RADIO

A HUGE cyber attack may be coming. Here’s how to PREPARE.

Global elites within the World Economic Forum recently predicted a ‘catastrophic’ cyber attack is imminent — and could occur within the next 2 years. These are the same ‘experts’ who hosted a panel to discuss pandemic preparedness….a YEAR before COVID-19 ever began. So maybe, just maybe, we should take this new ‘prediction’ seriously. In this clip, Glenn is joined by William Forstchen, author of ‘One Second After.’ His book series, which explores how a giant EMP (electromagnetic pulse) attack would send America ‘back into the Dark Ages,’ demonstrates just how vital electricity is to our society’s survival. Without it, he tells Glenn, hundreds of thousands would die within minutes. So, what can YOU do to prepare? In this clip, he gives Glenn the top three things you should have at home in case a catastrophic cyber event truly does occur…

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: All right. We bring -- we bring back our -- of our guest from just a couple of days ago. William Fortune, who wrote One Second After.

He's also a Montry HEP College Factory fellow, and we wanted to talk to him about -- well, William, have you read the World Economic Forum's warning?

WILLIAM: No, I have not.

GLENN: Okay. So they're saying that a major cyber attack is coming. And they're focused mainly on the financial sector.

They think that's where it's going to come. Which, any thoughts on that, quickly, before we move on?

WILLIAM: No. A girlfriend and I were playing Jenga. You know the thing that we were stacking blocks? It's a good analogy.

Imagine our infrastructure is like a Jenga tower. And he went back is balanced on one block at the bottom. If that one block goes out, the entire tower collapses.

GLENN: And that one block --

WILLIAM: That one block is electricity. That one block is electronics, and are all internet systems. But actually all the way down to just electricity.

You kill that, you kill the entire tower.

GLENN: So let's say that we were in war with Russia.

WILLIAM: Yes.

GLENN: Would they have any qualms of shutting our electricity off? Would they just go after one sector, or would they have any qualms of going after electricity?

WILLIAM: Oh, it's a multi-fascinated attack. But electricity is the fundamental block upon which everything is predicated upon. Your computers. Your telecommunications. Space programs. Everything comes down to electricity. Now, it would be a multi fascinated attack. Which that would be one component thereof.

GLENN: Why would someone go after the financial sector? As long as you had electricity, couldn't you reset that pretty quickly?

Go ahead.

WILLIAM: I know at some point we're going to be talking about what we can do as individuals. So let's take it as an individual.

GLENN: Yes.

WILLIAM: All right. You move to finances. Suddenly, your credit cards don't work. Your bank account doesn't work. Maybe everything you've saved for years, boom, it's offline, it disappears. What happens to us as individuals? And then extrapolate that out to your community.

All the way up to the nations. You disrupt the financial system.

Basically, put in common parlance. We're screwed.

GLENN: And wouldn't day before wouldn't a central bank digital currency make things worse, because you wouldn't have -- any currency at all.

WILLIAM: There's another part of our problem with AI and everything else. We're actually setting up the system, whereby, we become more and more vulnerable every day.

100 years ago, you know, back when, you know, Roosevelt and everything else. Yeah. Systems collapse. But if you had money under the mattress, you could still get by.

Well, that money in and of itself, is useless. Who will trust it?

Remember Sandy in 2012, of people lined up around the block in New York City, waving 100-dollar bills just to get hamburgers out of McDonald's?

And the guy at McDonald's is saying, hey, folks. I can't even deal with that. I have no banking system left. I don't want your money. It's worthless. That's the scary thing.

Our money becomes worthless.

GLENN: Now, I wanted to talk to you, and we had you on a couple of days ago.

And just for anybody who missed this. Just recap a bit.

How easy it is to take down our -- our power grid.

And the attempts that have already been made, and it's my understanding, if we take out nine or ten substations, you can lose the entire grid in America.

Not for a short period of time. It's not like putting a new telephone up pole up. It's for months.


WILLIAM: Well, remember the great power failures in New York, in the '70s and '80s? And the one case, it all traced back to one relay switch that short-circuited out.

That then caused the next relay switch to shut down. That started causing entire systems to go offline to try and protect themselves.

Or look at Texas.

I mean, yo went through it two years ago.

When the system started to go, it cascaded across the entire state, within a matter of minutes. It's all automatically set up.

It happens faster than any human could ever deal with. It's just boom, boom, boom. Of different electronic components. Some would say, oh, the guy next to me isn't working right. I have to shut down.

GLENN: Right. But isn't that to protect the entire system?

WILLIAM: How do you bring it back up? In Texas, you had a full meltdown, how do you bring it back up?

GLENN: How do you mean that? I'm sorry for asking such simple questions here.

But I know this just happened in Pakistan. They were doing it for some global warming thing.

And they decided to take the entire system down, for a couple of hours every night.

They turn it off. And they couldn't turn it back on. I don't know if they still have power outages.

WILLIAM: Exactly. Again, we, as individuals. I'm sitting in my house right now.

Suddenly, boom, it went off.

How do we turn it back on? Go to my circuit box, which I can barely understand? You know, I'm just an ordinary guy in that respect. The systems become so interlocked. Even so complex, that it exceeds the human capability, to bring it back quickly. So it just automatically shuts down. And then how do you bring it back?

There's the key. How do you bring it back?

GLENN: And that's for a cyber attack. Which you told me a couple of days ago, a cyber attack can go in shooting one of those substations, which we're having happen now around the country.

Someone shooting at them, can bring them offline. But if it's coordinated, or even a cyber attack, it can destroy those substations. And China is the only one that makes all of that equipment.

And it -- to order it in a nonemergency way, it will take you over a year to get it.

WILLIAM: Okay. Our major transformers. I believe you and I talked about it a few years ago. Our major big substation. The largest substations, to replace a major component, can take two years.

Now, you would think, in a nation that realizes this. We would stockpile each component.

Now, certain things go offline. Put another one in.

No. We're just in time delivery type of mentality.

GLENN: Jeez.

WILLIAM: And as a result, we don't have stockpiles of crucial equipment to help bring us back online.

GLENN: Okay.

So this means -- give me the -- you know, the scenario that you wrote in one second after. Open things up. And, you know, I read these kinds of things. And reports and everything else.

You did such a good job at keeping. Bringing the story to -- to life, in a realistic way.


And then also, showing me things that I just -- I had never even thought about.

These things go offline. How long does it take. I think it's 72 hours, before things really go into chaos.

That was from a government study in the '60s, and it proved true with Katrina. Once people think there's no help coming, bad things really begin to happen.

How long before a lot of people dies? That same three -- three hours because of the lack of water? Or not three hours? Three days?

GLENN: Okay. If we want an EMP scenario, how many people are going to die in the next five minutes?

I'll ask another question: How many people you think will die from the first five minutes of an EMP?

GLENN: I would say none.

Because of the EMP?

Very few.

WILLIAM: A couple hundred thousand in the first five minutes.

GLENN: From what?

WILLIAM: Because there's over 2,000 commercial aircraft in the air right now. And a significant number of those, if they got hit by a major EMP, it shuts the computers down on the plane.

An EMP has solely, up front, piloting you into the Hudson River.

That plane is going to fall like a rock.
So a couple hundred thousand within minutes. Within the first three days, in a major situation. What happens to your nursing homes?

GLENN: Right. And your hospitals. Sure.

WILLIAM: Right.

GLENN: Okay. So -- so that would happen if they just -- it doesn't have to be an EMP. If they knocked the power grid out, the planes would be okay.

But we just saw in LA, you know the LAX just went out of power, and it wasn't good.

WILLIAM: You know, just a couple of weeks ago, the entire command control system for the FAA shut down.

Suddenly, all the screens of all the air traffic controllers went blank.

Now, it was only for short-term. But it was chaos.

Thousands of flights had to be canceled. Planes in the air.

You're going to put them back down. Or look at 9/11. Where all planes were ordered immediately. And then didn't fly again for a day.

And that even was not a cyber situation.

So your key components for -- or let me give you another example.

Suppose all the traffic lights in Dallas, suddenly shut down simultaneously.

How many people will be hurt in the first five minutes?

Quite a few.

GLENN: A lot. Yeah.

WILLIAM: So we don't realize we're like that Jenga tower. We're just one little block. Then the blocks above it, start to fall away. Then the entire tower starts to collapse.

That's America at this moment.

GLENN: I have to tell you, you just said you and your girlfriend were just talking about this last night, about Jenga. And I would like to just offer my wife's services for counseling. Because this is the kind of stuff that -- and my wife is like, can we not talk about that tonight?

Anyway, we're -- we're -- we're talking about -- weaver talking about catastrophic failure, something the EF -- the WEF has predicted is coming in the next 24 months.

And what can you do about it?

And we are -- we are talking to William Fortune. He's the author of one second after.

And he's also with themontry college faculty. He's a fellow there. We'll continue our conversation. But move it to, okay.

If you believe these things are happening or possible, what should you do?

We'll do that in 60 seconds.

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(music)
Tomorrow night, we are doing our Wednesday night special. But Glenn, it's Friday. I know, we couldn't do it this week. Because no one can get into the studios this Friday. The Wednesday night special will be (?) at 5:00 p.m.

It is called the COVID blueprint. The next crisis globalists will use to control you.

We have a gentle man who I really respect. Has a new book (?) coming out in August, called Five Years After. He is one of the leading voices on EMP. And cyber security for our grids.

And we welcome him back. Dr. William force chin. (?)

WILLIAM: I'll start (?) the ice storm you had a few days ago.

It pretty well shut all of Dallas down. A simple ice storm.

So imagine a major cyborg attack.

What happens in the city of Dallas insofar practice suddenly, nothing is working correctly. (?)

GLENN: I would say, in short order chaos.

WILLIAM: Yes.

GLENN: Real chaos. Within three days.

By tomorrow, maybe even today, it would have been chaos.

WILLIAM: Exactly. And there's another factor, that we are used to a society -- we are so used to a society, functioning correctly. That it about their background noise in our life.

I switch it on in the morning. I take a shower. I cook my eggs for breakfast. My girlfriend and I go out to dinner at a nice restaurant. These are all things that become simple, background noise. Pull one of the blocks out, things start failing. And we're mystified. In fact, we can -- we very quickly will become frightened by what is happening.

GLENN: So there was a book out. I don't know if you ever read it. Tragedy and hope.

And it was written in the 1960s.

And it was written by one of the advisers for Eisenhower.

And all of the presidents, I think going back to Truman.

And he talked about a global system that was being built, that said the tragedy is these world wars will never have one. Because we're tying each other economically. So no one will be able to have a complete global war anymore. Because it will destroy everything.

He said, in that, the only thing that will disrupt this. And I remember reading this again, after 9/11. Is if there's an unflagged group, that does not care about technology, or the financial system.

Well, that's exactly what happened, with 9/11.

They -- they didn't care if they collapsed the financial sector.

And -- and if you look -- if there was ever a collapse of things, we would probably lose to people that are not slaves to all this technology, and all of the electronics. And all of the goods and services that we just take for granted right now.

WILLIAM: Yeah, no. The things I study and all that, there's times when I feel, I'm just going to go further up in the woods. Cut myself in the grid. And live alone. But no man is an island. No matter how much I try to step away from things. We're still part of a society. Like it or not.

GLENN: Okay. So when we come back, I want to have you get into a checklist. What should we do to be reasonably prepared for something that the WEF says is coming within the next 20 -- 24 months.

By the way, I take them at their word, in seeing that they said, a major pandemic was coming. And three months later, a major pandemic came.

More in just a minute. I'm guessing that the next time you have to catch a flight judge. You're not going to try (?) you would probably also say, yeah. I want it to be Airbus or Boeing. And if the pilot comes on and says, hey, this is my first flight. You know, I do this part had much time, you're getting off the plane. (?) I would say, the bet off the plane, if you hear this from a travel -- I'm sorry. From a real estate agent.

Get out of their office. Don't let them -- I only do this part-time. You need somebody who is the best. Because they are landing and flying the biggest financial asset, that you will probably ever have in your life. Your home.

Don't leave that to anybody, but somebody who has the best practices. And the best history. You want somebody that has the whole ball game.

That's who we tried to find in your area. RealEstateAgentsITrust.com. This is my company. It's a free service to you.

We will recommend the people in your area that we think have the most credibility and the best business practices. Et cetera, et cetera. It is RealEstateAgentsITrust.com.
(music)

STU: And head over to BlazeTV.com. If you use the promo code, you can save right now (?) on your subscription to Blaze TV.
(OUT AT 9:28AM)

GLENN: Welcome to the Glenn Beck Program. Let me just give you a couple of news stories that have come out today. They are all part of my show prep, which you can get. My unedited (?) it's free. (?) just look for the morning email, news -- newsletter.

Everything that I look at, every morning, is now available to you, because it's just not enough time to get to everything. But let me give you a couple of headlines here. Russia, and Russian TV, now going to length, to claim how they could wipe Britain off the face of the earth, by setting off a radioactive tsunami in the Atlantic Ocean.

Russian state TV has broadcast a mock video of the UK being obliterated (?) sent from Moscow.

They said, that it would engulf I'll end and the UK. Which I think leaves (?) Scotland out.

They're part of the UK. I think that includes Scotland. China, on the other hand. The political economic professor at P kings university (?) this is about as communist hierarchy as you can get.

On China (?) a nuclear weapon, and China should respond with its own.

Since the US has used its nuclear weapon against China. China should trike back, using our nuclear weapon, which is (?) the market. The US nuclear market is tech. Ours is the market.

And now they are looking at, I guess, cutting us off from the market.

We are in very, very unstable times. And things can spiral out of control, quickly.

Now, we have been talking to you about the World Economic Forum's prediction, that in the next 24 months, a major cyber attack would happen. So we wanted to bring a gentleman on, we had a couple of days ago. But specifically, to talk to him about what we can do, to prepare for something catastrophic like this.

So let's go back to William force general. (?) the author of one second (?) after. A must read book.

Bill, tell me, where do we start?

BILL: Let me point out one thing. There was once a guy, who everybody thought was crazy. Wrote a book Called My Struggle. Nobody paid attention to it, really.

And then for the next 12, 14 years, he kept saying, I'll start a war. I'll start a war.

Well, it became such background noise, the way you just pointed out. Russia is saying this. China is saying that.

We don't pay attention. And then one day, he started a war. World War II.

The same thing now. We're getting so much at that time every day, we don't respond.

And it's time we, as individuals, started taking some action for ourselves. And protect ourselves. And to protect our families.

GLENN: Okay. So what do we do?

WILLIAM: Your average day before okay. Your typical listener right now, they're savvy, all right?

They listen to you.

How many of those folks, you know, I would ask. How many of you have a two to four-week supply of water on hand?

I would say only a small --

GLENN: What's your guess?

BILL: 1 percent. 2 percent.

GLENN: I was thinking about ten.

BILL: Yeah. Okay. You don't want to buy the bottled water. Just save your 2-liter bottles. Clean them out well. And then just fill them up.

Stick them in a closet someplace. That is the key thing to start with. Have a basic water purification system on hand. You can buy one at any hiking store or Walmart. For 20 or 30 bucks. That can take the water. And make it clean. Then we go up that Maslow hierarchy of needs. What's the second most important thing? (?), well, it could be medication. You have any number -- the average person, about a third of the population, have to take some kind of medication, almost every day.

Well, do you have a 30-day supply? Or do you have it two days?

And then you go to the pharmacy. (?) or do you find a way, legally, to put a six-month supply on hand?

That's not on day three, you're out in the street, going, what the hell do I do now?

GLENN: Yeah. I just found -- I just found this service called Jase medical.

I think it's Jase medical.com. (?) and they find the legal ways to, you know, get your medication, so you can have a six-month supply. You can have it on hand.

Because that's -- that's one of the major worries for me. Is, you know, if you don't have medication, my daughter goes into seizures. You know, I have high blood pressure.

I can be dead. You know, all of these things.

There's a lot of people. I learned this from your book. There's a lot of people that should be dead.

And I may be one of them.

But they should have died without modern medication. They would have been dead by now. And as soon as you lose that, but the problem is, you know, everything is so tightly prescribed and regulated. That it's hard to -- to get stuff.

How do you do it?

Do you know, Bill?

WILLIAM: You know, when I first started the book, and doing research. I sat down with my pharmacist one evening. Ask she said, what? (?) what happens to our typical community? At the end of that one-hour. She was crying, she said, my God, Bill, it would be overwhelming (?) pan critique. You're dead.

Cancer control. Any number of things. You're dead.

You've got to remember, the post World War II generation is really the first truly medicated society in the world. One hundred years ago, we died. We died young.

Now we're living into 60s, 70s, and 80s.

And pretty comfortable. Without those basic medications. Or the more exotic ones you use.

What about people who have many a transplant?

They'll die very, very quickly. What about heart conditions. I have an irregular heart condition. I've been taking a medication for 40 years. I'm fine. Take that medication, and within 40 takes, I'll be bed rin (?) after --

GLENN: Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

WILLIAM: So these are basic things that we don't think about, until it's too late. The day after.

GLENN: So you put food in the third place. Water is number one. Medication is number two.

WILLIAM: Yes. Yes. Hey, I just listened to one of your (?) I know the company. Patriot.

GLENN: My Patriot Supply. Yeah. By the way, they also have the water purification, that is amazing. And it's even something that you can have on -- or in your car at all times too. Just in case.

We don't think of these things. We just -- that's why -- Stu and I always joke. He says, you're the most prepared man, I know.

And I'm really not.

But I'm more prepared than he is.

But I know in the end, it will be one of those things that I'll be like, oh, crap. I forgot batteries.

You know it will be something stupid. That you just assume that you have.

WILLIAM: I have a (?) double and AAA batteries.

GLENN: So do I. So do I.

WILLIAM: And you want to know something?

That will be a trade item. Somebody said, I'll trade you a meal for batteries.

GLENN: Yes.

BILL: Things like that we don't even think of. And then, of course, (?) that's something I always predicate with. If you decide to get a firearm. Get trained. You don't want to (?) all right? The bet trained, trained well. If you decide that you want a tram. And then have the proper ammunition and supplies on hand.

GLENN: So if you have your house on solar panels. And you have buried natural gas or whatever, for generators. Is that also good to have in the plan? To be some self-reliance on these things?

WILLIAM: Yeah. I have a (?) even me, with with all the books I've written and everything else, there's a heck of a lot of things, that I'm dependent on my society for.

And not everybody is going to go out there, (?) cistern. Et cetera.

GLENN: Sure. Right.

WILLIAM: But everybody listening to you, who lives in an apartment. A single mom with a couple of kids. Get a month's worth of supplies on hand, that you don't have to step outside and contend with the chaos out there.

That you are safe and secure, in your home, for at least ten months.

GLENN: And you think that a -- a massive -- what they're calling catastrophic attack on our -- on our -- on our systems, cyber attack, that could last a month?

WILLIAM: It most likely could last longer than a month. It could last (?) several years back. Said, if we had a radical shutdown, to take up the five years, to take the top 500 generating systems, in the eastern United States. Five years to put 80 percent back online. To which --

GLENN: Why?

WILLIAM: Because component parts. Basic replacement parts. You would call the Israeli raid on the Iranian cyber attack.

GLENN: Yes. Yes.

WILLIAM: Yeah. Sputnik. It's some software that they put in there, caused all the centrifuges, to suddenly stop.

It destroyed them for years.

There are things, you and I don't even know about. That at this moment, somebody is sitting there plotting. Boy, I could really screw up America, if I pulled this block out of the system.

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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.

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Did CLOUD SEEDING cause the Texas floods?

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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.