RADIOMarch 01, 2024

WATCH: FBI ARRESTS, Handcuffs, & Charges a JOURNALIST Over Jan. 6 Reporting

Blaze Media investigative journalist Steve Baker has been arrested, arraigned, and handcuffed by the FBI on charges related to his reporting at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Glenn reveals the charges, as well as a segment of CCTV footage that House Republicans released to Blaze Media that suggests a different story. Plus, BlazeTV contributor Jill Savage gives an update from the Dallas, TX, courthouse.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: We welcome to the program now Jill savage.

She is a Blaze TV contributor.

And following this story, this is going to be breaking news all day. We don't believe anyone else will cover it. That's why it is so crucial that we cover it. And you spread the news. Or -- or honestly, America just goes down another road, that is unthinkable.

The FBI arrested a Blaze TV reporter. Jill, what do you know, so far.

JILL: Well, we know he will be in court at 10:00 a.m.

He's already self-surrendered at 7:00 a.m. this morning. They handcuffed him. And this is -- it's interesting, because we think there will be four misdemeanor charges.

Right? That's what they've told us so far.

We don't know that for a fact. He's not been told the charges up until this point.

Because they said, they were scared he would tweet out the charges.

Well, at some point, this will all become public record.

So they're also afraid. He is afraid, that it is three or four misdemeanors.

How many misdemeanors?

JILL: Four.

GLENN: Four misdemeanors. But he feels like they will use those four misdemeanors to -- as enticement. You just say you did wrong, otherwise we bump it up to a felony.

But for the life of me, I cannot understand what -- what even the misdemeanors are. You know, they were parading. What were some of the other ones that they charge people with?

He's not parading. He went as a journalist. And we have, and we'll show you in a few minutes. We just got in the middle of the night, from Barry Loudermilk's office and the Speaker of the House. Those two have just been amazing. They got all of the tape of Steve, reporting in the Capitol on January 6th.

And so we have all of the -- I think there might be a couple more minutes. I don't know.

We don't know how complete it is. But it's fairly complete of him in the Capitol that day, just reporting.

And our understanding is, from the Capitol, that there is no parading. There's nothing, but journalism, taking photographs.

Taking video. And reporting.

JILL: Yeah. Steve Baker is a Blaze media reporter now. But on the day of January 6th.

When he went into the Capitol building. He was an independent reporter. He said, he went in trying to document the day. He said, he didn't know what January 6th was going to turn into. He just followed the story where it went. He was outside with the crowd, and said, okay. A lot of people are going in the building, let me go see what's going on in there. And from that, they are now turning his life into hell. And you can see, that they are not just going out. And he said, they could have easily just said, an order to appear in front of the court today. But that's not what they did. They put an actual arrest warrant out for him. And Steve this weekend asked his lawyer, why are they doing this to me? And his lawyer looked at him and said, you know why they're doing this to you. You've poked them for three years.

That's the other point. They've been doing this to him for almost three years now.

In December of 2023, they said an arrest warrant would be imminent. They've been making him wait and wait for these charges to come down. He's just living his life, thinking, okay. What time is this going to happen to me?

GLENN: When you know people have been railroaded and if they didn't cooperate, they got 20 years, 20 years!

This is like a cancer diagnosis. Can you imagine, the doctor saying, you might have cancer. You might be fine.

Here. I'm going to give you the results of your test. They're imminent, any day now. And then you wait two and a half years.

That's -- they're making the process, the punishment. Because they don't have anything.

And so they're making -- they're setting an example by scaring everyone. And I swear to you, America. If you don't wake up on this one, if these reporters, if these journalists don't report this. May God have mercy on your soul! For what you've done to the republic. This is a journalist. That is being arrested. And you say nothing?

May God have mercy on your soul.

So they arrested him. Now, they told him to show up in shorts and sandals, right?

JILL: Right.

STU: Which you just can't picture -- told him, I can't picture you in flip-flops. He does not look like a man who has ever worn flip-flops in his entire life.

GLENN: No.

JILL: And theoretically, it's to make it easier just to put the orange jumpsuit on, and put the chains on. And go through, right? They want to make this as humiliating as possible. This is not just, here, let's do X, Y, and Z. Let's go through by the book. No. We want to humiliate you. That's why we're telling you, not what charges you're facing. But we're telling you to show up in shorts and flip-flops.

GLENN: So this is what is what happened about an hour ago. Do we have the video of Steve?

STU: Not wearing shorts and flip-flops notably?

GLENN: No. He went in a suit. And he's on his way to the FBI. There's first picture of him.

Do we have the video of him being handcuffed?

That's all we have right now. But he was -- I am told, I have not seen the video. I am told that he was -- he was leaned up against the car.

And then his face was pushed down on to the -- on to the hood.

STU: Come on.

GLENN: And he was handcuffed.

They're going to put leg irons on him, and an orange yomps.

Now, for four misdemeanors, why do you need leg irons?

JILL: It's all the humiliation game.

And that's exactly what -- everything is going back to. None of this needed to happen. The way that it is.

I hope that that is what people take away from today. None of this needed to happen this way.

It could have been an order to appear in front of the court. It didn't have to be duress. It didn't have to be an orange yomps. It didn't have to be with the chains.

But they're doing this for show.

STU: He told me yesterday, Glenn. That the fifth person to breach the Capitol building.

The fifth, was a New York Times journalist.

GLENN: Who went through the window.

STU: The window. The broken window. The fifth one.

Now, look, I am not at all advocating that the New York Times journalist who went in there, should be arrested. Should not.

Quite clearly, this is a story worth covering, and it's -- it's vitally important we have video that Steve took. Which, by the way, was then used by documentaries.

GLENN: HBO.

STU: By the House -- the -- whatever that counsel -- the committee was.

GLENN: The committee of clowns.

STU: The committee of clowns that went after everybody. They used his footage. And now they're going to arrest him for taking it. It's incomprehensible what they're doing.

GLENN: He said, there's a possibility that they get him on some sort of crossing state lines.

Because he crossed state lines and then sold the video. It's like, what?

What kind of law is that?

I've never even heard of that.

STU: These are the Commerce Clause for anything, as you know.

GLENN: Yeah. No. I know. I know. Okay. So you're on your way down to the courthouse, right?

JILL: Yes, I will be there today, reporting back with whatever comes out of the courthouse today.

GLENN: Okay. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

JILL: Thanks, Glenn.

GLENN: I have done this job, since 1978.

I have never seen anything like this.

I believe, they left Steve alone, for two years. He was not a Blaze TV correspondent. They left him alone. They first contacted him, and they had nothing. Literally nothing.

He is a journalist, an independent journalist, when he was at the Capitol. He did not engage in anything.

The guy is a Libertarian. He wasn't for Trump. He wasn't for anybody. He was an independent journalist.

There are, I think, 60 journalists, that were on Capitol Hill that day. Now the federal government, as soon as he joined us. And started putting his stuff out, and it got eyeballs.

All of a sudden, they're after him.

And I don't think this is -- I mean, I know they need him to stop. Because he's the guy who has revealed everything.

We're getting down to the Kamala Harris stuff. He told me yesterday, some things that he's working on.

And he said, Glenn, there are other people, who know it.

Other people have my work, in case, I become suicidal, in jail.

He said, and he told me a story, I'm not going to tell you.

He told me a story, if he can prove this. I mean, it's game-changing.

This is the clip of him. Is this the clip of him in the Capitol, being handcuffed?

Here he is, the clip of him being handcuffed today if you're watching Blaze TV.

STU: Got to be kidding me.

GLENN: Look at that. Perp walk. This is the nicest, quietest, gentlest man I know.

STU: It's incredible.

GLENN: Unbelievable.

STU: Charges are as follows. Knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority. Now, that's one he's talked about. And he said, you know, look, I'm a journalist. And I know, even as a journalist, I --

GLENN: New York Times was there.

STU: -- I'm not allowed to be in these buildings, even if I'm covering these stories.

However, the fifth person, through a broken window, to enter the Capitol, was a New York Times journalist. And they are not being charged.

GLENN: And he didn't enter through a broken window. The other two -- three charges.

STU: Disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted HEP or grounds. Disorderly conduct in the Capitol building.

GLENN: Didn't happen.

STU: Parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.

GLENN: Didn't happen.

So we are waiting now in front of the -- the justice building, if you can call it that. The courthouse, here in Dallas. One of our colleagues has been arrested today for January 6th. Could we just play the footage, that we got from the Capitol, last night?

There, I mean, look at this. He -- Steve is in this footage, this the Capitol from January 6th. He is up against the wall, right there. He's either writing or he's checking the pictures on his camera, to make sure he has the shots he wants.

STU: He's not even looking at what's going on at that point. He's writing.

GLENN: Yeah, he's not engaged in anything, other than writing and something.

And then soon, he's going to move around the crowd. And he's going to stand in a doorway, doing exactly the same thing, except taking pictures.

RIKKI: Doesn't look very disorderly to me.

STU: No. He's just texting or taking notes.

RIKKI: Not a lot of parading. His tripod is actually up against the wall.

GLENN: Have I seen all of this footage?

RIKKI: No, we've only got -- you heard the Congressman telling --

GLENN: No, no, no. Have you seen all 5 minutes of this -- it's boring as not.

RIKKI: Oh, yeah. It's very boring.

I could see why the FBI didn't want to look at this.

STU: I mean, this is not parading. He's not even engaged with the crowd. He's leaning against the wall, as the crowd passes by. And takes notes. We have seen him try to document the events that are going on.

But like people in front of him are cheering, waving their flags.

He's just leaning against the wall.

GLENN: Writing, writing.

And taking photographs and videos.

This is -- this is insane. But then again, this is -- this is not the only journalist. The other journalist that all other journalists seem to have turned their back on is Catherine Herridge.

She was at CBS, right?

She was just fired. She's been all over. She worked at ABC. NBC.

Fox. And she was at CBS. They just fired her.

And now, she is facing jail time. Because she won't reveal the source of a witness.

And that witness, that whistle blowed to her, was whistle-blowing on how there is an infiltration in our universities. From China.

And the government wants to know who her source was. And so they're putting her in jail.

What a surprise, it has something to do with China, hmm?

So that's two journalists in jail today. Rikki, I'm sorry.

Jill Savage is down at the courthouse. And she's -- we're waiting for Steve to come out. But what is the situation, have you heard, Jill?

JILL: Yeah. I was just up in the room with Steve Baker as he was going through his arraignment. He was there with four -- four defendants, who walked in. Steve, it was nice enough that they were letting him wear his blue dress pants and dress shirts.

So the orange jumpsuit that we were talking about earlier on the show, Glenn, did not happen. But he was indeed shackled at his wrists and ankles.

Steve looked over at us, as he walked in to the courthouse, and definitely showed those -- those shackles there on his wrists and ankles. And, Steve, it is going to be known that he will be released some time today. They were asked that. The government lawyer said that that was fine. That that was going to be part of today's proceedings. And then he will be set to appear in court, in the District of Columbia, on March 14th, at 12:30 Eastern Standard. So that will be the next thing that we should look for, for Steve Baker.

GLENN: Do we know the judge?

Stu, in the charges, it was signed a District of Columbia judge.

We should look up the judge.

Is that the hanging judge?

I mean, he's going into territory now, where he -- good luck getting a fair trial.

JILL: Yeah. Absolutely. And I think that was one of the things that the lawyers definitely knew what they were getting in for today. We were able to speak to them just briefly before they went up into the courtroom. But that is now the unknown.

What happens when things do get into the District of Columbia on March 14th.

GLENN: Tell Steve that I talked to Alan Dershowitz today. And Alan is willing to get involved pro bono, to help him, for free speech cases.

This isn't the only one, unfortunately, that is now popping up.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

Are Epstein's "Blackmail Videos" Being Used for Leverage RIGHT NOW?

What was Jeffrey Epstein's operation all about. If he was at the center of a massive blackmail operation to compromise those in positions of power, who is in possession of that information now? Glenn Beck and ATF Whistleblower John Dodson analyze the details of this situation and give their thoughts on what is the most likely reality surrounding Epstein.

Watch Glenn Beck's FULL Interview with ATF Whistleblower John Dodson HERE

WARNING: How America Elects a Socialist President in 2028 | Glenn TV | Ep 444

The rise of Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old socialist who just won the Democratic primary for mayor, is not just a political earthquake shaking New York City — it’s a warning for the rest of America. Backed by Bernie Sanders, AOC, and the Democratic Socialists of America, Mamdani promises free everything, to tax the rich, and to dismantle capitalism. There’s nothing new about this tired strategy, but the media is propping him up as a new political genius. And with Democrat leaders lining up behind him, it’s clear: This radicalism isn’t fringe anymore. It’s the Democratic Party’s future. Mamdani’s rise is part of a larger movement that’s rewriting America’s values. Glenn Beck explains how New York is the prototype for the Left’s socialist makeover of America. Victor Davis Hanson, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Standford, gives a terrifying prediction on Mamdani’s mayoral race chances and warns the revolution is coming for mainstream Democrats. He also dives into MAGA’s frustration with the Trump administration's handling of the Epstein files.

Salena Zito reveals WHY Trump said “Fight! Fight! Fight!”

“I have a new purpose,” then-candidate Donald Trump told reporter Salena Zito after surviving the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania. Salena joins Glenn Beck to reveal what Trump told her about God, his purpose in life, and why he really said, “Fight! Fight! Fight!”, as she details in her new book, “Butler: The Untold Story of the Near Assassination of Donald Trump and the Fight for America's Heartland”.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Salena, congratulations on your book. It is so good.

Just started reading it. Or listening to it, last night.

And I wish you would have -- I wish you would have read it. But, you know, the lady you have reading it is really good.

I just enjoy the way you tell stories.

The writing of this is the best explanation on who Trump supporters are. That I think I've ever read, from anybody.

It's really good.

And the description of your experience there at the edge of the stage with Donald Trump is pretty remarkable as well. Welcome to the program.

SALENA: Thank you, Glenn. Thank you so much for having me.

You know, I was thinking about this, as I was ready to come on. You and I have been along for this ride forever. For what?

Since 2006? 2005?

Like 20 years, right?

GLENN: Yeah. Yeah.

SALENA: And I've been chronicling the American people for probably ten more years, before that. And it's really remarkable to me, as watching how this coalition has grown. Right?

And watching how people have the -- have become more aspirational.

And that's -- and that is what the conservative populist coalition is, right?

It is the aspirations of many, but the celebration of the individual.

And chronicling them, yeah. Has been -- has been, a great honor.

GLENN: You know, I was thinking about this yesterday, when -- when Elon Musk said he was starting another party.

And somebody asked me, well, isn't he doing what the Tea Party tried to do?

No. The Tea Party was not going to start a new party.

It was to -- you know, it was to coerce and convince the Republican Party to do the right thing. And it worked in many ways. It didn't accomplish what we hoped.

But it did accomplish a lot of things.

Donald Trump is a result of the Tea Party.

I truly believe that. And a lot of the people that were -- right?

Were with Donald Trump, are the people that were with the Tea Party.

SALENA: That's absolutely right.

So that was the inception.

So American politics has always had movements, that have been just outside of a party. Or within a party.

That galvanize and broaden the coalition. Right? They don't take away. Or walk away, and become another party.

If anything, if there is a third party out there, it's almost a Republican Party.

Because it has changed in so many viable and meaningful ways. And the Tea Party didn't go away. It strengthened and broadened the Republican Party. Because these weren't just Republicans that became part of this party.

It was independents. It was Democrats.

And just unhappy with the establishment Republicans. And unhappy with Democrats.

And that -- that movement is what we -- what I see today.

What I see every day. What I saw that day, in butler, when I showed I happen at that rally.

As I do, so many rallies, you know, throughout my career. And that one was riveting and changed everything.

GLENN: You made a great case in the opening chapter. You talk about how things were going for Donald Trump.

And how this moment really did change everything for Donald Trump.

Changed the trajectory, changed the mood.

I mean, Elon Musk was not on the Trump train, until this.

SALENA: Yeah.

GLENN: Moment. What do I -- what changed? How -- how did that work?

And -- and I contend, that we would have much more profound change, had the media actually done their job and reported this the way it really was. Pragmatism

SALENA: You know, and people will find this in the book. I'm laying on the ground with an agent on top of me.

I'm 4 feet away from the president.

And there's -- there's notices coming up on my phone. Saying, he was hit by broken glass.

And to this take, that remains part of this sibling culture, in American politics.

Because reporters were -- were so anxious to -- to right what they believed happened.

As opposed to what happened.

And it's been a continual frustration of mine, as a reporter, who is on the ground, all the time.

And I'll tell you, what changed in that moment.

And I say a nuance, and I believe nuance is dead in American journalism.

But it was a nuance and it was a powerful conversation, that I had with President Trump, the next day. He called me the next morning.

But it's a powerful conversation I had with him, just two weeks ago.

When he made this decision to say, fight, fight, fight.

People have put in their heads, why they think he said it. But he told me why he said that. And he said, Salena, in that moment, I was not Donald Trump the man. I was a former president. I was quite possibly going to be president again.

And I had an obligation to the country, and to the office that I have served in, to project strength. To project resolve.

To project that we will not be defeated.

And it's sort of like a symbolic eagle, that is always -- you know, that symbol that we look at, when we think about our country.

He said, that's why I said that. I didn't want the people behind me panicking. I didn't want the people watching, panicking.

I had to show strength. And it's that nuance -- that I think people really picked up on.

And galvanized people.

GLENN: So he told me, when he was laying down on the stage.

And you can hear him. Let me get up. Let me get up.

I've got to get up.

He told me, as I was laying on the stage. I asked him, what were you thinking? What was going through your head? Now, Salena, I don't know about you.

But with me. It would be like, how do I get off the stage? My first was survival.

He said, what was going on through his mind was, you're not pathetic. This is pathetic.

You're not afraid. Get up.

Get up.

And so is that what informed his fight, fight, fight, of that by the time that he's standing up, he's thinking, I'm a symbol? Or do you think he was thinking, I'm a symbol, this looks pathetic. It makes you look weak.

Stand up. How do you think that actually happened?

SALENA: He thinks, and we just talked about this weeks ago. He -- you know, and this is something that he's really thought about.

Right? You know, he's gone over and over and over. And also, purpose and God. Right? These are things that have lingered with him.

You know, he -- he thought, yes.

He did think, it was pathetic that he was on the ground. But he wasn't thinking about, I'm Donald Trump. It's pathetic.

He's thinking, my country is symbolically on the ground. I need to get up, and I need to show that my country is strong.

That our country is resolute.

And I need people to see that.

We can't go on looking like pathetic.

Right?

And I think that then goes to that image of Biden.

GLENN: You have been with so many presidents.

How many presidents do you think that you've personally been with, would have thought that and reacted that way?

SALENA: Probably only Reagan. Reagan would have. Reagan probably would have thought that.

And if you remember how he was out like standing outside.

You know, waving out the window. Right?

After he was shot.

GLENN: At the hospital, right.

SALENA: Had he not been knocked out, unconscious, you know, he probably would have done the same thing.

Because he was someone who deeply believed in American exceptionalism.

And American exceptionalism does not go lay on the ground.

GLENN: And the symbol.

Right. The symbol of the presidency.

SALENA: Yeah. Absolutely. And I think that affects him today.

GLENN: So let me go back to God.

Because you talked to him the next day. And your book Butler.

He calls you up.

I love the fact that your parents would be ashamed of you. On what you said to him.

The language you used. That you just have to read the book.

It's just a great part.

But he calls you the next morning. And wants to know if you're okay.

And you -- you then start talking to him, about God.

And I was -- I was thinking about this, as I was listening to it. You know, Lincoln said, I wasn't -- I wasn't a Christian.

Even though, he was.

I wasn't a Christian, when I was elected. I wasn't a Christian when my son died.

I became a Christian at Gettysburg.

Is -- is -- I mean, I believe Donald Trump always believes in God, et cetera, et cetera.

Do you think there was a real profound change at Butler with him?

SALENA: Absolutely. You know, he called me seven times that day. Seven times, the take after seven.

GLENN: Crazy.

SALENA: Talked about. And I think he was looking for someone that he knew, that was there. And to try to sort it out.

Right? And I let him do most of the talking. I didn't pressure him.

At all. I believed that he was having -- you know, he was struggling. And he needed to just talk. And I believed my purpose was to listen.

Right? I know other reporters would have handled it differently. And that's okay. That's not the kind of reporter that I am.

And I myself was having my own like, why didn't I die?

Right?

Because it went right over my head.

And -- and so I -- he had the conversation about God.

He's funny. I thought it was the biggest mosquito in the world that hit me.

But he had talked profoundly about purpose. You know, and God.

And how God was in that moment.

It --

GLENN: I love the way you -- in the book, I love the way you said that as he's kind of working it out in his own he head.

He was like, you know, I -- I -- I always knew that there was some sort of, you know -- that God was present.

He said, but now that this has happened.

I look back at all of the trials.

All of the tribulations. Literally, the trials.

All of the things that have happened. And he's like, I realized God was there the whole time.

SALENA: Yes. He does. And it's fascinating to have been that witness to history, to have those conversations with him. Because I'm telling you. And y'all know, I can talk. I didn't say much of anything.

I just -- I just listened. I felt that was my purpose, in that moment.

To give him that space, to work it out.

I'm someone that is, you know, believes in God.

I'm Catholic. I followed my faith.

And -- and so, I thought, well, this is why God put me here. Right?

And to -- to have that -- to hear him talk about purpose, to hear him say, Salena. Why did I put a chart down?

I'm like, sir. I don't know. I thought you were Ross Perot for a second.

He never has a chart. And he laughed. And then he said, why did I put that chart down?

By that term, I never turned my head away from people at the rally. That's true.

That relationship is very transactional. It's very -- they feed off of each other.

It's a very emotive moment when you attend a rally. Because he has a way of talking at a rally. That you believe that you are seeing.

And he said, and I never turn my head away.

I never turn my head away.

Why did I turn my head away?

I don't remember consciously thinking about turning my head away. And then he says to me, that was God, wasn't it?

Yes, sir. It was. It was God.

And he said, that's -- that's why I have a new purpose.

And so, Glenn. I think it's important, when you look at the breadth of what has happened, since he was sworn in.

You see that purpose, every day.

He doesn't let up.

He continues going.

And it brings back to the beginning of the book.

Where you find out, that there was another president that was shot at in Butler.

And that was George Washington. And how different the country would have been, had he died in that moment.

And now think about how different the country would be, had President Trump died in that moment. There would be --

GLENN: We're talking to -- we're talking to Salena Zito. About her new book called Butler. The assassination attempt on President Trump. And it is riveting.

And, you know, it is so good. I wish the press would read it. Because it really explains who we are, who Trump supporters are. Who are, you know, red staters. It is so good at that. She's the best at that.