RADIOSeptember 03, 2024

Why RFK Jr.’s former running mate chose Trump over the Democratic Party

RFK Jr.’s former running mate, Nicole Shanahan, has thrown her support behind Donald Trump in the 2024 election. She joins Glenn to explain why a liberal like her has endorsed Trump over Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party. Shanahan lists her biggest issues with the current Democratic Party, including why she no longer believes the Democrats are the party of true liberals. Plus, she reviews her viral “TDS” ad and explains how to cure people of Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Welcome to the program, Nicole Shanahan. We are thrilled to have you on, Nicole. How are you?

NICOLE: Hi, I'm very good, Glenn. How are you doing?

GLENN: I'm good.

You know, I'm excited on it talk to you for multiple reasons. But we're not going to really talk about policies.

Because I'm sure we disagree a lot on policies. But there is a -- there is a bigger umbrella, that we both really agree on.

And that is the Bill of Rights.

And what is happening to our country right now. Can you take us from where you were, when you first signed up with RFK? And what changed you to the point, to where -- you're now saying, yeah. I mean, Robert is right. He should be running with Trump.

NICOLE: Uh-huh. Yeah. You know, I have been, I'm a lifelong California Democrat, liberal.

And worked really hard, over the last 15 years of my life. To try to do the right thing.

Create, you know, a merit-based society.

I've -- I do it with a lot of love.

I do it with a lot of desire.

And I do it with a lot of science as well.

I'm an AI developer.

In Silicon Valley. Affiliated with Stanford now for over ten years, went to law school, in Silicon Valley. Was an IP lawyer. Entrepreneur.

So I -- you know, was very comfortable within the Democratic Party for many years.

But I have to say, something happened in 2016, that started a cascading series of events. That has led to amorphous, in the Democratic Party, that make it immoral, in my opinion.

Unprincipled. Lacking honesty, lacking transparency, lacking competence.

And they feel entitled, to throw away revery important principles. Principles like the Bill of Rights. Principles like the, you know, our First Amendment. Free speech.

Principles like not using sabotage in Democratic processes.

It's -- and they feel entitled, entirely.
And I've done this investigation.

I did this investigation. Prior to leaving for the party. Because I tried to reform the party.

I tried for years, to find someone at the DNC.

You know, they gutted, you know, any real leadership, at the DNC.

They put in, a guy who is just -- you know, they don't even bother to talk to the official leadership of the DNC. Because they think it's irrelevant.

It's just a carry along program now.

It's just a carry along group, that is just almost an administrative pocket, for the Pelosi contingent.

And so I -- saw it falling apart from the inside. With a great deal of concern.

And, you know, at some point, as a donor, they kind of just push you into a corner. And they say, well, if you don't want Donald Trump, you have to support us.

And that's their bottom line. That's all they have left, as a policy.

Is not Donald Trump.

And my last response, in the weeks before I left the party, was that is not a policy. That is not leadership.

GLENN: Yes.

NICOLE: You can't run on a platform of not Donald Trump.

GLENN: Nicole.

NICOLE: And, you know. Oh, go on.

GLENN: It amazes me, that so many people, are willing to say, to the person who was the lowest ranked vice president, really despised by the -- she couldn't hold anybody in her office.

Her policies were all upside down. For -- for America in 2020 when she was running for president.

And now, people are saying, oh, she's the greatest. Oh, she's great.

They don't care about the policies. They're voting for an oligarchy.

They're voting for a machine. They don't care!

NICOLE: Yeah. And, you know, I think that the thing that makes me really sad is that they're using, these wonderful American sensibilities.

And they're abusing them, to manipulate their voter base. And, you know, she's a woman of color. She -- you know, it's selling that. For everything it's worth right now. And that to me, is the kind of thing that goes against the very liberal principles, that I was raised with.

I was raised with, you know, yes. We should have a social net. We should not be racist.

We should fight for the underrepresented.

But that is not what this is. This has morphed into, something else, entirely.

That tells people, that it doesn't matter, how -- incompetent you are.

If you can check a box of a minority, on a sheet, that is enough.

And you should be celebrated for that fact.

And the -- and that to me, is really sad. And that's why when people say, oh, the Democratic Party is all of these liberal progressives. That's not what this is.

That's actually a form of racism, in my opinion. Because it creates a hierarchy based on race.

GLENN: Yes! It goes against everything Martin Luther King taught. Everything that Martin Luther King taught.

NICOLE: Everything.

And all of the things I was raised on in Oakland as a little girl coming up, and I'm a brownish woman.

Like, I -- like, I have -- I grew up in Oakland. And Oakland public school systems. And you was in a very multi-cultural place. And these are not the principles I was raised with.

So this is coming from someplace else.

And it -- it does ring more closely to what my mother grew up in. With -- in communist China. Which is this single narrative, totalitarianism.

Which uses phrases and slogans.

And really kind of a form of cultural brainwashing.

To really solidify power.

GLENN: So talk to me about -- look, I really don't mind, there's opposition in all things.

And we should be having debates. I don't want my way or the how.

And I'm perfectly willing to accept that America might disagree with me, and go another way. And vote for another candidate.

If we're actually talking about the issues.

You know, if we're actually talking about real policies.

We're not lying to each other, you know. We're not, you know, just operating with chaos. And confusion.

Or, you know, rigging the system.

But that's I think what's happening.

And I don't know how, Nicole, we can reach out to our -- you know, our neighbors. I believe Democrats are good people. I think some of them are bad. Just like some Republicans are bad.

But the average person that lives on my street. That votes differently.

I don't think they want totalitarianism. I don't think they want another war. How do we talk to them, to get them to wake up and go, wait a minute.

This is not what they say they are?

This is -- this is not the democratic party, anymore.

NICOLE: Yeah. I'll just be honest with you, Glenn. My lived experience now, running for office, with RFK Jr., as a third party, and seeing how low the Democrats went and how they qualified their behavior with these beliefs. That, you know, some of them know, are just not true.

Like, let's talk about what Rachel Maddow said about, if Trump wins, he will be a dictator, and he will send people like me to camp.

That is a big statement, for someone on the mainstream media to say.

This is not a joke. And so, people who respect the mainstream media, are watching this. And taking it as truth. And it really -- so, you know, I feel like my job has been trying to take statements like that. And unpackage them for the -- for the Democrats, who are listening to that.

And only receiving their news through those channels. And telling them. I'm really sorry you believe this. It's a scary thing to believe.

I know you believe it fully in your being right now.

But she's lying to you. And let me tell you why.

So I just --

GLENN: Okay. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Can you unpack that for us here? Let me take a break for one minute. Then we'll come back. Then you unpack it. Tell us -- do what you do.

And convince people, who are dead asleep, why that's a lie.

Back in just a second with Nicole Shanahan, in just a second. First, let me talk to you about Lear Capital. You know, everything that is happening right now with the global economy.

You know, we are lucky enough to be in the situation, where we are the world's reserve currency.
But that can destroyed.

And I think it's being destroyed by using Cloward and Piven's strategy of collapsing the system. Just -- just get everybody on to the dole, as much as you can. That's why, you know, we're I guess in California, now. They're just, if you're an illegal. Or you're -- you know, an undocumented, you can now get a loan, through the government.

That's insanity! Insanity!

So what is going to happen?

Well, eventually, we will lose our world reserve currency status.

And that will mean, we will be Venezuela, overnight.

Please, somebody has to have something, when -- when this happens.

And when it's really not a question of if, anymore. I don't believe.

That's why I would like to recommend that you consider putting maybe five or 10 percent of what you have, into gold or silver.

Gold or silver is where the world traditionally always has returned.

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Ten-second station ID.

And then....

GLENN: So how do you convince people, Nicole?

Go through that, and unpack that.

NICOLE: Yeah. So I've been toying with different ways of doing this with my team.

I don't know if you saw the ad we released last week.

GLENN: I love it. Love it.

NICOLE: You know, I had never even heard of that term, until I went on Tomi Lahren, and she used that phrase.

GLENN: Wow.

NICOLE: And after my interview with Tomi, I had to look it up.

GLENN: Wow.

NICOLE: And I thought it was really interesting. Because when I -- when I paired, this idea of like, you know, people are so afraid. Of Donald Trump. For these reasons.

For the reasons, that, you know, Rachel Maddow is propagating.

It really creates a -- an environment of psychosis.

So I try to approach it, in the same way, I approach somebody, who is having a really hard time.

And maybe it's because they don't have full information.

Or they've been shaken by something. Or someone.

Or there's peer pressure around them. And I -- you know, humor always breaks through, that first layer. If you can get people to laugh, they -- they loosen up.

It sends these either happy chemicals through the body.

And it actually opens up the brain for receptivity.

So we -- I was just -- like, we produced that video, for I think under $10,000.

And it's gotten 65 million views.

We didn't have to buy influence or anything.

GLENN: It's fantastic.

NICOLE: We just had to be good. We had to be funny. And we also had to kind of show truth in it. If you go through that TDS commercial, there's a lot of truth in it. We don't mince words.

GLENN: Right.

NICOLE: We're really gentle. We don't even endorse Trump at the end of it. We're just calling for people's independence, to return to them.

Their critical thinking.

And they laugh. Even the Dems, truly showed it to -- laugh. You know, some people were resentful.

There was a -- my father-in-law is actually a never Trumper. And he was a little resentful. But he still chuckled.

So that opened up a conversation. That then allows us to dig a little deeper.

And that next layer is really going, point by point through.

All of the top ten things that Never Trumpers believe. They believe that January 6 was an insurrection, and innocent service members on Capitol Hill died, as a result.

And so you have to unpack that. Megyn Kelly did a really, really good job with that one.

But there are certain facts that are just being kept from Democrats, about January 6th, and the insurrection.

You know, for one, that Trump called for peace.

He said, go forward peacefully.

GLENN: Right.

NICOLE: And then issues around the National Guard not being deployed.

There were so many inconsistencies. And unpacked there at that. You have to do it patiently. There are really smart Democrats. They take time to get through.

But once you get through that first layer of TDS, you can start to be -- the second one is that -- go on.

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

NICOLE: I'll just go through the top three.

GLENN: Okay. All right.

NICOLE: The second one, I keep hearing, about Donald Trump.

Is he's bad for women.

And gays.

And I've had many of my gay community, come to me, and say, how can you be supporting someone who could hurt me.

And I -- my response is, you know, he was actually one of the first presidents on day one, to -- to say gay marriage was okay.

He never attacks gay marriage. And they don't know that. People don't know that. And then reproductive freedoms I hear a lot as well. And this is one in which I think that the Democrats really screwed themselves. Because it -- it was the Supreme Court. The highest court in our nation, handed down effectively constitutional reframing of reproductive freedoms, from being a federal issue, to a state issue.

That's all that happened.

GLENN: Thank you.

NICOLE: That's all that happened.

So when people say, he took away my reproductive freedoms.

And I'm like, what state are you in?

New York. Well, my sister works at Planned Parenthood. I'm like, how many -- how many abortions did she do last year? And they're like, oh, she's done a lot actually.

GLENN: Right.

NICOLE: So I'm kind of just, you know, trying to level it in the most compassionate way I can. Any time you're dealing with somebody, out of fear, the best thing to do is to have compassion.

GLENN: Nicole, I would love to have you for a podcast. I find you fascinating.

And I hope, that more ask more people catch on to what you're doing.

And wake up. Our republic depends on it.

Nicole Shanahan. Thank you. God bless.

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

Did government PROPAGANDA lead to Charlie Kirk’s assassination?

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

Restore the Smith-Mundt Act.