RADIONovember 08, 2024

How Charlie Kirk BEAT THE LEFT at its own election games

Much of the credit for Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential victory should go to Turning Point USA founder and CEO ‪@RealCharlieKirk‬, Glenn says. The Left has dominated get-out-the-vote efforts for years. But in 2024, Charlie Kirk was able to beat them at their own game. Charlie joins Glenn to explain his winning strategy and why he believes Trump would have lost states like Wisconsin if they hadn’t targeted new voters so intensely. Glenn and Charlie also discuss how “this was the election of the podcast.”

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: All right. The first person we have to thank, or the first thing that we have to thank is God.

God worked miracles in this country, this last week.

And we would be remiss and really poor children, if we didn't recognize his hand in this election.

It is incredible, what has happened.

I told you before, I've -- I can find a million ways, this thing flies apart. But there's only one way, we hold it together.

And that's God.

And I think we've all witnessed that. Now, on the human level, one of the guys who I don't think has gotten enough credit yet, but will get all the credit he deserves.

Is Charlie Kirk.

Charlie started something called Turning Point USA. I know you know of it. To have

He is the host and founder of -- the founder and CEO of turning point. Also, the host of the Charlie Kirk show.

But this guy, I don't know what we would have done without you, Charlie.

I mean, you really turned the vote out. Thank you.

CHARLIE: Well, Glenn, first of all, you said it correctly. Glory be to God. We were a couple millimeters to the entire country going to bedlam. You so perfectly said, throughout the entire campaign, I have this -- the spirit of paranoia, are we really going to do this? Are they going to come up another sneak attack? Are they going to do another COVID? And every corner and every turn. So glory be to God. God is not done with this land.

GLENN: That's true.

CHARLIE: And second, I wish I could take credit for this. But it's American people. And I know it sounds cliche and I know it sounds generic. But the American people stood the most intense propaganda political hurricane of American history. There's never been anything like it. It was worse than 2020. It was worse than 2016. Calling us Nazis and fascists. And, you know, saying that Donald Trump was going to -- you know, put people in camps and all that.

The American people weighed their options, despite Kamala Harris spending Donald Trump three to one, and made the right choice.

Look, we played a small role. And we did it in two ways. We said, on this election, we want to try to lose by less with younger voters.

And then we will create the most sophisticated, low propensity, get out the vote, turnout machine in -- in modern political history for the right.

And here was our series of cases.

First, on the get out the vote.

Which is that we believed that there were millions of people that were Trump supporters. That were not Trump voters. The people that would say, yay, Trump! And they would be with them.

But they weren't putting a ballot in the box.

They weren't casting a vote.

We tested the theory of the case.

When I started to go to Trump rallies. And I would ask people, and I would take a lot of selfies with people who are super nice and they love the country. And one out of 30 people, I would say, hey. Are you ready for the vote?

And they would say, oh, yeah. I think so.

I would get this kind of, you know, half answer.

And so I went back to my team. I said, guys, I think there's a lot more in this reservoir than we realize.

And so we compared with the data. With the Trump campaign. Which we were allowed to do, thanks to an FEC ruling back in the spring.

And we said, guys, let's beat the left at their own it became.

Let's engage in early voting. Even though it's a flawed system, in a way that's never been done before.

Because, again, there's actually more days to get low likely voters to go vote. If you have 30 days, you can then get someone who is not as easy to persuade the vote, because then you can get five or six touches on them.

We hired well over 1,000 full-time people into the greatest ground force that's ever done.

We raised tens of millions of dollars. Praise God from our donors. And we pitched them on this thing, saying, hey. The road to the White House will be going through these states.

We know that. We will be the first registered voters build relationships and communities. And then drive a turnout machine over a 30-day period to get Donald Trump across the finished line.

And the states we primarily focused on was Arizona and Wisconsin.

We spent work of course in Pennsylvania, in Georgia, but in really, Arizona, Wisconsin.

And in Wisconsin, I can tell you, that if it wasn't for our effort. Donald Trump would have fallen short.

We chased in excess of over 70,000 low propensity voters in Wisconsin. Donald Trump won by 28,000 votes.

Here in Arizona, as we are speaking, we still have 850,000 votes still to count. We realize it could take at least 90 days to count our ballots here. It's a joke. It's really something else.

GLENN: I know it is. I know it is.

CHARLIE: But by St. Patrick's, we'll find out who won that race in Arizona.

But Kari Lake is down 44,000 votes here in Arizona, and she might -- she might fall 10,000 votes short, or win by ten thousand votes.

But thanks to our effort and the team, we closed an eight-point polling gap for Kari Lake.

And so, look, basically what we did, we took this movement that Donald Trump created, that Donald Trump led, and we added machinery to the movement.

And we were able to successfully turn Trump supporters into Trump voters.

GLENN: You know, Charlie, I've been -- you know, obviously looking at this, forever.

And we've never had a G.O.P. that could get out of its own way.

We've never had one that was competent.

We never had a plan other than, hey. We're just better.

And we -- we lost it. Every time. Because we were either stupid. Or we just couldn't get out of our own way. And get people to the polls.

This time around, I felt real confidence, that the G.O.P. had these issues covered, at the polling places.

That it was going to be secure. That if it wasn't, they had the attorneys, and they had he have been of else out there.

Just like the Democrats do, and we were going to catch the bad guys, if the bad guys showed up.

So we had that confidence. And we also had confidence because of what we were doing. That we were going after the -- the low propensity voter.

That we -- you know, I've said for years. Hey, somebody should get a bus, like they do.

And put people on a bus, and take them to the polls.

Somebody should do this.

CHARLIE: Oh, we did that.

GLENN: I know you did. I know you did. And that made all the difference in the world.

CHARLIE: Well, thank you, Glenn. And let me say one thing. Which, again, our theory of the case was that okay. The RNC would limit some of the shenanigans. Which, by the way, we didn't completely eliminate. Without that, we would have Senator Mike Lee from Wisconsin.

But one of the ways to offset the shenanigans and the tomfoolery, is you outnumber there.

And so you have so many ballots in the volume of the system. That, you know, their midnight drops in Milwaukee are just not going to be sufficient. And it turns out, that that was a correct way of looking at it. And I want to say, one other thing, though. This was very, very difficult work, and your team deserves enormous credit.

Not just the full-time staff. You'll love this, Glenn.

We do this thing called commit 100.

Where we say, hey, if you're across the country. And you're tired of listening to talk radio and watching TV and seeing your country fall apart.

If you will be able to fly yourself to Arizona, we'll put you up in a hotel room for a week or two.

And we will give you the mobile technology to go chase ballots. We have over 2,000 people from across the country, that were working neighborhoods in Arizona to go chase ballots.

2,000 volunteers from across the country. On top of, in Arizona, our 600 full-time people, on the ground

So we blanketed the state. And Arizona, again, it's my passion.

It's that that is performing of the seven battleground states, and we're still counting votes.

It's the greatest swing of any battleground states in 2020.

And it should give your audience a lot of renewed confidence.

Is that we are catching up to how the left has gamified our elections.

They turn it into a game. Who can get the most amount of pieces of paper in the box? And we were -- we're still dealing in an antiquated mindset, where we believe that elections were just about worldview and values and issues. Back in, like, 2004.

The left, they changed all the rules. And that made them permanent in COVID. And between 2022 and especially in 2024, we learned the rules. We caught up. And then we beat them at their own with game. And that is what is so promising and encouraging. That we were able to add this machinery, to a once in a generation movement. And I will add one other thing. Is that some people were saying, it was a landslide.

It was. However, Glenn, we're talking about Donald Trump. The final canvases will come out. He won Wisconsin by 30,000 votes.

Pennsylvania, one point. Michigan, point and a half.

Without the turnout operation, without the voter integrity operation, the Trump campaign, and the RNC, you could make an argument -- and also, the second layer is that we did 25 points better with younger voters.

We won the youth vote in Michigan. We almost won -- yeah. Go ahead.

GLENN: What do you attribute that to, other than, you know, your work. And the work of others?

Do me a favor do you -- how much do you put into Elon Musk, RFK, Joe Rogan? Theo Von? Yeah.

CHARLIE: Yeah. First of all, Elon Musk is an American hero. And that guy is the best of America, who decided to just put everything on the line, for his country.

And I can't say enough good things about him. And, by the way, President Trump deserves so much credit for doing this long form podcast. This was the year -- this was the election of the podcast. And Democrats were unbelievable.

GLENN: This is the end of the -- I said this the week before he went on Joe Rogan. I said, you watch. He'll go on Joe Rogan. 100 million people. And it will be the end of the mainstream ahead.

This will -- this will show everybody for 2028, there's no reason to do a debate on ABC.

There's no reason to do an interview with CBS.

Why? Why would you do that?

Everything changed, this time.

CHARLIE: That's exactly right.

And I attribute a lot to that. And in addition, Donald Trump was able to -- he was able to sit for three hours, with no notes and go deep on the issues and have a total command of the subjects.

GLENN: I know. I know.

CHARLIE: Here is the new standard though, and Democrats have to know this.

You will never win another presidential election, if you nominate another candidate who is unable to do long form podcasting.

People won't trust you. End of story. And if you do not have a candidate, who can go deep and that can think on their feet and have memory recall and be personable and charming and affable, the American people will reject that. Long gone are the days of 7-minute, 60-minute interviews, right?

Or, you know, ten-minute Meet The Press, where you have five questions, and they're prepared.

Now, you have to earn the vote. Because people are going to listen to you for three hours and see your tone and inflection. And whether you mean it.

And so Donald Trump excelled in that. And Joe Rogan deserves such credit for having the platform, and to his credit as well, he was very fair. He wanted to broker a fair deal where Kamala was invited and Donald Trump. The other thing I will say though.

And I think you will appreciate this, Glenn. With younger voters.

Is that there was that pent-up rebellion energy, amongst young Gen Zers for how they were treated during COVID.

During COVID, they had their proms cancelled. Their graduation. Summer classes. A lot of their friends committed suicide.

They were part of this generation that was hyper propagandized by the left wing woke stuff during the summer of Floyd.

And they realized that it was lies. And that it was misrepresentations, and then they get their news from podcasting. And podcasting comes out, talking about how great Donald Trump was and how awful Kamala was, because that was the right framing. And the generation started to tilt right.

And so -- what was so remarkable, is that Democrats, they didn't see this coming.

They were so confident.

They were so cocky. That younger voters were going to continue to support them.

Again, you could make the argument.

If it was for the mass movement of younger voters in some of these states.

Donald Trump might not have won. And, again, the Sunbelt was a separate story.

We did very well in the Sunbelt, 4 or 5-point margins.

But the Rest Belt was one and a half, 1-point margins. We're talking about 30,000 votes here. So all of these things add up, in a very significant way.

And it also should give your audience such hope.

There's almost no documented case of a generation that becomes more liberal, as they get older.

So the fact that this generation is the most conservative voting generation since 1988. That means that the future is only going to get redder.

It's only going to become more conservative, as they own property and get married and have children.

So our starting point is the best starting point for our political movement since Ronald Reagan.

And credit to Donald Trump. And please, sorry.

GLENN: And I think that it is only going to grow from here, if Donald Trump can tick off the things that are on his list to do.

GLENN: So, Charlie, we were talking about what -- you know, why Trump won. Why did Kamala lose?

CHARLIE: Well, that's interesting. And, again, I will say, the narrative should be that Trump won more than she lost. However, she was unable to do the basic, as we said, long form podcasting. She misread the room. And I think the interesting story that should be explored is, where did all the money go? The most funded campaign in history. A billion dollars.

Now, $20 million in debt.

And I have a personal axe to grind here.

Because, you know, we were one of the groups that the media was setting up to fail. Okay? Let's just be honest. There were so many articles written in the last couple of months. Trump team takes big risk outsourcing GOTV to Turning Point and Elon Musk.

You probably saw the stories, right, Glenn? It was every major outlet.

GLENN: Oh, yeah, I did.

CHARLIE: And they were setting us up to fail, and we would get on the phones with these reporters. And we would say, hey, we're doing real things.

Maybe you guys should be more nuanced. And they said, well, the Kamala team has the most sophisticated get out vote operation ever, and their ground game. And they're knocking on tens of millions of doors, and we would tell them. And this was true. I said, never conflate results and activity.

The Kamala team was doing a lot of activity. But they weren't producing results. So the Kamala ground game was completely overrated.

Somebody made a lot of money, and misled a lot of people, and a lot of Democratic donors.

So let's just be honest on the issues. Let's just also on the issues though.

Is that Kamala Harris and the entire regime, they were trying to continue to occupy a country that they resent.

And that, as a basic operating formula, is almost an impossible way to hold on to political power.

You can't continue to govern a country when you disdain the people that you are pathed to oversee.

And, I mean, we can go one example to the other. I'm sure you cover this on your show.

But Star County, Texas. Which has not voted Republican. In over 100 years.

The most Hispanic county in America, Donald Trump won.

I mean, there was this multi-racial reckoning against the Democrat Party.

Young, old, black, Hispanic.

And finally, Kamala Harris and her entire team, they -- they -- they did everything they possibly could to not defend their own positions. But try to make it a referendum on Donald Trump.

Now, Donald Trump refuted quite a gift.

He received quite a gift. Because for the first time since Grover Cleveland, he was able to embrace the advantages of being an incumbent and the advantages of being a challenger.

So think about it. You can say, how great my record was. And how terrible the person currently in office is. If you think about that analytically, that's almost an impossible. It's impossible to beat that. Because you could be incredibly -- you could be very, very critical. So that wins you points. People like that in politics. At the same time, you can also have a sterling record to run on. So it's not just hypothetical. So Donald Trump leaned into the best of all circumstances. Being a challenger and also an incumbent. And, yeah. And also, Kamala Harris didn't have a primary. That's another thing that I said.

Don't -- when I try to implement a candidate without a primary, don't assume that all the Democrats are going to support you. I have many other thoughts on this.

GLENN: Well, I've got just about 30 seconds here, before a break. So good time to just take a breath. I do want to go back to that.

But I -- I also want to go back to Hispanics.

Because they have alienated themselves with everybody. Now, they're talking about how Hispanics are anti-black. And I've heard black are anti-Hispanics. I mean, they're just -- they're at war with themselves.

I don't know how they come back from this. But, you know, vampires, you always think are dead. But they come back.

The ONE “forever war” Glenn Beck supports

This Fourth of July, Glenn Beck reveals the only “forever war” he supports. It’s the war Americans have been fighting since our nation’s founding, and we must continue the fight…

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Two hundred forty-nine years ago, I think it is tomorrow. Right? Is tomorrow the second, or is it the first?

What day is it today?

So it was 200 -- 249 years ago, tomorrow, that somebody sat alone, in a -- in a one-room hotel room.

And scratched out the words, when in the course of human events. Those are the first six words of a document that is so dangerous!

Still today, so revolutionary.

It was whispered in those candle lit rooms by men who knew. Knew. That if I signed this document, that's a death warrant.

I'm dead!

I'm dead.

But in the course of human events, shh.

Jefferson wrote them!

33 years old. Adams would later say, you do well to revere Jefferson. But he didn't write alone. Basically, I was there too.

And so was Ben Franklin. The ideas were forged in the minds of men like Franklin, who is old enough to know better. And Adams, who was stubborn enough, not to care. And they weren't perfect men. But I love this about the left. They try to make you think.

That you think are perfect. I don't think they were perfect! I mean, Ben Franklin used to walk around naked in his house a lot. That shows, I mean, for as smart as that guy was. It shows, maybe he had a lack of mirrors. But they weren't perfect!

They owned slaves. They argued. They compromised.

How does that make them different than us?
I mean, we should be able to relate to them!

What is it that we tolerate right now?
What is it that we compromise on?

What is it -- what are our failures that future generations are going to go, these people just didn't get it? Perhaps what we should notice is that they, unlike most of us. They were willing to gamble their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.

For something that had never, ever been done before. Something entirely new!

The idea that rights don't come from a government, or from a king, or from a parliament.

They don't come from the majority voting. Everyone has certain rights.

You know, for all these people who are, you know -- going in Macy's, and burning down towns. And then stealing clothing. And they're like, because I've been oppressed!

And you can't -- I've got rights, you know.
Yeah. Yeah.

You know who the first people were, to articulate those rights?

You know the only country that actually has stood for those rights?

And we're imperfect!

That idea came from the Founders, that you say you hate.

But the actual rights come from God, which you dismiss!

Think of this. Just ponder this for a second.

That all men are created equal! That their rights are given to them, by a creator.

It's not a political assertion. It's a genius. That's eternal truth!

That's theological dynamite, lobbed straight in to the thrones of Europe.

All over the world, it's still dynamite.

They knew what they were doing.

And I don't mean like, they knew what they were doing.

They had it. No. They knew that the British crown had the largest military force in the world. And these guys, they were farmers. They were printers. They were lawyers. They were a ragtag collection of intellectual and idealists, facing down an empire, where they said, the sun never set on the British empire. Meaning, the colonialism was everywhere!

You could not escape England. And yet, they declared it. We're leaving, without apology!

And they said that when a government becomes destructive of the ends of liberty, life, and the pursuit of happiness, it's not only the right of the people, it's their duty to throw it off!

Wow. And you know what is amazing? That's not rebellion.

That's -- that's not revolution. That's -- that's responsibility.

That -- that kind of language today, that would have you flagged, shadow banned. Labeled an extremist. In most countries, disappeared!

But that is the foundation of what we call America. The American experiment. And it's that. The American experiment.

And it's just that, an experiment. We didn't know if we could get it right. And we haven't gotten it right. But isn't it worth experimenting?

Isn't it worth trying to get that concept right?

When you fail on that concept, you're like, eh. That's a stupid idea.

That's not a stupid idea. That's the greatest idea of all time.

Why are so many people willing to just quit?

The experiment is self-rule. It's not perfect.

Never has been. Slavery. Jim Crow. Internment camps. Assassinations.

My God! Forgive us, for what we have done.

But at the same time, what nation has done more to correct its own errors?

What people have shed more blood, not for conquest, but for freedom.

Twice in the last century, we crossed oceans. Not to claim territory. But to liberate that territory!

Our sons and daughters fought and bled on foreign soil to push the darkness back, to fight against Naziism and fascism and Communism. And here we are. Here we are today.

After 249 years tomorrow of that experiment, standing at the lip of the very abyss, those men feared.

A godless chaos, rising in the east and a cold atheistic utopia, clawing at the foundations of the Western world. Islamism and Communism, two ideologies that have killed tens of millions of people. Now dressed all in new robes, selling old lies.

And we can't even teach a child where their rights come from. We have replaced Jefferson and Adams with TikTok influencers and bureaucratic groupthink.

We're raising generations to not even know the truth about their own identity.

But to question their identity. And they could be, oh, you're a funny, funny colored unicorn today. What do you want to be tomorrow?

We don't teach them anything about truth, or their inheritance, most importantly. Their inheritance. What good are hot dogs and fireworks, if the soul of the nation is up for auction? What is the meaning in Fourth of July, if we have forgotten the why? If we don't even call it Independence Day anymore. Most people don't even know who we fought against for independence.

They think we fought for its independence! Most people think we fought the South!

And yet, we'll light the sparklers, or blow our fingers off, because we're just that stupid.

This Independence Day weekend, would you do me and yourself and your country a favor, and read the words out loud. Speak the words out loud.

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands, which have connected them with one another.

And to assume among the powers of earth, the separate, but equal station, to which the laws of nature.

And nature's God entitle them.

A decent respect to the opinions of mankind, requires that they should declare the causes, which impair them to the separation.

What are they saying?

Look, we want to be decent people.

We want to be decent people.

And we have to separate them.

But we believe it's only right that we tell you why we have to separate. And it's not because of all the bad things you've done. We'll get to those later. It's because we're different. And you don't understand. You have been telling us all of these things, we no longer believe in. We hold these truths to be self-evident. That all men are created equal, and they're endowed by their creator with certain inalienable. Unchangeable rights.

And just among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

That to secure these rights, government are his instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

My gosh. Read those words. And let your children hear what thinking and courage sounds like.

That to secure these rights, I'm telling you, the king, who thinks that your government was given to you, by God.

And you are the ruler.

And you will tell everybody what to think, what to do. What to buy. What to sell. What to tax. What not to tax. Who gets land. Who doesn't get land.

No, no, no. Government are his instituted among men, deriving their powers, their just powers, from the people. And that government is only there, established by those men to protect the rights that God has given each of those men.

Let them feel the chill, that runs down the spine, when Jefferson writes, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the government, or from the governed. Let them hear the words, of -- of responsibility. What responsibility sounds like, with courage and freedom. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these rights, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it.

And to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their a lot of and happiness.

In other words, you have the right, you have the responsibility to stop tyrants. And if the government has gone bad, to throw that government off.

But reconstitute a government, that will do a better job at protecting those rights. Not to form a communist government.

Not to do anything else. But you want a new government?

Fine! Let's find the way to make men more free. This is not a metaphor. This is a declaration of war on tyranny in all of its forms.

I mean, I said, yesterday, freedom isn't free.

It was paid for by somebody's blood. But you have to remember, they paid for their freedom, not for our freedom, necessarily.

We -- there comes a time, we have to pay for our freedom. And God forbid, that it comes down to blood.

But at least shake off the apathy. We -- we must renew this promise of this experiment of America.

We need to fight for it as well. An out-of-control government that seeks to rope us into forever wars, over and over again. We're all against forever wars. I'm against it.

I hate them.

But there is one forever war, that is required in a free society. A different kind of forever war.

A war against ourselves, a war against human nature in each of us. Because of human nature, we get fat. We get lazy.

We get tolerant of abuses. Let your children hear you speak these words. And when you speak them, ponder them yourself.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate, that governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient causes.

And accordingly, all experience has shown, that mankind is more disposed to suffer while the evils are sufferable than to right themselves, by abolishing the forms in which they're accustomed.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a sign to reduce them under absolute despotism.

It's their right. It's their duty. To throw off such government. And provide new guards for such future security.

In one paragraph, we make the point twice. And they tell us, look, we've studied people.

We know you're going to get fat and lazy and apathetic. And you won't want to do stuff for transient causes. Because this is really not good.

But when push comes to shove. And everything is moving towards absolute despotism. Absolute tyranny. Then you must stand up.

I ask you to ponder this. This particular part, when a long train of abuses and usurpations. Prudence will indeed dictate that governments long established should not be exchanged for light and transient causes.

And accordingly, all experience has shown, that mankind is more disposed to suffer while the evils suffer, than to right themselves.

Aren't we exactly the same people, that their experience was talking about?

Aren't we the people that are more disposed to suffer, than to right ourselves? Because we're too comfortable. Or we're too afraid, just to stand up and simply say no to lies.

No!

There is a difference between men and women.

No! Communism is to be feared. It's killed over 100 million people, in the last 100 years.

No!

Muslims aren't bad. Islamism is!

It's evil. No!

You can peacefully protest, any time, any place. And I will fight to the death for your right to do that.

But when you start burn cities down to the ground, no!

We're just a few days away. And we have marked our 249th birthday. Maybe. Just maybe, this year, can we stop asking what America was, and start deciding what America will be?

Where it just slips quietly into history. In the dark of apathy and ignorance.

Because the only thing more dangerous than tyranny is the people who have forgotten what it took to break its chains.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

We need REAL jobs in America — Trump should do THIS now!

It is clear we need to create more productive, high-paying jobs for American citizens. But that doesn't mean bringing back the same exact jobs of the past in massive numbers. It means creating and supporting jobs of the present and future that will better the lives of Americans. Glenn Beck and Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts break down exactly what this entails and how President Trump can make it a reality.

Watch Glenn Beck's FULL Interview with Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts HERE

The most INCREDIBLE World War II story you’ve NEVER HEARD

One of the biggest American World War II cemeteries in Europe is in a small town in the Netherlands, where thousands of Dutch people continue the tradition to this day of “adopting” a fallen US soldier and checking in on his family. “The Monuments Man” author Robert Edsel joins Glenn Beck to tell this incredible story, which he documents in his new book, “Remember Us.”

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Robert, welcome back to the program. How are you, sir?

ROBERT: Great to talk to you!

GLENN: It's great to talk to you.

Can you remind me? You were on with us, after Monuments Men. And you talked about this great service that is still going on, where people that -- they were still looking for paintings and pieces of art, that had been taken by the Nazis.

And if I remember right, didn't somebody in our -- our own audience reach out to you, and say, I think we found one of those paintings?

ROBERT: Yes, sir. Absolutely.

The Glenn Beck audience. And Glenn Beck, you yourself deserve a lot of credit.

Because I hadn't walked out of your studio last time. You know, in Dallas at Las Colinas.

Headed back to our office at Monuments Men and Women Foundation office, before someone in my office contacted me and said, we've already had a lead, as a result of your interview with Glenn. And it turned out someone whose aunt had been given two paintings during World War II.

She had worked for the government overseeing Germany, and these two paintings were missing.

We were able to identify who the rightful owner was, and get them back.

So it's a great thing that you performed. And, you know, it's a magnificent conclusion, though obviously a very difficult part of history.

GLENN: What was it like to give that back to the family?

ROBERT: It was a deeply moving experience. We -- the foundation found and returned more than 30 works of art, from paintings to documents, ancient books. Tapestries, to museums. Individual collectors, and so on.

And, you know, when we see, oftentimes, the people just stand there, and they cry.

They don't even know what to say. Because they may have worked 50 or 60 years, trying to find some work of art that's been missing. And they haven't had leads. And to -- to see us standing there, with something that belongs to them.

Not asking for anything in return. Don't charge anybody for doing it. Because we feel like everybody who went through World War II already paid enough.

Words -- words just fail. It's just pure gratitude.

GLENN: I can't wait for you to tell this new story.

Tell me the story of the care takers. The care takers of --

ROBERT: Well, it's a story that found me, just as Monuments did.

I have written about -- in the Monuments Men, I told the story of two Monuments Officers who were killed in combat, one British soldier and one American, Walter Huchthausen. And Huchthausen was killed. He once did a last casualty at war. He was killed in the last month of World War II, and is buried in the American benevolence, American cemetery, in Margraten in the Netherlands. I knew that story, and I had made mention of a young girl who was harbored in September '45, asking for the address of his mother, wanting to write her and tell her, that she walked 5 miles, several times a week, from her house to the American military cemetery. It was called then. To put flowers on his grave. Because her family knew them. And they were grief-stricken to know that they were killed.

And I knew that story too. I mentioned that. And then in 2015, the nephew of Huchthausen wrote me and included a photograph of this elderly lady with this crown of white hair. And he said, here's a photo with Frida, and I couldn't place who this was.

I had no idea who it was. And I realized, my God, this is that 19-year-old girl that is still alive. So I flew to England. She married a British soldier after the war. And I went to meet with her. She started showing me photographs of when the American -- Americans liberated her area of the Netherlands.

And all these American soldiers that they knew.

And she said, you know about the American military cemetery.

She said, have you been there?

And I said yes. And she said, so you know about the great adoption program?

And I said, what? She said, the great adoption program.

I said, I have no idea what you're talking about. So I started doing some research on this. And learned, at the end of World War II, our largest World War II cemetery in Europe, was not Normandy. It was the Netherlands American cemetery, where 17,800 boys and a few women buried at this cemetery by May 1946.

And by that time, every single grave had a Dutch person, a local person, who volunteered to be an adaptor of that brave.

Go out there on the first death date of the soldier, Veterans Day, Memorial Day.

And if they had the contact information for the next of kin, send them a photograph of the grave.
And a letter.

Because they realized, it was okay to adopt the bodies of dead boys.

But where the real need was, was to reach across the ocean, into the American homes and try to assuage the grief of the families.

And they knew some of these boys. And I found it the most heartwarming, uplifting, and certainly unique conclusion to a World War II story that I think has been written.

GLENN: So are they still some of them still doing this?

ROBERT: Not some. In fact, there were about -- in 1940, 748.

American families were given the choice to have their loved ones sent home, or to be left overseas in a military cemetery.

The Army had no idea, how many -- how many families would want their boys sent home, and as a consequence, they couldn't tell how many cemeteries they would need.

We thought almost everybody would want to have the families sent home. But it turned out not to be the case. So about 61 percent came home. About 39 percent stayed in Europe, which was about the numbers from World War I.

Although, the numbers in this area, in the Netherlands were higher.

The -- the graves that are there now.

There are 10,000 boys there. And four women.

8300 graves. 1700 names on the walls of the missing.

Every one of them has an adaptor for 80 years.

All those graves have been adopted, without interruption.

There's a waiting list of almost a thousand people in the Netherlands, to become a doctor. This is a -- not just a --

GLENN: This is --

JASON: A privilege. Because they take their kids out to the cemetery. They turn the cemetery into a classroom. And you go out there. And, yes, there's a somber element. They're instilling in their kids, you're able to think, and say what you want to. Because of the freedom that was given to you, by this American girl or boy. And we don't do that in our country anymore.

GLENN: So this is one of the most incredible stories that I've -- I've ever heard.

And I'm shocked that the world doesn't know this!

Is -- have you -- is there anything like this, anywhere else in the world?

JASON: No. We couldn't even find a comp of any nature.

There are -- that is not to say, the people in Normandy area, don't care about Normandy and other cemeteries. They do, of course. As do the Belgians in other cemeteries.

But there's no place that created an organic great adoption program, during the war, in January 1945!

These people in this area of the Netherlands were so grateful, having been neutral in World War I.

And having not lost their freedom for 100 years!

And they didn't like it!

And when the Americans liberated them in September 44. I'll never forget this woman Freda. This elderly woman I met, looked at me, the first time I interviewed her. I knew her for eight years. The last eight years of her life.

I delivered a eulogy two summers ago. She looked at me, there were the eyes of the 19-year-old. And she said, when I saw that first tank over the hill and I realized, we were saved.

I looked at my dad, and I said, Papi, these American boys come all the way across the ocean to say this. And there were tears in her eyes.

Because they didn't -- they couldn't imagine how we could have moved that equipment across -- across the ocean.

And why we would have cared so much.

So there isn't anything like it.

But January 45, these people in this little town of Margraten.

A mile from the cemetery, organized a meeting of the town leaders. The town who got 1200 people.

And they were trying to find an answer to the question: How do you thank your liberators, when they're no longer alive to thank? And they came up with this idea of this great adoption program, and it's a story that I tell, following the lives of about 12 different American combat soldiers.

Bomber recipients.

Tankers.

Because we don't know that story.

We don't what knows to an American story, when they're killed on the field of battle.

Because it's depressing.

We move on to the next scene in a movie.

Well, I want people to know, you started your program with freedom is not free.

It's ugly.

Let's talk about that. Let's talk about what the cost is.

Let's talk about the stripping line that the body goes through, and the removal of dog tags, one being put in the mouth, if there's still a head. And the other being nailed to the cross, because they don't have time to stencil the names on yet.

Let's talk about that, and let people know, it's not just a Marvel movie. Or a gang war.

This is real. This is painful. And, of course, at the end of the war, when we Americans declare victory, and move on with our lives, there's millions of family members in the United States, whose lives will never be the same.

So it is -- it's still happening today. It's still happening today.

GLENN: The name -- the name of the book is Remember Us.

And take us -- I mean, because that's really kind of the -- the -- the beauty of it.

Take us through the rest of the book, just briefly.

It starts with what?

ROBERT: Well, I follow -- I began what a nice life was in the Netherlands. Until May 10, 1940.

And the Netherlands does not get much attention from World War II, and yet everybody has heard of Battle of the Bulge. And Battle -- those are all within 50 miles of what we're talking about.

They happened around there. Of course, World War II, in western Europe, begins right here in this area. Because the German tanks roll across the border.

So I cover the life of these 12 different Americans. I interviewed all their family members. Some make it through the war. Some don't.

You read the book, you realize who makes it, who doesn't. But their lives converge around this area of the Netherlands. And when post-world War II stories end, with the war being over, remember us kicks into a transcendent moment when the Dutch come up with this idea of this great adoption program. The Americans refuse to provide the names and addresses of the next of kin.

So they're foiled with trying to achieve their ultimate objective. Which is to try to contact all the American families.

And frustrated, there was -- one of the key figures of the book.

A woman who is the mother of 12 children.

Who takes it upon herself. She's a woman of action.

She writes president Truman. And pleads for him to get involved.

When that doesn't work. She gets on the first airplane, she's ever flown on. She leaves her kids behind.

She flies to New York. Lands in LaGuardia Field.

She goes to Washington, and meets the members of Congress. Including a young guy from Texas, named Lyndon Johnson.

Who says, young lady, you need to go to Texas. Because there are so many military bases there.

She flies to our hometown. And lands in Lovefield.

In June of 1946. And is met by two family members. And for five weeks, she lives with American families, that lost somebody during a war.

And to each of them she says, leave your boys with us. When the election comes.

We will watch over them, like our own forever.

And they have done that. Now, today, these 10,000 Dutch doctors only have contact information for 20 percent of the American families.

They couldn't ever get the others.

GLENN: You're kidding me. Where is the list? Do you have a list?

ROBERT: Yeah. The Monuments Men and Women Foundation entered into a joint venture with the Dutch Foundation for Adopting Graves.

Not charging anybody for this. And we have created a website called foreverpromise.org.

And on that website is a list of all 10,000 men and women, more women that are buried at the cemetery, or whose names are on the walls missing.

And it's a searchable database. We're asking people to go and see. Do you have someone you know, or a relative, who is buried there.

And if so, we have a short questionnaire. What's your relationship? Are you aware of this great adoption program? Are you in contact with your adopter? Would you like to be? Would you allow us to share your contact information?

I connected a lady from Richmond, Texas. Saturday night. To her -- to this young Tammy, that's the adopter of her brother.

She's 93 years old.

She was in tears. At the thought when she leaves this world, there will be someone there to watch over her brother.

And that's what we're all about is this connecting.

GLENN: Rob, I have to tell you.

You've really done something with your life. I mean, I know you don't need me to say it.
But what a great job you have. And what a great service you have done for so many years.

Thank you so much.

Please, look this up.

The forever promise project.

You can find it at foreverpromise.org. Foreverpromise.org. Robert Edsel is the author's name. The book is Remember Us. It's a perfect read for this week.