RADIOJanuary 12, 2024

Is Biden's Houthi strike connected to the 2024 ELECTION?

The United States and United Kingdom have carried out strikes against the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen. But while many, including Glenn, believe it was way past time for America to show its dominance, maybe Biden should have asked Congress first. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) joins Glenn to explain what he believes this is really about: "This is election season. And when you're at war, there's a greater tendency to vote for the Commander-in-Chief...and I am worried that he's going to draw us into a war." Rep. Massie also lays out what the media ISN'T reporting: "With 33% of Congress, the President can go to war...It's ridiculous!" And he also addresses his recent drama with presidential candidate Nikki Haley.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Thomas Massie is with us. Who was just on CNN, questioning the intelligence of some of the -- the anchors there.

I don't know how you could possibly do that, Thomas Massie.

THOMAS: Well, I just questioned their preparedness. Now, I never questioned that about you or your staff.

GLENN: And we're the ones you should, really. Really.

THOMAS: No, she claims -- she referenced 19 different things I voted on. And claims, she spent a whopping two minutes studying one of them. And it made her an expert.

GLENN: Okay.

We want to talk to you about what's happening overseas with the Houthis.

I am -- I am really torn on this because I feel as though we are backing into yet another war.

I also think, there are people in this administration, that want war.

I also know that this administration continues to send money over to Iran.

So, you know, our -- our literal enemy in this, we're helping fund.

So this isn't serious on anybody's part.

However -- we -- however, they are shooting at us, launching missiles at our Navy.

And aren't we defending ourselves.

How should we look at this.

THOMAS: Well, first of all, you should look at it, as this is election season. When you're at war, there's a greater tendency to vote for the command-in-chief who is waging the war, and I am worried that he will draw us into a war with this.

Now, I believe he has an obligation to come to Congress.

And I think he had time to do it. If he had time to organize this international coalition. Or police with Great Britain to pull this off.

He had time to come to us. And, you know, the War Powers Act, requires him to do that. It allows him to respond defensively in the case of emergency.

But that would be like an imminent attack. It wouldn't be something where you planned, you know, some kind of retaliation for things that have gone on for months.

So --

GLENN: The war. Can we talk about the War Powers Act for a second.

Because I believe the War Powers Act, is correct, in a world where we have missiles.

If somebody is launching a missile. The president is it not have time to go to Congress.

And say, hey. I want to make my case here. That in 12 minutes, we will all be vaporized.

However, like you said, it's been 90 days.

Ninety-plus days since this happened, we've watched it happen.

They've been -- they've been fighting and shooting against us, et cetera, et cetera. The president has a responsibility to go in front of the American people, and Congress, and make his case. And Congress needs to decide. Correct?

THOMAS: Absolutely. Absolutely.

You are absolutely correct. We have abdicated -- we've been involved in Yemen. Here's what I don't see being reported in the news, since about 2015.

And in 2018, I teamed up with Ro Khanna, and he tried to get a War Powers Resolution passed.

GLENN: Yep.

THOMAS: To get it back out of him, and this was in 2018.

Paul Ryan did a parliamentary trick. He hid the vote on our War Powers Resolution in the farm bill. And then, so people voted for the farm bill. And put our War Powers Resolution to bed, so we tried again.

And he hid it in the Manage our Wolves Act if you voted for the Manager our Wolves Act to come to the floor of the House, you voted against the Ro Khanna/Thomas Massie War Powers Resolution, according to the War Powers Act, to get us out of Yemen.

GLENN: Think of this. Our Congress is voting on management of wolves, but not whether or not we go to war.

THOMAS: Correct. And then so a year later, we were able to get it to the floor. We passed it in the House. We followed -- you know, I don't even agree completely with the War Powers Act that was passed in the 1970s, especially not the interpretation that people have of it. But we were able to get a resolution passed. To get us out of Yemen in 2019. Then it went to the House and the Senate.

And they passed it with 53 votes. But Donald Trump vetoed it.

Now, it's within his authority to veto it.

But that demonstrated to me, how ridiculous the War Powers Act is.

Because effectively, it takes -- it takes two-thirds of us to override a president's veto.

So what it means is, the War Powers Act, with 33 percent of Congress, the president can go to war because it takes two-thirds to stop him.

It's ridiculous!

GLENN: So what are you hearing up on the Hill, about all of this?

Where are we headed, Thomas?

THOMAS: I mean, I am worried, that we are going to be expanding conflicts in the Middle East.

That this is -- that there's some people up here, that is just begging for a war with Iran.

And whether it's -- something that grows out of Gaza. And whether it's something that grows out of Yemen.

And I think we need to take a step back and look at this. And say, is that the best interest of our country, to have a full-blown war with Iran?

And I'm worried that this president would like to have something hot going on, before the election. Or during the election.

GLENN: Well, the national intelligence agencies came out today. And warned that the -- that Hezbollah, has assets here in America.

And that they're concerned that this could mean a direct strike here in the homeland.

Which I don't think would play well for all of those who have an open border.

THOMAS: Yeah. I mean, this is the big exposure we have with the open border. Not only are we going to economically destroy our country, by bringing so many illegal immigrants into the country so quickly.

It's so porous. That, you know, Hezbollah can walk across the border. And no doubt, they are here. They could activate.

I mean, what was it? Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were actually from Saudi Arabia, and were here legally for the most part, I think. But now we're looking at a different threat. And it only takes 19 to, you know, do something very bad in this country. As we saw on 9/11.

GLENN: Nikki Haley, during the last debate, basically called you an anti-Semite.

Why do you hate the Jews so much?

THOMAS: Oh, my gosh.

As Ron DeSantis says, that cheap garbage, and as I tweeted. I'm living rent-free in her head, and trust me, there's lots of empty space in here.

She has -- her understanding of the bills that I've been voting on, is 1 inch deep.

Whereas, Ron DeSantis, even though he and I disagree on this issue, he understands where I'm coming from.

And he's not AstroTurf like Nikki Haley is.

This is why she stopped taking questions at town halls.

If you go more than one question deep. She doesn't know what she's talking about.

But she was attacking me. I didn't vote for the 14 billion-dollar financial package to Israel.

Now, we can have a discussion about that.

Whether we should -- we can afford that. Whether we should be doing that or not.

But she claims I'm anti-Semitic or anti-Israel. Because I'm not voting for foreign aid.

But here's the thing. I've never voted for foreign aid on any country. I'm not picking on any country.

And then there were some resolutions where we can have legitimate disagreements about whether it's on free speech.

And that there were -- there was a vote that I took, against a resolution that says, anti-Zionism, is anti-Semitism.

Now it's true that a lot of anti-Semites are against Israel, just by definition. But it's not true.

That if you have harsh criticism of Israel, or even if you don't believe in Zionism, that you are also an anti-Semite.

Because if that were true, there would be a lot of Jews who were anti-Semite.

GLENN: I know. I was going to say. A lot of the Hasidic Jews in America.

Despise Israel.

Say it's an abomination of a state. Because it's not a religious state.

So are they anti-Semites too? Yeah, I don't think so.

THOMAS: I don't think Jerrold Nadler is an anti-Semite. Jewish. He spoke against that resolution against the floor.

GLENN: Okay.

DAVID: You know, the sad thing is we've had 19 votes like that, since our new Speaker became Speaker. And what we should be focusing on is our own spending bill cutting spending.

Instead, we passed these resolutions.

Which are frankly political gotchas.

The Republicans are trying to use that issue to catch the Democrats up in votes. Then use them to get unelected.

And, I mean, I just don't have an appetite for that when we should be focused on our fiscal issues.

Right now, in the House, we're about to throw away all the spending caps, that were put in place this summer. I was on your show talking about this, taking the heat from you.

GLENN: Because I said, oh, I remember when I was young and naive.

THOMAS: Yes. And I said, you know, maybe I'm getting fooled here. Because, Glenn, they're signing it into law.

They did the White House and the Senate, put those caps into law.

And now, they are undoing the law.

This is -- I mean, we've never gotten that far, kind of Lucy and the football.

I mean, my foot contacted the football.

I've never gotten to that point.

The problem is you said, illegally blocking or something. They are about to. What happened is the Senate and the White House had buyers remorse.

And the military hawks here, and the appropriators on the Republican side are forcing Mike Johnson through -- I will call it violence.

Parliamentary violence.

They're just like, well, we'll cause the government to shut down. And you will be blamed for it, if you don't undo the evil from this summer.

GLENN: Good. Good.

You know, honestly, Thomas, you know and I know, this government is dismantling America.

We would be better off with a government shut down for a while, to be able to put it back on a leash, by cutting all of this spending.

I mean, good! Good!

Shut it down.

THOMAS: I agree with you. But there's another option that they agreed to this summer.

Which is, if they would do what Jim Jordan and Warren Davids and I prescribed, and they agreed to.

Which is a long-term CR.

It would -- there would never be a threat of a shutdown, but there would be a one percent cut on April 30th to every department, in the United States, America's government.

And there wouldn't be a chance of a shutdown.

But that would motivate, I think, people to come to the table and get policies, like securing the border without a shutdown.

Here's what happens: When you have a shutdown.

We've got -- and you know this as well as I do.

There's at least a dozen members sharing the GOP conference who will cross the aisle and sign something with the Democrats to, you know, stiff us on this.

It's deplorable, but they will do it. And some of them have already announced their retirement. So they don't care.

GLENN: So bad. So bad.

Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thomas Massie. As always, keep taking them on. Thanks.

THOMAS: Thank you, brother, bye.

Could passengers have SAVED Iryna Zarutska?

Surveillance footage of the murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte, NC, reveals that the other passengers on the train took a long time to help her. Glenn, Stu, and Jason debate whether they were right or wrong to do so.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: You know, I'm -- I'm torn on how I feel about the people on the train.

Because my first instinct is, they did nothing! They did nothing! Then my -- well, sit down and, you know -- you know, you're going to be judged. So be careful on judging others.

What would I have done? What would I want my wife to do in that situation?

STU: Yeah. Are those two different questions, by the way.

GLENN: Yeah, they are.

STU: I think they go far apart from each other. What would I want myself to do. I mean, it's tough to put yourself in a situation. It's very easy to watch a video on the internet and talk about your heroism. Everybody can do that very easily on Twitter. And everybody is.

You know, when you're in a vehicle that doesn't have an exit with a guy who just murdered somebody in front of you, and has a dripping blood off of a knife that's standing 10 feet away from you, 15 feet away from you.

There's probably a different standard there, that we should all kind of consider. And maybe give a little grace to what I saw at least was a woman, sitting across the -- the -- the aisle.

I think there is a difference there. But when you talk about that question. Those two questions are definitive.

You know, I know what I would want myself to do. I would hope I would act in a way that didn't completely embarrass myself afterward.

But I also think, when I'm thinking of my wife. My advice to my wife would not be to jump into the middle of that situation at all costs. She might do that anyway. She actually is a heck of a lot stronger than I am.

But she might do it anyway.

GLENN: How pathetic, but how true.

STU: Yes. But that would not be my advice to her.

GLENN: Uh-huh.

STU: Now, maybe once the guy has certainly -- is out of the area. And you don't think the moment you step into that situation. He will turn around and kill you too. Then, of course, obviously. Anything you can do to step in.

Not that there was much anyone on the train could do.

I mean, I don't think there was an outcome change, no matter what anyone on that train did.

Unfortunately.

But would I want her to step in?

Of course. If she felt she was safe, yes.

Think about, you said, your wife. Think about your daughter. Your daughter is on that train, just watching someone else getting murdered like that. Would you advise your daughter to jump into a situation like that?

That girl sitting across the aisle was somebody's daughter. I don't know, man.

JASON: I would. You know, as a dad, would I advise.

Hmm. No.

As a human being, would I hope that my daughter or my wife or that I would get up and at least comfort that woman while she's dying on the floor of a train?

Yeah.

I would hope that my daughter, my son, that I would -- and, you know, I have more confidence in my son or daughter or my wife doing something courageous more than I would.

But, you know, I think I have a more realistic picture of myself than anybody else.

And I'm not sure that -- I'm not sure what I would do in that situation. I know what I would hope I would do. But I also know what I fear I would do. But I would have hoped that I would have gotten up and at least tried to help her. You know, help her up off the floor. At least be there with her, as she's seeing her life, you know, spill out in under a minute.

And that's it other thing we have to keep in mind. This all happened so rapidly.

A minute is -- will seem like a very long period of time in that situation. But it's a very short period of time in real life.

STU: Yeah. You watch the video, Glenn. You know, I don't need the video to -- to change my -- my position on this.

But at his seem like there was a -- someone who did get there, eventually, to help, right? I saw someone seemingly trying to put pressure on her neck.

GLENN: Yeah. And tried to give her CPR.

STU: You know, no hope at that point. How long of a time period would you say that was?

Do you know off the top of your head?

GLENN: I don't know. I don't know. I know that we watched the video that I saw. I haven't seen past 30 seconds after she --

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: -- is down. And, you know, for 30 seconds nothing is happening. You know, that is -- that is not a very long period of time.

STU: Right.

GLENN: In reality.

STU: And especially, I saw the pace he was walking. He certainly can't be -- you know, he may have left the actual train car by 30 seconds to a minute. But he wasn't that far away. Like he was still in visual.

He could still turn around and look and see what's going on at that point. So certainly still a threat is my point. He has not, like, left the area. This is not that type of situation.

You know, I -- look, as you point out, I think if I could be super duper sexist for a moment here, sort of my dividing line might just be men and women.

You know, I don't know if it's that a -- you're not supposed to say that, I suppose these days. But, like, there is a difference there. If I'm a man, you know, I would be -- I would want my son to jump in on that, I suppose. I don't know if he could do anything about it. But you would expect at least a grown man to be able to go in there and do something about it. A woman, you know, I don't know.

Maybe I'm -- I hope --

GLENN: Here's the thing I -- here's the thing that I -- that causes me to say, no. You should have jumped in.

And that is, you know, you've already killed one person on the train. So you've proven that you're a killer. And anybody who would have screamed and got up and was with her, she's dying. She's dying. Get him. Get him.

Then the whole train is responsible for stopping that guy. You know. And if you don't stop him, after he's killed one person, if you're not all as members of that train, if you're not stopping him, you know, the person at the side of that girl would be the least likely to be killed. It would be the ones that are standing you up and trying to stop him from getting back to your daughter or your wife or you.

JASON: There was a -- speaking of men and women and their roles in this. There was a video circling social media yesterday. In Sweden. There was a group of officials up on a stage. And one of the main. I think it was health official woman collapses on stage. Completely passes out.

All the men kind of look away. Or I don't know if they're looking away. Or pretending that they didn't know what was going on. There was another woman standing directly behind the woman passed out.

Immediately springs into action. Jumps on top. Grabs her pant leg. Grabs her shoulder. Spins her over and starts providing care.

What did she have that the other guys did not? Or women?

She was a sheepdog. There is a -- this is my issue. And I completely agree with Stu. I completely agree with you. There's some people that do not respond this way. My issue is the proportion of sheepdogs versus people that don't really know how to act. That is diminishing in western society. And American society.

We see it all the time in these critical actions. I mean, circumstances.

There are men and women, and it's actually a meme. That fantasize about hoards of people coming to attack their home and family. And they sit there and say, I've got it. You guys go. I'm staying behind, while I smoke my cigarette and wait for the hoards to come, because I will sacrifice myself. There are men and women that fantasize of block my highway. Go ahead. Block my highway. I'm going to do something about it. They fantasize about someone holding up -- not a liquor store. A convenience store or something. Because they will step in and do something. My issue now is that proportion of sheepdogs in society is disappearing. Just on statistical fact, there should be one within that train car, and there were none.

STU: Yeah. I mean --

JASON: They did not respond.

STU: We see what happens when they do, with Daniel Penny. Our society tries to vilify them and crush their existence. Now, there weren't that many people on that train. Right?

At least on that car. At least it's limited. I only saw three or four people there, there may have been more. I agree with you, though. Like, you see what happens when we actually do have a really recent example of someone doing exactly what Jason wants and what I would want a guy to do. Especially a marine to step up and stop this from happening. And the man was dragged by our legal system to a position where he nearly had to spend the rest of his life in prison.

I mean, I -- it's insanity. Thankfully, they came to their senses on that one.

GLENN: Well, the difference between that one and this one though is that the guy was threatening. This one, he killed somebody.

STU: Yeah. Right. Well, but -- I think -- but it's the opposite way. The debate with Penny, was should he have recognize that had this person might have just been crazy and not done anything?

Maybe. He hadn't actually acted yet. He was just saying things.

GLENN: Yeah. Well --

STU: He didn't wind up stabbing someone. This is a situation where these people have already seen what this man will do to you, even when you don't do anything to try to stop him. So if this woman, who is, again, looks to be an average American woman.

Across the aisle. Steps in and tries to do something. This guy could easily turn around and just make another pile of dead bodies next to the one that already exists.

And, you know, whether that is an optimal solution for our society, I don't know that that's helpful.

In that situation.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

Max Lucado on Overcoming Grief in Dark Times | The Glenn Beck Podcast | Ep 266

Disclaimer: This episode was filmed prior to the assassination of Charlie Kirk. But Glenn believes Max's message is needed now more than ever.
The political world is divided, constantly at war with itself. In many ways, our own lives are not much different. Why do we constantly focus on the negative? Why are we in pain? Where is God amid our anxiety and fear? Why can’t we ever seem to change? Pastor Max Lucado has found the solution: Stop thinking like that! It may seem easier said than done, but Max joins Glenn Beck to unpack the three tools he describes in his new book, “Tame Your Thoughts,” that make it easy for us to reset the way we think back to God’s factory settings. In this much-needed conversation, Max and Glenn tackle everything from feeling doubt as a parent to facing unfair hardships to ... UFOs?! Plus, Max shares what he recently got tattooed on his arm.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

Are Demonic Forces to Blame for Charlie Kirk, Minnesota & Charlotte Killings?

This week has seen some of the most heinous actions in recent memory. Glenn has been discussing the growth of evil in our society, and with the assassination of civil rights leader Charlie Kirk, the recent transgender shooter who took the lives of two children at a Catholic school, and the murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, how can we make sense of all this evil? On today's Friday Exclusive, Glenn speaks with BlazeTV host of "Strange Encounters" Rick Burgess to discuss the demon-possessed transgender shooter and the horrific assassination of Charlie Kirk. Rick breaks down the reality of demon possession and how individuals wind up possessed. Rick and Glenn also discuss the dangers of the grotesque things we see online and in movies, TV shows, and video games on a daily basis. Rick warns that when we allow our minds to be altered by substances like drugs or alcohol, it opens a door for the enemy to take control. A supernatural war is waging in our society, and it’s a Christian’s job to fight this war. Glenn and Rick remind Christians of what their first citizenship is.