'Lifelong Democrat' and Georgia State Representative Vernon Jones says if Republicans lose the Senate races in Georgia, it will be hard for America to recover: "if the Senate goes, this country goes," he says. Jones explains why Georgia is the last line in the fight for freedom, and he shares a powerful message about party politics: "I didn't leave my party; my party left me."
©2024 MERCURY RADIO ARTS.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
RADIODecember 02, 2020
THIS is why the Georgia Senate election is the LAST LINE in the fight for freedom
THE GLENN BECK PODCAST
November 04, 2025
The Satanic Cult Fueling Mexico’s Cartels - 'Santa Muerte' Exposed
Mexico’s cartel war isn’t just about drugs or power — it’s about evil itself. Glenn Beck sits down with former federal agent Dave Franke to expose the satanic cult of Santa Muerte, the so-called “saint of death” worshiped by cartel members across Mexico. From ritual killings and demonic symbolism to deep government corruption and spiritual decay, Glenn and Dave reveal how Mexico’s violence is being fueled by a dark, religious devotion to death. This is the story the media won’t tell — and a warning for America about what happens when faith collapses and evil fills the void.
Watch Glenn Beck's FULL Interview with Dave Franke HERE
RADIO
November 04, 2025
This Reviewer Just DESTROYED Karine Jean-Pierre's New Book
In what might be a first in the program’s history, Glenn reads a book review in its entirety. What review is worthy of such an accomplishment? The most brutal book review of former White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre's new book, 'Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines." Glenn reads through the scathing review written by Andrew Stiles of the Washington Free Beacon, as he and Stu look back at how bad Karine Jean-Pierre was at everything she did.
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: I don't think I've ever read a book review, word-for-word on the air before. And I'm not sure I've ever even read a book review on the air before, more than a paragraph. But this book review is so good. It must be read verbatim. A book so bad, it has shattered liberal's faith in DEI. It is a Free Beacon review of Independent: A Look Inside A Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines, by Karine Jean-Pierre. Are you ready?
Stu, you're going to love this. Karine Jean-Pierre cannot stop making history. Earlier this year, the former White House Press Secretary became the highest ranking openly queer French-born black woman with a hyphenated surname to publicly renounce the Democratic Party for being mean to Joe Biden. She is the only black female lesbian immigrant to publish a book about her time in the Biden administration. And it is the worst political memoir ever written in the history of the English language!
(laughter)
This is not hyperbole. It is an especially vacuous genre and highly competitive to be sure. But imagine writing a book so bad, it could shame Democrats and liberals into second-guessing their cult-like devotion to DEI.
That is exactly what Jean-Pierre has done with her book, Independent. In 2022, Jean-Pierre's promotion to White House press secretary was hailed by Democrats and journalists, where to the extent there's a difference, as a triumph for diversity and representation. She is now wildly viewed in the words of a reporter who worked with her, as the most incompetent and irrelevant White House Press Secretary ever.
Former colleagues now describe her as ineffectual, unprepared, and kind of dumb. Jean-Pierre's book tour, if you can call it that, as now been described as a car crash, a non-stop cringe. She fumbles her way through interviews, repeatedly invoking her lived experience as awe trailblazing black woman and openly gay pioneer. The same people who pioneered her historic promotion and the first to denounce her critics as bigots are rolling their eyes. Every time she falls back on identity politics instead of actually answering a question, she reinforces the worst stereotype about Democrats says a former White House colleague. Her egregious performance in an interview with the New Yorker, one democratic strategist likened it to Mike Tyson. Mike Tyson is fighting a baby.
(laughter)
Jean-Pierre told the New Yorker, the broken White House, in reference to the subtitle. Remember, it's Independent. A look inside a broken White House, outside the party lines.
Okay? So she's in the interview, with the reporter from the New Yorker. The broken White House referenced in the subtitle, she said is actually a reference to Donald Trump's White House, not the one that she was writing about, or everyone assumed she was writing about.
It's a strange thing to lie about, and a clueless person might blurt out when they get flustered. But in the author's defense, even a semi-talented communicator would struggle to defend this drivel. Readers may be surprised to learn that Jean-Pierre became a professional spokesperson, because she was even less capable in a different field.
I wish I would have known this. Did you know this? Her parents, "Oh, God, help us!"
Her parents wanted her to become a doctor.
STU: Oh, my God.
GLENN: Imagine. But she flunked the medical school entrance exam. So she switched the Ivy League to Democratic Party pipeline, where talent barely matters, when there's history to be made with every promotion.
Maybe it's just a coincidence, but Jean-Pierre implies all of her jobs since have been plagued by disloyal leagues who question her competence. Love -- I love that. I love that.
At some point, you do -- if this is your experience time after time after time, eventually, you do have to ask, maybe it's me!
And I know this from experience. Because that was my experience.
I was so egotistical and full of myself when I was in my 20s.
That I couldn't work with anybody.
Because they're all incompetent.
They're all whatever.
You know, no!
Glenn, you're an ass.
That's what I finally came to the conclusion.
Why does everybody say, I'm an ass?
Well, probably because I was an ass, that's why.
STU: Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
GLENN: Independent, her book, which is both mercifully brief, 172 pages, and intolerably long.
STU: 172 pages?
GLENN: 172 pages.
STU: I had idea. That, I mean, that is a great description of it too. That is amazingly short for the -- the stuff she's talking about.
GLENN: It's like a bathroom reader. It's a bathroom reader.
STU: But I imagine reading it, it must feel eternal.
GLENN: Intolerably long.
(laughter)
I love this review.
I want to hug the person who wrote this review. Jean-Pierre claims, she never noticed Biden's cognitive decline, despite meeting with him at least once a day for two and a half years.
Her observations reflect an alarming disconnect with reality. She denounces the media for grilling the Democrats and soft-balling the Republicans.
She recounts her disbelief when days after that one, quoting, one wobbly debate, where Biden bragged about beating Medicare, blah, blah, blah.
Not a single -- I'm quoting from the book. Where Biden bragged about beating Medicare, blah, blah, blah. Not a single reporter asked a question about his landmark efforts to bring about social justice, end quote.
STU: Oh -- oh.
GLENN: Like her rambling press briefings, Jean-Pierre's proceeds is riddled with contradictions that boggle the mind. Democrats should have been more loyal to Biden.
That's why she left the party. She's an independent now, because no entity deserves blind loyalty. I want you to remember that. No entity remembers blind loyalty.
Multiple interviewers have noted the discrepancy. Pierre, who holds a Master's Degree from Columbia University doesn't follow.
STU: I mean, Columbia University has to -- is -- got to be ashamed of themselves for that.
I understand she didn't -- she just handed it to her. I get it. That is a disgrace. How could you act as if she could graduate something?
That is a completely ridiculous concept!
GLENN: Columbia university hosted Nazis, to speak the campus in the 1930s.
And then sheltered Nazis in the -- in the -- you know, in the campus.
And as teachers.
I mean, what -- if you're not embarrassed by that crap, what, you're embarrassed by her?
Not a chance. Not a chance.
For obvious reasons, she declines to note that Barack Obama was one of the party leader's most skeptical of Harris. She said, she never really believed that Kamala Harris could win, but any Democrat who argued with her or suggested Harris should compete for the nomination was insulting all black women. It's easy to see why Democrats are so annoyed. Her absurd retelling of the 2024 election, notwithstanding, Jean-Pierre has no useful suggestions to offer.
GLENN: This is her book.
Democrats should think creatively, move nimbly, and plan strategically, in pursuit of bolder solutions. Oh, my gosh.
STU: That's just nothing.
GLENN: Empathy is key.
STU: Hmm.
GLENN: Stop supporting the candidates who are elected, instead, backing the inspirational ones. Democrats should look -- Democrats should look to the Grammy Awards for inspiration because we all know how popular the Grammy awards are.
Watching all those Hollywood millionaires denouncing Trump reminded me that monumental change was possible. One of Jean-Pierre's boldest ideas, something Democrats should definitely consider is restarting the vigorous conversation about being antiracist.
STU: Hmm.
GLENN: Alas, Jean-Pierre is no longer a Democrat. Now, remember, she said, no blind loyalty, right?
She's no longer a Democrat because she does not believe in blind loyalty.
Okay. All right. She explains in -- in the pages that follow in so many words. She explains that leaving the party was a tantrum-like plea for attention. A deeply personal quest for new ways to be acknowledged. That's a quote.
Her leaving the party was a quest for new ways to be acknowledged. And it's also about self-care.
Now, she's left the party. Because nobody gets blind loyalty.
But she'll never vote for a Republican, or even a third party candidate.
(laughter)
STU: Well, then what?
GLENN: Wait.
Wait. If you'll rule those two out, I won't vote for a third party.
And I won't vote for a Republican. But I'm not going to vote.
But they don't get my blind loyalty.
STU: Gosh. She's an idiot.
GLENN: I mean, really.
STU: I would love to say, it's more complicated than that.
But she's just a vapid moron.
GLENN: No. Moron. Moron.
Jean-Pierre urges others to follow suit, to proclaim their independence and follow their own political compass. She doesn't have a political compass.
What is she saying? She's still going to vote the same way?
STU: Yeah.
GLENN: It's an incredibly brave thing to do. She says.
Listen to this. It's so important to carry around the talisman to remind you of the values you hold.
Like, a biography of a poet who spoke to a better world and spoke a better world into existence.
Yeah. I'm walking around all the time, with a -- with an old book of poetry.
Or a pebble from a peach, where you once dreamed and felt free. She says, she hopes the book will provoke a more nuanced political conversation. It certainly has provoked a conversation, shockingly nuanced in its context of the Democrat Party politics. It's just not the one she was expecting. That is fantastic.
STU: It's a great review.
And I fear it's -- maybe they went a little light on her, honestly.
GLENN: It's only 172 pages.
STU: Yes. So what can you do?
GLENN: Yeah.
STU: I will say, the part that's most frustrating about it. Talking about the interviews she's done on this book tour.
Which have been, among the worst interviews I've ever seen with someone, who is supposed to have an operating brain inside their skull.
And what's frustrating about that is all of those moments were readily available to every media member, the entire time she was White House press secretary.
GLENN: Yep. Yep.
STU: If anyone of them asked her any difficult questions the entire time she worked there, they would have learned all of this stuff before.
GLENN: All of it. All of it.
STU: Now they find it okay to actually press her on these issues. Because they don't care about her book sales.
GLENN: Right. And the same thing.
Look what's happening. I mean, her and Kamala Harris are exactly the same story.
It's DEI in action. They're exactly the same story.
STU: Yeah.
GLENN: Both vapid. One more so than other.
One is vapid. And I believe filled with so much helium, that she could float away to the sun.
But the same kind of stuff. Is happening with -- with Kamala. Once they are asked questions, you see, they can't handle it.
Any idea what they're talking about.
STU: Yes. I think that's true.
I think there's a comparison to be made there. I do think Kamala has proven herself to be an able back room warrior.
She is in multiple ways, some of which the back room, there's a bed in it.
And then other ways, it's also, that she is legitimately good.
And I mean this sincerely.
Legitimately good, at haranguing a bunch of donors to her side in a democratic scuffle.
She is -- has done that multiple times throughout her entire career.
Behind closed doors to be able to kind of pressure and harangue people into donating into her. Into supporting her over other Democrats. She really. The way she just wrestled. I mean, Barack Obama with his 96 percent approval rating among Democrats. Came out and said, I can't wait to see what process we have. To determine what the next nominee will be.
GLENN: Oh, I know.
STU: And hours, she had the nomination. She is legitimate am good at that one thing.
GLENN: Yes.
STU: Which is unlike Karine Jean-Pierre. Who is legitimately good at nothing.
GLENN: I understand, when you're talked about the gravity or the pull, you know, of the individual, you know, in comparison to the Pluto-like gravity of Jean-Pierre, okay?
STU: Yeah.
GLENN: Yes. She does make, you know, Kamala Harris look like the sun. Okay?
STU: Right.
GLENN: I do understand that. But comparatively speaking, they are -- they are both in a different universe entirely.
RADIO
November 04, 2025
“HORRIFIC”: Jamaica UNRECOGNIZABLE a week after Hurricane Melissa
Hurricane Melissa has devastated Jamaica and Mercury One is on the ground to help with recovery efforts. Glenn speaks with Jack Brewer, who just returned from Jamaica. Jack describes the tragedy, which he calls “one of the worst I have seen,” and explains how people like you can help get aid to people in regions where “NO ONE” has come to help, even 6 days after the storm.
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: I don't know if you've been paying attention at all to what happened with Hurricane Melissa. But, you know, it's been, what? Five days since Melissa pummeled Jamaica. I mean, pummeled it.
And not a lot of people are showing up. It's -- it's -- it's really not good.
At least 28 people have died, since the hurricane hit. Monster category five. 185-mile-an-hour winds. They say, trees are just piled up everywhere. 400 people in Jamaica. 400,000 people in Jamaica have zero power. They don't have cell phone service. They don't have Wi-Fi.
They don't have water.
And they don't -- and, again, like I said, nobody is coming. Mercury One was there, over the weekend, and Jack Brewer was there. Jack is -- Jack is an amazing guy. He's a three-time NFL team captain. He was -- he is a minister. Humanitarian civil rights commissioner on the US Commission for the social status of black men and boys. Vice chair of the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice Advisory Board.
Leads a national advocacy for fatherhood. Criminal justice reform. A really, really good guy.
In fact, he just won Mercury One's angel Bonhoeffer award. Which is really for very, very special people. He was down with us in Jamaica, just this weekend. He just got home. I wanted to get an update on what he saw. Jack, welcome to the program.
JACK: How are you doing, Glenn? Thanks for having me.
GLENN: You bet. What did you see down in Jamaica?
JACK: It was horrific. You know, I've been doing this organization, going on our 20th year. So I've seen disasters from across Africa and throughout the Caribbean, and obviously in the US. This is one of the worst that I've seen, just in regards to the devastation. Homes completely leveled. I mean, down to the foundation.
And, you know, the entire West side of Jamaica is without water. Without electricity. And, you know, it's hard -- it's tough terrain. Because a lot of these people kind of live up in the hills and the mountainous areas. And so as these trees have fallen down, you know, the infrastructure, electricity wattage is pretty old.
And so the electric wires are just twisted all in the trees. And it's -- you know, as you're driving around, you know, you're being whipped by electric wires and just a tough terrain. And unfortunately, everywhere that we were able to get to, we were the first there.
And this is -- now we're going on six days after the storm. And these people don't have water. They don't have electricity. You see, just piles and piles of -- of humans sitting next to each other. Trying to get water. They're washing their clothes with the saltwater. And, you know, they're -- they're -- the gas pumps have run out. You know, there are fights at the gas pumps. Because people are trying to desperately get enough fuel, you know, if they do have a generator to get fuel for it. Or cars to get places.
And the most heartbreaking thing is that folks haven't found their family members.
You know, there's no communication. You know, we brought several thousand Starlinks with us, we brought battery backs and start to give them to the people. But, you know, they haven't communicated with their people. They have -- there's still so many folks. When I was there, they had just found six more bodies in the area.
And they were asking us for cadaver dogs, and asking us if we could, you know, assist with them.
GLENN: Oh, my gosh.
JACK: It's terrible, it really is, Glenn.
GLENN: Oh, my gosh. Did you see any American forces?
I mean, did you see any -- who did you see there?
I keep hearing that nobody was there. But there has to be somebody.
JACK: Nobody. Well, I saw a couple helicopters in the air. You know, I saw a couple military helicopters in the air. But again, when you get up into these mountainous regions, the higher up you go, the worse the devastation. If you were just to go there, and you look down. Like a normal hurricane. You know, trees down. And, you know, it's a difficult place. But when you start to go up these mountains, just I'm talking about a quarter mile, everything is wiped out. Literally, Glenn, no one has come.
I went to village after village, town after town, no aid organization has come. I think they just started to try to get the West more -- because you have to take a helicopter to get in there. But if you start at Montego Bay and start to work your way down South. A small little town like Tucker, Westmoreland.
If you go down the Black River, in those areas, those areas are decimated. And so, you know, they're sleeping outside. And another thing, Glenn. That has been an issue. It hasn't stopped raining. It's been raining every day. So everything is mucky.
When we got there on Saturday, I mean, literally we had to divert from a flood. You know, the floodwaters started rising on our car. Got up to almost the window. We had to get out of there. I think, three days after the storm. And so they're still dealing with the water. And now they don't have any shelter. So we've been trying to deliver, as many tarps and tents and those type of things that we can, just for the short-term. Because obviously, they're going to start dealing with water-born diseases and mosquitoes. And so we've been trying to bring as much insect repellent for these people.
So it's a lot different. And it's a lot different in Haiti. I tell people, the people of Jamaica aren't used to this.
You know, they've lived their lives with electricity. And, you know, they're not -- they're not used to living in these type of conditions. So it's been really rough. You know, particularly on the children of those communities, and we saw households. You know, that they were -- they didn't have a place to go shelter in. You know, I talked to probably 25 different families that were inside of their homes, as they blew completely down!
I mean, all walls down, roofs, torn off their homes. And now all of their belongs are scattered around the neighborhood. It's depressing.
GLENN: I know we're trying to fill a plane. We -- we're sending a cargo plane on Wednesday, and we so desperately need your help.
One hundred percent of your donation to M1 right now, will go help the people of Jamaica. Can you compare this to what we saw in North Carolina?
JACK: No question. The difference between here and North Carolina, we have something called insurance. And we have helicopters. And, you know, we have actually -- you know, you know, our fellow Americans can get there. You know, in Jamaica, they don't have that option. And it's -- it's really depressing. Because you can tell the people were already, you know, living in poverty.
And now, you know, they're dealing with the reality.
And, I mean, but I will say one thing though, Glenn.
The love of God and the thankfulness and the -- the smiling and the worshiping, that was happening, in these towns I was in -- it motivated me. It lifted me up. It humbled me.
To see people that literally lost it all. But they were so thankful. And they said, you know what, we're living to see another take.
God has given us another chance to recover. We have our life. We have our children.
You know, many of them have lost loved ones and family members. And so they were just grateful to be alive.
And so it was a humbling experience. But, you know, to answer your question, yeah. From a destructive perspective, it's very similar to what we saw in the Carolinas.
It's just -- the -- the recovery. And the need now, where there's water and food, you know, it's -- desperate, at this time.
GLENN: Yeah. We have really good people drive from all over the country, to get there.
They just felt prompted to go do it.
And, you know, you're not driving to Jamaica.
That's really difficult.
JACK: That's right.
GLENN: Anyway, we have a cargo plane going out on Wednesday. We really need your help. You can go to MercuryOne.org and donate. We're still in North Carolina. We are rebuilding. We're still in the Texas Hill Country.
We're in Alaska, after the horrific -- the horrific typhoon that hit just a few weeks back. We're all over. And we're getting ready to go to Africa with the Nazarene Fund to rescue Christians.
We really need your help. And, again, I give you my word, 100 percent of it goes right directly to the cause. There's no funding that -- nothing comes off the top.
It will go right to the cause. So go to MercuryOne.org. And help us help people.
MercuryOne.org.
Jack, have you been over, and have you seen what's happening over in Africa?
JACK: So I've done extensive work in Africa. I have not directly in the northern portions of Nigeria. I do plan to go there very soon.
I have been -- I actually have a number of our partners there. You know, we run about 50 orphanages in Africa, so I'm used to that terrain.
But I can tell you, I've been telling a lot of folks on the ground, it's a really sad situation. You know, the people that are being persecuted, the Christians that are being persecuted are the poorest of the poor.
These people are living in conditions where, you know, they don't have running water.
Many of them. And they live in villages. You know, of little means. So these Islamic groups have really come in and taken advantage of them. And, you know, taken over their villages.
So I ask, how are you able to just take over a village?
How can you take over that many people?
How come they haven't fought back? Are these the most vulnerable people in the world. The people who Christ told us to protect as Christians. So I'm just, I'm so happy that President Trump stepped in.
GLENN: Me too.
JACK: The statement, backed up by our amazing Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.
But we have to do something about this.
The precedent that is set in, is one that is dangerous for the world.
You know, it's also happening in Sudan, running rampant now.
GLENN: I've -- I've heard Sudan is actually in some ways worse, and nobody is paying attention to Sudan.
I mean, barely anybody is paying attention to Nigeria.
But what I'm hearing coming out of Sudan is awful.
JACK: Yeah, it's awful. It really is awful.
And Sudan is a little bit different because you have more of a Muslim country. You know, Nigeria has had a really thriving Christian community --
GLENN: Right.
JACK: -- in the past.
And, you know, for some reason, I think this government that they have now has this Islamic influence over it that is really trying to -- and they're telling their people that it's propaganda. So if you ask a Nigerian, maybe they will tell you it's all propaganda. It's propaganda.
But, you know, the world is starting to see it. And so I think they'll have to really address these issues. And not be able to just use their media to distort the narrative for their -- for their people.
It's important for the Nigeria to (phone cuts out), I feel. And I just pray that, you know, President Trump and our administration continues to use our influence on the world, to protect our Christian brothers and sisters.
GLENN: Jack, it was good to see you the other night. Thank you so much. Appreciate all that you do.
JACK: Yeah. Thank you, Glenn. Just so you know and all your listeners, man, without Mercury One, we wouldn't be able to do any of this work. You know, the Bible tells us that we all -- we all need elders. And we need people who God has appointed to us.
I know our organization knows that God has appointed you to us. We have been able to affect the lives of so many people, man. I mean, the poorest of the poor and the forgotten because of the support of Mercury One. And I'm just humbled to be your partner and your friend and brother. And just, I pray, we will continue to lock our arms, to help those that are hurting around our world.
GLENN: You are one of the many Moses figures that we play into and hold our arms up. You're doing all the hard work, Jack. Thank you so much.
If you can help us, please, go to MercuryOne.org. That's MercuryOne.org.
You can donate. There's many things going on, our general fund will allow you -- will allow the money to go to many different things as it's needed.
But right now, we really need the help for Jamaica. We're filling a cargo plane on Wednesday to get it there. This is for the poorest of the poor. The people that are just completely left alone, as -- as Jack said. And I talked to Mercury One earlier today.
They're like, Glenn, nobody is there. Like, nobody is there.
Our governments, you know, their government. Our government failed us here.
Their government, I mean, it's just -- it's -- we have to help each other.
We have to help each other.
MercuryOne.org. That's MercuryOne.org.
RADIO
November 03, 2025
The next war won’t have soldiers—Just code and cold machines
The next war will look VERY different, now that we have AI. Glenn speaks with Brandon Tseng, co-founder and president of Shield AI, a company making AI-powered drones and autonomous planes for the US Military. Brandon discusses his drone planes like the X-BAT, and also gives his take on new foreign weapons, like Putin’s new nuclear-powered cruise missile: "It sounds dumb."
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: The cofounder and president of Shield AI, Brandon Tseng is with us. He's a former Navy SEAL. How old are you? You look like you're 14. How old are you?
BRANDON: I'm 39.
GLENN: Thirty-nine. Anyway, you have -- you are making a huge the difference in the AI world, especially with defense. Especially well the expat. A new plane. Do you call them drones, or are they planes?
BRANDON: Expats are a vertical takeoff launch and land AI-piloted fighter jet. Sometimes when people think drones, they just think quad copters. Except, there's a whole world of drones.
GLENN: It's weird. You either think of the quad copters, or you just think of those gigantic gray drones.
BRANDON: Yeah. The Predators and Reapers, yeah.
GLENN: And we're not like that anymore, either. Right? Have we updated those?
BRANDON: No. So Shield AI builds a miniature version of said drone. That's also vertical takeoff launch and land. It's called the Vbat, weighs about 180 pounds. But it's meant to do the mission of these $40 million drones for a fraction of the cost. And so we've been using that with US forces, oh, man. Now, probably since 2019, but most recently, we've been working with the US Coast Guard. We've interdicted billions of drugs in the Caribbean. So you just set a record with the US Coast Guard, interdicting 20 tons --
GLENN: Are you blowing up the boats, or are you just --
BRANDON: Shield AI is not blowing up any boats. But, yeah, the Coast Guard is setting them on fire after the whole thing is said and done.
GLENN: Wow. So -- so let me -- let me go into the -- the future of warfare.
Because it -- it's a little freaky. And I don't even know. There's a story that just came out today. Because we're negotiating with Russia.
And Russia is always beating their chest. And they have something new.
This one, just sounds crazy. CNN, this morning. Putin claimed successful test of long range nuclear-powered cruise missile, amid diplomatic breakdown. And what this cruise missile is, you launch it. It's not just nuclear-tipped. It's nuclear-powered as well.
So the idea is, it would just stay up in space. And it will just stay up there until it's directed to hit something. Which I guess, you not only blow a city up.
But you also have the China syndrome happening at the same time. I don't even get it. What do you think of this weapon?
BRANDON: Yeah. It sounds crazy. It sounds dumb. It sounds overengineered. I mean, it actually reminds me of some of the things the US was doing in the '50s. I don't know if you know this. We had something called the Davey Crockett nuclear rocket. Which was a hand-held nuclear rocket launcher. They said, only a Navy rocket would be crazy enough to shoot this thing. Because you're firing a nuclear bomb over your shoulder. And you hope it goes far enough.
That's --
GLENN: 1950s were kind of scary.
BRANDON: Yeah. You can Wikipedia this stuff. It's in there. Kind of scary. Right with the nuclear-powered cruise missile. Fifteen hours. Like, okay. Now, why do you need it to be up in the air for 15 hours?
You're seeing where this thing is. It becomes an easier target for people to shoot down. And then to the point, now, what do you have if this thing actually blows up, at any point, whether we take it out, or they take it out. Now you have nuclear material over some area?
Like, again, something I could see. Some crazy scientist and engineers working on, something that I believe has near zero utility on the battlefield in any -- like, even -- even by the Russians.
GLENN: What about the hypersonic missiles now?
BRANDON: Yeah, no, the hypersonics are -- look, what I'm a big proponent of is first principles of warfare. So like mass, maneuver, speed is another principle of warfare. And so what the hypersonics are getting after is that first principle of the speed.
It's like, look, if you can hit your targets faster than they can react. There's something to do that. In that range, at that standoff, at that offset, that is something that is pretty interesting. Now, the challenge that the United States has had. Has been around to getting these to a feasible level.
And I know there's some efforts to bring down the cost of hypersonics. But it's also what makes it incredibly difficult, is when you start to go hypersonic. You know, multiple interdicts of Mach 1.0, to Mach 2, 3, 4. That is a hard, hard, hard, hard physics problem.
GLENN: Right.
You know, I've always felt like, whenever we saw something, you know, when you -- when you first saw the stealth bomber, we were probably on the second iteration. You know what I mean?
We were always -- we didn't always just show what we had.
Is that true anymore?
Do we have things that the world doesn't know, that --
BRANDON: I don't think we have too many things that the world doesn't know about.
Certainly, there are classified programs.
And I think the US does have a couple -- not technologies. You know, up its -- its sleeve. Just like, you know, concepts. Operating concepts.
Is what I would say. We still are like pretty good at.
And so what you're seeing today is in the military world.
You see a lot in the -- you know, just the consumer software world. Where industry is really leading, in this day and age.
So you see industry leading the customer, more than what I would say in the past, right?
In the '80s. '90s. Early 2000s. You would seat customer leading industry to what --
GLENN: We want to do this.
BRANDON: Yeah. Exactly.
GLENN: Are we -- are you concerned at all, with -- with AI and technology being so readily available, and cheap?
You know, everywhere.
That everybody can -- can do some really bad damage. You know, you don't have to be a -- you don't have to be the United States of America.
BRANDON: Yeah. Look, I think every new technology is a double-edged sword. It can produce a ton of value for the world. It can do a lot of value for the world. And at the same time, we put that technology into the wrong person's hands, it can do damage to the world. And so I think the same was true of the internet.
The same is true of now providing compute power into massive amount of compute power into someone's hand, just via an IPhone or an android phone. And so I don't look at AI -- like, I don't worry about AI and autonomy.
And I think it's wrong to prohibit the advancement of a technology, simply because, you know, some wrong can be done with it.
GLENN: Right.
BRANDON: There's a ton of things, where a lot of wrong, we've seen this.
A lot of things can be weaponized. Whether it's an airplane. Whether it's a car. Whether it's the internet. You name it.
But these technologies aren't bad for the sake of being a new technology.
GLENN: Yeah.
I've talked to the president about this several times. The one thing that freaks him out, keeps him up at night is nuclear world. He said, I rebuilt the nuclear arsenal. And he said, you don't even want to understand what we can do. He's like, it's -- it's always been bad. He said, it's -- it's colossally bad. And once it starts, it's over.
And he's really -- he does, I think -- what little sleep he does get, I think there are times where he has lost sleep over war on nuclear, with nuclear weapons.
Is there any of this new technology, is there anything about AI or any of this stuff that freaks you out, that you think, this is really scary, if it -- if it goes wrong or whatever?
BRANDON: Yeah. The way I think about it is, look, nuclear deterrence, has deterred nuclear war since we -- since 1945.
GLENN: Yes. Right. Yeah.
BRANDON: And that largely stopped world wars for the past 80-plus years.
GLENN: Right.
BRANDON: And so our conventional deterrence has been dominated by our aircraft carriers and our submarines in terms of how we deter large state-on-state conflicts in this day and age. It's with these -- along with the number of other, you know, levers that we pull. Economic levers. Diplomacy levers. But the military lever has been dominated by our aircraft carriers, our air power, and our submarines.
GLENN: Sure.
BRANDON: So where I see the world going. It's like AI and autonomy is enabling this next generation of deterrence. Because our legacy weapons systems, they're not as well-respected. Our aircraft carriers are not as respected as they once were. Right?
GLENN: I'm a sitting duck.
BRANDON: Yeah, when the enemy has antiship missiles that outrange what these carriers can launch with our jets.
And they have surface-to-air missile systems that can target any fuel tanker, like, that's when you see your conventional deterrence capabilities start to erode.
AI and autonomy is that massive unlock for the military, for our allies.
It enables, you know, the United States to feel millions of drones. You can't feel millions of drone pilots.
We don't have enough people.
Aren't enough people signing up.
What you can do is enable small groups of people to feel these drone swarms that I believe will be the most strategic conventional deterrence for the next 25 years. And again, that's why I started Shield AI. We have the tag line. The greatest victory requires no war.
It is about having such a dominant military that any adversary thinks twice before starting, either a straightforward conflict or an asymmetric one.
GLENN: Are you concerned about -- you know, Elon Musk says. And I don't know how true this is.
But Elon Musk says we are the new Grok.
I think it's five or six that is coming. Is 60 percent close to AGI. Are you concerned about AGI and ASI? And what that might mean?
BRANDON: I'm not concerned about AGI, but I'm an eternal optimist. And so I put that disclaimer out there. It's really hard to say what 60 percent of AGI means.
GLENN: Right.
BRANDON: What I do think is really interesting, really fascinating.
It's now what is possible in this day and age with AI and autonomy. And I'll share something cool that I looked up the other day, and why I'm an optimist around it.
I asked Grok 4, I said, "What was the economic impact of the internet from 2000 to 2025 on global GDP by a cumulative basis?" Its estimate was 134 trillion dollars' worth of economic value, attributed to that core underlying technology, being the internet.
A ton of value created for the world. I then asked it, what is the value of AI and autonomy going to be for the world from 2025 to 2050, estimated that. It's estimate -- maybe it's biased if it's AI estimating itself.
Was -- yeah. Yeah. Four and a half quadrillion dollars, forty times bigger than the internet. And so that world. Again, I'm a techno optimist. I get excited about that.
It's hard to really understand or fathom what that world looks like, but I think it's going to be a net positive for the world in a way that so many underlying core technologies of life have been.
Now, it doesn't mean that there's -- it's all sunshine and -- and rainbows. There's going to be some bad actors out there with it for sure.
GLENN: Yeah. Yeah. So last question, I hate to ask you this. But I have to ask you this: Being a guy who is in into drones, everything else. What we saw last year over New Jersey, what the hell was that?
BRANDON: I -- I don't understand know what it was in New Jersey.
But I don't like the idea that there was anybody able to fly drones at all.
GLENN: Yeah. Those were large too.
BRANDON: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know if it was another state.
I don't know if people were pulling pranks. Like they've done in the past. I don't know what it was.
GLENN: But do you think it could have been us?
BRANDON: No. I think it was someone else. Is what I think it was.
GLENN: That's a little frightening.
BRANDON: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I don't know what it was though. So, yeah.
GLENN: Have you ruled out extraterrestrial.
BRANDON: I probably haven't paid enough attention to it. But, yeah. I don't know what it was.
GLENN: That's a little frightening. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
We'll be watching.
You bet.