RADIOJune 09, 2023

EXPLAINED: Why the Donald Trump indictment is BEYOND 'STUPID'

Donald Trump just became the first U.S. president to be indicted by the Department of Justice on federal charges. He’s facing seven counts related to his storage of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home. But something about this smells like it’s ALL about politics. In this clip, Pat and Stu — filling in for Glenn — break it all down…

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

PAT: You know, there are cynical people who are going to say, this is all about politics?

STU: No. You think?

PAT: Yeah, they will. I think they will.

STU: Where would they get that idea from?

PAT: These right-wing kooks. Things they come up with. Spur of the moment. They're just so nutty. But some will say, Donald Trump was indicted simply because of political reasons.

And, wow. It's true. He was. First US president former or otherwise to be indicted on federal criminal charges. So fascinating. And it's all over the document thing. It's all over the Mar-a-Lago documents thing.

He had, you know -- what is he -- he's indicted on espionage? Espionage charges?

STU: Well, I think we've all seen spy movies, right?

PAT: Yeah.

STU: And most of the spy movies are based on a person with legal access to documents, that then stores them in their closet.

PAT: They're almost all like that.

STU: Most of them are like. The drama is here. And you find out, oh, he kept him in his closet. Then they bring him into court.

PAT: You know, like a James Bond scenario. That's exactly what comes to mind, right?

STU: Right. Not that they sold them to spies, or foreign entities.

PAT: Which he didn't do, of course.

STU: Or he tried to profit billions of dollars on the nuclear secret. That's -- there's an occasional movie that sounds like that. But most of them are, hey, wait a minute. That area where the closet was, was too highly trafficked. That's usually the plot for most Bond films.

PAT: That area was too highly trafficked. But the garage, where Joe Robinette Biden stores his Corvette, nobody has ever been in there. And it is impenetrable.

STU: Right. You saw mission impossible. The one where Tom Cruise was hanging down from the cables.

PAT: In the garage. Where he was hanging from the garage.

STU: That's where it was shot there.

PAT: Joe Biden's garage.

STU: That's how it happened.

PAT: You would think.

STU: There's so many ways to go here.

PAT: It's crazy.

STU: And I think the most obvious one is the fact that Trump is in the middle of a bunch of investigations by his political opponent. And what are the ramifications of that?

But can I take one little step back from that, first, Pat?

PAT: You may.

STU: Am I the only one who doesn't really care, if Donald Trump or Joe Biden had a few documents from their time in office, that were in their garage or closet?

PAT: Yeah. Yeah. You don't care.

STU: I just don't like really care.

PAT: You don't care.

STU: I just don't care.

PAT: Oh, my gosh. So.

STU: These are documents. Again, like espionage. The guy that was recently leaking stuff to his discord group. Remember this? He had the documents about the Ukraine war. And he was leaking it to his friends in this group. You can see how something like that is a real problem. He put them out into a public forum. A bunch of people who should have had no access to that information whatsoever, got access to that information.

PAT: Right.

STU: Real problem. We don't know what happened to it.

Maybe you can leak two foreign entities. Maybe you can threaten American security.

Maybe you can threaten Ukrainian security. Which seems what they're interested in.

PAT: Oh, that's way more sacrosanct than American security. You are kidding me?

STU: I can see why that would be a real thing to be concerned about. Now, this guy's evidence.

His motivation in this case, seems to be like, I want to be cool among my friend group. I don't think it indicates he should be in prison the rest of his life.

I can understand why this would be a big story. The story we're talking about now. Even if you take, at least what we know of this indictment. And we don't have it yet.

We won't have it until Tuesday, yet. But basically, what's going on here. Donald Trump was president of the United States. He could see any of these documents.

He had all of this information, already.

He left office. You might remember. Pretty chaotic time, when he left office. The period between January 6th and January 20th. Was a little rocky. I don't know if you remember that. He leaves office with a bunch of documents. They say, hey, we would like those documents back. He gives back a bunch of documents, but not all the documents. And no one is accusing them of selling them to the Saudis. No one is accusing him of selling them to the Russians. No one is accusing him of using these to launch a secret war in another country.

What they're accusing him of, is not giving them back in a timely fashion when they wanted them.

PAT: Right. That's crazy.

STU: Look, can they find a legal loophole in this law to get him in trouble on that. It's possible. But step back on that. Does this change the way you think of him? Does this change of the way you think he would govern as president of the United States? Do you actually care?

PAT: No. No, I don't.

STU: I just don't care. And to be honest, I don't care if Joe Biden did it either. I don't really care.

PAT: However, I will say, if it's this big a deal, with Trump, you have to reciprocate with Biden. You have to. You have to.

STU: That's my point. Neither of these stories should be the first time a president is indicted on federal charges. It's too stupid of a story.

Like, at least, some of the other accusations, that have been thrown at Donald Trump. Again, most of them have nothing behind them. But at least some of them were serious accusations. This is record-keeping.

What did he, put it in the wrong filing cabinet?

This is what we'll bring a president down on?

It's stupid. It's just freaking stupid.

PAT: Right. But I love the fact that the narrative from the left right now is that it is so important to mention that special counsel Jack Smith would never have brought these charges, if he didn't have mountains and mountains of evidence of wrongdoing.

STU: This one again? We're getting this one again, Pat.

PAT: Yes. We are. Wasn't that the same thing with what's-his-face?

With the Russian hoax garbage?

STU: Right. If you were to plot all these story lines on a chart. And they all started at day one. Right?

And they all had this one run of -- when you found out about them, till their expiration date. Russia. Ukraine.

I don't know. I can't even name all the scandals that they name at this guy. At this point, on the chart, they always say, they have all the information.

They always leak to the press, that they have impenetrable evidence that will bring this guy down.

They always say the same thing at this point.

PAT: It's wishful thinking. They want it so bad. That they claim they have it. And they don't.

STU: They want you to believe it. They want you to believe it, before you see the evidence.

PAT: They're trying desperately to stop him from running for president. At this point, I think they're pretty afraid, that he'll be --

STU: I think that's certainly possible.

They certainly don't want him to be president again.

PAT: Oh, well, that's --

STU: Yeah, I think. You know, I don't -- I go back and forth, on what they're trying to do here a little bit.

PAT: I know. I do too.

STU: From the perspective of, I don't think they could be so naive. That they would not understand, that this would help him in the primary. They have to understand --

PAT: It will be a big boost.

STU: To help him in the primary. It will hurt Ron DeSantis. Tim Scott. And Nikki Haley. All the other opponents. It will galvanize other people in his support.

So it likely will help him get through the primary. It's not a guarantee, he will win the primary by any means. But it's possible, it will help him.

I think it's likely, it will help him. If you consider that the option, then I guess you are saying, either they believe they're either going to beat him in the general. They will hurt him in the general, which I think is a plausible argument.

You know, yes. Us the right, that have followed every aspect of the Russia investigation, are going to say, I can't believe they're trying this again. I can't believe there's another one of these. Some moderate who doesn't know anything about the Russia investigation. Other than what they say on their Twitter feed. Or Facebook feed.

And have no information on this. And just keep seeing. Indictment. Indictment. Indictment.

Could be another story in the general. You it's a real concern, when you think about this stuff.

PAT: Did you see what Jamie Raskin, who was a Democrat from Maryland had to say yesterday about this situation?

STU: Really hard for me to not turn him off. I applaud you, Pat, for sticking with it. And reading what he said. Because I was not willing to go that far.

PAT: Now, I didn't listen to what he said. But I did read it. Because it's only one line.

But he said, Trump put US national security in grave danger.

STU: Oh, stop it.

PAT: By pursuing, quote, yet another lawless personal agenda.

STU: What's the agenda?

PAT: Really? What did he do? He had these in boxes, did he go down there and look at them from time to time?

Probably not. He probably didn't do that. But if he did, so what?

He knew about it, in the first place.

STU: He already knew what they were. That's why he took them.

PAT: If you were alleging that there's evidence that he sold them to Russian spies in the FSB, or KJB, or whoever is in power, in Russia now.

If he sold them to some Russian spy, okay. You have evidence of that. Maybe you have photographic evidence.

Okay. I can go with you on the grave danger thing.

STU: I want to throw him in prison.

PAT: Absolutely. Absolutely.

STU: As I think every member of the audience would. However, that will not be alleged.

PAT: No, it's not. They're not even accusing him of that. Which I guess pretty much means, it's not even alleged.

STU: That's my understanding.

You could be mistaken. Forgiven for that. When you see the word espionage on that. As if this guy was hiding on a trench coat, in a parking garage somewhere. Leaking to Chinese spies.

Look, if Donald Trump had a three-some with Eric Swalwell and a Chinese spy and gave them the documents, I would be really worried about that.

PAT: Well, did he wee-wee on him?

STU: I don't know.

Let's ask Christopher Steele, and then maybe we can find that out.

But, Pat, I don't know what happened here yet. Right? It will be months and months and months after, you know, today, that we will probably find out.

PAT: And maybe after the election.

And they'll just continue this garbage.

They'll just continue to throw stuff at the wall, to see what sticks. So they can hopefully derail him by hopefully November 2024.

STU: And at that point, when we do find out, what went on after the election, they will just bury it. Like they'll say, oops.

PAT: What have they said about Russia?

Nothing. They just don't bring it up.

There's no apology. There's no nothing.

STU: All this goes on.

What's the most likely scenario. Donald Trump leaves office. He's a guy who thinks he's been wronged in the election. He's angry. He pulls a bunch of boxes of documents. That he believes is his.

I was in the middle of this.

This is a letter from Kim Jong-un to me. To me. Donald Trump. That's me. My name is at the top of it. It says to me. I bring it home to my house.

Then these people who just screwed me out of -- again, this is Donald Trump.

These people who just screwed me out of an election, now want this stuff back. Screw them. No.

PAT: Oh, absolutely.

STU: Highly plausible.

PAT: Yeah, it is.

STU: Now, is that consistent with the president records act? Probably not.

You know, probably not.

If that's the scenario that played out, they may very well be able to come up with some legal justification, that if he did it, and they knew his intent, they have evidence of his intent. They may very well be able to get him on something.

PAT: We're hearing that every president since Reagan, has done this.

STU: In some form.

PAT: In some form.

STU: Intent is the difference.

What they're saying. Is he intended to do it. Is it possible, he was so angry.

It's possible. It is.

PAT: But so what.

STU: Is that a huge deal?

PAT: No, it's not.

STU: They weren't leaked to foreign entities. Anything in a Mar-a-Lago closet, is certainly more secure than something stored online. Right?

How -- go -- if you live near Mar-a-Lago. Go in there. And try and steal a Diet Coke. See how that goes for you. Go just try to play golf on the course without actually --

PAT: Are you encouraging criminal activity, Stu?

STU: No, I'm not.

I should probably clarify that before the DOJ shows up.

I am not -- I am saying this as a hypothetical thought exercise. It would be darn difficult to play the eighth hole at Mar-a-Lago, getting away with it.

You think stealing stuff out of Donald Trump's closet is going to be easy?

It's not -- it's ridiculous.

The whole thing is completely absurd. And, yes. You might be able to go in there, and find some legal thing you can catch him on.

Fundamentally, what are we asking as people -- as citizens of the United States now. Voters in the United States.

Is this a reason to vote for him, or not vote for him. And the answer is, of course, it's not.

Neither. It should make no impact whatsoever, on his ability to govern.

Shocking train video: Passengers wait while woman bleeds out

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

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

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

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

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

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

GLENN: Yeah, they are.

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

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

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

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

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

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

But she might do it anyway.

GLENN: How pathetic, but how true.

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

GLENN: Uh-huh.

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

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

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

Unfortunately.

But would I want her to step in?

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

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

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

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

Hmm. No.

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

Yeah.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

GLENN: Yeah. And tried to give her CPR.

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

Do you know off the top of your head?

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

STU: Yeah.

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

STU: Right.

GLENN: In reality.

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

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

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

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

Maybe I'm -- I hope --

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

STU: Yeah. I mean --

JASON: They did not respond.

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

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

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

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

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

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

GLENN: Yeah. Well --

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

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

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

In that situation.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

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

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

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

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

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