GOVERNOR PERRY: Howdy. Good morning?

GLENN: How are things?

GOVERNOR PERRY: I hope you're in San Antonio, Texas.

GLENN: I am in San Antonio.

GOVERNOR PERRY: God bless you.

GLENN: I got off at the plane last night and I arrived at the hotel and I first ‑‑ I got out of the car and it was such a great welcome. This older couple was walking down the street and they just stopped and they looked across the street and they looked at me and the woman put her hand on her ‑‑ by her eyes and she said, Glenn Beck? And I said, yes. And she said, well, it's about time you get down to Texas.

GOVERNOR PERRY: (Laughing). You can just feel the spirit of independence coming out of the ground in San Antonio, can't you?

GLENN: Yeah, you really can. You know, are you concerned at all, sir, about the way these tea parties are being portrayed in the media that these are extremists, that Department of Homeland Security came out and said that the people that believe in constitutional government and smaller government, et cetera, et cetera are somehow or another extremists?

GOVERNOR PERRY: I'm concerned that there's someone in the federal government that's more interested in politicizing these in an inappropriate way than recognizing what this is as just the citizens of our country are coming together in a peaceful manner to express their discontent with the federal government's audacity and overreaching and forcing us to accept things against the Constitution, I might add. And for me, Glenn, this is a great opportunity for the masses out there who may have never taken the opportunity to look at the Constitution or know what's in there to really understand what a great document this is and that it's just as important and just as real today as it was 200‑plus years ago when it was written.

When you look at that Tenth Amendment and it clearly states that the federal government was created by the states as an agent for them, not the other way around. And that's a powerful message and so we got pushed to the cliff, if you will, in Texas, and I think in a lot of other states and we said no more. We're not going to stand up and allow the federal government to force these programs upon us. As a matter of fact, there is a U.S. Supreme Court case in New York versus the United States where congress has clearly shown or stated that congress cannot commandeer the legislative and regulatory process of the states. That's the message coming out today. People are standing up and saying, you know what, we believe in the Constitution, we're going to stand up for it. Hey, Washington, pay attention. You ought to, too.

GLENN: Governor, I tell you I read your comments yesterday and I was thrilled to see them. I was wondering who would be the first governor to stand up and be very, very clear on this and you are one of the first and it was good to see. I will tell you that there have been so many bad politicians that will just, will spew something out of a focus group or they will ride the coattails of a movement. Everybody said they were an agent of change last election. How do the people in Texas know that you actually mean this, that you're tired of Washington telling the states how to run their lives?

GOVERNOR PERRY: Yeah, I think I've been here long enough and I've got a consistent enough record of standing up and telling Washington, whether it was an administration that belonged to the same party as myself, I stood up and was pretty vocal about Washington's abysmal lack of effort to secure our southern border. We told the Homeland Security director before Napolitano often about here's how you secure the border of the State of Texas, time after time, and we got no response. We were still very vocal against what they were not doing, if you will, and being proactive. As a matter of fact, we spend $55 million a year, Texans' taxpayer dollars to defend our border now because Mexico and drug cartels and the pressure from that, and Washington was doing nothing. So I think I've got a pretty good record here of standing up against Washington D.C., when they're wrong. When they are right, I say God bless you, you are doing it right.

GLENN: Governor, I've only got about a minute left. So I just want ‑‑ explain to the people of America why the Alamo is so important for this whole battle. In a minute.

GOVERNOR PERRY: Man, I tell you what, when individuals will put their lives on the line for liberty, when liberty means something that is so powerful that they are willing to give up their lives for it, that is an overpowering message and that's exactly what happened in 1836, those 183 individuals led by Crockett and Travis and Bowie. That he stood up and said, you know what, Mexico, you didn't live up to your Constitution of 1824, you're not letting us live in the type of freedom of religion, et cetera, and we're not going to take it anymore. And those individuals sent a message that has now lived for 100‑plus years and I will suggest to you will live for hundreds of years into the future, a powerful message of liberty and freedom and independence.

GLENN: Thanks, governor.