RADIOApril 02, 2024

How to STOP the FBI’s Abuse of Power Against Parents

The FBI has faced growing criticism for treating law-abiding conservative Americans as threats. The agency has been accused of misusing taxpayer funding to go after parents who protested at school board meetings and Americans who protested — or even just prayed — at abortion clinics. But FBI whistleblower Steve Friend has a solution. He joins Glenn to lay out a new bill that is up for a vote in the Tennessee Senate. The bill would force the FBI to inform local sheriffs about any “national security investigation” cases that their deputies are helping out with. But the bill has faced some pushback from unexpected groups. Steve explains why he believes this is happening, which says a lot about the FBI’s grip on local governments, and also explains how you can support legislation like this across the country.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: So the FBI comes to town, and they're investigating, you know, let's say a parent for being a terrorist, because they spoke out at the school board meeting.

And the sheriff deputies and some of the police officers are asked by the FBI, joint terrorism task force to join.

And they do. And then they find out what the case is all about.

Well, the sheriff or the police chief doesn't have any right to know. Because they don't have a need to know, according to the FBI.

So you're -- your funds for the state, are going to this task force.

And you don't even know what they're doing.

Are they wasting money by going after somebody who, you know, was praying at an abortion clinic?

Steve Friend is -- is here now.

He's the center for renewing America fellow. He's the FBI whistle-blower. He objected to being part of the January 6th raids. Steve, welcome to the program.

STEVE: Great to be with you, Glenn. Thank you for having me this morning.

GLENN: You bet. So you're just trying to put up a line of defense of the people, using the last, really, constitutional string that you have. And that is the sheriff's office, right?

STEVE: Of course this is really just 101. A very simple bill, that is on the table here in Tennessee.

It's Senate bill 2804. House bill 2912. And it essentially just says, that the sheriff has to be read in, and approved of any of the terrorism investigations, that his deputies, who are on loan, from the FBI. Joint terrorism task force.

Any of the cases that they're working on. It will create sort of a bull work.

Because the FBI then has to bring it to the chief elected law enforcement official. Who the people voted for.

The people who don't vote for FBI, they vote for their sheriff. And not for nothing.

He should be aware if there's a legitimate terrorism threat in his county. That's his charge.

GLENN: Let me read this entire bill.

And it's quite a bill. Amend Senate bill number 2804. House bill 2912.

By deleting all language, after the enacting clause and substituting section one, Tennessee code annotated, title 38. Chapter eight. Part one. Is amended by adding the following new section.

Now, here's where the rubber meets the road. See if you can follow this.

In the event, a law enforcement agency within the state, nominates personnel to be deputized as a federal task force officer, on a joint terrorism task force.

The chief law enforcement officer, from the nominee's respective law enforcement agency, must approve each national security investigation, in which the nominee participates.

Then he gets into a very complicated Section 2. This act takes effect, July 1st, 2024. I mean, that's an easy to read bill.

And very, very clear.

What kind of opposition are you coming up against?

STEVE: Well, unfortunately, the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security, the arm of the governor's office has opposed us on every avenue here with this.

GLENN: Of course.

BILL: And the communications we've received from them, is they don't feel that sheriffs are entitled to know about what they work with the FBI on.

So they're all in for the federalization of law enforcement, which is pretty aconstitutional from any conservative's standpoint.

GLENN: So what is their excuse for saying, it's the sheriff? The only elected enforcement in the whole group here. How come the sheriff doesn't have a right to know?

STEVE: It will impede their ability to work with the FBI. I think that the FBI is a pretty symbiotic relationship with a lot of these state-level agencies. That's the Tennessee bureau of investigations have expressed opposition as well, to us doing this.

And I think that they are in with the FBI. And the FBI gives them the goodies. And they get the credentials. They're all in for what's going on, at a higher level.

And the nature of -- as you move up the chain of command, within our government structures, you sort of feel like, the slipping in swine at the lowest level, even if it's the sheriff, is entitled to know what you are working on from on high.

Which is opposing anything that we expect of our law enforcement agencies, and that we want to keep the community safe. And we elect the sheriff to do that. We elect him to bring crime down. To confront terrorism.

If he's unable to do that. Because he doesn't have a need to know from the FBI's perspective. He's unable to fulfill that charge, and he can't do his job.

And we shouldn't be at a state level, hanging deputies or police officers, using those funds, and the taxpayers provided from the state. To go and do the bidding from the federal government.

And we don't have any oversight of it. We have disempowered local law enforcement. And if you want to make the argument, that we are all about supporting police. And we don't want to defund the police. This is empowering local police where it really matters.

GLENN: So is this mainly for -- to stop the people that are praying, you know, at the abortion clinic. Or the abuse of parents, who are called terrorists?

STEVE: That's really what the genesis of it is. The motivating factor here is the galvanized support, across the aisle as well.

That there were Democrats in the House that were intrigued by the argument that I was making. Because the FBI has clearly, broadly, overinterpreted his national security mandate.

We're seeing things, where they're starting to articulate and connect First Amendment protected activities to some of the things that they deem to be within their purview.

So you have the recent argument about Christian nationalism.

Well, the FBI has a caveat, that says, they don't investigate, First Amendment activity. Like the right to speak. Religious worship.

However, they're using these, quote, unquote, nonpartisan organizations.

Like the public religion institute, which generates a report and says that Christianity is refracted through a lens of white supremacy, and now the FBI is cooking with gas.

Because they can say, well, we do investigate racially motivated violent extremism. So we're going to go and investigate people who say, have a preference for the less mass, when they attend at their parish.

And recruit people to inform on them, so that we can open assessments on them, as an anti-government extremist.

GLENN: And this hopefully, you know, the sheriffs are open to, you know, investigations on actual terrorism.

No matter who it's from. No matter which side it's from. But actual terrorism.

And this would protect the people. It would not allow the sheriff, however, to alert the people, or stand alongside the people, if they're being investigated for praying in church.

It just means, nobody -- nobody will be using the local or county or state money. To help on that. Right?

DAVID: Yes. And I think as a sheriff who is elected by the people. The FBI says, we want your deputies. Task force here. To work on investigating an imam at a school board, and the sheriff opposes that. He will pull his people out. And I would imagine he would be rather loud about that. And let his people know, that the FBI -- even if it violates the security clearance, because that's an inappropriate investigation. I would hope that a constitutional sheriff, would focus on that, rather than a mere clearances, as many whistle-blowers have lost theirs for transient reasons within our federal government.

GLENN: Well, as our government has lost control of -- of the police force, you know, the federal police force. The only elected law enforcement official is your sheriff.

And if, when you're going in to vote for a sheriff, you better ask him. Who do you work for?

And what does that mean?

What happens if the FBI comes in, and they are doing an investigation on -- on parents at the school board.

Where do you stand on that?

You have to have serious conversations with your sheriff, if you have a sheriff up for election.

They are critical to this.

Now, in Tennessee, you're trying to pass this.

What -- when does it go up? And how can we help?

BILL: Oh, thank you for this. So the Senate, judiciary committee, is actually taking this under consideration today at 2:00 p.m. Eastern time.
They will be looking at it. And then the House, it's looking for it.

That's NFL 28O4. House Bill 2912, and the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee is taking this up tomorrow.

So if folks in Tennessee or in the country, want to reach out, up to the members of those respective committees, to express support for this, that would be a huge help.

I mean, this audience. My friend Garrett O'Boyle, felt that the weight of this audience, Glenn, that we were here, talking about -- he had more sales in two days, than he did in the entire history of his store.

So I know the Glenn Beck audience is down to support this sort of initiative.

GLENN: Yeah. And they -- they also just got a very important initiative passed in -- in Tennessee.

I think here recently. This audience is really, truly amazing.

Okay. So if you are in Tennessee, you want to call the Tennessee Senate. It's in committee tomorrow.

What committee -- what committee is it?

VOICE: The Senate is today. The Senate judiciary committee is having it at 2 o'clock Eastern. And tomorrow, the House has it in front of subcommittee under the criminal justice.

GLENN: Okay. Subcommittee of criminal justice. That's tomorrow. That's the House. You can call them today.

And the Senate Judiciary Committee, is meeting at 2:00 p.m. today, so you want to call them.
And again, you're looking in the House at the bill number 2912. 2912.

And the Senate bill 2804. If you can't remember the name of the bill, what would they just call it, something simple, so people would know.

VOICE: It's basically being called an FBI bill, by the layperson there.

Everyone knows who we are talking about. Again, this is empowering the local sheriff. This is nothing to do. It's not going to limit your ability to keep the community safe. It just says that the chief law enforcement officer, who is elected by the people, should know what is going on. And that should not impede any righteous investigation. And will actually bring the FBI back into focus. What they should be focusing on. Rather than imams at school boards. Or people who like to go to mass.

GLENN: Steve, you are a very brave man. Thank you so much.

God bless you.

STEVE: Thank you, man. God bless your audience.

GLENN: Trying to get it out of the Judiciary Committee today, and the House Subcommittee on criminal activity tomorrow, in Tennessee.

Call them and say, the -- the sheriff and the FBI bill. You want to go in for a full vote, pass this in committee. That's in Tennessee. Today.

The Most SHOCKING Moments of Glenn's White House Visit with Trump

Glenn shares behind-the-scenes stories from his incredible trip to Washington, DC, and the White House. When Glenn sat down for an exclusive interview with President Trump, he didn’t think Trump would also give him a personal tour of the White House, including the Oval Office, his latest troll of Hillary Clinton, and even his personal residence and the Lincoln Bedroom. Glenn describes the historic treasures Trump showed him, like a copy of the Gettysburg Address. But Glenn can’t tell his favorite parts of the day because of an NDA. But he gives a hint: Trump is NOT at all who the media portrays him as.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

STU: Welcome back, Glenn. Back from DC.

GLENN: Thank you. Interesting week.

STU: I bet it was.

GLENN: Interesting week.

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: Learned an awful lot. I've got to go up at least a quarter. Every quarter. There is so much going on. It is moving so fast. And you get a -- you get a completely different perspective when you're actually there talking to the people that are moving the pieces. And I had a lot of conversations that I can't divulge on the air.

I can't say, unfortunately -- I was with the president yesterday.

And it was an incredible, absolutely incredible -- and the thing I was most excited to share was his heart. He -- it was amazing.

Did the interview. Went into the Oval Office. And he left me alone with my wife in the Oval Office for like five minutes. Now, I'm like.

He was lucky, I didn't go through the drawers.

You know, I look -- where is that little hidden puzzle piece, that I saw on national archive.

But, I mean, he left us alone for five minutes. Nobody is left alone in the Oval for five minutes.

And he walks in five minutes later. Tania was so uncomfortable. Like, I don't know what to say.

What do I do?

And I'm like, they said, make yourself comfortable.

So have a seat, wherever you want. You know, probably not behind the desk. But have a seat. So we just go around. And I was alone with the Declaration of Independence. I mean, it was incredible in the Oval Office!

STU: Any part of you think, maybe I just kind of put -- fold it up. Put it in my pocket. Nobody notices. None of that?

GLENN: No. Uh-uh.

STU: Darn it.

GLENN: This is the first time I've been in the Oval Office. The first time you're overwhelmed. The first time you're like -- because it's a magical place. It really is a magical place.

STU: Sure.

GLENN: And so he said, he walks in. And he's like, you know, nobody -- I'm like.

STU: He said, what?

GLENN: Nobody sits in here without the president. Or, you know, without somebody else.

STU: Right. Yeah, that's really rare.

GLENN: And I said, I'm aware of that. He said, but I knew you would want to look at everything. So I thought you would be more comfortable if you were here by yourself. Oh, it was fantastic.

So we sit down. We talk. We go do the interview. And while we were talking in the Oval, we were conversing about a few things. And he said, and Abraham Lincoln came up. We were talking -- he is well-versed on the presidents. He is becoming a historian. He really is! He's really done his homework.

And he said, are you a fan of Abraham Lincoln? I said, yeah. And he said, you ever been to the Lincoln bedroom? I said, no. Want to go?

I'm like, wait. Of course I do. Yes. Let's do this interview.

So we do the interview. And he -- I'm told, he only has 40 minutes. Now we've just eaten ten.

And so we go. We do the interview. And his aides are cutting us off. And I'm like, I've got at least ten more minutes of questions.

And so we're getting cut off. And as we stop. His aide says, sir, the National Security Council is waiting for you.

And he says, right. I'm going to take them to the Lincoln bedroom first.

And they're like, the security counsel is meeting right now. They're waiting for you.

He said, let them wait. I'm going to take -- so he takes us, the longest way possible. He takes us through the entire White House, room by room.

Shows us all of the meanings behind things. All of the amazing, amazing -- like nobody knows about the White House. Takes us to the -- takes us to the basement, which is not really the basement. You know, it's the actual first floor where all of the guests come in. And they come up the grand staircase and everything else.

But it's the basement. And he's walking through. And he's showing me a troll, first of all.

I have to show you these paintings. I just see this painting of Laura Bush. And Laura Bush and Hillary Clinton. Up on a wall. He said, I walk by them every day.

And I say, this is not right. And he said, and then I got this painting of me. And, you know, it's me, with the flag face. Looking kind of tough.

And he said, I thought I put them between the two. And it had just gone viral. Just released a picture of him. And just gone viral.

It was a troll. The guy is just trolling. And he said, yeah. Don't you love it?

I just think it works. This trio really works. And I said, can I get a snap of them?

So we did this picture, the two of us, you know, on the ground floor of the White House. The tour goes by this every day.

Okay?

And all of a sudden, this thing goes viral. And they start -- memes start to be made, with J.D. Vance. In the pictures, they change -- people just started changing all the pictures behind us.

This is a meme before -- you know, going off before we finished.

And then he takes us upstairs. Takes us through all these things.

And the -- the aides keep gathering. There's like 20 of them now, following us. And I keep hearing, sir, the national security is waiting. He's like, I know. I know.

And so we got up to the executive residence. And the reason why he had to give us -- the reason why he had to do this tour, is because you're not allowed in the residence. And you're not allowed into the Lincoln bedroom, without the president of the United States.

It's the only one that can do it.

Melania cannot come down and do the tour.

It has to be the president. He's telling them. I'm sorry. But rules are rules. And so he takes us up, into the Lincoln bedroom.

It was the most incredible thing I have -- I mean, it's like -- it's a time capsule. It's really his bed. Which is about 6 inches longer than like the big king-size bed. It might have been longer than a California queen. It was very narrow.

Like, obviously, you know, he's not like Hugh Hefner. It's a very narrow bed.

But very, very long.

The mirror on one hand was extended to, you know, for somebody who is like six-nine, I think. Barron could use that mirror.

And then on the other side of the room is a writing desk.

And on this one table, all these things about his son. Lincoln's son who had died. And this really eerie picture of Lincoln. This painting.

And the president said, that was his favorite painting of himself. And it's really. It was spooky almost.

STU: Hmm.

GLENN: And I couldn't take a picture. You're not allowed to take any photos in the Lincoln bedroom.

And I was so bummed because I couldn't wait to show them we. But they're in his writing desk. And on it, is the Gettysburg address. One of four of the Gettysburg addresses. He gave -- Lincoln was at Gettysburg. And said, Mr. President. That was a great speech.

Do you have a copy of it? And he said, sure. And hands him a speech.

And says, here. This is a New York reporter. Takes it. Types it up, and then throws it away.

So during the war, Lincoln writes four copies of the Gettysburg address.

In the four copies, only two of them say, this nation under God. Two of them don't say that. And we don't know why.

But the one there says, this nation under God. So it was just almost like a spiritual thing. We come down, and we're ending the tour.

And I said, I have to ask. I said, I know you're Donald J. Trump. But -- now, what do you think I'm going to ask. Because he cuts me off right there, and he tries to answer. And I was amazed that he knew what I was even going to ask. Where do you think I'm at? I know you're Donald J. Trump, but --

STU: I mean, it could be anything obviously.

GLENN: He said every day, and that's the right answer! But I didn't still know if he knew what I was talking. And I say, every day?

And he said every day, Glenn. I wake up every day, and I -- I say to myself, I can't believe I'm in this house.

STU: Hmm.

GLENN: I mean, he's still humble about it. He's still -- he respects that place. I mean, a lot of the -- well, he didn't tell me this. So I don't think I signed anything about it.

He didn't tell me this.

So the -- the word is, that Hillary stole a lot of the glass door knobs at the White House. Okay. That's the word.

Don't if it's true.

But stole them. He came in, and he redid all of the doorknobs, and they are beautiful. This guy has put serious money into the White House.

And he's never going to get any credit. And the rumor was, on those doorknobs, that they were going to take them out. I don't know if they did on Biden. But they don't want any of the Trump stuff in there. And took out the doorknobs.

But he's -- he's poured a ton of money upgrading that house, and he'll never get credit for it.

But he deserves it. All right. I'm going to talk to you a little bit about what we talked about on the important stuff here in just a second.

STU: So you were able to go through all of this, and look at all these incredible documents.

This is kind of like your fantasy league life, right?

GLENN: Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh.

STU: Every document you could ever want. Every piece of history you could ever look at.

You would spend no time actually being president, if you were president.

GLENN: I don't know when this guy has time. I really don't.

Some of the Secret Service guys said, he's here, in the middle of the night, working on stuff.

He'll do full day.

Then he's there. Who is up at this hour?

It's him.

STU: That's not the way the media presents him.

They say, he's watching TV.

Watching Fox news all day.

GLENN: Oh, there's no way.

This guy has learned so much.

There's no way I had a conversation with him, five, six years ago. No way.

STU: You notice a difference?

GLENN: Oh, huge. His learning curve is straight-up.

Absolutely straight-up.

And in the interview. There's nothing. I could have said things.

Remember the nuclear triad question that he was hit with?

Where he didn't really -- there's not a question I could ask him, where he doesn't know the answer.

Literally. Literally.

I mean, everything I ask him off-air or on-air, he's there. He knows it. If it's happening in the world, he knows it. I don't know how he keeps up like this.

STU: It is -- I mean, his energy level is impressive. There's no doubt about that.

I don't know. The bar was set pretty low the last four years. But his -- that's been one of the things, I don't think there's ever been really much at -- disagreement on.

The fact that we -- we did, years ago, went around with candidates, around Iowa, for example. Just in campaigning, and it was like, oh, gosh. By the end of the weekend, I wanted to sleep for a week.
Because it was just so much.

Running around. Doing -- can't imagine being president of the United States. He's always energized.

GLENN: He's always energized. I mean, and I saw him. When I got on to the plane last night. Because I know, he went from -- he went from my interview, directly to the National Security Council.

And then by the time I'm sitting at the airport, there's a video of him meeting with the people that were in the lobby, waiting for him all of these veterans.

And he's doing stuff with veterans on TV.

I mean, the guy is just boom, boom, boom.

Remember Joe Biden was like, he'll have -- he'll have some pudding.

STU: Oh, yeah. The pudding and the lid.

GLENN: And the lid. And that's it.

This guy is going non-stop.

STU: Obviously, we're just setting up the main course here.

Which is your interview with him.

That airs on Blaze TV tonight.

GLENN: It was on last night.

STU: I watched it on Blaze TV last night. It airs on YouTube tonight.

But, you know, you guys went into -- every -- every topic. Any questions he didn't -- you know, he didn't think he wanted to go to or wasn't comfortable with. Is there anything that he was off-limits? Anything like that?

No. He was joking with me. He was going across the hallway. He said, after the interview, he said no. Try to be kind to me.

Well, if you don't, I'll just say, he's over. He's worthless. He'll do whatever you want.
(laughter)

But, no. There was nothing. In fact, we didn't -- you know, we wouldn't. And we didn't give him any indication. Other than it was about the 100 days. And everything that's gone down the last 100 days and were coming.

So that's pretty broad. He said a few things.

And I want to give I one of them here. We were talking about the tariffs.

STU: Uh-huh.

GLENN: And I said, you know, how do you negotiate, when you have a group of elites like the WEF. When you have China who is against you.

And the world trade -- or, the World Economic Forum.

All the elites in England.

That are -- they're fine with the great, Great Reset. How do you negotiate with people who don't mind blowing the whole thing up?

Listen to this.

DONALD: I don't have to negotiate. I don't have to negotiate. I'm talking to people out of respect. But I don't have to. So we're this giant store that people want to come in and buy bye from. We're the United States. We have the richest consumer, et cetera, et cetera. Right?

But we're not going to be that way for long if we do something. But we're this giant store, and they all want to come in and take our product. But to take our product, they are going to have to pay.

And we will either make a deal with them, or we will just set a price. Because some countries are worse than others. Some countries have ripped us off really badly, and some countries have just ripped us off a little bit, but almost all of them have ripped us off. Because we've had really poor leadership. And what's going to happen, is we're going to negotiate -- we are negotiating with 70 different countries. But we're negotiating. We're showing great respect. But in the end, we may make deals. But either that, or I just set a price. I said, here's what you will pay for the privilege of servicing the United States of America.

And they have an option. They can maybe talk to me a little bit. Or they can not jump.

You know, they don't have to shop at this big store. Or they can shop.

But in any event, they will have to pay. Look, we owe 36 trillion for a reason.

The reason is: The trade. Also, the endless wars, the stupid wars that we fought. We're going to the Middle East. We blow up. We leave. We don't get anything.

And you're a big fan of exactly what I'm saying. I mean, let's not do this. Let's not do that.

It's stupid. Endless wars. Endless wars. That they don't even want us. You know, we got into wars. They didn't even want us.

So all of that stuff. You know, when I left four years ago, you know, we had no wars. We had no Israel and Hamas. And, by the way, it would have never happened. Because their enemies were broke.

They were broke.

I have sanctions so strong on Iran.

They were totally broke. They had no money for Hamas and Hezbollah. We didn't have Russia-Ukraine. That would have never happened by the way. We didn't have the Afghanistan embarrassment. One of the great embarrassments in the history of our country.

We didn't have any inflation. Don't forget, I charged China hundreds of billions worth of tariffs. They talk about inflation. We had no inflation.

Because that doesn't cause inflation.

Stupidity causes inflation. High energy causes inflation. When they took over my energy -- we were making it like nobody has ever seen.

GLENN: I know.

DONALD: And then the prices doubled. By the way, because of that, Putin went in. You see what's going on now. It's going down.

GLENN: Yeah, I do.

DONALD: It makes it much harder for Putin to prosecute the war.

GLENN: It was fascinating.

We talked about a few things.

Judicial insurrection. Was one of them!

Another pretty strong response on that one, as well.

SNEAK PEEK: Glenn Gives a Tour of the Roosevelt Room in the White House

Ahead of his First 100 Days interview with President Trump, Glenn gives an exclusive tour of the Roosevelt Room: Theodore Roosevelt’s Nobel Peace Prize and Medal of Honor, Barack Obama’s private papers, and the legendary doorknobs that Trump installed in the White House.

EXCLUSIVE: Trump Tells the INCREDIBLE Story of Elon Musk, Nikola Tesla, and His Uncle

Immediately after his First 100 Days interview with President Trump, Glenn knew he had to ask one more question, even if it was off the record: How incredible is it that Trump is working with today’s Nikola Tesla, Elon Musk, when Trump's uncle was the man put in charge of sifting through Tesla’s files when he died?! But instead of having a private conversation, Trump decided to let Glenn’s audience hear the story too …

EXCLUSIVE: President Trump on 'Judicial Insurrection,' Tariffs, and 100 Days in Office | Ep 429

In just his first 100 days in office, President Trump has moved faster to fix America than anyone expected. He created the DOGE, shut the border down, dismantled USAID and its wasteful spending, and put the world on notice that it can’t take advantage of America any more. But there’s still much more to do, and Americans have questions about what’s next. Glenn sits down with the president in the Roosevelt Room of the White House for his first one-on-one interview about his first 100 days. Glenn asks Trump what the real goal of his tariffs is, whether Elon Musk is really stepping back from the DOGE, whether Mexico is a failed narco-state, what his plans are for the cartels, and how he may react to the “judicial insurrection” of judges blocking his deportation orders. Trump also reveals his game-changing plans for AI and American energy, why he’s not “negotiating” with Europe or the world, whether Putin or Zelenskyy has been easier to deal with, and why he believes Glenn will “be surprised” by congressional Republicans soon.

►BONUS CONTENT: See my exclusive tour of the Roosevelt Room and don’t miss President Trump’s extended interview, where he shares how his uncle—once the government’s go-to expert on Nikola Tesla’s files—is now connected to today’s Tesla, Elon Musk. These are must-see moments you won’t find anywhere else. Watch now at BlazeTV.com/Glenn.