RADIOMarch 20, 2023

Why a Trump indictment would make America a BANANA REPUBLIC

What is the far-left accusing Donald Trump of NOW? And will the former president truly be indicted? If so, what does this mean for America’s future? Alan Dershowitz, Harvard Law School Professor Emeritus and author of ‘Get Trump,’ joins Glenn to explain why this latest move from the far-left is ‘destroying the rule of law in America.’ He explains the exact charges the left intends to pit against Trump this time around, and why — if they’re successful — it could send our nation towards becoming a banana republic…

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Mr. Alan Dershowitz. How are you, sir?

ALAN: I am doing great. I wish the country were doing great. I think the impending prosecution of Donald Trump will destroy the rule of law, in America. Which is why I wrote my book, get Trump.

Because that's what they're doing. They're focusing on a person rather than a crime.

You know, the Torah, the Bible one, don't take bribes. That's obvious.

The other is do not recognize faces. Do not do justice based on who the person is. That's a problems in the Bible. That's a prohibition in the constitutionally. it's a prohibition into the rule of law.

And yet, the district attorney of Manhattan, ignoring previous district attorneys. Ignoring the US attorney's office. The Justice Department. Is going after a made-up crime. A crime that does not exist. It's part of the bet Trump.

And if you want to protest get Trump. Michael get Trump.

That will send a message, that will approve of that.

GLENN: Which a few years ago, it would have happened. But I don't think they're going to do it this time. Because we know this federal government. This Justice Department, does not protect the lawful gathering of American citizens to speak their voice.

We also are concerned about, is that an FBI guy, who is trying to get the crowd all whipped up into a frenzy?

I mean, we don't believe our rights are protected as an average citizen anymore. That's a frightening place to be in America.

ALAN: And it's not only the Justice Department. It's the New York City the attorney general of New York ran on the campaign of get Trump. That's where I I got the title of my book from. Her campaign, get Trump. Promise to get Trump no matter what. Constitutionally be damned. The Bill of Rights be damned. get Trump. That's the most important thing, to stop him from realizing. Of course, the irony is constitutionally provides for only, you know, a hand handful for bases for running. You have to be against the North.

And you have to have been been born in America. And he satisfies all of that criteria. So stibbling run.

And this may backfire on Democrats who are abusing the law to get Trump.

And I hope that does. And I hope that maybe the district attorney will listen to reason. And will not indict him.

You know, justice Jackson once said, that any prosecutor can rummage among the hundreds of statutes that you have. And try to find something against anybody. Not just Trump. Not just Hillary Clinton.

But you and me. And your uncle Charlie and grandson. They can find something. And if this prosecution is allowed to go forward, and culminate in the conviction. It will mean that they will start making crimes up against the average person, who they don't like.

GLENN: Can you -- can you take us through this at all, Alan.

Because people will say, okay. I don't think you should be paying hush money. Is that illegal? What charges are they so that we don't

ALAN: Sure. It's never been done before, number one. So they're charging him with a misdemeanor. Misdemeanor six years ago. They are trying to turn the misdemeanor into a felony, by saying that the reason he paid, quote, hush money. It wasn't hush money. But the reason he settled the case was to help his campaign, rather than to avoid embarrassment with his wife and his family. his children, et cetera.

They're not going to be able to a prosecutor can a little grandly Jill to indict a ham sandwich.

And in New York, you can do probably get a petit jury to change sandwich, as long as his name is Trump.

So there is a possibility that he will get indicted and get convicted. I think it will reverse on appeal. in making up crimes. This is making up crime.

So they say that he paid the hush money, in order to help his campaign. And therefore, the payment was a campaign contribution.

It's never been done before. They tried it once before, on candidate Edwards. And it was a much, much stronger case. And, of course, they lost in front of a jury.

But it's never been tried since. And that was a federal crime.

This is a state crime. And it's a shame that a district attorney would abuse justice so greatly. And it endangers justice for all of us.

GLENN: So, Alan, where is anyone?

When we get to a place to where we're taking out our opponents.

I mean, I spoke to Mike Lee about this. With Hillary Clinton. And what was going on with Hillary Clinton. And he said, Glenn, once you start going after an opponent, you become a banana republic, the republican is just over.
because the retribution. The other side will say, oh, we're playing that? once said, well, my friends everything. For my enemies, the law. The law.

And that's what will happen.

And senator Lee is right. Senator Lee's father is a good friend of mine. We clerked technology on the United States Supreme Court. And Lee is a Bill Clinton, Bill Clinton guy. And he's right, we don't want to be a banana republic on either side.

GLENN: So my question to you is: Where are the classical liberals?

Where are the people that don't like Donald Trump? But will stand up and say, this is about principle here?

SPEAKER ONE: Well, you're talking to them. I'm the last standing, oh, I may have a handful of colleagues.

But where are the civil liberties union people?

Where are people who are supposed to care more about our liberty than they do about partisan politics?

They have disappeared. They're not there.

And that's not why I'm the one writing the books now. Get Trump. I'm the one who is trying as a liberal Democrat. As I said over and over again.

I voted for Trump twice. I have a constitutional right to vote and don't stop me from doing that. Don't stop me from making the disquisition run, formal president.

That is banana republic. And we're moving toward that. And it has to stop. And there's no mechanism.

You know, in California, there was a mechanism. You could withdraw and remove the district attorney. And if New York had a Republican attorney, they would be removing the district attorney.

But the democratic and no recall improvements district attorney gets his way. And there will probably be an indictment. I don't know if it will be tomorrow or not. I don't know if they'll do a pepper strengthen Donald Trump's base. People will be so angry with them. I've got call you wills from people. look, we're oops. We were plan oops we were planning to vote for Nikki Haley. But we'll vote for Trump. Because that's the and weaponization of the law.

You know, I have a better form of protest. Buy my book. Then you don't have to vote for Trump.

But it is -- it will backfire. Now, will it backfire in New York?

Probably not. he gets his 15 minutes of fame.

Even if it's reversed on appeal. He'll say, oh, that's not my fault.

I indicted him. I convicted him. Vote for me. We're the only country, did you know this, the only country in the western hemisphere? The only country among Democrats that elect prosecutors. Elect prosecutors. And every other country, they are civil service jobs.

And they are not subject to -- for the whims of political fortunes.

But we have elected prosecutors. And prosecutors prosecute people, based on how much good it will do them in the next election. And there's something very wrong with that.

GLENN: Well, the whole system, I've said, have you tried plugging it back in to factory is that we told them to happen. It is so dirty all the way through.

So -- so, Alan, what should the -- besides biker book, what should the American people be doing right now?

ALAN: Well, we should be protesting. I don't call for people going out on the streets. But I do call for people to write to their senators and congressmen, the New York authorities, evangelizing shows like yours, which have a big impact on national opinion. And making sure that we're not silent about this. We have to speakable out. And your message is as clear as can be. Where are the civilian Libertarians? Where are the people saying, look, I'm in favor of Biden. I will vote for him.

I don't like Trump. But I don't like the way he's

SPEAKER SEVEN: That's the American way. The American way is to protest. for a redress of grievances.

That's in the First Amendment.

And we have to all take advantage of that. We do have a double standard of justice in America today.

I'm representing one of the young men on January 6th. He's a law school student. He was denied the opportunity to graduate. Even though he was a top student.

Because he went to the capital, to and then he was waved into the capital by police. We have videotape showing it.

Yet he's problematical formal a felony.

Whereas, the people who destroyed property and hurt people, in various parts of the country, following the George Floyd murder, weren't being prosecuted.

Were they do ways. sole that means no standards.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

Max Lucado on Overcoming Grief in Dark Times | The Glenn Beck Podcast | Ep 266

Disclaimer: This episode was filmed prior to the assassination of Charlie Kirk. But Glenn believes Max's message is needed now more than ever.
The political world is divided, constantly at war with itself. In many ways, our own lives are not much different. Why do we constantly focus on the negative? Why are we in pain? Where is God amid our anxiety and fear? Why can’t we ever seem to change? Pastor Max Lucado has found the solution: Stop thinking like that! It may seem easier said than done, but Max joins Glenn Beck to unpack the three tools he describes in his new book, “Tame Your Thoughts,” that make it easy for us to reset the way we think back to God’s factory settings. In this much-needed conversation, Max and Glenn tackle everything from feeling doubt as a parent to facing unfair hardships to ... UFOs?! Plus, Max shares what he recently got tattooed on his arm.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

Are Demonic Forces to Blame for Charlie Kirk, Minnesota & Charlotte Killings?

This week has seen some of the most heinous actions in recent memory. Glenn has been discussing the growth of evil in our society, and with the assassination of civil rights leader Charlie Kirk, the recent transgender shooter who took the lives of two children at a Catholic school, and the murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, how can we make sense of all this evil? On today's Friday Exclusive, Glenn speaks with BlazeTV host of "Strange Encounters" Rick Burgess to discuss the demon-possessed transgender shooter and the horrific assassination of Charlie Kirk. Rick breaks down the reality of demon possession and how individuals wind up possessed. Rick and Glenn also discuss the dangers of the grotesque things we see online and in movies, TV shows, and video games on a daily basis. Rick warns that when we allow our minds to be altered by substances like drugs or alcohol, it opens a door for the enemy to take control. A supernatural war is waging in our society, and it’s a Christian’s job to fight this war. Glenn and Rick remind Christians of what their first citizenship is.

“He was one of ours, and he was taken”: Megyn Kelly remembers Charlie Kirk

Glenn Beck and Megyn Kelly remember their friend, TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk, a day after he was assassinated at Utah Valley University. They also discuss the manhunt for the killer.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Yesterday was such a surreal day. I was getting to record my special last night. It was in the afternoon. And I'm sitting here in my studio, and I look at the stairs through this glass door that I have here. And my wife is on the phone, and she's standing in the stairway.

And she has her, her hand gripping the stair rail. And I could see it in her eyes, she was on the phone. And I could see confusion, and I could see trouble.

And in my ear, I'm hearing, five, four, three -- and I said, "Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. I need 30 seconds. I need to talk to my wife."

And I motioned for her to come in. And in a confused and dazed sort of way, she kind of stumbles into the room.

And I said, "What's happening, honey?"

And she said, "It's Cheyenne."

I didn't know what that meant. As a dad, you can imagine. I said, "Is she okay? What -- what's happening?"

She meant, it's Cheyenne on the phone.

Cheyenne had just gotten past the crush of the crowd. She called her mom. She said, "Charlie Kirk's just been shot."

"What?"

She sent me some video, and I knew it was true, but hoped for the best until a few minutes later somebody else sent me video that I hope you did not see, of the bullet striking him.

It must have been like what it was when you first saw the Zapruder film, or if you were standing in the Grassy Knoll. You just knew.

I was on with Megyn Kelly, and we were holding on to the hope that he was somehow or another going to survive that. And Megyn said at one point, I don't know why I'm not announcing what everybody else is announcing. But I just can't.

Megyn joins us now. Hi, Megyn.

MEGYN: Hi, Glenn.

GLENN: What a weird 24 hours it has been. Where are you this morning, in unraveling this knot in your head?

MEGYN: I still don't have my arms around it. I -- I don't feel like I've totally digested the fact that he's gone and the way in which he was taken. You know, Charlie truly was such a larger than life figure. We say that term. But it -- it was true about him. At six-five, he truly seemed larger than most of us. And he was, in his gifts, in his tirelessness. And just knowing exactly where the scene. Every story was.

And his raw courage. So many times. We like to think we're courageous in our commentary. You look at Charlie, and you think, now that's try courage. He -- he would just say it like it was.

The things you might be thinking in your head, but you might not want to say explicitly, he said. And he took a lot of slings and arrows for it and was demonized for being all the terrible things, as opposed to people taking him on and saying, "Does he have a point?"

GLENN: You know, I said earlier today, you don't kill the weak. People don't want to try to heal. They just want to speak in anger at times. And anger is part of the grieving process. And I know I'm angry.

But Charlie would face that anger. And what people think is weakness, by showing love and compassion and listening and just having a decent conversation, that's one of the reasons why he was killed. He wasn't -- he wasn't killed because he was weak. Just like Gandhi wasn't weak. He -- he -- he was killed because he was effective.

Megyn, where do we go from here?

She dropped. Can we get her back on the phone. I got an email from somebody today. This morning.

And I want to share the email. I won't share the name. It's short. But I -- I also think I should share the -- my response. Because I think it's how most of us feel.

It -- it comes from a very well-known conservative leader. Glenn, I am devastated this morning.

I am in deep mourning for Charlie. I am in mourning for his family and our country.

And I don't know how to surface from this. I don't know if I do either.

But I would like to share my thoughts with you, a little later on. Megyn is with me.

Megyn, how do we process this? How do we surface from this?

MEGYN: You know, I think as many lost -- we -- we all have to go through the denial and the bargaining. You know, I'm still refreshing my X account, like hoping somehow there's a reversal. You know, like somehow it was all wrong. Somehow we got it all wrong. You know, sometimes the media gets it wrong. It -- it's absurd. We know what the answer is.

But that's a natural reaction when you had a sudden loss in particular. And anger is completely appropriate now too. It's completely appropriate.

You know, we are going to catch this guy. You know, that FBI presser they just held which is very encouraging.

They -- and two things that happened this morning that are of note, Glenn. First, Steven Crowder who is very solid on his law enforcement leak reporting. He has -- he has a proven track history. He's the one that got the manifesto from the trans shooter in Nashville before anyone else. And that's not all.

He's had other leaks, posting a document saying he received from an ATF source on the investigation.

And that says that they retrieved the gun in the would see, behind the campus. Wrapped in a towel. And that there were three unspent cartridges in the gun. That had transgender and antifascist ideology. Something written on them.

Now, that piece of -- that last piece of it was not confirmed by the FBI at the presser they just held, but every other thing was.

The Crowder report was confirmed in every detail, including naming the kind of gun. He had that right. He had the location right. He had the trail and the tracking of the suspect right.

They did not volunteer the business about what was written on the cartridges, nor did anyone there ask. Because those reporters almost certainly don't follow Steven Crowder because those reporters will probably tell you, he's not to be trusted.

Now, this is an early report. And it could turn out to be wrong. But that's the update as far as we know it.

And the FBI revealing that they have a picture of him, that they did, of course, track him on his way to the shooting spot with surveillance cameras, of course, on these college campuses. We would expect that in dorms or class buildings.

And they appear confident. At least to me. That they've got the guy. And if they've got the weapon, Glenn. Well, they may or may not have fingerprints.

But they almost certainly have DNA. They almost certainly DNA, which I'm sure they're uploading right now, into every database, they can.

You know, within we saw -- they're not supposed to use the public databases. Sorry, private like 23andme or Ancestry.com. Though, in Culverter (phonetic), they did. And that is how they found Culverter. Sometimes they do.

And even just a public database of DNA. Can lead you at least to a family member somewhere near a shooter or suspect. And then it's just a matter of charts and a few hours in getting to that person's relative. So I believe they will find the shooter.

And then we'll know the ideology. And then we'll have a place to put some of the anger. Like, an explanation or something that will help us understand what deranged person. And I don't mean that in a clinical sense. Did this yesterday.

I just feel like, I don't know where to go, until I figure out who did this and why.

GLENN: It was about midnight last night, when I talked to the president.

And he was very clear, that we will find whoever is responsible for this. And justice will be served.

He was extraordinarily confident in that. Which gave me an awful lot of hope.

I don't know if you saw his speech last night, that he gave from the oval.

But I thought -- very powerful. Hit exactly the right tone.

Hit exactly the right tone.

But I think the days of us fooling around and nibbling at the edges. I think those days are over.

MEGYN: I agree. And one of the things that Trump said last night that was so good was, he used the word "terrorism." That's exactly right. You know, that's -- that is how a lot of us are feeling.

And I know you've had the same experience I've had in the last 24 hours, Glenn, where virtually everybody I know in the media business has reached out. I think there are a lot of folks who are in Arlene, in particular, in conservative media, who are very rattled by this because he was one of ours.

And he was taken. You know, he -- obviously, we all have concerns about personal security now with the shooter at loose. You know, at large as well. But I just mean that -- like the betrayal and the need to rise up and protect ours. And the people we value and love.

You know, this is like -- I don't want to say a call to arms. Because I'm not encouraging violence. But, I mean, a unifying call for us to stand shoulder to shoulder and stand up.

GLENN: Yeah. It is absolutely a wake-up call. To anybody who thought, you know, "Oh, it's just going to pass us by," it's not. This is -- this is the call of our age. And how we respond, is going to determine the future of freedom in this country. But I have great confidence that we will respond just as we did after 9/11.

We responded with conviction. We responded with an intelligence sort of way. We overreacted in some ways, that I would like to avoid this time.

But we came together as a nation, and did what had to be done.

For the preservation of our nation.

Now, if we can have the moderation lesson learned this time. Perhaps we will be good. But I think the days of Antifa not feeling any ramifications for their work and others, those days are over! As of yesterday.

Megyn -- I just -- go ahead.

MEGYN: Go ahead, Glenn. I was just going to say. One of the things we did after 9/11 was when the stock market opened two days later. We -- we all bought stocks. We just -- it could have been a 5-dollar to being. But everyone did it to send a message that the financial center would stand. And I think we are going to see a reaction on college campuses when it comes to free speech by conservatives unlike we've ever seen before. In a similar vein.

GLENN: I agree. I'm proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with you, Megyn. And be in the trenches with you all the time. You are a light in a lot of darkness. And I appreciate our years of friendship. And everything that you've done for the country. Thank you!

MEGYN: Likewise, my friend. Thanks for having me.