RADIOSeptember 30, 2024

Assassination attempt survivor: The POWERFUL reason for Trump’s RETURN to Butler, PA

Former President Donald Trump will return to Butler, Pennsylvania, for another rally on October 5th. Is his willingness to return to the site of his first assassination attempt a sign of strength? Rep. Steve Scalise believes so. Scalise, who survived an assassin’s bullet himself, tells Glenn that conquering fear is the only way forward for Trump: “I made an early decision…I’m not going to worry about what got me here. God spared me...I’ve talked to Trump about this since Butler.” He also explains why he believes Congress MUST look into everything surrounding the 2 assassination attempts: “I’m not a big believer in coincidence.”

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: I don't think so. But the one guy I would really know is Steve. He would know what it's like. Steve Scalise is with us now.

Steve, how are you?

STEVE: Well, doing great, Glenn. How are you, Glenn? It's been a long time, really great to talk to you.

GLENN: I know. I know.

Listen, I just wanted to talk to you, because what I'm seeing from Donald Trump. And especially now that he's going back to the same place where the shooting happened this summer.

You are the one guy that can relate to being shot, for your views. For who you are.

And then walking back in crowd again.

What does that feel like?

How long did that take for you, to not that natural reaction, of -- of, you know, is there somebody. Am I safe? Am I safe?

Or did you ever have that?

STEVE: Yeah. Glenn, and I was in the hospital for three and a half months. So you have a lot of time to focus on, what are you going to do, kind of how will you approach this kind of new attitude, where, you know, you've been through something like that?

And, of course, those three and a half months, I was fighting for my life. So, you know -- but part of that, I made an early decision. Because I really needed to put all my focus into getting better.

You know, I had to learn how to walk again. Had to learn, was I going to be able to do things like that again? Go back to work?

So once I got that mindset, I said, you know what, I'm not looking back. Literally, rip off the rearview mirror.

I'm not going to worry about what got me here. Like I knew, I was given a second chance.

And believe me, I talked to President Trump about this since Butler. And when we talked kind of -- because he came to the hospital, the day of you his shooting.

It was his birthday. He and Melania came. Consoled my family at that moment.

I just made that decision. I'm not going to be a victim. Focus on why he did it. Why he got there. I have to put all my energy into getting better, or else, I won't get better.

Once I did that, it changed my outlook and my focus. You know, I went back to the ball field, when I got out of the hospital because I wanted to do that. I wanted to run back, and go -- like, I'm not going to live in fear. And we did that.

And it was therapeutic. It was emotional, but it was therapeutic. And then just, you know, I got on with my life. And I said, you know, God. And believe me, I have deep faith. But I put my faith in God.

And he took care of me that day. There were miracles performed. You kind of have to say, it's in his hands. He knows what's going to happen, next, more than we do.

He gives us the tools. But he also gives us the freedom to go fail. To go succeed. To do whatever we want to do. But he also looks out for us. And at some point, you have to just have that faith, that God has the big bigger plan. You've got to control your day to day. But what are you going to focus your energy on today?

Are you going to be positive, or negative? And I choose to be positive.

GLENN: Do you -- in watching Donald Trump, I mean, he went down on the ground.

I mean, if he would have moved his head just slightly differently, he would have been dead today.

It would have been the worst live television broadcast of all time.

And, but, you know, he moved his head that way. I think that was -- I think that was God, interacting there.

STEVE: It was Divine Intervention. Absolutely. And, look, he knows that too, Glenn.

You know, that was part of the conversation we had. He was like, Steve, I know I shouldn't be here. And I think that recognition where you recognize, life is bigger than yourself. You know, somebody does have a hand in all of this.

And you just got to let some of that go, and realize, you can do all -- everything right. And get hit by a truck one day. Like, you don't know what will happen. So just live your life. Do the best you can every day.

Here's a man, Donald Trump, who has put himself up for persecution. By so many people who have gone after him. And yet, figuratively, literally, legally, all of that.

And yet, he still moves forward. He still knows, I have to do this for the country. And he believes that.

And the country believes that too. You know, you go to a Trump rally. You go to any part of the country. And, you know, people know, we are at a very volatile time right now. And a fragile time in the country.

You know, which direction are we going to take in the nation. And these are bigger questions than anything individual. But Donald Trump represents that, you know, do we want to get back to what our country was really founded on.

You know, free market principles. You control your destiny. Government is there to control your life. Not to tell you what you can and cannot do. This is going to decide all of that on November 5th. He knows, he's the only one right now, who can really turn this around.

And I believe that. I think most people do. And so he -- he recognizes that, yeah. There's people that want to stop it.

We've seen it twice now. And it's scary. You can't let fear drive your life.

STU: I'll tell you, my favorite line from him was, come on, guys. Let me play through.

STEVE: Yeah. That's 200 par. I was having a great --

GLENN: I mean, that is crazy. That's crazy.

STEVE: But, look, you have to have that mindset. If you live in fear, just go lock yourself in the room and go in the fetal position and you'll be neutered. He's not going to be neutered. He's not going to live in fear. And, you know, you got to put your trust in other people.

Obviously the Secret Service is one of those groups. And that's why we're fighting so hard to get reforms at the Secret Service because they have a mission, one single mission, not diversity or wokeness.

It's to protect presidents. Former presidents. Vice president. And they were failing at that.

And we are pushing hard to get them to refocus, to increase the security. We finally got that addressed to increase the level of security President Trump has.

That they were not given in that opportunity. And that led to some of these problems.

But, you know, at the end of the take can. You just to have say, I will still go the route.

This is who I am. And that's who he is.

GLENN: You know, the majority of Americans, think there will be another assassination attempt, before the election.

Which is really a sad commentary.

STEVE: Yeah. It is.

GLENN: Do you believe that this really was simply just a series of unbelievable mistakes?

Or is there any room for, hmm. Maybe some of these decisions were -- were conscious.

I'm not saying that they set it up.

But eh. Just let it slide a little bit.

STEVE: Look, I'm not a big believer in coincidence. You know, you live long enough. You see things that, you know, not everything adds up. But if you connect the dots.

You realize, okay.

There's something wrong here.

I really do think they can't be there are people. And this is why I'm really, really vocal about the language. When Kamala is saying. Not just, hey. I don't like his tax plan.

I don't like this or that.

It's, he's a threat to democracy.

He's like Hitler. He's this or that. That's telling people. And there are unhinged people out there, unfortunately.

And they here that as a call to action. And that's what was going on.

The second attempt of the assassin. Flatout used her exact language, about threat to democracy, in his mission to go try to kill the president. And so, you know, they've got to stop doing this. It's not like, hey. We all need to dial it down. No. There's one side saying specific things as being taken, as literally calls to action, to try to assassinate the president. That's what we have to stop. Whether it's truly coordinating the broad scale or not, it doesn't matter.

If somebody is taking what you're saying as, okay. I need to go take action in my own hands and try to kill somebody, you've got to stop saying that.

At some point, you have to look in the mirror and go, my words are causing somebody else to want to kill somebody.

And if you think, oh, I can just say whatever I want, you know, there's free speech. And then there's, you know, yelling fire in the theater. I mean, there is a line. And now you see where they've crossed it. And they've seen it. They need to stop doing it.

GLENN: So I had a brush, not nearly like yours or Donald Trump's. But a brush similar to the one that he had on the golf course. And I know that freaked me out. Immediately, I thought, what am I willing to die for?

What -- what -- it changed my language. You know, it changed. I was not going to die for things I didn't absolutely believe. Did that go through you as well?

STEVE: It was -- it was more a shift in focus. Like, what is really important in life? What are you doing all this for?

You know, especially when you get into politics. You run campaigns. And you say, I'm going to fight for this or that.

You know, I have strong beliefs.

Washington. You found out quickly. Not everybody believes in everything exactly like you do.

You need to start putting coalitions together.

Find people that maybe believe in 80 percent of what you believe in.

Because you won't get it done on your own. Yet, you still want to advance your cause.

I believe it. But also, most important. It's my family. I wanted to see my family. That's the first thing that came to my mind. When I was laid out, and not sure if I would make it through the day.

It wasn't gee-whiz, what's my next title going to be?

You know, the next bill going to be. You're not thinking about any of that.

You know, we will all walk away from these jobs. And what will you look back on?

What is it that they want? Well, first of all, you better want to walk back to the family you started with. And have your integrity intact. And then you can start thinking about, wow. I was able to move the needle on this.

Advance, what I believe, 20, 30 more yards on that. And, hopefully, you can say you did that. There are some people, that won't even be able to look back.

Because they spent all their time, just talking and trying to get attention. And they'll never advance their causes. And you don't want to waste your time in life. And so you do realize, time is important. Life is important. Make every minute count.

GLENN: Steve Scalise. From Louisiana. The House Majority leader.

Thank you so much for coming on with me, Steve. God bless you.

STEVE: Always a pleasure, Glenn. God bless you too. Thank you.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

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Are you truly free, or is your life quietly controlled by systems most Americans never question? In this eye-opening conversation, Glenn Beck speaks with investigative journalist Whitney Webb about how the Elites, banks, and global systems have created modern forms of enslavement, all while the public remains largely unaware. They discuss the urgent need for local self-reliance, alternative financial systems, and taking personal responsibility to protect yourself and your family. This is a wake-up call for anyone who believes freedom is guaranteed, and it’s time to see the truth and act before it’s too late.

Watch Glenn Beck's FULL Interview with Whitney Webb HERE

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Deep State NGO CAUGHT trying to restart opium trade in Taliban-run Afghanistan

Was an NGO with deep government ties trying to RESTART the opium trade in Taliban-run Afghanistan while former Taliban members were on its payroll...only to be caught DESTROYING the evidence?! The State Department's Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy Darren Beattie joins Glenn Beck to expose what he found when he was made Acting President of the United States Institute of Peace. Plus, he debunks ProPublica’s claim that DOGE “targeted” an “Afghan scholar who fled the Taliban.”

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Darren, welcome to the program. How are you? Darren, are you there? Is he there?

STU: Hmm.

GLENN: Okay. Check if he's there. Is he? Dick Cheney. Dick Cheney.

STU: Trying to shut him down. They don't want peace. They don't want peace.

GLENN: They don't. They don't.

He is -- he is a big-time anti-globalist. I've got to tell you, what we're doing with the State Department. I absolutely love. The State Department has been a big problem for this country for a very long time. It's what's gotten us into these global wars. These endless wars, and everything he is.

And, I mean, I don't know what happened to Marco rube, but he is tremendous.

And the way president Trump is appointing different people like Darren, it's fantastic. Darren, are you there? Darren.

STU: Something must be wrong with the lines. Because we are talking to him offline on the phone here. And it does seem to be working, but not coming through our broadcast board here for whatever reason.

GLENN: Well, let's see if we can get that fixed, and maybe let me just talk here for five, six minutes on something else. Then we'll take a break and come back and see if we can get him.

There's something else that I really want to talk about. And that is this flag-burning thing. Now, it's not an amendment.

This is something that the president is putting up in an executive order and has very little teeth to it.

But I -- I -- look, I understand. As a guy putting an enormous flagpole up at my house today.

I mean, an enormous flagpole.

I love the flag. I love it!

And there are a few things that make me more angry than see somebody you set our flag on fire.

For a lot of people, that's a punch in the gut, especially our military people. And it has been planted on distant battlefields. It's raced after victory. Saluted in the morning, or should be in our schools and folded and given to the hands of grieving families. It feels like spitting on every sacrifice, that ever made this nation possible. And the argument against flag burning is really simple: It dishonors the idea of all of that. Okay?

And it defends millions of people, including me. It disrespects, I think the veterans that bled. The families who mourned. The dream that binds us together.

However, here's the hard truth: Symbols only mean something, in a land where freedom is alive.

If you outlaw the burning of a flag, the you have placed the cloth above the Constitution that it represents. You have made the flag an idol.

We don't worship idols. If you can only praise the flag and never protest it, it just stops being a symbol of freedom. And starts being an idol of obedience.

Now, that's the argument for allowing it. At least to me.

Because the real strength of a free nation is -- is to -- it's -- it's how we protect, not the speech we love, but how we endure the speech we hate!

And the Supreme Court has already ruled on this. And, you know, they -- the line they drew wasn't an easy one. Freedom of speech, stops where it directly -- directly insights violence. And that's it same thing, kind of, in this executive order.

You can burn the flag. But if I'm not mistaken, but if it incites violence, then you're in trouble.

And that's true. But the bar of inciting violence is so incredibly high. And it's -- it doesn't have anything to do with speech that offends. It's not speech that stirs anger. Not speech that wants you to punch the speaker in the mouth. It's speech only, that provokes imminent and specific violence.

And unless it's that be with the government doesn't have any right to -- to get into the business of silencing speech. Ever. Ever. Ever.

It is a hard line. And that standard is really hard. It's painfully hard.

Because what our citizenship requires, this is civics. What our citizenships require, is that we defend -- oh, I hate this.

We defend the right of your opponent to mock everything that we hold sacred.

Now, I want you to think of this. You can burn a Bible. You can burn the Word of God. But some want to make it illegal to burn a flag. Where are our priorities? You can burn the Constitution. The words that actually are the ones that stir us into action. But you can't burn a flag.

You can't burn a Koran. Can't burn them. Can't. Can't.

You will -- you will quickly come to a quick end, not legally. But you will come to a quick end. I don't ever want to be like that. Ever!

You burn a Bible. I think you're a monster. What is wrong with you? What is wrong with you?

But you have a right to do it. Why are we drawing a line around the flag? It -- the reason is -- is because we feel things so passionately. And that is really a good thing, to feel love of country so passionately. But then we have to temper that. My father used to tell me, that I think this country needs to hear over and over again, every day. My father -- we would talk to somebody. And we would walk away. And he would go, I so disagree with everything that man just said. But, Glenn, son, he would say. I will fight to the death for his right to say it. He used to say that to me all the time. Which now lees me to believe, I know where I've got my strong opinions from. Because dad apparently would disagree with a lot of people all the time.

But that was the essence of freedom. That is the essence of what sets us apart. Standing for universal, eternal rights like free speech. It's not easy. It means you have to take the size of those people that offend you. It means -- it doesn't mean you have to disagree with it. You can fight against it. You can argue back and forth.

But you -- can you tolerate the insults to the things that you love most. That is so hard, and that is why most of the world does not have freedom of speech. It's too hard! But our Founders believed people are better than that. Our citizens can rule themselves!

And the only way you can rule yourself is if you don't have limits on freedom of speech. So the question is, do we want to remain free? Or do we want to just feel good? It really is that simple. It's why no one else has freedom of speech. It's too hard! I think we're up to the task. Okay. Give me 60 seconds. And then we will try again.

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All right. Let me -- let me bring Darren in. Darren, are you there now?

DARREN: Yes!
GLENN: Oh, God. Thank goodness.
Thank you for putting up with us. I don't know what happened with the phone system. But, first of all, tell me what the US Institute of Peace is. I've never even heard of it.

DARREN: That is a fantastic question. And I'll try to give the abbreviated answer, because I know we don't have several hours.

GLENN: Good. I know.

DARREN: But US Institute of Peace is one of lesser known, but quite important member of the NGO archipelago, that was created in the '80s. It belongs to the same cohorts as national endowments for democracy.

GLENN: Oh.

DARREN: And some other -- some other better known NGOs that really in the broad context of things. In kind of the sweep of things, was created as a kind of reorganization of the government structure in the aftermath of the church type committee hearings that expose a lot of the dirty dealings of government agencies such as the CIA, and so sort of a broader response to that government lie was to create this NGO layer of governance, with an armed distant plausible deniability, a kind of chameleon character of not exactly being government, not exactly being private, in order to fulfill some of those more sensitive functions that had been exposed in the course of the church hearings.

And so US Institute of Peace is one of those NGOs that had particular focus on conflict regions. But, of course, as I think you -- you suggested earlier, peace requires at the very least, an asterisk. Because there involves a lot of things, that conventional, most American citizens would not think should belong as part of the portfolio of something calling itself an institute of peace.

GLENN: So what was the thing with the -- with this Taliban member that was getting money from us?

DARREN: Right. So this is an interesting case. So there's a whole saga of a takeover of the US institute of peace under -- under DOGE.

And that's really a fascinating story unto itself. Just to give you a sense of what these characters were like. They barricaded themselves in the offices.

They sabotaged the physical infrastructure of the building. There were reports of there being loaded guns within the offices.

GLENN: Wow!

DARREN: There was one, like, hostage situation where they held a security guard under basically kind of a false imprisonment type situation. It was extremely intense.

Far more so than the better known story of USAID. And in the course of all of that, they tried to delete a terabyte of data, of accounting information that would indicate what kind of stuff they were up to.

What kind of people they were paying. And in the course of that, DOGE found that one of the people on their payroll. Was this curious figure, who had a prominent role in the Taliban government. And then seemed to kind of play a bunch of angles across each other.

Sort of one of these sixer types in the middle of Afghanistan.

The question is, what the heck is an organization like this, having an individual, who is a former Taliban member on their payroll.

It underscores how incredibly bizarre the whole arrangement is. And to just reinforce that. I think even more bizarre than having this former Taliban guy on the payroll is the kind of schizophrenic posture exhibited by the chief -- one truly bizarre thing is that one of the US Institute of Peace's main kind of policy agendas was basically lamenting the fact that the opium trade had dissipated under Taliban leadership. They had multiple reports coming out, basically saying, this is horrible, that the opium trade is diminished under the Taliban. Meaning, finding some way to restore it. How bizarre is that!

GLENN: What was their thinking?

DARREN: Well, it's -- it's very strange, and it depends on what kind of rabbit holes you want to go down. But the whole story of opium and Afghanistan and its connection to, you know, government entities, is a -- is a very intricate and delicate and fascinating one. But it seems very clear that the US Institute of Peace was involved in that story to some degree because their public reports. They had a full-the time guy of basically lamenting the fact that the opium trade dissipated under the Taliban. And, meanwhile, they're funding this former Taliban guy.

GLENN: Unbelievable. Now, ProPublica got this. And you have released the statement on it. And ProPublica just completely white-washed this -- said this guy was a victim, and his family was taken hostage. Was his family ever taken hostage because he was exposed?

And correct the ProPublica story, would you?

DARREN: Yeah, I mean, the ProPublica thing, as usual and as expected was a total joke.

GLENN: Yes.

DARREN: I mean, this guy, I'm not an expert on this particular person's history. But what's very clear is he was a former Taliban guy, and he was probably one of these people, who was playing all sides, made a lot of enemies. I know that there were several kind of attempts on his life by the Taliban, in the course of various -- various decades.

This has nothing to do with -- with DOGE.

I mean, he's a known quantity in the region.

And somebody who has made a lot of enemies.

And he was not -- he was on the payroll of the US institute of peace.

And nobody is expecting something like that. So then, and, again, there's this sort of hostile takeover situation.

Where the people are barricading he themselves in. Trying to delete all this data.

And sure enough, what's in the data, is stuff like this.

These random former Taliban guy, making his contract with $130,000.

GLENN: You know, this is the -- this is the real Deep State stuff, that I think bothers people so much.

Look, we expect our CIA to do stuff, we don't necessarily want to do it. We expect it.

When it's in the State Department.

When every department is pushing out money to NGOs to overthrow governments and everything else.

It's out of control!

It's just completely out of control.

And who is overseeing all of that.

DARREN: That's a great question.

I think part of the NGO -- UCEF was almost a cutout of a cutout.

A fourth of its money came from USAID.

In many ways, it was a cutout of USAID. Which itself was a cutout.

So there are many layers of distance. Plausible deniability.

And UCEF, I think institutionally really perfected this chameleon structure of being able to plausibly present itself as government. When that was convenient for what they were doing.

And also to present itself as a private organization, when that was convenient.

It's a very intricate setup that they had, that was truly optimized for this chameleon character of plausible denial operations. In conflict zones. Doing God knows what, with American taxpayer money.

And it's just an absolute hornet's nest.

We have recovered that terabyte that they tried to delete. And once we get things settled in the building itself, I intend to do a kind of transparency effort, whereby we release all of this material to the public.

GLENN: Good. Good.

DARREN: Just like I'm doing at the State Department. I'm currently acting as secretary at the State Department. And doing a transparency effort here. After I eliminated the global engagement center, which was sort of the internal censorship office within the State Department, decided, we've got to -- we've got to air this out to the public.

So within the next couple of weeks.

We'll have our next tranche of helps you of thousands of emails, documenting what this were doing.

GLENN: I would love you to go back on, through those emails.

I think you guys in the State Department are doing an amazing job. Thanks for being on.