The Glenn Beck Program - July 02, 2026


Best of the Program ｜ Guest： Rep. Anna Paulina Luna ｜ 7⧸2⧸26


Episode Stats


Length

39 minutes

Words per minute

163.09

Word count

6,477

Sentence count

278

Harmful content

Toxicity

10

sentences flagged

Hate speech

9

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Hey, on today's podcast, The Washington Post, their focus on our 250 birthday, not the amazing
00:00:05.900 celebration plan, but the smoke caused by the fireworks. I have a few things to say about that.
00:00:10.360 The final part of the creation of the Declaration of Independence is Jefferson's words are slashed
00:00:14.640 right in front of him. And the one and only Anna Paulina Luna. Wow. Wow. What a fascinating
00:00:21.360 conversation. You don't want to miss it. It's all right here on today's podcast.
00:00:25.220 hello America you know we've been fighting every single day we push back against the lies the
00:00:30.540 censorship the nonsense of the mainstream media that they're trying to feed you we work tirelessly
00:00:36.060 to bring you the unfiltered truth because you deserve it but to keep this fight going we need
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00:01:09.840 Now let's get to work.
00:01:10.780 you're listening to the best of the glenbeck program
00:01:23.620 we're in washington dc it's the 250th birthday of america and i was complaining yesterday because
00:01:38.220 nobody knows about these fireworks that are happening this is the largest firework show
00:01:42.560 ever attempted by man on earth on saturday 10 times the largest firework show
00:01:50.560 america has ever seen you'll never see anything like this it is absolutely incredible what is
00:01:56.760 being planned and i said you know nobody knows about the state fair nobody knows about what's
00:02:01.900 happening in washington dc and the streets are empty here and it's sad it's really sad
00:02:06.140 and then the Washington Post decided to cover it and I have had it I've had it I drove by the
00:02:15.760 Washington Post here in Washington D.C. and I thought oh wow I wonder why half of the building's
00:02:20.040 lights are out because you're going broke and I can't wait until you're entirely broke
00:02:25.260 America has survived 250 years we've survived 250 years and that is fabulous
00:02:35.900 but i have to tell you i've had it with the reflex from the press the automatic impulse to search
00:02:46.440 every american moment for the dark cloud instead of the sunlight think about what is happening this
00:02:52.280 week not next year this week this week the united states turns 250 years old do you know how
00:02:59.600 remarkable that is? We have the same Constitution. The average Constitution lasts 17 years. No one
00:03:11.320 living has ever seen anything like this. No one living will ever see it again. This is not another
00:03:17.540 4th of July. This is the 4th of July. I saw as a kid the 200th. This is the 250. I'll be long dead
00:03:26.420 And my kids will remember, oh, I saw the 250.
00:03:32.100 And they'll remember it when it's the 300.
00:03:38.080 Grandchildren, our great-grandchildren, will read about this in history books.
00:03:42.480 And one of the nation's most influential newspapers looked at this moment and said,
00:03:47.580 gee, Bob, how could we cover this today?
00:03:50.740 I don't know.
00:03:52.740 Have we covered the fireworks?
00:03:54.620 nah are they really worth it well um have we thought about how much pollution the fireworks
00:04:01.440 are going to cause that's it bob let's run to the press oh you gotta be kidding me that's your
00:04:08.580 front page instinct pollution not the greatest experiment in self-government no not that god
00:04:17.120 god not that no the astonishing fact that a republic born in the age of kings has survived
00:04:23.540 invasion, civil war, world wars, depression, terrorism, every prediction of collapse.
00:04:29.800 Not the millions of families gathering to remember where freedom came from this weekend.
00:04:35.780 Not the veterans who carried that freedom, bled and died for that freedom.
00:04:40.740 Not the children seeing the Capitol for the very first time.
00:04:43.780 No, smoke, smoke.
00:04:47.280 That's what the Washington Post chooses, smoke.
00:04:53.540 now before some liberal tweets some angry tweeted me let me say i know yes fireworks produce smoke
00:05:06.840 okay i've known that the very first time i saw fireworks it's kind of like don't tweet me
00:05:16.640 fireworks cause smoke, water is wet, and the sun is hot. I get it. People with asthma should know
00:05:25.380 that large firework displays can temporarily affect air quality. Now, if you think that that
00:05:32.340 is news to anybody, report it. Maybe on page A17. But if your first instinct on America's 250th
00:05:41.720 birthday is to warn people about the smoke instead of reminding them why fireworks exist
00:05:48.160 in the first place then somewhere along the line you've really forgotten what news is supposed to
00:05:52.480 do uh have we alerted them that there's going to be smoke maybe they should stay away from
00:05:57.100 the nation's capital because there's a lot of fireworks there's got to be a lot of smoke
00:06:01.360 oh god i have no use for these people anymore i really i so they're just such a source of
00:06:11.220 frustration. Journalism is not just about facts. It's also about judgment.
00:06:20.380 Every editor tells you what matters by what place they put above the fold, whatever they place above
00:06:27.940 the fold. That's what matters. Every headline is a declaration of their values. Every front page
00:06:34.220 says, this is what everybody should talk about and think about today. So on the most extraordinary
00:06:39.260 Independence Week in American history, they decide what matters most, not liberty, not
00:06:45.960 history, not what's actually happening, not gratitude, but particulate matter.
00:06:52.820 You know, when I got up this morning, I thought, what is the particulate count today?
00:06:56.980 I'm wondering.
00:06:59.580 You see why people are exhausted?
00:07:01.640 You see why nobody reads the crappy Washington Post anymore?
00:07:05.160 I mean, honestly, do you see why trust has collapsed? 1.00
00:07:11.840 Because you're morons. 1.00
00:07:14.740 Every American achievement arrives with a lecture. 1.00
00:07:18.840 Hey, there's going to be smoke in the air.
00:07:20.900 And did you know you're standing on stolen ground?
00:07:25.360 Celebration now comes wrapped with guilt.
00:07:28.220 Every flag needs an apology.
00:07:30.020 I got a firecracker I'd like to shove up.
00:07:35.160 every victory requires a disclaimer it's relentless and we're done with it
00:07:42.260 but just know it has consequences everything you're doing today has consequences because
00:07:48.120 the people who are taught to roll their eyes at their own history will eventually stop defending
00:07:52.480 it people who cannot celebrate can't get past themselves to celebrate what their nation did
00:08:00.200 has forgotten themselves i walked in the national mall i saw children staring up with wonder at some
00:08:07.540 of the monuments yesterday i saw veterans standing quietly before the monuments built for friends who
00:08:13.240 never came home i saw families from every corner of the country that's the story washington post
00:08:19.980 that's the headline that's what deserves to be remembered you don't have to pretend america is
00:08:26.480 perfect to love her the founders didn't read their letters they argued constantly
00:08:32.920 they knew this nation had sins to confront and promises yet to fulfill i wait until you hear
00:08:39.080 what i say what thomas jefferson the guy who wrote the declaration of independence
00:08:42.100 let me tell you what he wrote about that declaration but they still pledged their
00:08:49.540 lives their fortunes and their honor to her because they understood something too many
00:08:55.060 people in our elite institutions have completely forgotten love does not require perfection do you
00:09:01.540 go home at night washington post reporters do you go home at night and just keep reminding your wife
00:09:07.100 you know you once were really fat you know i love it when you're skinny i love it when you're 0.94
00:09:13.720 healthy looking but you remember when you were pregnant how fat you were i don't know because
00:09:19.580 I keep thinking about all the fatness in your history.
00:09:24.500 Is that love?
00:09:27.440 Love requires gratitude.
00:09:31.280 So let me say something here that apparently has become controversial.
00:09:35.820 America is worth celebrating without apology, without caveats,
00:09:42.840 without the frickin' stolen land, without embarrassment, without an asterisk.
00:09:48.860 And if that offends you, the problem is not with the fireworks.
00:09:52.540 The problem's not with the country.
00:09:53.840 The problem is you.
00:09:55.900 The problem is somewhere, somehow, you lost the ability to be grateful for the greatest
00:10:01.140 inheritance of liberty ever handed from one generation to the next.
00:10:05.820 And that is far more dangerous than a little smoke in the air.
00:10:11.940 This is the best of the Glenn Beck program.
00:10:15.860 Anna, welcome.
00:10:16.960 Thanks for having me back, Glenn.
00:10:18.060 It is.
00:10:18.860 So great to have you.
00:10:20.360 Thank you, yeah, especially on the 250th birthday weekend.
00:10:23.420 I know, it's nuts.
00:10:24.400 I know, it's nuts.
00:10:25.820 I don't remember what congressman, I'm sorry to change this subject,
00:10:28.540 but I just noticed your congressional pen there.
00:10:31.360 And I had a congressman walking with me at one point,
00:10:34.680 or maybe it was a senator, and he took it off.
00:10:36.500 The minute he got off the Capitol grounds, he took it off,
00:10:39.160 and he said, this is the ring.
00:10:42.700 He's like, this is, I feel like Gollum.
00:10:44.160 I think it was Massey.
00:10:45.200 It was Massey, yeah.
00:10:46.220 Massey, he's right.
00:10:47.120 I like to wear it during press interviews for speech and debate clause because people try to sue you.
00:10:53.060 Oh, as long as you're wearing that?
00:10:54.520 Well, you know, because you've invited me as my official capacity.
00:10:58.220 So, you know, when I'm talking about people's insider trading and stuff.
00:11:01.320 Yeah.
00:11:01.800 Wow.
00:11:02.680 Wow.
00:11:03.220 Yeah.
00:11:03.400 He took it off.
00:11:04.000 He said, I don't like it because he's like, it's the power of the ring.
00:11:07.320 It's like, it's my precious, my precious.
00:11:11.060 Anyway.
00:11:11.480 He's not wrong.
00:11:12.120 He's not wrong for a lot of people, you know, especially right now with the political climate, too.
00:11:16.500 you don't want to wear it unless you're you know on the hill because it's a target yeah
00:11:22.580 scary um it's definitely changed especially after charlie but what's even crazier is that
00:11:28.820 you know there's this sentiment of assassination culture where people are actually pushing it and
00:11:33.440 embracing it and i mean we can probably do a whole segment on what just happened in new york
00:11:38.540 with a lot of the dsa candidates getting elected but you know there's been a lot of anti-white
00:11:43.920 rhetoric a lot of um i believe i saw one comment specifically that said gassed and it was
00:11:50.240 referencing a group you know of predominantly jewish americans and so you know that type of
00:11:56.600 stuff is is really horrifying to see because these people say oh well communism or socialism
00:12:00.720 just hasn't been done correctly yeah and we know that that's when when i mean how many times do
00:12:05.340 we have to go through this it's the same it's the same thing it just doesn't work um generally
00:12:11.600 speaking you you you hopeful well yeah so last time i was talking with you i think we were talking
00:12:16.600 about the neville roy singham and the network and um you saw that the department of justice has a
00:12:21.840 massive investigation and has been working on investigating him going after him criminally so
00:12:25.940 yes absolutely hopeful so i had jason was with me i had the fbi call how long ago is that three
00:12:32.720 months ago jason oh yeah easy yeah easy maybe maybe six months ago uh the fbi called and said
00:12:38.680 we'd like to talk to you and i'm like do i need to come is there a problem always bring a lawyer
00:12:42.860 jason what did you do yeah yeah i did and so i said sure come on over to the house so a couple
00:12:49.960 of agents came over to the house and they were actually you know gathering information and they
00:12:54.200 said you know so much about these networks and i said well tell me what you guys know
00:12:58.260 and it was almost nothing yeah they're they're new um a lot of them you know you'd figure that
00:13:03.920 the criminal aspect this gets in too far so i actually have the legislation already back
00:13:08.720 I'm writing it with Derek Van Orden, who's another member of Congress.
00:13:13.060 And so it's specifically to force influencers to kind of actually go after these networks also for taking money from foreign governments.
00:13:19.820 So we know that with the Singham Network specifically, he's getting a lot of funding from China.
00:13:23.320 But now that the Department of Justice is actually doing their job instead of going after, you know, people at abortion clinics that are simply protesting or, you know, Catholics.
00:13:32.020 It's crazy what happens when the government does their job.
00:13:34.460 and it was crazy to me as they sat down jace and i they left and jace and i were like oh my gosh i
00:13:40.320 mean and it makes sense you know obama biden they're not investigating any of this stuff they
00:13:45.440 don't want any investigation on this stuff um and it was amazing to me how little they knew
00:13:51.380 at the time because these are advanced networks and if the those networks are put on notice
00:13:58.760 oh we're coming for you some of it will go deeper into hiding but a lot of it will just stop
00:14:05.200 because it's right on the surface well a lot of these people to include the individuals that
00:14:11.580 were knowingly engaged with taking money from foreign governments are now also under investigation
00:14:15.820 but you can't just do investigations there has to be punitive action to it and so that's going to
00:14:20.700 happen wait wait wait say that again because that's like conservative yeah you don't hear
00:14:25.680 that all yeah so it's going to happen they're not just investigating to investigate they are going
00:14:30.000 after these people and so i have known about the investigation for some time i just can't talk
00:14:36.700 about it until the doj actually does their announcement but you know this goes back to
00:14:41.280 yeah even with the pin even with the pin um senator i think the pin gives you permission
00:14:45.680 to say it here well yeah depending on who's who's interpreting the rules right right um
00:14:51.120 Senator Rubio at the time, when he was on Senate intelligence, actually had written a letter, was following the Stingham Network.
00:14:58.500 Senator Rick Scott actually also just did a letter to say, hey, some of these organizations like Code Pink, we need to remove the 501c3 status of them.
00:15:07.180 Also to Senator Jim Banks.
00:15:08.980 So we have a lot of good conservative senators that are following this.
00:15:11.360 But, you know, I mean, can we please go to the Senate?
00:15:13.860 Because I got a lot to share.
00:15:15.220 Yeah.
00:15:15.420 Yeah.
00:15:15.720 OK, so let's go.
00:15:16.800 Yeah.
00:15:16.980 So, you know, I want to just be really clear about something.
00:15:20.280 we're on America's 250th birthday right now or birthday celebration basically this entire year
00:15:25.440 and we control the House the Senate and the White House and yet you have a group of four Republicans
00:15:33.280 in Senate and really John Thune who has every ability to enforce the talking filibuster and
00:15:40.240 just doesn't want to do it. Mike Lee is beside himself. Well but the thing is is that you cannot
00:15:45.280 like if you're going to continue the cycle of insanity then you can't complain about it but
00:15:49.740 that's why i'm taking such a hard line position on what i'm doing right now with by the way other
00:15:55.600 members of congress this is not just my fight i mean you have members of the freedom caucus
00:15:58.840 representative tim birch at max miller all these members are saying hey hold up we have the ability
00:16:04.820 to in the text of the national defense authorization act put the save america act and yet why are we
00:16:11.420 not doing it and so i'm not voting for the rule they're not going to vote for the rule and the
00:16:16.400 excuse that i got from leadership actually i got a call from steve sclease and he said we can't put
00:16:20.720 it in because it's considered not germane that means it has nothing to do with the bill um first
00:16:24.400 of all there's been many cases this year in the 119th congress where they've done other legislation
00:16:29.340 that you could argue was not germane and they stuck things in and secondly as a veteran if you're
00:16:35.340 telling me that voter id and proof of citizenship and everything else in steven america is not
00:16:39.700 important to national defense and security maybe you haven't been paying attention it is and so we
00:16:44.780 have especially with especially with what's happening with china especially with with what's
00:16:49.900 happening with iran it's not just china and iran it is chuck schumer saying that he wants to give
00:16:55.960 citizenship to millions of illegal people here it is the fact that it doesn't matter if it's one or
00:17:03.640 a hundred or a thousand cases of voter fraud why would you not want to secure that it is the fact
00:17:08.800 that you have you know i call them blue annons but these democrats that are saying oh the you know
00:17:13.920 The Trump machine is going to steal the election. You hear this crazy concept that there are still
00:17:17.980 that they stole the last election. Well, let's play devil's advocate. If you really think the
00:17:21.700 election is going to be stolen, don't you want voter ID? But like even aside from that, even
00:17:25.360 aside from party politics, black, white, Hispanic, Democrat, Republican, independent men, women,
00:17:31.080 we all want voter ID, period. And so I'm not going to I don't care if they go on television
00:17:37.340 and trash me. Everyone who's paying attention knows that if we don't stick this in the NDA,
00:17:41.880 If we don't stick it in FISA, if we don't try everything, if we don't try in reconciliation, it will never become law.
00:17:46.480 And that's not that's not an option.
00:17:48.260 Is the president for you on this or against you?
00:17:51.360 Because I I won't speak for the president.
00:17:54.020 But what I will say is that I have been one of President Trump's very few from the beginning protectors and defenders.
00:18:01.940 And I was with him in New York City and I will continue to have his back.
00:18:05.660 And there are some members of Congress that are using this fight right now for some personal reasons and gains.
00:18:14.340 I think he's addressing them, not me.
00:18:17.260 Can you tell me what the hell is wrong with Thune?
00:18:21.680 People ask me all the time, why won't they do it?
00:18:25.620 What are they gaining by not doing it other than just continuing to play the game?
00:18:32.400 You know, John Thune's GOP went to censure him. Then they said, well, if we censure him, it's going to give the Democrats a win. I would argue that, you know, when you have someone that's failing to deliver on one of the promises that the Republican Party made to the American people, then that's a failure in itself.
00:18:51.620 And when you in the military, you learn when you have poor leadership, you don't blame the enlisted.
00:18:56.360 You take responsibility as a commanding officer.
00:18:59.320 So where is the responsibility taking of the Senate?
00:19:02.420 Then you have these other members that don't care.
00:19:05.400 So this idea in the Senate is and you can see it.
00:19:08.480 They were more concerned about putting the automatic wind for some of the lawsuits that they had for their cases than they were debating Save America.
00:19:17.740 They're more concerned about dog parades than Save America.
00:19:20.800 they all went on recess and vacation and then they're attacking Mike Lee behind closed doors
00:19:25.600 and Senator Scott because he's fighting. I don't care. I don't want to be in Senate.
00:19:30.620 And what I will tell you is part of the freeing part of, I think, my mentality in this is that
00:19:34.900 I don't care if I'm here for 10 years or not. So I can do what's right and necessary.
00:19:40.880 So let me tell you something. When you actually don't care, because that's what terrified people.
00:19:46.600 when I was at the network level, that terrified them because I didn't care if I was on Fox for
00:19:52.420 another day or CNN. It didn't matter to me. I don't care when you actually can say, I don't
00:19:59.260 care. And people believe you, the power that comes with that is remarkable because people
00:20:07.480 don't know what to do with you. There's no way to intimidate you. You're like, go ahead. I don't
00:20:13.060 care the best advice i ever got was from jim jordan two things the first thing he said is
00:20:17.460 always travel with your spouse because you know you're a young woman and they'll try to spread
00:20:20.800 rumors um which i do always travel to my spouse and my child as well um and then the other thing
00:20:26.040 was is if you promise to do what you said you were going to do on the campaign trail it's remarkable
00:20:31.320 how easy it will be for you at this job and i promise to do this to every single one of my
00:20:36.620 voters and you know what when people go to the press and they trash me i'm not going to bring
00:20:42.380 up their stock trades that look remarkably similar to insider trading. I'll let the American people
00:20:47.940 do that. But what I will focus on is my parliamentary tools in my toolkit. And guess
00:20:53.100 what? You want my vote? Put the text of the Save America Act in the National Defense Authorization
00:20:58.720 Act. Stop giving me excuses. Stop pulling parliamentary procedure. Stop lying to the
00:21:02.700 American people and saying that we're obstructing. We are fighting. You all promised to do this when
00:21:07.620 you guys got elected again i have to go back why won't they well there is some concern i think in
00:21:13.520 the house that senate would have to take a tough vote on the nda but i don't care oh my gosh let's
00:21:21.060 send it over let's help our frontline members that depend on this let's help them get elected
00:21:25.620 because guess what the midterms are only a few months away let's give the american people faith
00:21:30.240 in their vote and the election process let's deliver for the president but more importantly
00:21:35.060 if the Senate's going to then make the decision to strip that out, let them offer the amendment
00:21:39.880 to strip it out. Let them take that vote and let John Thune say, this is what my chamber did,
00:21:45.080 but it is not my job. And I refuse to run cover for the Senate. And I refuse to run cover for
00:21:50.520 those in the House that are trying to protect the Senate. Do you think the GOP, is anyone learning
00:21:55.520 the lesson from Cornyn and what happened that the GOP voter is just done? We're not playing
00:22:01.840 the same game anymore.
00:22:03.240 I think the Senate made a very terrible mistake
00:22:06.140 in trying to back candidates that they knew would fail
00:22:10.580 because they live up here.
00:22:12.680 They've gotten too complacent in their circle.
00:22:14.260 And that's why the founding fathers
00:22:15.680 never wanted politics to be a full-time job.
00:22:18.200 But they'll just have to learn the hard way.
00:22:20.080 And I look forward to the president's convention
00:22:21.760 because some of these people
00:22:23.560 won't be able to show their face.
00:22:24.940 And it's not about shaming people.
00:22:26.920 It's about calling them out for promising
00:22:29.400 and failing to deliver.
00:22:30.480 you're streaming the best of glenn beck to hear more of this interview and others
00:22:34.580 download the full show podcasts wherever you get podcasts okay so thomas jefferson has been
00:22:40.500 for 17 days eking out this draft of the declaration of independence and now comes the part of the
00:22:46.620 story that will tell you more about what america actually is than any firework show ever could
00:22:53.040 i don't know this firework show on saturday is going to be pretty amazing but that's i digress
00:22:58.340 the declaration of independence was not handed down from heaven on a golden tablet okay it was
00:23:05.400 argued over it was cut it was compromised it was mangled jefferson's own friends use that word
00:23:12.660 mangled in a hot sealed frightened room of really flawed men and i promise you the true story is a
00:23:22.440 thousand times better than the myth or anything that they ever taught you i don't even know i
00:23:27.100 don't even know what I learned about the Declaration of Independence in school, but I can tell you
00:23:30.960 what I know now. It's completely different. But first, you have to understand the air in that
00:23:36.580 building. Congress was seated in Philadelphia in a sworn oath of secrecy. The members had to take
00:23:43.720 a pledge. Not one word of what was being said inside leaves this room. Not one word. So the
00:23:51.540 doors were shut and the windows were closed remind you this is in philadelphia in july
00:23:58.740 it's super hot it is like what it is now here in washington dc it's like 90 or you know 100
00:24:06.300 degrees and then you add the humidity then add think of this they're sitting in this room closed
00:24:12.880 off they're wearing wool jackets wool socks wool vests heavy wigs there are no fans there's no
00:24:21.480 ice air conditioning would have to wait for the guy in san antonio texas to invent it in the 1950s
00:24:27.320 and there was no deodorant deodorant had to wait almost well over 100 years 1888 it was invented
00:24:35.840 in philadelphia oh i know this it was mom's deodorant okay but again i digress no deodorant
00:24:41.600 for now no open doors or windows because every sentence spoken in that chamber was hanging
00:24:47.660 It was a hanging offense. If it reached the king's ear, you would be drawn and quartered.
00:24:54.840 So there was no press in the room, no public, no record of the debate for the world to see.
00:24:59.280 Just a few dozen men sweating through their shirts, deciding whether to commit treason with the windows nailed shut against spies.
00:25:07.500 That's the pressure cooker these sacred words came out of.
00:25:10.580 so jefferson who trusted their judgment most didn't show his draft to the whole committee first
00:25:19.780 he just slipped it to the two men whose opinion he valued above all others and that was benjamin
00:25:25.940 franklin who was so crippled uh by that summer he could barely climb a staircase and john adams
00:25:31.780 and the two of them only made a handful of small changes and they're marked on our copy
00:25:37.360 the original engraving uh from 1826 uh of jefferson's first draft we have it and you can
00:25:45.320 see it there's just a word here and a word there and they're signed b franklin j adams but one of
00:25:51.600 the small changes i'd argue is one of the most important edits in the history of the english
00:25:56.740 language jefferson had originally written that these truths were sacred and undeniable
00:26:03.600 sacred and undeniable and we think it was franklin uh who crossed it out and wrote self-evident
00:26:13.420 why sacred means you have to believe it you can't really question it it's sacred it's scripture it
00:26:24.420 rests on your faith it asks you to bow self-evident means you only have to think for a minute
00:26:31.380 It rests on reason. It's available to every human being who can look at the world and see it plainly.
00:26:39.060 It's self-evident. It's right there.
00:26:41.440 With one stroke of the old man's pen, the most important sentence in the document was thrown open to all of mankind.
00:26:48.680 Believer and skeptic. Christian, Jew, deist, doubter, all of it.
00:26:53.500 So you don't have to take it on faith that you were born free.
00:26:57.380 You only have to open your eyes.
00:26:59.040 that is an edit that changed the world and the man who probably made it thought he was just
00:27:06.480 tidying up the pros a bit so it's june 28th the committee lays the draft before full congress and
00:27:15.060 that's when the knives come out okay not the committee's gentle trims but congresses over
00:27:23.140 the first few days of july they fought their way towards a vote itself the whole body went through
00:27:29.020 Jefferson's draft line by line and then they cut a quarter of it a quarter and Jefferson had to sit
00:27:36.460 there the whole time in the room sweating silent he couldn't bring himself to defend his own work
00:27:45.380 out loud he would sit there and he would watch them carve up his words in front of everybody
00:27:49.920 can you imagine imagine being a genius sitting in a room and watching a committee carve up
00:27:55.560 everything you'd anybody who's ever poured their soul into something and then watched a committee
00:27:59.620 you know redline it you know exactly the particular agony that that guy was going through
00:28:07.760 and then comes the most human part of the story part i never heard before
00:28:12.560 ben franklin is sitting next to thomas jefferson the whole time and he's watching that kid suffer
00:28:18.060 he's watching him flinch
00:28:20.040 at every cut they make
00:28:22.180 so
00:28:24.260 Franklin leans over
00:28:25.280 he says Tom
00:28:27.100 I want to tell you a story
00:28:29.300 a story about a young
00:28:32.260 hatter
00:28:32.680 and he's opening up a new
00:28:36.340 shop and he was
00:28:38.280 so proud of what he was doing
00:28:39.780 he was so excited about it
00:28:41.860 that he wants to make a huge sign
00:28:44.360 Tom
00:28:47.680 let me tell you a story
00:28:49.880 there's this guy named john thompson he was a store he was he was a hatter and he wanted to
00:28:59.960 open a shop and he wanted to make the best hat shop ever and he wanted this grand sign and he
00:29:05.200 said he's gonna say john thompson hatter makes and sells hats ready for money and it would have
00:29:11.080 a picture of a hat on it and he shows it to his friends and tom looks over at ben franklin
00:29:18.460 smiling painfully most likely and his friend says hatter that's redundant you have right there on
00:29:33.380 the sign makes hats why do you need hatter cut it and the next one says makes why do you need
00:29:40.260 makes nobody cares who made them cut it and the next guy says ready for money of course it's for
00:29:45.820 money cut it on and on friend by friend until all that was left on the sign was john thompson
00:29:53.020 and a picture of a hat franklin winked at him i know what you're going through
00:30:00.580 and so does john thompson the hatter don't take it personally
00:30:05.240 that's the wisest comfort an old man ever gave a wounded young one i think
00:30:14.220 but one of those cuts wasn't small and you need to hear this part clearly and squarely because
00:30:19.980 it's the hardest and most important truth in the whole document jefferson's original draft
00:30:25.780 contained a long blazing furious paragraph laid out the entire atlantic slave trade and he put it
00:30:33.940 right at the king, George III, right at his feet.
00:30:37.980 He called it a cruel war against human nature itself.
00:30:43.360 The king was violating the most sacred rights of life and liberty.
00:30:48.700 And he was keeping this piratical warfare.
00:30:52.780 He's calling him a pirate.
00:30:54.040 Who was the pirate?
00:30:55.460 Who were the pirates at the time?
00:30:56.520 The pirates at the time were the Barbary pirates. 1.00
00:30:59.340 They were the Muslims. 1.00
00:31:00.320 They could just take people. 1.00
00:31:01.800 If you weren't Muslim, they could take you and they could kill you. 1.00
00:31:05.780 They could rape you. 1.00
00:31:06.680 They could sell you into slavery because you're not really a person. 1.00
00:31:10.200 Because you're an infidel. 0.99
00:31:15.200 Thomas Jefferson says this piratical warfare is the warfare. 0.95
00:31:20.720 And then he prints the Christian king and underlines it.
00:31:24.540 Mocking, saying, how dare you call yourself a Christian?
00:31:27.440 And he is determined to keep an open market where men are to be bought and sold, capitalized men are to be bought and sold, because he wants the king to see it and remember, I said men, all men are created equal, and I count slaves as men.
00:31:45.740 But wait a minute, didn't Thomas Jefferson say?
00:31:50.300 Didn't he have slaves?
00:31:51.920 Why didn't he free?
00:31:52.640 Why would he say that and then have slaves?
00:31:54.020 Because in Virginia, in 1767, in Virginia, Thomas Jefferson proposes an Emancipation Proclamation.
00:32:05.340 Did you know that?
00:32:06.760 In the state of Virginia, long before he writes the Declaration of Independence, he authors an Emancipation Proclamation that all slaves must be freed.
00:32:21.860 You know who stopped it?
00:32:24.020 King George III.
00:32:28.200 That's why he was so passionate about this,
00:32:31.020 because he goes on and he says,
00:32:32.640 you have stopped every attempt to stop slavery.
00:32:37.460 It was the most radical,
00:32:39.460 most morally explosive passage
00:32:41.300 in the entire declaration,
00:32:43.180 a whole paragraph, half a page.
00:32:47.120 Now, this doesn't let anybody off the hook
00:32:49.100 in either direction,
00:32:49.880 because the truth cuts both ways,
00:32:51.720 and you should hear all of it.
00:32:52.880 the contradiction is staggering and it is real. The man who wrote the searing condemnation of
00:32:58.080 slavery owned more than a human beings himself, freed almost none of them, even at his death,
00:33:03.120 because he couldn't. He was in debt and they were property. That's why he didn't include life,
00:33:08.080 liberty, and property. But you have to hold on to all of these things, both good and bad. Don't
00:33:14.840 flinch from it. That anti-slavery paragraph was in the document. It was written. It was
00:33:25.480 written by Thomas Jefferson. That's important. The Committee of Five, Franklin, Adams, all
00:33:32.380 of them left it in. They didn't cut it. It was for the full Congress that had to strike
00:33:37.220 it out. And Jefferson told us exactly why they did it and who did it. He wrote it down
00:33:42.620 because he never forgives the Congress for doing this.
00:33:45.600 The clause condemning slavery, he said,
00:33:47.560 was struck out, quote,
00:33:48.700 in complacence to South Carolina and Georgia,
00:33:52.240 the two colonies that have never once
00:33:54.420 tried to restrain the importation of slaves
00:33:56.860 and who fully intended to keep right on,
00:34:00.420 end quote, two colonies.
00:34:02.560 That's who would not abide it.
00:34:07.640 It means 11 colonies said no to slavery.
00:34:10.780 A hundred years. 0.90
00:34:11.800 We were the only ones saying this.
00:34:14.100 And we're still the only ones that feel bad about it.
00:34:17.880 And they did it to keep all 13 colonies in the same boat.
00:34:20.920 To keep the unanimity that if we didn't, the whole thing would have died.
00:34:25.140 The bravest paragraph in the Declaration was thrown overboard.
00:34:27.920 It was replaced with a vague, watered-down line about the king stirring up domestic insurrections among us.
00:34:35.000 The thunder is gone.
00:34:36.880 The compromise was made.
00:34:38.260 And that unpaid debt would come due, four score and nine years later, to be paid in a sea of blood at places called Antietam and Gettysburg.
00:34:57.560 So how confident were these men in what they had just done?
00:35:02.700 it depends on the man really john adams was certain it was monumental he wrote home to his
00:35:11.160 wife tomorrow is the anniversary 250 years ago that he wrote to his wife abigail and said boy
00:35:17.800 what we did yesterday on july 2nd will be remembered forever it'll be celebrated down
00:35:22.900 through the generations with pomp and parade and bonfires and illuminations in the sky from
00:35:28.460 one end of the continent to the other. July 2nd, he wrote, will be remembered forever.
00:35:38.340 He just bet on the wrong day. He thought the day of the actual vote, not the fourth.
00:35:48.000 The fourth is when we announced it to the world. I think he might have been baffled to learn that
00:35:54.320 We light up the skies two days late, at least at the beginning.
00:36:00.240 And Jefferson?
00:36:02.340 Jefferson never made peace with it.
00:36:04.940 Never.
00:36:06.400 The cuts wounded him for the rest of his life.
00:36:10.620 In the days right after the 4th of July,
00:36:13.560 everybody else was celebrating, and he sat down,
00:36:16.260 and he quietly made clean copies of his original draft.
00:36:21.000 His director's cut, if you will,
00:36:22.920 the version before Congress took the
00:36:25.020 knife to it. And he mailed them
00:36:26.980 to his friends like Richard Hendlory
00:36:28.840 Lee and George Wythe.
00:36:31.500 And he sent them each a note.
00:36:34.740 One of them is almost funny in its wounded
00:36:36.760 pride. You judge for yourself. He told
00:36:39.060 Lee
00:36:39.300 whether the thing is better or worse for the
00:36:42.940 critics. Did the critics
00:36:44.880 do the right thing? Lee wrote him back and said
00:36:46.780 no, no, no. They mangled
00:36:49.040 it, Tom. They mangled it.
00:36:52.920 Another friend, Pendleton, wrote Thomas Jefferson back after he sent them the original draft, and he said they changed it for the worst.
00:37:01.080 Jefferson spent decades convinced that Congress had damaged his masterpiece.
00:37:07.120 I want you to decide for yourself, because both versions survive.
00:37:12.160 It is so easy. Look up Thomas Jefferson's first draft of the Declaration of Independence.
00:37:17.940 Do you know it's this audience that is making this famous?
00:37:20.420 i found this about eight years ago and no one was talking about it the department of education has
00:37:28.180 announced it's going to be taught in schools beginning in 2030 now we showed the department
00:37:33.560 of education this original draft and i explained it to them they were like wait what how is it no
00:37:40.380 one knows this because it answers all of the questions you can find it online read that to
00:37:46.980 your children read the first draft and then explain what happened here's what i want you to
00:37:57.220 leave with i want you to leave with the truth i want you to lead with the argument because it
00:38:03.740 wasn't a parade it was a fight the finest words ever written down about human equality sit inside
00:38:10.220 the very same document as deafening silence
00:38:13.780 about the millions of human beings
00:38:16.420 that equality did not yet reach.
00:38:19.280 A silence that those men chose with open eyes.
00:38:24.220 They knew what they were doing.
00:38:28.140 But they felt at the time,
00:38:29.760 we won't make any progress
00:38:32.380 if we don't first get free of the king
00:38:36.340 because he will never change.
00:38:40.220 They knew it was a compromise, and they knew it was both more than they could live up to
00:38:45.420 at the time, a hundred years before anybody else was, and a promise their grandchildren
00:38:50.040 would be measured against and found wanting.
00:38:53.980 But they signed it anyway.
00:38:55.820 Let me ask you, put yourself in their days.
00:39:02.200 What would you have done?
00:39:05.300 They pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to a promise they knew
00:39:08.980 they were already breaking, and they trusted us, the people standing here 250 years downstream,
00:39:15.460 to finish what they could not. So go find it. Go read the original. Cut passages and all.
00:39:22.200 Lay George Mason's Declaration of Rights beside it. Read the flawed, frightened, brilliant,
00:39:27.420 compromised, magnificent men who actually wrote it with a rope in plain sight and the windows
00:39:33.480 nailed shut. The version they hand you in a school book is a statue. It's cold. It's
00:39:38.940 finished. It's safe. It's wrong. The real one bleeds.