RADIOApril 14, 2025

UNCOVERED: Kamala Had a "Spreadsheet" for if Biden Didn't Make It

When she was Vice President, Kamala Harris and her staff carried around a spreadsheet of Republican judges who could swear her in as president if President Biden either died in office or had to step down. "Fight" co-author Amie Parnes joins Glenn to detail just how serious Harris' plan was, as well as the DNC’s plans, since they knew the real mental state of Joe Biden. Amie describes what was hidden from the public by the White House: Biden was forgetful, needed constant makeup to make him look more alive, and much more: "they were clearly concerned about the optics around his age and around his mental acuity." She also details why Biden agreed to his disastrous debate with Donald Trump and why she believes this information is only now getting out.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Amie is with us. Amie Parnes, Hill senior political correspondent. Author of Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House.

Amie, how are you?

AMIE: Hi, Glenn, thank you for having me.

GLENN: You bet!

You know, so can we play the -- just that little collage of all the people that said, this wasn't happening. Do we have that? Can we play that real quick?

VOICE: Joe Biden has vision. He has knowledge. He is a strategic thinker. This is a very sharp president, in terms of his public presentation. He makes a slip of the tongue here or there, what's the deal?

VOICE: You're asking me my personal opinion. He is sharp. He is on top of things. He -- when we have meetings with him, with his staff. He's constantly pushing us. Trying to get more information.

VOICE: I can tell you, this was the day before that interview. I can tell you, he was sharper, than anyone I've spoken to, about --

GLENN: Okay. Stop.

This was happening all the time, Amie. Everyone was saying, how sharp he is.

That was, according to your book, just absolutely not true, and everybody in the White House knew that. Go ahead.

AMIE: Yeah. No.

It's something that we really did you go into in reporting out this book.

And we have questions about what interactions certain people had with the president.
We detail how Eric Swalwell, a congressman from California, for example, attended a congressional picnic with the president, a year before this debate debacle, this disaster.

And, you know, I'll just remind them, President Biden who he was.

And this was someone who they competed against, in the presidential 2020 election. He should know who he is. And there is detail after detail in this book. You know, in your book, you talk about how there were bets being made. How they were looking. Shopping for judges. On who was going to swear her in.

They thought he was going to die before the election.

I mean, did you -- did I get the sense from anyone while you're searching this book, that anyone thought, maybe. This isn't really good for the Constitution?

AMIE: I mean, that's why you're seeing a lot of arrows being thrown in the direction of the former president and his aids.

People are really, really upset about -- they think it's a cover-up. They think that they should have been more candid, even within their own party, about the president's cognitive abilities.

And, you know, Glenn. I -- I covered the president for a long time.

And I tried to get after the story.

And the White House was constantly -- I know my colleagues were as well.

It's not like I -- but the White House would batter us. When we asked questions about his mental acuity and his age. It was a constant, constant battle.

GLENN: But was there anybody that knew, that should have spoken out, I mean, in the press or anything?

I mean, it's one thing to -- it's one thing to speculate.

It's one thing, to I hear rumors.

And if you're shut off from it.

But, you know, in the White House, it seems like, there were quite a few people that knew, this is a disaster!

Who is -- who is running the country, at that point? Who was the president?

AMIE: I mean, this close set of advisers kept him really close. And that's why I think you didn't see him as much.

Right now, President Trump is out there, talking to reporters every day.

I think the press corps wanted Biden to see Biden do similar things. And take a similar media approach. He did not.

And, you know, we detail in the book, there's a fundraiser, where someone, you know, says that these -- he's going to die at the fundraiser.

There are other moments, where, you know, we take you inside bill Murphy's house.

And we detail how he's speaking to just a couple of -- a couple of dozen fundraisers, at a small house. And he was on the floor, to guide him from place to place. He needs a teleprompter. You know, these aren't common things.

GLENN: At a house. At a house.

AMIE: Yes.

And, you know, makeup. This was -- this was another revelation in our book.

Whenever he traveled overseas. He was met with a makeup artist. That was his first order of business. Sometimes he missed meetings because the makeup artist wasn't there to touch him up. There were clearly concerns about the optics around his age and around his mental acuity.

GLENN: You write at one point, that the makeup artist. He goes in, he sits in for the makeup. And he calls it a day. And that was it.

AMIE: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And these were aides talking to us about it. Obviously, they knew about it. They said, at times, he looked really frazzled. He would get out of the limousine. And would look around, and wouldn't know where he was. So, yeah. It's very startling even to people who were telling us these stories.

GLENN: But, you know, it's one thing to be -- it's one thing to go, yeah. That was really weird.

It's another to realize, that is the man, that has to make the decision, you know, for the country, God forbid we're attacked or whatever!

And he's not there.

Was -- was there anyone inside fighting and saying, we have got to alert the American people?

We have to invoke the 25th amendment.

25th, isn't it, Stu?

We've got to invoke the 25th amendment.

This isn't right. The people have put their power in this man.

He is no longer capable of making these decisions.

I think a lot of people would have had respect for that!

Instead, I walk away going, was there no one that cared about the Constitution?

And cared about what could have happened with this guy in charge?

AMIE: No. And I think that's why you're seeing so much fire aimed at his close set of advisors right now, because they could have been more candid.

And, you know, Democrats in general, I think were confused as to his cognitive abilities.

I think the reason why he wanted to do this debate. And his advisers wanted to do this debate, earlier. This disaster born in June last year. Is because they wanted -- they knew that he was losing in the polls. Obviously, they wanted to change the trajectory of the phrase.

And they thought that that was a moment, that could help them. Instead, it brought out, you know -- it displayed everything, for the American public.

GLENN: Wow. So I honestly thought, for the longest time.

They did that. Knowing -- somebody was like, no. Let's put him on the stage. And let's do it now, before things get completely out of hand.

And he's going to be running for reelection.

I -- I really thought they put him on stage that early.

Because I've never seen that happen before in American politics.

Put him on stage that early, so he would be exposed. And everyone would be like, okay. We can't run him.

AMIE: No, and what's fascinating, Glenn, is we take you inside. We open the book, inside Nancy Pelosi's living room. And she's watching the debate alone. She's warned President Biden, at the time. She said, oh, you don't want it to be Trump.

She mentioned it under the guise of, oh, why would you belittle yourself, and appear on stage with him, but she knows.

And Jill Clayburgh, who is also watching the debate alone, in his living room. He's there, he's having a drink and watching it. They're all alone. They're not at the debate watch party together. Because they almost know what is about to happen there. Watching the train wreck unfold, bit by bit, and alone.

GLENN: So what do we do to ensure this -- let me ask it before I ask you that again.

Again. Who was running the country?

AMIE: That's a very good question.

I think, obviously, his -- his close set of advisers had a great big role in that.

You see Ron Klain these days. Trying to distance himself. He's the former chief of staff.
Trying to distance himself from the optics of what was happening.

GLENN: But it's not -- it's really not optics. It is the truth.

AMIE: Yeah.

GLENN: Somebody was making decisions because the president could -- you know, I've -- I was always fascinated in history by Woodrow Wilson.

Edith Wilson ran the White House for a while. It was his own party that came in -- it was the same thing. People were like, rumors.

And they were like, I don't think he's really there.

And he wasn't seen for a long time. So the leadership of the party came. Finally forced the First Lady. And said, because she was the one saying, he's going to run for a third term.

And he said, no. No. No. Or we'll expose ail of this right now. He's not running for a third term.

And, you know, it seems to be the same thing. I'm wondering how many presidents have we had that, you know, nobody seems to really care that the elected official, isn't actually doing what that official is supposed to do.

They're just unelected people making the decisions.

AMIE: And the fact of the matter, Glenn. You see the former president all, but disappear from public view, since leaving office.

And that I think speaks volumes about his state of mind.

GLENN: Was -- was Kamala that in the know.

Which, I mean, if God forbid, something would have happened. Who would have grabbed the football.

Who would have been the one.

AMIE: It would have been Kamala Harris.

You teased this earlier. But her communications director would carry around this spreadsheet of Republican judges.

Because he felt almost like she had to be validated in that moment. And only a Republican judge could really swear her in.

And have that validation, from Republicans. He thought that there was no way, that such a divisive country, and, you know, people would support her.

And so we detail how he came into that role. With the spreadsheet.

He traveled with it.

The DNC had plans.

If things happened to the president.

And we expose all of this for the first time in this book.

GLENN: Can you find anything?

I'm a self-taught historian. But I'm pretty good at it.

I've never seen anything like it, in American history.

Have you?

AMIE: It's pretty rational. It's really unprecedented.

It was really interesting to report out.

You know, I think people have questions about the media. And how we went about reporting this.

And it's -- it's almost like the president needed to leave office for people to actually admit what was actually happening.

GLENN: Why?

AMIE: And tell us stories. That's what's interesting. I think when you cover a president, they're always worried that the White House is going to come down hard on them, and so they're -- they're less prone to want to tell you things.

And then when they leave office, this is when the floodgates open up.

GLENN: Is anybody going to be held accountable for this?

AMIE: I mean, I think right now. The party. I think that's why you're seeing the democratic party scrambling.

First of all, they have to come out and admit what happened here.

And almost look themselves in the mirror, and talk about Joe Biden. The other day, Jake Tapper asked Tim Walz about it. And Tim Walz kind of stepped around the question. I think they need to be very frank about what was happening.

And what they were witnessing. And they don't -- they don't want to do that right now.

GLENN: You know, it's interesting to me.

I just told this story on the air, because people are kicking around, Donald Trump wants to run for a third term.

No. No. That's against the Constitution. And that was put there for a very clear reason. And it wasn't put in there, by the Republicans.

It was put in by the Democrats.

FDR's own party when they saw what had happened to the presidency. It just gained far too much power.

And it's not good for anybody when that happens.

And, you know, here you have -- as soon as FDR died. That's when all the Democrats were like, okay. Okay. We have to make sure that doesn't happen again.

But they were for him, when he was alive.

It seems like the same thing here. That everybody was like, okay.

It's cool.

But is anybody going to step now, and say, this cannot happen ever again?

AMIE: I think that's what has to happen, Glenn.

Somebody has to take responsibility for it.

And no one is.

And I'm curious to see how the Democrats reckon with this.

GLENN: Hmm.

Amie, thank you very much.

I'm glad somebody finally told the story. And got the story.

It is -- if we don't fix this, it's just going to happen again.

And it will happen with the other party.

I mean, it will.

You give people, in power, an inch.

They are going to take a mile.

And this cannot happen. This just cannot happen again.

Amie, thank you so much.

AMIE: Thank you, Glenn.

GLENN: You bet. Amie Parnes. Fight, inside the wildest battle for the White House.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

Are Epstein's "Blackmail Videos" Being Used for Leverage RIGHT NOW?

What was Jeffrey Epstein's operation all about. If he was at the center of a massive blackmail operation to compromise those in positions of power, who is in possession of that information now? Glenn Beck and ATF Whistleblower John Dodson analyze the details of this situation and give their thoughts on what is the most likely reality surrounding Epstein.

Watch Glenn Beck's FULL Interview with ATF Whistleblower John Dodson HERE

WARNING: How America Elects a Socialist President in 2028 | Glenn TV | Ep 444

The rise of Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old socialist who just won the Democratic primary for mayor, is not just a political earthquake shaking New York City — it’s a warning for the rest of America. Backed by Bernie Sanders, AOC, and the Democratic Socialists of America, Mamdani promises free everything, to tax the rich, and to dismantle capitalism. There’s nothing new about this tired strategy, but the media is propping him up as a new political genius. And with Democrat leaders lining up behind him, it’s clear: This radicalism isn’t fringe anymore. It’s the Democratic Party’s future. Mamdani’s rise is part of a larger movement that’s rewriting America’s values. Glenn Beck explains how New York is the prototype for the Left’s socialist makeover of America. Victor Davis Hanson, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Standford, gives a terrifying prediction on Mamdani’s mayoral race chances and warns the revolution is coming for mainstream Democrats. He also dives into MAGA’s frustration with the Trump administration's handling of the Epstein files.

INSIDE Trump’s soul: How a bullet changed his heart forever

“I have a new purpose,” then-candidate Donald Trump told reporter Salena Zito after surviving the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania. Salena joins Glenn Beck to reveal what Trump told her about God, his purpose in life, and why he really said, “Fight! Fight! Fight!”, as she details in her new book, “Butler: The Untold Story of the Near Assassination of Donald Trump and the Fight for America's Heartland”.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Salena, congratulations on your book. It is so good.

Just started reading it. Or listening to it, last night.

And I wish you would have -- I wish you would have read it. But, you know, the lady you have reading it is really good.

I just enjoy the way you tell stories.

The writing of this is the best explanation on who Trump supporters are. That I think I've ever read, from anybody.

It's really good.

And the description of your experience there at the edge of the stage with Donald Trump is pretty remarkable as well. Welcome to the program.

SALENA: Thank you, Glenn. Thank you so much for having me.

You know, I was thinking about this, as I was ready to come on. You and I have been along for this ride forever. For what?

Since 2006? 2005?

Like 20 years, right?

GLENN: Yeah. Yeah.

SALENA: And I've been chronicling the American people for probably ten more years, before that. And it's really remarkable to me, as watching how this coalition has grown. Right?

And watching how people have the -- have become more aspirational.

And that's -- and that is what the conservative populist coalition is, right?

It is the aspirations of many, but the celebration of the individual.

And chronicling them, yeah. Has been -- has been, a great honor.

GLENN: You know, I was thinking about this yesterday, when -- when Elon Musk said he was starting another party.

And somebody asked me, well, isn't he doing what the Tea Party tried to do?

No. The Tea Party was not going to start a new party.

It was to -- you know, it was to coerce and convince the Republican Party to do the right thing. And it worked in many ways. It didn't accomplish what we hoped.

But it did accomplish a lot of things.

Donald Trump is a result of the Tea Party.

I truly believe that. And a lot of the people that were -- right?

Were with Donald Trump, are the people that were with the Tea Party.

SALENA: That's absolutely right.

So that was the inception.

So American politics has always had movements, that have been just outside of a party. Or within a party.

That galvanize and broaden the coalition. Right? They don't take away. Or walk away, and become another party.

If anything, if there is a third party out there, it's almost a Republican Party.

Because it has changed in so many viable and meaningful ways. And the Tea Party didn't go away. It strengthened and broadened the Republican Party. Because these weren't just Republicans that became part of this party.

It was independents. It was Democrats.

And just unhappy with the establishment Republicans. And unhappy with Democrats.

And that -- that movement is what we -- what I see today.

What I see every day. What I saw that day, in butler, when I showed I happen at that rally.

As I do, so many rallies, you know, throughout my career. And that one was riveting and changed everything.

GLENN: You made a great case in the opening chapter. You talk about how things were going for Donald Trump.

And how this moment really did change everything for Donald Trump.

Changed the trajectory, changed the mood.

I mean, Elon Musk was not on the Trump train, until this.

SALENA: Yeah.

GLENN: Moment. What do I -- what changed? How -- how did that work?

And -- and I contend, that we would have much more profound change, had the media actually done their job and reported this the way it really was. Pragmatism

SALENA: You know, and people will find this in the book. I'm laying on the ground with an agent on top of me.

I'm 4 feet away from the president.

And there's -- there's notices coming up on my phone. Saying, he was hit by broken glass.

And to this take, that remains part of this sibling culture, in American politics.

Because reporters were -- were so anxious to -- to right what they believed happened.

As opposed to what happened.

And it's been a continual frustration of mine, as a reporter, who is on the ground, all the time.

And I'll tell you, what changed in that moment.

And I say a nuance, and I believe nuance is dead in American journalism.

But it was a nuance and it was a powerful conversation, that I had with President Trump, the next day. He called me the next morning.

But it's a powerful conversation I had with him, just two weeks ago.

When he made this decision to say, fight, fight, fight.

People have put in their heads, why they think he said it. But he told me why he said that. And he said, Salena, in that moment, I was not Donald Trump the man. I was a former president. I was quite possibly going to be president again.

And I had an obligation to the country, and to the office that I have served in, to project strength. To project resolve.

To project that we will not be defeated.

And it's sort of like a symbolic eagle, that is always -- you know, that symbol that we look at, when we think about our country.

He said, that's why I said that. I didn't want the people behind me panicking. I didn't want the people watching, panicking.

I had to show strength. And it's that nuance -- that I think people really picked up on.

And galvanized people.

GLENN: So he told me, when he was laying down on the stage.

And you can hear him. Let me get up. Let me get up.

I've got to get up.

He told me, as I was laying on the stage. I asked him, what were you thinking? What was going through your head? Now, Salena, I don't know about you.

But with me. It would be like, how do I get off the stage? My first was survival.

He said, what was going on through his mind was, you're not pathetic. This is pathetic.

You're not afraid. Get up.

Get up.

And so is that what informed his fight, fight, fight, of that by the time that he's standing up, he's thinking, I'm a symbol? Or do you think he was thinking, I'm a symbol, this looks pathetic. It makes you look weak.

Stand up. How do you think that actually happened?

SALENA: He thinks, and we just talked about this weeks ago. He -- you know, and this is something that he's really thought about.

Right? You know, he's gone over and over and over. And also, purpose and God. Right? These are things that have lingered with him.

You know, he -- he thought, yes.

He did think, it was pathetic that he was on the ground. But he wasn't thinking about, I'm Donald Trump. It's pathetic.

He's thinking, my country is symbolically on the ground. I need to get up, and I need to show that my country is strong.

That our country is resolute.

And I need people to see that.

We can't go on looking like pathetic.

Right?

And I think that then goes to that image of Biden.

GLENN: You have been with so many presidents.

How many presidents do you think that you've personally been with, would have thought that and reacted that way?

SALENA: Probably only Reagan. Reagan would have. Reagan probably would have thought that.

And if you remember how he was out like standing outside.

You know, waving out the window. Right?

After he was shot.

GLENN: At the hospital, right.

SALENA: Had he not been knocked out, unconscious, you know, he probably would have done the same thing.

Because he was someone who deeply believed in American exceptionalism.

And American exceptionalism does not go lay on the ground.

GLENN: And the symbol.

Right. The symbol of the presidency.

SALENA: Yeah. Absolutely. And I think that affects him today.

GLENN: So let me go back to God.

Because you talked to him the next day. And your book Butler.

He calls you up.

I love the fact that your parents would be ashamed of you. On what you said to him.

The language you used. That you just have to read the book.

It's just a great part.

But he calls you the next morning. And wants to know if you're okay.

And you -- you then start talking to him, about God.

And I was -- I was thinking about this, as I was listening to it. You know, Lincoln said, I wasn't -- I wasn't a Christian.

Even though, he was.

I wasn't a Christian, when I was elected. I wasn't a Christian when my son died.

I became a Christian at Gettysburg.

Is -- is -- I mean, I believe Donald Trump always believes in God, et cetera, et cetera.

Do you think there was a real profound change at Butler with him?

SALENA: Absolutely. You know, he called me seven times that day. Seven times, the take after seven.

GLENN: Crazy.

SALENA: Talked about. And I think he was looking for someone that he knew, that was there. And to try to sort it out.

Right? And I let him do most of the talking. I didn't pressure him.

At all. I believed that he was having -- you know, he was struggling. And he needed to just talk. And I believed my purpose was to listen.

Right? I know other reporters would have handled it differently. And that's okay. That's not the kind of reporter that I am.

And I myself was having my own like, why didn't I die?

Right?

Because it went right over my head.

And -- and so I -- he had the conversation about God.

He's funny. I thought it was the biggest mosquito in the world that hit me.

But he had talked profoundly about purpose. You know, and God.

And how God was in that moment.

It --

GLENN: I love the way you -- in the book, I love the way you said that as he's kind of working it out in his own he head.

He was like, you know, I -- I -- I always knew that there was some sort of, you know -- that God was present.

He said, but now that this has happened.

I look back at all of the trials.

All of the tribulations. Literally, the trials.

All of the things that have happened. And he's like, I realized God was there the whole time.

SALENA: Yes. He does. And it's fascinating to have been that witness to history, to have those conversations with him. Because I'm telling you. And y'all know, I can talk. I didn't say much of anything.

I just -- I just listened. I felt that was my purpose, in that moment.

To give him that space, to work it out.

I'm someone that is, you know, believes in God.

I'm Catholic. I followed my faith.

And -- and so, I thought, well, this is why God put me here. Right?

And to -- to have that -- to hear him talk about purpose, to hear him say, Salena. Why did I put a chart down?

I'm like, sir. I don't know. I thought you were Ross Perot for a second.

He never has a chart. And he laughed. And then he said, why did I put that chart down?

By that term, I never turned my head away from people at the rally. That's true.

That relationship is very transactional. It's very -- they feed off of each other.

It's a very emotive moment when you attend a rally. Because he has a way of talking at a rally. That you believe that you are seeing.

And he said, and I never turn my head away.

I never turn my head away.

Why did I turn my head away?

I don't remember consciously thinking about turning my head away. And then he says to me, that was God, wasn't it?

Yes, sir. It was. It was God.

And he said, that's -- that's why I have a new purpose.

And so, Glenn. I think it's important, when you look at the breadth of what has happened, since he was sworn in.

You see that purpose, every day.

He doesn't let up.

He continues going.

And it brings back to the beginning of the book.

Where you find out, that there was another president that was shot at in Butler.

And that was George Washington. And how different the country would have been, had he died in that moment.

And now think about how different the country would be, had President Trump died in that moment. There would be --

GLENN: We're talking to -- we're talking to Salena Zito. About her new book called Butler. The assassination attempt on President Trump. And it is riveting.

And, you know, it is so good. I wish the press would read it. Because it really explains who we are, who Trump supporters are. Who are, you know, red staters. It is so good at that. She's the best at that.