RADIOMarch 01, 2023

Ron DeSantis: How COURAGE made Florida America's red state

When Ron DeSantis came into office in 2018, people advised him to ‘not make waves.’ But ‘I rejected that advice,’ Governor DeSantis tells Glenn. And because he decided to unwaveringly stand for the freedom of his people, DeSantis successfully transformed Florida from a swing state in ‘the leading red state in America.’ Governor DeSantis joins Glenn to discuss how he found the courage to take the actions necessary to do just that.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Hello, governor. How are you, sir?

RON: I'm doing great, thanks for having me.

GLENN: How is your wife and children?

RON: Excellent. Thanks for asking.

GLENN: Good. Good.

All right. I want to talk to you a little bit about your book. Which is not really kind of angst-driven. It's not personal reflections on your childhood, and, oh, my gosh, I had this.

This is really just about the blueprint, and how you did the things that you did. Correct?

RON: Yeah. I mean, look, Glenn, I came into office in 2018, having won by 32,000 votes. Pass a percentage point. And people told me, hey. You're in the typical -- the perennial swing state, you barely got in. Don't make waves.

Trim your sails a little bit. And I rejected that advice.

And my view was, I may have gotten 50 percent of the vote, but I earned 100 percent of the executive power. And I am going to use that, to advance an agenda that's in the best interest in the state of Florida.

And I talk about how I did in different ways. But the end result was, four years later, I won reelection by 1.5 million votes.

And we've now turned Florida, into really the leading red state in America.

GLENN: Oh.

RON: And people don't talk about Florida as a swing state. So the lesson for other governors, other states is boldness is your friend.

If you lead, and you're doing what the people want you to do. It doesn't matter what the media says about you. It doesn't matter what the left says about you. People see the result. And they respond.

It wasn't just Republicans that voted for us in 2022. We had independents, Democrats, and built a huge coalition. I think that's replicable in these other states.

GLENN: Well, I personally, I have one complaint with you, and that is you have wrecked the home prices in Florida for everybody who is outside trying to buy one.

So, anyway, the -- when you say, you know, I have institutional power. I have power of -- of the CEO, if you will, of the state.

But the thing I like about you.

And I would like you to talk about it. I know you talk about it in the book.

You're not being a dictator. You're getting these things passed. So you're changing laws. How did you get the -- the House and the Senate to work with you, instead of just being a cowboy just blazing a trail and no followers?

RON: Well, I point out. I get into office. I'm the youngest governor in the country, 40 years old. I had military background.

But I was a junior officer. It's not like I commanded a lot of things, but I learned from that structure. You know, I was never like a business executive. But I think what I brought to the table, was I had an understanding of the pressure points in a constitutional system. It's just things I had studied, I had written about. And, of course, I had been in the legislative branch, at the federal level.

So I knew there were certain things I could do myself. I knew there were certain things that I may need the legislative concurrence for, but they likely would have to give it, based on what I was doing.

Then there were things I had to get the legislature to really get my team for.

Also, how do you relate to local government?

One of the first things I did in Florida, when I became governor was change the election supervisors in South Florida, got rid of the sheriff of Broward County, who bungled the Parkland. And then later I fired George Soros back -- prosecutor in Tampa. And so you have a sense of kind of where you can go.

So there are things you can do to leverage your institutional power, to make it easier to be able to work for the legislators.

Just, for example, we in Florida have a line item detail. President of the United States does not have that.

We're in a legislative session. These guys may have some projects, they want in the budget. Well, look, I have discretion whether I approve or veto them, and you're much more likely to get your projects approved, if you've been on the team and you're helping us fulfill our agenda.

So that's just one example where you have some ability to shape the battlefield in your favor.

GLENN: Your book is called the courage to be free. And I remember when you started walking out on COVID. That had to be terrifying. And everybody had to be around you, going. Don't do it. You don't know how this will work out.

Bought you did it. Where does the courage come from?

And how can others learn to have that kind of courage?

RON: Well, in a situation like COVID, it's mass hysteria. But I said, look, I'm the decider. They elected me. They didn't elect some health bureaucrat to run the state of Florida. I have to make these decisions. And I had to familiarize myself with the data. And it was clear to me, pretty early on, that, you know what, this Fauciism is not right. It's not working.

It's destructive. And there's a better path. And I did not know how it was going to work out for me politically, Glenn. In fact, a lot of my supporters were very concerned.

I would get phone calls about, why aren't you imposing mass? Or why are you letting people go to theme parks and all this other stuff?

But I just told myself, look, my job is to protect the people that elected me. Not to look out for my own. And if it doesn't work out for me, so be it. But I will be able to look in that mirror and say, you know what, when it was hot in the kitchen, I stood in there, and I did what was right for the people of Florida.

Now, it turned out that people respected that I stood up for them. Because they didn't have a voice really anywhere else. And they ended up rewarding me. But certainly in those early weeks or months, I was getting fileted more than any other governor in the country. I was very popular going into COVID. I mean, I don't do polls.

But everyone said, my popularity plummeted. And that's just the way it is. But when you're in these things, the daily kind of back and forth. There are ups and downs.

But the question is: Where is true north? And are you going to be able to get to true North?

I had to just block all that out, and do what I thought was right.

GLENN: So what is your true north?

RON: Well, I think in this case, the True North was, I could not allow our society in Florida, to collapse under the weight of Fauciism.
I mean, we have a tourism-based economy.

We have so many people that depended on this state being vibrant. I also had a lot of elderly people that we were really concerned about. And we did a lot to target whatever support they needed. Such as treatment and the like, to do that.

But we had to keep things going. I understood that, instinctively. And we had to navigate very treacherous waters, to be able to get that done.

Beyond that, what is true north?

When I talk about the courage to be free. What I'm recognizing, is, the threats to our freedom are not just from bad government policy. Yes. At the state level. We are doing good policy. We're protecting your freedom from the government of Florida. That's important. We're fighting back against Biden.

And we're dealing with logical governments, when they get out of control. Very important. But there's a lot of power building exercised in an ideological way. By corporate America. By big tech. By all these other institutions. So when you recognize that, and you stand up to fight against it, they are not going down without a fight. They come at you. Leadership is not cost-free.

So you just have to understand that, when you're going in, that these are not easy fights. That you are going to face blowback, you are going to face smears. But if you stand in there, and you don't give an inch. And you just keep speaking the truth. People will respond. And they will have your back. And that's what happened in the state of Florida. You know, the media could say. By the time I came up for reelection. The media could say whatever they wanted about me. And our supporters did not believe a word of it. They had my back. And they made sure we won a historic victory.

GLENN: Let me ask you. In politics, people care much less about the individual than they do the giant corporations. Because it's easier to raise money.

And you need those guys on -- on board. You have taken all of the sacred cows. And gone after them.

And you have also just -- you have the best legislation.

I wish -- I wish every state in the union, would pass your legislation on ESG.

It is the best.

And you've taken this on.

You've taken Disney on.

Where do you get your support just from the people, or do you have institutional support?

Are there people inside these institutions, that are saying, oh, thank God?
(laughter)

RON: Yeah. Look, I think when we're talking about things like ESG. We are also in this legislative session, we will eliminate the DEI bureaucracies and all of our state universities.

And there's a lot of Democrats, Glenn. They can't say it, but they don't like some of this stuff, that's coming down the pike.

They don't want their kids to have to potentially suffer negative consequences based on the color of their skin. So there is some quiet support.

GLENN: Correct.

RON: But you know what I found in terms of like standing up to the big interests is, at the end of -- because some politicians are like, oh, man, I need to raise money from them. They're going to come after me. All this stuff. At the end of the day, doing the good policy, exercising the leadership, and delivering the results, that is more important than any campaign, financial support, or any of that.

GLENN: Uh-huh.

RON: So sometimes these elected officials, they think like, okay. I get in office, and I need to raise money so I stay in office.

You don't never to do that, if you're doing a good job. Then when the money comes in against you, it doesn't work. Because people see the results. And, oh, by the way, even though I came into office standing against big sugar, which is a massively powerful interest in Florida. We fought Disney. We fought the pharmaceuticals. We fought across-the-board. I still raised more money than any governor candidate in the history of Florida. Part of it, we have a lot of grassroots. Part of it, we have a lot of wealth moving into Florida. Who basically said, I need DeSantis to be governor. Because if I just left New York or Illinois, I don't want to see Florida turn into that, so there was a reason why they did it.

But then, Glenn, what happened was, I flipped it around. We run the show. We run the agenda.

Some of these businesses and stuff, they just want to -- they want to help me out. Because they don't want to be the next Disney.

And so I think we have it going in a good direction. That's the way it should be.

Don't be subservient to the chamber of commerce. They should be coming to you, asking how they can help you, not the other way around.

GLENN: I'm not saying that you are running for president.

But I'm not not saying that artery.

If someone like you were to run for president, could this be done on a national level?

RON: So I think all the ideas that we talk about in the book, and the successes we have, I do think there's a majority of the American people that would support it. If you think about it, Florida has been a microcosm of the country for a long time.

You know, if we're winning places like Miami-Dade County, you know, that's going to bode well for other parts of the country. Now, if you talk about at the federal level, there are certain things that may be easier, actually to do. Because I think that with the vast administrative state. If you have a determined executive, who knows how to use those levers of power, I think you could do a complete upheaval of the Deep State. I think there's a lot of things you can do from executive and administratively, that will really get our country on a good footing.

Now, dealing with the Congress, is a little bit different than dealing with the state legislature. I mean, most of the citizens of Florida, don't know their legislatures that much.

They know. So what they want, the Republican governors, you better be supporting the governor. As you get into Washington, some of these guys, you know, have their own brands and all that.

And I'm not saying it can't be done. But you have to go into that with the right frame of mind. And say, okay.

How do you corral these guys to be able to land really important legislative -- but you have to do both.

You can't just be successful on executive action and ignore the legislative. And if you're successful in legislative, you can't be somebody that is not willing to really go in and upend this entrenched, highly politicized bureaucracy that's developed.
GLENN: Governor Ron DeSantis, the name of the book. It came out yesterday. Already number one. The Courage to be Free. Authored, and this is very rare. Authored by him. Every word. Authored by him.

And we will see you Saturday, sir. I have a lot more to -- a lot more to talk to you about. And we'll that do podcast on Saturday. We'll see you then.

RON: Okay. Godspeed. God bless.

GLENN: Courage to be free.

STU: By the way, the podcast comes out I guess the week of March 13th.

GLENN: March 13th. Yeah.

Putin/Ukraine UPDATE: Should Trump Withdraw from NATO? | Ep 421

It’s clear the U.S. has carried Ukraine and NATO on its back for years, but should Trump make good on his threats and leave NATO forever? The Biden status quo and military spending kept Russia’s war on Ukraine going, with no end in sight. Now the Trump administration has brokered the first mutual ceasefire agreement of any kind between Russia and Ukraine since this war began three years ago. Critics call it the bare minimum, but could this be the first real step toward ending the war? Glenn heads to the chalkboard to give a full breakdown on America’s deepening ties with Ukraine since 2008 — from the billions in military aid to the Biden family’s shady connections to Trump’s impeachment over that infamous phone call with Zelenskyy. Has America’s commitment to Europe gone too far? Glenn gives a history lesson on the Cold War roots of America’s NATO alliance and wades into the debate: Is NATO a peace pact or a war trap?

How the Department of Education ABOLISHED ITSELF

President Trump is signing an executive order to start dismantling the Department of Education and the Left is freaking out. But Glenn’s staff discovered something shocking: the DoE, in its current form, is exactly the OPPOSITE of the mission statement Congress gave it. Glenn reads from the Department’s founding documents, which state that it was tasked with protecting “the rights of state and local governments and public and private institutions.” It was also meant to “strengthen and improve” local and state control of education. And if that wasn’t enough, it also explicitly bars the Department from increasing “the authority of the federal government over education.” So, by stripping the Department of Education of its bloated power, Trump is actually UPHOLDING the will of Congress, not defying it.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: So the president is going to abolish parts of the DOE. But the Department of Education was -- was first put in by Jimmy Carter. And then a few years later, it was -- it was, you know, set in stone by Congress. So he can't shut it down.

Because Congress established it. Okay?

So only Congress can abolish it. However, he can trim the fat.

And he's going to cut it by 50 percent today. Which is a great thing.

But as Mikayla was doing her homework on this, she said --

STU: One of your producers.

GLENN: Yeah. One of our producers. She said, have you read the Department of Education organization act?

And I'm like.

STU: Oh, obviously.

GLENN: Of course, I have. But tell me what you have found!

STU: Hmm.

GLENN: Listen to this.

It is the intention. This is the founding document passed by Congress. It is the intention of Congress in the establishment of the Department of Education to protect the rights of state and local governments, and public and private educational institutions.

STU: Wow.

GLENN: Just that! Are they operating within the law, that was set by Congress?

STU: Because I think you could convince me, that that was a good idea. Right? That sounds great.

GLENN: Right. So let me read that again.

The intention of Congress, in the establishment of the Department of Education, to protect the rights of state and local governments, and public and private educational institutions, in the area, of educational policies, and administration of programs. And to strengthen and improve the control of such governments and institutions, over their own educational programs and policies.

Did you hear the second half of that?

To strengthen and improve the local and state administration, and -- and the control of their own educational programs and policies.

That is not what the DOD is doing. Not even. Listen to the next line!

The establishment of the Department of Education, shall not, increase the authority of the federal government over education. Or finish the responsibility for education, which is reserved to the states. And the local school systems, and other instrumentalities of the states!

Wait.

This is not what the Department of Education is. At all.

So when they say, well, he can't accomplish the department of he had. No. They abolished the Department of Ed.

The Department of Ed isn't that! Because like you just said, I wouldn't have necessarily a problem with that!

STU: I would have some questions.

GLENN: Yeah, I wouldn't want it.

STU: As a direction, protecting local rights over education, is exactly kind of what I want.

GLENN: Yeah. Exactly right.

B, no provision of a program, administered by the Secretary or any other officer of the Department, shall be construed to authorize the Secretary or any such officer to exercise any direction, supervision, or control, over the local curriculum.

Any program of instruction or administration, or personnel of any educational institution, school, or school system over any accrediting agency or association, or over the selection and content of library resources, textbooks, or other instructional materials. By any educational institution or school system.

Except to the extent authorized by this law.

STU: Hmm. I mean, it seems there's all sorts of limitations on it.

GLENN: Yeah. I mean, if you just go back to this: If he just reset it to this, do you know how many problems would go away?

STU: I know. This is really common too. But we mentioned the same thing with the Patriot Act.

GLENN: Yeah.

STU: The guy who wrote the Patriot Act. There's a bunch of these things about to go.

I can't believe the Patriot Act would do this. I wrote it. It's not supposed to do that.

GLENN: Right. Right.

STU: That's not what it's supposed to do at all.

It always grows. It always evades. And the initial -- the limiting principles put on it, by the law itself.

GLENN: Which is amazing. When you know that to be true. And our Founders knew that.

It's amazing how long our Constitution and Bill of Rights has lasted.

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: You know, the average Constitution's age in the history of the world, the average age of death of a Constitution is 17 years!

We're coming up to 250, of our -- of our Declaration of Independence.

Seventeen years! That's the average.

STU: Wow.

GLENN: We are so far out! For it to have lasted this long, knowing that this is what it always happens. They always morph and distort, and erase the original Founding ideas. Wow!

That's impressive. That we're still standing.

STU: Yeah. And, again, giant chunks of it are still standing. As we pointed out many times, a lot of it isn't standing. Other than just it's on paper.

But that's the problem, right? We should be back to it. And should be trying to focus our country on following it again. A little bit more closely. But I am glad that it still stands.

GLENN: Me too. Me too.

STU: Is it San Moreno? There's one other weird country that has a very old Constitution.

GLENN: Isn't that an old Chevy?

STU: Yeah. The Chevy San Moreno. Beautiful car. V8. Yeah. It's great.

GLENN: Yeah. Here's the other thing that we need to talk about, and that is these judges. I need to get to Tesla, in just a second. That's equally important. And let me talk about the justices and the judges on what is happening.

The judge has ordered to restore USAID. Worker access, and forbids the shutdown. Because it's likely against the Constitution. Well, that's not your job.

The Obama-appointed judge trying to stop USAID shutdown. Donated thousands of dollars to the Democrats. The judge who blocked the key executive order, has a long progressive activist history.

I mean, we're -- we're having these judges get involved in everything.

So what are judges supposed to do?

What does the Constitution actually say?

I want to take you to a -- a football field. Hmm. Glenn, don't do anything dicey. Don't go into sports analogy. Let's just take you out to a football field for your first segment.

STU: Uh-oh, here we go. Prepare yourself. Gird your loins.

GLENN: If -- is that like the grid loins? So let's say the ref is out on the -- and he decides that that touchdown is worth ten points! The clock should be kept running, because I think so. It's most likely, that it should be running, right now.

STU: Hmm.

GLENN: That is what's happening in our court system. That's judicial or referee activism. All right? They're just making stuff up.

Judges that are stepping beyond their lane. And making up the rules. Instead of just calling the game as written.

That's what judges are supposed to do.

They're supposed to look at things, as written. And then say, no. Sorry, guys. That's the law!

Not, you know what, you know who we should do? I should also be able to eat any kind of candy that I want.

And you're all -- you're a defendant. You need to bring me candy.

Because that's what I want, right now. Okay.

I'm fat. I've been sitting behind a bench for a long time. You can't even notice my fatness. I am the size of the bench. Just my upper torso is not.

Okay. You can't do that. You don't do that. Now, it's important to realize, judges aren't necessarily bad guys. They have a really, really tough job. And I don't like -- you know, I really feel bad when you're like, well, that's just a bad ruling!

Well, maybe. But I wasn't in the courtroom. How many times have we done a story, where we really want to bash the judge?

But you weren't in the courtroom. You don't know what was said, or what they know. You know what I mean?

STU: You talked about it when you did jury duty. Because from an outsider perspective. You can always come to something.

When you're there and watching it every single day. You know the ins and outs. Sometimes it's different.

GLENN: It's just different. So when they start acting like lawmakers, instead of interpreters of that law, then we have a problem. Like a judge should step in now on the Department of Education.

And say, sorry, gang, I read this section last night. That's not what's going on here.

So the president, yeah. I recommend, I shouldn't. But if it comes to my courtroom, I'm going to show, yeah. Well, that's the law.

Not my opinion. I might love the department. I might be a full-fledged communist. But I'm here to uphold the law.

And that's what Congress said it is. And that's not what it is!

Now, sometimes, there are problems that Congress needs to step in and say, you're out of here.

Sometimes, the judges -- and it has happened in our history. And it's a very high bar. But I'm not sure. I mean, it should be a high bar, like it is with impeachment of the president. But it shouldn't be off the table.

Okay? And here's why: If you go back to the Founding Fathers, they thought this through. It's kind of crazy.

It's not like, hey. We will do a new Constitution in Iceland. Tweet us your ideas.

In Federalist 78. Alexander Hamilton says, judges should not have life tenure.

And if they do, only if they're on good behavior. Well, what does that mean?

Well, he saw judges, as the least dangerous branch. Because it doesn't have -- it doesn't control the purse strings. And it doesn't have an army.

Okay? So he's like, you know, I mean, if they're on good behavior, just let them go. Just let them go. But he also knew that judges weren't perfect. They do go rogue. So he knew, that they would twist the Constitution, and what they were doing into something that it's not.

And that good behavior clause is not just for decoration.

It's the lifeline of the people.

To stop the judges that have gone bad.

Then in Federalist 81. Hamilton troubles down on this one.

Judges can be impeached. If they abuse their power.

How do they abuse their power?

They step out of line of interpreting the law. And start writing laws. And he's very clear.

Congress has the muscle to check them.

You know, it's like giving the principal, the power to fire a teacher, who is teaching kids the alphabet, you know, backwards and mixed up.

You know what, I appreciate it. We're not doing that. Okay. We hired you to teach the alphabet.

So has this ever been done. Has this ever been exercised?

Yeah. I talked to a federal judge, last night about this. And he's like, Glenn!

Luster versus Georgia. And I'm like, oh, man. That's one of my favorite rulings. But I want to ask you to see how much you know about Luster (phonetic) versus Georgia!

It's back in 1832. Supreme Court told Georgia, they have to stop messing with the Cherokee nation land, and they -- I think they also said, you can't go in and teach the Cherokee tribes Christianity. Okay. Georgia said, no. We're going to do that anyway. Okay?

Now, I'm not a fan of the way the Native Americans were treated in history. And I'm not a fan of Andrew Jackson. But he wasn't a fan of the court.

And he supposedly said, great!

The judge has made his decision.

Now, let him figure out how to enforce it.

Now, I don't like that. I don't like that. But that's what Federalist 81 was saying. They don't have purse strings. They don't have an Army. They have an opinion.

But if the other two branches are like, no! We're going to do it anyway.

Again, I don't like that. But that's only -- that can only apply to when the judges step out of their lane!

When you -- when you're an activist judge, go ahead.

You call your army. But when they're in their lane. And they're saying, no. This is the law. This is how it's written!

Then you don't say, no. You go ahead and try to enforce it. Because then it's a breakdown.

But it's just as much of a breakdown. It they legislate from the bench. And we do nothing about it!

The court doesn't have any tanks. It doesn't have any cops. It relies on the other two branches.

It's judge that one is the weakest!

It has no enforcement.

It was never given any enforcement.

The Founders didn't want it to have any enforcement.

Congress has the checkbook. The president has the tanks. The justices have their robes.

So they lose. Theater weakest of them.

Now, they're supposed to be able to check each other.

So you're -- out of respect, for what each arm is supposed to do, we do listen to the Supreme Court.

But wait until you hear what else is in the Constitution, that I just -- I bypassed. I didn't even know.

They -- that goes right to the judges and how important they are, according to the Constitution.

Not the Supreme Court.

These kinds of judges.

Okay. So Jackson, when he says, okay. Go ahead. Let them force it.

That shows the limits of their power.

But it also shows the flip side. When the judges overreach. They can stir up chaos.

You know, if no one is willing to listen. So here's where article three of the Constitution comes in. And remember, Constitution, the rule book!

The rule book for the courts.

It sets up the Supreme Court. But it also gives Congress the power to create or even shut down, the lower federal courts!

They have no power over the Supreme Court.

They cannot shut it down. They cannot affect it.

But Congress can pass a law that says, you guys are done!

So don't tell me, that you can't impeach them!

It's in the Constitution.

That that is -- and the Federalist papers. That is critical, in case they start overstepping the bounds. You can impeach them.

And we should. This is all a ploy, this is no different than the -- quite honestly. The terrorism that is happening on our streets with Tesla.

Okay? That's terrorism.

This isn't terrorism. This is just a whole buttload of lies. Told by a bunch of people, where supposedly, you know, able to trust.

Because they wear a robe.

Don't trust them. Why would you trust the justices when you don't trust the politicians, when you don't trust anybody in Washington?

Why are these guys exempt?

Okay? I'm not saying. I don't want to sow seeds of discord with our -- I believe in the Supreme Court.

It's the best system that we have. But let's not -- let's not throw our Constitution out for these guys, who are sitting in the -- the lower federal courts.

You know, Congress can say, hey. We don't need this court anymore.

You're banned. Or you're banned from ruling on that.

Sorry!

You're not talking about that anymore.

It's a leash. And it's there for a reason.

The Supreme Court is untouchable. And -- and it's -- you know, it's not above impeachment, if the justices start playing king instead of somewhere.

But their job is like a gardener. Their job is to keep trimming the hedges. Keep the law neat and tidy. If they start ripping out the whole garden.

And planting it, with whatever they want.

Someone has to fire them. That is where we are with these lower federal court justices.

You, according to the Constitution, Congress, and the president, are in charge!

Elon Musk and President Trump Rescue Stranded Astronauts, Restoring American Honor

By rescuing stranded astronauts on the ISS, Elon Musk and President Trump have restored something that America lost under Biden: honor. While Biden allegedly refused to let SpaceX return the astronauts because it would look good for Musk, Trump gave Americans a historical moment to remember that brought many to tears when they saw the Dragon spacecraft splash down in the water. Meanwhile, some on the Left are reacting to Elon by burning and vandalizing Teslas. How “tolearant”…

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: There's a couple of things I want to talk about. I want to talk to you about NASA. I don't know if you saw the splashdown yesterday. This happened last night. Go ahead and roll this.
(music)
There it is.

VOICE: And we're going to stand by for splashdown located in the Gulf of America. Opposite of Tallahassee, Florida.

GLENN: That's a movie set.

STU: It looks incredible. It looks like it could be the Truman Show.

GLENN: It does.

VOICE: And splashdown. Current time. Back on earth.
(applauding)

GLENN: I don't know what's wrong with me lately. This is so weird. I don't know what's happening to me.

But I see things like this, and I -- I am like, I'm like, getting weepy again all the time.

You know, like I was.

I'm getting weepy again.

I see things like this. And it just moves me.

STU: I feel the same way at Taco Bell. Right?

GLENN: No. That's a movement. That's different. Because that moves me too. In a completely different way.

I see things like that. It's just, so inspiring what we can do!

And especially, when you look at it, what we were doing.

I mean, the moon shot. We decided to go to the moon. We decide that long ago.

And it is the president's job to make sure that everything is moving in that direction.

You don't want to go to the moon and then go to space. Then stop it.

But if you're going to put people in space. You can't just leave them there. No. No.

STU: No?

GLENN: President Biden just left them there.

I don't want it to look bad for me. Maybe everybody will forget they're in space.

Is that the plan?

And he just -- and here's the big, huge government with the big, huge budgets from big, huge Boeing. They said -- and I said, don't send the rocket up.

Do you remember? Don't send that rocket up. Don't do it. It's not going to work. You know, and if it does, good luck coming home in that thing.

And then it docked. We had some problems with it. And don't get back into that thing. There's no way you're returning to earth in that. Don't do it.

Well, they didn't. So Biden just leaves them. And Elon Musk is like, I can go up and get them at any time.

And President Biden says, no. Because he thinks it will look good for Biden. Or for Musk. Not food for Biden. He's just like, leave them alone.

This president, the reason why I think so many people had a problem with Joe Biden. Even if they liked his policies. Some of them.

Even if they say, well, he was a Democrat. And I'm a Democrat. I think the reason why so many people, you know, just jump ship on Biden, was he violated something that is in all of us.

And that's honor. You know, the basic honor. I mean, not like. You know what, I'm a boy.

I mean just like the bare minimum honor of Americans.

We don't leave people behind.

He did it in Afghanistan. And he did it in space. And when you see that, you're like, oh, my gosh. That's not us. What is that?

And I think that's why Biden rubbed so many Democrats the wrong way. They may not be able to vocalize it. But I think that's one of the reasons.

He had no honor in him, at all. I think.

STU: Zero. Zero.

And luckily, the American people were able to success that out, a little bit.

GLENN: Yeah.

STU: I do relate to how you feel about watching something like that.

It's fascinating that the entire -- half of the country has at least turned on Elon Musk.

A guy who is doing all these incredible things.

GLENN: He is. You know what it is?

It's the same thing that happened to Nikola Tesla!

Okay. The power structure turned on Nikola Tesla.

The greatest mind of the 20th century.

Makes Edison look like a rookie. Makes him look like me.

Okay.

And the country turned on him, because of the establishment!

And we're doing the same thing with Elon Musk. What is wrong with us?

STU: Yeah. It's funny. You hear that thing that happened around a lot, on the election. Where Democrats were complaining about why they lost.

They said, what we need is a left-wing Joe Rogan. And as many pointed out, you had one, his name was Joe Rogan. He was supporting Bernie freaking Sanders in 2016.

GLENN: Right. We need somebody -- we need somebody like Elon Musk.

STU: They blew it. Right.

GLENN: You had him! His name was Elon Musk!

STU: You had him. You had a left-wing Elon Musk.

And what was fascinating, Glenn. And this is something we could absolutely prove.

I don't have to speculate on this. When he was left-wing Elon Musk, when he was a guy who was out there, talking about how we're all going to die from climate change.

Which, by the way, he still believes. We were still able to -- to look on in amazement, at the things he was achieving, including Tesla, in its very early stages, which we featured on the CNN Headline News show, a zillion years ago.

GLENN: Right. We actually -- at least conservatives. Let me speak for us.

At least we, the whole time were like, I don't believe in the climate change stuff. That's crazy. But look at what he's doing. Look at how he's doing.

Look at how he is making all of this public. He's not trademarking or patenting anything. He's saying, it should be open for everybody. Take my ideas and build on them. We love that for him.

You know how crazy it is? I still think there's a chance he turns into the Antichrist. Okay?

So I like -- really like him. Might be the Antichrist. We should keep -- remain aware of that. But I like him.

These guys treat him like the Antichrist. And they don't even believe in the Antichrist.

STU: That's true.

GLENN: That's crazy. It's nuts.

STU: And it doesn't make any sense. And now they're going dealership to dealership, and lighting his -- his, you know, Tesla on fire.

Right?

This is --

GLENN: That is economic, domestic terrorism. That's what it is.

And Pam Bondi. I'm glad -- yeah. She called it out.

And I'm glad. And I want to see these people prosecuted.

That's economic terrorism. Period.

I don't like the mainstream media. You should arrest me, if I ever just even say, you know what we should do. We should all gather torches.

And we should burn those places to the ground.

No. No. That's terrorism. No!

STU: But it's also, you know, the way the left acts every single time they don't get what they want. Might remind you of George Floyd.

GLENN: Every time. Yeah.

STU: When they were upset about George Floyd. What did they do? Burn down cities. What about Alf and Elf? Not Alf the lovable, huggable alien creature from the --

GLENN: I was going to say. Alf and Elf, what did they do wrong? I mean, who needs a hug?

STU: And not Will Ferrell. I'm talking about the Animal Liberation Front and the Environmental Liberation Front.

GLENN: Horrible.

STU: Terrorist organizations that went around and burned down dealerships of SUVs. Because -- because the environment is so important. Interesting way to approach it.

GLENN: By the way, do you know why SUVs exist?

STU: I do, yes.

GLENN: I just -- I was talking to a liberal friend. Eh.

And --

STU: As close as you could be. Sure.

GLENN: And they were like, these big SUVs. Uh-huh. Do you know why SUVs exist?

Because you didn't like station wagons. You didn't like big, huge sedans. And so you were like, you know, the EPA. They should start regulating those things. And you put that regulation in. You know what wasn't covered? Trucks. So they're like, we'll just build it on the platform of a truck, and call it an SUV. That put the station wagons and the big sedans out. And now you have a bigger vehicle.

That's how stupid you are. As somebody who believes in big government.

No.

Government cannot regulate everything.

It only makes things worse.

STU: Yeah. And we should also add in, when they did those fuel mileage standards. There's two ways to approach it, to hit the standards. One was to convert, a bunch of bigger sedans and stations wagons into SUVs. So you had bigger vehicles on the road.

The other way was to take your cars and make them lighter and smaller. So when those two things collide, guess what happens to people?

Literally, it killed thousands and thousands and thousands of people in car accidents.

GLENN: Who was it? Who was the politician that I saw yesterday. They got rid of their -- huge, lefty. Okay?

Green thing. Got rid of their Tesla, and was proud to be driving like an Excursion. I want two of these things! Like, wow.

That's good. That's good. By the way, before we move on, I've got to just go back to the space thing. Because did you see what one of the astronauts did before they got back to earth? Do we have this audio? Listen to this. Listen to this.

VOICE: What is your life lesson or takeaway from these nine months in space?

VOICE: Well, in answer to your question, I can tell you, honestly, my feeling on all of this goes back to my faith.

It's -- it's bound in my Lord and savior Jesus Christ.

He is working out his plan, his purposes, for his glory, throughout awful humanity. And how that plays into our lives is significant and important.

And however that plays out. And I am content. Because I understand that.

I understand that he's at work. In all things. Some things are for the good. Go to he's been chapter 11.

Some things look to be not so good. But it's all working out for his good.

For those that will believe. And that's the answer.

So thanks for asking.

GLENN: That's a scientist, in space! And I didn't see that headline anywhere.

STU: No.

GLENN: And I would like to say, I think that's what happens when you fly on a Boeing. You're like, all right. Jesus, you're there, right?

I mean, I've got to have some perspective. Okay. So if I burn up on reentry, it's going to be good, right?

I mean, that's what he was saying. You know what, my faith. It just tells me, you know, Boeing could kill me.

But I guess it's all going to work out to be the best.

That's pretty much what he was saying there, I think.

STU: That's true. That's true.

I think too, Glenn. Tell me if this has happened with you. As you get older, that sentiment becomes much, much more true.

GLENN: Yes. Perspective.

STU: Things seem so out of control sometimes.

And then when you really put yourself in the mindset, which he was just describing that it's like, yeah. You know what, it's not in my hands. And things happen for these reasons, that I believe in. And they're important. And I can't control all of them.

And I'll do the best I can and get through all of this. It makes life a heck of a lot easier.

I mean, just pragmatically. Outside the faith elements of it. It makes your life better. It just does! Because you don't freak out about every little thing.

I can't tell you how many times. I sit there in church. They're talking about these important concepts.

And, you know, thoughts into your mind of the chaos of the world. And when you think about it that way. You're just like, eh. The chaos of the world. Who cares about the chaos of the world?

GLENN: Well, I care about it.

STU: I care about it, in a totally different way.

GLENN: In a way that it will be interesting to see how it plays out. Yeah. That is.

STU: We talk about that phrase all the time. It's so important to get through your life.

GLENN: But it's so hard to do. I have to tell you, my daughter she just had her real adult career decision to make.

She's in this -- this production. And she has been working on it for months and months and months. With the cast. And she was also just cast in a -- in a movie.

A hallmark movie for Christmas.

STU: Oh, cool.

And so they conflicted. And she didn't know how she was going to work this out.

And some -- I'm going to this place where I used to be in, which is a horrible place where I cannot sleep ever. So I was up at on two o'clock in the morning. And she gets up to get a drink of water. And I said, you okay, honey?

And she said, yeah. And she sat down. And we just started talking.

And she said, it's so hard, Dad.

I just -- I mean, I just -- I mean, what is the right decision?

How do I do this?

And I don't want to do this. Because I'm letting some people down, either way.

And everything.

And, man, it takes so much for a man, at least for me, to just shut up.

Because I was like -- everything in me was like, here's what you do, honey. And that's the worst thing you can do. And so I'm just sitting there going, uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

And all the time, I'm thinking, you know what -- and this is what I finally said after she talked. But I was like, just do the right thing. Just do the next right thing. Everything works out. But it's hard, especially when you're young.

Because you think, I have to micromanage. I have to make the right decision, because if I don't, it will play off this way. It will play off this way. You don't know how it will play out.

Just do the right thing.

Whatever it is, just do the next right thing.

And it will work out. And shockingly, not the way you intended. But better than what you thought could be your best outcome.

And I just think that takes a lot of years of trying to force your way, I'm going to make sure it happens this way!

And always failing. I think it just takes a lot of time.

I hope. You happen to be listening. And you haven't gotten this yet. Really, trust Stu. Don't force your way. It doesn't work out. It's never a happen if ending.

STU: You can't control everything. Nor are you supposed to.

GLENN: Right. You're supposed to surrender to the next right thing.

Not to surrender to, oh, he's the -- the Antichrist, whatever. No. Not surrender on those things.

Surrender to the next right thing, and let the consequences happen. Because you'll find, over time, oh, my gosh.

I can't believe how that worked out in -- in my favor or in life's favor for me, and that's what the astronaut was saying.

The BIGGEST Discoveries from the JFK Files So Far

Yesterday, the Trump administration dropped THOUSANDS of declassified documents related to the JFK assassination. It will take a while to sift through every document, but Glenn's team was hard at work getting a jump start. Glenn's chief researcher and security expert, Jason Buttrill, joined to explain what he found so far: Lee Harvey Oswald had been on the CIA's radar, but was described as quote, 'a poor shot.' A guy detained in London warned that Oswald planned to kill JFK and defect to Russia. Was out government just complicit or incompetent? While nothing has contradicted the Warren Commission thus far, everything is providing context so we can finally see the full picture.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: I've got a busy day today.

Because I'm going out to a shooting range. Because we have the only gun that we know of. That is an exact copy of the gun Oswald used, to kill President Kennedy. Because it's a real weird hodgepodge of guns. It was -- the one that killed Kennedy, has a different scope on it.

Very rare. Very hard to find. I think it's -- it might even be a Russian scope.

I can't remember. The scope is from someplace. There's parts of this gun, that are from someplace else.

And so, you know, we wanted to get -- because we don't have the real gun.

We wanted to get one just like it. It took two years to assemble this gun and be to find all of the parts. So it's an exact copy of it. I'm going out to a shooting range today. And we will do our first test.

Just, I have some sharpshooters with me. And we will -- we will post some of this on X, as we do it live today. But then you'll be able to see all of it. We're going to another shooting range, hopefully next week, to get moving targets, to see if they can make these shots.

But it should be interesting. Today, you can watch for it on X, and then that will be next week, as we go through everything that has been released on the JFK files. Because it will take a while. Anybody who -- they don't have any idea. 80,000 documents are being released.

So you know, there will -- Jason is here. He's our chief researcher for the TV show. 80,000 documents. How long would that have taken us to go through, for staff, what do we have? Eight people on it, right now?

How long, without Grok or AI assist. How long would that take us?

JASON: We would still be basically taping our eyelids open and still staring at it. We wouldn't even be close to like a quarter of the way through it.

GLENN: Okay. So yesterday, describe the process, what happened?

JASON: So they started releasing the documents. Well, I thought they were going to be delayed. But they finally came through at 5:00 or 6:00 Central. Something like that.

So we immediately went to work. Initially, there was 113 pages of these documents, but on each different page, there was about 10 PDFs per page.

And those PDFs had multiple pages within the PDFs. So all in all, it was probably around 12 to 1300 pages of stuff. It was insane. To go through this now, and, you know, the modern age, all we have to do is go through, download each little different PDF. And start feeding that into what whatever artificial intelligence program you want to use.

If you know the right prompts.

You can start looking for things that are relevant. Things that are new. Things that contradict old disclosures.

It was actually pretty amazing.

GLENN: So you know. One of the things that is very important to me, is the ethics of using AI.

And I don't know if a lot of people even care about it. But I do. And my staff does, deeply.

I mean, we've had really heartfelt, you know, round after round of, what's ethical. What's noteth can ally?

So you know, we're not AI powered.

Our research team is not AI-powered. It is powered by people, who use AI.

And there is a big difference in that. As you will start to see, as days go by. And more and more people use AI to do all their thinking.

We use it as a tool, to go through, to be able to do things that we couldn't before.

80,000 documents. As you said, 1200 documents last night. 80,000 will take us forever. Just the 1200 that we went through, that was the first batch would have taken us weeks to go through.

So it's a very big help. But we also then go back and check everything. So let me go through some of the things that I know, that were found yesterday.

You tell me also, anything that I'm missing here. On -- on what was found.

But there's a couple of things.

One document is a memo. On the release passage from a political magazine. Ramparts from 1967 about an intelligence agency, a CIA informant and former US Army Captain John Garrett Underhill. And he wrote, the day after the assassination, I'm sorry.

The -- the story wrote. The day after the assassination, Gary Underhill left Washington in a hurry. Late in the evening, he showed up at the home of a friend in New Jersey. He was very agitated. The passage starts, a small click within the US was responsible for the assassination. He confided to his friend.

He would be afraid -- he was afraid of -- for his life. And probably would have to leave the country.

Less than six months later, he was found shot to death in his Washington apartment. Coroner ruled it a suicide. The note was known -- was said, in -- on intimate terms. With the number of high-ranking CIA officials.

The passage has been shared last night, over and over again.

That's probably one of the bigger passages that came out. That was shared on X and everything else. But as they -- you know, the people were like, it's already been released. Yeah. But we didn't actually have the document. Another document that was making the rounds.

One line in the document stated that the KJB watched Oswald closely, while he was in the USSR. But files indicated that Oswald was a poor shot when he tried target practice in the Soviet Union. Another detail released was a letter sent by a man in 1978. He was a Soviet.

And he made this comment to the British embassy. He claimed that he was detained in London on July 18th, 1963, and questioned by authorities. He said that he told them about Lee Harvey Oswald, saying he planned to kill the president. He added that he warned American vice council HEP Tom Blacksheer of the plans of Oswald, who was trying to defect to Russia. Okay. So that's kind of a big deal. But what does that say to you?

So far, that just says -- hang on, if you're driving. I will give you time to pull over. Because this will be a shock to you. You pull over. Okay?

What it says is that our government is incompetent. I know.

Could have had a car wreck, if I didn't tell you before I pulled over.

I mean, that's what this is so far saying to me.

What are some of the other things that we found, Jason?

JASON: We talked yesterday, about four different things. This is really about the what. Not the who. And I think that's pretty much spot-on doctor what I'm seeing so far.

Right now, there's no who.

There's no, okay. This is the person that pulled the trigger. There's no grassy knoll. There's no deflection from the official warrant commission report so far.

But I will say, that people who have been looking into this for a long time. Have identified like 10 to 15, or 20 documents that they really want to see, that have been heavily redacted if the past.

GLENN: Or not released yet.

JASON: Some of them have not been released. Some of the stuff from last night, have provided more context.

Now, let me tell you, it you're a fan of the Cold War, or even just spy thrillers. You're going to like to read some of this stuff. And I will put together some stuff for our special next week, some stuff that you can just read on GlennBeck.com, or something.

If anything, this stuff is Cold War, you know, stuff. Like, for instance, I'll throw out, I've never heard about this before.

But there was a surveillance program in Havana, Cuba, before the assassination that was a complete failure. Something that happened where they were found out. There were people arrested. Never heard about this before. The CIA definitely did not want to get this out.

GLENN: And so that had nothing to do with the JFK files. But it was filed in that.

JASON: I believe it was filed in that. They're kind of building this case. These are the things that may have agitated Cuba.

Neighbor you're searching for a lead. Maybe Cuba, through the Soviet Union was involved in the assassination.

These things might have tipped them off.

But, I mean, there's a lot of that stuff. That links back.

You can tell the CIA is doing their due diligence. And anything that would point out.

So John Greenwald of the black valuate, which says, they are the largest privately run reposetory of declassified documents. Says, the organization of these files. I mean, it's just -- it's crazy.

You know, nothing is searchable.

No bulk download, like previous releases.

No spreadsheet.

Nothing. It's just firehose!

So you've got to give everybody who is looking into this, some time before, you know, we really understand what everything is.

But what else did we find?

GLENN: If you're looking at like, What is the CIA involved with? Are they incompetent?

Are they even operating legally? Now, here's where the JFK files get interesting. I wrote down a few notes.

And we will have more next week on the show.

GLENN: Yeah. Right. Next week, we were -- the first idea, hey, they will come out. Maybe we should do a show. Wait. Let's -- let's take our time, and take a breath.

And do the show the following week. Because that way, we will have actually the information.

So we're just giving you bits and pieces now. But next Wednesday night say full show on what's come out on JFK.

JASON: Now, how about this? To get your interest. The description in full tail can of CIA covert domestic operations ran out of multiple cities within the United States. To include wiretap operations, domestically. As well as media manipulation, with them pushing out narratives the CIA specifically wants the media to push out.

And all of their contacts, at other media organizations.

You can read that right now, tell me that doesn't happen today.

STU: It does!

JASON: This is why this is important, Glenn. To know.

This establishes a pattern of behavior.

I'm not even done yet.

It talks about CIA partnerships with private companies. Private companies.

GLENN: Huh, public/private partnerships?

JASON: It sounds like that, actually. They talk about a vast CIA network. This is before the assassination that they were heavily invested in, in Mexico City, which I thought was fascinating.

You can read about high value KGB assets that are getting stationed in Mexico City, for some random reason. Big time CIA operation going down in Mexico City, and that's how they were actually able to catch Oswald before the assassination when he went down to Mexico City to get a Cuba or a Soviet visa.