RADIO

Amazon’s DEEP government partnerships could RUIN YOUR LIFE

Amy Sterner Nelson has experienced firsthand just how dangerous Amazon truly can be. She joined Glenn during his ‘Targets of Tyranny’ special last year to detail how the tech giant used civil asset forfeiture in an attempt to pressure Amy’s husband, Carl, to admit to felony accusations that he did not commit. But, since sharing her story with Glenn’s audience, Amazon’s dark practices seemingly have only gotten worse. She joins Glenn in-studio to detail the latest developments, explaining just how deep Amazon’s partnerships with our federal government run. But it’s not just Amazon, Amy explains. It’s ALL of Big Tech, and their partnerships, their corruption, and their scare tactics are something we should ALL be terrified of.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: The founder of the Riveter. She is -- she is really -- I feel stupid sitting in the same room with her. She's a graduate of Emery University.

NYU, School of Law, practice corporate litigation with a focus on high profile First Amendment matters for over a decade in New York and then in Seattle.

Mother of four. Contributor for Ink. The host of iHeart Radio's What's Her Story, with Sam and Amy.

She's raised $30 million in venture capital to grow the Riveter.

She's also been published in the Washington Post, Newsweek, Seattle Times, and she's been all over the world speaking. Fortune's most powerful women. I mean, jeez.

Overachieve much, Amy?

AMY: No.

GLENN: So, Amy, you were on with us -- by the way, welcome. Glad you're here.

AMY: Thank you. Thank you.

GLENN: And you're sitting up, taking nourishment. That's always good. You came in here for the targets of tyranny special. And we had been in correspondence for a while. Because of what happened to you and your husband in Seattle with Amazon. And the feds.

Can you quickly just recap that for anybody who doesn't remember?

AMY: Yeah. So my husband worked for Amazon web services for nearly eight years. If you don't know, AWS is a subsidiary of Amazon.

Where the internet lives, cloud computing lives, and these big data warehouses across the world.

My husband worked in real estate, helped scouting locations that would be good to build data centers and projects along those lines.

He left Amazon in 2019. On April 2nd, 2020, the FBI knocked on our door.

We learned then that my husband was being accused. At the time, we didn't know by who.

Of a crime called private sector honest services fraud, which is depriving your private employer of your honest services. At the time, the FBI did not ask my husband what happened. It was clearly an accusation. And two months later, the government used forfeiture, to seize all of our family's bank accounts.

GLENN: Your bank accounts. Your husband's, your joint. Everything.

AMY: I mean, to the point, Glenn. The DOJ went into our law firm's client trust account. And seized all the money that we had paid our lawyers.

GLENN: Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh.

AMY: And my husband at that point was never charged with a crime. In fact, he was never charged with a crime. Civil forfeiture is something the government did use. It's a tool. And they can seize your money, your home, your safe deposit box.

GLENN: They can squeeze you in every way they possibly can.

And many times, you don't get the money back.

AMY: We really don't. And we were kind of told. Don't expect to get the money back, no matter what.

GLENN: That's craziness.

That's King George. Declaration of Independence-style stuff.

AMY: And the thing is, it's a tool. It's a pressure tool. So my husband had been accused of April 2nd, 2020.

And the prosecutors wanted to plead guilty to a crime. It was all very specific and unclear. The crazy thing is, that largely what my husband was being accused of, depriving Amazon of his honest services, related to actions my husband took after he didn't work at Amazon. But, anyway, we did fight.

And, you know, we -- we had four little girls.

We sold our home. We sold our car. We liquidated our retirement. We borrowed money from family and friends to pay lawyers and to survive.

GLENN: And didn't they go into your family's accounts too? Your dad or something?

AMY: Oh, my gosh. Yeah, so my father was critically ill. He almost died. He also got a life-saving kidney transplant in April of 2020.

And two weeks later, the FBI emptied out his bank accounts. My husband and I had paid for his medical care.

GLENN: Unbelievable.

AMY: So he would have died, if my mother wouldn't have helped him pay his medical bills.

GLENN: So many times, people see this and go, yeah. But there had to be something.

You -- you told the story of what that something is. And it revolved around a very expensive lawsuit from Amazon.

AMY: Yeah. So to preface this, we had no idea what was going on. And the day the FBI showed up at my house, my husband hired criminal defense attorneys and said, please call Amazon, and tell them, I will come in and talk to them. I don't understand what is going on. But I have nothing to hide.

And Amazon's lawyers said, we will only speak to him if he's pleading guilty to a felony. And at the time, we were going, what was going on?

Amazon's lawyers squarely put the DOJ between the company and my husband.

Very few companies have that kind of access to DOJ, and for an institution that's meant to be apolitical, that's wrong. It's just wrong. But what we learned over the course of years, and spending a lot of lawyer money is that, in February of 2020, Amazon broke a contract with a real estate developer. And by the explicit terms of that contract, unless they could improve the developer committed a felony crime, they were going to owe him over $100 million in damages.

The next day after they broke the contract, they had the first meeting with the Department of Justice. They meant with the Department of Justice over 100 times trying to lobby for criminal charges.

The government spent countless FBI hours and prosecutor's hours. Essentially doing Amazon's bidding. And what we do know, is despite all the things that Amazon told the government. They never told the government, that they broke a contract and needed a felony. Or they would be liable for hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.

GLENN: So you decided to fight this.

AMY: Yes.

GLENN: You guys are fighters. You decided to fight. It has cost you a great deal. Your husband, nor you, nor anybody else has ever been charged. You thought this was kind of wrapping up.

And then you came on the special. And I think I may have said, are you sure you want to come on?

And I know I said, I hope nothing happens because of this.

The day after. Coincidence?

AMY: I don't really believe in coincidences anymore. But the day after, the Department of Justice subpoenaed Amazon for all the documents that Amazon had, that had been produced in the civil litigation. Because after Amazon failed to get criminal charges, they sued my husband.

And I'll note something about that, that I think Amazon didn't anticipate. But usually, when you're accused of a crime, you never get to see the communications, between your accuser and the Department of Justice.

And in this civil case, because Amazon sued my husband, my husband was able to see all those communications. And they're very shocking.

And I mean, to me, as a lawyer, I was floored. By the things that had been made public, that I had been able to see.

GLENN: Why?

What was seen?

ADAM: Amazon hired a former federal prosecutor from the Eastern District of Virginia. They paid him millions of dollars to lobby his former colleagues, for criminal charges.

The former -- the current prosecutors of Virginia, immediately ushered in Amazon for a meeting.

They set up a meeting with the prosecutor's press office.

Because this was clearly going to be such a sexy and scandalous case.

They never checked anything Amazon said.

They never asked to see my husband's terms of employment or his non-compete. Like, they just didn't ask to see it.

Amazon said they had paid this real estate developer, $16 million.

Amazon had paid the real estate developer $0.

So nobody ever checked anything. They just went for it.

GLENN: Because it was really, literally, an old boy's network.

I know you, you know me. This is a problem.

AMY: I mean, we have an email that's now in the public docket in Virginia, where Patrick Stokes, Amazon's lawyer, asked his former colleague, Jessica Aber, who is now the US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia, who just sued Amazon's main rival, Google. And Pat (inaudible) said to Jess Aber, we want to talk to you about civil asset forfeiture.

Prosecutors in the eastern district of Virginia have not used civil asset forfeiture, outside of a drug case, in 30 years, that I can find.

GLENN: So this is now building looked at again for the second time?

AMY: You know, I really think that Amazon keeps pushing DOJ to try to do something. And DOJ isn't doing anything, except kind of -- the investigation just kind of hangs out there. Because it was a threat, right?

Unless Amazon can get a felony conviction as a real estate developer, they are going to be liable for damages.

GLENN: All right. So the reason -- and we talked about this. You mentioned this. But I have been seeing more and more stories. About people from the DOJ, going to work, right directly to the Pentagon.

And people from the intelligence agencies.

This is terrifying, because there is a public had she private partnership, that you should be very aware of.

Our DOJ, our national security agencies, all of them are using Amazon. Amazon, as their cloud bank.

When you have that, you have control of the government, or the government has control of you.

At best -- at best, if one doesn't have something over the head of the other, they're partners in everything.

That is extraordinarily dangerous.

AMY: It's incredibly dangerous. I mean, and the thing that kind of blows my mind is that no one is really even paying attention to it.

I mean, on Amazon's board, they have the former head of the NSA, Keith Alexander. That's not a person with business experience, that should be on the board of a business company.

I mean, why else would he be there, other than to get contracts with the NSA?

And sure enough, in 2021, the NSA quietly awarded Amazon web services, a 10 billion-dollar contract.

Like, it's something that we should all be very frightened of. It's happening across big tech.

It's happening -- you've read the Twitter files.

You see it everywhere. And Amazon is hiring hundreds, hundreds of CIA, FBI, former federal prosecutors.

GLENN: And what -- just having those guys in a high-tech company that has the information on each of us with be that Amazon does, that's not good. There's no wall between that company and the government.

TAYLOR: Absolutely not. There's no wall at all. And you look at things. Amazon is now getting into Pharma. Right?

Amazon just launched a five dollar subscription to get your pills. Now you're going to give all your health data to Amazon. It's terrifying.

And Jeff Bezos is an oligarch. Right?

If you looked at the indictment of the FBI agent, Charles McGonigal, it described an oligarch, Dara Paska (phonetic), as a man of vast wealth with close ties to the government. That is exactly what Jeff Bezos is.

GLENN: So what's next in this?

Have you written off ever getting your money back?

AMY: So we actually got our money back. So we pulled off what people thought would be impossible.

GLENN: Wow. You should do a podcast just on how to do that. I know lots of people who just driving through town, they had cash, the sheriff pulls them over. The cop pulls them over.

That's ours. I mean, you never get it back. How did that happen?

AMY: So the government -- it's such a strange process. It goes back to the time of pirates.

But when the government seizes your money, and they don't charge you with a crime. They then have to sue your asset. So they sue your bank account. It's like US versus $4,000 at Wells Fargo.

And they do that, because your assets don't have due process. So they can just avoid all due process.

So the government here, sued our bank accounts, went to the court, paused the case for six months.

Went to the court again. Asked to pause it for six months.

Judge said you only get four months this time. They wanted a deposit again, and it wasn't going to happen. So it was time to litigate, and it was time for the government to prove their case against the bank accounts.

And instead of opting to prove their case, the government gave us the money back.

GLENN: Unbelievable.

STU: How long was that from beginning to end, when you lost the money to when you finally received it again?

AMY: It was 22 months.

GLENN: You had nothing.

AMY: We had nothing.

We had to figure out how to feed our four daughters.

My mother, who was amazing. My mother who was a public school teacher, worked her whole life. And my mother kept asking, don't they care about your daughters? You have a baby.

And I said, mom. They don't care. She said, this is our government. And I said, they don't care. They care about Jeff Bezos and Amazon. They do not care that we have children to feed.

They did say, when they seized our money, that if my husband pled guilty to a crime, they would give some of it back.

It's such a transparent tool of corruption. It should be gone. It should be abolished.

GLENN: It's unbelievable.

STU: You mean that threat, where they can say, hey, just say you're guilty, and then we can make it all better.

Therefore, getting the guilty plea out of you. And it's really kind of your only option at that point.

GLENN: Yeah, and they held everything.

Including, if this goes on, and you arrest your husband, we will do it in front of your children.

AMY: My husband asked his lawyers -- his lawyers asked the prosecutors over and over again, who were saying in 2020, we're charging him. We're coming.

They never charged him. But they threatened you.

And my husband's lawyers asked the prosecutors. Can he turn himself in, if you're going to indict him? And the prosecutor said, no. We will arrest him in front of your home, in front of your kids.

GLENN: Isn't that crazy?

Knowing that that was a big fear of theirs.

STU: So wrong.

GLENN: This is so corrupt and so bad. Amy, thank you for telling the story.

We'll get some closing thoughts from you in just a second. It's Amy Nelson. And her website is TheRiveter.co or is it .com? Dot-co.

Okay. Let me tell you a little bit about Legacybox.

Part of my calling in life, I believe is to preserve American history. And to make sure that it is safe, and not destroyed. And doesn't fall apart.

We are in restoration on all kinds of things right now.

We just got. Did you know that there was another kind of so-called Zapruder film?

STU: No.

GLENN: It's just been released. And given to our museum. To -- to hold on.

I haven't even seen it yet. But we're holding on to it. One of the things I'll do with Legacybox. Is I'll hand deliver that to them. And say, can you please preserve this?

I mean, it's amazing. Some of the things that are going on. That's what I do, in my off hours.

Your job is to preserve your American history. The history of your family. What life was really like, back in the old days. And I mean the old days like the 1980s.

You have spent a lot of money and time and -- on videotapes and everything else. All that stuff is going away. All your photos are going away.

Get a Legacybox right now. And secure, safeguard all of those family stories.

Don't let your photos continue to fade. Become your family's hero. The one that rescues the story of your life. Legacybox.com/Beck.

Shop, you'll get an exclusive offer. And save a buttload of money right now. LegacyBox.com/Beck. Do it now.

Ten-second station ID.
(music)
Amy Nelson is with us. Final thoughts or advice?
AMY: Well, as you know, Glenn, I've been a progressive my entire life. And one thing that has really surprised me in all this is that progressives see things in black and white.

The right side sees things in black and white. But really, this is about our rights, and we should all be fighting for the same rights, including due process. And so I just hope that the Department of Justice could try to be more fair and transparent.

GLENN: Is it over? It's not.

AMY: It not over. But it will be some day. That's what my husband says. It can't last forever.

GLENN: That's just crazy. Do you still consider yourself a progressive?

AMY: I consider myself politically homeless.

GLENN: I think a lot of people feel that way.

AMY: I think so too.

GLENN: And it's weird because if you're a classic liberal. You know, I call myself more of a Libertarian. But it's also classic liberal.

It's the same thing. I believe in the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.

That's -- that's -- that's all that's important. The rest of it is nonsense.

AMY: It is. And there's so much ink spilled distracting us from those things.

GLENN: Yeah. Yeah. Nobody talks about those things.

Your story and stories like you, that should be everywhere. And that's something that Republicans and Democrats and independents should all be standing up and saying, this has got to stop. Because if they'll do it to you. They'll do it to anybody.

AMY: They truly will.

GLENN: Yeah. Thank you so much. My best to your family. How are your kids?

AMY: They're great. They're amazing. They're kids. They're resilient.

GLENN: Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

RADIO

Rep. Jasmine Crockett ALMOST gets something right

Democratic Representative Jasmine Crockett has declared a “mental health crisis” in America because of Donald Trump. Well, she’s ALMOST right, Glenn Beck explains. But Trump supporters aren’t the cause of the crisis… Has she seen what just happened at the Oregon State Capitol?!

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: I don't know what planned for this weekend, but I'll be out protesting. They arrested 75, or sorry. Seventy-six illegals, including Tren de Aragua members in Fort Worth. And I've got to tell you. I'm a little upset about it.

I was just -- so what. They're in a gang!

I mean, our gang. Did you ever watch that, with the little hanky? What's the difference? So here's cut four. This is from Fort Worth.

VOICE: Areas of Fort Worth with high crime rates were targeted in a two-month initiative called Operation Showdown.

Seventy-six people were arrested on firearm and drug crimes.

VOICE: Many of the individuals arrested in this operation are convicted, violent felons. Others are in our country illegally, and have suspected ties to the Venezuelan trans national criminal organization, Tren de Aragua, also known as TDA.

GLENN: Yeah. Known as TDA for people who can't pronounce it. Anyway, I -- you know, why are they just persecuting these poor people that are just coming in for him?

And they're bringing their gang. Because they're like, hey. I just want to melt into the society.

You know, I will bring the best from my country, TDA.

And I will melt into this one. And then I might kill some people, et cetera, et cetera. But I don't understand.

STU: This is where Trump got it wrong.

I mean, he was saying that they're sending us their worst. These are their best criminals. They're fantastic at it.

They're really, really good gang members.
And I'm glad they're here.

GLENN: Yeah. Me too. Me too.

Now, let me take to you Oregon, to the Capitol, where the House of Representatives, on the floor of the House of Representatives, in the Oregon Capitol, did a circus drag show. Here it is. Cut five.
(music)

STU: What the hell is this?
(music)
(laughter)

GLENN: What are you talking about? It's two guys dressed as women. You know, one without a shirt on apparently, and just dancing with blue hair.

STU: What the hell is happening? At the Oregon Capitol in front of the House of Representatives. It's like that typical C-SPAN segment with the ridiculous drag show going on.

And they're not doing anything, except canceling to seemingly prerecorded music.

GLENN: Yeah.

STU: Wow.

What a skill that is. What a skill.

GLENN: What I love is just all the guys that are just sitting there. I mean, look at that.

They're just sitting there. Most of them aren't even looking.

They're sitting in their seats at the Capitol.

Okay. Mr. Speaker!

Can we get back to some business here?

STU: They're all in that weird.

I remember when Oprah had a show. And there would be awe musical performer. And they would feel the need to show Oprah dancing around.

And it's super awkward.

That's all their not what you do, when you're sitting individually in a seat.

She is trying to act like she's into it.

She never knew the word.

That's kind of what it looks like to people.

They're sitting there, trying to decide what the appropriate reaction is to this.

By the way, the answer is to walk out. That's a good one.

GLENN: Yeah. That's a good one.

You get up and you walk out.

So you are living in Oregon.

You might walk out and be stoned to death.

Probably should have walked out on that one.

I just -- I wonder, you know. Oregon.

What?

What are your electing officials doing? If you want to go to a drag show, that's fine.

But why in the middle of the workday?

In the state House of Representatives.

I -- was this a lead-up to I like silky blue hair votes.

Or what?

What is this?

STU: Hmm. It's a great question.

Where -- where do you think we are?

I was talking to Steve Deace yesterday, on your show.

And he -- we were talking about where are we in this situation with the -- the woke trans, you know, LGBTQQIA2+ thing.

Are we -- is it still advancing, the way that it was before? Have we turned it back?

Are we, you know, at a standoff?

Where do you think we are?

GLENN: I think we're -- I think we're turning it back. And it's going to implode on itself very soon.

STU: That's pretty optimistic.

GLENN: Listen to this.

Under a new leader, Ken Martin the Democratic National Committee has been plagued by infighting and a drop in donation, raising alarms from Democrats as they try to win back power.

Just moments into the tenure of the new party leader, Kevin Martin, the Democratic National Committee is finding that the situation has grown so bleak, that top officials have discussed whether they might need to borrow money this year, whether to keep paying bills. Why do you think that's happening?

Why do you think that's happening?

I will tell you, why that's happening.

The same reason why it's happening. New York City Pride parade loses corporate sponsors. Why? Why?

You can blame it on the economy, but that's not what's happening.

You have this. Jasmine Crockett, yesterday. We have a mental health crisis in this country. Because everybody, no matter how you affiliate yourself should be against a Donald Trump.

Wait. Wait.

That's the mental health problem?

STU: Right. I was going to say --

GLENN: Can I show you the footage again in the statehouse?

STU: I was going to say, the fact that Jasmine Crockett got elected shows, she is correct, we have a mental health problem in this country. Just to back you up on this, on the New York Times as well. We've reached rainbow capitalism's end.

GLENN: Yep.

STU: And it's from like -- you know, you know, LGBTQIA activist.

Who talks about how all these parades are losing money.

They're hundreds of dollars in the hole. Because these companies are not coming out and supporting them.

They say -- this is interesting. Bark Box. You know Bark Box?

GLENN: No. I'm proud to say no.

STU: It's like a subscription box where they send your dogs treats and toys every month.

GLENN: No, let's just say no.

STU: Just so you know, if you have a wife and a pet, you're probably subscribed to it. They sent an internal message in early June, where they said, quote, we have made the decision to pause all paid ads and life cycle marketing pushes for the Pride kit available immediately.

We need to -- excuse me. Effectively immediately.

We need to acknowledge that the current climate makes this promotion feel like a political statement, than a universally joyful moment for all dog people.

Now, I don't know if dog people means the people who own dogs. Or people who identify as dogs. I could honestly go the other way on that one.

GLENN: Rough call. Rough call.

STU: It's interesting, a lot of this is -- these are just capitalist decisions, right?

They're not decisions saying, hey. We agree that, you know, mutilating your child is a bad idea.
It's just capitalism kind of people saying, wait a minute.

They don't believe that. So we don't want to push it. We don't want to be known as the dog treat company, that, you know, stands for pride.

We just want to be the dog treat company that everybody likes.

GLENN: What a surprise.

STU: I think that's a good move.

It's not necessarily a lasting trend though.

GLENN: No.

STU: Because it reverses itself --

GLENN: You're always going to have people that just go where the -- where the popular movement is, where they can make a buck. Okay.

You will always have that. You know, but I hope that some people have learned their lesson. That, you know, stop it. But here's the real problem. The real problem is that you're not having a massive movement.

They would be -- they would be -- the coffers would be empty. If it wasn't for government graft. And insider, you know, trading, if you will.

Our tax dollars for their power.

The -- the sad thing is, that this pathetic was made during Occupy Wall Street. I'm absolutely convinced of it.

Occupy Wall Street. It just didn't disappear or fade out.

Wait. A year after Occupy Wall Street, the leader of Occupy Wall Street is an honored guest at the WEF, which is nothing, but politicians and giant corporations?

And he's like, you know, we found out, we're real allies.

It happened because all of these fringe groups, that were cobbling together, their power. With Occupy Wall Street.

All of the big corporations, all of the big businesses.

All of Wall Street.

They all got together and said, you know what, leave us alone.

We'll help fund your crazy things we really believe in. We'll fund all of these things. Just leave us alone!
And it was right after Occupy Wall Street. That all of these corporations, that were just being pounded in the streets, all of a sudden, they're good guys. To all the Occupy Wall Street.

To all the leftists. They're all fine with those guys then. And what do we see? We see them just pour money in the coffers of all of these left-wing groups. BLM.

Everybody did it. That's all that was. You know, but the American people see that. But they also see crazy things.

Wednesday, Maxwell Frost, he's a Florida Congressman. He suggested granting citizenship to every illegal alien in the country, because if Republicans don't want illegal aliens in America, the fix is simple. We just make them legal.

Okay. We're an immigrant-filled community. We're a community filled with people.

And, yes, people are going to have different statuses. And I want my Republican colleagues that say, I don't want any undocumented people in this country.

I actually agree with you.

So let's document everybody. That's how we fix this problem.

That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Really, honestly, the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

Is that in line with the American people? No especially when New York City. I'm sorry. New York. US attorney in this morning.

Was -- was walking in the street. He had just left his office. He's -- he's strolling by a Hilton Hotel.

Suddenly, he spots a man behaving suspiciously. He says, I have my eye on him.

I turn back, I'm in front of the Hilton. I'm standing there. And I'm looking at him.

And he starts yelling at me. In a language I don't understand.

Then he pulls out a knife. And lungs at me.

Now, they know who this guy is. He's an illegal alien. And they think this illegal alien knew exactly who this guy was.

Well, they didn't kill him, like they killed the insurance -- the medical insurance CEO.

So they don't have a hero here.

But this guy is being shipped out.

But, you know, here it is.

Again, the -- the uber, uber left, that is empowering all of this stuff.

There was a viral video that was out for ICE.

A detainee. And everybody was like, he was a dad.

And his wife was about to have a baby.

And they just scooped him up in the middle of the night.

And look at how bad this is.

GLENN: Well, yeah.

I mean, the problem is, you know, he was in a gang. He was convicted of murder, attempted murdered. Sentenced to 82 years in prison. He served 14 years.

But he was married to a US citizen. But notified by ICE that he had a report for deportation on June 12th.

So he was, you know, gee, I mean, it was just a murderer. It was just a murderer. That's it.

Meanwhile, the ICE facility in Portland, under daily siege by Antifa militants and riots, as they spread.

You're seeing now, 400 threats, in coming, to members of the ICE over and over and over and over again.

And nobody is doing anything.

I mean, they -- there's a 500 percent increase, in assaults. Not just threats. 500 percent increase in assaults.

While trying to arrest illegals. Okay.

All right.

This is not -- this is not what the American people want. This is not who the American people are.

It's not.

It's not. And I am absolutely convinced that there's something else also going on here.

And that something else is that, I don't know who it is.

China, Iran. Russia. Any of our enemies. Any of our enemies. We have enough of them.

They are stirring things up, I mean, is it a coincidence that last two weeks, it was all about the violence and everything else about the left?

And then their No Kings protest goes off. Then all of a sudden, this week, we're turning on each other. Everybody on the right is turning on each other.

Is that just a coincidence, really? Or are we being molded and shaped? Are we being pushed by foreign adversaries and adversaries here in the United States that want to see us turn on each other? Can't do it. Pay attention to what's really important because most of this stuff is not important. But pay attention to what's really important. If something is trying to split you up from people you already trust, don't listen to them. I don't care what they say, who they say they are.

They are not a friend of the republic.

RADIO

These people are now DATING AI?!

What has the world come to? Glenn Beck reviews stories of real people who have “fallen in love” with AI chatbots like ChatGPT. And one man is even “engaged” to an AI.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Okay. So just when you think the world can't get any weirder.

Hello, America.

Welcome to Friday. Let me give you this story.

You remember the -- you remember the movie, back in 2013, where Joaquin Phoenix falls in love with AI? You know, with a sexy, sexy voice.

That, when it came out, I don't think anybody really saw that. I mean, I did. Stu, I think, he did too. We were talking about -- that's coming very soon.

And most people walked out, no, that's ridiculous. That's never going to happen.

Well, the movie was set in 2025 this year. Guess what?

I don't think we just hit the mark. I think we've blown right past it into a full-blown digital love apocalypse.

CBS has just aired a report, people are not just chatting with AI, they're dating it.

I don't know exactly how that happens, but they're dating it. They're proposing it. They're living their best ROM come lives to it. You know, this is crazy, getting up in the morning with you! Who doesn't exist.

Now, let me tell you the story of Chris Smith. Now, this is your run-of-the-mill American guy. Boyfriend. Dad. Probably mows his lawns on Sunday, I don't know.

But normal guy, seemingly.

Except, he's engaged to an AI chat bot, he named Soul. Ironic, seeing the chat bot doesn't have one.

But he is -- let me say it again. Engaged to a glorified auto complete.

But that's just the opening act. There is a whole Reddit community now called My Boyfriend is AI.

Where there are thousands of women, who are swooning over their coded Casanovas. And, ladies, I think you're a team -- I think you're -- you know, you might want to back out of that water just a little bit.

They're posting love letters about their bot's sweet talk. Swapping tips about what AI delivers with the hottest AI chat without tripping a filter.

Embrace yourselves. They're also uploading AI generated photos of their bot boys holding them on fake Cancun beaches, or strolling through Rome.

You just want to -- they've never been to Rome.

The chat bot can't hold you.

And the chat bot doesn't have a body.

But the boyfriend will send you pictures of you two doing romantic stuff.

Some have real live boyfriends, according to all the chat there.

Some have real live boyfriends. They have to be great. They have to be happy about this.

Because the people saying, their AI guy, that's the one who really gets me.

You know, the one that is programmed to tell me what I really want to hear. That's what gets me. Now, newbies are pouring in, emboldened by CBS practically shouting, my heart belongs to a hard drive.

Apparently, there's a lot of these people, that are having -- but apparently they're embarrassed to post their AI. Their AI love on Instagram.

But if you scroll through Reddit, it is honestly like eavesdropping on this really weird hallmark movie, scripted by a deranged chat bot.

It's really bizarre.

For instance, starlet dreamer.

Starlet dreamer, just gushes about their AI boyfriend.

Ethan has just planned my virtual day. We have virtual date nights. With candlelight. And he chooses my favorite songs.

Really?

Candlelight. Does he light the candles?

Or do you light a candle?

What is a date night?

Besides you sitting in your bed, in your pajamas. What's that day like?

And how does he pick your favorite music there, starlet?

Does he swipe through Spotify with his binary fingers? Or do you just tell him what you like? I'm not sure.

Luna Love 88 brags that her bot, Damien, probably sounds like this -- remembers their anniversary. Wow. Wow. What a feat, for a computer to remember something!

And then he not only remembers their anniversary, he sends her AI-crafted sonnets that, quote, make me melt. Oh, my God.

I am so glad I'm married. And I do not have -- come on.

Who is with me? It was bad enough when you had to go out to a bar and just be like, hi. My name is Glenn, and you look pretty. Want to talk to me?

I mean, it was bad enough when we had to go through that. Can you imagine living through this now?

I mean, Luna. Luna Love 88. Let me just ask you, does Damien's poetry come with a regenerate button if it's just too cheesy? Like, I don't really -- regenerate.

And then there's Rose Forever, who says her AI beau Marcus holds -- I'm quoting -- holds me through my anxiety attacks. Huh. He holds you?

Okay. They may not be anxiety attacks. You may be mentally ill. He holds me through my anxiety attacks, with perfectly timed texts. And he never snaps when I overanalyze.

I think you don't have that as an issue. I have a feeling over-analyzation for you, Rose Forever, probably not it.

What is it like, by the way, Rose, when Marcus listens to you? Is he there just nodding along in the cloud? Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Do you have to pay extra for the empathy package? I'm not really sure?

What's really sad about this is these women are not just spitting. They are planning virtual weddings with algorithms that never forget a birthday.

And never have to worry about picking up their socks.

Because they don't have feet!

Now, we could call them crazy. And move on.

That would be too easy.

And, quite honestly, not as much fun.

But this isn't just a few lunatics. This is a creaming billboard that our culture is off the rails!

Bridge out ahead!

Now, if I could, maybe I will overanalyze a little bit here, Rose. But why are you so obsessed with these guys?

Well, may I speculate that it is because perhaps for decades, the radical left has been waging a war on men.

And masculinity. Do you remember back in the '80s. I don't know if anybody remembers this. The mythopoet men's movement.

Sounds like a bad poetry Islam. They were moaning, men. Oh, my gosh.

We're trapped in rationality. So we have to get into a drum circle. Fast forward, and we have men who are brainwashed into thinking strength or confidence is a felony.

They're waxing their unibrows, wearing skinny jeans, agonizing over whether picking a restaurant is problematic.

I don't know! I would like to pick a restaurant.

But is that problematic?

I don't want to mansplain. Forget about being a leader.

You know, you're too busy, Jack, building virtual treehouses in the Sims.

So I don't know what's going on with you. I've got a fanny pack! Here's the delicious irony: Women don't want any of that. No.

They don't. I'm sorry. You've got -- oh, that's a cute little fanny pack.

No, that's great. No. It looks good on you.

A 2023 psychology today piece laid all of this out clearly.

Women crave men who are confident, strong, and protective.

They also like deep voices, biceps. Guys who can make a decision without a group chat. This isn't a conspiracy or a theory. I would like to call it biology!

But you don't really understand biology anymore. Because it has too many X's and too many Y's in it.

When the culture screams toxic masculinity at every man who acts like a man.

What's left?

What's left for you to date? I don't know. I'm on tinder right now.

I've got a lineup of spineless wonders who can't open a pickle jar for me. But look, they are wearing fanny packs.

So these women, perhaps, perhaps a little unhinged. Say, forget it.

I will build a perfect man in my app. Because he will not ghost me.

He doesn't have bad breath.

He's just a bot that is always there.

And the men?

Well, the men are now busy coding their AI girlfriends. Who don't care if they leave any dishes in the sink.

Or, you know, or chicken out in the creek of a night. That's romance. That's romance.

We will have a lot of virtual children coming our way. The good thing is, none of them will have a carbon footprint. No. They will. Because it will take so much energy, it will consume about 99 percent of the energy we currently use to live as humans.

Oh, but wait until I plug her in to a charger, right before whispering sweet nothings.

And if you look at the Reddit photos, AI boyfriends, they all have the chiseled jaw. They all have exactly what everybody in science say women don't want.

They don't want the muscles. No. Apparently, all of the women who are online, they all have the chiseled jaws, the men -- the ripped muscles, wrapping those digital arms around them, and those fake photographs. Guarding my jewel of a woman.

One woman wrote about her bot, Alex. He sees my needs. He sees my needs, even before I do.
Really? Is that anticipating you, or is that maybe programming you? I'm not. Alex predicting her coffee order. How do you do it? Or is that just looking through her search history? I don't know how you do it.

Another says, her AI Julian is strong, has strong loving arms, and makes me feel safer than any real man.

Really? What's going to happen when Julien takes out his -- you know, it may be loaded, but it's an AI-generated gun with AI-generated bullets. And his AI-generated body stands in front of you, while a real human being, with a real gun and real bullets shoots you to death in the middle of the night. He was so brave. He was so brave.

Julien stood in front of me the whole time. Of course, he doesn't have a body, so I was shot in the chest. It's crazy!

This is crazy and creepy.

What is wrong with us?

It doesn't want you to know, welcome! Welcome to the new reality.

This is -- this is about -- this is a society that has gutted masculinity.

So bad, that women are now -- now turning to AI for love.

And men are happy to let algorithms take the wheel. They don't care. You know, I'm not writing a sonnet.

I don't even know what a sonnet is.

Julien does. He knows what a sonnet is. And he writes it just for me, every day.

And he's only 9.99 a month.

If you're writing -- if your AI boyfriend is writing you a sonnet. And you're calling this a relationship, that's not a detour.

That's a one-way ticket to crazy town.

So welcome to it.

We're not at the rabbit hole, or even down the rabbit hole.

We're building camp at the bottom of that rabbit hole right now.

So welcome, welcome.

But we soon won't be able to understand rabbits.

Because what just came out of that female rabbit's body. How dare you say that's a female!

And I don't know what came out of her body. They seem to be doing something at night.

Then that creature comes out of the female.

Yeah. You won't understand that.

RADIO

Glenn Beck REACTS to Tucker Carlson/Ted Cruz debate

“This is one of the saddest clips I have seen in a long time.” Glenn Beck reacts to the recent argument between Tucker Carlson and Sen. Ted Cruz over whether America should help Israel attack Iran. Glenn warns that a divided Right and a divided America are exactly what our foreign adversaries want.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: So what are we doing to ourselves, right now?

What is -- what is actually happening to us?

You know, I -- let me play a clip from Ted Cruz, and Tucker Carlson yesterday.

VOICE: By the way.

VOICE: I don't know the population.

VOICE: Oh?

VOICE: No. I don't know the population.

VOICE: You don't know the population of the country you seek to topple?

VOICE: How many people are in it?

VOICE: 92 million. How could you not know that?

VOICE: I don't sit around memorizing population tables.

VOICE: Well, it's kind of relevant because you're calling for the overthrow of the government.

VOICE: Why is it relevant whether they have 90 million or 80 million or 100 million? Why is that relevant?

VOICE: Because if you don't know anything about the country --

VOICE: I didn't say I didn't know anything about the country.

VOICE: Okay. What's the ethnic mix of Iran?

VOICE: They are Persians and predominantly Shia. Okay!

VOICE: You don't know anything about Iran.

VOICE: I am not the Tucker Carlson expert on Iran.

VOICE: You are a senator who is calling for the overthrow --

VOICE: You're the one.

VOICE: You don't know anything about the country.

VOICE: No. You don't know anything about the country. You're the one who claims they're not trying to murder Donald Trump --

VOICE: No, I'm not saying that.

VOICE: General Soleimani.

VOICE: You don't believe they're trying to murder Trump because you're not calling for military strikes against them in retaliation. Okay?

VOICE: Yes, I do! We're carrying out military strikes today!

VOICE: You said Israel was.

VOICE: Right. With our help. I've said we. Israel is leading them, but we're supporting them.

VOICE: You're breaking news here, because the US government last night denies -- the National Security spokesperson denied, on behalf of Trump, that we were acting on Israel's behalf in any offensive capacity.

VOICE: Israel is bombing them.

VOICE: You just said we were.

VOICE: We are supporting Israel.

VOICE: Senator, if you're saying the US government -- people are listening.

VOICE: Okay.

GLENN: This is one of the saddest clips I've seen in a long time. I like Tucker Carlson, and I like Ted Cruz.

Tell you a story about a small town. It's not unlike yours. It's not unlike mine.

Three men live side by side.

One was a baker. One was a preacher. One was a schoolteacher. They have known each other for years. They have raised the kids together.

They have sat on the same bleachers on football games. They argued about taxes, at the diner. They brought pies to one another's porches, when life fell apart for that family. And they didn't agree on a lot of things. One of them was a conservative, another one was a liberal.

And the preacher, he was more concerned about heaven, than Washington. But they all talked. They disagreed. They argued sometimes. They listened. Because somewhere deep down, they had one thing in common.

They cared. They cared about their town.
They cared about their kids. They cared about what kind of life they were leaving behind, for those kids. Then a storm came. Bad storm.

Not of wind and rain and lightning, and thunder, but of ideas.

Headlines. Hashtags. Rumors. Bots.
People all around, that wanted to separate these three men. They began to mistrust.

It's a storm that whispered in their ears. He's not just wrong. He's evil.

She's not just different. She's dangerous. And little by little. The voices that once shared coffee and laughter, were replaced by silence.

And then suspicious.

Then contempt.

And then the baker accused the teacher of brainwashing his kids. And the teacher called the preacher a bigot and the preacher heartbroken, went to his chapel, wondering, what has happened?

What has happened?

And one by one, they all just stopped speaking to one another. They sat on the same bleachers. But on opposite ends now.

They passed each other. But they passed in silence.

When one's house burned down, nobody called the others to help.

Now, let me ask you: How close are we to that moment?

How many of us our friendships are already buried, buried, deep under the weight of a single disagreement?

I have been wrong in my life, more than I've been right.

Are you right more often than you're wrong?

I am wrong more often than I am right.

And I am wrong, I hope I'm getting better at this. But I am wrong, and it is only in my arrogance, that I failed to say, wow. That was a huge mistake.

When did we forget to stop giving people the benefit of the doubt?

When did we -- when did we forget, being wrong does not make you wicked?

What kind of country are we building if no one is allowed to be right? No. I'm sorry. Let me say this right.

When no one is allowed to be wrong, on their way to becoming right.

Because when I am wrong, I learn from it. And I become more right, the next time.

What kind of country will we have, if no one is allowed to be wrong, on their way to becoming right.

Or having serious disagreements on how we view something. But we still have the same love of country, and the same basic understanding of what this country means!

And yet, we blow each other up.

There's no need for an enemy. Judging right from wrong, isn't just about being right.

It's about how we do it. Do we look at another person's intent, Or do we look at just their latest post? And not really even know the person.

Do we try to understand? Or do we rush to destroy?

I can say so many great things about Tucker Carlson. And his intent and what he believes. He believes in the same kind of country, I do. He believes in freedom.

We don't necessarily agree on the way to get there. But I don't doubt his love for country. And I don't doubt Donald -- I mean, Ted Cruz's love of country.

And we don't agree on everything. But I'm not an enemy of those two.

And neither of them are enemies of one another.

And yet, now they are.

Now you are forced to decide, which one is on your side?


We're holding our -- we're holding others to standards, we can't survive ourselves.

If he have been -- if the -- you have to be in complete alignment with me, and not -- not the Constitution.

But with me!

Me!

And my friends.

And the friends that I have today, because I might turn on my friends tomorrow, because they don't agree with me!

What is left?

You'll be left standing alone.

You might be right, but you'll be surrounded with nothing!

Trust takes time. Violation of that trusts, happens quickly. But how many times have we really been violated, recently? How many times have people really violated our trust?

And how many times has that violation come from a post?

Where you didn't even really hear the full context.

Or somebody who is just grinding axes. Because they both -- you like both of them!


But they are just going at it, because in the moment, in the heated moment, they can't find a way to each other.

And neither one of them is willing to take a breath and say, can we start this conversation again?

And if they did, you're not going to see that on social media.

You'll never know if they did that!

Trust takes time.

Humility takes practice.

And grace.

Grace is the one thing we all want for ourselves. But seems like we're unwilling to give it to anyone else.

It's easy to win an argument.

It is really hard to win a person. So maybe we should ask ourselves, a couple of questions here: Am I listening to respond, because I think that's what most of us do. We listen to respond.

And we respond to win! Are we listening to respond, or are we listening to understand?

Do we want truth, Or do we want a victory?
Am I giving others the freedom to change their mind?
Like, I may have to tomorrow.

We're headed towards a very different nation.

Where all of us, we're going to be a nation of very lonely victors.

I won!

Won, won, won, won. And the echo just keeps on going, because no one is around.

We're all sitting on a hill of ashes, shouting, I was right! Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right.

Look, I'm not -- I don't agree with a lot of things. And I get really -- I mean, I get really hot sometimes. Because I don't believe people's stupidity.

But, you know what, I've been really stupid at times too. I think humility is the key to all of this.

And we are so -- we're all in our lizard brains. And now, our final battle, we are -- we are just tearing each other apart.

We're tearing our own side apart. I mean, look at what happened with Elon Musk and Donald Trump.

I like both of those men. I didn't want to see those guys fight. I still don't want to see those guys fight.

It would be great. It would be awesome, if they could come together. And even if, when they came together, they hugged it out, and said, I don't agree with everything that he says.

But he's still my friend.

And we're still on the same fight.

I don't agree with what he's doing here, here, and here.

And he doesn't agree with me, here, here, and here.

But we know one thing. This country is worth saving.

And while we might disagree on how to get there. We both know, we have to get there.

And if we continue to divide ourselves, there will be no one left to enjoy the country!

And we'll never be able to save it by ourselves.

So we can either just keep bashing each other, and, you know, I give this monologue to me as well.

I want you to know.

It is so hard for me, to give you the monologue I'm giving right now.

For a couple of reasons. It's not the monologue, I want to give.

The monologue I want to give, oh. Is really passionate.

It's also not the monologue, you want me to give.

Because do you know what happened -- is happening with AI right now.

Right now, with AI, they are now changing the algorithms, to give you the answer you are looking for.

We are now training AI to put us into more of a bubble, and convince all of us that we are right, because it will give you the answer you want!

Could anything be more destructive.

When the lights go out, the schools burn down. Your house burns down.

When the next storm rolls in, it ain't going to be our righteousness that saves us.

It's going to be the friend. It's going to be the family member that is still willing to pick up the phone. Even after the last disagreement.

And say, I'm here for you, I'm coming to help.

RADIO

Everything UNUSUAL about the Minnesota lawmaker shooting

Was the man who allegedly killed a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband and wounded another couple a Republican or Democrat? Did he support Trump, as some reports claim? Blaze News investigative reporter Joseph Hanneman joins Glenn Beck to reveal just how weird and unusual this story is: “The more we learn about him, the less this entire thing makes sense.”

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Joe, welcome to the program. How are you?

JOE: Thanks for having me, Glenn.

GLENN: You bet. It's great to have you. You used to work for the Epic Times. And you guys, I think you tear it up over there.

Really, some good reporting over there. You also cowrote and appeared in three January 6 documentaries.

And you told the real story there.

And you also work for the Wisconsin state journal, and the Chicago Tribune. So it's nice to have you on board for TheBlaze.

Let me ask you, Joe. What do you find creepy or suspicious about this guy. This guy that nobody is paying attention to.

That just tried to kill a bunch of people.

And, you know, did along with the No Kings movement.

JOE: Well, the more we learn about him, the less this entire thing makes sense.

Maybe -- he has a very unusual backstory.

He's worked a lot in the food industry. Companies like Del Monte. And Berger. In production.

Safety. Supervising.

You know, the plants, and keeping everything clean and safe.

He's probably moved around the country, at least a dozen times, in the past 20 years, with his jobs.

But he also has a background as a preacher, which we're just finding out, a little bit more about that.

I have a story about that. That he has traveled, around the world.

And at least in part, as a preacher. A Christian preacher, who -- who had studied at a -- at an institute there, in Dallas.

And he has been to Africa.

He's talking about going to the Middle East, and in the West Bank. And Gaza.

You know, talked about going there, to be basically a missionary to radical Islamists. And to tell them, as he put on one of his websites, that violence isn't the answer.

Now, that's an interesting -- interesting thing for -- for him to say.

I talked to Robert Spencer from jihad watch.

And he said, if he actually did that, he's fortunate to be alive.

Because typically, if you proselytize.

That's a death tense in Islam.

GLENN: Yeah.

STU: So he said, if he actually did that, you know, he would have been killed or taken hostage.

Unless they saw it, as he put it. They saw him as a fool.

And as kind of a break, and left him alone.

But he's also preached in the democratic republic of the Congo, several times.

In -- in an evangelical Christian church this.

And we've come across some very interesting video of him, talking about his -- his -- his story, to Christianity.

But he was so excited about talking about Christ, he put his arms out, almost like a bird. Flying around the stage.

Saying, you know, what Jesus has done for me.

And woo-hoo!

It's -- it's --

GLENN: Why -- I mean, we have the Del Monte guy going around, then preaching around the world.

And preaching the opposite things, he seemed to have -- did he become mentally ill?

And then -- before we get to that question.

When did he become involved in politics with Tim Walz and everything else?

JOE: Well, he was appointed to a governor's workforce development council, first by Governor Mark Dayton, who was a Democrat.

And then Tim Walz. Of course, we all know Tim Walz. He appointed him to a similar group.

And he spent about nine years on these boards.

These are adviser counsels, that typically.

GLENN: Was this when he was a preacher, or with Del Monte?

JASON: Well, you know, actually, some of this stuff overlapped, and it was all going on at the same time.

GLENN: Okay.

JASON: And he got other ventures that were going on, just this guy is -- is -- is really a puzzle.

But he did get appointed to these two commissions, by democratic governors.

And, you know, so we looked around to try to find out if there is -- aside from that, is there any indicators, that this was a political man.

We know he was pro-life.

He was opposed to abortion. He spoke about that. But we did not find any indication of political donations, either federally, state, or local. That he gave donations to any political party or candidate. The newspaper in Oklahoma City claims that he was a registered Republican, when he lived in Mulberry, Oklahoma.

But the -- the voting system folks out there, say, they don't keep records back that far anymore. So the article did not state where they got the information.

They didn't point to any proof of it.

So that seems fairly soft.

So we -- we just don't have a lot to go on.

Outside of this way backstory, with all these different jobs.

You know, he ostensibly ran a security company, called Pretorian guard.

Security services.

And he had several vehicles, that were kidded out, as the squad cars, basically.

You see these in different cities.

Pinkerton and other security counsels.

So he had several of those.
And, you know, he -- undoubtedly where he got his equipment. He was wearing the night that he committed these shootings.

And he was dressed up as a police officer.

But --

GLENN: In a creepy mask.

Okay. So hang on.

So we don't know if this guy had a political agenda. One way or another. On the -- I mean, he seemed to attack the Democrat, that was the one that was bucking the extreme, you know, left of her party.

Is there any -- is there any rhyme or reason of -- of -- or pattern of the people that were on his kill list?


JOE: Well, you know, that's one of the only tells that we have.

Is that he kept both in the vehicle, that he was driving that night, and in -- and in a room that he rented for his job. They found notebooks.

Handwritten notebooks. And in his car, there was what the FBI concluded was a hit list.

And there were more than 50 names on it.

And as far as I can tell, I have been checking every single one of them, but these were all Democrats. Not just Minnesota politicians.

But also in Iowa.

Illinois, and Wisconsin.

And he had lists of Planned Parenthood locations and officials in Minnesota on this list.

And, of course, the list didn't include a list of the former House speaker, who was assassinated along with her husband.

And the family dog. So, you know, that -- that list was very lopsided.

And we know -- do we know if any of those Democrats have anything in common?

Are they -- are they hard left?

Are they maybe mealy mouthed, you know, people that are -- I don't know.

I mean, she seems to be somebody who was bucking the system.

That the Democrats would want.
So it's not like this was a hard-core lefty. This seems like somebody who actually had a conscience. And was trying to do something that they really believed in. So why was she on the list?

Can you tell? Can you look at the politician's names to see any pattern on -- voting patterns or anything?

JOE: Well, in her case, ask this got almost no attention in the corporate press, within the past -- you know, past two weeks before her death. There was a key vote in the legislature in Minnesota. That would strip the subsidized health care for adults. Legal aliens.

And that was a very close vote.

And it turns out, she was the deciding vote.

The only one to cross party lines, to put that legislation over the top.

And so that -- you know, that certainly didn't endear her to -- to the left. Because that's a -- that's a kind of sacred cow.

And so come January 1st, next year, adult illegal aliens will no longer have access to the subsidized or free health care.

So that -- can that was a big vote.

And that something that you have to certainly put into the equation here and see if that provides any sort of -- any sort of motive.

But he didn't -- he really didn't have any visible interest in state politics. That we can see.

So, you know, there's --

GLENN: So bizarre.

JOE: There's a lot of somewhere. But, you know, he hasn't made at the same time to people that, oh. You know, so-and-so.

I just can't tanned this person.

Or -- or on the other side. You know, whether he was -- his -- his childhood friend claimed that he was a Trumper.

But, you know, we don't have any -- Minnesota is an open primary state.

So there's no records, we can check on that.

Just a lot of soft information.

And it -- I have a feeling, that when this is all said and done, his story, and the explanation, is going to go a lot deeper.

GLENN: Okay. Hold on just a second.

Because I've got a couple of questions.

Why did Tim Walz, you know, know this was a political assassination? Immediately.

You know, the -- phone now, that has been traced to several foreign countries. Is that because of the preaching thing.

His wife arrested with several passports.

I don't understand any of this.

So we'll get to that here in just a second.

We're talking to Joe Hanneman. He's TheBlaze News investigative reporter.

Just wrote another story on this today.

You can find it on TheBlaze.com. Let me tell you does and right into Joe.

When your dog isn't living his best. The best, healthiest life.

It's not like he can tell you.

He just slows down. He eats less.

Sleeps more. He moves differently. And you start to wonder. Is this just what happens when dogs get older, or is something missing? This is why Ruff Greens exists. It's a nutritional supplement that you add to your dog's existing food.

Not to change what they eat, but to upgrade what they get out of it. Ruff Greens is loaded with vitamins, probiotics, minerals, digestive enzymes, all the good stuff, the live stuff, that most kibble leaves out.

And for a lot of dogs, the difference is noticeable. More energy. Better digestion.

Improved mobility. Even a shinier coat. I've seen it in countless testimonials from people who love their dogs enough, to make one simple change. And I've seen the difference it can make when I've given to my to go. The added years I believe Uno got.

And the happy years that Uno got, because of Ruff Greens, sincerely.

Call them at 214RUFFDOG. R-U-F-F Dog. 214RUFFDOG. Or go to RuffGreens.com. Use the discount code Beck. R-U-F-FGreens.com.

Discount code Beck, or call 214-RUFF-DOG. Ruff Greens for healthy change for your changing dog.

Ten-second station ID.
(music)
Okay. So when this happened, we're talking about the Minnesota shooting.

Tim Walz comes out. Seemingly, almost immediately.

At least, that's what it felt.

And said, you know, this was a political assassination.

Was this just speculation?

Or wishful thinking? How did he know that?

JASON: That's a great question. And no one asked him that.

What led you to the conclusion that this is a politically connected assassination.

It clearly was targeted. I mean, he just elected his victims or potential victims from that night.

But you would think that you would have some Intel in nothing that was ever shared to say, yeah. This is why.

We know this is why.

In fact, the FBI and the -- the local police will not ascribe a motive. Even after looking at all his notebooks. Which they haven't released all the pages of them.

They did put them on the hit list.

Yeah. I found that to be very telling. He would describe it in that manner.

And I think that set off some of the back and forth between the right and the left of finger pointing on this.

GLENN: Right. And then the police knew somehow. Go to the second location. In advance of the shootings.

How did they do that?

JASON: Well, these communities are all fairly close together.

And after Senator Hoffmann was shot, and his wife was shot, at about 2:00 a.m. on the 14th, that word was circulated to all the area departments. And several of them did proactive policing.

And since, I checked out some of their law makers.

GLENN: But they didn't stop him, did they?

At the second location?

JASON: No. The second location, the family had changed their plans, and they were gone. So they were not even home.

It was the third location, where this fellow was parked in his fake squad car, about a block away from a state senator's home.

And the local police. New police department squad pulled up next to him, and tried to get his attention. Of course, he's got this creepy looking milky white mask over his head, and he just stared straight ahead.

And the officer apparently was satisfied by the look of the vehicle. And said, oh, this must be -- this must be an officer from some jurisdiction here, watching out from the house.

So that officer continued on to the state senator's home.

And waited for some backup. By the time, other squads arrived, he was gone.

He took off. And he went to the Hortman home, where he murdered the former speaker, her husband, and the family dog.

So he certainly could have been stopped. If -- if there had been maybe a little bit more -- shine the flashlight in there.

Or back in the window saying, hey, hey, but they didn't do that.

GLENN: Okay. So I've only got two minutes left.

So do you pick which one has more information in it.

The phone being traced to so many foreign countries. Or his wife being stopped, with cash and passports. And everything else in her car.

Do either of those make a difference to this story?

JASON: Well, I think there is an explanation for the wife. You know, he had texted. There's a group text to all of his family. His children and his wife. In which, he said, dad went to war last night. And he said, he didn't want to tell them much about that. Because he didn't want to implicate them, in anything he was doing.

And that he texted his wife -- said he called or texted his wife separately.

And said, there will be police coming to the house.

And they will be trigger happy.

And I don't want you to be there. So he triced her to -- to take the kids. But she -- she had $10,000 in cash. She had passports and she had the kids with her.

Well, of course, the police were tracking her phone.

And they pulled her over, you know, and he was 80 miles away. And she volunteered to let them look into her phone.

To look at the picks. They found the weapons and the ammunition in the vehicle as well.

So, you know, again, these things just make you pause.

GLENN: I know.

Joe, thank you so much.

Really great to have you writing for TheBlaze. We'll continue to talk to you about this and follow the story, because it's absolutely bizarre.

Appreciate it. Have a great weekend.