The Glenn Beck Program - Best of the Program ｜ Guest： Megyn Kelly, Alec Torres, & Joshua Charles ｜ 12⧸7⧸23

00:00:00.500 Great show today. Great show. We talked to you about who won, who lost. Also, Megan Kelly, who was on her way back to New York for her program later after our podcast, she hopped on the phone for a few minutes.

00:00:15.980 We talked to Mike Lee about the Constitution and what is happening with Section 702 of FISA. They want to renew it. We've never seen our country this out of control. Also, persecution. Talk to a couple of Catholics who have written a new book on persecution.

00:00:34.500 They're being persecuted in the church. And as we found out late last week and earlier this week, the FBI is still going after Catholics. What is happening?

00:00:47.340 And the first day of Hanukkah, all of this on today's program brought to you by Relief Factor. If you could make your pain go away, how much would your life improve?

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00:01:42.320 You're listening to The Best of the Glenn Beck Program.

00:01:56.420 Well, let's say hello to our executive producer, Mr. Stu Bergeer.

00:02:02.180 Thanks. Hello, Glenn. Great debate last night. I thought it was interesting.

00:02:05.960 I thought it was, too. I thought it was really good.

00:02:07.700 Me, too. Me, too. I think the real winner last night, out of all of them, was Megyn Kelly.

00:02:14.180 She was great. She was really, really good.

00:02:17.700 She's on a plane today. We're hoping to catch her in between.

00:02:21.360 But she was the winner. This was the best debate.

00:02:26.580 She held everybody's feet to the fire. She asked tough questions.

00:02:29.740 She was fair. She told people, shut up. Nobody can hear you when they were talking over each other. 0.99

00:02:38.020 And it ended it. I mean, I thought she was really, really good.

00:02:42.160 Yeah, really, really good. She, you know, her questions, and this goes back to her previous debate performances as well.

00:02:47.660 They're very well laid out. You might not like the question.

00:02:52.540 And I think that's kind of the point with her.

00:02:54.300 She's trying to ask a question that's going to put you in a difficult position to see what you can do with it.

00:02:59.520 And that's the whole point of these debates.

00:03:01.500 But she wasn't asking them for liberal reasons.

00:03:05.920 Right.

00:03:06.280 She was framing all of her questions the way a conservative would want it framed.

00:03:12.600 There are certain things that we want answered that the liberals don't even understand.

00:03:17.680 Yeah. I mean, if you think about how the left handles these debates, they ask the questions that they care about, which makes sense, right?

00:03:23.780 But they ask, hey, what about January 6th or whatever?

00:03:28.600 Instead, you got questions last night, I think, that were substance related.

00:03:32.540 They were actually issue related. They were policy related.

00:03:35.720 They were important questions that all the candidates needed to answer.

00:03:39.360 And I thought she did a great job.

00:03:41.040 And, you know, the whole debate overall, I thought, was really good.

00:03:43.960 I mean, maybe it's a low hurdle to clear to say it's the best one of the four.

00:03:48.860 Right.

00:03:49.340 But I thought, look, if you take it out of the context of the actual election, which is difficult here to do, I understand it.

00:03:55.760 You have a candidate who's 20 or 30 points ahead, depending on which date you're looking at.

00:04:00.280 And he's not there.

00:04:01.680 So, I mean, there's a big asterisk to all of this.

00:04:04.340 But you know what? I wouldn't do it either.

00:04:05.880 If I were Donald Trump, I was this far ahead.

00:04:08.260 I wouldn't do it either.

00:04:09.100 I think that's I don't strategically, I agree with you.

00:04:13.640 Yes.

00:04:13.940 Like if I'm if I'm that's all there is when you are trying to win, you use strategy.

00:04:20.220 And this is the best strategy.

00:04:21.680 Honestly, if I were Donald Trump, I would consider running the campaign that Joe Biden did with an exception of the, you know, one chair and then a big circle around around it.

00:04:31.780 And then like 12 feet later, another circle with a chair in the middle.

00:04:35.340 Remember that?

00:04:35.920 Yeah, it was horrible.

00:04:36.660 But I would just stay quiet because everybody is hanging themselves and Joe Biden's economy and his, you know, the way he speaks and just hope that he would be shamed into a debate because we do need a debate between the two of them.

00:04:55.120 Do you think that's really an option for Donald Trump?

00:04:57.400 Because I think he's doing that now at some level with the assistance of the media.

00:05:02.720 The media seems to not really want to be focusing on Donald Trump right now for whatever reason.

00:05:08.700 You know, you talked about this, I think, a couple of weeks ago.

00:05:11.540 Yeah.

00:05:12.060 A former president of the United States was testifying on stand in a trial.

00:05:16.780 And I did we see any coverage of it at all?

00:05:19.500 I didn't.

00:05:19.780 Other than a quick maybe mention or headline.

00:05:22.180 Normally, they'd be wall to wall saying how bad this guy is or whatever they want to say.

00:05:27.020 Right now, it seems like they have made the decision, along with a bunch of Democrats, that the person they want to face in this election is Donald Trump.

00:05:36.580 That may very well be a terrible decision for them.

00:05:40.060 As we saw in 2016, they made the same call and it didn't work at all.

00:05:43.660 But if they're making that choice, it seems like once we get past the primary, Donald Trump is locked in as the candidate.

00:05:51.940 They're no longer going to leave every word he says on the sidelines.

00:05:55.580 All right. 0.98

00:05:56.180 Unless you believe that I they're dumb enough and out of touch enough to do that. 0.98

00:06:02.220 OK, that's a prequalifier. 0.98

00:06:03.760 But let me let me give you this comedian Bill Burr. 1.00

00:06:06.120 OK, he came out, launched into a rant and he said, you effing stupid liberals, what are you doing? 1.00

00:06:15.000 You're making Donald Trump a martyr and he's going to come back and win again. 1.00

00:06:20.520 And I think that's true.

00:06:22.580 Remember, his his poll numbers went up when they started putting him, you know, up as a martyr and going after him.

00:06:31.620 And the left just doesn't understand.

00:06:34.020 And, you know, this is Chris Christie.

00:06:36.240 He got booed.

00:06:36.960 Do we happen to have that clip?

00:06:38.760 Last thing he said was that Donald Trump wasn't going to be.

00:06:43.080 Yeah, he wasn't going to be voting.

00:06:45.220 Right.

00:06:45.700 It was part of his his final statement there.

00:06:47.660 And he was saying, you know, picture yourself going to the polls in November.

00:06:52.360 One thing you won't be seeing is Donald Trump there because he won't be able to vote because he'll be a felon by then.

00:06:57.640 And the whole place booed.

00:07:00.100 Yeah.

00:07:00.640 And it's it's because here's what he's missing.

00:07:04.020 If if Donald Trump were being tried fairly, he was charged fairly.

00:07:12.540 Yeah.

00:07:13.260 Then it would be a different story.

00:07:14.960 But nobody most people don't feel that this is anything but a political trial.

00:07:22.380 And so there every time you go after him, you make him stronger because people are like, this isn't going to stand.

00:07:28.360 This is the problem with this country.

00:07:30.700 And I think we can all agree with certainty that that is the effect on Republican primary voters.

00:07:37.820 Yes.

00:07:38.020 Like the question is whether that is the effect on general election voters.

00:07:41.800 And that's a much more complicated question.

00:07:43.940 Right now.

00:07:44.460 Especially independents.

00:07:45.080 Right now.

00:07:45.520 This is a good example.

00:07:46.480 This right now.

00:07:47.200 Donald Trump's polls look pretty good in the general of, you know, they they look as good or better than any of the other candidates.

00:07:53.540 Right.

00:07:53.760 You know, Nikki Haley's polls have also looked pretty strong, but there's even some polls where Trump's ahead of Haley running in a general election.

00:08:01.420 The issue, of course, with this is we also are showing in these polls, you know, 10 and 12 percent for RFK Jr.

00:08:10.000 And you're seeing you're seeing Cornel West at 2 percent.

00:08:14.260 When we get further on in this process, what happens?

00:08:19.220 You know, one of the big if you look at the latest polls on Joe Biden, he is down.

00:08:25.120 These are terrible polls for him.

00:08:26.600 And typically, I think we would look at that and celebrate.

00:08:30.120 Right.

00:08:30.300 OK, people are waking up.

00:08:31.420 Right.

00:08:31.720 This is a good thing.

00:08:33.720 Joe Biden's polls are down.

00:08:35.420 He's a weaker candidate.

00:08:36.520 Good.

00:08:36.860 Right.

00:08:37.080 That's good.

00:08:38.200 The problem with that is when you look deeper at those polls, one of the reasons you're seeing

00:08:43.120 some of this erosion is because younger voters that are hardcore Democrats are saying, I don't like the way Joe Biden is so pro-Israel.

00:08:56.400 Now, number one, it's possible.

00:09:00.240 That's just the reality.

00:09:01.540 And they never want to vote.

00:09:02.840 They just go somewhere else.

00:09:03.980 It's possible.

00:09:04.600 But when we get after a couple billion dollars are spent and we are now in October of 2024, do you think those younger voters whose complaint about Joe Biden is that he's too pro-Israel right now are going to come back home?

00:09:21.580 They might just stay home.

00:09:23.060 And that might be the best thing possible, honestly.

00:09:25.360 Because they're not going to go to Donald Trump.

00:09:26.740 He's pro-Israel.

00:09:27.620 I mean, clearly.

00:09:28.020 Much more than Joe Biden.

00:09:31.100 So that weakness is, we don't know how real it is.

00:09:37.060 We know that Joe Biden is a weak candidate.

00:09:39.540 But the reason why other candidates on the Republican side are beating Joe Biden handily is largely because of this type of erosion.

00:09:47.460 Erosion from Democrats, younger Democrats that are not typical Republican voters. 0.59

00:09:53.380 So if they come home like they usually do, I mean, we know what happens with these Republican or these third party candidates.

00:09:59.840 Gary Johnson was showing up at 10 and 12 percent of the polls.

00:10:02.580 People don't forget that.

00:10:03.360 It didn't happen.

00:10:03.860 It never holds.

00:10:05.220 So if that does happen and people say, OK, forget that.

00:10:09.020 I'm going back home.

00:10:09.940 I'm going to Joe Biden.

00:10:10.740 This election is too close.

00:10:11.620 I don't want to throw away my vote.

00:10:12.840 We know these arguments.

00:10:14.040 If that happens, it's going to get much more difficult.

00:10:16.760 Well, I really believe the only way that happens is if the press brings the the half of the country back to this place that Donald Trump is Hitler.

00:10:32.520 And I don't know if that works universally anymore.

00:10:36.540 And and here's why Joe Biden conned a lot of people.

00:10:42.280 The Democrats conned a lot of people that he was going to bring back normalcy.

00:10:47.220 Yeah.

00:10:47.300 Well, we know this isn't normal.

00:10:49.280 OK, the country is hurting both Republicans and Democrats.

00:10:52.940 The country is falling apart and everybody knows it.

00:10:56.180 So he doesn't have the well, I'm not going to be him.

00:11:00.580 Right.

00:11:01.200 But you're you.

00:11:02.360 Right.

00:11:02.500 That was his strength in 2020.

00:11:03.940 His strength was to say, I'm not him and look at me.

00:11:07.000 I'm going to return you to the normal time.

00:11:08.660 Right.

00:11:08.760 I'm not going to be crazy.

00:11:10.360 And it didn't happen.

00:11:11.900 So there's a lot of people that will just stay home.

00:11:15.420 Unfortunately, if Donald Trump is the nominee, there might be a lot of Republicans that would stay home as well.

00:11:24.920 Although I just don't think that that is as true as everybody wants you to believe.

00:11:30.160 Yeah, I don't think there's really a problem with with Donald Trump and Republicans.

00:11:34.080 In fact, you have the Lynn Cheney's, you know, the Liz Cheney's.

00:11:37.940 Yeah, but that's nobody.

00:11:39.080 Right.

00:11:39.260 Right.

00:11:39.540 I think that might actually hurt Biden.

00:11:41.920 It could.

00:11:42.260 Yeah, it could.

00:11:43.220 It really could.

00:11:44.120 And, you know, some of these polls have shown the RFK thing going both ways.

00:11:47.320 But it seems to be hurting Joe Biden more.

00:11:50.640 I think if you look at where this might go over a long period of time, you just have to factor it in.

00:11:58.660 I think you got to price it in your head.

00:12:01.060 The media is not going to act like they are now during the general election.

00:12:07.240 That might be fine.

00:12:08.380 I mean, Donald Trump has survived that already.

00:12:10.540 He already had a really negative media and won in 2016.

00:12:13.920 He's already been able to do it.

00:12:15.220 So maybe he'll be able to do it again.

00:12:16.620 But you can't look at the current situation and think this is how it's going to go.

00:12:21.200 I mean, it may very well be also.

00:12:23.740 He goes through these trials and people are so upset about it and think he's being targeted that they all side with him and he wins easily.

00:12:28.580 Right.

00:12:28.700 Like that's a possibility, too.

00:12:30.320 But the media is going to do everything they can once he gets this nomination to take him out.

00:12:34.800 And at some level, that's true with these other candidates as well.

00:12:38.520 But with these other candidates, you have the possibility of of of essentially what the Biden approach was.

00:12:45.180 Right.

00:12:46.420 Look, we you guys have just lived through four years of Joe Biden.

00:12:49.480 I won't be him.

00:12:51.160 It's going to be difficult for Donald Trump to make that same argument because he's got that same type of thing built into him.

00:12:58.220 Everyone's made up their mind on both of these people.

00:13:00.580 You know, Haley DeSantis have a little bit of more of an opening. 1.00

00:13:04.800 It may come down to the vice president, because I think everybody is like, man, if he wins, I don't want Kamala Harris to be the president.

00:13:13.360 That would be a nightmare.

00:13:15.620 And so it may come down to the vice president.

00:13:19.440 If if you were doing a draft of who you thought Donald Trump would pick as his VP, who's your first pick?

00:13:28.560 First pick.

00:13:30.000 Again, not who you think it should be.

00:13:34.640 No, I know who he will.

00:13:35.900 I know.

00:13:37.040 This is a tough one.

00:13:38.280 I know.

00:13:38.700 I go back and forth between between Ramaswamy and Nikki.

00:13:47.520 Nikki would be smart because she'll pacify the the old guard Republican. 1.00

00:13:57.380 And she's a fighter. 1.00

00:14:00.260 But he's not going to like that.

00:14:03.220 Yeah, I can't.

00:14:05.540 I mean, he obviously put her in his administration.

00:14:07.620 I know.

00:14:08.260 There's been a deep falling out since then.

00:14:10.860 Yeah.

00:14:11.220 Ramaswamy is still fighting for Donald Trump.

00:14:15.740 Oh, yeah.

00:14:16.600 So there's no.

00:14:17.760 Yeah, there's no there's no light between them at all, really, at this point.

00:14:21.660 But, you know, and it's interesting because Haley strikes me as a Pence like pick. 1.00

00:14:27.980 Right.

00:14:28.460 It's a little bit different, obviously.

00:14:30.420 But like it's someone who is, I think, respectable, quote unquote, would please a lot of those voters who think, you know, Donald Trump is, you know, his tweets are too bad and all that other stuff.

00:14:42.500 And that's what he needed in 2016.

00:14:44.660 And could take the job.

00:14:46.880 I don't know that he did.

00:14:47.640 Does he need that in 2024, though?

00:14:50.120 I think it could take the job.

00:14:52.400 He needs someone who could take the job.

00:14:53.900 Clearly, that's obviously the number one role.

00:14:55.820 But with Pence, he picked someone, number one, to please evangelicals who were very on the fence about Donald Trump early on.

00:15:04.580 And, you know, you get somewhat of that with with Nikki Haley.

00:15:08.960 I think you still get.

00:15:10.220 But I don't think that's what he needs anymore.

00:15:11.520 His strength of the evangelicals is through the roof.

00:15:14.440 But he does get that.

00:15:15.480 You get a steady hand feel from Nikki Haley.

00:15:18.940 Ramaswamy, you don't really get that.

00:15:20.960 I like Vivek.

00:15:21.740 No, but you get a game changer.

00:15:22.840 You get a game changer and you get a bulldog who will go on television 900 times a day and say and just argue with passion for every point that Donald Trump makes.

00:15:32.480 And I think Donald Trump would like that.

00:15:33.840 He likes those people.

00:15:34.780 I agree.

00:15:36.000 Except Ramaswamy is a star to some degree.

00:15:40.580 Now, that is fated.

00:15:42.320 People don't like him as much, which Donald Trump would like.

00:15:47.640 He doesn't want somebody that will compete with him.

00:15:51.300 You know what I mean?

00:15:52.700 Yeah, I think that's true.

00:15:53.380 He wants, you know, somebody who's solid for certain reasons, whatever.

00:15:56.620 But you do you work for me and Ramaswamy, I think, could do that.

00:16:01.500 And you're right. 0.97

00:16:02.260 He is a bulldog. 0.84

00:16:03.560 I would I would lean towards Ramaswamy as Donald Trump's pick. 0.53

00:16:09.380 I have for a long time.

00:16:10.880 I thought that Donald Trump was going to pick him.

00:16:12.940 Um, but I I think if Nikki Haley is a strong, you know, number two in the primaries, if she starts to to become just a juggernaut next to him, he'd probably be foolish not to take her.

00:16:30.940 We should also point out that precisely zero votes have been cast in the primary.

00:16:35.560 So he has not won the primary.

00:16:37.400 No, I know.

00:16:37.840 But it is.

00:16:38.380 And it could all change.

00:16:39.180 Yeah, you're looking ahead a little bit here.

00:16:40.600 But I thought it was an interesting night last week.

00:16:46.320 This is the best of the Glenn Beck program.

00:16:49.400 Welcome to the Glenn Beck program.

00:16:52.320 Megan Kelly is trying to get home to New York for her broadcast today.

00:16:57.800 So she's on a plane.

00:16:59.000 If her plane happens to arrive, she may pop on in the show today.

00:17:02.280 Um, you know, the, the, the left is trying to make, in fact, I saw an MSNBC today, the, uh, the, the formula for the authoritarian right.

00:17:15.420 And they're trying to make, uh, everybody that is on the right, uh, into some sort of fascist.

00:17:23.820 But let me give you a poll here.

00:17:26.660 Majority of voters now prefer the Reagan model of Reaganomics to Biden's.

00:17:33.900 This is the latest Rasmussen report.

00:17:36.500 By a 50 to 38 margin, likely voters say they prefer a smaller government with fewer services and lower taxes.

00:17:44.740 Now, the reason why this is important is if you want a small government, you can't be a fascist because a small government won't have the controls that a large government has.

00:18:00.540 When asked, does the government spend taxpayers' money wisely and carefully, 72% say no, 16% say yes.

00:18:09.760 And by a 14 point margin, most voters still prefer limited government.

00:18:16.020 Republican voters, 74% overwhelmingly prefer a small government with fewer services and lower taxes, as do 30% of the Democrats.

00:18:25.480 Listen to that, 74% of the Republicans, 74% smaller government, small government for the Democrats, 30%.

00:18:34.540 And those who are independent, 55%.

00:18:38.460 Majority of Democrats, 58% prefer a more active government with more services and higher taxes, as do 21% of the Republicans and 32% of unaffiliated voters.

00:18:50.880 Democrats, 31% are much more likely than Republicans, 10% and unaffiliated voters, 6% to say government spends taxpayer money wisely and carefully.

00:19:03.820 I'm shocked that those numbers are that high.

00:19:08.560 We go to Megan Kelly, who is calling us, I think, probably from the airport.

00:19:13.580 Hi, Megan.

00:19:14.900 Hi, Glenn.

00:19:15.780 How are you?

00:19:17.320 I'm great.

00:19:17.940 I'm tired, but good.

00:19:19.160 I bet you are.

00:19:19.760 Last night, I said, when I first got on today, that the big winner last night, I thought was you.

00:19:26.780 You were spot on.

00:19:29.680 You asked really tough questions, but you phrased them in a way that conservatives, you know, want to ask them.

00:19:37.540 I thought you were fair, tough.

00:19:39.460 And when you said, nobody can hear any of you, everybody shut up.

00:19:44.120 You ran a tight ship.

00:19:45.480 You did a fantastic job last night.

00:19:47.820 Thank you so much, Glenn.

00:19:50.240 You know, for me, watching some of the earlier debates was very frustrating because I knew that there was a way of controlling them.

00:19:58.700 You know, it was clear to me there was a way of controlling them.

00:20:01.020 And if you I have a rapport with all of these guys, same as you do.

00:20:05.160 You know what I mean?

00:20:05.580 They know you.

00:20:06.680 If you were out there, they would respect you.

00:20:08.780 They know you don't hate them.

00:20:10.500 You're not trying to hurt them.

00:20:12.080 You're trying to foster a great debate, good TV.

00:20:14.580 And so when we had that opening exchange, for me, it was fun because it was kind of like what I imagined it's like to be in the NBA where you're kind of passing the ball behind your back and somebody catches it with ease and they go.

00:20:28.980 So, like, we kind of got into a rhythm where I'm like, you go and you go and we'd make eye contact like I'm coming to you.

00:20:35.020 And that's what I hated about the NBC debate is they just they didn't let the candidates debate each other.

00:20:40.980 I don't want to hear a Kristen Welker interview of Nikki Haley.

00:20:45.020 Yes.

00:20:45.320 I want the other candidates to talk to Nikki Haley.

00:20:47.980 So anyway, thank you for saying that it was a relief for me to get out there and let them let them let it rip.

00:20:54.260 So who did you think was the big winner and the big loser?

00:20:59.340 Well, I mean, with all respect to her, I thought Nikki Haley lost last night because she shrunk away like she was not really a presence.

00:21:07.880 And she's been increasing her poll numbers by getting out there and being pugilistic. 1.00

00:21:13.220 And that version of her did not appear on the stage last night.

00:21:16.120 But I thought Ramaswamy, if you didn't like him, he became even more unlikable to you.

00:21:21.120 If you love him, he became even more lovable to you.

00:21:24.020 I thought Ron DeSantis had his best debate yet.

00:21:27.780 And so I think you could probably say he's the winner because he's in the best poll position of the four.

00:21:32.360 And he not only didn't hurt himself, although there was one bad exchange, he didn't hurt himself.

00:21:38.420 He actually did help himself.

00:21:39.520 He was tougher than we've seen.

00:21:41.260 And I think that's the DeSantis we we fell in love with back when, you know, he was battling nasty reporters during covid.

00:21:48.460 Chris Christie looks same same rule for him as the vague.

00:21:51.840 If you're one of the 25 percent of Republicans who likes Chris Christie, you probably said, yeah, good. 0.89

00:21:56.600 Now, screw Trump.

00:21:57.680 He did his thing. 0.96

00:21:58.740 You know, we're on Team Christie.

00:21:59.740 And if you are one of the 75 percent who doesn't like him, you probably enjoyed watching some of the other candidates get into it with him and some of the questions that the moderators had.

00:22:08.580 I have to tell you, we were watching it as a team last night and we all cheered when you when you went to Chris Christie on transgenderism.

00:22:17.900 We were like, oh, this is going to be good.

00:22:19.780 This is going to be good.

00:22:20.780 Oh, you know, I can I tell you, like, and he tried to tell me that I didn't have my facts right on my second question.

00:22:28.640 And of course, I did.

00:22:30.680 And he was misleading.

00:22:32.180 But those are the two questions I showed up to ask Glenn.

00:22:35.660 I'm like, you know how much work goes into these things.

00:22:38.680 Every single question we ask takes hours and in some cases days.

00:22:43.540 You know, you have to research so much and you craft it and you recraft it and so on and so forth.

00:22:47.580 And as you know, this is an issue that's near and dear, not only to my heart, but to most conservatives hearts.

00:22:53.700 And he's been so weak on it.

00:22:55.920 He is too radical on this issue to be the Republican nominee.

00:23:01.080 In my view, this is way out of step with where the Republican Party is.

00:23:05.520 And it's it's it was the one reason I wanted him to make the debate.

00:23:09.940 I prayed.

00:23:10.600 I prayed to the God, God, all the angels above.

00:23:15.320 Please, please let him make it.

00:23:17.580 Last night, I thought there was one weird moment with Chris Christie.

00:23:23.480 And I think it really did not look good for for Nikki Haley when Chris Christie came out and tried to defend her.

00:23:35.580 I that was nice and everything.

00:23:37.300 But I think she should have turned and said, I don't need a man's help here.

00:23:42.580 I'm fine.

00:23:43.240 I don't need anybody's help.

00:23:44.340 I can defend myself the way she kind of looked down as he was saying that I thought it made it look made her look weak.

00:23:51.900 And she's not a weak woman.

00:23:53.120 It was her lowest moment.

00:23:56.800 And I got to give credit to Chris Steyerwalt because he had said to me, here's my prediction.

00:24:03.960 Chris Christie's going to try to white knight Nikki Haley.

00:24:07.000 And man, he was right.

00:24:08.540 And she did look weak.

00:24:10.020 I felt like, you know, she's been so strong at these debates in terms of defending herself and attacking others.

00:24:15.220 And of all moments, she should have put her hand out and she should have said, Chris, I appreciate the help, but I got this and then defended herself.

00:24:23.940 And I could only conclude, was it because she was shaky on the Ukraine, you know, counties like the provinces?

00:24:31.480 I could.

00:24:32.080 She did eventually come up with a few.

00:24:34.340 I couldn't read it.

00:24:35.760 Like, maybe she doesn't know the answer and she's stalling or she just wants this moment to pass because it wasn't a good moment for her.

00:24:42.320 I read that moment with the three provinces is, wait a minute, I know them, but are they provinces or regions or those cities?

00:24:49.560 You know, just that moment of hesitation where you don't want to get it wrong.

00:24:53.220 And then that moment just passed her and then and then she came in, unfortunately for her, when everyone was talking and nobody really heard her give the answer.

00:25:03.460 And I still don't because I didn't hear all of them.

00:25:05.880 I don't know if she was right or wrong.

00:25:07.860 I know.

00:25:08.600 The only one I heard is cry me out.

00:25:10.180 I'm like, oh, we all know that one.

00:25:11.520 Yeah, right, right.

00:25:14.540 So it is awkward. 0.91

00:25:16.200 It could be if if the body language were different, it could be the power move to not take your opponent's little test, you know, like I can see that being like, screw you.

00:25:28.740 I don't I don't take your little exams.

00:25:30.480 You're not at Harvard anymore.

00:25:32.440 But her body language was not projecting.

00:25:35.440 I am confident and I am dismissing this twerp.

00:25:38.660 It projected.

00:25:39.960 I have no idea.

00:25:41.320 Help me.

00:25:42.280 So that was not her finest moment.

00:25:44.820 And I do think I bet you there's going to be a little movement in the polls after this, because DeSantis, you know, it was like it was the guy we kind of thought he could be.

00:25:54.440 And it wasn't in any way set up like this.

00:25:57.680 But DeSantis had issues that are important to him brought up last night.

00:26:03.680 And it's not like we said, oh, let's let's bring these up for our distance.

00:26:06.120 We brought these issues up because conservatives care about these issues.

00:26:08.520 Yes.

00:26:09.160 Trans vaccine injury, COVID. 0.62

00:26:12.400 And he was very strong on those.

00:26:14.620 He hasn't really had a chance to speak to a lot of these issues in the last debates because you got the Univision anchor out there talking about the dreamers.

00:26:22.300 Right.

00:26:23.140 Right.

00:26:23.960 Megan, I agree.

00:26:24.960 I thought DeSantis was really good last night.

00:26:26.780 What did you make of the one exchange where he wouldn't say whether he thought Trump was fit to be president or not?

00:26:32.840 That was the one moment where it was it was very strange to me.

00:26:36.620 Did you think he wanted to say no, he's not fit?

00:26:40.940 Did you think he wanted to say yes?

00:26:42.360 He was trying to walk the line.

00:26:43.680 What was he doing there?

00:26:45.020 Yeah.

00:26:45.420 I mean, that was when I said he did great, except for one moment.

00:26:48.540 That was the moment.

00:26:49.540 He did not handle that well.

00:26:51.100 And I got to give credit where it's due.

00:26:52.840 Chris Christie is great at that kind of thing.

00:26:56.260 Yes.

00:26:56.560 He didn't answer it like forensically diagnosing somebody's bad answer.

00:27:00.760 There's no one better than Chris Christie at it.

00:27:03.140 And he honed in on him and it was uncomfortable.

00:27:06.440 DeSantis doesn't want to make news.

00:27:08.500 He doesn't want to alienate the Trump base with a big headline from him saying Trump is unfit.

00:27:14.120 So he was, you know.

00:27:15.380 But why not say right now he's fit?

00:27:20.000 He doesn't want to say that either.

00:27:21.520 He doesn't believe it.

00:27:22.780 And I think he understands that there's a certain psychology within the Republican Party that is recognizing the two people likely to be the nominees are too old.

00:27:31.160 And they are really not as fit as we'd like them to be.

00:27:34.380 Either one of them.

00:27:35.140 Let's face it.

00:27:36.640 And so do you think that I think I'm a man.

00:27:39.580 Hang on just a second.

00:27:40.440 Because I think I would love for the Nancy Pelosi generation to sit down and retire.

00:27:48.160 OK, let the younger generation now take this.

00:27:51.580 However, do you think that Donald Trump has faded from where he was in 2020?

00:28:03.940 Yeah, I do.

00:28:05.740 I mean, I take him over Joe Biden any day of the week.

00:28:08.360 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:28:09.160 I don't think he's going to fill out this term, never mind a second.

00:28:12.600 But there's no question Trump has lost a step or multiple steps.

00:28:16.800 He is confusing Joe Biden for Obama.

00:28:19.560 I know he's now saying he intentionally did that.

00:28:21.960 Go back and look at the clips.

00:28:23.480 It wasn't intentional.

00:28:24.380 It was very.

00:28:25.140 Look, any of us could have a slip of the tongue, but it's happening to him repeatedly.

00:28:28.860 The reference about how somebody is going to get us into World War Two, confusing countries, confusing cities where he is.

00:28:36.860 It's happening more and more with all due respect to Trump.

00:28:39.760 This is what happens when you're 77 years old.

00:28:42.200 Yeah.

00:28:42.500 Trump seems inhuman, but he's not inhuman.

00:28:45.520 He's a human.

00:28:46.240 He's a man.

00:28:47.020 DeSantis' line about father time spares no one was a good one.

00:28:51.840 So, look, if it's between Trump and Biden, I don't think there's any question who's more fit and who capable.

00:28:56.900 But are we really going to pretend that Donald Trump is just as vibrant and mentally sharp as he was in 16?

00:29:04.780 Okay.

00:29:05.540 I only have about 70 or 80 seconds here for this, but do you think Trump is going to jail?

00:29:11.980 Well, I'm starting to worry.

00:29:15.640 Um, I didn't, he's definitely going to get convicted in multiple, uh, jurisdictions, but Andy McCarthy, who's very smart on these things, was pointing out that judge Chutkin in DC in the federal case on, um, J6.

00:29:30.420 Yeah.

00:29:31.360 You know, he, she hates him that everybody knows that in DC, the jury's going to hate him that he thinks there's a, there's some pretty good odds.

00:29:39.640 She will not release him from jail pending appeal after his likely.

00:29:45.440 So what does that do to the system?

00:29:48.960 Glenn, that's why we have to have an undercard.

00:29:53.580 Yeah, no, I agree with that.

00:29:55.120 I agree with that.

00:29:56.160 I, but they, the, they got to run all the way to the end. 0.86

00:29:59.300 Somebody has got to run all the way to the end.

00:30:01.220 We have to have an undercard, but I mean, that is going to, that's just chaos in the streets.

00:30:07.520 Oh yeah.

00:30:07.980 There were America will burn if they put Trump in jail before this election.

00:30:13.440 God help us.

00:30:14.340 I don't want it.

00:30:15.420 I, I just see the reality the same as you do, and we are going to need the national guard city to city.

00:30:21.940 You know, MAGA is going to rise up and there will be a lot of sympathizers who understand it and don't try to stop it.

00:30:29.200 It's this woman cannot be allowed to do that. 1.00

00:30:33.220 All right.

00:30:33.840 Thank you very much, Megan.

00:30:35.100 Best of, uh, best of luck to you today.

00:30:37.020 And again, great job last night.

00:30:39.180 Thank you for bringing a reasonable debate to America.

00:30:43.000 Appreciate it.

00:30:43.660 Thank you so much, Glenn.

00:30:44.540 Great to see you too, Stu.

00:30:46.040 All the best.

00:30:46.680 Don't give him any love.

00:30:48.860 I love Stu.

00:30:49.600 Yes!

00:30:50.000 Dude is America.

00:30:53.080 Get off my phone, Megan.

00:30:56.060 All right, Megan Kelly.

00:30:57.760 You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck program.

00:31:01.440 Well, let me say hello to a couple of people.

00:31:03.560 Alex Torres, he was a former speechwriter for President Trump.

00:31:06.900 And my good friend and former co-author, Joshua Charles.

00:31:11.720 He is also a former White House speechwriter.

00:31:14.760 And he is the co-author of Original Argument, The Federalist Case for the Constitution, adapted for the 20th century, which is something we put out.

00:31:23.960 I don't even know.

00:31:24.580 Joshua, how long ago was that?

00:31:26.020 That was 2008?

00:31:27.180 Nine?

00:31:27.980 2011.

00:31:28.800 That was over 12 years ago, Glenn.

00:31:30.380 Wow.

00:31:30.600 Yeah.

00:31:31.080 Crazy.

00:31:31.280 Thank you again for the opportunity.

00:31:32.800 It did a lot of things.

00:31:33.960 Thank you.

00:31:34.480 You're extraordinarily talented.

00:31:37.240 So, guys, tell me, and I guess, Alec, if you want to start, tell me about Persecuted from Within.

00:31:44.780 Yeah, Persecuted from Within is a book that's really rooted in something that Josh and I were noticing, that if you're a good, faithful, traditional Catholic, even just a good, faithful, traditional Christian, all around you, you're under attack.

00:31:57.080 People don't like you.

00:31:58.160 The state doesn't like you.

00:31:59.180 And frankly, we saw in our own church, a lot of people in our church don't like us, and they're trying to crush us.

00:32:04.840 So, we wanted to know how to respond to that.

00:32:07.100 We wanted to figure out how do you act as a good Christian, a good person of faith, in response to institutions that you love persecuting you.

00:32:16.480 And we thought of a better way to do that than to look at great historical figures, really monumental Christians from the past who had to live under pretty terrible circumstances, frankly, circumstances that are oftentimes worse than our own, and learn the lesson straight from them.

00:32:30.700 You cover one of my favorite guys, Fulton Sheen, the archbishop from New York who I didn't know about growing up.

00:32:40.600 I found out about him probably in 2008, and I just think he's one of the greatest guys ever.

00:32:45.920 I don't think of him as persecuted, but he's a part of the book.

00:32:50.080 How do you look at him, and what did you learn from him?

00:32:53.840 Well, he was persecuted in a way that was a little hidden.

00:32:59.820 What happened with him was that his cardinal at the time, it was just this interpersonal dispute.

00:33:04.900 Bishop Sheen was in charge of distributing charity to the poor, and Spelman gave him a bunch of dry milk from the government that he got for free to distribute to the poor.

00:33:13.240 Spelman asked Sheen to pay for it, and Sheen said no, so you think it's a small matter, but it actually made the cardinal livid against Sheen, and he vowed revenge, moved him out of his position, cut him off from his TV program, and sent him off to work in Rochester.

00:33:31.720 He was totally ill-suited for his role, but he had to do it because it was his boss, essentially.

00:33:36.240 He was under the cardinal, and he had to submit, so he looked like this great figure, really had a golden touch, media personality, invited to these big events in New York, and then boom, pretty much a failure when he was sent over to Rochester, all because he refused to take money from the poor and give it to his boss.

00:33:53.080 You know, Joshua, you're having this persecution.

00:33:59.900 A lot of people are questioning the way their churches are behaving, because we're in a time of great change, and I think most of our churches have gotten fat and sassy and, you know, are too timid to take on the real gospel truth and how it applies in our lives.

00:34:17.600 And so a lot of people in a lot of faiths are having this problem.

00:34:22.420 In the Catholic Church, you just had something unheard of happen here in Texas, where the Pope got involved and kicked somebody out.

00:34:35.560 Yeah, Bishop Strickland, who is actually a friend of mine.

00:34:39.260 Right before COVID, I was able to spend some time with Bishop Strickland in what we Catholics call Eucharistic adoration, where we pray before what we believe is the body, blood, soul, and divinity of our Lord in the Eucharist.

00:34:53.200 And we did that for what's called a holy hour, and I'll just say the bishop's the real deal.

00:34:57.720 We went to dinner.

00:34:58.640 He wears his garments everywhere he goes.

00:35:01.420 He's a humble shepherd of the Lord, and I think in his reaction to the situation, we see how many of the saints that Alec and I write about in this book reacted, and we cover about, you know, 2,000 years' worth of saints.

00:35:16.460 And Bishop Strickland has asked Catholics, he's asked them to pray for Pope Francis, he's asked them to not engage in reviling, but he's also spoken the truth about some of the issues that are going on in the Church.

00:35:30.180 And frankly, that's the sort of behavior that many of the saints engaged in in this book.

00:35:36.120 One that comes to mind is St. Athanasius, who was a great bishop of Alexandria.

00:35:40.980 He was reviled and booted from his diocese multiple times.

00:35:45.220 He was exiled five times from Alexandria.

00:35:48.120 There was one time some soldiers were coming to pick him up that had been sent by the emperor, who was coordinating with some Arian bishops, and he just barely made it out.

00:35:56.480 He basically covered his face and snuck through a crowd and escaped.

00:36:00.360 And so there's some pretty harrowing stories.

00:36:02.240 And Athanasius had to—the phrase was Athanasius Contramundum, Athanasius against the world.

00:36:08.900 And he found support in Rome and in other parts of the world, particularly in the West.

00:36:14.900 But he stood firmly for the truth, unwaveringly.

00:36:18.460 But to do so, he had to experience persecution from within the family, as we say.

00:36:23.900 And that's one of the great lessons of these saints, is that to follow Jesus, Jesus says we must take up our cross.

00:36:29.300 And the cross includes not only being attacked from external enemies, you know, pagans and heathens and whatnot,

00:36:35.000 but from members of the family, so to speak, within the church as well, as Jesus himself was, from Judas and the denial of Peter and many of the problems that the apostles addressed in the early church.

00:36:47.060 There's all sorts of issues.

00:36:48.820 Those issues have never changed.

00:36:50.160 But many of these great saints face, as Alec mentioned, challenges that many of us couldn't even imagine.

00:36:56.620 I think we're in a very trying time period, don't get me wrong.

00:37:00.040 But many of them, you know, Joan of Arc, for example, she's covered in this book.

00:37:04.500 She was a laywoman, and she was killed.

00:37:08.000 She was unjustly brought to a trial.

00:37:12.220 Her canonical rights to appeal to the Pope, for example, were denied.

00:37:16.380 And as a result, she was executed.

00:37:18.240 But she went to her execution faithful, praying to God, and she remained Catholic.

00:37:25.060 And so, you know, that's the great story of these saints, is that they do things that are quite literally otherworldly.

00:37:32.860 And I think that's what was so inspiring.

00:37:34.980 It's like either this Christianity thing is a complete fraud, or it's otherworldly. 1.00

00:37:41.100 And it actually gives its followers something that they could never give themselves.

00:37:46.100 And that's this peace, and that's this sense of fortitude in the face of extraordinary persecution.

00:37:51.520 And the saints, by engaging in this, by suffering it, they find the humility that ultimately takes us to heaven, frankly.

00:38:00.720 I was just talking to Megyn Kelly, and I don't think that—I could be wrong, but I don't think that you guys wrote this because of the persecution that's going on right now.

00:38:14.900 I have a feeling that you're thinking that it's going to get much, much worse.

00:38:18.920 I could be wrong, and I'd love to hear your opinion on that.

00:38:21.140 I think so, yeah.

00:38:22.060 Yeah.

00:38:22.520 Yeah, definitely.

00:38:23.740 So, Megan and I were talking about, you know, what's coming.

00:38:28.320 They put Donald Trump in jail or whatever.

00:38:30.760 There is going to be a moment where people have had enough.

00:38:35.980 And when that happens, persecution and the government will just come down hard.

00:38:42.900 So, what is the things that we can pull from your book that tells us what to do and what not to do?

00:38:51.660 I think when we're facing, you know, a lot of institutions turning against us, perhaps most terrifyingly, our government here in America, because of the amount of power that it has.

00:39:02.640 And we've seen attacks on religious people, especially Catholics, even just within the past few weeks, frankly.

00:39:08.080 It's holding on to the truth, especially the truth of our faith matters more than anything else.

00:39:14.920 That gives strength that can overcome any of these difficulties.

00:39:18.020 When other people are crumbling or being manipulated or falling to the wayside, it's our faith that allows us to be able to get through even grave difficulties and circumstances we've really never had to experience in our generations and make it through in the end.

00:39:33.360 And the saints, time and time again, when it looked like their circumstances were dire, when they themselves were imprisoned or martyred or, you know, shut up away from the public sphere without, you know, had their rights to speak, their liberties taken away from them, they really did cling to their faith and God saw them through.

00:39:51.340 That's what's so wonderful about these stories.

00:39:53.040 You think looking at the history of persecution of great Christians would be a depressing subject, but in a way, it's actually quite inspiring because you can see their strength and how we can imitate that.

00:40:03.800 And you can see how God is always with his people.

00:40:06.880 When you're faithful to God, God is faithful in greater abundance than we could ever know.

00:40:11.560 What do you guys think we're facing, especially as Catholics?

00:40:15.580 You guys are, I mean, we have a Catholic president.

00:40:19.900 The only second time in history, last time we had one was, and the first time was JFK.

00:40:25.660 And now we have a Catholic president who seems to be going after the Catholics.

00:40:33.480 It's bizarre.

00:40:36.100 Well, Glenn, this is a topic I've been pondering for really since COVID.

00:40:41.240 I came into the Catholic Church in July 2019.

00:40:44.960 And then so my first Easter was in 2020.

00:40:48.520 And, you know, we know that that was a somewhat eventful year.

00:40:52.460 And masses around the world were canceled for Easter.

00:40:55.020 And what I discovered in the Church Fathers and in many of these great saints is this articulation of this idea, as I said before, that persecution comes not only from the outside, but from within.

00:41:05.740 And as we all know, those of us who've had any family issues, which I'm sure is pretty much all of us, that's the hardest thing to deal with.

00:41:12.840 But that's exactly what these saints dealt with.

00:41:15.120 And frankly, you know, President Biden, I hope he repents.

00:41:20.300 I hope he comes back to the faith.

00:41:21.920 He's clearly violating it.

00:41:23.680 And frankly, we have many shepherds who aren't calling him on it.

00:41:27.300 And they'll be held to a very high standard at the Day of Judgment.

00:41:31.380 We Catholics believe that every single one of us will have to answer for what we did and what we failed to do to Jesus Christ at the Day of Judgment.

00:41:38.840 And the people who have the highest standard for behavior will be bishops, will be priests, and will be the pope.

00:41:45.120 And, you know, the pope has to go to confession.

00:41:47.540 Bishops have to go to confession.

00:41:49.340 And to the extent that they fail to amend their conduct before they die, they're going to have to answer to the biggest boss.

00:41:55.420 And so, but what we saw with all these saints, the subtitle of the book is called How the Saints Endured Crises in the Church.

00:42:02.760 And I will say that there is this idea that there's this Judas element within the church throughout its entire history.

00:42:10.860 Throughout its entire history, it can't go away.

00:42:13.900 It will be resolved.

00:42:15.160 But when Jesus comes back, and Jesus warned about it, the apostles warned about it, some have called it the anti-church.

00:42:22.100 And it's basically this dark side of the church.

00:42:24.820 And these saints exhibit an astounding level of humility when they're faced with this kind of persecution. 0.89

00:42:31.920 So, for example, I joked with some of my White House colleagues that the thing that sucks about being Catholic is we can't complain about suffering.

00:42:40.380 And what I meant is there's this idea in the Catholic faith of redemptive suffering.

00:42:45.340 And the idea is that through his cross, prior to the Lord's cross and his death and resurrection, suffering was basically meaningless.

00:42:54.360 It was just futile.

00:42:55.320 It was the effect of the fall and whatnot.

00:42:57.460 But after the cross, every single human being, if they follow Christ, can join their suffering to his, and it becomes fruitful.

00:43:06.540 It becomes fruitful for the salvation of others.

00:43:08.940 It becomes fruitful for the salvation of their own soul.

00:43:11.200 And so literally everything that would have been futile and meaningless, which suffering oftentimes feels like, through Christ and his suffering, becomes meaningful.

00:43:21.540 And that's what so many of these saints show.

00:43:23.560 You know, Stephen Colbert, I don't think he's the most, the paradigm of an Orthodox Catholic per se, but he had this beautiful line in an interview with Anderson Cooper, where Anderson Cooper was mentioning all these horrible tragedies that happened to him.

00:43:36.740 And he basically said, how'd you get through it?

00:43:39.300 And Stephen Colbert said that in the Catholic faith, God does it too.

00:43:43.900 And that's essentially what you see in the lives of all these saints with Athanasius and St. Thomas More.

00:43:49.740 And they were laymen.

00:43:50.880 They were priests.

00:43:51.540 They were bishops.

00:43:52.260 They were monks and nuns.

00:43:53.900 They come from all sorts of walks of life.

00:43:56.460 Sometimes they're having to criticize popes.

00:43:59.300 Sometimes they're having to be, you know, persecuted by their bishops or their cardinals, as Alec talked about, with Venerable Fulton Sheen.

00:44:05.800 And sometimes they're literally being executed, or like St. Joan of Arc, or they're being exiled from their diocese and on the run, like St. Athanasius.

00:44:16.060 So they're dealing with all these things, but they know they can join their sufferings to Christ.

00:44:21.140 And these saints, to this day, we believe, are in heaven, praying for all of us, reaping the most possible fruit a human being can ever reap for the salvation of the world.

00:44:31.260 And that's what their suffering did, by joining it to Christ.

00:44:33.780 Joshua, thank you so much.

00:44:35.500 Alex, the same.

00:44:36.640 The name of the book is Persecuted From Within, written for Catholics, but I don't think it's probably just for Catholics.

00:44:44.040 It is for everybody.

00:44:46.200 And I think we all need to look at how we are going to behave in times of persecution, because I do believe it is coming.

00:44:55.960 Again, Persecuted From Within.

00:44:58.100 Thank you so much, guys.

00:44:59.800 God bless.

00:45:00.880 Thank you, Glenn.

00:45:01.480 Thank you so much.

00:45:02.200 You bet.

00:45:02.460 I'm Jay Mullen, and I'm the host of the Energy Manager's Playbook, a new podcast from Save on Energy.

00:45:11.820 This show is about real stories, real challenges, and real solutions from energy professionals.

00:45:17.420 I personally think that many engineers were not given enough training in communications and the softer skills of getting a project done.

00:45:25.600 We have no control over cost of materials, but we do have control of how we use our energy and how we can save.

00:45:31.940 Listen to the Energy Manager's Playbook wherever you get your podcasts.

The Glenn Beck Program - December 07, 2023

Best of the Program ｜ Guest： Megyn Kelly, Alec Torres, & Joshua Charles ｜ 12⧸7⧸23

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