RADIOJune 24, 2025

Why Trump’s Iran strike DID NOT violate the Constitution

Some Democrats are now calling for President Trump’s impeachment because he bombed Iran without congressional approval. But were Trump’s actions legal? Former State Department Special Advisor for Iran, Gabriel Noronha, joins Glenn Beck to explain the truth about the strike. Plus, he details what Iran might have had concerning nuclear weapons.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Gabriel, welcome to the program, Polaris National Security President, former State Department special adviser for Iran.

Did the -- did the president need to have congressional permission before striking Iran over the weekend?

GABRIEL: No. He remembers.

It would have been nice to have the strength of the president's hand, when he does have a congressional authorization for the military force. But the Constitution grants him the powers as commander-in-chief, to take all necessary actions, especially in a limited fashion like he just did.

There are no forces being entered into. There's a conflict. There's no boots on the ground.

This isn't us invading Iraq and toppling the government. This is a limited taking out their nuclear program.

And so he's under full legal authorization. The Constitution grants him to do this.

GLENN: And they -- they have never said anything about ISIS when he went after ISIS and shoved them down. Right?

I mean, we didn't hear this argument.

Why, all of a sudden, is this one so different than all of the limited strikes we have seen from all of the presidents recently?

GABRIEL: You know, you go back to Libya, 2011.

You go back to ISIS, 2014, 2015. Same scenario.

They -- actually, in those cases, those were even more intense military conflicts that we were involved in. And Democrats didn't say anything.
Republicans -- a few Republicans said a few things. But the reason here, is because they want to find something to attack president Trump for it. But there's nothing on the policy. Because this went so well. So they're going after the legal crush, just because they don't have anything else.

Here's another thing. I was in Congress for four years. There were votes by tells me, where they said, we want to strip the president of the ability to attack Iran.

And they introduced amendment after amendment after amendment. And they all failed. Not a single one passed. I saw probably a dozen of these attacks over my years there. All failed.

Either in the markup process on the House floor, the Senate floor, Congress. So Congress had the opportunity to stop this if they wanted, and they have always said, no.

We want the president to have the ability to strike Iran, when it's necessary.

GLENN: And, you know, I have to tell you, the world has changed. It's not like I have to send a ship to go sailing across the ocean anymore. Within 36 hours, we can leave, you know, our base here in America.

Be over in Iran. Drop bombs. And be back at home. You know, in time for dinner the next day.
I mean, it is -- it is very, very different.

And I think it's only logical to say, the president should have a limited ability to -- not declare war. But to respond, or to do a limited strike, if it is in the national interests.

And then, if it -- if it turns into something else. You know, Congress can reprimand him if they want.

Or isn't there something in the Constitution, that says, 30 days, or 60 days, they can shut off all the money.

If he hasn't declared war or gone to Congress, they can just say, we're shutting off all he money. So that's not accurate in this particular case.

Because you would have to have ongoing things. But a president just can't start a war. Congress can't. Correct?

GABRIEL: You're right. So back to 1973, at the height of the Vietnam War, Congress had been concerned that a lot of that had been unauthorized. So they passed what was called a War Powers Resolution. That gave two things.

First, it said, within 48 hours of military enforcement entering a conflict, the president needs to come to Congress and basically tell them, look, legal authorization was used.

And so I expect Trump will do that today.

There will be a legal report filed.

The next thing is that, Congress said, they have 60 days, to pass an authorization for force.

Or if it doesn't happen, then the president has to withdraw the forces.

But here's the thing, the Supreme Court has never ruled that resolution constitutional. And every single president since 1973. Democrat and Republicans.

Have all asserted that is an unconstitutional resolution that was passed in the lay.

So Congress has the option. If Congress wants, they have the power of the purse.

At my point, they can defund any war. They can defund the Pentagon, if they wanted to.

And they can force the President to bring (inaudible), and Congress has never done so. Because Congress basically has passed the buck to the President.

GLENN: Right.

The -- the idea that the president has to go to the gang of eight. And alert them, before anything happens.

Does that mean before the decision is made, or right after the decision is made?

I mean, I know he went to, you know, the leaders of Congress. Just minutes before the bombing started.

And, quite honestly, if I were the president, I would have done exactly the same thing.

I can't trust members of Congress. Look at what they're doing.

These members of Congress, they're so radicalized. They're marching in the streets. To the people burning our cities down.

I don't know what I would have done. Other than exactly what Donald Trump did.

Did he violate any laws or anything with how he handled himself, with the members of Congress?

The leadership.

GABRIEL: No, he didn't. So the gang of eight for folks who don't know is the Democrat and Republican, Senate majority leaders, minority leaders. House leaders. And the leaders up in the Intelligence communities.

Now, there's a tradition, that sort of the big secrets get briefed to them, things like Chinese espionage, Russian nuclear war, but there's not any legal requirement on this. And I'll tell you, when president Obama killed Osama Bin Laden.

There wasn't a notification to Congress on that either.

GLENN: Didn't hear anything about that.

GABRIEL: It's more of a tradition of deference to Congress. If you want to tell them, special things, you can.

But there's no legal requirement.

It's really just the way sort of things are often done for big intelligence things.

This is a military operation, more than an intelligence operation.

So I don't even think they're supplies in this case

GLENN: So let me ask you about something like people like Steve Bannon are saying right now.

They suggested that our Intel was Deep State. War informed by Mossad.

What Intel did you receive during the first Trump administration, that would leave you to believe that this is a sincere threat to American interests, not just a -- a justification to help Israel?

GABRIEL: You know, a lot of it, you don't even have to get the intelligence reports from.

It's the fact that they promised at the highest levels of leadership, they promised to wipe Israel off the map. They promised to destroy America.

So they have pensions there.

In terms of capability, what we saw, they were retaining the secret archive of everything needed to build a nuclear weapon.

And they never declared that during Obama's Iran Deal. And so even in Obama's Iran deal, they were breaking that from day one, about having the secret archive.

And then they had a bunch of nuclear scientists working on weaponization activities.

On the kinds of things that you need to actually physically assemble warheads and make something explode. And so all of that has been public knowledge for years. And so with -- you know, with respect to -- our Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard. I think it's ridiculous that any country would get to the 99-yard line of getting nuclear weapons.

But say that they don't intend at some point to cross into the touch down zone that defied logic, frankly.

GLENN: Correct.

You know, I'm hearing from both sides, that Trump was negotiating. I think trying to negotiate.
And the other side, Iran says, they were never serious. In fact, we would show up. And then they would never show up.

Can you give me any insight on what the negotiations were actually like, prior to the strikes, and do you think things are different now.

And if so, how?

GABRIEL: I think President Trump was genuinely interested in solving this the diplomatic way.

I will tell you, he gave them very generous terms. He gave them a lot of what they had asked for.

He came back a long ways from his position of 2018 to 2020. Where he had those 12 demands on Iraq.

Here he only had three or four things that were really essential.

But what the Iranians did. And they have always done this.

They tried to negotiate every syllable point.

They tried to get more and more and more.

Every time they would agree to something, they would come back and renege on it. This wasn't the behavior of someone that wants to solve this. This is a behavior someone that wanted to delay for time, and wanted to try to extract every concession. Not the behavior of someone that genuinely wanted to live in peace with the United States and Israel.

GLENN: I am so impressed with the team around Donald Trump.

Especially with Marco Rubio. I didn't know what to expect from Marco Rubio.

As a secretary of state. I think he's been just outstanding. What had you had his message be to Iran now?

GABRIEL: You know, I think it would be this. You guys have the option to respond logically, or respond emotionally.

The logical path would be to say, look, all our air defenses are gone. Our ballistic missiles are mostly gone. Our nuclear program is gone.

It's time to negotiate the terms of surrender, in a way that gives us sanity. In a way that allows our government to survive.

And to save our people from more destruction and economic misery. That would be the logical step.

And the emotional step is: We're going to go, attack American bases, extract revenge.

And I think what Secretary Rubio should do, is lay out really clearly for Iranian leaders the consequences of that emotional path.

And say, if you do this, you will have your leadership wiped out. You will see the rest of your ballistic missile program wiped out. And you won't get good terms of negotiation.

So if you can box in Iran's leaders, give them a good off ramp, saying, hey. Here's a realistic path that you can take to preserve your interests. And to maintain peace.

But don't take that hard path.

GLENN: Okay. So Rick Grenell said, he spoke to somebody. An Iranian source on the ground.

Who said, things on the ground are really, really bad. They're locking everybody up in their house.

You know, it's marshal law.

They've already rounded up a group of religious dissidents that they say were spies for Israel.

But executed like 100 of them over the weekend.

They've arrested hundreds -- hundreds more. The -- I can't remember the name of the religious police.

It's Iran. Can't remember. Maybe you know.

GABRIEL: That's probably the besiege. Probably the besiege.

GLENN: Yeah. Yes. Exactly right.

And they are on the streets, pretty mercilessly right now, checking everybody's phone, their car. I mean, it's very dangerous.

Do you think there's a chance, that the people can rise up and why hasn't the president encouraged them to rise up yet?

GABRIEL: You know, I think the Iranian people want to get rid of this regime.

But I will tell you, hearing some Iranians myself, I hear, they're pretty afraid for themselves.

They are having to evacuate their teams. They're trying to find a shelter. They don't know what what's going to happen. And so they probably won't take to the streets. And go over to the government right now.

But a month from now, this war is over. That's really the time where they could see their whole leadership crippled. And say, we want a new future.

And one of the things that is really good right now, which is really smart. Is they are destroying the internal government bureaucracy that is used to depressed the Iranians. You know, the gestapo stations, for lack of a better term. All the units which torture people. Arrest people. Murder people. Their high-tech surveillance.

They're showing all these institutions, which used to be the ones that masked the Iranian people. And so they're paving the way, that if the Iranians decide to take to the streets down the road, that they will be empowered. They will be able to gain momentum.

And that they would be actually successful in those efforts to overthrow the regime. Go ahead.

GLENN: Go ahead. No, no, no. Please, go ahead.

GABRIEL: I saw President Trump, I think yesterday, he sort of provided an opening for the regime change.

And he started saying, look, if the government will not do the smart thing, the Iranian people should take control of their own future. And change the regime themselves. So that's the first time we've seen that from President Trump in the administration reviews. Sort of encourage the Iranian people, to overthrow this regime. I think that's a smart thing to do.

I don't think we can get a full resolution, to the nuclear threat, while this regime is in power.

GLENN: Right.

Polaris National Security president, Gabriel Noronha is with us now.

Gabriel, I have hope, that this could be a Poland situation, if the people would rise up and the regime is toppled.

But we have not seen that anywhere else in the Middle East.

Is it possible. Is it probable that the Iranian people would choose to go away, and become more, what they were in the 1970s?

GABRIEL: It is possible, yes.

I would probably only give it a 35 percent chance. Here's why, I put it that low.

It's the Iranian leaders, unlike like leaders in Poland, unlike even Gorbachev, are willing to use as much military force as necessary, to kill those protesters, and stay in power.

And that makes it really tough for them.

What you don't have in Iran, is you don't have a military group, that has power, that has guns.

That is able to overthrow the regime. The regime would basically have to collapse under its own weight.

Under its own corruption. And under its own weakness.

GLENN: And if it did.

GABRIEL: But you won't have it removed.

GLENN: If it did collapse, would it be taken over by other extremists?

Or is there at least an even shot, that the people could have it?

GABRIEL: You know, there's a good shot that the people would have it.

There's a large number of Iranians, who all they really want is a secular government that is at peace with its neighbors.

That doesn't pursue a nuclear weapon.

That allows the Iranian people to thrive, build a future for themselves. That's what I hope happens.

It's a small possibility. But it's what we can work for and hope for.

GLENN: And pray for.

Great, Gabriel. Thank you so much.

Thanks for your service to the nation, and thanks for the update. Appreciate it.

Secret Docs Reveal the ENTIRE Deep State Network | Glenn TV | Ep 451

The recent declassifications from Tulsi Gabbard’s ODNI and the Durham annex give us a rare glimpse into something much bigger and deeper than the Russiagate hoax against President Trump. Glenn Beck heads to the chalkboard to connect the dots and map out how the entire deep state operation works. We reveal who the players are, where the funding comes from, and how they exert their influence. From international color revolutions to the Ukraine impeachment and the Russiagate hoax, everything is finally starting to make sense. John Solomon, CEO and editor in chief of Just the News, gives Glenn a sneak peek into a bombshell investigation that exposes how the deep state provided cover for Clinton Foundation corruption.

Former CIA Officer EXPOSES John Brennan's Massive Web of Corruption

Bryan Dean Wright, a former CIA Operations Officer, tells Glenn Beck why he believes his former boss John Brennan belongs in prison and what must happen to prevent a full-blown trust implosion in American institutions.

Watch This FULL Episode of 'Glenn TV' HERE

Why Trump is RIGHT to take back DC

President Trump is cracking down on crime in Washington, DC, and Glenn Beck believes it’s a “brilliant” move. Glenn explains why Trump is taking action, whether it’s legal, and what he believes it says to the world.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: So the president yesterday, taking control of our Capitol back. And he said this, cut three. Listen.

DONALD: My father always used to tell me. I had a wonderful father. Very smart. And he used to say: Son, when you walk into a restaurant and you see a dirty front door, don't go in. Because if the front door is dirty, the kitchen is dirty also. Same thing with the Capitol. If our Capitol is dirty, our whole country is dirty, and they don't respect us.

GLENN: It's absolutely true.

This is the broken windows theory. You know what that is? The broken windows theory is something that Rudy Giuliani used to turn the country around. And that theory is, no one, no one, picks up a rock or can or bottle or anything, that's in a nice neighborhood that's clean and everything else.

You don't pick up a rock and break a window. However, if you're in a neighborhood where there is a lot of broken windows and everything is broken down, the average person is much more likely to pick up a rock and throw it through a window.

Why? Because the entire neighborhood says, we don't care.

So what Rudy Giuliani did, was he used this theory, and he cleaned up the -- he cleaned up the subways by doing a couple of things.

First thing he did, was he made sure, that if you were jumping the turnstile, for the -- for the subway, you were stopped right there.

Before, people just weren't paying a fair, they were just jumping a turnstile.

And nobody was doing anything about it.

He says, no one was crossing that turnstile. Now, what is it?

Is it a dollar to ride the subway? No one rides it for free. And so he put police, right there.

And they stopped you, and arrested you, if you were jumping the turnstile.

The second thing is, was he stopped the graffiti. He said, I don't care if they have to be repainted every single day.

When those things pull into the station, at night. If we get there in the morning, and they've been spray-painted, I want them all painted again, and then they go out.

Everything had been covered in graffiti.

And when he changed those two things, all of a sudden, the attitude, of the subway, it became safe again.

Because it was sending a signal to the bad guys and to the good guys, we care. We're not going to let this happen, anymore.

So what he's saying here, about dirty doorstep, means a dirty kitchen. It's absolutely true.

You ever gone into a restaurant. Gone into their bathroom. And you're like, oh, boy.

Oh, God.

I can't eat now.

Because if the -- the bathroom for the customer is like that. What is their kitchen like, where the customer never sees it. That's what he's doing, and he has the absolute right to do it. He's got 30 days, before he has to bring Congress into it.

This is the -- back in 1973, Congress passed this Home Rule Act. And they didn't have a mayor. They didn't have a city council. They didn't have any of these things.

This has been from the beginning of our country, the Founders wanted the District of Columbia, to be a district that is a federal district, run by the federal government. Not by local rile.

And in 1973, they started that. And it was all just to get them to be declared a state. First a city with a mayor. Then we should have power to elect the president of the United States.

Yada. Yada. Yada.

This has not been worked. This has been an experiment that has not worked at all. So he can deploy the National Guard for law enforcement, because there is no governor of DC. He can use it for emergencies, crowd control, and to execute federal laws. However, he just declared an emergency.

Now, under the Home Rule Act, he can assume control of the Metro PD, which he didn't, for up to 48 hours, during special conditions of emergency.
And that time period can be extended.

But he -- what he's doing here, is he's using these 30 days, hoping that the home rules act is going to be revealed. Only Congress can reveal that. But there's movement to reveal it now. And if Congress appeals the home rule act.

Then this nonsense in the District of Columbia is over. And if anyone tells you, you know what, the crime status are going down.

To what?

To what?

Even if they went down to 2019 standards, is that good enough?

I mean, it is still more dangerous than walking around in Bogota, Colombia.

It is twice as dangerous as walking around in Islamabad!

I don't know. I don't think that's really a good thing.

And, by the way, they changed the way -- you're a stat person. Did you read this about the stats.

PAT: Playing with them.

GLENN: Oh, my God. Playing with them.

Felony assault is not considered a violent crime now in their crime stats. Not assault. Felony assault. Felony means usually prison is -- is tied to that.

STU: Yeah. Not just some easy misdemeanor, where you get your hand slapped.

GLENN: Felony assault.

STU: Yeah. If you're not going to include that, it's hard to even take that seriously.

But your point is more crucial to this, than even the statistical games.

GLENN: Yeah.

STU: Because they keep -- they keep bragging they're getting it back to 2019 levels, or maybe a tick below. That's not good.

GLENN: No. It's not.

STU: What you're saying is acceptable is not acceptable.

That's the message from the White House.

I would love to see it.

And we're seeing it so far. I would love to see the Democrats try to win that battle those rules.

If what you're trying to tell me, because we were there for the inauguration.

GLENN: Police everywhere.

STU: Of course that was -- police everywhere -- it's a totally different --

GLENN: But I had a guy threaten my life, and not for political reasons. Just because I think he was batcrap crazy.

STU: Yeah. Yeah. Right. I mean, a lot of sane people threatened your life on a regular basis. Crazy.

GLENN: This is a nutjob.

STU: Yeah. But, like, unless you're at the mall, during the day, it's -- and even there, can get sketchy at times.

GLENN: Oh, yeah.

STU: You feel it.

GLENN: You feel it. You feel it.

STU: You want to stay inside your hotel room.

GLENN: And, you know what, everybody knows this. Washington Post. There -- this is a story on how safe the city is.

This is a safe city, but overhearing witness game threats and then watching the camera footage of the thuggery is disturbing, said one resident.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, over --

STU: Anonymity, over concerns of personal safety.

GLENN: Yes. Anonymity, over concerns of personal safety. So I don't want my name in the paper, because I'm afraid of the thugs finding out who I am, and killing me. But it's perfectly safe. Oh, my gosh!

STU: Everyone knows this! Anyone who has ever been to DC. You know it, by walking around.
Weird crap happens to you. People approach you, in threatening ways.

GLENN: You know, Rikki told me just a few minutes ago, our executive producer. She said, last time I was in DC. And she lived in DC for many, many years. She said, I was in my old neighborhood.
She said, I used to walk at 2 o'clock in the morning.
I never had a problem with that. She said, I went to this restaurant. And I was there with a friend.

And I had gone there a million times.

She says, it's in the middle of the day. Within just a few minutes, she's sitting on a patio outside, some huge guy, she said, 300 pounds, at least 6 feet, comes up and says, I'm going to kill you. And starts threatening her and her life.

They call the cops. It takes them 15 minutes. She's not far from the Capitol. Fifteen minutes to get there. And then they don't do anything about it.

He -- she's like, anybody who says, this isn't happening, has just never been there. Here's an ABC anchor. Now, remember, their whole spin is, this was fascism.

There's no -- it's a safe city. Listen to this ABC anchor. Listen to this. Cut one.

We've been talking so much about the numbers, and usually that's how you play devil's advocate. You talk about, oh, well, stats say crime is down.

However, I can tell you firsthand here in downtown DC, where we were, right here around our bureau, just in the past six months, you know, there were two people shot. One person died. Literally two blocks down here from the bureau.

It was within the last two years, that I actually was jumped, walking just two blocks down from here. And then just this morning, one of my coworkers said her car was stolen, a block away from the bureau. So we can talk about the numbers, going down. But crime is happening every single day, because we're all experiencing it firsthand while working and listing down here.

GLENN: Hmm. Hmm.

STU: You know.

GLENN: Go ahead.

STU: I was just going to say, I was on vacation last week. You know, it's like saying I'm cutting my calories from vacation levels to normal levels.

It's still not healthy. Right?

It's just -- even if there is an improvement from 2023, which some numbers do show, although the numbers are questionable.

2023 was just absolute catastrophe. And this is just terrible. Right?

Like, that -- there's no reason to embrace this norm.

As the norm.

GLENN: So let me give you -- I want to show you the response. The response on the left.

Here is -- show the full screen here of the free DC.

This came out yesterday.

Free DC. Like it's under some fascistic.

Look at this deal. And what it says is it is encouraging residents to protest Trump's federalizing of the city's police force. And what it wants to do is starting tonight at 8:00 p.m. And then every night, go out to stop this occupation.

Go out and bring pots and pans. And bang on them. And then when you're -- your neighbors go, what the hell is wrong with you!

Say, don't you care about the fascistic government.

STU: People will love that.

GLENN: This is crazy. This is crazy.

Now, if Donald Trump and I think with Jeanine Pirro.

I think some things are going to be happening quickly there.

STU: Hmm.

GLENN: He actually has a chance. And I don't think he's doing it this way, for this reason.

But he actually has a chance of turning DC Republican.

Because you're living in that. Imagine --

STU: It's hard to imagine.

GLENN: It's hard to imagine. But imagine living there. And now you're seeing your side, that you've always voted for. Say, it's not so bad. And you know it's bad.

You can't have your wife go out to the grocery store at night.

You've had your carjacked. Maybe crazy people on the streets.

And then he's doing something. And if it works, if it works, people will be like, you know what, I'm sorry.

But that is a better solution.

He is -- this is very brilliant of him. He's very good at this.

He knows where people live.

You know, spiritually. And physically. He knows right where they live.

And where they're living in Washington it can't. Is a hellhole.

And everybody there knows it. And if he can actually change their lives, he changes everything.

Are these MAJOR PROBLEMS with our airlines widespread?

What is going on at our airports?! Glenn Beck has noticed an increase in flight issues – delays, technical problems, understaffing. So, he speaks with aviation expert Mike Boyd, who explains where he believes these issues are coming from. Are they widespread? Or is it just one airline? And can the FAA fix these issues under President Trump?

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Mike Boyd. Welcome to the program, Mike, how are you?

MIKE: I'm doing fine. It's an honor to be here.

GLENN: Thank you. So thank you for coming on. I've been asking for an interview with Secretary Duffy, and we haven't been able to align the schedules yet.

But I am very concerned about our airlines. I was on a plane. These were all American Airlines, by the way. I was on the plane. The pilot, we got on. It was like two hours, three hours later late. We got on. And the pilot was standing in the aisle. And he said, everybody, I don't want you to blame the airlines. I want you to blame me.

And we're like, oh, okay.

And he said, because I wouldn't accept the plane, that they wanted to us fly because I have flown it before. And it has problems. And they haven't fixed those problems. And the only way it's going to be fixed is if we reject it. And say, I can't fly.

I don't know if that's true or not. Or what this guy -- you know, what the story was. But that didn't fill me with confidence. I'm like, wait a minute. Wait a minute. So you're actually saying, the airline is not repairing a plane.

And I don't think -- I mean, I don't think our airplanes are in trouble, and going to start falling out of the sky. But that has been happening lately.

What is happening with our airlines?

MIKE: Well, I think the experience you had, that one specific one. We've done a lot from -- I come from an American Airlines background. Nevertheless, we've done a lot of work with American pilots unions. These are very professional people. The fact that guy stood up there and said, I'm not confident with this airplane. That's a safety -- that's a safety plus.

GLENN: Oh, I appreciated that. We thanked him for that. Thank you. Thank you.

MIKE: But we have a major problem with American Airlines. If you have pilots saying, I don't trust you. These are not yo-yos. These are not good consumer men's. These are professionals. If they say that, we have a problem in America. If that happens in America, and I think you might want to call the folks down there in Fort Worth, their brand-new American Way headquarters. They spent billions on them and asked questions.

But overall, I haven't seen that. Are there big problems with air traffic control?

Yes. No question about that. And we finally have somebody that the FAA and the DOT, who has a clue. And that will be addressed.

But overall, if it's just one airline, you're on the right track, as far as looking at it.

GLENN: Okay.

So this is -- but are you seeing this kind of stuff happening with other airlines.

MIKE: No. No.

GLENN: I'm flying out of Dallas all the time. So I generally fly American. And I occasionally will fly Delta. But, you know, it's mainly American. So I just assume this is happening on other airlines as well.

Because I'm reading the comments from people. And they're like, I can't trust that I can get there the next day anymore.

And that's a real problem.

MIKE: Well, because air travel is. I have to get there times certain.

This is not a game. I have to get to the bar mitzvah, whatever I'm going.

So if they can't get there, I'm not going to go. And the reason I'm not going to go, is you can't get me there. Now, if you look at reliability.
And again, we've had some issues, like Frontier Airlines, if you want to see Saturday Night Lights, go to YouTube. You'll see a gated -- a gated net, Frontier Airlines. It's really bad. But if you look at others, like our friends at United Airlines -- and I don't work for those guys. They have a system where if you book at United, very often, they're with you the whole damn trip.

If you don't like a lot of text messages, don't book them. They're with you, the whole time. And their CEO is functionally age, about making sure, whatever went on. Whatever it is. Take it or leave it.

From that point, I think you may have stumbled over something that affects the metroplex, more than anything else.

GLENN: So how's -- because I've been on the plane. And everybody is like, we're going to have missing.

You know, you will miss your connections.

And everybody is like -- is this kind of -- is the airline system set up almost like the Just In Time supply line? That if it did ever go into catastrophic failure, it would be a real problem.

Because, I mean, it's just one plane arrives, just in time for everyone to unload and reload and take off again.

MIKE: Well, yeah. That's just the issue. In ancient times, our friends at Southwest could come in and go in ten minutes.

Today, you can't get ten seats emptied in that amount of time. So they're really trying to cut down the amount of time, on the ground. That makes sense.

The question is, they have to have systems they can't be allow them to do that.

Now, delta has put in a very comprehensive system that only works for Delta, where they have been able to coordinate all those things, and do a better job of it.

But you're right. If you're coming in and going out, and that airplane has to do a go-around, coming into Atlanta. That could be 15 minutes.

That 15 minutes could mean, you can't get across the terminal to get your connection. That's going to happen.

GLENN: Tell me about the situation.

Because, Stu, you did a documentary on how bad the air traffic control system was. Right?

STU: Yes, I did.

GLENN: And is that on YouTube still? What was the name of it?

STU: It is. Countdown to the next Aviation Disaster. Unfortunately the countdown was not as long as you would have hoped it would have been.

GLENN: Yeah, it is. I mean, what's going on in our air traffic control.

And I would never want to be an air traffic controller. The stress these guys are under.

And that's not -- I'm not even calculating the stress on how close these planes are flying in and out now.

I mean, I'm just thinking, back in the good old days, where it was very stressful.

Now they're still passing paper to each other. And these planes are one on top of the other one.

When are we going to change this system and update it?

MIKE: Duffy is doing that. Duffy is not -- and finally, we have an FAA administrator who has a clue. Brian Bedford. He's been around. No, I've known him for 40 years. This man knows the business, and he's all business.

And, you know -- and, you know, I know he's good because Chuck Schumer doesn't like him. So that underlines everything right there.

GLENN: Good.

MIKE: So that's starting right now. Look, we testified to Congress in 1994 on this. On a free flight system, that you could make it far more efficient. The FAA blew it off. The FAA has always been a repository of some really great people at the operational level.

But at the top, these are just political appointees. Take a look at the FAA administrator that the -- the last president wanted. Phil Washington. Nice guy. Clueless. But he was a good appointee.

We can't do that anymore. I think we're going to see some major changes right now.

GLENN: Now, can -- how long is it going to take us to fix this?

MIKE: Well, you know, one of the things.

It's sort of -- what Duffy said, well, we have a -- there was a program in place to fix it over the next five years. And that's ridiculous.

So he's on it. I mean, he just went up to Wisconsin. He found the oldest, I think the oldest control tower in the nation. We're going to fix this. He's really making a point of trying to get it done.

And I think he's doing it incrementally. Where like Newark. What a disaster. I don't mean this city, necessarily. I do.
(laughter)
But at the airport, you know.

He's trying to make that work better.

This guy is on it. So I'm thinking 18 months.

It's going to be incremental. But we will start to see this happen.

GLENN: In Newark, or in the country?

MIKE: In the country. Because we can't have a free flight system that is far more efficient --

GLENN: What does it mean, a free flight system?

MIKE: There's a free flight system -- they want to ignore this, where every airplane takes off, and it finds its own ways. Keep in mind, the skies aren't crowded.

You can put 250,000, count them, 737s in a cubit mile of airspace, parked, not moving.

But that's a quarter million of them. And any time in America, today, in the sky, you might have just 14,000 -- 14,000 airplanes in the sky.

GLENN: Wow.

MIKE: But that's like 11 million cubic miles of airspace. So we can use our airspace better.

But what we've had is quite frankly, an FAA that hasn't wanted to think about it. It's more worried about itself. I am convinced that is going to change over the next two years.

GLENN: And are we close to having AI do all of this free flight stuff?

I mean, I would imagine that you don't -- I mean, you don't need to check in with tower, if AI is assisting finding it.

MIKE: Oh, exactly. We've got to use that. And a lot of it -- it's -- the head of the FAA has always been the clown of the Titanic. He says, slow down.

And by the time, it gets back to the engine room, you know, we've hit the iceberg. I think it's one of those things that we have to recognize, a lot of stuff has to change organizationally at the FAA, and at the department of transportation. I think finally we have people that can actually address that.

GLENN: Wow!

That is -- I mean, this is wildly optimistic, but I am happy to hear that. I like Secretary Duffy.

I don't know much about him.

Not enough to say enough like you're talking. That makes me feel really good. I'm very concerned about our air travel.

It's not good. Not good.

Not going in the right direction.

MIKE: It's not going in the right direction.

I find out, if I treat the customer right, they might come back and fly me, and what's happening now, people are getting away from some of these really low fair airlines, where the seat is like, a bucket seat in a C-119.

They don't want to fly those things anymore. And people like United and Delta and other carriers are saying, we'll take your business.

And they are.

GLENN: I have to tell you, at times, I'll be on a plane. And I think we're like one scruffy dog with one blue eye, just walking down the aisle, creepily away from third world airlines. I mean, it's like, there are times I'm like, is there a chicken going to run down the aisle too? What country do we live in?

It's beyond. It really is the greyhound of the sky now.

MIKE: It is. There's no question. My mother was a stewardess in the 1930s. Everybody dressed up.

GLENN: Yes.

MIKE: Today, you're lucky if everybody is dressed.
(laughter)

GLENN: I don't know why we haven't had you on before, Mike. You're very funny.

Mike, thank you so much. For an inside look on this. I appreciate it. Mike Boyd, aviation expert. From the Boyd group international. He's the president and CEO.

MIKE: Me pleasure. Thank you.

GLENN: He's the guy who consults all these airlines and tries to help fix them.

And is also, you know, testifying in front of Congress all the time.