The Glenn Beck Program - Best of Program ｜ Guests： Eric Bolling & Helen Andrews

00:00:00.000 welcome to the wednesday podcast of the glenn beck program uh we first want to start by telling you

00:00:05.440 today special guest eric bowling kind of an amazing conversation with eric um on a couple

00:00:11.100 of fronts but one we want to welcome him to another brand new three-year contract with the

00:00:16.980 blaze tv he's uh just upped so up yours no he's just up to three years uh and you can find him

00:00:25.660 on the blaze tv four nights a week very soon three nights right now yeah but i wish there's a website

00:00:31.660 to subscribe how would i do that uh it's uh that's the problem blaze the blaze it's actually

00:00:36.560 blaze tv.com slash beck should i try that maybe you put that in there and then if you use beck

00:00:41.780 christmas you could uh charge me more no you'll you'll save 20 whoa yeah you mean if i type the

00:00:47.640 extra letters you're gonna take money off the price off the price that's incredible it's just

00:00:51.380 that simple okay go to blaze tv.com slash beck and use beck christmas save 20 bucks all the biggest

00:00:59.320 voices in the conservative movement are coming to blaze tv all right on today's broadcast we talked

00:01:08.060 a little bit about trump and russia and this this new um uh i guess it's letter of intent but it's a

00:01:18.300 signed deal with russia we explain what we know about it and then we asked eric bowling to come in

00:01:26.120 and chime in and say what does he think about it it's it's an interesting it's an interesting look

00:01:33.780 at something that people took a long time and a lot of effort to hide and keep quiet

00:01:39.740 that now it apparently doesn't matter we also talked to helen andrews who was a conservative

00:01:45.500 libertarian leaning um a person who went through a went through the ringer with a social media shame

00:01:52.500 campaign of several years ago when she kind of got in an argument with an ex or ex-boyfriend sort of

00:01:57.680 kind of went after her on national television uh and what that experience has been like it's been many

00:02:03.040 many years she's learned a lot she's really interesting has a fascinating story uh and we talked to her as

00:02:08.660 well as andrew heaton who has a much less fascinating story um about well he does well it's if we have

00:02:16.520 time there's two things i don't know if we get to both of them uh there there is uh uh eric bowling's

00:02:22.940 story about his loss of faith at this holiday season and andrew's story about organ grinding monkeys

00:02:30.540 you decide uh on the podcast today

00:02:33.640 you're listening to the best of the glenbeck program

00:02:44.480 it's wednesday december 19th this is the glenbeck program a proposed development of a first-class

00:02:54.880 luxury mixed use to be known as trump moscow or such other name as mutually agreed on by the parties

00:03:02.580 located in moscow city now known the project dear audrey or andre this is a letter of intent

00:03:11.380 uh and it sets forth a summary of the basic terms of the license agreement to be entered into by the

00:03:17.960 trump acquisition llc or one or more of its affiliates uh and the ic expert investment

00:03:27.240 company or its affiliates blah blah blah this shows exactly what they are going to be building what they

00:03:36.600 are going to license out who gets the money it is a 250 first-class luxury residential condominiums

00:03:45.520 one first-class luxury hotel consisting of approximately 15 floors containing no fewer

00:03:51.240 than 150 hotel rooms one first-class luxury spa fitness center a commercial component uh consistent

00:03:58.820 with the overall luxury level of the property an office component a parking component uh they will

00:04:05.140 also help design uh construct equip furnish yada yada yada it's i mean the expense deposit uh the

00:04:14.920 deposits the principal the non-disturbance the confidentiality the currency the governing law

00:04:22.420 the operation the term the management fees the development standards the maintenance and repair of the hotel

00:04:31.020 centralized service agreement hotel technical service agreement debt covenants reimbursement of fees

00:04:38.100 uh i mean all of it food and beverage signed by donald j trump now this was executed october 28th 2015

00:04:49.420 and it ran all the way through the um the election in fact mr trump we now know was uh was brought up to speed

00:05:02.960 on at least three occasions by cohen about the progress of this project in moscow we also know

00:05:13.400 that the guy who he denied even knowing is a signator of this contract he was the moscow guy

00:05:23.240 and trump said i when asked by the press do you know this guy he said i don't i don't i don't know him

00:05:30.120 i'd have to think about that i don't even think i've ever heard that name he was a guy who was working

00:05:36.980 on this project and he had direct contact with vladimir putin's office about this project during the

00:05:48.000 election

00:05:48.440 so does this matter

00:05:55.120 see what happened during monica lewinski is we would ask people does it matter or did he do it

00:06:03.460 and then they'd say no and we'd argue about that i've stopped arguing about did he do it i don't

00:06:08.540 show me the evidence when you show me the evidence then i'll know if he did it or not

00:06:13.020 but until you show me evidence i don't really care i don't care because i don't believe anybody on

00:06:19.260 any side show me the proof so i've been waiting for the proof however if it exists does it matter

00:06:27.920 this is what happened during the clinton uh uh problem everybody argued that it never happened

00:06:35.680 and then when it did have we did have the blue dress then it was well it doesn't matter well wait a

00:06:41.060 then why have we have been arguing why didn't you say it didn't matter right up front

00:06:45.780 so the president we now know lied repeatedly to the american people about having a business deal

00:06:57.580 and a significant business deal in moscow that putin's office was i can't i can't say directly

00:07:07.840 involved with but had involvement in he was courting moscow and he was trying to get this done

00:07:17.700 now you're reading of this does it he didn't do anything this is nothing nothing illegal about this

00:07:23.480 nothing illegal nothing illegal about this this is not the type of thing you get thrown out of office

00:07:27.620 for i don't think unless he lied to you know the fbi or something about it uh i mean unless he

00:07:33.320 committed a crime in the cover-up or something he definitely did say to the media a bunch of

00:07:37.560 times that he had no business dealings in russia i think he said that to the american people oh i

00:07:42.600 would i would agree i would agree i mean but i mean the media is probably more directly who he

00:07:46.400 said it to at that time that's how we hear heard about it um but yes i but he was asked he was not

00:07:51.140 this is not a question of criminality or or impeachment per se like this is they're gonna

00:07:56.460 they're gonna work that in i mean the media is going to talk about that all day but i don't

00:07:59.820 really i don't i don't really care i'm not looking at anything other than you have the president

00:08:06.480 in the united states while he was running asked by the media but also asked in debates do you have

00:08:14.720 any dealings and he repeatedly say said i don't nor does anyone i know have any dealings i've only been

00:08:24.700 to moscow once now in the release documents he was wanting to go to moscow and it was manafort that

00:08:34.440 said no you're not going to moscow it was during because this deal they wanted to see him they

00:08:42.120 wanted to deal with him face to face and so he said all right well i don't know should we put it

00:08:47.180 together cohen was pushing for him to go and it was manafort that finally stepped in and said you

00:08:52.820 can't go you can't go and negotiate this deal right now okay so it shows you who michael cohen is

00:09:00.260 it's like even paul manafort had more discretion yeah i mean it's it's when you're losing to paul

00:09:05.540 manafort on a good decision making contest that's not that's not where you want to be so look i i

00:09:12.160 understand uh the president not wanting to for instance i i don't agree with it but there wasn't

00:09:23.460 anything illegal about it and presidents have done this before they've had sex they've covered it up

00:09:31.000 yada yada this is different this is different the um the secretary uh one of the secretaries in

00:09:42.040 the office of vladimir putin was involved in this deal there are now memos back and forth

00:09:50.540 when trump denied that this was happening the press called uh putin's office and that secretary

00:09:59.520 that person who was involved secretary of something or other he denied that there was anything going on

00:10:06.540 okay we now know that we we have the right we have the emails and he has now come out and said okay

00:10:16.280 yes there was this exchange as soon as the white house said yes there was this exchange

00:10:22.300 the the kremlin said yes there was this exchange i'm sorry but this is not secret deals for the

00:10:31.260 united states of america this is a secret deal benefiting one person and that person happens to be the

00:10:38.340 president i don't want any secret deals going on between my president and vladimir putin's office

00:10:43.260 i don't want any of them i want to know if you're going to do it fine let's have that conversation

00:10:49.340 and i know that would be tough in the press but at least we would know transparency

00:10:54.680 donald trump did not turn over any of his business records well we can see now why this would have been

00:11:01.760 found okay can you turn them over now because are you hiding anything else we have to know that the

00:11:10.400 president doesn't have any other any other uh idea that he is a slave to other than the constitution

00:11:20.700 of the united states of america and i don't think that donald trump hates america i don't think that

00:11:28.780 he wants to destroy it i don't think he's in league with uh with uh vladimir putin he is driven

00:11:36.320 by his business and i don't want a secondary business thing on the table with the president

00:11:44.020 of the united states or at least i want full disclosure and if we back up a little bit this

00:11:49.560 is it's not as shocking as you know the media is going to make it out to be today if you go back to

00:11:55.180 2015 when when this letter was going on uh donald trump is a business guy wanting to do a really great

00:12:02.160 deal in in russia uh it is completely illegal for him to do a big deal in russia um completely

00:12:09.680 completely normal in his normal business day right like this is a this would be a very typical dealing

00:12:15.680 for him to be engaged in at the time he is an incredible underdog and most people surely most

00:12:23.640 people in his organization you know i don't know about him exactly i mean you know he's very confident

00:12:27.640 publicly the reporting says he even kind of thought he wasn't going to win but at this point

00:12:32.220 surely no one in his organization thought he was going to win remember this is 2015 this isn't even

00:12:36.960 the year of the election hadn't even begun yet we haven't even gone to iowa we haven't gone to new

00:12:42.180 hampshire i mean he's still he's doing well in the polls but no one gives him a chance of winning at

00:12:47.120 this point no but the fact that you pursue a deal like this would make sense and beyond that when asked

00:12:53.620 about it when you're getting asked about it in the media his calculus likely is the media is just

00:13:01.540 trying to trap me on this yes i have this deal but it's probably not going to happen anyway and if

00:13:05.940 they keep there if i say yes to it they're just going to go in and they're going to investigate

00:13:09.000 they're going to chase me around and accuse me of all these things i'm just you know screw them i'm

00:13:13.720 not going to give them the the the nugget now i don't think that's the right way to handle it but

00:13:18.560 you can understand in that moment how he thinks just brushing off those questions might be the

00:13:24.320 appropriate thing to do so we are down to where we were with barack obama where half of the country

00:13:29.780 didn't believe barack obama was a guy who had america's best interest at heart you know he had

00:13:36.800 he was slave to another idea as well as being president of the united states we didn't trust his

00:13:43.000 motives now half the country doesn't trust this president's motives we said we wanted full

00:13:49.700 transparency we wanted to know how did these guys get into office who are they what do they actually

00:13:55.820 believe and we can deal with that now we're saying well no um we don't need to do that because we trust

00:14:04.400 donald trump i i don't know why we should trust donald trump and it's not that you're going to get

00:14:11.380 hillary clinton now you're going to get mike pence should he be removed and i'm not even talking about

00:14:17.580 that i'm just saying we're crossing another line now we're crossing a big line there is evidence that

00:14:28.580 he now lied to you repeatedly about something pretty important does it matter to you now that's the question

00:14:39.240 i was reading a story about uh how it's from 538 talking about you know like how media kind of

00:14:59.180 shapes our view of things and i get so frustrated as a conservative and you know you complain about

00:15:03.160 media bias in the time that it's going on and it's not until decades later do you get the actual

00:15:08.160 admission of what actually happened in these old timey situations like at the time they never admit

00:15:14.180 they're being biased and you know the lie of the year is after obamacare's past right listen to this

00:15:19.520 paragraph take the 1992 election at the time everyone thought the economy was in shambles the

00:15:24.020 recession had technically ended in 1991 and there was some evidence the economy was expanding again

00:15:28.660 but the media painted a picture of economic woe um political scientist martin i remember i remember

00:15:34.480 being on the air saying that really the recession's over right and it was technically even i know they

00:15:40.780 found a strong disconnect uh between the media's negative reporting on the economy and how the

00:15:45.300 economy was actually behaving in fact with the benefit of hindsight we now know the economy was

00:15:49.820 growing by more than three percent annually by late 1992 roughly the same place pace it was growing

00:15:54.660 in 1996 when voters rewarded bill clinton with a second presidential term hetherington's research suggests

00:16:00.600 that the relentlessly bad coverage of the economy affected voters perceptions at the ballot box

00:16:05.040 george hw bush substantially underperformed his second presidential bid and became the first

00:16:10.260 republican since herbert hoover to be denied a second term well yeah they made it sound like everyone

00:16:16.220 was going to die tomorrow and it was george bush's fault 20 years 30 years later almost we all can look

00:16:23.580 at this and say well what they were saying at the time was completely ridiculous we weren't in a

00:16:28.420 recession we were growing at a healthy pace and you know george hw bush should have been re-elected

00:16:35.520 in that campaign you know what it was facebook it was russia getting involved with facebook oh that's

00:16:41.500 right yeah vladimir putin at that time well it was you know it's amazing you didn't need facebook

00:16:46.640 you didn't need vladimir putin you had the mainstream media doing it for you i mean people like oh it's

00:16:53.040 getting worse no it's not just different it's just different that's the that's the only thing

00:16:58.720 you're listening to the best of the glenn beck program

00:17:05.020 like listening to this podcast if you're not a subscriber become one now on itunes

00:17:18.020 but while you're there do us a favor and rate the show eric bowling for a period of time played

00:17:22.940 professional sports until he was uh injured then he went in became a stock uh trader in wall street

00:17:30.160 uh then went to television and we know the rest from there eric bowling on the blaze tv welcome to the

00:17:39.660 program how are you eric i'm doing great glenn thank you for having me um i'm honored to uh spend some

00:17:46.660 time with you on this very interesting day it's a very interesting day isn't it so here's the great

00:17:52.820 thing here's a lot of demand for bowling to explain some stuff coming out of the white house right

00:17:57.180 so so here's here's here's the great thing about blaze tv is we are a collection of people that we

00:18:05.580 don't interfere with each other's show or opinion and we like each other and get along and we can

00:18:11.660 disagree and i think we got we're going to disagree on this um but it doesn't matter i really want to

00:18:17.020 hear your opinion on on the the memo that came out from the trump administration well as donald trump

00:18:25.800 himself said and i agree with wholeheartedly that he had a business he had a real estate business that

00:18:32.180 was doing uh making hotel deals around around the world when he ran for president no one gave him a

00:18:38.280 chance including the new york times on the night of the election had hillary clinton with a 98 percent

00:18:43.800 chance of winning uh as the return started to come in i'll never forget seeing that that meter that

00:18:48.820 new york times meter of likelihood of of your next president going literally pinned it to hillary

00:18:53.560 slowly and slowly and slowly we got around 10 o'clock at night it just flipped way over to the trump

00:18:59.200 side why would he stop doing any sort of business if he didn't if if he wasn't sure he was going to be

00:19:05.640 president that's insane we would have no one running for for elected office if that were the

00:19:09.780 case we'd have no one with with business experience and backgrounds uh running if they had to drop their

00:19:14.720 prior businesses on in in the in the likelihood or unlikelihood of them being president no less

00:19:21.780 and then all of a sudden try to pick up the pieces where they left off that would be crazy okay so

00:19:25.720 so i i agree with you 100 percent however um he denied uh the business um dealings with moscow

00:19:35.040 uh long after the election juliani denied it rudy juliani denied it i don't know that donald trump

00:19:41.100 ever did i think he said of course i'm an ongoing business concern multi-billion dollar international

00:19:46.900 real estate business can't stop i i love you eric i love you but i can't but i can't let you get away

00:19:53.460 with that he he denied it relentlessly he said he had no business dealings with with russia multiple

00:19:59.300 times and he said i don't know anybody who does have any business dealings no i i i i i don't

00:20:06.620 recall i swear to you on my life i don't recall i'm saying well but does it okay so no business

00:20:11.860 dealings with russia because we know there there are other um other properties that in fact he sold a

00:20:19.100 property um that he owned in florida for one i think it was at the time the largest real estate deal

00:20:25.000 right that one he admitted to that one he admitted to he said the only business dealing

00:20:29.180 our business deal right he said the only business deal i have with russia is i sold a property a few

00:20:34.860 years ago in florida so he admitted that one and he was straight up about it my question is is why

00:20:41.380 why do this with the press has no credibility um people trust donald trump who voted for him

00:20:49.880 and you know he did it and you can say the same thing you know about uh you know with bill clinton

00:20:56.300 this was a personal thing it was about sex etc but he stood on the plane and he looked at the reporters

00:21:01.820 and he said i had nothing to do with it i had nothing i didn't even know about it okay well we find out

00:21:06.880 that he did know about it okay we can dismiss it because that one's a personal thing with his wife

00:21:12.520 all right now this one comes out why wouldn't he just stop all this why wouldn't he just come out

00:21:19.500 and just say yeah and here's the contract well i just because i'm not sure that they had consummated

00:21:25.640 the deal at that point i think there's an ongoing concern i i saw the signature on on the note on the

00:21:30.380 memo as well i i honestly glenn i'm being 100 honest with you i don't i don't remember him saying

00:21:35.340 i have no business whatsoever with russia with the with the exception of that real estate dealing in

00:21:39.780 florida okay so um okay so i i don't want to get in but if i if i take your word for it um i could

00:21:46.580 only say that that uh you know i he'd have to he'd have to circle back and say explain explain the

00:21:52.620 signature because you do know however i don't think it's a problem there's no emoluments clause

00:22:00.100 violations whatsoever let's go back to the the reality okay so if if in fact he said i have no

00:22:06.000 business dealings with russia and he had a letter of intent not a deal you know you and i plan we go

00:22:12.500 way back we know letters of intent don't necessarily mean a deal is done it means we intend to do a

00:22:17.400 deal it's not a legal binding matter by any means that may be where he gets around it he may say

00:22:21.680 look it's a letter of intent we sign letter intents around the world all the time for everything i've

00:22:25.460 signed how many letters of intent have you signed and or received that ended up not being a deal

00:22:30.380 of tons so maybe that's the the little cork to it but but let's let's let's take it let's bring it

00:22:36.680 through the machine and find out what it really is it's really a businessman continuing to do business

00:22:41.560 you know in the way he was until he was elected president and then things changed he gave the

00:22:46.280 business and the dealings off to to eric and don jr and to a certain extent ivanka as well

00:22:51.740 less so ivanka but eric and don jr okay because it seems to me really the underlying issue is not an

00:22:58.440 issue right he's he's running a business that talks about international real estate and he's

00:23:03.180 in the middle of an international real estate deal i mean there's nothing there guys again and it's

00:23:08.140 just it's kind of dawning on me because i've got how many what 40 years in business under my belt

00:23:12.360 it's it's just dawning on me as we speak right now that a letter of intent is not a binding contract

00:23:17.100 no i know no it's true no i know that i know he was dealing with them he was attempting to get

00:23:21.880 business he kept saying you know i never had any business with russia you know the closest i ever came

00:23:25.600 to russia i bought a house a number of years ago in palm beach florida uh you know the new york times

00:23:29.660 has him on 23 locations and i don't know that all of these a lot of them are i have nothing to do with

00:23:35.460 russia which isn't necessarily talking about business dealings but he did say i had no business dealings

00:23:41.420 with russia i had no business with russia um you know he again i think you know in his defense right

00:23:47.040 he's in the middle of getting attacked constantly by by the media and probably he knows if he says he did

00:23:53.020 have a deal brewing with russia everyone would accuse him of a million different things and he

00:23:56.860 didn't want to deal with it um and i can understand why he tried to push it off i just feel like he

00:24:01.540 it's you know it's the whole nixon thing it's really not the crime it's the cover-up and i don't think

00:24:05.540 the crime in this case is a crime at all it's his normal business dealings i just wish he would be

00:24:09.860 a little more up front that's that's all i would ask well and again and i'm sorry i started the

00:24:14.660 interview off not really understanding it but as i as i talk to you and talk it out a letter of intent

00:24:20.860 literally it's like a handshake it's nothing more like hey you know let's circle back see if we can

00:24:25.260 come to terms so technically he had no business deal done even dealings is 11 10 dealings i mean

00:24:31.600 we're going to parse you know the the meaning of is is here again but i don't know maybe we want to

00:24:37.060 uh but again there there there was no deal done there's no deal consummated and uh you know the

00:24:43.080 difference is like when you do a deal you sign a contract and you do a press release

00:24:47.240 that's true i mean it's again it is six what is it's a letter of intent i'm laughing because it's

00:24:53.300 literally there's literally thousands of letters of intent that you know drawn up and and and you

00:24:59.600 know they're they're they're worth the paper that they're written on and that that's about it yeah

00:25:03.380 no it's true i mean it's a detailed letter of intent right i mean it's 16 pages of all the

00:25:07.500 different you know going down to like how they're going to figure out concession splits i mean it's

00:25:11.840 pretty it's relatively detailed but i think to your point eric it's it's it's true that the media is

00:25:16.680 going to kind of obsess over this and they're going to say this is proof of you know collusion

00:25:22.180 about the election when i mean it really has nothing to do with that at all the election they're

00:25:27.400 just going to try to conflate these things this is the problem this is the problem that the they

00:25:33.180 are conflating absolutely everything into this collusion with russia and the election and i just

00:25:41.240 don't see it i don't believe it they would have to show me the you know the evidence of it and i

00:25:47.660 have not seen any evidence that there was collusion for the election it just it it's so frustrating

00:25:55.460 because the president you know you know the media you know these the liberal hack media that that if

00:26:02.920 they can make something up they can take a you know heat and call it a tree they will there isn't

00:26:08.040 there's no there are no seeds and if there were and if they're if muller sitting on something it

00:26:12.380 would leak by now it would leak we would know that there would be something that they've got him

00:26:16.440 tattooed to the wall and it there's no there's no secrets in dc so eric i am i'm just to the point to

00:26:23.620 where i don't really care to speculate i don't want to i don't want to speculate on what they have

00:26:27.500 what they don't have because i'm tired of it i watch cnn it's not a news show it's it's it's like a

00:26:33.940 psychic hour that they're saying well i'm looking in the crystal ball and i think this is what they've

00:26:39.300 gotten i don't care i don't care i just want to talk about the things that we do know they have so

00:26:45.420 if they've got something else they'll come out with it until that time i don't even want to talk about

00:26:50.040 it because it makes no difference to anybody's life and it just confuses things and pits us against

00:26:55.960 each other on what on speculation coming from people i don't trust i'm not i'm not interested

00:27:02.320 well but but it rates glenn and that's what the left does and you're watching msnbc's ratings

00:27:07.540 in prime time creep up in fact even past fox's ratings in prime time it's uh it's what's it's

00:27:13.240 what the left and in the anti-trump crowd wants to hear that we're getting close to to nailing the

00:27:18.540 president it's almost an anticipatory viewer waiting to see what they got and and they keep

00:27:26.900 getting disappointed we're on almost now they've been saying that every time something new breaks

00:27:31.880 they're like we got him this time no you don't no you don't no it's not gonna it's it's not going

00:27:37.040 anywhere um so anyway the most common phrase on cnn is the walls are closing in they just keep saying

00:27:42.060 it over and over again i know he must be living in a matchbox by now um so eric bowling uh i want to

00:27:48.680 switch topics to you um and there's a there's a couple of things first of all what do you have

00:27:56.360 what do you have coming up and what are you going to be looking uh at and doing on the blaze tv in

00:28:02.020 the next in the next year so i think we're going to continue to do what we do by the way glenn we we

00:28:08.020 we just did a big press release this morning that i i signed with blaze tv for three years and i'm

00:28:13.360 looking forward to working with you and mark and some of the other some of the other uh conservative

00:28:18.520 hosts that we we were delivering probably the the premier actually the premier conservative content

00:28:24.140 um uh in media right now the opinion content so i'm looking forward to that and inviting as many

00:28:30.180 other conservative smart conservative voices to to join me at blaze tv it's going to be a great

00:28:35.200 venture looking forward to it so that that announcement just went out that's great i'm thrilled i'm thrilled

00:28:39.780 i'm thrilled we are going to do what we've been doing this our show america is just it's unbelievable

00:28:44.520 we're we're we're in congressman's offices we are in the senate rotunda talking to senators i spent

00:28:50.520 the day yesterday at the white house with kellyanne conway i'm i spent last week with the president in

00:28:57.660 the oval office so i'm bringing high level advisors and elected officials opinion and ideas and then you

00:29:05.100 know just policy to to the forefront and then we talk about it and we're doing it three days a week right

00:29:09.220 now i think we're going to increase that to maybe four days a week uh and we we deliver it live at

00:29:14.060 5 p.m every night so having it's going to be a great year and we're going to continue to do what

00:29:18.180 we did and i'm looking forward to working with uh with you glenn and the blaze maybe we can you know

00:29:22.620 talk regularly that'd be a lot of fun i'd love that so i'd love that as far as the show is concerned

00:29:26.740 i'm also doing this opioid awareness push now i've i've teamed up with um sinclair broadcast on the tv

00:29:34.560 and broadcast side and uh probably for the next four months so i think through april of 19 we're traveling

00:29:41.240 around the country different cities we'll be in dallas we'll be in san antonio we'll be in

00:29:45.620 um columbus ohio northwest all over the country and we're talking opioids we had the first lady last

00:29:51.560 time at liberty university with kellyanne conway yesterday so we're getting the opioid awareness

00:29:55.760 message out to to people it's a it's an important message it's a it's a deadly killer that we need to

00:30:00.900 really really attack as a country you're doing that because of the tragic loss of your son

00:30:07.900 that we have um talked about and you were you spoke about it in a very raw and real way and

00:30:14.320 um it was just i think it touched a lot of people eric um uh this is coming up now on your second

00:30:24.520 christmas without your son how are you doing um not well uh i'll be honest with you if the one of the

00:30:33.140 things you'll know about me maybe your audience doesn't but we'll learn quickly is that there's

00:30:37.460 there's no on-air persona versus a you know off-air besides what you see on tv is it's who i am and so

00:30:44.740 i'd be lying if i said i'm doing well or my wife and i are doing well it's a it's a rough time of year

00:30:49.880 um we lost our son in september of 17 a couple weeks later it was thanksgiving the empty chair was

00:30:57.300 happening and we were we were about to all fall apart as a family and uh president trump called and

00:31:03.080 you know it meant a lot for for me that he called on that moment because he knew it was it was the

00:31:08.360 first holiday and he he's subsequently called on many holidays since uh it doesn't make it easier it

00:31:14.160 just makes it um uh makes you feel like something he cares and so the point is that that because he

00:31:21.220 showed so much empathy and compassion about this topic and and my loss and my wife's loss

00:31:26.760 um i'm really pushing to get the message out so other families don't don't have to deal with this

00:31:31.560 you know interestingly last night we finished the show at sinclair in dc here wgla and and we came

00:31:37.820 off the hour on on opioids and you know the producers came up and said oh that was that was amazing that's

00:31:43.200 great you know let's start working on san antonio on january 10th we're going to be there and they're

00:31:47.480 like this is going to be you know great and i just looked at them i go do you know how hard this is

00:31:52.380 for me to do an hour on the loss of my my only child my son and they realized at that moment that

00:31:58.940 this is really really hard for me to do but i swear to you glenn the only thing i have to hold on to

00:32:04.860 that that there's any sort of positive that can come out of it is that we save one family from from

00:32:10.380 this utter hell and it really is a hell so that's what that's what uh that's what gets me up in the

00:32:15.600 morning if it weren't for that i'm not sure i i um my mother committed suicide and i remember when

00:32:21.960 i did the tour for um uh the christmas sweater uh which is um a fictional telling of of of that

00:32:30.920 and i felt so compelled to do it uh i remember i got off the stage every every night and i was just

00:32:38.800 i said i said i can't do it another day just cannot do it another day um it's uh sometimes

00:32:45.420 when you when you hit these uh personal moments where it is a a cause yours being opioids mine being

00:32:53.040 suicide it's uh it it is it takes every ounce of strength you have to get through it and i

00:33:00.220 commend you for doing all you that feeling you felt i can't do another day is what i felt last night

00:33:04.980 after the first one and and uh you know it's a great message and it's a great uh you know broadcast

00:33:11.000 partnership with sinclair they've they've they're they blanket the country on on local stations and

00:33:16.460 they they they're happy to announce 12 more i just looked at them like okay 12 more you know i mean

00:33:23.920 it's going to be rough but listen if you can get the suicide message out um help people who who are

00:33:32.040 or contemplating and maybe make the phone call to the suicide profession hotline or if i can get

00:33:38.200 the message out to families parents talk to your kids no one's no one's immune your kid's not too

00:33:43.380 smart too popular too athletic too white too black too gay too straight too rich too poor they'll all be

00:33:48.800 touched or the kids one pill can kill and maybe we save a life or two glenn you're listening to the

00:34:00.180 best of the glenn beck program

00:34:01.700 it was october 2010 when our next guest appeared on a panel to promote a book of essays by young

00:34:18.780 conservatives proud to be right voices of the next conservative generation the moderator was jonah

00:34:26.100 goldberg one of the other panelists was my ex-boyfriend during the question and answering

00:34:32.520 uh todd the boyfriend launched into a rant about uh helen's personal failings he accused me of

00:34:42.280 opposing obamacare on the grounds that it would diminish human suffering which allegedly i preferred

00:34:48.280 to increase of wanting to appeal laws against fistfights for the same reasons of being sadistic

00:34:54.120 and scheming a heartbreaker in his own personal life and generally living according to a disturbing

00:35:00.700 and brutal set of values for three minutes and 45 seconds which unfortunately for me

00:35:07.000 were captured on film for broadcast two weeks later on c-span he made an impassioned case that i was a

00:35:14.120 sociopath it stuck helen andrews is that woman that was on c-span welcome to the program

00:35:22.820 thanks so much for having me glenn wow helen you've been through the ringer and back are you back yet

00:35:30.380 yeah yeah it's um been eight years since that happened um but you know just the uh week or the

00:35:39.620 very day that i sat down to write this essay my husband came home and said honey you won't believe

00:35:44.120 what happened i was at a conference and we were talking about bad breakups in the conservative

00:35:49.020 movement and one guy pulled out his phone and said oh my goodness if you want to talk about bad

00:35:54.120 conservative breakups you have to see this c-span thing the poor guy had no idea that he was talking

00:36:00.620 to my husband oh gosh after eight years uh it would have faded away but no it still still pops up that's

00:36:08.440 the thing the the internet is forever yeah so i want to talk to you a little bit about there's something

00:36:12.760 in in europe that they're they're trying to push through and that is the right to be forgotten

00:36:17.260 um which is very very human i mean we do forget things and and things fade but with the internet

00:36:24.940 it's permanently there always and you'll never can escape it so tell me what tell me what happened

00:36:32.120 um that day and tell me your journey here in the last you know eight years

00:36:37.720 uh sure well um as soon as the video went up on the internet those three minutes and 45 seconds were

00:36:47.480 instantly clipped and posted on youtube and they got half a million hits in the first 48 hours

00:36:55.540 oh my god all the cable news networks did a segment about it it even made the local network news here in

00:37:01.780 dc it was written up on god washington post you know guy goes mental on ex-girlfriend at c-span panel

00:37:09.880 um so all of my co-workers saw the video all my friends saw the video um it just became a huge story

00:37:17.580 how old were you when you sat down for that interview and you were because you were 22 when you dated this

00:37:23.740 guy right yeah and i think i was uh 24 when the video went big so you know i yeah i was 24 years

00:37:32.820 old and basically thought well that's my life over now right and you admit that you were pretty pure

00:37:39.160 pretty brutal to him oh yeah well and and you know that's where i eventually arrived you know i i uh

00:37:47.800 thought about you know todd's uh talking for four minutes about what a bad person i am well you know

00:37:54.520 honestly he could have gone on for four hours about what a bad person i was to him and not said anything

00:38:00.280 untrue you know so who am i to say that i didn't deserve being embarrassed you know so so after you had

00:38:09.100 you know half a million hits in 48 hours how did your life begin to change

00:38:13.700 um i think i didn't realize at first just how permanent a part of my life this thing was going

00:38:24.800 to be um i thought it would just be a week of bad news coverage and that would be embarrassing but

00:38:29.240 then i would move on um it started off with little things like i would be walking down the street

00:38:34.900 on one occasion with my parents and people would stop and point and say hey c-span girl

00:38:40.100 about a year after the um incident i decided i wanted to move on from my job at national review

00:38:48.220 and funniest thing no matter how many resumes i sent out i couldn't get a job interview um which

00:38:55.620 made sense i put myself in the shoes of a prospective employer and i figured yeah if i were trying to hire

00:39:01.280 for a position and somebody's first google result was some rant about how she's maybe a psycho you know

00:39:07.060 yeah i might look at other candidates too but you know that's easy enough for them to say but for me

00:39:12.960 it was a um a pretty serious blow to not be able to find a job and eventually as you mentioned i moved

00:39:19.900 to australia moved to the other side of the world uh and even there um because that's the thing about

00:39:25.800 google it's completely global uh it followed me to the to another hemisphere and so when you were

00:39:32.460 looking for a job there you couldn't find a job for like 18 months because people first thing they

00:39:37.480 would do is google your name that's right and then once i did find a job at a think tank it still

00:39:42.840 followed me there you know i i put out my first report on non-profit regulation right like the way

00:39:49.820 charities are regulated in australia a pretty you know benign topic but the minute the report was

00:39:55.160 released an australian mp uh tweeted a link to the video and said i don't trust this person's views

00:40:02.180 on charity regulation you know not even some schmo on the internet but an elected official

00:40:07.300 has decided to to use that as ammo against you know any any public statement i want to might want

00:40:13.280 to make in the future so i have an all-purpose rebuttal i have to ask the obvious question here from

00:40:19.440 the right and that is do you think it would have been the same if you uh were a liberal and not a

00:40:25.580 conservative um no i don't think so um you know i people always say don't read the comments and that

00:40:34.680 is definitely my advice to anybody else that this ever happens to don't ever read the comments but i

00:40:39.380 couldn't help myself uh and the thing that i noticed over and over again is that these people

00:40:45.120 would say well you know gossip is bad and we shouldn't make fun of people for bad things in

00:40:50.140 their personal lives it's none of our business but in this case this chick is obviously some kind of

00:40:55.660 christian right-wing nut job so therefore that makes her a hypocrite and that's why it's okay for

00:41:01.100 us to talk about it uh that's something that a lot of people do psychologically when they join in on

00:41:06.580 these internet pile-ons you know they come up with a reason for why no it's actually okay in this case

00:41:11.840 you know it's justified when really it's just they're they're joining in because it's fun

00:41:16.780 is there any difference do you think between i mean other than the final outcome um is there any

00:41:22.960 difference between this and the mobs that used to dunk the witches or or burn the witches that

00:41:28.520 a lot of people just joined that didn't you know just didn't have anything else to do

00:41:33.680 oh yeah and and the way that you know it's completely irrational you know that it has no basis

00:41:41.420 in in actual justice or truth or logic is that arguing back never ever helps you know if if

00:41:50.660 anybody who finds themselves in the middle of one of these storms your first instinct is always going

00:41:55.700 to be oh well i'll just explain my side of the story and then everyone will understand but uh because

00:42:01.800 nobody in one of these pylons is interested in the truth anything you say is just going to be

00:42:08.420 twisted out of context or made to make it sound worse or it's going to be like you know crying

00:42:14.160 when a bully attacks you in the schoolyard you know nobody's listening so rational argument

00:42:20.400 isn't going to help anything holy cow um how you survive this is beyond me and and that's i guess

00:42:27.600 where i want to go next how did you survive it what did you take from it how should you fight

00:42:32.520 these things and we're talking to helen andrews a conservative writer she wrote a piece in in first

00:42:39.660 things called shame storm helen you brought up something i think is really interesting about how people

00:42:44.580 won't uh react to rational thought in these moments and it strikes me that when these things start

00:42:50.920 when these sort of online shame uh trains begin we in ourselves wind up excusing a lot of

00:42:59.000 awful behavior to in an attempt to pile on we you use a great example which was kevin williamson we

00:43:06.220 love kevin he's been on the show before he went to the atlantic people don't remember the story and

00:43:10.280 they unearthed some uh comment that he had made about abortion and the comment the controversy really

00:43:15.840 wasn't about the comment afterwards people started saying i'm fearful to work with kevin williamson

00:43:21.440 um i you know 25 he might want to kill 25 of the of the women who work here and you point out

00:43:28.520 correctly no one actually believed kevin williamson was a threat to anyone around them they had

00:43:34.120 justified in this moral sort of crusade the idea that they could say anything about this person and

00:43:40.820 and and lie about their own feelings to because this was so justified did you feel like you were

00:43:47.520 kind of at the other end of that going through this process uh sure um you know i i would read in

00:43:54.380 comments or blog posts people saying things about me that were just not true you know that were just

00:44:00.340 factually easily checkably false um and i kind of wondered how is it that these people who have never

00:44:06.680 met me uh care so much about ruining my life what did i ever do to make them so angry with me and

00:44:13.300 eventually i realized that they're not angry at me they don't care all that much about me one way or

00:44:17.800 the other uh they've got their own reasons they're angry at women or they're angry at conservatives or

00:44:23.200 they're just angry in general and like lashing out um or they just enjoy the rush of feeling outrage

00:44:29.160 you know you really once you read enough of the comments or follow enough of these shame storms you

00:44:35.080 realize it's not about you it's not about the person at the middle of it um it's just about there's

00:44:41.360 just a pattern to the dynamic of the way these things always go it's like a a wave or an avalanche

00:44:47.160 so so how how do you deal with it because you i would imagine you've tried you tried all of the

00:44:54.860 you know argue let it go don't read it uh be nice i mean what works

00:45:02.740 you know it's it's funny it took me a long time to get to a place where i'm okay with it but once i

00:45:11.300 did i realized i was actually grateful um that this i i truly believe it was part of a bigger plan

00:45:18.620 that this should happen to me that you know i was a pretty rotten person when i was 24 i was selfish

00:45:24.080 and careless and very proud uh and i don't know if anything short of this kind of knock upside the

00:45:31.940 head uh could have done it for me um you know i i was raised in a very secular household you know the

00:45:39.180 only church we recognized was the church of npr um but uh uh it was only in college and after going

00:45:47.040 into conservative journalism that i met any christians at all and one of the things that

00:45:52.360 one of them said to me after this whole c-span thing happened was you know helen there is no

00:45:57.560 humility without humiliation and and gosh was that true you know um i was just a very proud person

00:46:05.660 my instinct was always to think that i don't deserve this bad thing that's happening to me

00:46:10.340 but i i that saying that just stuck in my head there is no humility without humiliation

00:46:16.740 led me to some self-reflection and realizing that you know yeah uh the only solution here is to try and

00:46:23.980 become a better person um so so that was my lesson so let me ask you because i i think that's a great

00:46:31.300 lesson to learn and one i have learned um through the years sure have uh shut up um but uh a it's

00:46:41.620 important that we uh recognize you know that you know recognize our place in the universe and time

00:46:50.120 and space um however it also seems that no matter uh how much you change it's not gonna they're just

00:46:58.680 going to say you're only doing that because of x y and z so you never escape that does that make

00:47:06.520 sense to you or have you experienced that uh absolutely absolutely um that there's no you

00:47:13.860 know uh there's no way to indicate that you've changed or reformed um which uh you know as the

00:47:21.980 only thing that you know there's nothing you can do to change how other people correct think you

00:47:27.040 know that they're they're not your problem you you only have control over you but one thing that

00:47:32.200 that i've certainly taken away is that when i see other people who have been through these kinds of

00:47:37.240 shame storms or i hear rumors about somebody oh he did some kind of bad thing in the past or she's

00:47:42.440 guilty of this if it's been a while i always start from the default of assuming unless they indicate

00:47:49.400 or prove to me otherwise that they have changed and they have become a better person give people

00:47:54.140 the benefit of the doubt it seems like we have we're living in a society that just doesn't ever

00:48:00.480 forgive

00:48:01.100 yeah well you know i've gotten a lot of feedback ever since this uh essay was published um you know

00:48:10.200 uh some people some people whose names i recognize and have seen on tv uh reached out and said

00:48:15.760 something like this happened to me thank you for you know including a ray of hope at the end of your

00:48:22.080 story but the the messages that got to me the most were from you know people in a small town who

00:48:29.420 nobody had ever heard of who aren't that famous but whose lives have been wrecked or overturned

00:48:35.880 uh by events like this you know they said i was the worst person on the internet for 48 hours

00:48:42.000 and then everybody else moved on but i'm still here living amidst the wreckage um there's a guy i could

00:48:49.440 spend so much time talking to you helen one question before we go we got about one minute

00:48:52.880 you wound up eventually reconnecting with your ex-boyfriend where this whole incident started

00:48:57.780 and you've you've talked to him since how do you what's your relationship like now

00:49:01.960 how does he see this yeah it's no it's quite positive you know it's we we because he suffered

00:49:09.360 just as much as i did you know he eventually lost his job um over over this incident um and and he's

00:49:17.540 kind of you know people made fun of him on the internet he finds it hard to get gigs now um and so

00:49:23.400 we both kind of learned a lesson he he i asked him if he would do it over again if he if he had the

00:49:28.940 choice and he said absolutely not not a chance yeah um so yeah no and and and i forgive him and he

00:49:35.200 forgives me and and that's really that the moral of this story helen thank you for having the guts

00:49:42.060 first of all for not giving up um and and then finding the positive message in it uh and and

00:49:50.840 changing your life i think of redemption that's not going to go viral um but it should because it's

00:49:57.580 important and i think it's going to happen to all of us in one way or another helen thank you

00:50:02.140 thank you so much you bet the blaze radio network

00:50:06.460 on demand

The Glenn Beck Program - December 19, 2018

Best of Program ｜ Guests： Eric Bolling & Helen Andrews ｜ 12⧸19⧸18

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