Best of the Program ｜ Guests： Bill O'Reilly & Sam Brownback and Dave Isay ｜11⧸30⧸18
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
157.4062
Summary
Bill O'Reilly joins the show to talk about the latest in the Trump administration, the latest on the Mueller investigation, and much, much more! Plus, we have a new segment called "The President's Q&A" with Glenn Beck.
Transcript
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Very excited, we're from Florida today, we're tonight and tomorrow.
00:00:15.420
We are going to be in concert, Stu's going to be playing the cello,
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tonight in Orlando, Florida, and tonight in Tampa, tomorrow in Orlando, Florida.
00:00:27.820
The tickets, you can still grab a couple of tickets at glennbeck.com slash tour.
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Bill O'Reilly joins us, and as usual, he goes through the news of the week, and there was a lot of it.
00:00:38.940
Yeah, and he has an interesting thing that I'm not sure what it's going to mean in the future,
00:00:45.380
but it is something that is going to be used in the future that he was talking about with Cohen and Donald Trump
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And he said there was something that was important, but he didn't think it happened.
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And if it's proven that it happened, it's going to mean something important.
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I don't know what it's going to mean, but it's an interesting point of view.
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We also talked to Sam Brownback, former governor and senator from Kansas,
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who's now the ambassador for religious freedom around the world.
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He's an ambassador at large, which I think means he's on the lam.
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I think we cleared that up with him, unfortunately, during the interview.
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There's a lot going on in the Middle East, and he covers a lot of that.
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You're listening to The Best of the Glenn Beck Program.
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Brickhouse wants to remind you that superfoods aren't always super.
00:01:51.440
You have to really look at the labeling on them because sometimes, you know,
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if you see something that says supplement facts,
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that means it's made from extracts and not real food.
00:02:17.260
Yeah, but especially this week after if you ate like I did over the past four or five days.
00:02:23.120
Field of Greens is what Brickhouse Nutrition has come out with,
00:02:29.100
You don't have to deal with downing tons of broccoli.
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You just have a scoop of this and whatever you're eating, it's great.
00:02:44.180
Here's some of the questions that we should have our president asked today.
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Mr. President, Mr. President, how was your meeting with China's president?
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Mr. President, Mr. President, have you ended the trade war?
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Mr. President, Mr. President, insert anything relevant here that might show that we've solved
00:03:08.460
Instead, we're going to have, Mr. President, Mr. President, can you tell us what you said
00:03:14.940
Mr. President, Mr. President, you told the American people that you've not been able to do it.
00:03:21.120
And now yesterday you came out and said, yeah, I was trying to build a Trump tower in Moscow
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Mr. President, Mr. President, can I ask you this?
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Because what we have to say is, no, it doesn't matter.
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But we don't say that because by saying that, then the press has more ammunition to come
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Nobody, to the best of my recollection, had any dealings with the Russians?
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We have now the signed document where you signed off on a letter of intent to build a Trump
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tower in Moscow while you were saying there was nothing going on.
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Nobody's going to, nobody, nobody, nobody would have had a problem if you would have just come
00:05:02.600
out and said, yeah, I'm trying to build a Trump tower.
00:05:11.780
So now, we've got really, really important meetings.
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The, President Xi is, this is one of the most important meetings.
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This could decide whether or not the world goes to war in the next two years.
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Now, the president said last night, you know, that he's not sure he even wants to do a deal
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Because of all the tax revenue coming in from China, because of the trade, you know, embargo
00:05:57.320
Now, I'm hoping that that is just hyperbole getting ready to meet.
00:06:05.760
Well, I'm not really interested in that car over there that I've been drooling over for
00:06:14.240
I'm not really in the market for the car right now.
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I just happen to be, well, I live across town and I drove 45 minutes in traffic to get
00:06:25.000
to your car lot, but I'm not really that interested.
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But the one thing that I have learned is absolutely nothing, nothing this president said or says
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If we were just looking at what this president does, he'd be pretty popular.
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But because of what the president says, people get their panties in a bunch.
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Look at how much, every time he tweets, the press goes crazy.
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And you know what's so infuriating about this is the way the press reacts every single time.
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Once again, I read two stories from two people at CNN that said, you know, this is the first time that I felt we really have him here.
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When he was on the bus talking about, you know, touching women?
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It's like a prostitute constantly, over and over, losing their virginity.
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I think Madonna wrote a song about that at one point.
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And it's amazing the press can continue to do it.
00:08:06.420
I mean, and the thing is about what Trump says and tweets, he himself says over and over again that he's negotiating.
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We're not supposed to, you know, talk like people will talk when we were complaining about tariffs.
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A lot of people will say, well, he's just negotiating.
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And, you know, I mean, I think that one he has implemented so that no longer is really a talking point.
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But the point is, he says he's negotiating all the time.
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So if he's negotiating, he has some, right, some agenda to win some battle he's trying to do behind the scenes or whatever.
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Well, there's no reason to listen to those words specifically.
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And I, you know, look, it's a double standard because I would not have accepted that from Barack Obama.
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Because when he said things, I wanted to hold them to them.
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He's not even, I mean, this is a great point in that his supporters should not have to deal with trying to defend these things.
00:09:02.560
He doesn't even do anything wrong trying to build it.
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His business is building towers in other countries.
00:09:08.780
Do you remember, do you remember how many times when I was at Fox and we were at the very height of all the controversy around me, how many times I came on the air and I said, I'm really sorry because I know it makes it hard to defend me.
00:09:23.100
I used to say that all the time because I would say something stupid and it would be taken out of context or whatever or it was just plain stupid and I knew that it caused you trouble to defend me.
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Listen, please, please, if you look at the Trump, Trump's policies, he's a good president.
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I mean, I think the best example of the trade thing is kind of a big one that's starting to really scare the hell out of me.
00:10:02.400
If you look at what he says about Russia, you would think, oh, well, he's way too friendly with Vladimir Putin.
00:10:08.580
A lot of people believe, you know, you see that and it's notable.
00:10:10.840
I mean, I know because it is notable on what he says.
00:10:14.980
But if you look at what he does, his policies are pretty hawkish against very hawkish.
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The administration has taken a lot of major steps against Russia through this period.
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This has not been a presidency that has kissed the butt of Vladimir Putin.
00:10:29.000
Just because he said a few nice things in press conferences does not mean that the actions of the administration back, you know, go down that road.
00:10:37.460
And I think if if you realize that Trump is a guy who he's a big talker, right, he's saying that, you know, I have the best, the best of everything in the world.
00:10:44.820
And, you know, for years when he was back in the in the entertainment days, people would know.
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We know he's not actually meaning it's the biggest or best in the world.
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It's like he he because he says something in public or he says something to the press or he's fighting with the press and says something defensive.
00:11:06.440
Like I have absolutely no business with Russia.
00:11:08.840
You can't take it seriously because you don't know what the truth is until.
00:11:12.380
That's why we've been saying the Mueller thing.
00:11:14.820
And here's what liberals and the press don't understand.
00:11:20.240
And this is what's so frustrating is because there's look, 70 percent of this nation sick to death, sick to death of this crap.
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I think it's actually 80 percent that they're exhausted by this.
00:11:35.000
They just want everybody just to shut up and do their job.
00:11:39.240
OK, and what the press doesn't understand is that there are many people in America that are so tired of the lies of the press, not just the Trump lies, but the lies that have gone on forever and the double standard for.
00:12:15.780
George Bush knew about the towers when 60 percent of Democrats believed that in 2005, that George Bush had something to do with 9-11.
00:12:29.240
Now, of course, they deny it and say we're not into conspiracy theories.
00:12:35.240
OK, and that came from a press not being a bulldog on that stuff.
00:12:44.100
It's why I went on the air and said, we're going to get to the bottom of the FEMA camp thing.
00:12:52.100
I'm going to find out if they're happening or they're not.
00:12:56.120
I'm going to go in with an open mind and I'm going to say, are they happening or not?
00:13:01.000
I get I get bashed as a conspiracy theorist because I said, are they happening or not?
00:13:13.260
And quite honestly, I was pretty sure the answer was no, unless Dick Cheney had been building underground camps.
00:13:23.220
But look at the way the press approached the birtherism stuff.
00:13:26.640
They went out and they did segments on it, debunking it every day.
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They'd go back and show all the history, the reports in the newspapers.
00:13:43.620
They don't try to debunk the crazy conspiracies against Trump.
00:13:48.080
They just let them sit out there and don't really answer them.
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They just spread them and then they don't correct them afterwards.
00:14:00.860
And they never apologize for saying, you know what, we were wrong on this one and make a big deal out of it.
00:14:07.000
Nobody cares about your apology that happened one time, two o'clock in the afternoon after you've spent three weeks saying it.
00:14:15.120
I mean, I've heard Jake Tapper specifically go after conspiracy theories even against Trump.
00:14:20.880
Jake Tapper, I think, is in a different category most times.
00:14:27.260
And so it's why so many people agree when he says, you know, the enemy of the people, because it feels that way a lot of times.
00:14:35.440
So when you're sitting here, media, you're like, how can these people, how can they just keep putting up with the president lying about this?
00:15:00.940
Please, I've baked all of this crap in a long time.
00:15:04.360
You really thought we thought Cohen was a good guy?
00:15:22.680
If Donald Trump would have said during the election, yeah, well, I'm trying to build Trump Tower, which there's nothing wrong with that, as long as it's disclosed, there's nothing wrong with that.
00:15:41.560
I was shocked when he denied it so vehemently, because I'm like, of course he's trying to build one in my backyard.
00:15:50.040
What do you mean, in all of Russia, he doesn't want to put a hotel?
00:15:58.420
And that's one of the reasons we liked the guy.
00:16:00.960
However, him saying, yeah, I've got business dealings in Moscow right now, what would the press say?
00:16:09.640
So if he would have admitted it, they would have made it into exactly what it is today.
00:16:16.440
Not what it actually was, but what it is today.
00:16:22.900
So what happens, and let me explain this one more time as simply as I can to the media and to people on the left, not to the left, people who are Democrats.
00:16:41.800
But what is he supposed to do when you have a media that will take anything and everything and turn it into a massive scandal when the media created this guy?
00:17:05.920
Donald Trump, if we trusted the news during the Obama administration, if they were actually telling us what was really going on and did investigations when the government was out of control and when Obama was clearly lying about things like Obamacare.
00:17:31.480
That's the greatest health care system the world has ever seen.
00:17:47.620
No, here is the documented evidence that that will not happen.
00:17:52.700
But you let it slide until, what, a year after we lost our doctors and were paying higher prices?
00:18:06.520
We needed somebody like Donald Trump to tell you, shut up.
00:18:16.200
Because you thought he was going to be the easiest candidate to beat, you ran wall-to-wall coverage on him.
00:18:25.140
You took down everyone else in his path, but you just loved him for ratings, and you thought he was going to be the easiest one for Hillary to beat.
00:19:03.380
If you're not a subscriber, become one now on iTunes.
00:19:06.680
And while you're there, do us a favor and rate the show.
00:19:13.260
I don't know either, because I think people just get, you know, you get stuck in the rut of, you know,
00:19:16.900
some company you've been with for a while with your cell phone.
00:19:19.700
And, you know, think about where your money's going.
00:19:21.560
But, I mean, it's going to, a lot of times, hardcore left-wing causes,
00:19:24.920
because these companies spend tens of millions of dollars supporting progressive candidates, progressive causes.
00:19:32.060
You're paying it to them, and they're paying it to left-wing causes.
00:19:33.600
The great thing is, you still have the same great service, you know, using backbones, and you have the great service.
00:19:38.920
However, you're not paying all the extra fees to these companies that they're taking and diverting to causes that you hate.
00:19:46.500
Yeah, it really doesn't make any sense to do it the other way.
00:19:58.520
When you use the offer code Blaze, you're going to waive your activation fee for up to two lines.
00:20:04.260
PatriotMobile.com slash Blaze or 1-800-A-PATRIOT for Patriot Mobile.
00:20:09.000
It's worth a couple of minutes to make this switch.
00:20:11.960
Yeah, I remember you telling the story of, I think it was your grandfather who got to a place where he could no longer drive a car, and it ripped him apart.
00:20:20.960
And then he wound up driving his lawnmower to town, right?
00:20:25.200
Yeah, well, first he drove his truck to Denny's, and then when he was backing out, he went the opposite direction really fast, so he went through the front window of Denny's.
00:20:37.480
So we had to take the keys of the truck away, and then he decided he was going to take the tractor to Denny's, and so they had to stop him taking the tractor.
00:20:47.740
And then we caught him literally on the highway on his little riding lawnmower trying to get to Denny's.
00:20:55.860
And he was just like, first of all, the ultimate commercial for Denny's.
00:21:04.640
Like, you lose those things, and, you know, you feel like you're no longer.
00:21:18.000
Now, imagine you're in line at the Dollar General store, okay?
00:21:26.300
And I don't mean passing gas like, ooh, boy, you smell something?
00:21:33.440
It's a woman in front of you, and she is just...
00:22:02.120
You would expect the person to go, oh, my gosh, I am so sorry.
00:22:22.660
And he finally says something, because she's just crass about it.
00:22:35.920
She said, you have a problem with what's happened?
00:22:42.100
And he's like, well, I mean, it is just, I mean, can you at least say excuse me?
00:22:49.300
And she reaches into her purse, and she pulls the knife.
00:22:52.660
And she pulls the knife on the guy, and he starts to back away.
00:22:57.660
And she said, you say another word, and I'm going to gut you.
00:23:12.100
Now, the one reason why this caught my eye today is guess which state this story is from.
00:23:18.360
I mean, I would probably guess the one we're sitting in right now.
00:23:28.740
This state is the home of the craziest news up until probably 2007.
00:23:40.540
But Florida, I think the reason why Florida is so chill is because, yeah, they watch the news.
00:23:45.960
They've been seeing that stuff go on for a long time.
00:24:08.220
That is, I think, the way they digest this information.
00:24:23.160
A woman gets onto a plane with her five-year-old daughter.
00:24:26.200
And she gets on the plane, and the flight attendants make fun of her daughter's name.
00:24:42.880
They post a picture of the boarding pass and a picture of the daughter online.
00:24:51.760
But they're making fun of her because she told ABC News that her daughter, ABCD, it was not right.
00:25:28.320
So if I had to ask you what state the parent was from that would name their kids A-B-C-D-E.
00:26:00.620
If I had to ask you what state would a parent be most likely to name their kid A-B-C-D-E, what would you say?
00:26:09.000
I would guess the one we're sitting in right now.
00:26:16.540
No chance it's any place other than Florida or California.
00:26:29.520
I think this is a case why we need a border wall.
00:26:36.420
I would like it on the west side of Texas because they're swarming in these Californians.
00:26:44.000
And no Texan, no self-respecting Texan would ever name their child A-B-C-D-E.
00:27:00.920
That's somebody from California that's like, I kind of like that country of Texas.
00:27:08.520
You're going to name your kid after fruit, after space rocks, or any part of the alphabet.
00:27:16.800
I know my name is also part of the alphabet, but it's arranged in a name.
00:27:24.320
I want somebody on the staff of the Blaze to take 20 minutes out of their day-to-day.
00:27:29.420
They don't even have to write a story, but I'm the boss.
00:27:32.620
I want to find out if this is a California immigrant.
00:27:38.640
I suspect she's a white person who's a social justice warrior from California.
00:27:50.940
The only person that hates white people more than you is probably the white person that
00:28:01.740
You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck Program.
00:28:21.600
I wanted to start with this because I know that your column is about another epidemic that
00:28:30.600
Yeah, and there's a correlation to the rise of drug addiction in the hard drug arena to
00:28:39.920
the massive amount of Internet addiction we're seeing, not only in the United States, but
00:28:49.220
And it's a very complicated issue, as you know, Beck.
00:28:54.220
By the way, I appreciate you guys labeling me Father Christmas because, as you know, I saved
00:29:05.360
And you've got rosy cheeks, and you just look like fun.
00:29:10.860
And no spin elves on BillOReilly.com working around the clock.
00:29:17.160
So, it's a very complicated situation because you are dealing with individuals who make
00:29:28.080
And the decision is, I'm going to take hard drugs for recreational purposes.
00:29:36.420
You know, there are people who get addicted because of medical reasons, but not that many.
00:29:41.200
And I'm going to do it despite knowing I might die, and I might become addicted and destroy
00:29:50.300
Anyway, so you're starting with a person who's troubled because rational people, they don't
00:29:58.760
And therefore, all of this pie in the sky about, well, all we need is more money for rehab
00:30:05.520
and the government's fault because they don't provide whatever to these people.
00:30:13.260
The second thing is the society itself, with the legalization of marijuana and the basic
00:30:18.860
glorification of drug use in the media, in Hollywood, sends a message to young and mature
00:30:34.380
And, you know, getting intoxicated when you're 14, that's a good thing.
00:30:41.600
So, you have that, that massive wave of, oh, inebriation is good.
00:30:48.100
And if you do it, you'll be accepted and you'll be one of the cool kids.
00:30:58.240
And the final piece to it is, and we're looking at it now, well, if you're a seller of fentanyl,
00:31:09.620
Um, yeah, you might be handing people poison and they might die, but no, it's not that bad.
00:31:19.500
You shouldn't really be spending a lot of time in prison.
00:31:25.740
So, all of this, um, is why the CDC comes out with this, um, you know, and by the way,
00:31:33.200
more people died last year of drug overs than in the entire Vietnam war by a lot.
00:31:45.500
Well, but there's, there's also something else that you talk about, and that is the addiction
00:31:57.880
I just, I heard about it just the couple of days ago, and then I read it in your column.
00:32:01.540
Um, yeah, it's, it's internet disorder and, um, disorder, disorder.
00:32:08.180
So, now there are rehab clinics, of course, capitalism.
00:32:11.980
You're going to have four kids, mostly kids, um, ages 11, if you can imagine to 23, 24 and
00:32:22.200
it costs a fortune because insurance is not going to handle it, um, to go there and, and
00:32:26.880
to try to, you know, pry their iPhones out of their hands.
00:32:30.400
But every parent and grandparent knows about the addiction, and there are plenty of adults
00:32:40.620
I mean, nobody talks about that, but pets used to be, you know, brought in and you pay
00:32:45.560
attention to them and you walk them and you nurture them.
00:32:48.620
And now the pets look at you, how come nobody's paying attention to me?
00:32:56.820
That's why I got my dog an iPhone and, uh, and an Instagram page.
00:33:05.020
Let's talk a little bit about Cohen and what happened yesterday, what you think it, it, um,
00:33:11.080
it actually means, and then what you think it politically means.
00:33:16.680
Um, I don't know what it means and no one else does either.
00:33:24.240
Therefore, all the pundits who are telling you on television and in the newspaper, op-ed
00:33:38.340
He, he, he came out, uh, and said, this is Cohen.
00:33:43.200
He came out and he said, I lied to, uh, some Congress people under oath about a Russian
00:33:55.680
Now we, we, he is, he is already, uh, you know, not a credible person.
00:34:02.040
Um, however, he made that claim then Trump who has been saying the whole time, 14 times
00:34:09.440
since he's been president, that we've had no business dealings at all over in Russia.
00:34:15.680
Yesterday he came out and he said he's weak and pathetic.
00:34:22.400
So I was trying to, of course I was, I'm a businessman.
00:34:26.820
Uh, but there's nothing wrong with that, which is true.
00:34:29.760
Um, with an exception of the denials, but not under oath.
00:34:35.860
We think this coming from Rudy Giuliani, that the president answered, uh, honestly to in
00:34:42.840
So there's no, if Giuliani is telling the truth, there is no perjury trap here for him.
00:34:49.600
Uh, so there doesn't look like there's anything, uh, that there was any laws broken.
00:34:58.600
But he, but he didn't lie about it because he said quite clearly, I don't have any business
00:35:21.020
I'm not talking about court of law because we don't, as far as I'm concerned, Trump and
00:35:26.060
his lawyers can say, as they have said, we didn't have any business dealings with Russia.
00:35:32.840
And I, I'm not talking about, I'm not talking about the law because I don't think there's
00:35:38.720
He's going to say Beck, and you can disagree with it and disparage him if you want to,
00:35:43.960
but he's going to say, I didn't have any business dealings with him.
00:35:47.340
A conversation about maybe someday we'll build a condo in Moscow is not a business dealing.
00:36:01.780
I mean, his intent was to do, uh, to, to do business and he formally engaged them.
00:36:11.040
The letters, I mean, obviously, you know, it's been reported on if it comes out.
00:36:16.160
I haven't seen any letter and until I see the letter, I don't believe it.
00:36:20.640
So if, so if there is a letter and he did sign it, does it matter?
00:36:26.300
Because if there's a letter of intent to build a condominium in Moscow, that's a business dealing.
00:36:37.160
So even if he, see, this is, this is interesting because, um, I buy into the letter and I don't
00:36:44.220
think that anybody's, I don't think it's going to come from.
00:36:51.160
Um, October 28th, 20, October 28th, 2015 was the date.
00:36:56.060
It was the date of the third Republican presidential debate.
00:36:58.660
And I think this is an interesting one, Bill, because it's one of those things.
00:37:04.420
If it was, but what, but, but if they have the letter, they should be able to show it.
00:37:07.780
If they have the letter, it should be in the Mueller report when it comes out.
00:37:12.940
If, if Cohen had a letter and Cohen would be the guy.
00:37:20.820
He's just yesterday came out and said, okay, yes, I did lie about this too.
00:37:28.060
I get to the point on this when, when the facts are out, then we'll be able to comment
00:37:33.760
I'm not, I'm not holding the letter out as, cause I'm not talking about, I'm only talking
00:37:41.920
Don't use the word lie and fall into the trap of all of the hate Trump media.
00:38:02.600
Well, this would be proof that you would, you, you are saying it would be proof if this
00:38:08.000
A letter of intent to build a condominium in Moscow, that is a business dealing.
00:38:16.920
So what does that mean then if that did exist to you?
00:38:21.880
It means that he misled people about what his contacts with Russia were.
00:38:35.120
So, so is anybody, is this going to change anything?
00:38:39.220
Well, unless he said that under oath in his deposition.
00:38:45.840
If he didn't, it would just be, it would just be another thing that the anti-Trump people
00:39:00.080
Because if you, Stu and I were talking about this earlier, if you listen to what the president
00:39:05.420
says, you have a good chance at one point or another during your day, I'm getting pissed
00:39:11.720
But if you don't listen to what he says, you just watch his actions.
00:39:16.580
Like on, on, on Russia, he's very strong against Russia.
00:39:20.340
Um, he is, he has taken real sanctions to, uh, to Russia that we have not seen before.
00:39:26.720
When, when you watch his actions, they don't match the words.
00:39:32.000
Cause he's a guy like, this is the most beautiful sink ever built.
00:39:35.980
And you're like, okay, it's, it's, it's a sink, man.
00:39:39.880
Um, so you, you have to, you have to not look at his, his language, but when you, when
00:39:46.640
you actually listen to him, um, you have to defend it.
00:39:51.480
And, you know, we're, we're put into a role to where, um, we have to somehow or another
00:39:59.680
That he said, I had nothing to do with paying those girls off.
00:40:04.320
And we know now that he did, um, if he, if this happens with Russia and there's a, there's
00:40:09.120
a couple of other things that are like this, that you have to make a decision whether his
00:40:23.200
And I think the American people, same thing with Clinton, as the Republicans are doing with
00:40:29.800
And I think, and I think everybody has already made their decision on that.
00:40:34.640
I'm not sure because if Trump needs, if he wants to be reelected, he's got to win over
00:40:41.260
about 7% more votes, uh, that he has now in the polls.
00:40:47.200
So let's, let's persuadable people depending on who runs against him.
00:40:55.260
You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck program.
00:40:58.800
20th anniversary of the international religious freedom act.
00:41:21.300
This has been in, and I'm not sure that religious freedom is getting better, uh, at all.
00:41:26.540
We have the ambassador at large, uh, Sam Brownback.
00:41:33.680
Uh, and now the ambassador at large, which I think means he's either on the lamb or they
00:41:39.880
don't, or they, or they don't give him a cool, you know, residence to live in.
00:41:54.660
Uh, I'm, I'm sure that at large means that you're not on the lamb, right?
00:42:03.020
At large, it's not a religious freedom for, uh, you know, a particular country, Bulgaria
00:42:12.160
So, you know, we work on the issues around the world.
00:42:14.440
I'm stationed out of the state department, but I do do a lot of traveling, uh, to different
00:42:18.740
countries and work around the administration on religious freedom topics that, uh, yeah,
00:42:24.080
It, that the situation has gotten worse over the last 20 years.
00:42:27.660
Uh, but this administration is serious about what we can do to, to try to change that trend
00:42:37.060
So if, if we ask anything that we shouldn't be asking, I know, I know we want,
00:42:42.160
people to be free and I don't care about, you know, I don't care about the interview
00:42:48.160
So feel free to say, shut up Glenn at any time.
00:42:50.660
Um, but can we, um, can we talk a little bit about, um, the middle East, uh, and, and
00:42:58.280
start with the middle East on what's happening, what's happening there.
00:43:03.500
We are, you know, Mercury one has done a remarkable job on bringing thousands of
00:43:11.960
Christians out of the middle East and the lion's share really now at this point has
00:43:16.800
gone to, um, uh, Australia and these are good Christians who were marked for death in
00:43:24.900
We've got one, one, not family, one person into America.
00:43:30.920
How come America is not embracing the persecuted Christians, uh, like some, uh, other countries
00:43:42.280
Well, we historically have, uh, you can, uh, look at a number of people that have fled
00:43:47.760
the middle East, particularly religious minorities over the last 30 years and a number have come
00:43:53.580
And I don't know why the recent, uh, situation has changed where they're not coming into the
00:43:58.460
United States, uh, cause we've, uh, we've always been a haven for religious minorities.
00:44:03.400
One of the new things that we're trying to do more is though, to make the situation safer
00:44:08.800
in the middle East for religious minorities to stay.
00:44:12.000
Uh, and that's the, well, I know that's what a lot of them.
00:44:21.140
Northern Iraq is probably the best example where a number of them are moving back.
00:44:27.560
Uh, we're rebuilding homes, rebuilding, uh, churches, institutions, hospitals, uh, and
00:44:34.100
the key long-term is to get a better security environment, uh, so that people don't feel
00:44:42.460
Uh, and now we're starting to focus on that security agenda, uh, to be able to tell people
00:44:51.460
You can seek asylum status in other places and people grant it, but we really need you to
00:44:58.240
Uh, we, we don't want to see these historic religions, particularly Christianity, but
00:45:03.500
also the Yazidis in that region just get, continue to get pushed out of the Middle East
00:45:10.720
Well, I tell you, they, they, most of them have reluctantly left, um, the ones that we
00:45:17.160
They don't want to leave because they, they, they all say the same thing.
00:45:21.100
If we leave, we are the original people that you read about in the Bible, the ones that
00:45:26.240
were persecuted, the, you know, the ones that the apostles first went to talk to, that's
00:45:31.560
And if we leave it completely, it leaves a vacuum.
00:45:41.280
And that's why I was happy to hear that a number of them are moving back now, uh, into
00:45:47.600
I, I, we just held, I had some meetings every week at Tuesday from 11 to noon, Washington,
00:45:55.600
Uh, we do a religious freedom round table with outside groups and a number of outside
00:45:59.660
individuals then that have been persecuted or represent persecuted communities come in
00:46:05.440
Uh, and recently I was at one of those where people say, no, we, our community, Northern
00:46:10.380
Iraq, about 55% have moved back now, uh, to the community.
00:46:15.980
The churches have been rebuilt, uh, and they're, they're happy to be able to move back home.
00:46:21.480
But the security situation is still tenuous at any time.
00:46:29.520
And so, you know, they're, they kind of sleep with a bag packed, uh, ready to flee to Erbil
00:46:36.500
or somewhere else in the region where they can get to near term safety.
00:46:40.600
But that, that's the situation we've got to correct where they don't have to, to sleep
00:46:45.500
with a bag packed to, to leave at any, at a moment's notice.
00:46:48.900
So, um, you know, the, the Saudi Arabia situation with Khashoggi was, uh, an absolute nightmare.
00:46:58.920
Um, and, you know, they're not the, uh, friendliest, uh, place, uh, to visit, especially if you're
00:47:06.720
However, I have heard that things are dramatically changing there.
00:47:11.420
And, uh, you know, they, the, the, there are some areas in the Middle East that are even
00:47:20.520
Are you sensing something happening in the Middle East more than just an opposition to Iran?
00:47:30.980
I'm headed to the UAE, uh, United Arab Emirates next week, uh, speaking to a major, uh, mostly
00:47:38.300
Muslim leadership, uh, conference, uh, and going to talk about, uh, uh, ending, uh, violence
00:47:46.900
between the Abrahamic faiths, uh, and talk about, uh, that, that what we, uh, need to
00:47:53.440
do is have a respect, uh, for each other, uh, that these are different faiths.
00:47:59.940
There's no question about it, but people, we should have a respect, uh, for that, uh,
00:48:05.080
and that there should not be, and that, and that the theologians should say that our religion
00:48:10.780
does not support the use of violence in the promotion, uh, the propagation of the faith,
00:48:20.360
Now that, that seems, that seems, uh, you know, that, that seems just like something that
00:48:27.120
people are going to say and they don't really mean it because that's the way it has been.
00:48:31.340
But I, I have again heard, uh, that in Saudi Arabia, they are now arresting and closing
00:48:38.620
down many of the extremist mosques, the Wahhabist, um, clerics, that there are fifteen, fifteen
00:48:45.580
hundred to three thousand that have, uh, have lost their mosque, uh, and have been, and,
00:48:52.100
and have been, uh, stopped because of their view.
00:48:56.820
I, I, I can't verify that particular, uh, thing, but I can tell you, uh, that things
00:49:04.400
are changing, uh, just that, uh, you are seeing, uh, a, um, leadership at the governmental
00:49:12.340
level, uh, in these countries that, uh, is more open, uh, respectful, and then seeing too,
00:49:20.920
Glenn, that when, when you decide as a nation, we are only going to have one faith and we're
00:49:26.740
only going to have one interpretation of that one faith in our country and all else are
00:49:31.400
not welcome, uh, and they can easily be, um, vandalized, terrorized, killed, you limit the
00:49:41.440
You, you limit your potential and you actually increase extremism and terrorism and you almost,
00:49:51.880
A number of the governments in the region are seeing, this is a bad strategy for us long
00:49:59.560
We have to be open and, and let the faiths compete, uh, in a, in a, in a environment that
00:50:07.000
protects all faiths, being able to practice as they see fit, as long as they're peaceful.
00:50:11.380
So I'm, I'm, I'm sure you've seen what's been happening on our, our borders.
00:50:16.940
Um, and, uh, it has been a little agonizing, um, to many people to hear the, the refugee,
00:50:28.520
uh, word thrown around so much and, and asylum thrown around for people that, uh, many of
00:50:36.900
them are on record stating, uh, that they are here because they can't find a job or
00:50:41.600
they want to finish their education in America, et cetera, et cetera.
00:50:44.960
There, I'm sure there are qualified people that need asylum, uh, you know, that, that
00:50:49.500
are headed towards our, our border, but it's, it's in the vast minority I'm guessing.
00:50:55.940
And it seems like we've lost touch with what a refugee really is.
00:51:00.340
When, when the United States opens, uh, its arms to say, we, we will provide shelter for
00:51:08.600
you, uh, it is for something vastly different than what we're seeing on the border.
00:51:14.720
Can you, can you define what a, what persecution looks like, what a refugee or someone who needs
00:51:22.220
asylum looks like in your world of religious freedom?
00:51:27.400
Um, well, I mean, there's, there are legal definitions and there are courts that make
00:51:31.560
these determinations and we have, uh, hundreds of thousands probably of people in the United
00:51:39.300
And I, I pulled that number out of the air, so I'm not certain, but I'm certain it's thousands
00:51:43.540
that are seeking and courts make that determination.
00:51:46.460
But generally the situation that has to prevail is that they were from or in a country where in
00:51:52.680
their set of beliefs, they could not, uh, function, they were subject to, uh, terrorism, to arrest,
00:52:00.460
uh, that they were not allowed to go to school, uh, or to practice their, uh, freedom, uh, freely
00:52:07.960
so that they had this level of systematic persecution that was taking place at the hands of the government,
00:52:14.720
uh, or that they had no protection, uh, provided by the government.
00:52:19.080
And this was allowed to take place against them.
00:52:21.400
Those are the sort of factual situations that you're looking for on an asylum status, which
00:52:28.480
is, which can often be pretty hard to, to, uh, actually achieve to meet the factual setting
00:52:35.000
that we require to grant somebody a legal asylum status.
00:52:38.980
Is the, the increase of religious persecution, is it a factor of the governments of the world
00:52:47.940
getting worse, or is it a factor that the churches have pretty much fallen asleep at the switch?
00:52:58.480
Uh, you know, I ask this question of experts all the time, uh, because it seemed like to me
00:53:03.500
that we had a burst of religious freedom after the fall of communism.
00:53:08.260
That those nations opened up, there was a, just, there was a freedom that happened that
00:53:12.460
they hadn't breathed for a long period of time.
00:53:14.640
It was more exclusive to there, but there was a nice push of it around the world.
00:53:18.480
And then the things have been constricting, uh, since that period of time.
00:53:21.940
And I was talking with an expert about that earlier this week.
00:53:24.800
And he said, you know, it's a series of factors.
00:53:26.620
It's government seeing religion and its importance, uh, and its impact.
00:53:32.380
And then dabbling in it, in some cases funding it.
00:53:36.120
But if you fund something by government, government's tentacles go into you and they tend towards
00:53:43.940
In other cases, it's a political move by government where a majority faith oriented people, uh,
00:53:50.480
don't like a new minority faith that's coming in and they want them kicked out, uh, limited,
00:53:57.620
and they'll pursue laws that, uh, that do that.
00:54:00.920
There's any number of factors, but it is probably really reflective as much as anything of the
00:54:06.540
growing importance of religion at a time when much of the world thought religion would be in
00:54:12.520
Uh, the impact and the importance of religion is growing around the world and governments
00:54:18.520
are active, uh, around that space, more active.
00:54:24.440
So let me ask you this, and it kind of goes to what you just said.
00:54:27.620
Um, as I travel the world and I am with persecuted people, uh, and persecuted for their religion,
00:54:46.240
Um, it is, it is remarkable for the country that is known to be one of the most religious,
00:54:54.960
at least in Christianity, how shallow our faith is overall compared to those countries where
00:55:04.920
Those people, their faith is remarkably different.
00:55:12.160
I, I, I, I'm around people weekly, uh, whose faith astounds me, uh, whose beautiful faith.
00:55:21.240
And there's a, there's a calm peace, uh, and joy, uh, about them that you're looking, this,
00:55:30.340
Uh, uh, I, I was, um, on the phone with Andrew Brunson, uh, and we worked his case.
00:55:37.680
The president got him out, uh, the president leaned in and got that done.
00:55:42.540
But that man, uh, Andrew Brunson has a remarkable calm and peaceful faith.
00:55:49.240
And he spent two years in a Turkish prison and had great difficulty and lots of spiritual
00:55:54.360
failures, but towards the end is getting successes.
00:55:57.420
And you're just going, yeah, yeah, I, I, you just see the purified faith there.
00:56:04.400
And, and people speaking clearly about miracles and signs and things that they've seen personally
00:56:12.200
that have caused them to, to make this bold proclamation of their faith.
00:56:21.040
Ambassador, uh, Sam Brownback, um, you were a, uh, great governor and a great senator.
00:56:26.360
And, uh, and thank you for all of your hard work through the years.
00:56:29.680
And thank you so much for your, your work as the ambassador of, uh, religious, international