting what we want. The Twitter is what we want. The policy is the obstacle to getting what we ant because we might not get more Twitter if he doesn't get policy passed that allows him to get reelection. And I think we have to be honest with ourselves about whether we're more jazzed up about the wrestling gif or whether we're more jazzed about Gorsuch. Because I think that --

GLENN: We're more jazzed up about the wrestling --

BEN: I think that's right. And I think Trump thinks that's right too, which is why he keeps doing it. Right? He gets more applause doing that than he does with conservative policy.

GLENN: Right. Back with Ben Shapiro here in a second.

GLENN: Good friend of the program. Good friend and also a good friend to the Constitution, deeply rooted in -- in logical thought, which is rare, Ben Shapiro from The Daily Wire is with us.

STU: And a lot smarter than us, so let me ask a question. The CNN thing, their reaction to the wrestling situation, which was them saying, well, we won't release a name. But, you know, if you act badly, we might.

BEN: Yeah.

GLENN: I don't even understand that.

STU: It was a weird way of phrasing it. And I'm not defending CNN and the way they handled it. It was very clunky at best.

I was a little surprised at the uniform reaction on the right though, at least the passionate response from the right saying -- sort of giving this real reverence to an online pseudonym, as if this really means you're anonymous. You could try to be anonymous, but that does not guarantee your anonymity.

You know, who are you mad at? You're mad at CNN here, who is essentially, let's say in the school situation, the principal punishing your kid for doing something wrong, right? They're punishing your kid for doing something wrong. I always see the right as the people who are mad at their kid, not at the school. The left is the one that goes and whines about the school. Hey, why did you get my kid in trouble? You're causing real detriment. Where, the right is the one supposed to be saying, wait a minute, moronic kid, don't post anti-Semitic stuff. Don't post stuff online you don't want to associate with yourself. What am I missing?

BEN: Well, I don't think you're missing anything with the basic calculus as far as the right is supposed to be chiding people when they do this sort of stuff. Although, during the last election cycle, as the number one recipient of anti-Semitic tweets in the journalistic community, according to the ADL.

STU: Yes, 40 percent.

BEN: Forty percent of all anti-Semitic tweets directed at journalists came to me personally during the last election.

GLENN: Congratulations.

STU: Congratulations.

BEN: Thank you. That's great. I have a trophy on my desk: Most hated Jew in America, which is a real accomplishment. Yeah, it's great.

But the -- you know, I think that this story is a little bit more than for that for a couple of reasons. One is that the attempt to link Trump with the guy who created the meme and then to link him with all the other stuff that this guy had ever created was obviously a stretch.

STU: And unfair.

BEN: And unfair to Trump. And obviously a hit job on Trump. So that was CNN going over its skis on that.

Okay. So assume that and say, okay. Fine. Well, they disagree. They think that Trump associating with the Reddit crowd, he gets -- whoever he's linked to, we're now going to search for all their ancillary material and link him to that. Which, again, I have a problem with that. That's mistake number one. Mistake number two is that apparently they got the wrong guy. So apparently they didn't even get the right guy.

GLENN: Yeah.

BEN: And then mistake number three is that they apparently called him. And before he returned their call, he said, okay. CNN is on my tail. I'm going to apologize and pull all the stuff down before I call that. He does that. He calls them back. And then they run that story where they say, and we'll keep him anonymous if he obeys our orders. Okay. That's no longer journalism. That's now activism. So if you're an activist group, that's okay. Right? It's still not moral.

GLENN: What do you think of the idea that Stu floated yesterday, that's really the Buzzfeed crew that kind of came in that was pushing back against CNN, because they are more activist. Don't get me wrong, I worked at CNN. They are activist as well, but not like the Buzzfeed people.

BEN: Uh-huh. I do think that the media have become just generally more activist since Trump was elected.

GLENN: Yes. Yes.

BEN: They now see it as their -- I wrote a column for National Review where I said the dichotomy right now in the American discourse is that the left sees themselves and the media see themselves as these battered-hat, trench coat-wearing guys who are snooping on the streets, and every nook and cranny for all the corruption over at Trumpany Hall. And then the right sees Trump as a sort of Playboy billionaire Bruce Wayne type, who is an idiot during the day, but then at night, he dons the bat cape and goes out and brings justice to Mika Brzezinski's face. So I'm not sure it's a bridge that can ever be gapped -- a gap that can ever be bridged. But as far as CNN's behavior on this, I think I reacted very strongly to this because CNN is not the gatekeeper of telling people what they can do or we're going to release X. It's either newsworthy and release it, or it's not newsworthy and let it go. You don't get to hold things over people's heads.

GLENN: So here's the thing I don't understand. I mean, today I saw this for the first time. This is apparently what was on that guy's feed.

BEN: Feed or whatever, yeah.

GLENN: This comes from a pro-Hitler group.

BEN: Yeah, I've seen it.

GLENN: You're not on this.

BEN: I don't know how they missed me.

GLENN: This is all the Jews that work at CNN.

BEN: Come on.

PAT: Wait. There are Jews that work at CNN? Oh, my gosh.

GLENN: Yeah.

So this is amazing because it has all their faces with a Star of David next to it. I mean, it's so Hitler anti-Semitic kind of stuff.

PAT: Oh, that's bad.

GLENN: By saying, hey, we're not going to release this stuff, they actually I don't think did go as far as they could have to tie Trump to this kind of stuff. If they would have spent two days showing this stuff and saying, "This is the kind of stuff he was doing, blah, blah," then it would have been worse. I don't understand their strategy. I'll get to that in just a second.

GLENN: Welcome to the program. And to Ben Shapiro, who is from The Daily Wire and a -- a really bright guy who is not afraid -- we have very different approaches, the two of us. But I think we believe much of the same stuff.

BEN: Right. You're a nice person. I'm not.

(laughter)

GLENN: No. It's just -- yeah. I want to talk to you a little bit about that too before we go. Because that's not it. I don't think you're a bomb thrower by any stretch of the imagination. We were talking about this earlier today. You're very logical, and you don't mind confrontation.

BEN: Right.

GLENN: But you're not a bomb thrower. There's a difference between a bomb thrower and -- you're not quite Ravi Zacharias.

BEN: Yeah.

GLENN: But you're on that road.

BEN: Well, I appreciate it. Thank you. Yeah, I'd like to think that I'm more interested in saying things that I think are true than I am at offending people. And if the things that I think are true offend people, than so be it.

GLENN: Yeah. There's a totally different -- some people go out to make headlines and to offend. I don't think you -- I've never seen you do that.

BEN: Yeah. Thank you. It's something that I do take some pride in. And it's one of the reasons why -- it's so funny, I'll speak on these college campuses. And there will be these major protests and quasi-riots and all this. And then when people who are on the left actually come to the lecture, they'll say they don't understand what that was all about.

GLENN: Yeah. I know. I know.

Okay. So let's go back to where we were before the break. You were about to answer something.

BEN: It was the CNN thing.

GLENN: CNN. Yeah. So what is CNN's strategy on the way they dealt with all of this?

BEN: I think that the entire media right now are so -- as I said, we're in a reactionary period, which is really dangerous because whatever happens out of a reactionary period, it's rarely good. But the media are so reactionary that they think every story is a kill shot. And so they're interested in just getting the story out fast.

GLENN: Don't they know there is no kill shot on this one? It's just not going to happen.

BEN: Yeah, exactly. But they think everything is. Right? You have Democrats who are saying, based on his tweets last week with MSNBC, he should be impeached. It's like, really? That's your grounds? Like that was it? Have you not seen his Twitter feed?

GLENN: Is that a high crime or a misdemeanor? Which one is that?

STU: It's the Twitter clause of the Constitution.

GLENN: Yeah.

BEN: They put a lot of other clauses in there. No reason they can't put that one in there too.

They really are -- in order for them to maintain ratings -- also, actually because they believe this. They are living in this mythical world where if they break the right story, then Trump will just collapse and he won't be president anymore. And the entire reality will change. And this is why CNN was pumping the Trump/Russia collusion stuff. Not just saying that, you know, there are people who Trump has associated with, who have Russian connections -- which is true -- but saying there is active collusion in trying to blow this up into some big scandal with no evidence.

GLENN: There is no evidence of that.

BEN: None. And they were doing this for a year. And particularly post-election they were doing it because their viewers are invested in the idea that -- they want to be watching CNN at directly the moment when Trump goes down.

GLENN: Yeah, but don't they -- that's true. But don't they understand that we kind of already paved that ground, and it gave birth to the birthers?

BEN: Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

GLENN: Okay. And four years into it, Donald Trump is doing the whole birth certificate thing, which only hardens his supporters. That's all that that does. And so by CNN making everything into an -- a grounds of impeachment and a constitutional crisis, they're only hardening both sides.

BEN: They don't care. Why would they care? And I think that on the right, why would people on the right care?

You used to be able to say two things: Number one, it's bad for the American body politic to have these hardening of positions. And number two, it's not going to bring you victory. But clearly that's not true. Right? I mean, clearly -- like, we on the right keep saying, when are the Democrats going to propose something? When are they going to bring their solutions? They don't need to. Okay. Let's not pretend here.

The Republicans brought no solutions for eight years while Obama was president. And they yelled at him. And then the guy who said that he was born in Kenya is the president of the United States. So it's very difficult to make the argument that what we really need is a great unifier in order to win elections when I can't say that we're exactly the party of unification.

Now, that doesn't say something to unify with. The left wasn't providing a lot for us to unify over while President Obama was president and was providing his own form of polarization and racial extremism in terms of polarizing various racial groups for political gain.

But right now, there's not a lot of incentive on any side for a rhetoric of unity or for a rhetoric of reason.

GLENN: Well, a rhetoric of reason and unity -- and I don't like his policies at all -- was Mitt Romney.

BEN: Yes.

GLENN: And he was right down the traditional middle and everything else.

BEN: Uh-huh.

GLENN: He was much more conservative than this president is in many ways.

BEN: Uh-huh.

GLENN: And yet we didn't unify around that. We unify against somebody that will punch back.

BEN: And that's the whole thing. This is a rage moment. And one of the things that's happening for politicians and the media is there's a lot of money and a lot of political gain to be made in humoring people's anger. You know, I'm -- as a parent, one of the things -- I have two kids who are under the age of four. Which means you deal with tantrums a lot. And one of the things that you do with a kid who is having a tantrum is you have to say, you know, why are you having the tantrum? Is the anger justified?

Right? And usually the anger is not. It's a 3-and-a-half-year-old. The anger usually isn't. When people who are adults are angry, we no longer even bother asking them, is your anger justified? Are you mad for a good reason, or are you just mad? And then if they're mad, we say, okay. Well, we can grab that. We can use that. We can channel that anger into something politically useful, electing me or raising money for this cause. Or -- and so if there's nothing to be angry at or if there's less to be angry at than you think, then how are you going to take advantage of that? And I think that that's what you see happening on both sides of the aisle.

So on the left, they're saying, this is the worst president who ever was. He's Hitlerian. Nothing is happening, guys. Like nothing. Zero things have happened.

GLENN: Nothing.

BEN: I mean, Judge Gorsuch replaced Justice Scalia. Okay. Nothing happened. Nothing is happening. Right? There's been zero major pieces of legislation passed and signed by this president. There have been a bunch of repeals of small laws under -- under -- under Obama. But like, come on. This has been a transformational presidency? Not in any way has this been transformational. But the left is treating it like, you have a reason to be angry. They're a reason you're mad.

Not really. And on the right, you have people -- like President Trump did this during the campaign, to great effect, where he was going into these small towns that were shutting down because the industries had left. And saying, well, the reason -- you have a right to be angry. And not a right to be angry at the overregulation, which is legit, but you have a right to be angry because the Chinese and the Mexicans are stealing your job. And if we'd just win again -- if we didn't have all these idiots and we would just win again, then we would be able to bring everything back. All these factories would come flowing back in.

And, of course, none of that is true. And so what you have right now is the media trying for a buck to promote anger. And you have the politicians for a vote to try and promote anger. And never at any point does anybody -- it makes a pathological country.

Jonathan Haidt, social psychologist over at NYU, he talks about how when it comes to psychology, the single best method that's been devised for psychologists is cognitive behavioral therapy, where they trying try to take somebody who is having a chain of bad thoughts that's leading to depression. And then they try to say, why is it -- is it possible you're exaggerating the situation? Is it possible you're reading someone wrong? You break the chain of bad thoughts by saying, maybe your feelings are not justified. Maybe you should reexamine your own feelings and get control over your own feelings, and then you can control yourself as a human being. Politics is the opposite of that now. It's to take that rage and exacerbate it and magnify it and make it bigger and broader and louder.

GLENN: Yeah. So, Ben, that brings you right to you and me. And I wouldn't put us in different categories. You just approach it differently. You're approaching it with reason. But you don't mind the battle.

STU: I kind of want to see Ben Shapiro as a dad with a logical argument to the 3-and-a-half-year-old.

BEN: Thankfully, she's a pretty logical three-and-a-half-year-old. She's still three-and-a-half.

GLENN: I bet.

STU: Actually, the macaroni and cheese is the correct temperature.

(laughter)

GLENN: Right. Are you seeing and are you even looking for those people, not on the left, but the reasonable people -- I think there's -- I don't even know what the number is. On a bad day, I think it's 30 percent. On a good day, I think it's maybe 70 percent of Americans who if were presented with a group of adults that could all get along, even though they disagree and were saying, you know what, just come over and watch that stuff burn down over here. We're just going to start moving and getting some things done. Kind of the Republican Party in the 1850s that really was mainly made up of Democrats at the time that said, you're not serious. And the Whigs that joined them and said, my side is not serious either. And we actually want to solve this slavery thing.

Do you see -- do you see those reasonable people out there?

BEN: I do actually. It's a growing number of people who are disillusioned with the WWE of it all and are sick -- and they see it's kind of fake. That really it's a lot of people that are --

GLENN: And you see it on the left as well?

BEN: I think, yeah. I get a lot of letters from college kids because I speak a lot to college kids and they watch my videos. And I get a lot of letters from college kids who is, I was on the left, and I was motivated to believe the people on the right were nasty and mean and cruel. And then I watched some of your stuff, and now it's opened my mind. I'm doing some reading of my own. And I'd like to kind of examine ideas differently. And I think that there are those people who are getting over this.

I think that what's -- the future for conservatism is not going to be complete Reagan conservatism. It's going to be almost a conservative Libertarian merger. It's going to be a leave me alone thing. Because we're so sick of everybody in our business.

In fact, I think that that's actually the strongest pitch that conservatives can make right now to people on the left is not, come on over here and join us on the Trump train. It's, you hate Trump. It's, okay. I hated Obama. I thought he was terrible. Well, I have a solution for all of this, which is, how about we just take the power away from everyone in Washington, DC, and then you don't have to care who is the president. He's just some guy who lives in a house --

GLENN: Yeah. And we're not going to change your life. You live what you like. Don't change how I live my life. Let's just live side by side. I think there's a real case to be made -- I think that's what's going to come out of this.

I was in Hollywood of all places all last week, and I met with group after group after group, some of them were hardened -- at least one in each group of the probably ten meetings that I had -- at least one was hardened against me when I first walked in.

BEN: Uh-huh.

GLENN: And it became a joke of the team that was going with me because they were like, how long before they turn? How long before they turn?

BEN: Yeah.

GLENN: Turned every single one of them because of Jonathan Haidt, actually used his method of talking their language.

BEN: Yeah.

GLENN: Speaking reason. Being humble, friendly, likable, laugh, laugh at yourself, laugh at the other side. Immediately turned.

I had huge liberals come to me and say, "I am more afraid of the left than I am of your side now."

BEN: Uh-huh.

GLENN: Because of what's happening on college campuses. This is the kind of round people up. And it's usually Jews. You know, they were the liberal Jews that were saying these kinds of things to me.

BEN: Uh-huh. I think the political situation right now, it's sort of a game of ping-pong. And the eventually, the -- people are just going to get tired of bouncing between the two polar extremes, between the Bernie Sanders left and the Black Lives Matter left and the, you know, hard-core --

GLENN: Do you think there's enough Democrats that are still out there that say, I don't want Bernie Sanders? Because the Democrats are moving towards that kind of a --

BEN: I think -- well, I think Bernie Sanders is an interesting case because Sanders is smart enough to actually not play the intersectional game as much as he plays the socialist game. So he's actually a more unifying figure for Americans than Kamala Harris, for example.

GLENN: Yes. Yes.

BEN: And so Sanders is actually -- the great danger from the Democrats is coming -- I agree with the hard left of the Democratic party, who is Bernie Sanders-ite, that the actual future of the Democratic Party and their victory is going to lie with people like Bernie Sanders and not with -- not with this separate people by their race and then run on the typical Democratic platform.

GLENN: Yes. Yes.

BEN: I mean, I think if Sanders had actually been the nominee, I think there's a much more significant chance that he is president than Hillary. I think he probably wins Michigan pretty easily.

GLENN: I agree. I agree. I agree.

BEN: So, you know, that's the danger. But that's not just because of his ideas. It's because he has steadfastly refused to engage in some of the --

GLENN: Play the game. He's not playing the game.

BEN: Exactly. That's right.

STU: Can we do one more without -- no politics here. I'm fascinated by something that you've done recently, which I just took my kid to our first baseball game. He's five. I'm indoctrinating him to be a Toronto Bluejays fan for absolutely no explainable reason.

But you actually just wrote a book about your experience of going through the 2005 White Sox championship. How did that come about? I think that's a fascinating thing.

BEN: My dad and I are huge White Sox fans. I picked up on my dad's sports allegiances. So he's from Chicago, my mom is from Chicago. I was born in LA. So that means I've never really been to a home game. I've just been to visiting games. And so we're huge White Sox fans. And in 2005, I was at Harvard Law. He was having a rough year. We just decided we were going to watch every White Sox game. So between the two of us, we watched every White Sox game that season, and they ended up winning the World Series. And so we wrote this book where half the book is us writing notes to each other: How are you doing? And we just compiled all of that into a book. So took notes on the games --

GLENN: See, I wrote you about that. And you said it's a sports book. So really no big deal.

That's not a sports book. That's a dad -- that's a father and son book. Oh, that's great.

BEN: But it is -- it's a lot of fun. If you're a baseball fan, you'll get a lot more out of it because there is a lot of baseball in there. I mean, we do love baseball, so there is a lot of baseball in there. But, yeah, it's my dad telling stories about his dad and me and my dad interrelating. And so that's --

GLENN: What's the name of the book?

BEN: It's called Say It's So.

GLENN: Ben Shapiro. He'll be on with us -- I think we're doing a Facebook thing. We're so thrilled to have you on. And keep up the good work.

BEN: As I say, it's an honor and pleasure to be with you always.

GLENN: Thank you.

EXCLUSIVE: Will RFK, Jr. Change Glenn's Mind?
THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

EXCLUSIVE: Will RFK, Jr. Change Glenn's Mind?

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. once called Glenn a traitor because he thought Glenn's opinions on climate change were "dangerous" and should be shut down. But now, he's one of the biggest CRITICS of censorship. So, what changed? Glenn decided to sit down with the independent presidential candidate to find out.

SHOCKING: You Need HOW MUCH Money to “Live Comfortably” in Each State?!
RADIO

SHOCKING: You Need HOW MUCH Money to “Live Comfortably” in Each State?!

With inflation still on the rise, Glenn and Stu review another shocking number: how much money you need to “live comfortably” in America. The numbers have gone through the roof and it’s no surprise that the most expensive states are blue states. Thanks to inflation, a single adult now needs to make over $100,000 a year in order to live comfortably in many states. So, can you afford your state?

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Okay. So there's a new number out now, on what it costs to live in the United States of America. It's a little higher than it used to be.

And I -- I don't know if anybody has noticed they're having a hard time making ends meet.

Comfortable to live comfortably is defined as the monthly income, needed to cover a 50/30/20 budget, which allocates 50 percent of your earnings for necessities like housing and utility costs, 30 percent for discretionary spending, and 20 percent for savings or investments.

STU: Wow. I don't think a lot of people are living like that.

GLENN: Nobody is living like that. Nobody is living like that.

STU: That -- but wait. Percent of what? If you're making $10 million. You know. What is it -- you don't need to have a 50/30/20 lifestyle to live comfortably, right?

GLENN: Right. Right.

They're saying this is the minimum. This is what it takes to, you know, live comfortably. In America.

STU: So -- this is not talking about -- I think Jeff Bezos is pretty good. I don't think he needs an article.

STU: You're saying, they're basically reverse engineering the number you need to hit that. Is that what you're saying?

GLENN: Yes. Yes.

Okay. All right? Jeez.

STU: I was trying to understand.

GLENN: Here they are.

Most costly states: Massachusetts. $116,000.

STU: Hard-core conservative state.

GLENN: Hawaii. You'll see this a lot. Hawaii, 113.

STU: Another conservative -- red state.

GLENN: California, 113.

STU: Big red state there.

GLENN: New York, 111.

STU: Wow.

GLENN: I'm rounding out the top. Topping out the top five is Washington State, with 106.

STU: Another big red state. That's amazing. So $100,000, and you cannot live comfortably.

GLENN: Uh-huh.

STU: That's incredible.

GLENN: Okay. Now, to live comfortably in these states, you need to earn double what most single earners typically make. The median income for a single full-time worker is around $60,000. The national median for living comfortably is $89,000.

So there's a shortage there.

STU: And those are statewide numbers to point out. It's a lot worse in these cities.

Like, there was a time. I don't know this is eight to ten years old now.

When I remember looking at this. They gave you these guide lines, what you need to earn to buy an average home in the market. In the market of San Francisco, the -- several of the players on the roster of the San Francisco giants, did not earn enough money, to buy the average home.

GLENN: It's crazy.

STU: In the market.

GLENN: So let me go through this. Alabama, to live comfortably, $83,000.

Alaska, $96,000.

And I don't know if that's ever -- I don't know if you're ever comfortable living in Alaska, unless you can change the climate completely.

GLENN: Yeah. Right.

Arizona, $97,000. Arkansas, 79

STU: Gosh.

GLENN: California, 113. Colorado, 103. Connecticut, 100. Delaware, 94. Florida, 93.

Think of that. In Florida, it's 93. In Colorado, it's 100. Georgia, 96. Hawaii, 113. Idaho, 88. Illinois, 95. Indiana, 85. Iowa, 83. Kansas, 84. Kentucky, 80. Louisiana, 82. Maine, 91.

Why? Bear traps? Maryland.

STU: That's a northeast state.

GLENN: Maryland, 102. Massachusetts, 116. Michigan, 84. Minnesota, 89. Mississippi, 82. Missouri, 84. Montana, 84. Nebraska, 83.

STU: A lot of these -- these are like the bargain basement states. You are having $85,000 to live comfortably.

GLENN: I know. Yeah.

STU: That's just putting away some money for retirement. That's not living -- you're not flying private.

GLENN: I know. Yeah, but you're not living paycheck to paycheck. If you would live that way. If you would do 50/30/20.

STU: Right. Right.

GLENN: Nevada, 93.

Nobody does that. Do you know anybody who is young, that put 20 percent of their salary away for savings?

STU: Depends what you mean by young. As you're starting out, you're just trying to make it, pay your bills. As you get older, you're trying to put some money away.

GLENN: 20 percent?

STU: It's hard to do.

GLENN: Really hard to do. Nevada, 93.

STU: By the way, 50/20/30. What are the taxes on this one? This is post-tax revenue, I assume.

GLENN: Yeah. Where are the taxes?

STU: Another 30 is going to taxes. So which part of it are you taking out?

GLENN: That's why nobody saves. New Hampshire, 98. New Jersey, 103. To live in New Jersey. New Mexico, 83. New York, 111. North Carolina, 89. North Dakota, 52.

STU: North Dakota. This is -- this is hwy people go to the Dakotas, I suppose. It's --

GLENN: Is it worth Dakota, though? You don't even have the presidential thing on the mountain, that Dakota.

STU: That's true. Was that the Doug Burgum state?

GLENN: Yes, it is. Fifty-two.

STU: You got those eyebrows. They are kind of like -- on the Mount Rushmore of eyebrows. I don't know if that counts.

GLENN: Ohio, 80. Oklahoma, 80. Oregon, 101.

STU: Hmm.

GLENN: Pennsylvania, 91. Rhode Island, 100. Oh, my gosh, for Rhode Island!

South Carolina, 88. South Dakota, 81. Tennessee, 86. Texas, 87. Utah, 93. Vermont, 95.
Virginia, 99. Washington, 106. West Virginia, 78.
That's a state you could live in. Wisconsin, 84. Wyoming, 87.

Wow.

STU: First of all, the red and blue state is -- I don't know if it's perfect. It's darn close to perfect, as far as the difference is.

GLENN: It is. It is.

STU: You look at that, and you think -- it wasn't that long ago, that we would say, oh, my gosh, nap guy is earning six figures. Doing really well.

GLENN: Yeah.

STU: That's just not even doing really well.

GLENN: No.

STU: It's the way you're supposed to plan for your future. And now you need to earn six figures, in most states. Or at least close to most states.

GLENN: And it's going to get worse. That's the problem. It will get worse.

How will companies be able to keep up with it? How is that going to happen?

GLENN: The presses.
STU: Yeah. But eventually, people can't afford to produce the products that people want, and people can't afford to buy the products that they need.

STU: I mean, you just recited the slogan for Bidenomics. That's exactly --

GLENN: Yes, I did. Starts bottom up. Bottom up. First people to be heard.

The bottom. And eventually, it's heard all the way up.

The -- in another remarkable story, the IMF has come out and said, that Biden has got to stop money.

Printing money, and spending money.

The International Monetary Fund, sounded the alarm on the Biden administration's rampant spending as, quote, out of line with what is needed for long-term fiscal stability.

STU: No!

GLENN: Yeah. Yeah.

STU: What? It feels like it's right in line with the exact -- what you're supposed to do with each budget is spend trillions of dollars than you have.

I thought that's the way you're supposed to be fiscally responsible. What is the 50, 30, 20 number for the United States right now? It's like 80, 50, zero. Eighty, 50, negative 30. Right?

That's what we're doing. The savings is negative 30 percent of the budget. We're spending mandatories, like 80 percent of what we have. Then there's another 50 percent discretionary. It's insanity. And we're getting to the point very soon. Just the interest on the money already spent will be more than our entire defense budget.

GLENN: We will have to borrow over a trillion dollars a year, just for the interest.

STU: My God.

GLENN: I mean, this is unsustainable.

And I really don't understand, why more people can't see this.

STU: You keep seeing this word.

I don't think it means what you think it means.

What Would Happen if Israel RETALIATED Against Iran's Missile Attack?
RADIO

What Would Happen if Israel RETALIATED Against Iran's Missile Attack?

Iran’s attack against Israel made barely any impact (despite what Iran is telling its people). But will Israel strike back? It has the right to, and many Israeli leaders seem to want to, but SHOULD it? Glenn and Stu discuss whether it’s worth risking World War III, or whether Iran is too weak to do anything else.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Okay. So let's just recap what we know now, what happened over the weekend with the Iranian attack on Israel. First of all, the Iran state TV used footage from the Texas fire. Also, there was footage of One Direction.

STU: The band?

GLENN: The band. And it was Israelis, panicking while under attack while under missiles and drones. Unfortunately, it was just a throng of excited One Direction fans.

STU: Wow, the fact that those things look the same, may make you rethink things if you're a One Direction fan.

GLENN: It really does. They also use a picture of a forest fire in Chile. So, you know, they're running all kinds of lies. I don't know if their people understand that they really made no impact at all.

STU: I'm kind of -- look, I kind of hope -- this is weird. I kind of hope they are able to convince their people, that they made an impact.
Because maybe this will somewhat calm down.

GLENN: So the president boasted the attack had, quote, taught a lesson to the Zionist regime. They were chanting with their fists in the air, death to Israel. Death to America. Yay. And Hezbollah supporters were out in the streets, of southern Beirut, honking their horns and celebrating.

And they warned that Jordan would be the next target, if it took any measures in Israel's defense.

So everybody is just like holding back.

Except for Israel. Now, my goals may not be the same goals, as the Israelis. My interests are, let's not have any terrorism here in America.

And let's try to bring peace to the world.

Israel has played this game for so long. They're not going to sit back. At least the word we're getting from their -- their war committee, was that it was a brawl.

The defense minister stated yesterday, that Israel's confrontation with Iran is not over yet.

The public security minister demanded a crushing attack, against Iran. Another minister, declared Iran's audacity in such an attack, must be erased.

Meanwhile, Iran's mission to the UN said, should the Israeli regime make another mistake. Iran's response will be considerably more severe.

And warned the US to stay away. Okay. I don't know what they can do with their -- their missiles. Quite honestly.

I think it was embarrassing. If that were us, well, that would be us. Because Joe Biden is in charge. Maybe Joe Biden helped them with planning of this mission. But that were us. That would be humiliating.

Absolutely humiliating.

And, I mean, it's the -- wouldn't you say, it was the most lopsided thing you have seen, possibly ever? With the amount that they fought back?

STU: Yeah. It goes back to a couple of examples. The first gulf war.

GLENN: Yeah.

STU: Remember that.

GLENN: Except they fought back. And they did hit targets. This one hit -- they say three -- the outside is ten. That they hit ten -- that missiles hit ten things. They fired over 300.

STU: 300, right. The other one that comes to mind. The way we reacted in Afghanistan, when the Taliban started taking it over again. We kind of just all ran. And that -- that seemed -- that was embarrassing. I was embarrassing that way. The way I think Iran should be embarrassed this way. That's if their intent is to actually get a lot of damage. Look, we have an alternate theory. We talked about it yesterday.

They floated a bunch of flying lawn mowers over there. With 12 hours notice for a reason.

To say, hey. Shoot all these town.

We don't want to start an international war. If we don't do something in our country. Our people will overthrow us.

GLENN: So you're sitting in Israel.

And I say, Stu. What are you going to do? Now, you're an Israeli.

You're in the defense cabinet. And I say, what are you going to do?

Because the whole world hates us right now?

And if we retaliate, then we're in trouble. Should we just walk away and call this thing?

GLENN: Again, there's so much to weigh here. And I'm an idiot. But I will tell you, my initial instinct is, you have a free hall pass to --

GLENN: No. No. No. No. Your first impression is you're an to it. I just don't want that to get lost.

STU: The second impression was --

GLENN: The first one was, again --

STU: I'm an idiot. Number two. And I should not be making these decisions for any nation. We should be clear about that. That's not a good policy, because I'm an idiot.

GLENN: Sure. You're an idiot. You could work for the Biden administration.

STU: I will say, maybe I should leave the country. This one here, because it seems that's the path to success these days.

GLENN: Correct.

STU: But I will say, what my thought would be, is you have a free hall pass to do another Syria type of operation. Right?

You can -- of course, are justified. If I was an Israeli, you would be justified to launch at least 300 missiles towards Iran. You're justified morally to do so.

However, what I would like to do is tamp this down, so it doesn't inflame into something worse. If you were are to do something like they did in Syria. Where you took over some important, overseas. Not in Iran. Type of operation. That would actually benefit you.

Not like as a show of power or strength. If you're Israel, you don't need to do that. What you need to do is do something that would actually benefit you.

And I think it would be difficult for the world to be all that upset.

If you went and did another operation like that.

GLENN: I forgot.

I was going to say, no. No. No.

STU: That's a smart answer for an idiot.

GLENN: I forgot you were an idiot. It would be tough for the world to say.

You remember, you're a Jew here.

STU: Right. So they --

GLENN: They can say whatever they want.

STU: They can say whatever they want.

GLENN: They're always the pad guy.

STU: But there is a line.

The world wasn't overly outraged about the Syria operation in the first place.

Iran was.

And everyone was talking about what their response would be.

No one was like, oh, gosh. I can't believe they did that.

Some people did, of course.

Look, there was 150 countries, that voted not -- that voted to condemn Israel, over the whole Gaza situation.

And when given the opportunity, I think it was Austria, that proposed an amendment that said, hey. Shouldn't we condemn Hamas for October 7th in this thing?

Ask they voted no.

GLENN: Yeah.

STU: Of course, they said no to that.

At some level, you can't care at all, what some of these countries think.

They will just think, Jew equals bad.

But I think to not make this go over the top. And flame out of control.

And also, get and done, that you're completely justified for. And will benefit for your country.

If you can walk that line. If there's another target like that. That seems highly justified and appropriate.

What do you think? You're not an idiot, right? You're a doctor.

GLENN: I'm a doctor, so I'm not an idiot.

STU: Do you notice this? Does anyone in the audience, even notice he does this? He asks these tough questions, and he never gives his own answer. It's pathetic.

GLENN: Because I'm trying to move the show. I'm trying to move the show.

STU: Move the --

GLENN: See, you don't want me. You don't want me anywhere near the buttons of any -- for any country.

Because we would run out of missiles quickly.

Because I have -- I have a short attention span.

And I also have a short fuse. It would be like, hmm. They did what.

Yeah. Launch.

I would be over there, saying, the world is going to hate us, anyway. They're building a nuclear weapon supply.

We know now what they're capable of doing from the sky. That's great. But if they get a nuclear weapon over our border, any way, shape, or form.

Millions will die.

And we know they're serious. And the rest of the world, can say whatever they want. But take up out their nuclear facilities.

STU: In country.

GLENN: In country.

STU: Look, he's been wanting to do it for a long time. And I think that's entirely justified.

GLENN: He has to. He has to.

No one in the world will do it, until he ignites one of those things.

STU: That is true. It probably does extend this though, right?

That's the risk.

GLENN: Oh. It's going to --

STU: Netanyahu has been wanting to do this forever, and I think has been looking for an opening to do it.

GLENN: Justifiably so.

STU: Justifiably so. Again, I'm not being critical. If I were Israeli. I think probably I would be for a much more aggressive response.

GLENN: Enough is enough.

STU: But I'm not. And I'm -- I'm thinking more selfishly frankly as an American.

GLENN: Yeah. Me too. Me on top.

STU: I think that's appropriate for us to do. America first is a dumb sort of slogan, but also very true.

It's also misused by many factions over the years.

GLENN: Yeah. Correct.

STU: But, I mean, it is the appropriate priority list for the United States.

GLENN: If you're going to take care of somebody, you don't swamp the lifeboats. That is what we're doing with our border. We're swamping the lifeboats.

How had we help anybody, if we can't help ourselves?

How will we help anybody, if we're fighting terror here?

I don't want terror here. But we've already swamped the lifeboats with a whole bunch of terrorists, apparently that are already here.

But we're not doing anything about it. So my America first kind of has to go to, let Israel do what Israel cares to do.

They can handle it. They're big boys. They can handle it. We'll handle our thing over here.

Now, with that being said. I know that Iran will not let us get away with that.

Iran will immediately activity. They're already activating the people. Who do you think. Hamas is paid for by the Iranians. So when you're in New York City. And you're holding a Hamas flag, you are doing the bidding of the Iranians.

So they're already here. And it's coming. And I would like to delay it, quite honestly, as long as possible.

But, you know, let Israel be Israel.

By the way, we have a news from Israel's Channel 12 News. They carried a report, that the country's Air Force, which includes US-made 16s, fifteens, and F-35s are already gearing up to deliver a retaliatory counterstrike against Iran.

According to the report, the strike will be intended as a message that Israel will not allow an attack of that magnitude, to pass without reaction.

That's actually good. That's a good reaction from them. Because doesn't that sound limited?

I'm just looking for happy things.

Turning rocks. Oh, no. That's a friendly worm. That's a friendly bug.

The strike intended a message, Israel will not allow an attack of that magnitude, to pass without a reaction.

You’ll NEVER GUESS Who’s Behind the "Free Palestine" Bridge-Blocking Protests
RADIO

You’ll NEVER GUESS Who’s Behind the "Free Palestine" Bridge-Blocking Protests

“Free Palestine” protesters connected to the group “A15 Action” recently blocked roads and even the Golden Gate Bridge to demand the America stop supporting Israel. This caused Glenn and Stu to wonder if there has ever been ONE person whose mind was changed by these kind of disruptive protests. Glenn also reveals that this group is far from “grassroots.” You’ll never guess who is paying for the bail and legal fund for A15 Action...

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: The free Palestinian protesters.

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: Love them.

STU: They're doing a great job out there. In the streets. Blocking airport access for people.

GLENN: Bridges. Bridges.

If I were in San Francisco traffic. And I had to use the Golden Gate Bridge, and you blocked it, I would be having great thoughts about you.

You could be there and saying, you know, we love Jesus. We love Jesus. And by the end, by the time I got home, I think I might hate Jesus, because of you. You know what I mean?

I'm serious. It's the fastest way to turn me against you, is to block me from going home.

STU: Right. And I mean this sincerely. Has there ever been an example of this tactic working?

Has any person, in history, ever been convinced by not being able to access the thing that they wanted to go to?

Gosh, you know, I was really pro-Israel. And then I got stuck in traffic for eight hours. And now I love the Palestinian cause. Has that ever occurred?

GLENN: No. No.

But here's the good news.

They are being arrested.

And they're being immediately released.

Yeah, because there's somebody stepping in to give them bail money.

And legal support.

Yes. Yes, so it is. Come on. Come on. Come on. Guess. Guess. Guess.

Come on.

STU: Kamala Harris.

GLENN: No. That's too obvious.

STU: Kamala. Tweeting. Tried to bail out criminals.

GLENN: Yeah. But not this time.

STU: Thanks, Kamala.

STU: More obvious?

GLENN: Yeah. More obvious.

STU: George Soros.

GLENN: George Soros.

STU: We figured it out.

GLENN: George Soros is bailing people out. Now, who would have seen this coming?

The protest which took place in dozens of US cities, including San Francisco, Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia, were organized by A15 Action. A newly formed group, that worked to coordinate, a multi-city economic blockade, on April 15th in solidarity with Palestine.

You know, I really -- I forgot, you're blocking me, from going home on tax day. That makes me even more favorable to your point of view.

STU: Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

GLENN: The group's website, directs users to bail and legal defense fund, hosted through Act Blue, the Democratic Party's online funding juggernaut. Those who donate to the fund, the Act Blue page said, are sending money to the community justice exchange, which provides money, bail, court fees, and fines and other legal services to community-based organizations that contest the current operation and function of the criminal, legal, and immigration detention systems.

Oh, my gosh!

The exchange is the project of? Come on. Come on. You've got George Soros.

Come on. Who else is in there? What organization? Come on.

STU: Open Society.

GLENN: Oh, that's good. That's good.

Think bigger. Think bigger. What do they start?

STU: Oh, gosh.

GLENN: The Tides Foundation. Yes. The Tides Foundation.

It's a network funded by Soros and other liberal billionaires. The protesters, who organize the global event, under the title A15. Targeted economic choke points, with the express purpose of causing as much financial disruption as possible, according to their website.

You know, that's the kind of thing I really want to be involved in. I go to the websites. And I'm like, I don't know.

How can we inflict as much damage on this country, fiscally as possible? And then I realized, I've already done my part. I voted for people in Congress.

And so, really, that's all you have to do. There's nobody that can do more damage that than people in the House and the Senate.

That's why I don't protest. Anyway, the A15 protesters on Wall Street, were photographed wearing Hamas bandanas and flying Hezbollah flags.

STU: But they're just -- Glenn, they're just --

GLENN: They're for the people.

STU: A humanitarian cause.

GLENN: Absolutely.

STU: That happens to also.

GLENN: Problem with the Hezbollah flag.

STU: Right. Hamas. Hezbollah. They seem like wonderful people.

GLENN: Banks located to the protests were vandalized with red stray paint and graffiti that read, funder of genocide, and free Gaza. Those protesters later blocked the Brooklyn bridge. Which is one of my favorite bridges to block.

STU: Oh, really? See, I only like to get the Brooklyn bridge.

I like to sit in traffic on the Brooklyn bridge, for 12 to 15 hours.

For climate-related purposes.

I like the bridge for Gaza purposes.

GLENN: Yeah. I do really want to know. Those people who are Gluing themselves to freeways and things.

Because whatever. I don't listen to you. I just look at you, as a moron. So I don't really check in on you what you're protesting for.

STU: I am of the opposite.

I will absolutely oppose anything that you're doing.

If you are -- if you're Free Gaza. I'm going to -- if I was pro-Palestinian, I think I would flip my viewpoint just based on the fact that I was sitting in traffic.

GLENN: Well, see, I don't look. Because I never think it's anything I'm for already.

STU: It never is. More capitalism!

That never happens.

GLENN: It's not like, I'm gluing myself to the freeway because I like steaks.

No. Not happening.

STU: No. You're right. That's true.

And I don't think it's any secret of their success. Right?

The left does a lot of things strategically that I think are -- are -- I don't want to say admirable. But like things that are -- if conservatives can benefit from learning a little bit from, at times. Not necessarily, certainly not the ends.

And some of their tactics are down right evil. Some of them are smart. They message things well, at times. There are certain things they do.

You can look at. This is not one of those tactics, I won't want to keep up.

You're taking -- you're taking life, and you're making it bad for the people you're trying to convince. This is the opposite of what you're supposed to do.

GLENN: Okay. Let me just point out. How do you learn that lesson, when you've burnt cities to the ground?

STU: Yeah. And everybody in the city is like, I support you. I don't think they did, though. Did they?

Even in Minneapolis, the defund the police thing, died on the vibe. None of this stuff has worked.

Like, there are certain parts of the movement, right?

That have occurred. I think you can even look at those. I don't remember anyone blocking streets for gay marriage.

Right?

I don't remember that. They worked, they tried to persuade people over a long period of time. And were successful.

GLENN: Be really hard to not just step on the gas.

I saw a guy who was trapped by these people. And someone glued themselves to the freeway in Germany or something.

Don't piss the Germans off. Man, don't do it. Especially if they're driving a Volkswagen. Hello!

But, anyway, he was -- the guy was trying to get through, and these people were sitting there. And one of them was glued. And he just kept going. And they were like, what are you doing? You're trying to kill us. And he's like, no. Just trying to get through.

And -- and he did almost kill one of them. But he got through. He got through.

And, you know, I didn't have a lot of sympathy for the people that were glued to the streets. And maybe that was just me. But I don't know how they expect this to work. Other than causing real damage. Kind of like Occupy Wall Street. I don't know. Did it work? Did it work?

I contend it did.

STU: You think Occupy Wall Street worked?

GLENN: Uh-huh. Why did they go away? Why did they go away?

STU: They kept raping each other all over the place. Lots of rapes.

GLENN: Lots of rapes. Lots of bad things. Why didn't they go away all of a sudden?

They had everything. They had the media on their side. They had Hollywood on their side. They had everybody on their side. What happened?

It's almost, I'm going to go out on a limb here. It's almost as if the big banks. And all the big corporations got together and said, look, just leave us alone.

Like me, I always joke. Someone comes into my house.

Just leave me alone. You can do whatever you want to the wife and children. Just leave me alone.

It's almost what they get, I think. Look, just leave I say alone.

Why did their funding of all of these things that BLM, and the extreme left was all about?

Why did they start funding all of those things coincidentally, just about the time that Occupy Wall Street left?

Why?

Leave us alone.

And we'll fund you. Leave us alone, and we'll help you.

I think that's what happened. So when you say, well, gluing them themselves to the streets.

I don't know. I don't know. Except, they're blocking I, now. And not the big bankers.

And I'm not sure you have anything they want, besides, oh, I don't know. Oh, everything of yours.