RADIOJanuary 10, 2024

Why Biden's Defense Secretary 'should have resigned 2 YEARS AGO'

Should Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin resign for failing to tell everyone from the President to his second-in-command that he had been hospitalized until days later? Former U.S. Congressman and Air Force B-1 pilot Chris Stewart joins Glenn to make the case that he should. Austin, as a retired general, should know how unacceptable it is to just NOT show up for work, Stewart argues — especially while the United States is shooting down Iran-associated missiles left and right in the Middle East. Stewart gives his thoughts on who's actually calling the shots at the Pentagon and also explains why he believes Austin "should have resigned 2 years ago."

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: So, Chris, I immediately thought of you when I read this over the weekend. Because, you know, he -- you know a lot about how the Pentagon works.

And, you know, how -- how the military works. And I haven't seen a Secretary of Defense kind of go missing for a week. And nobody really noticed. Have you?

CAROL: Well, let's just say it's unusual.

But who is surprised about this, Glenn? You talk about the judgment. I would add in addition to this, to displace poor judgment, the arrogance that this Secretary has demonstrated again and again. But it's perfectly on brand for his leadership. And the Biden administration.

And one thing I would emphasize. And I think some of your listeners may understand.

But not all of them.

And that is the culture and the expectations of the military.

They're different than it is in the civilian world. You give military members tremendous trust, because you give them a tremendous power.

But that demands certain behavior. And one of those is that you just don't show up at work.

You know, without telling something. Without telling the people who are going to cover for you. Without telling your boss.

If a young sergeant, or a young lieutenant did that, they would be facing severe repercussions.

And yet, he didn't show up. He didn't tell the assistant secretary. Who everyone knows. Was vacationing in Puerto Rico. He didn't even know.

And worse, he didn't even tell his boss.

I don't know. Maybe he told Biden. And President Biden forgot.

Because that was impossible as well.

It's just so outside the norms of what you would expect, or any responsible person. Let alone, for heaven's sake, the Secretary of Defense.

GLENN: Well, did -- you're generally -- you know, shooting down like their clay pigeons. Missiles.

From, you know, the -- the Houthis. And the Iran proxies.

I mean, our ships are kind of busy right now.

Is there no -- in a week, is there no thought that maybe somebody might call in, and say, hey. What should we do?

CHRIS: Yeah. Yeah.

So not only the ongoing, you know, skirmishes we're having with the Houthis, which is a whole 'nother conversation by the way.

But, you know, there's also the efforts that we have in the war on Gaza.

That they're coordinating with the Israel Defense ministers on those efforts.

What about the fact that we had a strike into Baghdad, during this week?

On January 4th. Who coordinated that?

I mean, that's the kind of thing, if you're going to strike in Baghdad. My understanding was, the secretary of defense, would be the final arbiter for that division.

And at a minimum, would have been informed on it.

And apparently, that didn't happen.

These are the kinds of things that you have to have leadership from inside the Pentagon.

And it turns out, that just simply wasn't happening. And, by the way, Glenn. If you will allow me. That's not the first time.

I've said the secretary should resign, immediately after the debacle in Afghanistan.

And, again, after the kind of -- the fact that we have not met our recruiting goals. All of these things fall on his shoulder. He should have resigned two years ago.

GLENN: So who actually running things, Chris?

CHRIS: You know, people ask that question all the time. Both about the White House. And in some cases about the pentagon.

Well, I think absent, or aside from his absence, this past week, that, you know, this general is running things.

I've seen it reflected in the decisions he makes. Or the lack of decisions or poor decisions.

Now, if you ask who is running the White House. I truly don't know. We used to say that as kind of a joke. Now we say it very seriously.

You look at this president. And you know he doesn't have the capability to be running the most powerful government in the world.

So then who is?

There's no question that secretary Austin is running the Pentagon.

Again, short of last week.

And you see it reflected in the decisions they make.

And the poor judgment, filtered through the entire pentagon.

The entire Department of Defense.

And it breaks my heart to see the institution, that I spent many much of my life serving.

And so did my brothers and fathers. And so did my nephews and nieces. To see it so abused by arrogance and judgment. That just isn't up to what these fine young men and women deserve.

GLENN: Well, I understand why he didn't want to talk about the penile reduction surgery. But if it wasn't that. Let's just say it wasn't that, why not -- why not say why you're going in?

What's the big deal?

CHRIS: Well, on so -- if people. And I haven understanding of this, Glenn. That I recently resigned from Congress, because of health concerns with my wife. So I'm sensitive. You know, in a day that is very, very public, for serving the public position.

That, you know, there are sensitivities that involve health concerns. I get that.

But you don't -- I mean, it was -- so maybe we don't need to why he went into elective surgery. But if you have a reaction that puts him in intensive care. That's the different. And that has to be discussed.

And then if you're not going to discuss the reasons why. And I think, again, being an intensive care, just kind of demands an answer. If you're unwilling to talk about that. You still have to tell people, here I am.

And don't worry because my assistant secretary knows I'm here.

No. She didn't.

And tonight worry, because my boss, the president of the United States knows and has made accommodations. No, he didn't.

I mean, that's the minimum, that we would expect.

To communications about it. And one last thing about it Glenn. I think this is important.

The secretary doesn't disappear into a hospital. And not have a large group of people know that.

I mean, he was certainly accompanied in the hospital. With probably more than a dozen people.

Maybe several to see.

And none of them acted responsibly either.

Some of them should have raised their head, and said, hey, the American people, and the leadership, at the White House, deserves to know where we are today.

GLENN: Chris, thank you so much.

Why a Kamala Harris presidency would be DEVASTATING for small businesses

Would a Kamala Harris presidency destroy small businesses? Small business expert Carol Roth joins Glenn to make the case: "They want to kill the gig economy and all the small businesses that depend on independent contractors in favor of unions and big business. So, it's very difficult to say, 'I am the small business, I am the worker candidate,' and still be in favor of these things." Carol compares this to "McDonald's being pro-cow." She also explains why Harris' claim that 19 million new business applications have been filed since she and Joe Biden took office is incredibly misleading.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Okay. But, Carol, she does have some things she can boast about.

The small business success. She claims a record of 19 million small business applications were received, under their leadership.

And that's a record, I hear. That's what they say.

CAORL: Okay. So this is -- I think most people know, who listen to me on your program. That I'm one of the world's leading experts on small business.

I've been entrenched for decades. I heard this -- this thing. This small business application.

And I went around, to every group that I know. And I said, what is a small business application?

Because when I started my business, I didn't have to apply, at the federal level.

You know, historically, I had an LLC. I registered that with the state. Some people had sole pro proprietorship. What does this mean?

Because we have 33 million plus businesses. But that only grows on net. Less than a million a year. So how is it possible that we have 19 million new application starts. And so far, no one has really been able to give me an answer. I have one -- one committee, you know, related to the House, who thinks that maybe there's an information that came from the state census data. I asked them. They actually are having a committee hearing. And I asked them, if they could ask, the FDA administrator. And putting her on the hot seat. Because they're running around, touting these made-up statistics to sound like they're some champion of small business. At the same time, Glenn, NFIB came out with their fall business optimism index today.

The 30-second consecutive months, that small business optimism has been below the historical average. And that's a 50-year average.

GLENN: Well, that's because they fear Donald Trump is coming back.

CAORL: For 32 months, yes.

GLENN: It's crazy. Because I see this number, of 19 million small businesses. And I -- and I am like, I thought, that was just because of all the businesses, that they had put out of business. They're like, starting up new businesses. So I just thought, they were taking credit. Like they do with all the job creation.

We've created more jobs. No, you didn't. People went back to work. You had told them, you cannot work.

So, of course, there were people going back to work.

But you're saying, this isn't that, at all. This is possibly even made up.

CAORL: Yeah. It's -- it's something that nobody knows really what it means. It certainly is not a prop -- it's not a prop for new small businesses created, which is what they're intimating. And we know the number of small businesses, you know, a year ago, was 32-point-something million, and then it climbed to 33-point-something million.

You know, yes, that's on that. Unless they're killing a million small businesses a year, which we know, they're certainly trying. But I don't think they've succeeded in doing it yet. That this is an absolute -- it's just, you know, spouting off nonsense.

And they're doing this, you know, again and again to gaslight people. Into things are so great. We're so in your corner. But at the same time, she's coming out, and she's tweeting about anti-small business policies.

Like, the Pro Act, that she said she's going to put in place. Which, for people who don't know, that's the anti-gig worker and anti-independent contractor language from California's 85 (phonetic) taken nationally. And they want to kill the gig economy and all the small businesses that depend on independent contractors, in favor of unions and big business.

So it's very difficult, to say, I am the small business. I am the worker candidate.

And still be in favor of these things. Which is why I equate it to being like McDonald's being pro-Catholic.

GLENN: You know, it is -- as a small business owner myself.

I look at tomorrow. And think, if they get in, the regulations, just the regulations, alone, that are still sitting out there, that they want to impose.

Will just crush small businesses.

These guys, you know, they used to say, well, the -- the Republicans are in with big business.

Well, then we're also in with small business too.

You know, they had a business attitude.

These guys are only big business.

They are only in with the giant global corporations.

That's all they care about. And it's honestly, like they're trying to impoverish, the small business.

And impoverish the middle class.

Without moving any of the middle class up. They're moving them all down.

CAORL: Yeah. I'm glad that you brought up regulations.

Because as I mentioned, there's this House Committee meeting right now.

And they came out with a report earlier this year, that the Biden-Harris agenda. Imposed $1.7 trillion in regulations on small businesses.

Ask that was before we've had some of these pending regulations, go into place. So I am certain, that that's higher.

And that is millions upon millions of hours that are wasted. That is dollars that are wasted.

And that's a barrier to success. You know, we keep hearing this ridiculous phrase, the opportunity economy.

Well, if you want to create opportunity, you reduce war about barriers. You reduce regulations.

You reduce taxes. You reduce the government being up in your business.

And you have the government minding their own business.

So that you can go off and work in your business.

That is what it is all about.

GLENN: You know, I know that our audience is heavy on entrepreneurs.

And people who have done business for a long time.

But there's also a younger generation that listens.

And explain, why regulations hurt opportunity.

CAORL: They hurt opportunity. Because number one, they're costly. Two, you're spending time, complying with the regulation, instead of spending the time working and growing your business.

And the challenge is that if you are a big company. If you're the Amazons of the world. If you're the Walmarts of the world. You have -- not only a whole balance sheet to deal with this.

You have a whole host of people in your company. Whether it's HR. Or whether it's some other administrative functions that can deal with these regulations.

When it comes to small business, the majority, greater majority of small businesses. It's just beyond -- so it's one person, who is already wearing all of those hats trying to deal with this. Even if you have some employees, you don't have the wherewithal, the ability. You're struggling enough to deal with inflation, finding the right workers, you know, remaining competitive, dealing with cyber security and the like. You don't have time, and you don't have the bandwidth. And you don't have capital, to deal with these regulations.

And some of them are so onerous, that people want to close their business. Something that we've been talking about, Glenn, for months now.

That the corporate transparency act, which is this registration, with the financial crimes division of the Treasury. I've had hundreds upon hundreds of small business owners, and people looking to start small businesses, saying that they don't want to. They want to close their business. They don't want to start.

Because they don't want to deal with the asymmetrical risk of having their information exposed or the government coming after them, for doing something wrong.

So because the government is imposing this regulation, which, by the way, is still in flux.

It's preventing these entrepreneurs from taking those risks. And creating opportunity. Which creates jobs. Which creates more dollars in their community. Which grows the economy.

Which is what we need, to move ourself forward. This is so obvious.

But all they want to do is take away wealth. Create barriers. Redistribute it. And make it revery challenging. For a small business owner, to succeed.

GLENN: You -- I think it was you, Carol.

Said, oh, maybe six months ago, we were talking. And you said, Glenn, most of the stuff that they've done, doesn't really kick in until 2025.

So we haven't felt the full impact, of Bidenomics yet. Was that you that said that to me.

CAORL: Quite probably. Quite probably.

GLENN: Okay. So what is it that is coming still, that we haven't felt. Describe next year. Just as it stands, without any new policies. If we just continued where we are?

CAORL: Well, as I said, the House small business committee, is doing a markup on seven different pieces of legislation, trying to overturn, you know, all of these stringent rules for small business. The corporate transparency act. We have until the end of the year, for that to go into effect. If there's no delay. Which, by the way, there's two delay bills. Two repeal bills.

And seven lawsuits. If we don't get that done by the end of the year. Then people are going to be seen as compliant. Then on top of that. You know, we have the tax cuts and jobs act, you know, large pieces of that, is expiring and changing the way the small businesses have to look at their taxes and figure out, you know, what makes them -- from an administrative standpoint. So, you know -- and that's, again, scratching the surface.

So, you know, one after another, there are things in the pipeline. And then if Kamala Harris were to become president.

Again, day one. They will try to rule by executive order. One of the other things, you know, this Department of Labor rule. Very tight. Independent contractor world.

That went into effect in March. They haven't truly been enforcing it yet. I haven't seen much in the way of enforcement. But if they start to crack down on that, that is something that could kill all of the small business across -- across-the-board.

So there are just so many different things, and it's challenging enough to own your own business.

As you know, the small business owner. To not constantly having to be worried about what the next shoe that is going to drop, coming from your own government.

GLENN: Carol, one last question. I would like to take a one-minute break. And then I would like you to come back and talk about. They're talking about a 50-basis point drop in the interest rate in loans.

Some people say, that's really good.

Some people say, that could collapse everything. Can you -- can you explain if that's a good thing or a bad thing, at this point?

Carol Roth is with us. So tell me about the options the fed have, has now.

What's happened with employment. Why they might be dropping the interest rate.

And is it a good thing or a bad thing?

CAORL: Well, so I have always contented that the fed, didn't have the right tools, to address inflation.

And inflation was coming from the pie constraints, not demand. That the Fed really focus on his demand. And after 15 years of zero interest rate policy. That it wasn't them, that changed much of what was going on.

In terms of demand for new loans. Et cetera.

But they have taken up the interest rate very high.

And a lot of people in the market.

A lot of investors, feel like they are behind the curve, in terms of normalizing policy.

Because they don't want to keep it so restrictive, that they cause a recession.

That's the concern all along.

So now that inflation has come down on a headline number. We know cumulatively, it's up over 20 percent. And that's what Americans are contending with. But from a policy standpoint, they see that inflation is coming down. And they see that the labor market, hmm, isn't quite as robust as they had hoped. So they are trying to address policy, to, you know, quash any recessionary outcomes. That's really what they're trying to do.

They have a couple choices. Right? They can do nothing as they have done for quite a while. They can deliver a cut and now they're deciding between --

GLENN: We have about a minute.

CAORL: -- a half a percent. And a quarter percent.

A half of percent may be bad news for them.

Because it may give the market a signal, that things are worse off, than they are.

So I think they will be a little bit more cautious. And go for that 25-basis point or whatever percent cut.

GLENN: All right. So you don't think that it will -- unless it's 50 basis points, I don't think that it will be a bad thing. Other than signaling that things might be worse than they thought.

CAORL: Right. And it's a much bigger signal at 50, than it is at 25, given where we stand with all the data. But I know you have limited time. We can get into this in another day.

GLENN: Yeah. And I'm not sure that anybody will want to open up the purse strings at this point.

I think everybody is waiting to see, what will happen, you know, with the -- with presidential election. I mean, because we're going one way or the other. And they're in opposite directions.

So it's kind of a scary place to be, as an investor, or a small businessperson. Or just, you know, a regular worker, in America today.

Carol, thank you so much. Carol Roth.

Jason Whitlock SLAMS Tyreek Hill for playing the race card during police stop

Miami Dolphins star wide receiver Tryreek Hill got a lot of sympathy from the media after he claimed that police officers pulled him over and immediately got violent. But BlazeTV host ‪@realjasonwhitlock‬ joins Glenn to tell the full story. Whitlock lays out the evidence that Tyreek, not the officers, is mostly to blame here. He also tears into Tyreek for playing the race card during the traffic stop (with hispanic cops) and slams media outlets like CNN for immediately running with his victim narrative.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Tyreek Hill. He was driving to the game. When was it, Sunday? Saturday? Sunday, wasn't it?

STU: Yeah. Sunday.

GLENN: And he's driving, I think his McLaren. He's speeding. He's pulled over close to the stadium. And people are -- you know, the fans are going into the stadium are driving by. Like, is that Tyreek Hill?

STU: They noticed.

GLENN: And the cop knocked on the window a couple of times. And said, hey, roll your window down. And he's like, no. And he's like, roll the window down.

And he's kind of a punk about it. Eventually, it ends up, they pull him out of the car, throw him down on the ground, and they cuff him.

And, you know, I'm having a hard time seeing -- you just don't treat the cops that way. I don't care who you are. You just don't treat the cops that way.

But it's a big mess now.

And Jason Whitlock is with us. Host of Blaze TV, fearless. Which if you haven't watched yet.

You need to. It's -- it's really into culture. And Jason is -- he is a spiritual guy.

A -- a faithful follower of God.

Really struggles with questions of the day. And tries to get it right.

And tries to be, you know -- look fort righteous answers on things. And he does a fabulous job. And I'm proud to call him my friend.

Jason, welcome.

JASON: Good to be here, Glenn.

GLENN: So tell me, what is happening with this? And why is this so divisive?

Why are people defending Tyreek Hill?

JASON: Because he's black. And we're in an election cycle, and we need a George Floyd or the left needs a George Floyd. And they're trying to make it out of Tyreek Hill. He's not a victim here.

He triggered the police, first by speeding past the police officer. In what clarifies as a construction zone. That's going to get you pulled over. And then he's, you know, in a half a million car.

GLENN: I was going to say, it's hard to be the oppressed when you're in a McLaren 730S.

JASON: Yeah. So when they're asking him to roll down his windows because his windows are tinted jet black. You can't see inside. So he briefly rolls it down. And gives them his driver's license, I think. And maybe registration. But then he rolls his window back up.

And that triggers the police. Because now they have a suspect, who has rolled his windows up. They can't see what he's doing. Is he getting a gun?

Is he trying to throw away guns or swallow drugs?

They don't know. Because the guy didn't have enough time to figure out, oh, this is the Miami Dolphins' star wide receiver.

GLENN: But if you handed your -- I mean, let me play the other side. If he handed him his driver's license, it says Tyreek Hill. You would know the name.

JASON: It may not mean anything to that police officer. Glenn, let's say you were that police officer.

GLENN: I wouldn't have known. I wouldn't have known.

JASON: There you go.

And so, you know, maybe that's a tiny bit of a stretch. But even if it is a football player, you know, do we have to go much beyond O.J. Simpson. Rae Carruth, and many other criminal, professional athletes, that say, hey, roll that window down?

I need to see what you are a doing. Do you have drugs? Do you have a gun? I don't know.

GLENN: Are you only saying that as a black man, because he's a black man? Why do you hate black people so much, Jason?

JASON: Because, and, again, I don't.
(laughter)
I'm just not into racial idolatry.

And any human is capable of being flawed, and so I'm talking about Tyreek Hill, not as a black person. He's a flawed human being. He's a man. And he handled this in a very poor way. And he triggered the police.

And you get the energy that you put out.
Because he starts yelling at the police. Why do you have to bang on my window like that?

And that's not how you deal with the police. Particularly, when you're in the wrong.

You know, I'm a feeder, Glenn. And so when I get pulled over, for speeding, the first words out of my mouth are, I'm sorry, Officer. How fast was I going?

The first thing out of my mouth.

GLENN: It's exactly what I say. F

JASON: First thing. I'm sorry. Because, one, I recognize, the police officer is like any other worker.

The less work he can do, the better. And so I've called him now, and he's got to pull someone over. He doesn't know. Is this going to be a hassle? So I've triggered the officers, so I say I'm sorry.

And so now to see Tyreek Hill, holding press conferences, demanding that this officer or officers get fired. Are you kidding me?

Because Tyreek Hill's history, you know, when he entered the league out of college. There were allegations of him beating up his pregnant girlfriend.

GLENN: Oh, jeez.

JASON: That was a controversy, when he got drafted in the NFL.

There have been -- there has been a controversy about a young child of his, and how the child got his arm broken. Was it Tyreek Hill? Was it the baby mama. He's had several incidents. He's an irresponsible person.

He has at least ten children. Maybe 12, by six different baby mamas. This is a very irresponsible person. He's speeding in a construction area, and he's dealing with the police in a poor way. And I don't know how we reached the conclusion that he's a victim.

He's not.

GLENN: He's not a victim. Is that the way most people look at it, Stu, that he's a victim.

STU: That's definitely the mainstream media version of it. That's what I've heard all over sports media. They're all seemingly terrified of saying that he did anything wrong at all. Well, treat the guy with respect.

GLENN: You know, this is amazing. Because this is the way the elites work. They think they know better. They think they get special privileges.

You know, if I'm pulled over by the police. I say the same thing that you do, Jason.

I'm sorry. How fast was I going?

I don't expect any special treatment at all.

You know, if I certainly was get it, I guess I'm a little, you know. Thank you.

And let's get out of here, before you change your mind.

But the elites, like Hunter Biden, who is white. Do the same thing.

They treat people poorly, because don't you realize who I am?

That's a real problem. That's not the way we should behave in our society.

JASON: Look at. Look at all the -- what he triggered with his speeding. With his disrespect. His unwillingness to roll down his window.

Now the next thing you know, his teammates that are also driving into the stadium.

They see him, they pull over to the side of the road. And they start questioning the police on the spot. On the same.

And are these large men, football players. Getting out of their cars. And so now the police are like, hold on.

Now I've got Calais Campbell, 6-8, 315 pounds, questioning -- this is a nightmare scenario for police. It's dangerous for drivers.

It's -- it's a mess. And now Calais Campbell.

And I think there's another team. They briefly get detained, because they want to bicker back and forth with the police.

Again, all the procedures tell the police, don't let bystanders start getting in and increasing the tension and the conflict.

And so Tyreek Hill's irresponsible behavior, puts him in harm's way. Puts the police officers in harm's way. Put the teammates in harm's way. Put other motorists in harm's way. And Caitlin Collins has him on CNN, and treats him for eight straight minutes, like he did nothing wrong.

And blah, blah, blah.

And I'm just -- this is -- the world.

It's backwards. Here's a man worth a couple hundred million dollars, with ten to 12 kids, that he's responsible for.

And we're holding him to the lowest standard. When he should have the highest standard.
He's got more to protect. More to lose. More people counting on him. We could be -- like Tyreek, what are you doing here?

GLENN: Well, I have to tell you, he's also forced to drive a McLaren. He doesn't have a Bugatti. I mean, the guy is clearly oppressed.

STU: Jason, is it true? That at some point, he had mentioned something about, while he was sitting on the sidewalk there, this was all about him being black in America.

And the officers responded with, that they too were dark. Was the term they used.

Because they were Hispanic officers. Is that actually accurate?

JASON: Absolutely accurate.

And, yes, he did. I'm just a black man in America.

GLENN: Oh. I hate that.

JASON: You know, it's -- it's -- listen, the guy has been granted second and third chances to have this career.

And here's a police officer, let's speculate. Maybe the guy makes between 80 and 120,000 bucks a year. Driving a motorcycle. Doing very dangerous work.

And he's trying to destroy this man, who probably has a wife and/or kids. He's trying to destroy him.

Trying to deny this man, who doesn't really need a second chance.

But trying to deny him, forgiveness for whatever little -- you know, if I were dealing a pie of who was in the wrong here.

Tyreek Hill is 96 to 99 percent in the wrong.

And maybe there's three percent of the officer being a tiny bit aggressive with him.

GLENN: I have to tell you, this hurts people that actually are actually oppressed.

Because this really does happen with cops. And we know it. But when you have this guy, coming out and treating cops like garbage.

And saying he's the oppressed one. It hurts. It hurts the real stuff.

It's so bad. Listen, Jason. I have to run. But I want to ask you, what did you think of the debate? And how do you think that's playing?

JASON: I'm thinking the debate will have no impact. I think Kamala Harris exceeded extremely low expectations.

And I think that -- and, Glenn, you might not get this. But Stu might. I think Donald Trump missed as many layups as Angel Reese. Pointing, you know, I thought he could have laid her to waist. But she exceeded expectations. He missed some layups. And a week from now, no one will care.

GLENN: How do you think guys took to her -- I mean, if Donald Trump would have treated her like that, he -- he would have lost 20 points.

She just treated him like garbage. How do you think men, in particular, took to that?

JASON: I think we've grown to expect it.

You know, she's been classified as a black woman. And a feminist.

And a queen. You know, blah, blah, blah.

And so, you know, men have kind of -- we have allowed it. We have expected it. We have bought into a narrative that, oh, the history of men is just their brutal mistreatment of women.

And so women have a right to be angry, and they have a right to reparations. And blah, blah, blah.

And so we owe them something. And so, you know, it was a bad look to me. And Trump certainly couldn't get away with it, because he would have been called "racist" and every other name in the book. But, you know, just all the facial expressions and all the disrespect.

But, you know, she wasn't alone. You know, David Muir and the --

GLENN: Oh, I know.

JASON: Kamala's -- you know, the other woman was Kamala's sorority sister. They're in a sorority together. A/k/a the other moderator.

GLENN: Wow. I didn't know that.

JASON: Oh, yeah. And black people take sorority life and fraternity life very serious, postgraduation, perhaps more serious after graduation than when they're actually students.

GLENN: Jason, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Blaze host of Fearless. Jason Whitlock. You can find him at YouTube at YouTube.com/Jason Whitlock, or BlazeTV. TheBlaze.com/Fearless. Thank you so much, Jason.

Will America’s immigration crisis COLLAPSE us like the Roman Empire?

“No one can deny that the Roman Empire fell apart because it lost its borders.” Author Spencer Klavan joins Glenn to draw the parallels between the fall of Rome and what’s happening now in America and the Western world. But if everyone knows what happened to Rome, why are our leaders flooding our countries with immigrants? And is it still possible to correct our course?

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: I want to finish up from where we were last hour, on how our country is just being taken apart. Piece by piece.

And they're telling you they're doing it. They're telling you, what the goal is.

But they always deny it. Even though, it's all out in papers. And it's all out on websites. Their websites.

They won't -- they'll always say, that's a conspiracy theorist. But we're now seeing, these conspiracy theory, come true. And it's been bothering me the last couple of days. And, quite honestly, I'm so lazy. I didn't grab Gibbons. And look it up.

But if I remember right, wasn't the -- the decline and fall of the Roman empire?

Didn't it really start to come down. Once they opened the gate to the -- I don't know. The gates to the mongrels. Or the muskrats.

Or the Haitians. Or whoever they let in.

I mean, I know this. Wasn't that the beginning of the end. They let everybody in.

And then they made everybody a Roman citizen. And then Rome didn't. Citizenship must mean anything.

STU: It sounds familiar. I'm no expert on this.

GLENN: That's where I was too.

So I decided to call somebody, who actually knows. Because he's smart.

Spencer Klavan, a books associate editor and author of Light of the Mind, Light of the World.

Spencer, how are you, man?

SPENCER: I'm doing very well, Glenn. Thanks for having me on.

GLENN: Okay. Again, I just have to say, talk town to me a little bit. Not too much. But just a little bit.

Am I right on that? I'm trying to remember, one of the last straws. I thought it was opening up the gates, and making everybody citizens.

SPENCER: Okay. So not only are you right about this, you actually don't even need somebody like gibbon to prove your point.

This is something that basically everybody, even the most liberal scholars of the Roman empire and its history. Nobody can deny, that the Roman empire fell apart. Because it lost its borders.

Its borders were effectively dissolved, by tyrants. And especially by -- I think you're probably thinking of as Capra Calah (phonetic).

GLENN: Yeah.

SPENCER: An edict made everybody a citizen. And this is a guy -- one of the notorious tyrants of history.

Compared during the French revolution to Louis the 16th. Given calls him the common enemy of mankind. So that will tell you a little bit about the sort of people that want to dilute the concept of citizenship.

They always make themselves out to be very magnanimous and generous, and kind.

Whereas, in fact, there's always something in it for them. And that was no different in Rome.

GLENN: So, Spencer, if everybody knows this, what could possibly -- what possibly could be the reason to do this, all across the Western world?

SPENCER: Well, I think like with everything. You have to look for elite interests. In Rome. The problem of citizenship is something they had going back even before the empire, to the days of the republic.

And right from the jump there. When the republic started to fall apart. It was because there wasn't enough land to go around.

The citizens, and those who fought in the army were supposed to get a certain amount of land that they could cultivate as private property. But while they were away at war, the wealthy and the elites, effectively conspired to do an end run around the law. Why?

So that they could have cheap labor, and vast tracks of land.

Terra Cala (phonetic), there are different theories about why he did what he did.

But you don't have to look around too far for reasons why. In fact, there are almost too many reasons why he would have been able to levy taxes on these new citizens. He could have conscripted them into the army.

And all of this came at the expense, and this is important. It came at the expense of the people who were already the Roman citizens. Our word citizen, comes from a Greek word and so does our word city.

So this is a local thing, originally, designed for specific people, who get particular rights, yes.

Things that they can do. Like vote in elections. But also, they get responsibilities. You have to contribute to society. And be committed and devoted to the idea of Rome. The project of Rome.

Once that starts to fall apart, you basically just have the rich and the strong, trying to give out benefits packages, essentially. Goody bags. To whomever they can get on their side. So they can grow their military.

And sustain the military machine. And I think a lot of that, we can see going on, as well, with some of our leaders. Unfortunately.

GLENN: So you're a historian.

You love history. You study history.

How -- how is this time period. Right now. The point where we're at, right now.

Before this election.

How is this going to be looked at, by historians?

SPENCER: It's always hard to write history in the present tense, they say. But if you put a gun to my head. And I had to make a guess. I would say, this is going to be one of those moments, where people look back, and they either say, how could they possibly have let it all go?

What -- what went wrong? What trove them so insane?

And there will be studies written of how we were led up to this point, gradually overtime.

Or -- or we'll -- we'll look back, and we'll say, this was a crisis, like the ones that Rome had faced. Like others had faced in the past.

And we pulled back from the brink.

It's not too late.

Despite the dire situation.

It's not too late to do that.

We're not an edict of territory, just yet. Although, that certainly was the open borders crowd.

And the Kamala Harrises and the Joe Bidens of the world would like.

It's not yet the case. That just anybody under American influence is an American citizen. With all the rights and privileges that that --

GLENN: It's darn close. We're moving in that direction rapidly.

SPENCER: Yeah. You're right about that. So I think we're at a major crossroads with this election.

GLENN: So what -- I mean, now I'm going to ask you to predict, and you feel free to back out. And say, I didn't sign up for this, dude.

What do you see, coming? What does history teach you, that is most likely, coming?

Because I honestly. I can think of a million ways, this falls apart.

SPENCER: Right.

GLENN: I have a hard time finding that very narrow path, especially without God, of where it comes together. And we heal?

SPENCER: I mean, it's really important that you mentioned God, I think, and the Christian God, specifically. Whom the Romans, until later on in their history, did not worship.

Because that is something that makes us distinctive.

And, you know, Glenn, you've asked me this question a couple of times. Are there any examples of people that fall out of these crisis?

And it's hard, because, in fact, when you end the concept of citizenship. When you destroy your borders. You have destroyed, your country, by definition.

So it's not like we're not flirting with the sorts of things, that bring republics, and empires down.

But I will say, that whereas, I can't think of any example from history, of civilization. That wound back the clock.

That undid these problems.

It is possible in history, to correct course.

And move forward, in the world that we live in. In a better direction.

And I think for us, as Americans. And as a nation that was founded on Judeo-Christian principles. The key to that, is our belief in the universal creation of man, in the image of God.

Now, that might sound a little ironic. Since I'm talking about closing down our borders.

And taking care of our citizens. And the open borders crowd. Likes to make use of Christian slogans. To pretend that they're loving their neighbors. They're loving everybody.

But we're limited human beings. And the Christian in front of us, is not how we extend every benefits of the whole world. It's not in our power.

The question is, how do we love one another as American citizens. And our superpower. That the Romans did not have, is racial assimilation. If we're able to get a grip on our border

If we dwell on this election. And other elections going forward. Then we can accommodate some of the things that have gone down the pike.

And have a better track record, than any country in history. At course correcting and recalibrating with exactly these types of issues.

But the first thing, we have to understand what we're about.

And that's not the world. And not humanity in general.

But America, and the humans that live here.

GLENN: What book are you writing right now?

SPENCER: I mean, finished a book that's coming out in October. You mentioned this. Light of the mind.

Light of the world. Which I'm really excited for people to read.

It comes out in October.

And this is a story about the history of science, told from a religious perspective.

Because I think people have a sense, that there's just -- no way you can be a smart, rational person, who believes in science, and also believes in God.

And what I'm saying, in this book is. Not only is that wrong. It's also really outdated. And that a sophisticated, modern understanding of where science comes from.

And where it's going. Points us back to the truth.

And the God of the Bible.

So that's the book.

And it will be out in October.

GLENN: Fantastic.

Preorder it now. Light of mine. Light of the world. Do me a favor.

Send it to me. Because I want to have you on. But I want to -- Reddit, you know, before I talk to you so we can have an intelligence conversation on it.

Spencer, thank you so much. Say hi to your dad for me. Spencer Klavan, Andrew Klavan's son. And, boy, if -- if Andrew ever feels like, I don't know if I did a good job as a dad.

Sit and talk to Spencer for a while. It's pretty amazing.