RADIOSeptember 23, 2022

It SHOULDN'T have taken THIS for Democrats, media to FINALLY care about the border crisis

Comedian Jamie Kilstein has undergone quite the transformation over the past few years, from being surrounded by liberals who have abandoned him to realizing conservatives are much more "open-minded." So, he wasn't surprised by how quickly the rich leftist residents of Martha's Vineyard shipped out the illegal immigrants Gov. Ron DeSantis sent over. Jamie gives his take on that hypocrisy, as well as the why he believes "nuance shouldn't be edgy"...

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Jamie, how are you, my man?

JAMIE: I laughed so hard, at that intro. Because it was like -- I felt the same way. I was like, oh, tragic. Tragic. Tragic. No, I'll be funny. Everything is fine. And you're like, back in the day, before my life imploded, you know, a comedian gets introed for a radio show. And, you know, you've heard this guy on Conan O'Brien, and now my intros are just this long, tragic tale. And my next guest is searching for redemption, from purgatory.

GLENN: Right. Right.

My next guest has been considering suicide, but today he's fine.
(laughter)

JAMIE: We caught him on an off day! He doesn't know how to tie a proper knot.

But, man, I'll tell you, you did say something. And you covered this on your podcast. But you did say something so wild. Which is, me being painted as this sort of outside thing to be examined, is so bizarre. Because like, new answer shouldn't be edgy. Having multiple opinions on different issues, shouldn't be controversial. And the fact that I feel like, the people -- and you've gotten this too. Who have gotten the most thrown under the bus now. And don't get me wrong. I used to be that way. Pick a side. And started losing friends like the rest of us. But now, I think it's so healthy. And I also think it is representative of the majority of people. But the majority of people, are too nervous, to anger their own tribe stop if they do -- you know, if it's a conservative, who is like, I don't really care about gay marriage. Or if it's a liberal, who is like, yo. These drag shows are like, not okay. They're afraid to sort of get ostracized from their own group. Because, you know, things are so rough retain. We're clinging on any sort of life support. That we just keep it quiet. So I think the majority of people are going to start speaking up, like, hey, man, there's crazies on both sides, and there are also really cool people on both sides.

GLENN: So if your life hadn't exploded or imploded, do you think you would have come to this, or did it take a shipwreck to get you there?

RUSS: I think about this a lot. I think about this a lot. I do really think it has taken some sort of shipwreck.

GLENN: Yeah. I have to tell you, I think -- you know, I've said this all the time. You know, I'll be at church. And they'll be like, oh, share your testimony. And I'll be like, yeah. I really feel sorry for you guys. That you didn't have a life that imploded. Because I really needed redemption. You know what I mean?

I really needed -- and I don't know if I would have actually found it, if it wasn't -- you know, if I wasn't on a ledge.

JAMIE: Yeah. And I'll tell you, I -- you know, I -- I know I'm supposed to be funny. But I think this is important.

GLENN: No. Just be you. Go ahead.

JAMIE: Yeah. I think -- I think that it was -- and not to, you know, kiss up. When on a radio conservative show, people always tweet me pictures of red pills. Like, I know. I know. It's happening. But I will say, I did not feel that way for ten years. Because for ten years, I was only still surrounded with liberals.

And, you know, I'll -- I'll show many of them off-air, off any -- I would love to have you on my podcast. Like, I don't want to get in trouble. For the record, I don't think what you did was bad. And, you know, I cheated on my girlfriend in my 30s.

And my wife is furious. She thinks what happened to you wasn't bad at all. Anyway, we can't be seen together in public, and if you could lose this number.

And then I started, when I moved to Austin, Texas, which is I think legally required for white podcasters. When I moved down here, I suddenly -- I was hanging out with conservatives and moderates and Libertarians.

And people who, they didn't have to go check Twitter to see if they could be your friend.

People who just sincerely saw you for who you are.

How do you treat my family? How do you treat my kids? How do you treat me?

And these are people from Jiu-Jitsu. You know, all over the place. And not necessarily from the political sphere. And that's when -- I mean, we're talking this year at 40. You know, I had an affair ten years ago, eight, ten years ago. We're talking this year at 40 years old is the first time. Meeting you, it's the first time, that I've been like, oh, what happened to me was a blessing. What happened to me did lead me to find God. It did leave me to open my mind. It did lead me to changing my views on certain things. But, dude, when it felt like nobody had your back, it was just me -- and I've had people tell me.

You know, I had a great comedian. Brendan Fraser, I did his podcast a long time ago. And I was still living in LA. And he was like, bro. This is going to be a blessing. You get to restart. And I was just like, shut up. Like, my life is awful. Like, I live -- my apartment in LA, after my divorce was so bad. You know how hard it is to break a lease, especially like in LA and New York. It was so bad, that when I couldn't afford it anymore, and I went up to the landlord to be like, hey. I have to break the lease. He literally looked me in the eyes and goes, just don't tell anyone what you saw here. And I was like, oh. Okay. Like, that's out of a horror movie. It's out of a horror movie.

So then I was like, no. Dude. I don't see how things are good.

And now that I've been around -- and I never thought I would say this -- the more open-minded people. I thought liberals were the open-minded people, because we listen to Kendrick Lamar. But, like, no. The conservatives I've hung out with are more open-minded. And, again, it's funny. Because I used to make fun of religion too. It's like, no. They're the ones that talk about forgiveness. I thought liberals were the ones that talk about forgiveness. Because of prison reform. I thought we were open-minded. But the ones who absolutely practice what we preach. Who I've met. And there are plenty of liberals who are cool.

GLENN: And there are plenty of conservatives, that they suck.

JAMIE: That's the total opposite, and that will be monsters. So it's fine.

GLENN: Right. Right. Right. Right.

So let's talk a little about Ron DeSantis. Ron DeSantis. And how did you view this? And what did you -- what did you learn?

JAMIE: Put your lab coat, buddy. I went all over the place with this. I went so schizophrenic with this. Because when it first happened. I was like, stupid, liberals.

I thought it was so funny. Because I've hung out with rich liberals. Like, there's part of me, that I'm surprised the Martha's Vineyard didn't have the immigrants like, sentenced to death.

I hung out with people, who will tweet about Black Lives Matter, but will cross the street when they see a real life black person. I've been to vegan Hollywood parties, that are just missing a whites only sign.

And separate water fountains. I've been around these people. And so, seeing them have to confront their own hypocrisy was good.

And just to the liberals, by the way, and to attack the media. The media just wants us to see the worst cases.

You know, there were people who took residence, and who fed them, who cooked them meals, and we've never seen that stuff. You know, the media --

GLENN: Yeah. But I'll bet you, it wasn't the people who had the big houses. I'll bet you it was the average person that was there year-round, and those aren't rich people.

JAMIE: No. I bet you, you're 1,000 percent right, 1,000 percent.

Yeah, that's always the funniest thing. When you see Black Lives Matter, or the little lawn sign, in between like eight layers of armed security.

Where it's -- it's performative, right? And so I thought that, you know, I was like, good. But then, I don't know if you had this moment. Where you are on DeSantis.

Oh. And I also will say, I do love this sort of no nonsense exit. Where it's just like -- where we sent a bunch of people -- it's the Texas attitude. And I feel like Florida is like the Texas of the sea.

But then there was this moment -- there was this moment, where I was like, ha, ha, and I was looking at my conservative friends on Twitter, and they were making jokes about it. And it was really funny. And then, again, I don't know if you guys had this. But I was like, where did he get those brown people from? I had this moment of like, wait a second. Did Ron DeSantis like, did he kidnap a bunch of immigrants? Did he traffic them? Was he holding them in his basement?

I had no idea, where -- and that, by the way, that's the most Florida man thing you can do is just kidnap a bunch of immigrants.

The only thing that would have made that more Florida, is if you would have had an alligator guarding them. Bro, just hire actors. Just hire Mexican actors.

They're in right now, cast Latino-esque, or whatever they're called. But don't take real starving, desperate people and trick them, just to own the libs.

Like, I would have rather Ron DeSantis like put on a festive Mexican costume and the little fake mustache, and just gone to Martha's Vineyard himself.

Like, it would have been great. But that was one of those moments, where like, I couldn't let myself fully get wrapped up in --

GLENN: But wait a minute. Wait a minute. He didn't. And everybody signed a release form. They knew where he was going. Come on, man. You wouldn't -- I will -- I'll claim to be an illegal, if you'll -- if he'll send me some tickets to go to Martha's Vineyard.
(laughter)

JAMIE: Yeah, but then you do ask yourself questions, right? Where you go -- like, what I had to do was take myself out of it. And go -- and think about being.

I mean, it's the crazy thing, right? Where you just go, okay. What's it like to be those people?

And I think we're so used to looking at the news through the lens of social media. Where it seems like a video game. And as a video game. That's hilarious. And round one. And the liberals look ridiculous. And I will give Ron DeSantis credit as well. Which is, this is what it took. The media. This is how far we have to go, to get the media to cover this crisis.

GLENN: Yes.

JAMIE: And I was also really surprised -- because I said them, where I was like, hey, did Ron DeSantis just kidnap a bunch of Mexicans or whatever? Venezuelans, whatever? And a lot of conservatives, who I thought were essentially just build a wall. Not my problem. I don't want to see that. Were actually giving me very heartfelt responses. Where it's like, no. Dude. Of course, we don't want to see immigrants families starving. It's just the system has been so broken, that this is what happens, right?

They see that both sides.

GLENN: I have to tell you, when the response from the left and the media has been so telling. They -- they keep saying, all these cities keep saying, they're sanctuary cities. We don't have room.

Wait. You have -- New York, you think a little teeny town of 20,000 people can handle 25,000 people that just came across the border? And you don't even talk about it. You don't talk about the fentanyl. You don't talk about the actual smuggling of humans. The rape that is happening from these drug cartels, as they're bringing people over. It's a horror show. And they don't care.

JAMIE: Yeah. I'm so glad you said that, because this reminds me.

Because I was thinking of when you said New York, I started thinking about LA. And there was part of me that was like, God, LA can just build houses for TikTok influencers. Like, why don't we help real people, right?

But I remember the last time I went to LA, which was just a couple of weeks ago.

It was bad. I mean, the homeless problem was just as bad, if not worse, than you do see on social media.

And I have this like, heartbreaking moment. Because, again, as we look at stereotypes of the left, and the right.

You have liberals saying, hey, man. Don't worry about it. Likable, you know, let them build a tent. Let them -- and they're doing it under the guise of, we would be compassionate. And then you have conservatives, which I've seen. Who just go, ew, gross. Look at this. Look at what a disgusting mess this city has become. Blah, blah, blah. And what's not happening in the middle is legit compassion, where when you walk by these people, seeing them as people. Asking yourself, how we got here. And then looking for a solution, right? So you have politicians like -- I think it's Michael Shellenberger, who tried to dethrone Newsom.

GLENN: Yeah, yeah, he's great.

JAMIE: He's great. And he was a big liberal. And all my friends on the left, hated this guy. So when I researched him, I thought he was just going to be like, march the homeless in the ocean.
(laughter)
And I started like reading what he's trying to do, and it's like, no. This guy is actually willing to be hated. And is trying to say, don't put them in tents. Don't put them in hotels. It literally doesn't work. You believe in science? It doesn't work. We have to get them into treatment. We have to help them.

And very similar to what you were saying, about immigration. Where it's just like, I feel like the left is so good at pretending to care, right?

And pretending to be compassionate. But it's like, man, if what we're doing isn't working.

GLENN: Right.

JAMIE: And, in fact, making it worse. We have to look at the other side.

What Glenn Beck Never Got to Say to Charlie Kirk | Glenn TV | Ep 456

Charlie Kirk would have been president. Political violence robbed him of fulfilling that destiny, so now his friends, colleagues, and supporters throughout the world must figure out how to pick up the pieces and ensure that his legacy never ends. On a special episode of "Glenn TV," Glenn replays the most powerful, touching, and inspirational moments from his time guest-hosting "The Charlie Kirk Show" on Wednesday morning, one week after Charlie’s death. In a touching tribute to his friend, Glenn places Rush Limbaugh’s golden microphone next to Charlie’s — a symbol of Charlie’s longtime dream and the influence he has had throughout the world. Plus, Glenn speaks to "The Charlie Kirk Show" executive producer Andrew Kolvet and Turning Point USA COO Tyler Bowyer about who their dear friend was behind the scenes, the influence he’s had on America and the MAGA movement, and how Charlie’s fingerprints will still be present on future elections. Also, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) and Glenn discuss how Charlie Kirk helped launched her career, and Research Center Investigative Researcher Ryan Mauro shares how he has the smoking gun President Trump needs to take on George Soros’ network. These are the voices who knew Charlie well, but the number of people he indirectly touched and influenced is spread far and wide. Glenn ends with a beautiful song tribute by David Osmond and Cheyenne Grace, depicting just how mournful the entire world truly is. Rest in peace, Charlie.

Fact-check: The 5 LIES circulating about Charlie Kirk

In the first week after Charlie Kirk’s assassination, some in the media and on the Left have tried to either justify or dismiss his death by spreading lies about what he said. Glenn Beck reviews an article by The Federalist, which debunks the 5 biggest lies.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: We were just talking about the five lies that are going around, about Charlie Kirk.

And it is -- it's reprehensible about what's going on.

Because people who are saying these things. Who are starting these things. They really need -- I mean, they know. They know.

Like Stephen King, really?

You really think that Stephen King.

You really think that Charlie Kirk is for the stoning of gay people?

I --

STU: I do think, though. A lot of these people have an image of everyone on the right, that --

GLENN: But it shows how unbelievably isolated you are.

STU: Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Now, king, in particular, I think -- like, I don't think Stephen King was lying on that.

I think he's -- and I don't think he's the sharpest knife in the -- in the drawer.

GLENN: He ought to be. You can't write like he does.

STU: He's not an idiot, right? He can form thoughts. But I think he's so completely isolated in his bubble. Like, if someone says something terrible, about a person like Charlie Kirk, and your image of him is he's basically Hitler.

Well, you don't -- you don't spend time fact-checking it.

Of course, that guy -- he's that terrible human being. Of course, he said something like that. You don't even bother to check it.

You know, it's like, if I -- if you ran into a quote from Hitler, you've never seen, that was negative from Jews. As a journalist, you should probably check it.

You might think. That was probably true. He said a lot of things like that. That's how they think about people who are normal conservatives who want lower taxes and less regulation. And that is really, really disturbing.

So these lies are really prominent. People really believe these things.

GLENN: So there's a couple of -- here are the five. The first one is Charlie Kirk said black people were better off in slavery.

How big of an idiot, do you have to be, to believe that?

Okay?

Unless you're Crockett. Unless your last name is Crockett.

And I don't mean Davey. Black Americans were better off than slavery. No. That's absolutely no true -- not true. He never said anything like that. Now, what he -- what you're probably getting this from, and I'm going -- searching. I am on -- way metal detector on the beach with board shorts, sandals, and socks, looking for anything that even kind of sounds like that. But Charlie Kirk did say that, you know, they were talking about Jim Crow and how evil Jim Crow was. But he said with be, but if you look at the family, the black family before the passage of the civil rights act, which ended the Jim Crow laws, he said, the family was thriving.

And it was!

It was. Blacks had a lower divorce rate than whites did in I think 1961. They -- their families were stronger. Dads were in the homes. They had lower crime rates. I mean, it -- something happened around the time of the Civil Rights Act.

Now, my theory is, the Civil Rights Act was a -- was done by progressives. I mean, these are the guys who said no to the Civil Rights Act, just four years before. And -- and worked hard to stop the Civil Rights Act.

So what changed in those four years?

The assassination of President Kennedy. That changed your mind. Not even. Not even.

I mean, Johnson was the biggest racist up until he -- up until he died. Why would he create the great society?

My theory, this is just a theory. But my theory is, is because finally, the progressives had a way to keep blacks under their thumb and destroy the family. And destroy them, as people.

I mean, the Civil Rights Act, and more the Great Society.

The Great Society did more damage to the black family than -- than anybody could have done outside of Margaret Sanger. I think that's what he meant by that. It was evil.

You know, Jim Crow, et cetera, et cetera.

But if you look at the numbers on specifics, family, et cetera, et cetera. Blacks were doing better as families, before the Great Society.

And I think that undoing is absolutely -- is absolutely tied to it. And it was intentional, myself, I believe that.

Also, the next claim is that -- that Charlie Kirk said, black women have inferior intelligence. No, that's not what he said.

Now, they're quoting him saying that black women don't have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously.

How -- how bad does your image have to be of people on the other side to believe that they could say that?

That Charlie Kirk could say that?

STU: Like, if you were to -- you know, I think about this a lot of times. When I think about how we react to crazy statements on the left.

My reaction a lot of times, when I hear someone saying that is wait a minute.

GLENN: Yes.

STU: Even if they believed that, they wouldn't just blurt it out. What is the context of this? I want to know. I want to understand. That should be your first question when you run into a quote like that.

GLENN: Well, go to Snopes. They rate this one true.

STU: This is true.

GLENN: They rate it absolutely true.

STU: Hmm.

GLENN: Until you get to the last paragraph, when they say, well, we should point out, he wasn't talking about all black women. He was talking about four specific black women.

STU: Oh. Oh.

GLENN: So he's talking about Joy Reid, absolutely true. Sheila Jackson Lee, absolutely true.

STU: Hmm.

GLENN: Ketanji Brown Jackson. Jackson Brown, absolutely true.

STU: Well, she's not a biologist, Glenn.

GLENN: No. She doesn't know what a woman is. I'm not a biologist. Yeah.

And Michelle Obama, which I don't think is true. I think Michelle Obama is actually rather smart and conniving and just flatout evil.

STU: Yeah. There's a mix there. Ketanji Brown Jackson, for all the flaws that would happen. There's a Supreme Court justice, obviously isn't a moron.

GLENN: Well.

STU: I would say Sotomayor, I would be more confident saying she is a moron.

Though, I am -- for the job that she has, Ketanji Brown Jackson is a moron. You know, Joy Reid is a complete idiot. Wasn't Sheila Jackson Lee, those two follow the same category? You're right. Michelle Obama, I would not call an idiot.

Again, criticizing four members of a group does not mean you're criticizing the group.

GLENN: And he was criticizing people he thought were unqualified to make statements of -- of any intelligence on whatever topic it was that he was talking about.

And what they did, is they said, he thinks that all black women are just dumb.

I mean, that is so incredibly dishonest.

Charlie Kirk said, gun deaths are worth it to keep the Second Amendment.

STU: This is one I heard a lot.

This is one that a lot of people on the left are using as justification for their celebration.

He said, you know, well, you just have to deal with the deaths if you want to have a Second Amendment.

And, you know, I don't know if you have the context --

GLENN: I have it -- I have his answer right here.

You ready? You will never live in a society where you have an armed citizenry. And you won't have a single gun death.

That's nonsense.

It's drivel.

But I am -- I think it's worth it. I think it's worth to have a cost of unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year.

So you can have the Second Amendment right to protect your other God-given rights.

It's a prudent deal. It is rational to think that way.

STU: I mean, and obviously -- every time -- if you have a free society, you take risks with it.

There will always be people. Horrible, horrible human beings that all seem to donate to Democrat causes, that will do things, like we saw one week ago today.

GLENN: Yeah.

STU: And that is -- you know, I -- again, you can't speak for Charlie Kirk.

He spoke for himself so eloquently.

But he -- even what occurred last week, would not change his mind on that.

Even -- now that something terrible has happened to me and my family, we should overturn the Second Amendment. And people shouldn't have the right to defend themselves.

You know that's how he would feel about it. And this is, if anything, pointing to his incredible consistency on the rights that we have, in this country. You know, it is a sad -- sad, unfortunate fact about so many things.

Sad, unfortunate fact about automobile travel.

That you do have to deal with some automobile accidents.

When you have highways where you can drive 55, 65, 75 miles an hour, we all understand that to be true.

GLENN: It's unreasonable to think that you can live in a society with automobiles, and not have some automobile accidents.

STU: It's absolutely true.

GLENN: It's exactly what he said about guns.

STU: And, frankly, the other thing that is important to understand, if you did eliminate all guns, you would not eliminate all murders.

GLENN: No. They did in England.

STU: Oh, they did. We're all set?

GLENN: There's no murder there.

STU: No violent crimes there.

I keep reading about them. Is that all false?

GLENN: Yeah. That's Donald Trump. You know what I mean?

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: And he's -- last one, Charlie used an Asian slur. Now, I'm not going to use the slur, obviously. I'm just going to say, it's what happens sometimes with armor. There's a very famous saying with armor, that has nothing to do with the Chinese or Asian at all. But I'm not even going to put those together in this context now, you you'll have to figure it out.

The thing is going around, he used that slur to yell at an Asian woman in the audience.

Now, again, what kind of monster -- or how --

STU: You should know on its face, that's false. You should know that's false.

GLENN: Yeah. How stupid would Charlie Kirk have to be, okay?

So, you know, there's nothing. There's nothing like that. Well, I'm sorry.

He was screaming something at a woman when they were talking about capitalism, and he was yelling, Cenk, not the other word. Okay? And who is that? From the Young Turks --

STU: The guys from the Young Turks.

GLENN: That's what he was saying.

STU: Oh, gosh, that's just so bad. You know, the other one was the Stephen King situation, where he quoted some horrible thing that Charlie Kirk said.

And, again, he knitted eventually, that -- that it was false.

But it was -- it was -- he was quoting someone else, in an incident, and critiquing that position.

GLENN: Yes. Yes. Yes.

STU: Which was a bad position. But he was bringing it up to quote him and critique him, which is a very standard thing they did on the left. This is a standard tactic of Media Matters when you're quoting someone else or saying something.

They'll act as if I say it.

GLENN: You repeat a lie often enough, and the public will remember it. Glenn Beck is quoting Hitler. Glenn Beck loves Hitler.

STU: Uh-huh.

GLENN: Yeah. Hitler said that, but that's not what I was saying. That had nothing to do with the conversation, for the love of Pete.

STU: Yeah, again, if you had something against Charlie Kirk, you wouldn't need to go to this stuff. If our opinion of Kirk, which was a guy who worked hard to debate people.

Who tried to practice politics and civic life the right way. Who tried to be a shining light for his faith, which was vitally important to him and his family. If that vision of Charlie Kirk was false, you wouldn't need to go to these things.

GLENN: No.

STU: You could come up with 50 different things he said that were really offensive. Instead, what you come up with are lies. Because that's what you're in the business of.

GLENN: Yeah. And there is a problem.

The -- we now know. And we'll have more on this later today. On the Charlie Kirk show.

And then on tomorrow.

But we now know that the Chinese and Russia are involved with disinformation campaigns.

Based on Charlie Kirk, trying to get us to push us into Civil War. And we know it for a fact now.

So just be very careful what you read online.

And don't necessarily repeat everything that you see.

The Far-Left Attacks in 2025 Prior to the Assassination of Charlie Kirk

In the aftermath of the assassination of Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk, it is important to realize that a chilling pattern of far-left radical attacks had already emerged in 2025. Glenn Beck heads to the chalkboard to lay out the timeline, connect the dots, and explain why what looks like a “protest” on one day can turn into an actual attack on the next. Glenn walks through each high-profile incident, the groups and ideologies involved, and the national implications for safety, free speech, and public order.

Watch This FULL Episode of 'Glenn TV' HERE

Glenn Beck warns of dangerous government powers in proposed Charlie Kirk act

President Trump and others have posted in support of a proposed Charlie Kirk Act. But Glenn Beck gives a warning: there are 2 versions of this going around. One, proposed by Sen. Mike Lee, would stop the government from using propaganda against Americans. The other would go further, giving the government dangerous powers over truth. Glenn Beck explains the differences as well as what the Smith-Mundt Act was and why an Obama-era decision may be connected to the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Okay. I want you to just spend a couple of minutes with me, and switch everything that you've been thinking on, off for a minute. This is very important. I want to take you back to the world in 1948, okay?

The ashes of World War II are still warm. The Cold War is already beginning to chill in the air, and the Soviet Union has a propaganda machine that is in full swing.

Radio Moscow, Pravda, endless streams of anti-American stories are pouring into the homes of men and women, all across the globe.

And Congress looked at this. And said, we need a counterbalance on this.

America needs to tell her story to the world about liberty and about her finding ideals.

And we need to tell it to the rest of the world.

This is the birth of the Smith-Mundt Act. Okay? We needed to launch things, at that time. Like the Voice of America, and radio-free Europe, and Radio Liberty.

These were not just radio stations. For many who were behind the curtain, these were lifelines.

A Polish dissident in the 1970s or a Hungarian who lived through the 1956 uprising, they'll tell you, they're huddled in the dark, and they have that dial of that radio.

And they can tune it. They carefully tune it, listening to an American voice break through the static and break through the darkness. That says, freedom is real. And the world hasn't forgotten you. They remember that as being very important.

But and here is the key: We, as a society, drew a very bright red line, none of this could ever be used in the United States. Congress rightfully was terrified of unleashing a government propaganda machine on its own citizens. Now, I want you to remember. 1948, Congress is still Democrat.

Okay?

You just had 20 years of the same president, FDR.

They're about to say, no president can serve that long.

The Democrats said, no Democrat president. No Republican president can ever serve that long. Because we were so close to fascism.

So the Democrats are very concerned about the government going fascistic.

And they should know about it. Because they remembered the control commission.

Now, let me take you back to World War I. The Creel Commission is something that nobody remembers, and everyone should.

Because it's what whipped America up in a frenzy, to get us to go into World War I.

You know it, because you remember the I want you Uncle Sam poster. And I've always hated that Uncle Sam poster because of the Creel Commission. I love it. I think it's really beautiful. It was created by an artist, that he didn't create it for the Creel Commission. So, you know, he was innocent. But it was the Creel machine that plastered it on every wall, every post office, every train station.

And suddenly Uncle Sam's finger was pointing at you. It wasn't just a poster. It was a summons. It was you. We need you to go to war. Americans did not want to go to World War I. In fact, Woodrow Wilson said, the other side, he will put you into war. I will keep I out of war. He knew that wasn't true.

Within three months after his reelection, we're at war. But he had to bring the country along. So the Creel Commission, through films and songs, films like the Kaiser, the Beast of Berlin, it turned the -- it turned Germany into a cartoon villain. George Cohan, he wrote songs, over there. Over there.

All of these things were done by the government, as propaganda to get Americans to go over there.

And fight. Then the government went even further. And they started hiring these, what were called Four Minute Men.

Now, imagine this, you're sitting in a movie theater.

The film. You're watching maybe the -- the newsreel. And as they're changing the reels, some guy who just in the audience, stands up, walks to the front. Clears his throat. And he delivers this really well-thought out and rousing four minute speech about patriotism. And liberty.

And crushing Germany.

The government had 75,000 volunteers. They gave millions of speeches, when anybody would pause in churches and schools. In parks.

In theaters. They were called Four Minute Men.

This was social media before social media. They were short bursts. And they seemingly were everywhere, and always on message.

Because the message was crafted by the government. Then the Creel group, through our government, published booklets, official bulletins. They planted stories in the press. This is when we really started really getting into the press, and information was -- had one goal. All of the information. And that was rallies for the -- rally support for the war, and drown out anybody that was disagreeing with that. Okay?

The government actually encouraged kids to spy on their neighbors.

That you were encouraged and post -- post men did this.

To go through the mail, if they saw -- if they saw letters that were coming in. Ask they wanted to know, who it was. And are you a German spy. Are you somebody who is going to be against the war?

Postal workers went through your mail. And it was legal at the time!

You were encouraged, operators were encouraged to listen to people's phone calls, and to report if they were on the other side.

This is Germany.

In fact, because of the Creel Commission, Germans, and what's his name?

The head of the German propaganda, oh, what's his name? The German douche bag. I can't remember his name. Anyway, what was his name?

STU: Goebbels, is that who you're talking about?

GLENN: Goebbels.

STU: Although, I like your name for it, frankly.

GLENN: Yeah. Goebbels, the douche bag.

Anyway, he said, we lost World War I because of American propaganda. But we learned how Americans did it.

And that's what Goebbels did in World War II. All of this propaganda. Okay?

By the way, American advertising, up until World War II, it was called propaganda.

What I heard, I wouldn't have said, now a message from our advertiser.

I was delivering literally and it was cool at the time, to call it propaganda.

Because that's what it was. Paid for propaganda.

Bit after Goebbels took it. And did what he did with it. We were like, oh, propaganda is bad!

Okay?

So here's what -- here's what happened because of the Creel Commission. They were pushing uniformity of thought. They did that by making sure Americans were hearing the same slogans. The same images. The same stories from every direction. Which created the illusion of unanimous consent. I want you to think about life today.

I want you to think about life during COVID.

What was the goal of the government.

To crush any dissent, and to control all of the messages that were going out, to make sure that you were hearing the same slogans, the same images. The same stories from every direction, to give you the illusion that it was unanimous consent.

What about the global warming? It's exactly the same.

Then on top of it, the Creel Commission demonized dissent. Okay? German Americans were part of this country forever.

In fact, we were I think two votes away from making German our official language, as the United States, not English. But they were all of a sudden, branded as traitors.

You couldn't -- a priest went to jail, because he gave the last rites to a German who fell down in front of him on the streets and was dying. And a priest spoke German and gave him the last rites in German. That priest went to jail! Okay??

Okay? So they demonized dissent. Then they suppressed free speech. The propaganda campaign dovetailed with the Espionage Act of 1917. The Sedition Act of 1918. If you criticized the draft, if you questioned the war, you could be fined. You would be ostracized, and you would go to jail.

This is Woodrow Wilson, gang. Does any of it sound familiar?

Now, here's what the aftermath was, after the war. When the war ended, the mask came off. Millions were dead, and Americans felt absolutely duped. They felt that they were tricked into going into a war that they were manipulated into. They didn't even understand it. And that's why we were such isolationists, in the 1920s and our 1930s, because our own government had manipulated the population to go in to fight this war, and they felt so manipulated and so betrayed by their own government. They were like, I don't want anything to do with foreign wars, okay?

So why did this -- why did this happen in 1948?

Well, because in 1948, all of this stuff is happening, and we're saying, okay. We need to have some sort of -- some sort of boundary.

Because we're going to start all of this propaganda, for the United States. And it cannot be ever turned on the people of the United States. Okay?

So then why -- why was it repealed?

It was repealed without any really kind of conversation. Because it was slipped in, called the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act.

It was slipped in to a defense authorization bill. Just like it's happening right now, the government didn't pay its bills.

They couldn't come up with the -- with a way to actually fund everything. Because we have to act as an emergency, otherwise all of our war machine. And it's all going to stop. And the world is going to die. And panic and all of that.

;And so somebody has slipped the bill in. And we modernized it.

Why did we modernize?

Well, because don't you like transparency?

I mean, we're doing this overseas. We're doing this propaganda overseas. Do you know -- taxpayer. You're paying for it. Shouldn't you see it?

There was a Congressman Max Thornberry. He was one of the sponsors. And he said, quote, today the law prevents the American people from seeing or hearing the same things we broadcast overseas, and that doesn't make any sense.

We paid for it. Okay. Then they switched that from transparency to, and it's helping fight terrorism. It will let the Department of Defense and the State Department share counter radicalization material both abroad and at home, because we have to modernize this. The internet is everywhere, okay?
So who doesn't want to fight terrorists? Who doesn't want transparency?

Now, here's what actually happened. I'll tell you in 60 seconds. First, Stu.

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(music)

GLENN: So in 2012, the left decides, we have to get rid of this propaganda thing.

Okay?

Once the firewall was gone, and it's just a blip, no one even really noticed it. Suddenly, the government agencies could circulate diplomacy campaigns, inside of the United States.

And we saw this. This is where you get your USAID. The NGOs. Doing all the things here in the United States.

Because they can all do it. During COVID, you saw this.

You saw government-funded messaging, quietly merging with the media campaigns and big tech content moderation. Narratives weren't debated. They were handed out by the government. And then they were enforced. Then take the DHS disinformation governance board.

This is a direct descendent from this shift. Okay?

It was the government openly declaring it had a role in policing speech at home.

Look at the 2016 aftermath of the elections. Reports now confirm that the US government funds originally intended for overseas information campaigns that had filtered into domestic projects that fact-checked, flagged, and suppressed certain narratives online. The line between foreign propaganda and domestic persuasion was completely gone. Everything they worried about in 1948, was now happening after 2012. Okay. So why am I bringing this up today?

Because after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, we have been asking for this to be reinstated.

This Smith-Mundt Act has to be reinstated. But after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, there is a new wave of enthusiasm for this as there should be.

But some people on our side, are now demanding more than just a firewall.

You go to change.org. And there's petitions for a Charlie Kirk act.

And it will not only stop government propaganda. But it goes further than that. It starts to punish private media. Educators. Social media platforms. For spreading what they call false narratives. So this is -- this is our side saying, yeah, well, now we want the power to do what they did. Okay? Hear me clearly.

Accountability matters! Lives are destroyed, reputations are smeared. And that matters.

But we have systems in place for that.

What this proposal opens is a new door. A terror where government decides, what is and isn't falsehood.

And the government cannot do that. History teaches us. Once the government claims the authority to define truth.

Liberty is gone. Okay?

Now, enter Mike Lee.

Mike Lee has another proposal. Mike Lee has a version. That he is submitting to Congress. And trying to get it passed. And every American should be for this.

Right or left.

Every American should be for this. He's not going to reinvent the wheel. He just wants the old firewall put back. That's it.

Period.

The government must not, and cannot propagandize its own people. Restore the very bright red line that was attacked in 1948.

It's not about silencing speech. It's about preventing the most powerful institution on earth, with the endless resources of that institution, the government.

And the endless reach, from turning its firehose of influence in on the American people.

This is why it matters. I want you to think of -- I want you to think of football.

Oh, boy. Dangerous.

You wouldn't let the referee this a football game, put on a jersey, and join one of the teams. Okay?

But that's what the repeal did. It let the government be both the referee and the player in the arena of ideas. Mike Lee is saying, put the stripes back on their jerseys. Make sure they're in black and white stripes. So we know exactly who they are!

Change.org and some people on our side want to make the ref not only a player, but the judge, the jury, and the executioner. It cannot happen.

This is -- I'm telling you, if this goes through, Mike Lee is proposing something that is clean. Doesn't have any of this in.

So support the Mike Lee Mundt Act. But if you're hearing people talk about, we have to go further, that is the Patriot Act of our day. We're standing at a fork in the road.

Reinstating the Smith-Mundt protections. They're not going to solve all the problems of misinformation, but it reestablishes the ground rules. And tells Washington, you cannot propagandize us, period.
(music)

Once truth belongs to the state, truth itself ceases to exist. Support Mike Lee's bill.

Restore the Smith-Mundt Act.