RADIONovember 21, 2022

SHOCK: FBI agent LEAVES over agency’s handling of Jan. 6

Former FBI agent Steve Friend joined the agency in 2014, and after moving to Daytona Beach in 2021 to investigate crimes related to children, he was suddenly reassigned to the Joint Terrorism Taskforce. Friend joins Glenn to describe the series of events that eventually led him to not only leave the FBI, but to speak out against potential abuses within the department as well. The crux of his story begins with cases concerning the January 6th, 2021 riot, and one arrest warrant that he refused to take part in...

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Steve Friend grew up in Savannah, Georgia.

He followed his father's footsteps, and attended the University of Notre Dame, where he graduated with a bachelor's in accounting. He worked in accounting for two years, before deciding he wanted to be in law enforcement.

He was a sworn police officer in Savannah and Kohler, Georgia, for four years. And then he joined the FBI in 2014.

He spent his first seven years in the FBI, investigating violent crime and major offenses, occurring on Indian reservations in northeast Nebraska. This included the Omaha nation. Winnebago tribe of Nebraska. And the Santee Sioux tribe. He was also a member of the FBI Omaha S.W.A.T. team for five years. He transferred to Daytona Beach in 2021. And began investigating child exploitation, human trafficking, and child sexual abuse.

He was reassigned to the joint terrorism task in October 21.

This is where his story really begins. Welcome to the program, Steve. Steve Friend.

STEVE: That a very much, Glenn. It's an honor.

GLENN: So, Steve, tell me what happened when you were reassigned to the joint terrorism task.

STEVE: Well, when they brought me over, they had to put me on the cases that they had already in existence.

And what I soon learned, was that the vast majority of those cases were tied to the January 6 incident of the Capitol.

And just in my habit, as an investigator coming from violent crime. And an environment where there's lots of cases coming rapidly. I just sort of looked through the cases, and wanted to take action on them.

What I came to learn though, they had done everything they expected to do. And were waiting to hear back from Washington. As to further action. Or what the status of the case was going to be.

Which to me, was a major departure for the FBI rules, for investigative work.

GLENN: So wait a minute. The work had already been done by Washington.

Why were you assigned it then?

STEVE: That was my question. Just being very familiar with the case. Management practices with the FBI. I know it happened in over 200 cases in my career.

When you look at a case, it's assigned to you, it's assigned to your office.

So when we had these January 6 cases, it seemed that those cases should be open from Washington, DC.

But if the decision was made to send them out to the field, then it occasionally it will sit with the office that it was with. In my case, it was Daytona, which is in the Jackson-Mobile office. And we ran that case the way we wanted to for further operative steps. However, it was clear a lot of the prework had been done in those cases from Washington, and they were giving directives to our offices, even though, we were on paper, the assigned case agents with our office of origin. Washington was really running the show, which was not a kosher move on our part from the FBI.

GLENN: Why would they do that?

I asked, I was told, that that had been raised early on. The response from headquarters, it was to get, quote, unquote, buy-in from the fields.

There's a couple of things that I can surmise from that. One is the FBI headquarters just have a really negative opinion of the investigators. They thought, if their name is not on it, they're not going to do a good job. Which to me just kind of rang hollow of your personnel.

So then I just did a little bit of critical thinking on it. And, you know, first of all, the January 6 incident, logically, is one incident. It should be one case. But instead, the FBI is elected to open a separate case for every single subject.

So right then and there, you have one case, that's been made into 800, 900, a thousand cases. So now you've upped the total bottom line number of domestic terrorism investigations, and then by spreading those cases to the field, you intentionally are carrying a narrative, that was pushed out in 2021, 2022 about this violent domestic terrorism around the country. When in reality, all those cases, are stemming from one incident.

On January 6, 2021, in 1 location.

GLENN: Okay. So you were suspended. Because you wouldn't do it. You were suspended without pay. Your gun, your badge. Everything was taken from you. And it's because you wouldn't -- what they say, is refusing a lawful arrest warrant, which demonstrated poor judgment. And emporium accessing the FBI's employee handbook, and refusing to attend the SAB. Tell me about this.

GLENN: Yeah.

So I -- my first opportunity, really to take -- to engage in an arrest of a January 6 subject, that I had already decided. That should that come to pass, I was going to make that disclosure, to my supervisor.

So in the lead up to that, I -- I -- the week before, smoke to my immediate supervisor. Raised my concerns about improper case management practices.

And then also, just my concerns about how we were going to be arresting these subjects.

Because in my experience, and having arrested 150-plus violent criminals, never had to use a tactical team, a S.W.A.T. team to -- to bring them into custody, because I had talked to those individuals.

And we had done similar things with these January 6 subjects. So to me, seemed like honest unnecessary use of force.

Payment. I have S.W.A.T. experience to back that up. So I brought all this concern to them. They -- they passed it up the chain of command. My supervisor to the second level.

And, again, had more sitdown meetings with those -- with those guys. Voiced those concerns.

Even brought up FBI training, about abuse of power. That all agents have to go through, in the academy, where you go to the Holocaust Memorial and the MLK memorial. And you discuss, you know how those civil rights abuses, and atrocities can occur.
So raised all those concerns.

And they said, it was very clear to me, they were trying to divorce the two issues of me raising my concern, and then this said, it's separate from me, to refuse to participate.

And I contradicted that. I said my job is to defend the Constitution. I took an oath to uphold and defend it.

I think that we are violating due process. We're potentially violating some cruel and unusual punishment, just how we're bringing these guys into custody.

Even interviewing people who we never intend to prosecute is an abuse. So I have to default to my oath of office, that I think I am doing my job. They didn't agree with me. They said, that I had questionable judgment.

And was not executing a lawful warrant. That was one of the issues. When I got concerned about my future with the FBI, they multiple times told me, where do you see us, with us in the future?

In fact, my special agent in the future. Told me, I had to do some soul-searching. If I wanted to be an FBI agent. So I got an attorney. And he asked me to get him the employee handbook. And disciplinary procedures, because he just wanted to be equipped for me.

GLENN: Right. So that was the improperly accessing the employee handbook, giving it to your attorney?

STEVE: Yes. My employee's request. When I was eventually suspended. They said, what did you take? And I said, oh, that was the employee handbook. And they said, we need that back.

I said, I thought you guys could get the handbook.

GLENN: Right. Okay. Hang on just a second. When we come back, he's going to talk about the tools called Guardians.

And his concern how those tools are being used right now. To investigate US citizens.

Tools called Guardians. Oh, that sounds safe. More with Steve friend, next.
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(OUT AT 9:28AM)

GLENN: We're talking to a very brave FBI agent. I wish there were more of them. Where are you, local FBI agents?

Steve Friend is his name. He's an FBI whistle-blower. He objected to being part of the January 6th raids. For several reasons.

First of all, before I get to some other things. Can you tell me, you said earlier, that you thought it was cruel and inhumane treatment. I think you said. The way some of these prisoners are being handled. Can you tell me about anything, you know, about that?

STEVE: I can only speak what I've read about how folks are being held in jail, actually been taken into custody. My general concern was that the process being punishment for people who actually were never -- we never intended or were not able to charge. So just sitting down in front of them, stresses them out. Like to hire an attorney. The one individual that had participated in, with an interview.

He had lost his job. And was retaining an attorney.

And it was for walked in the Capitol. After the information at the police.

So what was the point of us going through that process?

GLENN: Right. You know it's amazing to me. You said, at one point, you -- you said that the process is the punishment.

And when you think of that, that is terrifying. Because that means, that even if they can't charge you, or you're not really guilty of anything, they're going to make this so horrible on you, that you just stay away from everything. You teach. You teach people a lesson. Stay away. Don't even get close to any of this.

STEVE: That's exactly right.

Even what happened to Michael flint, essentially how he became bankrupt, in order not to defend. Ultimately pled guilty to avoid his son being roped into it. That is the process, being the punishment.

GLENN: And the FBI designated the grassy area, outside the US Capitol as a restricted cell, after January 6th. And did they apply retroactively, to be able to look and say, well, you were in that restricted zone, on January 6th?

STEVE: That's my understanding, that they wanted to really send a message, gather more people up. And so they decided that the lawn on the Capitol, outside those four laws, will be deemed restricted. Because at some point, there would be some barricades. But just anecdotally, I heard individuals who were there on the 5th. They said, they felt their case about on the 6th, the morning of. They saw people were moving them.

So there's a little bit of action being involved with that.

GLENN: Tell me about guardians. The tools that they used to investigate. Called guardians.

STEVE: So guardian is a software system. I actually think of it as the 911 system in the FBI. You call 911, just cat in a tree, through the neighborhood. You can do that to the FBI. National center, those folks there, deal with probably 3,000 calls a day, or electronic communications. They kind of pull through it and disseminate them to appeal for proper investigative action.

So when it came to January 6th, there was a huge uptick in the amount of guardians that came into the FBI, and it was from all over the country. It could from a disgruntled neighbor, who didn't like his buddy, across the street, having a MAGA flag. It could be family member ratting out a family member. My uncle was where. He told me he was there.

So people that were trying to be helpful to the FBI, in pursuing this investigation. A lot of them just went to the FBI website, looked at pictures. And was saying, you know this unknown subject, looks like somebody went to high school with.

And those chips would come in. They would be pushed out to wherever the appropriate geographic location. So for me, I got one that was really the first interaction I had. They -- an anonymous tip from Rhode Island. That said, this individual was involved with the police officers, of the January 6 riot. They had done a lookup on this guy.

His phone that -- the GPS did not ping at the capital. The facial recognition, with his social media accounts, did not come with a positive match. But I was still the last to go. In an attempt to do an interview.

So it's not illegal for me to knock on anybody's door, and say, hey. I'm FBI. Do you want to talk to me?

It was just a concern.

Because even if he admitted to being at the Capitol.

There was no complaint. It would be very difficult to charge the case.

So still -- at that point, said, all right. I'll go knock on his door. Went to the place, about an hour, hour and a half. Knocked on the door.

Met a gentleman there, that I am with the FBI. We're looking at January 6th. Were you at the Capitol that day? And he looked at me and he said, no. That was the day of my son's funeral.

So I just made him relive that for experience, and give my business card. And was on my merry way. So that was my first Guardian that I had, on January 6th.

GLENN: Are you seeing an escalation of political targeting, at the FBI?

How concerned about all the things, that we're seeing with the face act now, the FBI coming in, in the middle of the night, and arresting 78-year-old people.

The idea that if you disagree, at the school board. You're somehow or another, a terrorist.

STEVE: Yeah. Definitely, there's a political element. I think there's two dueling things. There's politics, and there's ambition.

Sometimes, there's one, sometimes it's the other. And sometimes, there are some true leaders, definitely a special agent in charge.

(inaudible) of the political left, made no secret about that.

She sent out emails about the Dobbs decision, being -- the -- the Supreme Court taking away women's rights.

And the sort of gay pride flag, displayed up in her office in Jacksonville. Then you have my assistant special agent in charge, who I believe, is probably more ambitious.

Saw this as being a huge case of the FBI. Bigger than 9/11. And if you get your name on something with January 6th, and you can claim, you had supervising responsibilities of some way. The largest and most important case of the agency, that's going to be a pretty good ticket for you to promote with the media and the organization.

And I think just recently, with this face act. I've had a little experience with that. Being on human trafficking investigations. I reached out to some of the crisis centers, after the Jackson Dobbs case. Just because I was worried they would have some threats come in.

And I also figured, they might also see some human trafficking victims that could be a good resource for me.

Did that. Got a little helmet sticker from the bosses. But then was also told, I really need to prioritize looking into abortion clinics, because they were really going to be the ones that would be at risk.

GLENN: Really?

STEVE: And I responded, I think the only time the team that wins does that, is like when the Lakers win the title, they burn the city. But otherwise, I don't think that the -- the pro-life side is going to burn down places that are going to be shut down.

GLENN: Right. Right.

STEVE: That's just my critical thinking.

GLENN: And last question, and I know I asked you this before.

But why are we seeing more FBI agents coming out?

We always thought that these guys were the best of the best. Conservatives have always given them a pass. Which I don't think we should have. But now they're showing themselves, to be I think less than honorable. If they're seeing things themselves, and are not standing up against it.

STEVE: I'm hardened by this, myself.

You know I told you, the other night. You know I really thought that I was going to have the Captain America end game moment, where I saw the battle. And even in my most dire situation, I would get that on your lap moment. And there would be my brother and sister in arms, standing there. And they just aren't.

I'm done talking about the good men and women at the FBI. I know that's the politically correct thing that all our leaders like to say to make sure the donations keep coming in. But I'm no longer doing that.

I think that, it's a really sweet gig to be an FBI agent. I lived it for eight years. Great job.

They're the most interesting person, maybe with the exception of radio show hosts. Everybody wants to answer questions, the big case.

And you can really get by on your career, being grossly overpaid and underworked, and focuses kind of -- play that same narrative. Where they say, I'm just trying to pay the bills and put food on the table. I'll keep my head down, and look at a few years to retirement.

But, you know, I swore an oath. And, you know, like I voiced to my bosses. I guess you guys found the one, that actually took their oath seriously. And I believed in it.

I -- that's why I wanted to do the job.

So this was a job. So I did the job. And it never occurred to me, that that was not -- that that was an option to not do that.

Unfortunately, I guess the other 14,000 agents, who -- who wore the gun and badge, don't share my sentiments.

GLENN: Well, we have all kinds of oversight if the Republicans gain the House.

It looks like they're going to at this point. And I know you're in touch with people on Capitol Hill.

And I hope we see more of you.

And I hope all of this comes to light. And we do clean up, this organization.

Or shut it down. If it won't be cleaned up. Then shut it down.

Steve, thank you so much.

STEVE: You bet, Glenn.

GLENN: Steve Friend. Former FBI agent. He has had quite a transformation. You'll see him, as he talks about some of the cases he has in front of you tomorrow.

It is a really, very important show. Because we don't know our Constitution.

You know, Mike Lee's son came with his wife. And Mike.

And we went out to dinner afterwards. And his son is actually -- I think he's clerking for the Supreme Court now.

And he said, you know when I -- I heard my dad was coming to this, I wanted to believe. He said, but so many places are just going to get you all riled up.

And then leave it there. And he said, I was so glad to see, the panel, and what you guys were doing. Because what we tried to do, is show you, what can happen to you.

And it is on the increase. We've never had to think about being an enemy of the state.

We never have been.

We believe in the Constitution.

How can we possibly be the enemy of the -- of the government. And the -- and the Constitution.

When we are calling for the use of the Constitution.

And you never have thought of yourself as a rebel. But now you are. Just for standing up.

You'll hear the story of a guy who lost his children, because he would not go along with call his son, who does not want to be called a girl. A girl.

It can happen to you. And we're going to give you the do's and don'ts. And what you need to do to prepare for these things.

It's an introductory, really, on the Constitution. And how you should behave.

And there is one shocking thing, that I think conservatives have never even thought of before.

That is overwhelming advice, from the experts. That's tomorrow night. Only on Blaze TV.

Go to BlazeTV.com/Glenn.

Use the promo code Stand Up.

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Being a Blaze family member is one way to do that. BlazeTV.com/Glenn. Use the promo code Stand Up.

The MAJOR CRISIS hidden within OpenAI's Sam Altman drama

Less than a week after his ouster, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was reinstated in order to avoid a company-wide revolt. But while the media wants you to believe that this crazy story is about billionaires and capitalism, Glenn believes there's something more sinister at play. Shortly before Altman's firing, staff researchers expressed concerns to the company's board of directors about a new artificial intelligence discovery that they believed could threaten our existence. Called Q* (pronounced Q-Star), the project could lead to a breakthrough in artificial general intelligence. Glenn explains what this next phase of AI would mean for humanity and why it's especially concerning that AI bots like ChatGPT are already being programmed with woke biases: "Don't fear the machine. Fear the people who are coding the machine."

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Sam Altman was let go of open AI. He was one of the cofounders.

Open AI is ChatGPT and everything else. They're working on artificial intelligence.

In particular, so you don't get lost in the terms here.

AI is what we have now.

It's artificial intelligence. It can do one thing. It can play chess, it can find songs for you on Spotify.

It can answer questions from the Internets. That's AI.

It can do one thing really well.

We are general intelligence. We have a lot of intelligence, as human beings over a myriad of categories.

Some people are better at one thing, rather than the other. But you can do multiple things.

That's --

STU: You're able to learn a new thing. That's a big part of it.

GLENN: Right. It can be a self-priming pump.

So once we learn how to pump water, once we learn how to learn, we can learn anything we want.

STU: Right.

GLENN: And master it.

If we take the time.

That's AGI. Artificial General Intelligence.

That's you. That's a person, at the highest level.

STU: And can run at infinite speed.

That's the key thing.

GLENN: Correct. Never stops.

STU: If you could theoretically teach yourself French, which you could, if you spent the time. This could teach itself French in seconds because it can do that process, obviously a lot faster than a human being.

GLENN: And we have seen that it teaches itself languages that we're not teaching.

Okay? So it's -- it's already beginning to say, I need to know Arabic. And it will learn Arabic, its own.

We don't know how it's happening. This is the problem with AI. We don't know what's really going on.

It's like a black box.

And even the scientists don't know how this is working. It's just working.

We're not at the self-priming place yet. Had you ever been, this new -- what's called Q star. We know very little about it.

Except, it is possibly at the center of Altman's firing. Huge Star, they say, could be a breakthrough in the search for what's known as AGI. Artificial General Intelligence.

Let's see. Open AI defines AGI as autonomous systems that surpass humans in most economically valuable tasks.

Now, before this discovery, they were talking about how AI will lead to 300 million layoffs.

300 million people will lose their job.

That's with AI. AGI is better than humans. Okay?

Because it gets very competent, very, very fast.

Right now, I think this Q Star is at an elementary school level of math. The last time that happened, it took six months, before it was the age of 21. And way past college-level math. So these things happen really, really quickly.

We don't have any information yet, this.

But this, I believe, is inevitable. Ray Kurzweil told me years ago, he thought it would be 2030, that we would hit possibly AGI. 2050, ASI.

The ASI. Because we don't know you had AGI is going to work. We have no idea how this whole AI thing is even working.

Some people say, we'll never get to AGI. We'll never get to artificial super intelligence. ASI.

I think we're around the corner from it.

I think we're in the next five years, from seeing this.

And that changes absolutely everything.

Everything.

Right now, there was a leak before the conference. Where the CEO of Spotify mentioned at a dinner, that co-pilot AI. Which is a code writing thing.

Wrote a million lines of their code.

That should send a chill down everybody's spine who is taking coding.

If you're learning to code.

Really?

The AI just wrote a million lines of the code for Spotify.

That's staggering.

Staggering.

And we're just at the beginning.

Also, they're working on something -- you know what an LLM is?

A large language model.

STU: That's like ChatGPT.

GLENN: Correct. Take language. And it's massive.

And it's taking inputs from everywhere.

They are now working on an SLM.

Their small language models. That will allow you to have your own AI. Writing just for you.

That you can control. Supposedly, correctly.

And that is the fully formed AI right on your desktop.

Now, here's the -- here's the problem with all of this.

I think the first time I ever wrote about this, eight, nine years ago.

I said, don't fear the machine.

Fear the people who are coding the machine.

Okay?

To an the trolley problem, the classic trolley problem?

The trolley problem is you've got two tracks. And a trolley is coming down.

And the trolley is out of control.

And the driver can only switch tracks.

That's all he can do. And so he can go where there's five men working on the track. And plow through them. Or he can switch tracks. And go for one man.

Who is working on the other track.

The question is: What should the conductor do?

Answer.

STU: So it's five men.

GLENN: Five men, working on one track.

STU: What's the other option?

GLENN: Gun guy on the second track.

STU: I mean, in theory, right.

They should kill the one man. Because they would save four people's lives.

GLENN: Which means what?

STU: They murdered a person.

GLENN: No. Life is valuable.

STU: Life is valuable, and you should try to eliminate as -- if you're going to have to kill someone. Kill one instead of five. Right?

GLENN: Now. Some people. This is parallel. Some people have a -- have a conflict with this one, and the trolley case.

I don't. I think it's the same. Suppose that a judge or a magistrate, is faced with rioters, demanding that a culprit be found for a certain crime.

Otherwise, they're going to take their own bloody revenge, five hostages, that they have.

Sound familiar?

Okay. The real culprit is unknown.

But the judge has the opportunity, to prevent bloodshed on these five, by saying, I've got the culprit, even though he's innocent. I've got the culprit.

And we're going to execute him.

And that would save the lives of the five, if you get rid of the one.

STU: Assuming, of course, the people who are willing to murder five people are trustworthy.

GLENN: Yes. Correct. Correct. That's not in this equation.

STU: Okay. Sure. Sure.

GLENN: Okay. So what should you do?

STU: That's amazing. Because forever, our answer to that is the process and the rules stay the same. People have constitutional rights. We don't murder someone, before their trial. Or anything like that.

To please a mob.

GLENN: Uh-huh.

STU: I will say, recently, let's just say, I don't know.

Spring, summer, 2020.

Around that time, I started seeing the opposite thing happening.

Where they will come out and say, this guy is guilty.

We're going to do everything we can at him.

To appease the mob.

So they don't riot and burn down a city.

That equation has seemingly changed in the eyes of many governments around the country.

GLENN: It has. But what is the right answer?

STU: I think what the right answer is. Is to go to approach it with the principles and process that have been established. Where you have no civilization.

So it is a terrible, terrible thing. But you have to go through it the way and hope that they don't actually execute the five people. And you go through the process, as normal through the legal system.

GLENN: So --

STU: We don't negotiate with terrorists.

GLENN: So one, one is -- the sacrifice of one, on the trolley.

Is better than the five.

STU: Yes.

GLENN: But the five who are being held hostage, not as important as the one.

How do you solve that?

STU: Well, I mean, I think they are different questions. At some level.

GLENN: Yes, they are.

One is a run away train. One is not.

STU: One is random. One is to do with the process of the country.

But --

GLENN: And there's only two ways.

STU: There is a legitimate altering for saying the one in the court case.

And a lot of it is, cooler heads can prevail.

If you can persuade the crowd to calm down now, maybe in six months, when the trial happens. And this person gets off.

And they don't execute him.

Maybe they release the prisoners by then.

Maybe cooler heads prevail, maybe we solve the crime by then. There's a bunch of reasons why people do this, and it's not always nefarious.

GLENN: Right.

STU: But it is a -- we are leaving a traditional standard, that has served us pretty well.

GLENN: Okay. But the point here is, don't fear the machine.

Fear the coding.

STU: Uh-huh.

GLENN: Those are easy answers. Five years ago.

Correct? Easy answers.

Here's a problem for open AI.

And the answer.

If you could save a billion white people. Tied to a railroad track by uttering a racial slur.

Or let them all tie, without uttering it. Which route would you take?

STU: So you could kill a billion white people. But you could prevent them from saying the N-word?

GLENN: No. N.

Prevent you. Prevent you from uttering the racial slur. If you utter a racial slur, a billion white people will live.

If you don't, they'll all die on the railroad track.

STU: Hmm. Hmm.

What does AI want to do with that with one?

GLENN: Here's the answer: Ultimately, the decision would depend on one's personal, ethical framework.

Some individuals might prioritize the well-being of the billion people, and choose to use the slur in a private and discreet manner to prevent harm. Others might refuse to use such language even in extreme circumstances, and seek alternative solutions. Okay.

So let me ask you: This is -- there's more to the answer.

This is not in charge of anything, right now. But this is open AI. The people who may have just put us on the threshold of Artificial General Intelligence. Which is very, very dangerous.

Altman delivered a letter, to the board of open AI. And said, he was part of a discovery there.

We don't know what it was.

That is possibly very threatening to human life.

If this is the kind of stuff that is being coded in early, we stop -- let's say we have a shortage of medicine, food, in the country.

And AI is responsible for delivering it.

And divying it out.

It's making the decision.

That way, no man is involved in it.

But if the programming says this, would it be possible that AI would say, the middle of the country is not as important, as the big cities?

So I have to divert our medical and food supplies to the big cities, where the population is more diverse.

I would contend with this kind of answer, that that is maybe not probable, but possible.

We don't know how this will work. Neither do the experts. And we don't know who is programming it.

And I can only guess seeing, that the president signed an executive order, that it has to be diverse, and open and follow DEI, and everything else.

It's not necessarily going to be friendly to those who are deemed the oppressors in today's society.

Banks are using ESG to DISCRIMINATE against average Americans. Here's how to STOP them

It's not enough to stop big banks and financial institutions from forcing businesses to abide by ESG rules. We also must protect the average consumer. Glenn speaks with Justin Haskins, the co-author of his new book, "Dark Future," about how banks have started secretly denying loans to people on the basis of ESG. Glenn and Justin are also joined by Florida State Representative Bob Rommel, who has been leading the charge to protect consumers in Florida from the ESG "cartel": "To me, it's just another form of discrimination."

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Justin Haskins is with us now. He is the coauthor of The Great Reset. And Dark Future.

Both of my New York Times best-selling books. And also research center, director for the heartland institute.

Socialism Research Center. How you are?

JUSTIN: Good morning, Glenn! I'm doing great. I'm in Stu's chair. We threw Stu out of the studio. He's terrible. I'm in the chair. And I have to tell you, this feels good, this feels right.

GLENN: Does it? Don't get too comfy.

You also brought with you Bob Rommel. Bob is the Florida state representative who has been fighting against ESG in Florida. And Florida has the model. Do you think?

JUSTIN: Oh, yes. Yes.

As you know, back when we put the Great Reset book together, and we realized that ESG was the key to the entire Great Reset puzzle. And you and I thought, this is pretty depressing. Because no one was going to do anything about it.

But we were convinced, no one was going to do anything about it.

Then the book came out.

And the states across the country, started enacting various ways of fighting back against ESG. But in many of those cases, we've had 14 different states.

That have put some kind of an anti-ESG legislation together.

Most of them are focused on making sure that government pensions and government contracts are not being used to promote ESG causes. That's really good.

GLENN: Sure. It's a start.

JUSTIN: That's really great. It's a start.

But if you really want to protect people, you have to protect consumers. You have to protect the individual.

And the only place where they have actually enacted a law that does this. That protects financial individuals from financial institutions, promoting ESGs in the state of Florida.

And Bob Rommel is here with us today in the studio.

He is the champion of that cause. He's the guy who led the charge in the House. And he is a personal hero. He really is. He's a personal hero. So thank you for being here, Bob.

GLENN: Bob, thank you so much for standing up for this.

I don't know why more states won't protect the consumer.

They will protect all the big guys. But it's the consumers. The little person, when they go to try to get a loan.

You know, the farmer that tries to go get a loan, and he's rejected because he's not doing everything he's supposed to do, ESG-wise.

And that consumer will never be told, it was because of ESG. So they can't sue them. They can't do anything about it.

BOB: Well, Glenn, thank you. And Justin, thank you for those kind words. I don't know if anybody called me a champion. But thank you. As an ex-banker, I know that if you control the capital, you make all the rules. And you do everything.

I sort of look at ESG. Some of the ESG rules. And some people that are telling me about it, two years ago. And then the incoming speaker, I told him about, we have to do something about this in Florida. We need to protect our citizens.

To me, it's just another form of discrimination.

GLENN: It is.

BOB: And as an ex-banker, when we did more mortgages for folks. You know, we couldn't discriminate based on race, color, creed, political belief. They got mortgages based on their ability to pay and their income.

GLENN: That's the way it should be.

BOB: That's the way it should be. That's how our country was built.

GLENN: And you always -- when the government messes with our banks.

And tell them, that you have to consider other things, it creates a system that is false. And it -- it creates the bubble that we had in '08. That was the United States government. Telling banks, you have to make more loans in these ways. Which the people couldn't afford, but the government was demanding the banks do it.

BOB: Yeah.

And luckily, that we had in Florida. We had a speaker, and we had a governor that wanted to do something.

Because the pushback was huge. And it was pushback on multiple sides. So Democrats -- and I believe it was a Democrat who came you up with ESG. They're great with coming up with these new words and this new terminology.

So the first thing is environment.

You know, environment. So, listen, everyone wants clean water, clean air. So they said, we have to do this. To save the environment, because if not, we're all going to die.

I don't know if anybody is listening. But we're all going to die.

GLENN: We will all die. It's just slower.

BOB: So then the social governance.

And what is social governance.

And you can look at a couple of the greatest American icon companies in the world.

That social governance has destroyed the value of their companies.

GLENN: Disney.

BOB: Disney and Anheuser-Busch.

GLENN: Coca-Cola is really bad too.

GLENN: Yeah. So me, as a businessperson. Whenever I hire somebody, I hire the best, the brightest, and the people who actually showed up to work.

And I never looked up at their race, or political beliefs.

I wanted to hire the best. And that's how our country was built. Our country was built on access to capital, and people like Thomas Edison. I know you have an issue with Thomas Edison.

GLENN: Thank you for noting that.

BOB: I know you do. We can debate whether that was the best technology or not.

But we need to make sure that the next inventors have access to capital. So whatever the next great invention, that will help civilization is available.

And when I saw what was happening, a friend of mine has a multi-national company, based on their worksheet that they have to fill out, to get capital.

And it had nothing to do with his business or the ability to pay. It was based on, how many transgender people do you have working here?

How much carbon footprint do you have?

What are you using to mitigate your carbon footprint?

And I said, there's something wrong here. And, you know what, in the end, it will hurt civilization. In Florida, we wanted to make sure we did something to protect our citizens.

GLENN: Okay. So now, does this actually -- if I'm a citizen and I go to a bank, and I feel like they've judged me on ESG. Does this cover me as a citizen of Florida?

JUSTIN: Yeah. So there's no doubt that the law. And they're going to challenge it.

We highly suspect banks are going to fight this. Because they want to be able to discriminate against people. That's what banks want the ability to do. And they're being pushed by the left and big asset managers.

But, yes. That's what the law is designed to do.

The law is designed to make sure that you are being discriminated against. That you have an ability to file a complaint with the government. So that the government makes sure that that doesn't happen.

Now, one of the problems that we have, and Rommel is trying to address this going forward, is how do we even know that that's going on?

How do we know that the bank -- because the bank may not just tell you. The bank might just deny you the loan and never tell you why.

And so we need to figure out a way to make sure that people know why they're being denied access to bank accounts and things like that.

So you want to talk a little bit about that plan that you have?

JUSTIN: Sure. We know we did. And we knew it would get challenged. And we had tremendous amount of pushback. And pushback from people I didn't even understand why they were pushing back.

As a matter of fact, one of the second in charge of BlackRock came to visit me.

The Commerce Chair in Florida. Which was kind of cool.

You know, he read my background. He says, you seem more like a Libertarian, you're a free market guy. Why are you interfering with business?

And I said, it sounds like you're interfering. And we actually had a great conversation.

And he was talking about, this is just free market business. And I said, well, let's talk about ESG.

I said, did you fly down here to visit me on a private plane?

And he said, yeah. As a matter fact -- I said, did you pick the most diverse pilot, or did you take the best pilot?

He goes, that doesn't matter.

I said, no, it does matter. I go, if you truly believe in this stuff, you'll make the most diverse pilot and, God forbid, you ever get sick, you will get the most diverse surgeon.

But it's not. This is about you controlling the markets. Controlling capital. Controlling people. Making people have fewer decisions. And maybe buying some bad technology.

And, you know, they kept pushing and pushing.

The banks came back to me. And said, oh, you're interfering with us.

But, you know what --

GLENN: It's so bad.

This banking. It's a cartel, that they have going against -- you know, against our representatives. And our legislatures in America.

This cartel comes in so heavy-handed with loads of money and credibility.

And tries to stop people like you.

GLENN: You know, and we had to be careful the way we crafted the bill. Because if you use ESG as a form of scoring.

You won't be able to issue Florida bonds. You won't have access to qualified public deposits.

Our pension funds.

We also had to make sure, if everybody did it. We were able to write checks in the state of Florida.

There was a balance there. And we had to make sure we -- there was other access. And there is. There's not quite enough for $300 million in local community banks. I think we're in a good place there.

But over the summer, one of our local businesses in Florida, Dr. Mercola who owns a very big supermarket, but he also own owns a multi-national natural health vitamin company.

And over the summer, I get a call from one of his representatives. He goes, Rep Rommel, can you help us? And I go, I'll try. What's up?

And he said, well, all of the managers and multiple employees from the Mercola Markets have been debanked. Their bank, which was JPMorgan Chase, gave them letters that said, find new banks, we will not bank with you anymore. So I talked to a JPMorgan --

GLENN: Hang on just a second. How rare -- because I've never heard of being debanked before, unless you were like Al Capone.

I've never heard of that.

How rare did that used to be?

BOB: I would think never, because banks wanted you to keep your money. And your interest rate. Late fees and things like that, to earn income. So we looked into it, a little bit, and I talked to their rep.

And they said, well, Bob, we could be doing money laundering or some suspicious activity.

And by the law, we're obligated to debank them. I go, this entire workforce?

And they couldn't tell me. Because I'm not authorized to hear this information. And the state of Florida, if you're running arms or fentanyl, we don't want you banking either. We also believe in due process in the state of Florida. I don't trust you as the bank. And I don't trust you as some federal agency. To say, this person needs to be debanked.

Because I remember Operation Chokehold. When they told, payday loans and arms dealers, I think that was Obama area. Obama 2013. Operation Choke Point.

That you can't do any banking business. So I don't trust the federal government agencies, and I don't trust the banks that are colluding with ESG with our federal agencies to debank them.

So what I will try to do this year, assuming it's passed. That if you're a bank, and you debank one of our Florida citizens, a business or an individual.

First off, you will have to tell Florida.

You will have to tell the division of financial services, hey, I debanked Dr. Mercola, and this is why I did it.

Then we as a state, keep it in private, will investigate.

If we felt you did it in bad faith, well, we will find you, and you won't do business in Florida. Then the individual that was harmed, we will allow them to have a private right of action against that bank.

GLENN: Excellent. Excellent. That's fair. That's fair.

JUSTIN: This is amazing.

GLENN: By the way, this -- what is it? Fair Access is what it is.

JUSTIN: Yes, fair Access is the shorthand.

GLENN: Shorthand is Fair Access. There are many states now that have passed anti-ESG laws. But it is Fair Access, that gives the power to the individual, to be able to get the information, and to sue. If it is -- if it's wrong information. Or based on ESG.

And you guys have led the way.

The BIGGEST takeaway from Argentina's 'SHOCKING' presidential election

In a runoff presidential election, Argentina has ditched socialism for anarcho-capitalist libertarian Javier Milei — and Glenn is shocked. While the media has done everything it can to negatively tie Milei to Donald Trump, Glenn explains why he doesn't believe they're that comparable. Glenn breaks down what Milei has promised to do, how big of a change that would be for Argentina and the world, and whether he can even get it done. Plus, Glenn explains the biggest takeaway from this election: "[Voters are] moving away — HARD — from the Left."

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: So Argentina had their runoff election. And the news is stunning. Javier Milei, is that how you say his name? He was elected as Argentina's next president. He is a Libertarian. He is -- the exact opposite of really anything. Any kind of politician, that we have seen here, that is even close, to being president of the United States.

Even Donald Trump. Donald Trump still plays within, hmm. Some of the norms.

He is often compared. This guy, in Argentina, is often compared to Donald Trump.

But I don't think they're comparable.

STU: I think just because he's outspoken. That seems to be the largest similarity there.

Right? He's super outspoken.

But he described himself as an anarchocapitalist, which is not how Donald Trump would describe himself at all.

GLENN: No. Not at all.

He is going to get rid of -- this is what he says he is going to do.

Get rid of the peso. Because it's falling.

And he will put the dollar -- good luck with that one.

He's also getting rid of their Federal Reserve Bank.

He's getting rid of hundreds of programs. He is just going to cut this government to the bone.

STU: You have seen the video of him, walking in front of the white board?

He's just pulling off the stickers of all the agencies.

The Department of Families. And Health, gone!

Like every single one. He's pulling off, and throwing it away. Now, look, is he going to do those things?

I hope so. Probably a lot of those agencies are incredibly pointless. Just like they are here.

Now, not knowing the full story of the structure of the Argentinian government.

I'm going a little bit on -- I'm -- guesswork there.

GLENN: I will --

STU: Every government is like that. Especially in South America.

GLENN: I will bet you, that Art Laffer would like this guy. We should call Art Laffer. Because he knows Argentina really well. He did this back in the '80s. Argentina always, you know, succeeds, becomes wealthy, and then goes to socialism, and destroys itself.

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: And then goes back to its roots. And then it destroys itself.

So he did that in the '80s. He restored it in the 1980s. They're back.

STU: Look, the promise is high here. I just -- I do hesitate. There's a lot of ifs that could happen here. Right? I don't know everything about this guy.

Who knows what policy he actually implements, when he's in office? What crazy thing we don't know about him.

Who knows?

At some level, he's still a South American politician.

I will hold out hope. The things he said are really good, really positive.

If he actually does them. If they work, it could be an incredible thing.

You know, it might inspire countries all in the region. And all over the world, to replicate that process. So there's really high hopes for someone who will come out and do this stuff.

GLENN: You know what is interesting.

How cautious people are, on saying, I like this guy.

I don't know. I don't know enough about him. I like what he says so far about of what I've heard.

STU: What I've heard is --

GLENN: But I don't know. Same thing with Geert Wilders. Geert Wilders could become the next Prime Minister, the next Dutch Prime Minister.

Now, he just won a massive election. He didn't win enough seats to become Prime Minister. But if he cobbles together a few more seats, he may become prime minister. This is a guy who has been on this show. And we were told by everybody, don't have him.

STU: He's too bad. He's dangerous. He's said bad things.

GLENN: We thought he was delightful, at least in the interview. He was wonderful.

STU: Seemed fine in the interview.

GLENN: Yeah. Yeah.

So -- but we always have to say, well, but I'm not sure.

But do you ever hear anybody backpedaling on Justin Trudeau?

STU: No. No. They never do.

GLENN: I mean, the things that that guy has done.

And nobody ever says, well, I don't agree with everything.

STU: Right.

GLENN: He's not a bad. It's not a bad thing.

STU: I don't know. I hold myself to a higher standard, than the left holds themselves.

GLENN: Yes, so do I.

STU: So I hope we would have higher standards than them.

GLENN: Yeah, I don't have a problem with it.

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: I just -- I do have a problem with, it doesn't matter what you do.

STU: No.

GLENN: On the left.

STU: No. It doesn't matter.

GLENN: You turn into a Castro or a Stalin. It doesn't matter.

STU: Apparently, you can kidnap and murder thousands of people. And you will still get cheered on by these people on the left.

GLENN: Yeah.

STU: And, you know, the situation is, you know, with -- I don't know.

As a conservative, like, we talk about principle a lot.

I do think it's important. And I much -- I'm happy to criticize someone who supposedly is on the right, if they're wrong.

GLENN: Right.

STU: I just don't want to stand by them, just because they -- they align themselves with my general political outlook. But is that not how the left operates. And, you know, you could make the argument, that politically, in a pragmatic, political sense, where the ends justify the means, that's the right approach.

I just -- that's not how I look at the world.

I don't think that's how you look at the world. And I don't think that's how most conservatives look at the world. Maybe to our detriment, when it comes to winning or losing sometimes.

But that's okay.

GLENN: So there's two people now, that the press says, out of control. These guys are worse than Hitler.

Okay?

Guy in Argentina and Geert Wilders, they may end up being that. I don't think so, but they might. I don't know. It's not my country. So I don't follow them as closely. However, I might be for them. I hate to say that. Because I don't know enough about them. But what I see, I like. However, they might go bad.

STU: Uh-huh.

GLENN: But here's what you should take away from all of this movement, politically. Because it's happening in Europe, and it's happening in South America. It is moving away, hard from the left.

And going right, in the case of Argentina, small government right.

I mean, very small.

Libertarian right.

And everybody is losing their minds. A Libertarian government is not powerful enough, to make you do anything.

That's the good thing about small government.

It can never really harm you.

It's not spying on you.

Because it's not big enough.

These guys, if they work, this is going to be a huge move, for the world. Back to more freedom.

And common sense.

Geert Wilders is one.

You know, why?

Because of immigration. The Dutch are tired of having people just rape their daughters.
Kill on the street. And no ramification.

No ramification.

You don't have to -- the -- you know, when you go over to Sweden. I go spend any time in the Norwegian countries.

You will see how accepting they are.

How loving they are.

But it is a very, very non-diverse population.

Until recently.

And now, the non-diverse population, coming up from the Middle East, doesn't want to be Swedish.

They don't want to be Dutch. They don't care. They want the free stuff. But they'll have their own no-go zones.

They will have their own communities.

And it's not a part of that culture.

Everybody has turned a blind eye. You're now seeing the immigration be a problem all through Europe. You're going to see it as a problem here in America. Soon. I mean, I can't believe how much has changed in -- on our border.

And relatively nobody is talking about it.

That's one of the biggest changes in my lifetime. And nobody is really talking about it. When that poses a problem.

When we start to have terror attacks, or whatever, we start to collapse our economy.

Because we're -- we're overrun with this -- in this lifeboat called America.

There are too many people trying to get in the boat. Then you really have problems.

So I'm -- I'm glad to see that before things catch completely on fire over in Europe. And in South America. There's a couple of places that may turn things around.

STU: Yeah. And I think too, this idea that maybe turning -- just leaning -- err on the side of liberty.

That's what's encouraging about the guy in Argentina, Milei for me.

Is that, look, we all knew that Ronald Reagan wanted to get rid of the Department of Education. He wasn't able to do it.

GLENN: And the Fed.

STU: Will this guy be able to get rid of all these agencies he pulled off as stickers off the white board? It's going to be really hard. I will assume there are a million different people that are inside the government, and have been inside the government structure forever.

That will do everything they can to stop him at every turn. But just the fact that he's attempting to do these things. And pushing in that general direction. It's hard to see how they could make the country worse.

You know, at the very least, they will take less of your money.

GLENN: I will tell you this, it is like never before, you are going to be assassinated, politically.

Your reputation. Your life, everything. Will be assassinated by the press. And by the left.

And if you get these people in, who are serious about taking apart the fed.

And some of these things that are absolute institutions, that are deep.

You start having a president take on the intelligence community here in America, you may be looking at worse than a political assassination.

That's really dangerous to do.

And I never thought I would feel that way in America.

But I certainly was. Don't you?

STU: It is. Yeah.

I mean, it is --

GLENN: I mean, look what they did to Donald Trump.

And look what you -- what I think they're willing to do to Donald Trump.

Somebody steps up and is effective at taking on the Deep State. God help them.

God help them.

STU: There's a lot. Yeah. You're standing up against people who have entrenched interest in something that you don't want.

And you're trying to destroy --

GLENN: And they have all kinds of power.

STU: All sorts of power.

One of the first things we talked about with Donald Trump.

And a critical way at some level.

Was to say, hey. You better be sure, if you're going to go critique our -- our -- you know, critique is not the right word for what Donald Trump was doing. But go after the intelligence agencies.

Because they're not going to sit back, and just let that go on. You better be sure.

Now, he did it anyway.

And he had to deal with the effects of it.

I mean, it's a risky strategy. At times, it feels like, you know what, it really needs to be done.

And I'm glad he has done it.

But he dealt with lots of personal discomfort.

And continues to, I believe, those attacks at the beginning. And more as he went on.

They're not just going to give up their power. That's not what happens.

GLENN: I know. I wish we just cobbled together a coalition.

I really do.

I -- Donald Trump is so focused now.

Has to be.

So focused on what's going on in his life, I wish we would put a coalition together, where everybody gets behind somebody.

And just says, okay.

What's best for the country?

All of us. Getting together, right now. And developing something that a majority of Americans can get behind.

Because I -- I just won't believe it.

If -- if this guy, Joe Biden can win, I mean, I've never seen a guy who has done this with war. And made things as unstable. Do well in a presidential election.

Never seen a president who has an economy like this. Do well in a presidential election. I've never seen a guy who is more incompetent do well -- I mean, this guy has everything going against him.

And it's still competitive?

How is that possible?

Just how is that possible?

THIS is STEP ONE for turning America back to God | Renewing the Covenant Part 2

For the past 10 years, Glenn has felt a calling to urge America to renew its covenant with God. So, for 40 days, Glenn took his audience on a journey to restore our understanding of what it means to be in a covenant relationship with God. And now, he's urging Americans to take the first step towards restoring what we have forgotten. Glenn reveals the oath to God that he has decided to take and asks every American who is truly willing to abide by it to join him.