RADIOSeptember 20, 2022

Democrat Party 'BECAME A RELIGION': How Biden LOST her vote

Sasha Stone "devoted [her] entire life" to the Democrat Party. But after voting for President Biden and realizing that he didn't return America to the "normal" she longed for, she has found herself somewhere she never thought she'd be: on the Glenn Beck Program. Stone, the author of the new piece, "How Joe Biden Lost My Vote," describes to Glenn the moment the Democrat Party became a "religion," what she learned from watching Trump rallies, and why she has "never seen anything like" the Left's "dehumanization" of Trump supporters: "I see the cult more on the Left than on the Right."

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Sasha Stone is with us now.

Sasha, how are you?

SASHA: Oh, I'm fine. Hi. Is this Glenn? Am I speaking with Glenn Beck? Wow.

GLENN: Probably something you never thought would do.

SASHA: Absolutely never something I thought I would do. But I am familiar with your thoughts and on certain things. I've watched you -- your interviews with different people, over the year.

GLENN: Yeah.

So, Sasha, you were -- you've been a diehard Democrat. Obama, Clinton, and -- and Joe Biden, right? You made videos about Joe Biden, trying to get him elected.

SASHA: Yes. I mean, I want to tell you, I devoted my entire life, unfortunately to this life. Whole years have disappeared from my life.

And as you get older, you really need that time. You need it back, and you can't get it back. So I guess I thought I was on some sort of crusade, spending every single day arguing on Twitter and Facebook and writing blistering pieces for Medium.

And I really did think I was on the right side, and I -- and I felt the same sense of purpose, that I think a lot of people on the left felt after Obama rose to power in 2008.

I think it just -- that's when it became. I know you're interested, in talking about religions and stuff like that. I think that's really the moment that it became a religion.

GLENN: Hmm.

I would agree with you. What -- what was it, that you voted for, with Joe Biden and you think your friends voted for with Joe Biden?

ALEX: Well, for me, it was strategic partly. But also I had an emotional connection to him, somehow. I had over the years. I don't know where it came from.

But I -- I liked him.

He reminded me of my dad. And I thought he was a good guy. But, you know, you have to remember, on our side. We actually -- it's weird that people with so much power and wealth, dominate almost every institution, would feel like they're the ones who are besieged.

You know, that they're the oppressed side. But I think that's definitely what we convinced ourselves, that we were stopping Hitler.

And I believe that Joe Biden was the only one that could do it.

But I did get a lot of heat from my -- my friends who didn't think Biden was the guy.

And I feel sort of somewhat guilty about that. That I didn't see it. I thought, he'll win. That will be fine. And everything will be -- everything will be back to, quote, unquote, normal in America. And what that meant, was rolling back the forward motion of this country, to the Obama administration. To the Obama era. I think that's what everybody was thinking. But what I've learned in the past few years, is you can't go back. You know, you have to keep moving forward. There's no other option, really. You try to hold on to the past, you just will be selling things that people are no longer interested in. But wouldn't that be -- that's what Joe Biden says he's selling. And Barack Obama is part of the plan here. And moving his vision forward. Isn't that what he did?

SASHA: Yeah. Absolutely. And I think that's the problem. They are so desperately trying to cling to the utopia that we've all built. That they lost site of most Americans. The reality of most Americans. The reality that most Americans have changed. The world has changed. The left has changed. And I don't think they see that. They're just desperate to hold on to the path. And I think they see it as -- and I've started to see it, the fight between Obama's America and Trump's America. Which is a little like the -- the moment that, you know, back in the 60s, when they were switching from JFK, to Nixon. Nixon was sort of like the disrupter.

And then eventually, that moved to Reagan in 1980, and then the whole pendulum shifted to the right.

I think that's where we are right now. We're in that struggle phase of the disrupter that's breaking up the status quo. As the pendulum is starting to swing to the right. But it will be a while before we get there. And it might not get there, if the Democrats hold on to power. They're not going to let that happen.

GLENN: This is -- I'm sure we disagree still on a lot of stuff. You wouldn't consider yourself a conservative? You're just a -- a traditional liberal, I'm guessing?

SASHA: Well, I am in sort of a strange place. I was telling one of my best friends. Because my friends basically no longer speak to me. Most of them don't. Because we don't really have anything to talk about.

GLENN: Yeah.

SASHA: But I kept saying no. And all this time, my policies haven't changed in my mind. The one area where my mind has changed a little bit is abortion. I used to be one of those people, you know.

But I've seen the other side of it. I've seen things from the perspective of the right now. And I understand why this is something they've been fighting for decades, you know. So I do struggle with these things. I find myself of an in between place. I'm not really sure where I would go politically, you know -- I live in California, so it doesn't really matter anyway.

It's such a Deep Blue state, that my vote is meaningless.

You know, so I don't have to -- like, if I lived in Pennsylvania or Arizona, you know, honestly, I'm pretty sure, it would be just voting red.

I voted for the recall. And I voted for Larry Elder for that. So, you know, I'm just one of those independents that is going to take every election. And decide on the spot.

No. I'm not a traditional conservative. The way that you are, for instance.

GLENN: Yeah.

SASHA: You know, I don't have that sort of sense of purpose, I think, that a lot of people on the right have.

GLENN: Yeah. So what was it, that broke the camel's back?

SASHA: Well, I'm not really sure what happened in my brain, that changed the way I followed the world. But I know it happened in 2020. I know it happened once the protests and the riots broke out. And watching the media cover it up. And change the story and the narrative. And then as we headed into the election, I just kept seeing how there was an administrative state, that was taking over the Democratic process. That's how I saw it anyway.

And I was sort of blown away, by that. I had never seen it like that, before. But there was so much money and power, bringing down a duly elected president, that they didn't like.

GLENN: But you didn't like Donald Trump. Or did you is this?

SASHA: Well, that was the hard thing. And the weird thing. Is that when I decided, to -- you know, you -- you talk about this a lot, actually, Glenn.

Which is the dehumanization of whole groups of people, that is reminiscent of Nazi Germany. And I felt, when I was on Twitter, I was part of that.

And it gave me a chill, that I was dehumanizing a whole group of people. And I thought, where does this end? Where does all of this hatred every single go?

You know, they think the right is the side with the hate. But they're not. It's the left.

And so I started -- it's been my way of trying to get to know this world. I began watching Trump rallies. And I watched all -- still to this day, I've seen every single Trump rally. You know, looking for that smoking gun that would say, yes. He's a terrible racist, fascist, selling hate. But I didn't see that with Trump. In fact, it's hard to watch him not like him. Because he's charming and charismatic. And funny.

GLENN: Funny. People that really hate him. And they've missed a really good time. On his rallies. He's funny. He's very funny.

SASHA: He was really funny. And it was more than that. I was in such a dark place. And the only -- nobody believes me on this. But the only moments of joy I had, was watching those rallies. Everybody was happy. Kind of like the people of Whoville, when the Grinch has taken away all their toys. And Christmas trees. And everything. And he's waiting to watch them suffer.

But they don't. They're happy. And I was watching this -- and then I started to look forward to his rallies.

Okay. Let's see this. The music would start. And he would come out, and it was just a love fest. Of people who had hope, that he gave them hope. And I didn't see the cult. You know, I see the cult more on the left, than I do on the right. And people don't know this about Trump. But he makes a lot of jokes at his own expense.

And -- and, you know, when I explain this to people, like the one where he says, the guy -- one of the governors, or something, plucked a hair off his head. And he said, and we went looking for that hair. Because he couldn't refuse to lose one hair. But he's always making jokes at his own expense. Jokes about his vanity. And he's funny.

GLENN: So hang on. But you watched all of these. And yet, you voted and made videos about Joe Biden. Right?

SASHA: No. I mean, I had done all that before. I was on the Biden train. Yeah. In 2019. And as I was heading into the 2019 election. I was talking to my friends. I had two friends that were Trump haters.

They won't even speaking to me about Trump. They call him evil. His supporters must be terminated, and stuff like that. I said, you know what the word exterminate was used for, don't you? In regards to people.

And that did shut them up for a minute. But they really -- they're so full of hate, I've never seen anything like this, in my entire life, honestly.

That kind of dehumanization. So what I kept saying, I'm not so sure about Biden. I don't think he should be president.

And what's the alternative?

Trump was way worse. And I said, I don't know. I'm seeing this sort of bizarre new religion that's overtaking the left. And he's going to usher that into government, and that's really dangerous. And he's old. I mean, not old, as that's a bad thing. But I could say see that he was declining. You know, since I saw him at a luncheon in 2019.

He was already starting to decline mentally. And I had seen my dad go through dementia I can't a year before. And I was recognizing a lot of the same downward patterns that my dad went through. And they just shut me down.

And, honestly, Glenn, to tell you the truth, I do have a business that I run that is a Hollywood business.

GLENN: Oh, my gosh.

SASHA: No. I'm just saying, I'm flirting with disaster here. If I had voted for Trump, let's say. My career would be -- I wouldn't make another time, ever. If they ever found out, right? So I didn't vote for Trump. Vote for Biden, and I did it for that reason, honestly. And I don't know where I am politically. I have to just do some soul searching to really figure that out. Because I don't really know at the moment.

GLENN: All right. Hang on. How much time do we have with you, Sasha?

SASHA: As much time as you would like.

GLENN: Okay. Good. Yeah, I would like to see if we could get another 20-plus minutes out of you if you don't mind, if you've got that time.
SASHA: No, that's fine.

GLENN: Back in just a second. One minute and back to Sasha Stone.

There's an old saying about charity, which goes a little like this, give until it hurts, and then give a little bit more. I believe that, and I suspect you believe that as well. Use a word that sometimes the left doesn't like: Sacrifice.

You do it for the right causes. We sacrifice for one another.

That's great. Now, what do you sacrifice for? What do you really believe in?

Well, I know that our police officers put themselves in harm's way every single day. And they're being attacked. I know that fire firefighters do the same. I know that soldiers do the same. The Tunnel2Towers Foundation was a charity that was formed after 9/11. And it understands this solemn sacred mandates, to care about, and care for. So when a first responder or a military service member does not come home. And young children are left behind. Tunnel2Towers pays off their mortgage to lift the financial burden from this family. Help these heroes and these families, join Tunnel2Towers in its mission to do good in their honor. Donate $11 a month in T2T.org. We want the government to do less. Then we have to do more. That's T2T.org.

Ten-second station ID.
(music)

GLENN: So, boy. You are in a nasty predicament. You are in California. Your business is tied to Hollywood. God bless you.

SASHA: Uh-huh yep.

GLENN: But you're not shy about things now. You have a great Substack.

SASHA: Thank you.

GLENN: And you wrote an article, how Joe Biden lost my vote.

And it was -- it was heartening to see somebody that had taken their own education, and decided, this might take me places, I don't want to go. But I want to know the truth. Is that how you would describe what you did?

SASHA: Yeah. That's an absolutely brilliant way of describing it. You know, that is where -- that is where my mind has taken me. It's taken me down a lot of rabbit holes over the years. Watergate. The Salem witch hunt trials. World War II. I'm a fanatic for that.

And, you know, when I find that something doesn't seem quite right. You know, I have to sort of investigate it. And I feel like, that the truth matters to me. This is what I've found now in my life. Is that that matters more than just about everything, except for my daughter probably. Maybe my dogs. But it matters, you know, that we see the truth. That we can speak the truth. That I can speak the truth. I grew up in a country. You know, the left was always the counterculture. So we were encouraged to speak the truth, always.

And now I'm being asked to modify my version. You know, to believe a lie. A lot of lies about people.

And I feel like, the only thing that really matters to me right now, is giving some relief to the other half of the country. To the people who are being treated so terribly.

On almost every level. You know, once I started to get to know this world. I began watching documentaries. And the Oscar race. Because that's what I read about, the Oscars. And I just noticed, how they reflected only one point of view. And how limiting that was for them. They can't tell the story of the working man, anymore. Like they used to be able to. Because the working man is most likely going to be a Trump supporter.

GLENN: And you never saw that, when you were in the bubble.

SASHA: No. And that was the weird thing. Is when I realized I was in a bubble. I kept trying to tell people, I can't talk to you, I'm in the bubble. They thought I was a lunatic. They thought I lost my mind.

I sounded crazy to them. And, you know, I've thought about it a lot. I've been online for 28 years. I was an early adopter. Got online in 1994. Built a website in 1999. So I know the internet well.

And I have to conclude, that a lot of this has to do with how we migrated on to social media. And become -- you know, in our own little eco systems. Where, you know, on Twitter, they only get news that they want to hear. So it distorts their thinking.

That's why I had to cut off the news completely. Because even if I watch one news story on the left. They can completely persuade me, to think about something a different way. But it's one thing if you're getting that in a different way. And deciding for yourself. And it's another thing when you're only watching the one version. And I just found that honestly, the more critical thinkers. The more intelligent thinkers. Oh, this is so terrible to say. But they're on the right now. They're not on the left anymore. The left has become a movement that they believe they have all the answers now. And the answers are found in ranking people by race and gender, not by class or economics. And --

GLENN: Or by character.

SASHA: Or by character, right! Even though, if you go into the Trump world, you will see it's incredibly diversity. It's not just white people. And that's the next piece I'm about to right. Is about that. Because I think it's such a crazy thing to watch them stereotype and characterize people, that doesn't align with reality.

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.