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3 Things to Learn From How the Government Mishandled the Bundy Standoff

What happened?

Cliven Bundy and sons Ammon and Ryan Bundy of Nevada have been vindicated in federal court after being involved in an armed standoff with the government over federal land in 2014.

On Monday in Las Vegas, Judge Gloria M. Navarro of Federal District Court dismissed charges against the three men, saying that the government’s mistakes during the case were so serious that the indictment against the Bundy family members should be dismissed.

Remind me:

The Bundy family case has been pointed to as an example of government overreach in recent years. The standoff happened in 2014 after the Bureau of Land Management seized cattle from Cliven Bundy’s ranch in Nevada.

Officials had demanded payment for years of back fees for letting his cattle graze on federal land, but Cliven Bundy contended that he had water rights to the land. Hundreds of activists came out to support the Bundy family members – many of them armed – at the peak of the standoff.

How did the judge decide the case?

Navarro said that prosecutors withheld key evidence, including video footage, and threw out the case based on these failures.

Glenn’s take:

“Although the outcome for the Bundy family turned out happy, the story is troubling for three different reasons,” Glenn said on today’s show, listing these three objections:

     

  • The Bundy family members and supporters enabled the situation getting out of control; it should never have escalated to the point of a standoff.
  •  

  • The government massively overreacted by bringing in a surveillance program and then tried to cover up their mistakes.
  •  

  • The federal government has “zero business managing public land” in the first place.

Tell us your thoughts on this ruling in the comment section below.

This article provided courtesy of TheBlaze.

GLENN: So it all went down four years ago, and we all remember it. Cliven Bundy and his sons refused to pay federal grazing fees and then stared down the government agents as they attempted to confiscate their cattle. It kicked off an armed standoff with many people fearing outcomes like Ruby Ridge. After the situation cooled, Cliven and his two sons and a militia member were arrested, and in the words of Cliven Bundy, they were political prisoners ever since.

Yesterday, a federal judge threw out the government's case against the Bundys and set them all free.

The judge used the words flagrant and reckless, not for the Bundys. Those were the words she described -- she used to describe the government and the way they withheld evidence from the defense. It turns out the information the federal agents were withholding were information regarding records about surveillance at the Bundy ranch, maps about the government's surveillance, records about the presence of government snipers, FBI logs about activities at the ranch leading up to the standoff, a 2012 law enforcement assessment that found that the Bundys posed no threat, and internal affairs reports about misconduct by BLM agents.

Holy cow!

Imagine, if we went to war with a country, and our soldiers misbehaved, we did all kinds of research on it, we had all kinds of facts that showed none of this was really true, and the people that we went after, there were reports that said they weren't really a threat to us! And then the CIA tried to cover it all up.

 

Well, that's exactly what this sounds like. Although the outcome for the Bundy family turned out happy, the story is troubling for three different reasons.

 

#1, the Bundys and everyone involved in the standoff enabled them to escalate way out of control. It should have never gotten as far as it did.

But #2, the government likewise went off the rails with this -- in the way that they behaved is insane for America. A massive surveillance operation? Snipers, out of control BLM agents, and then trying to lie to cover it all up?

And #3. This is the most important. This story is much larger than the Bundys. The misconduct of the federal agents, and most of the other headlines that you're going to see about this story, it's bigger than this. The story really is about one thing: The federal government has zero business managing public land. Period. Judge Navarro called the government's actions in handling the Bundy case, quote, a reckless disregard for Constitutional obligations, end quote.

Yes! Somebody who's actually a judge used the word Constitution in their ruling in an appropriate way!

But I contend the entire premise for the government seizing land and then charging private citizens to work on it is also a reckless disregard for Constitutional obligations.

 

Here's a notice to Washington, D.C.: You have no right meddling or managing public land. The people who live around the land are much more qualified, and they care much more.

 

It belongs to the 321 million people that live here in America. And quite honestly, as somebody who has a piece of land that is surrounded by public land, we don't want your help. Nor do we need it.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

Jeffrey Epstein's SHOCKING connections to intelligence agencies | The Glenn Beck Podcast REPLAY

Journalist Whitney Webb has worked to uncover some of the most dangerous stories of our lifetime, and she joins Glenn to reveal just how eye-opening it’s been. Her new two-volume book, “One Nation Under Blackmail: The Sordid Union Between Intelligence and Crime that Gave Rise to Jeffrey Epstein,” examines Epstein’s elaborate network of corruption and power, from Bill Clinton to Ghislaine Maxwell and many more. Her research into transhumanism has given her a terrifying perspective on the World Economic Forum and tech elites, including Elon Musk. And she tells Glenn the dark truth about Biden’s push for electric vehicles that she noticed while living in Chile.

Watch Glenn Beck's FULL Interview with Whitney Webb HERE

RADIO

$13.8 TRILLION in interest ALONE: Can America survive this debt bomb?

The United States is facing possibly the largest debt crisis in our history as our national debt rises faster and faster. Glenn Beck warns: is our bankruptcy inevitable? Plus, Glenn and Stu discuss the recent protest during an ICE raid on a farm in California.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Now, here's another thing. And I will hit this once.

Because it's a little -- it's a little overwhelming.

But I just think you should know it.

Since the dead ceiling was raised on July 3rd. July 3rd.

The US debt is up $410 billion.

Just in the first two days.

Let me say that again.

We raised the debt ceiling. And the US debt goes up 410 billion, almost half of a trillion dollars in two days!

Now, this comes after the US Treasury ended extraordinary measures, raising the debt ceiling by 5 trillion.

We are in the midst of the US' largest crisis.

Largest one ever. Now, listen to this.

After hitting the debt limit of $36.1 trillion in January of 2025, Treasury began extraordinary measures to conserve cash. Last week, when Trump's big, beautiful bill was signed into law. The debt ceiling from 36.1 to $41.1 trillion. And what happened?

In two days, up 410 billion. Raised due to a technical process.

Now, Stu, I don't want to get all technical here. But I think that -- that the debt ceiling going up, and then us spending an additional $410 billion. I think that technical process. And, again, if I'm too wonky, maybe you can explain it, is out of control politicians that are just spending too much.

But maybe that's just me. Is that too technical. Is that too wonky, to get to?

STU: Yeah. You're in nerd world with that one, Glenn. People aren't going to understand it.

GLENN: Yeah. Yeah.

So they were just -- they were just doing what you do, when you don't have the money. They were just moving bills around. And paying what they absolutely had to. Until the debt ceiling was raised.

And then when they did, they were like woo. Because we were completely out of money.

Now we can print some more. Now we're free to borrow a record 41.1 trillion dollars in debt.

Now, here's the part that kind of opens your eyes. To put this into perspective, at the start of 2020, the US had $23.2 trillion in at the time. In 2020, $23.2 trillion.

Where are we now?

Well, we just moved that debt ceiling up to 41 trillion, because we're at $36.1 trillion.

With the new limit, we will mark $17.9 trillion increase, since 2020. That's a 77 percent increase in our debt. Have you thought of it this way?

At our current pace, we will reach the new debt ceiling much sooner than expected.

The treasury posted a 316 billion-dollar deficit in May. That's the third largest in record.

For the first eight months of 2025, the budget gap hit $1.3 trillion. The third largest in history.

Over the last 12 months. The US borrowed 1.9 trillion.

Or 158 billion, every month.

That is half -- this is half of the May levels.

But let's take 158 billion to be conserve.

US current debt stands at 36.6.

We are 4.5 trillion below the limit now.

At our current pace, it will take us 28 months, to hit that limit.


STU: Jeez.

GLENN: In fact, the debt ceiling crisis. It looks like it will hit us now, every two years. The debt ceiling is hit faster than it can be moved. From June 2023 and October 2021, we're the last debt ceiling crisis. The US budget deficit has averaged 9 percent of GDP over the last five years.

But over the last 12 months, the budget gap has hit 7 percent of GDP. That is higher than during 2001, or any of the 1980 recessions.

We now spend 7.1 trillion dollars, 24 percent of our GDP. We have a spending problem.
That's our problem. We are issuing so much debt now, bond prices are falling. And yields are rising. What does that mean? It means, we're charging less, and we're paying out more in interest. That's not going to help us!

The US spent a record of $1.2 trillion on interest expense alone.

That's more than the total spending on defense. Medicaid, and the veterans program.

At our current pace, we're set to see US cost exceed $2 trillion within a matter of years!

Over the next ten years, the US is projected to pay $13.8 trillion just in interest.

For interest alone. This is not taxpayers. This is per person in the United States.

For interest alone, we are now on the hook for $40,500 per person, just for the interest!

This is four times Social Security cash deficit in the next ten years.

Five times the cost of 403 US weather and climate disasters. Since 1980.

403, weather and climate disasters.

It's the cost of 403 of those! Sorry.

It's the -- it's five times the cost of those, since 1980! I just wanted to -- I mean, just want to start there. Wake up to your situation.

People are arguing about all of the wrong things right now, and they are -- we think we are skating. And we think that this can last forever. It's not going to last forever, and then you add things on top of this.

Like, what is happening with -- with ICE?

I don't know if you saw the video of the protesters. Some protester that was firing some sort of a weapon, at a federal agent during the ICE raid at a farm in California. Let me play this. Cut two, please. This is the raid --

VOICE: Take a look at this video right here. It appears a protestor fired some kind of gun at federal agents. This happened this afternoon.

It was a really chaotic scene at the time.
A lot of smoking was being launched at the protesters. Again, it appears that a protestor fired back with that weapon.

It looks like he fired at least a couple of times. We've not heard about any agents being hurt.

STU: Hmm.

GLENN: So we are entering a very violent. Very, very violent time. First of all, let me talk about this particular raid. This was at a legal pot farm!

Okay. I think we can probably in the past, just done an hour on that. You know, oh, it's a legal pot farm.

Okay. Forget about that. That's not a problem apparently anymore.

It's being tended, this legal pot farm is being tended by illegals. That are coming across the border.

Well, we don't want to hurt our farming community.

I don't think of our farming community, as pot farms. But maybe that's just me.

Again, why get -- why get down in those details?

STU: Yeah. Glenn, this is just an existential question here.

But is it a legal pot farm, if the workers are illegal?

GLENN: Stu. Stu, again, that would be hour two of any past show that we have ever done together.

STU: Okay. All right.

GLENN: All right. So they go in, and they're trying to bust the illegals.

All right. What happens? Well, there starts to be protests. These protests come.

They start firing at ICE.

ICE has to put tear gas down.

Now the illegals are running to save themselves.

But who is running amongst this crowd?

Apparently, a bunch of children.

Now, I suppose those legal pot farms are providing a good education for those kids.

You know, probably has a pot farm day care center for those kids. So they can be out of the fields. And of course not working for their parents. Because that would be underage labor. You wouldn't want that to happen in America.

You know, all these people that have these bleeding hearts. Like, oh, this is just so wrong.

You're not even thinking anymore.

You're not even thinking.

You just see a video where you have kids running with their parents. Children running from the fields of this pot farm.

What were they doing there?

Certainly, that wasn't underage labor, was that?

Because you would be against that.

Wouldn't you?

Or are you?

Or are you only against that, if it's white children?

I'm not sure. I'm confused.

So you have the underage children. And these bleeding hearts, who are saying, we have to let these people go.

We have to let them just do what they do!

Really? You mean work in the shadows?

You mean engage in possible child labor? Okay. Possibly making, what?

A dollar an hour. Yeah. No, no, no. That's really, really, really good.

Then let's just let these protesters, and they're not protesters.

They are terrorists now.

We just let these terrorists get away with firing guns at our -- at our ICE agents. Things are changing in America. Let's just look at the violence, just in the last couple of weeks.

You have the July 4th ICE ambush, which is what?

ICE 25 miles outside of the city of Dallas. They have a detention center.

A coordinated well-planned attack.

Guy is covered in black. You know, in -- in military gear. They come and they start shooting fireworks at the detention center. Then a few of them break off, and they start spray painting the cars. Which brings unarmed ICE agents out of the building, to try to stop them from defacing the -- the cars.

They're unarmed. Well, this group has snipers in the woods. Hiding in the woods.

As soon as those unarmed agents come out, they start shooting them. Shot one of them in the neck. Thank God, he's still alive. What do you call that?

What do you call that? A Revolutionary War. Terrorism. It's certainly not a peaceful protest. Neither was it yesterday.

And, meanwhile, we have Congressmen who are actually trying to pass a bill in Congress right now, saying that the ICE members can't wear masks.

Well, you know what, when your bad guys stop wearing masks. When your people who are on the -- on the college campuses stop wearing masks, maybe we can live in a community and live in a society where our police officers don't have to wear masks.

Don't give me this. That's gets appear zero stuff.

By the way, the gestapo never wore masks.

They didn't care.

This is the kind of stuff that you see in the third world countries.

You mean like riots on the streets?

Yeah. It's stuff you see in third world countries. And you're dragging us into a third world country.

And, you know what, it's just -- it's -- it's time!

It's time. It's just time to say, enough is enough. And I'm not saying take extraordinary measures.

I'm saying, can our US government, our FBI, our department of justice stop acting like every Bond villain I've ever seen.

And here's what I mean by that. It's like you take these guys off the street, and then you strap them on to a table. And you say, the laser is going to cut your head in half.

No. It's not going to. We all know it's not going to.

Can we stop acting like Bond villains? Can we actually take care of the problem?

Actually arrest these people. Try them. And put them in jail.

We need to start setting a few examples. Otherwise, this is going to ton spiral out of control.

RADIO

Will the Deep State let former CIA director John Brennan go to JAIL?

The FBI has opened a criminal investigation against former CIA Director John Brennan. But will Americans finally see justice for his alleged crimes and cover-ups? Or will the Deep State protect him? Former Department of Defense intelligence analyst Jason Buttrill joins Glenn Beck to give his prediction.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Let's bring in Jason Buttrill who is our chief researcher on the program.

You know, I'm reading a lot about John Brennan, and, you know, I think everybody knows he's a bad guy.

Well, everybody, but MSNBC and CNN.

They know he's a bad guy. But, you know, Jason, as I was starting to really refresh my memory. And look into Brennan, as we're -- it looks like maybe the Department of Justice is going to take him on.

And maybe prosecute him for some pretty bad perjury. I started looking into him, and I didn't realize. I had completely forgotten.

He was the guy who was the main guy that was pushing for torture, during the war.

I mean, he couldn't torture enough people.
And then he actually had a little group that would meet with the president, and they would develop the kill list. Do you remember, Stu?

Talking about the kill list, that Obama was doing? You know, every week. They developed a kill list. And everybody was like, what do you mean a kill list? Who is on the kill list?

It was John Brennan who was doing all of that stuff. He's a really, really dark dude. And, you know, hopefully we'll actually send him to jail for the things that he allegedly has done, besides, you know, develop the kill list. Jason, welcome to the program.

JASON: Hey, thanks, Glenn. I don't -- you know, it depends on -- I don't know. John Brennan has been one of the most slippery, I don't know how to describe him.

Whether it's like Bond villains. Or actually maybe it's more accurate to kill him like a Batman villain.

You remember like in Batman. You know if like the Joker is connected and remains in that comment or cartoon, or if it's the Penguin.

You know at the end of the comic, they're going to get away.

You will just see them in a slide. You know, all of a sudden in page where they slip away. They have to live again. You know, to the villain in another comic book.

GLENN: Oh, I know.

Yeah, I know.

And we are playing the role of a -- of a -- of a Bond villain as well, when it comes to justice.

Our DOJ is like, oh. And we have sharks that are going to eat you.

We have strapped you to this table. But they are going to start with your shoestrings. And then, we will leave. But before you know it, you will be dead in the belly of a shark. And they're not going to -- it's not going to kill them.

Just shoot them in the head. What are you doing?

Stop with the shark thing. That's what our DOJ is like. They just have these guys get away with murder.

JASON: Yeah. As you point out, with Brennan, it goes way, way back.

He was -- as you outlined. He was one of the guys that were right at the center of the enhanced interrogation, or torture controversy.

He -- he always said, hey, I was not in the enhanced interrogation techniques, air quoted, program.

But he was one of the guys, that was defending transferring some of the suspects, the country, where, you know, the rules are a lot less, you know, strict than they are here in the United States.

Where you can employ some of these.

Yeah. It goes beyond that.

He actually withdrew his name. You know, from being in the BCI director because of this.

But like any fat man villain or Bond villain, if he decides to run again, and he's confirmed by a massive amount. He just keeps on slipping through.

GLENN: Well, how does he get -- let me ask you: How do you think he gets this power?
Because he just keeps slipping through.

And, you know, if I remember right, it was Dianne Feinstein that -- that actually came at him, and said, you and the CIA are spying on the committee in -- in the Senate.

And they were investigating the torture, or enhanced interrogation. And he was knee-deep. Maybe neck-deep in that. And he said, we're not spying -- the CIA would never do that.

It's just unthinkable. Well, it turns out, yes. They were spying.

And then he never -- they never pushed for any kind of penalty on him.

He said, well, I'm going to find out, who did this.

And then they will pay.

Nobody paid. Nobody. Nothing. Does he have stuff on -- on members of the Senate and the House? Is that what -- is that what's happening here? How does he keep getting away with this?

Understanding John Brennan, in my opinion is understanding how the Deep State operates.

That example that you just put out there, with spying on the intelligence committee.

Deny. Deny. Deny.

Later it comes out, Glenn. That five CIA employees. Five, improperly accessed.

Five!

And then finally after a while. Like months later. He's apologizing to the Senate intelligence committee.

You know, all, but admitting this happened.

But no resignations.

No prosecutions. This goes on and on and on.

STU: Hang on.

And then on that same case, five years later, he writes his -- you know, his biography.

And he talks about how none of that happened.

So he admits it.

First, he denies it.

Then he's caught. Then he admits it.

He says, I will take care of it.

Nothing happens. Time goes by.

And then he writes a book. And then he goes, all of that. None of that happened.

That was all wrong. This guy is just --

JASON: Yeah. It really is.

And it's the same with the Steele dossier.

You know, did think it in front of Congress.

And then later, now we're coming out. Now we can see that he totally -- it appears like he was just completely lying.

Now we're trying to figure out what about he told John Durham. Because maybe they can get him for saying the same statements to John Durham. If they can, then maybe we can go after him.

But I really don't know.

I really don't know if the audience wants to hear this right now.

I don't know if it will make a difference.

This is how the Deep State operates.

To understand it, and understand John Brennan.

You understand, the executives don't control Deep State apparatuses. That's not how it works.

You have multiple people, and people that were under John Brennan and the CIA, are still there. They're still there.

The Deep State controls the Deep State apparatus, not the executive. Not Congress.

None of them. It is the shady individuals that continue to get away with things. We catch them in lies that never really matters.

I think if we could actually get some justice on this, that John Brennan could actually get -- you know, outed publicly, that he had in the past. This time, something actually happened. That I think that would be a huge step forward in getting rid of some of these people. That just linger. And secretly pull strings, while we're demanding I couldn't wait.

STU: So tell me what happened with the -- the ICA.

You know, the new report out, about the intelligence community assessment.

What is this story all about?

JASON: Yeah, it's a trade craft. The CIA trade craft review.

GLENN: What does that mean?

A trade craft review?

JASON: It's kind of a sexy way of juts saying, how did we operate, you know, from this time, to this time period?

GLENN: Okay.

JASON: And it points out, you know, how things -- like I said. It points out, in part of it. How things like the Steele dossier, ended up getting included into the, you know, whole Russia gate scandal.

And it looks very, very clear, that -- you know, that should not have -- unverified intelligence should not have gotten as far as the president's desk?

It should not have done it.

Even if it had, then it should have been heavily caveated showing, that this is just opposition research bullcrap.

Well, it didn't.

And if you look at it, very, very physically. It shows that if you are, let's say a Bond villain. Or a Batman villain. And you really, really want this damaging information, that's just opposition research, to somehow make it into the hull of the White House. And then knowing that that's going to get leaked down to the media.

They have perfected, you know, the CIA perfected this kind of operation. They know exactly what they're doing. Who would be responsible for doing it?

Why would they be doing it? And it would be for election interference.

And then that's allegedly what John Brennan was actually doing.

That's what it looks like he was doing.

Now we have the intelligence community assessment, showing that this is what happened. With that information and with now being able to go back to people like John Durham or looking at exactly what statements were made to him. So we can fit them into the statute of limitations. Or before it runs out.

GLENN: Which is in the middle of August.

Which really pisses me off. It's another thing like the -- the debt ceiling. Oh! You know, we've had all these years to fix it. But now we have to fix it tonight, and then it's never fixed.

I mean, I'm telling you, this is -- this is not going to be good!

You know, this -- this Epstein thing is not going to go away. It's just not going to go away.

And I'm sorry, but I think the president is on the wrong side on this.

And I'm not assigning any kind of reason for it, but he wants it to just go away.

And I have my belief, I expressed them yesterday.

It's about Intel, again. But you can't keep stacking these things up. You just can't.

John Brennan is a known bad guy, Russiagate. You would think that Donald Trump would be all over this. Because it affected his life so much. This guy is a very, very bad guy.

And both sides of the aisle know it.

And for some reason, nobody can ever do anything about John Brennan. He's got to be investigated and prosecuted if that's where the evidence leads.

But you can't just walk -- if the statute of limitations runs out on this guy, I think -- I think you've got another chink in the armor. A big one!

JASON: Yeah. Yeah. And not just him. I mean, I would go a lot further and say, who were the people that were directly underneath him?

Who were his subordinates? Who were their subordinates?

How many people had knowledge of this?

What we're really talking about is how it operates.

This is how things happen, outside of the wishes of the president.

You know, the executive or even Congress.

This is how -- you know, this is how outside.

This is how justice and how operations work, you know, from people who are not elected.

People that we did not give a mandate to.

This is how this operates. You have to root out every single one of them.

Identify them.

Have them stand in front of justice and see if we can just finally start to will this thing away.

If we do not, then the future does not look great for what we want for this country.

GLENN: Oh, and it's everywhere.

You know, Kevin O'Conner. He's the White House physician for Biden. The testimony that he gave, well, fine. You know, give him -- give him immunity. Give him immunity.

I don't want to know about the private conversations, you know, about his health.

Although, I do think that is really important. We're talking about the president of the United States. He's not just a private citizen. He's property. You know, the president can't say -- if the Secret Service says, sir, you're not going into that room.

The president no longer has the right to say, I'm going into that room.

Sorry, while you're prosecute. It's almost F you're property of the United States of America. And control over your own person in many ways. I'm sorry. But, you know, the physician, client. Or physician patient confidential, I'm not sure that exists, when you're president of the United States.

But there's no reason why you shouldn't give this guy immunity, and then say, okay. Who said, what?

Were you ever told to lie?

I'm not sure you will get the truth out of this guy. Because he is a -- he is a Biden guy, through and through. But people should start going to jail on that.

I'm so sick and tired of these investigations, that start to show promise and then nothing happens. Nothing.

It's been 20 years of investigations, and no one goes to jail.

It's been 20 years of riots on the streets. You know, people burning cities down. People, you know, looting stores. Destroying our economy.

Destroying the safety in our city. And no one goes to jail. President Trump has got to start sending some big, big messages. And he is on so many fronts.

But this one cannot escape his view.

He's got to be on this one.

All right. Jason, thank you very much.

RADIO

Are fired USAID workers plotting REGIME CHANGE in America?!

Glenn Beck reviews a potentially terrifying story: some former USAID workers, who were fired under Trump, may be planning to use their color revolution tactics to “undermine Trump’s power” and plot regime change. Also, former Department of Defense intelligence analyst Jason Buttrill joins to discuss how the ambush at a Texas ICE detention facility looked eerily similar to what he saw while fighting in Afghanistan.