The Glenn Beck Program - Best of The Program ｜ Guests： Carrie Severino, Kelly Shackelford, & Brad Meltzer ｜ 10⧸13⧸20

00:00:00.000 well we welcome uh mr stuber here back uh from his covet experience yes thank you very much uh

00:00:07.320 proud to be positive that's what we say in the community proud to be positive and uh and he's

00:00:12.340 gonna he's promising to french kiss every member of the audience today because he's over it get

00:00:17.900 in line get in line i've got certs it's weird it's a very short in fact there's no one in line

00:00:23.180 so far but it's you know people people are worried about the big build-up at the beginning

00:00:28.180 those show up a little leap right uh we talk a little bit about amy in fact we talk a lot about

00:00:33.160 amy coney barrett and cover uh all of that from all of the different angles ben sass uh is with us

00:00:39.300 he's running for re-election in nebraska uh and we also uh we also talk about what the cern is doing

00:00:48.120 next week opening a black hole you know just under the ground in in europe with all the news that's

00:00:57.020 going on i'm rooting for the black hole uh all that and more on today's podcast

00:01:03.400 you're listening to the best of the blend back program

00:01:13.940 carrie severino is with us she's the president of judicial crisis network and i want to get her

00:01:22.540 opinion on what's happened so far and where we're headed on the barrett confirmation hearing

00:01:29.100 hi carrie how are you good how are you doing then uh very good so yesterday the strategy seemed to be

00:01:37.400 to change the definition of packing the court is that what you took away yesterday from the the tactic

00:01:45.540 of the democrats you know they wanted to talk about anything as long as it wasn't talking about amy coney

00:01:51.600 barrett they did not want to talk about this talented outstanding uh woman sitting before them

00:01:57.380 they tried to return to play politics so you know there were some a lot of the democrats just wanted

00:02:02.340 to talk about obamacare they had pictures up of different people uh you know who had been helped

00:02:07.340 by by by the uh america affordable care act and they were trying to make it seem like her whole purpose

00:02:12.760 in life was to get rid of this that's that's ridiculous it's not even an issue that um she's likely to 1.00

00:02:17.640 be the deciding vote on but you know they that seemed to pull well for them and i agree they want

00:02:22.220 to see they they want to make it seem like simply filling seats on the court is somehow illegitimate

00:02:28.200 is court packing which is so ironic because you have joe biden currently refusing to say what he

00:02:34.020 would do with respect to actual court packing which is when you change the number of seats in the supreme

00:02:39.020 court for purely partisan ends like fdr tried to do to get a court that would uphold more of his new

00:02:45.040 deal legislation he said well i'll just add more seats in the court that was rejected by his

00:02:50.100 democratic senate it was rejected by people like ruth bader ginsburg even bertie sanders thinks this is a

00:02:54.720 bad idea guys should be an easy question will you or will you not do this horribly radical thing and

00:03:00.440 undermine the court and they don't want to talk about that they try to change the subject well the

00:03:04.760 question i just had ban sass on he said the question really is going to rely on the senate if i'm not

00:03:10.320 mistaken when fdr tried it he did get 26 of his fellow democrats to vote for it times have changed

00:03:18.120 people don't even pay attention to the constitution anymore uh do you think he could get more than 26

00:03:25.100 votes to pack the court i think if the democrats get control of the house and the senate and the

00:03:31.020 white house i think they absolutely will do that right away if they if they wouldn't they would tell us

00:03:35.860 because yeah i think they recognize this is such a radical thing americans don't want to see it

00:03:40.400 but he's refusing to commit to not doing it that's because he's more interested in in placating his

00:03:48.020 liberal handlers uh than actually doing what the american people want to do or even telling the

00:03:52.800 american people what they frankly do deserve to know and contrary to what biden said is what would

00:03:57.900 the president do with respect to an entire third branch of government here so i would be upset at any

00:04:04.060 conservative that did uh what i think john roberts does uh in favor of conservatives i would be really

00:04:12.540 upset if if they would take something and not look at the constitution but instead just start to

00:04:19.300 legislate from the bench and i think john roberts has done that with obamacare uh and and other things

00:04:24.440 um and i don't want that and a constitutional uh a strict constitutionist uh constitutionalist

00:04:32.800 will actually probably piss me off at times because i'll want it to go the other way but i'll be fine

00:04:41.640 with it uh because if the constitution actually says that well then we got to do it right why is it that

00:04:49.520 people don't understand that a strict constitutionalist will give you some wins and some losses

00:04:56.780 and some of your wins will be surprises some of your losses won't be yeah it's a fundamental

00:05:04.440 misunderstanding of the role of a judge and you're hearing in some of the discussion today where

00:05:08.660 you know senator feinstein just got done trying to get uh there to talk about what her personal views 1.00

00:05:14.160 are on or on for everything from guns to health care like this is not the question it isn't she's

00:05:18.940 not someone who's going to simply go on the court and say well you know ginsberg was putting her

00:05:22.960 personal views on from the left i'm going to put my personal views on from the right that's not what

00:05:26.900 we want either we don't want i don't want that judicial activists on the court we want constitutionalists

00:05:32.320 on the court and there are aspects of the constitution that actually are you know would fit into what you

00:05:37.200 would call a quote liberal uh paradigm sure strong defendants rights for example there are aspects that

00:05:44.200 you might say are quote conservative like second amendment rights but the constitution isn't a

00:05:49.000 political document it's a legal document and that's the judge's role is to look at it that way so if

00:05:54.800 you're following the law and the constitution sometimes your results are going to look liberal

00:05:58.800 from a political standpoint they might look conservative sometimes from a political standpoint but what's so

00:06:03.240 important is they're legally based it's not someone who's acting themselves to kind of fall to follow

00:06:08.940 their own political goals then it's following the politics of the american people who pass those laws

00:06:13.600 is this what we used to have i mean was there a time when the supreme court was uh just known as

00:06:22.260 just interpreting the law well that's that's always been its job and i think justices have done

00:06:30.520 better or worse jobs of doing that you know obviously through history we've had you know it's not only

00:06:36.720 recently that we've had judges who may have mistaken that role but i think it has become more of an

00:06:41.340 epidemic more of a crisis uh recently because that was just accepted by all of legal academia and the and

00:06:48.000 the and the uh whole um you know practice but what's great is we're seeing a pushback now and this is

00:06:53.880 something that you know justice scalia was kind of on the front end of and now judge barrett is kind of

00:06:59.060 carrying on that mantle of hey here's how we get that politics out we're going to be very faithful

00:07:04.600 to the text as it is written we need to look at what the law meant at the time it was passed not

00:07:10.260 what we think it should mean today not what we wish it meant today and so that's what actually takes

00:07:15.480 that politics out so this is really finally achieving the goal of getting those politics back

00:07:20.580 out and restoring the court to its proper constitutional so we have now uh three judges that donald trump

00:07:28.480 has appointed if he wins a second term how many more judges and will they be clarence thomas or will

00:07:35.980 they be people that will will bring us closer to the constitution do you have any idea who's looking

00:07:42.620 to retire or oh you know that is sort of always a very uh treacherous area to try to speculate i in

00:07:50.080 2016 i was speculated that would be when we were you know justice ginsburg my retire and it was four

00:07:54.780 years later right so uh you i think we don't know but we do know that whoever is elected in 2020 is

00:08:00.460 likely to get seats and remember these are all life-term seats so even if you are replacing someone

00:08:06.240 who has a similar judicial approach it has a generational impact because that means you know

00:08:11.600 for the next 30 i mean justice tennis has almost served for 30 years already uh you know and we have

00:08:16.660 people serving maybe four decades at this point amy coney barris only 48 right she could serve for a long 1.00

00:08:21.560 time that is going to have a huge impact going into the future of how our children and our

00:08:26.060 grandchildren a country will be run and how we will understand the constitution they um also are

00:08:32.020 trying to say that donald trump packed the courts by by filling the vacancies in the lower courts

00:08:38.360 um which he he did and obama walked away with a lot of vacancies um that changes things have you

00:08:46.060 looked at all into the the states where we're most likely to have close uh election results and is there

00:08:55.200 an impact on the courts there that uh may play towards the constitution's favor uh well you know so we

00:09:04.320 trump has done really historically impressive jobs filling those seats which is really great a lot of the

00:09:11.720 remaining seats unfortunately are in states where there are democratic senators and they are blocking

00:09:16.980 trump's picks they would rather have no one sitting on the court than have someone that donald trump

00:09:21.700 uh put on the court so you're seeing you're seeing in some of those states real problems with um

00:09:26.660 you know cases backing up and and and judges having a very heavy workload uh so i i'm optimistic that if

00:09:33.620 if we can get some senators who are willing to uh acknowledge that you know these judges are going to be

00:09:40.000 faithful to the law and move forward with those we could have a better situation across the country

00:09:45.580 but i think what's so great is we now have well over 200 judges that trump has put there this is the

00:09:50.820 next generation of outstanding uh legal experts in the country and it's already having an impact

00:09:57.940 in terms of cases being decided according to the law rather than according to politics

00:10:02.060 so wait so so the states can say no to a federal judge

00:10:05.780 well the way the system works there's something called the blue slip and state senators from the

00:10:12.160 state can refuse to turn in their blue slip and traditionally there's no you know there's no rule

00:10:18.800 or or law that says this but traditionally the senate has said if the senators from the state don't both

00:10:24.580 approve of the nominee we won't move forward on it so thankfully there have been many including

00:10:29.540 democrat senators who have compromised with the president and have been able to come up with some judges

00:10:33.820 that they could all agree on um but also there's others uh that you know what they want to have

00:10:38.240 nothing to do with any kind of compromise uh with donald trump uh particularly you know places like

00:10:43.160 california where you've got one of them running for vice president she's not going to compromise with 0.58

00:10:46.560 him right right they're they're just willing to hold on and hold on and refuse to nominate

00:10:51.180 refuse to help confirm anyone um let me go back to amy coney barrett uh i know you can never tell

00:10:58.420 and republicans always seem to get to the losing end of this stick you get somebody you think is

00:11:04.220 good and then they start to you know go and and and and side with liberals um i know we can't tell

00:11:12.000 the future but who do who do you think she's most like um or most likely to be like as a justice 0.63

00:11:20.820 well you know she's she obviously is a clerk for justice scalia and she describes him as a major

00:11:27.740 mentor in her life so i think her jurisprudence probably will most resemble uh justice scalia's

00:11:33.880 but her it's you know all of these people have a very different personality so she has much

00:11:37.880 you know just watching her today her scalia was known for his his sharp one-liners and as much fun 0.97

00:11:44.620 as that is her her style is very different she's just been so um i guess professorial is the right word

00:11:50.340 uh but but kind of kind and explaining she's very good at explaining what these questions are and

00:11:56.380 she's just so she comes across i think she's so genuine and and and careful and thoughtful about

00:12:01.920 the law i think she um is going to be someone on the court who has you know the the jurisprudence of 0.51

00:12:07.980 a scalia but maybe a slightly softer uh tone and it's you know who knows maybe that'll be something

00:12:13.440 that even is compelling to some of her uh colleagues on the other side of the bench as well

00:12:18.160 thank you so much for uh watching and uh we'll talk to you hopefully again tomorrow and and get

00:12:24.520 a recap of what's happening today i don't see any trouble for her in the future at least at this

00:12:30.740 point do you agree with that she's knocking it out of the park today in terms of her her hearing and 1.00

00:12:37.140 so i just think um it's going to be hard pressed i think for anyone to come up with a good excuse

00:12:41.500 not to confer maybe coney barrett supreme court she's she's gonna be outstanding

00:12:45.260 this is the best of the glenn beck program

00:12:50.480 what is happening to our religious freedom around the country a guy who really can uh help us answer 0.99

00:13:06.800 that question who fights it every single day is kelly shackleford he's the president ceo of first

00:13:12.400 liberty institute and uh chief counsel of first liberty institute has been in front of the supreme

00:13:16.680 court over and over again um let me just start with the cases up in in california and in new york

00:13:24.880 about religious freedom kelly uh glenn thanks for having me on yeah we're we're in a real battle

00:13:33.000 um i don't know if everybody remembers back but when this whole thing started with the pandemic we

00:13:38.540 realized this is really going to be a fight because um we've never had any constitutional law in a

00:13:44.460 pandemic right i mean there's no cases and everybody was seeing these pictures of like the guy throwing

00:13:50.920 a baseball with his kids being handcuffed correct children because he was in a park and the guy on

00:13:55.820 the beach coming off all by himself on a surfboard being arrested so we we tried to be really careful

00:14:00.980 about the first case and we wanted it to be the right one because we're getting all kinds of

00:14:05.120 churches calling us saying you won't believe what they're doing to us and we we got what we thought

00:14:09.880 was the right case and that was in louisville it was a uh a church that was trying to do an easter

00:14:15.760 service and they wanted to be together but they wanted to be safe so they did a drive-in service in

00:14:19.860 their cars right and and that was the the mayor of louisville kentucky said that was a crime

00:14:26.300 and the governor said they were going to send police officers to every church on easter sunday

00:14:31.620 to write down the license plate of any car in any church parking lot and those people would be

00:14:36.620 visited by the police and they would be quarantined to their home for 14 days and we went okay this is

00:14:42.060 it this is china you know we this is the case and we filed we got a great judge we got a great decision

00:14:49.560 he said look the constitution is in place in this country this country is built on religious freedom

00:14:54.740 and we started there and we've now had about 10 victories in a row but what happened is a lot of

00:15:00.920 other lawsuits started getting filed that weren't necessarily as thoughtful and they created a lot

00:15:06.440 of precedent and i i you know glenn i've just got to be honest we're in a war right now all across the

00:15:12.440 country of whether the government is going to control our churches and you know until we get something

00:15:17.480 to the supreme court i don't think we're going to have an answer because there are too many bad decisions

00:15:21.920 to join the good decisions that we've won to know what's going to happen that is uh terrifying

00:15:28.960 as somebody who you know goes to church on sunday that that is truly terrifying that we are facing a

00:15:38.060 time when the government can tell you exactly what you can and cannot do at church it is it's uh you

00:15:46.820 know i mean because look if we come out of this and the law is that if a government official declares

00:15:52.720 an emergency then you know your constitution suspended uh while the emergency well you know

00:15:58.620 climate change will be an emergency and i mean everything will be an emergency right you don't

00:16:02.920 really have any freedoms at that point um and and that's not the way the law is supposed to work

00:16:08.720 um you've had the case i know you probably even talked about it the case that came out of

00:16:13.760 nevada where they were letting the casinos open but not the churches right and so you know and they

00:16:20.640 wouldn't take the supreme court wouldn't take the case so i would say two things we've got a great

00:16:26.080 case that we just won uh last week in washington dc the first one on behalf of the church in this case

00:16:32.740 the church uh there they allowed thousands of people the mayor went with them to protest but they

00:16:39.360 wouldn't it was illegal for a church to hold an outdoor church service with over 100 people

00:16:45.600 and so it's just clear hypocrisy and so we actually won a federal injunction on friday of last week

00:16:53.340 and we're hoping we can get that to the supreme court but we've got to get the right case to the

00:16:58.320 supreme court but also if amy coney barrett is on the supreme court i feel very strongly about her on

00:17:04.780 religious freedom i think she we won't have to worry about these close decisions with roberts

00:17:09.240 you know saying that it's okay to open casinos uh not churches uh we'll we'll win these cases and so

00:17:16.900 there's sort of a lot going on at the same time but i think you have to look at the amy coney barrett

00:17:21.940 thing from a religious freedom standpoint in addition to everything else and i i think she will be great

00:17:27.440 on religious freedom which is the timing could not be better so tell me what a what her appointment

00:17:33.820 does to the court and for instance if the the senate and the administration area if they have

00:17:41.600 the house and the senate and the administration they let's just say that's a landslide for the left

00:17:45.640 they are all saying they're going to take guns do we have the votes uh now in the supreme court to hold

00:17:53.000 to the second amendment the first amendment do we i what's it look like i think i think we do for

00:18:00.060 sure i mean she's she's written a just an incredible dissent on the second amendment already on the

00:18:05.260 seventh circuit she's shown her true colors i mean she she is an originalist she's a scalia she's a

00:18:11.520 she's a don't tell me what the country wants that's not my job my job is to say what does the constitution 0.96

00:18:18.300 say what did the founders you know put in place what does it mean you look to the original meaning of

00:18:24.080 the text you look to the original meaning of the statute not to the pc or whatever people are in

00:18:29.700 favor of she would say just like scalia if you want to change laws then change laws change the 0.83

00:18:35.300 constitution but don't ask me to change the constitution and and she's very and it was in a

00:18:40.280 case actually where it was about um a situation where kind of the the pc position would be oh no you

00:18:46.380 know guy's been in prison so he shouldn't have a right to to uh to have a firearm uh you know once

00:18:52.080 you've been in prison and her approach was wondering what does the constitution say and here

00:18:56.920 she is dissenting uh she's pretty fearless on following the law so i i feel really strongly

00:19:02.940 about where she would be and again roberts has kind of been jumping back and forth on a lot of

00:19:07.780 things recently and has made it sort of a four four with roberts jumping around that would be over

00:19:13.520 uh if she's on the court uh you'd have five conservatives who really believe you go to the original

00:19:19.860 meaning and and that's going to really bring us right back to the constitution and those principles

00:19:24.960 and really the foundations of our country which i think will be a great thing for our country

00:19:28.920 kelly what does it mean um when we're looking at a party who says they're going to get rid of the

00:19:35.460 filibuster they won't deny that they'll pack the court uh what is this election really about

00:19:42.360 it's about i mean if people i don't know if people understand what court packing is but

00:19:48.500 basically it's when you come in you say well you know i don't like the fact that there are more

00:19:53.540 conservatives on the court now than there used to be and therefore i'm going to add three four five

00:19:59.200 seats to the supreme court which you'd have to you'd have to have the house the senate the presidency

00:20:04.000 you'd also have to destroy the filibuster but that's what some of the democrats are talking about

00:20:08.580 doing and of course what biden and harris have not been answering that is a decision people need to

00:20:14.160 understand is that is a decision to destroy the supreme court because if you add people to the

00:20:19.800 supreme court to to have a partisan advantage then the next party that comes in is going to do the

00:20:25.440 same thing so if the republicans come back they'll add five or six seats the court is no longer a legal

00:20:31.060 body at that point it's a political body and you have taken the supreme court and said it's done

00:20:36.520 uh so people need to understand i mean number one biden needs to answer this question uh it it should be

00:20:43.720 required of every voter should say there's no way you even have a chance of being a president unless

00:20:49.100 you answer this question if the answer is i'm going to destroy the supreme court um then unless you're

00:20:54.620 wanting to overthrow the government at least a third of the government uh that's just not a decision you

00:20:59.920 know i would ever make i mean whatever your beliefs are on these things uh the rule of law uh will be

00:21:06.060 incredible damage uh i don't know what will happen in our country but it's taking one of the three

00:21:11.960 branches of government and really uh pretty much putting it underground we're talking to kelly

00:21:16.780 shackleford president and ceo first liberty uh institute kelly there is a story out there's fact

00:21:22.360 two different stories about two different groups uh one of them is shut down dc and they have put out

00:21:30.900 a guide stopping the coup preventing donald trump from stealing the election and remaining in office

00:21:36.200 is likely to take mass sustained disruptive movements all over the country um we need to uh

00:21:43.000 in order to do to really win we need to force some pillars of power business military media and other

00:21:47.880 major institutions to decide to side with the people or at least get out of the way if every if

00:21:52.560 everyday life goes on a despot will not leave power and there will be no incentive for real systematic

00:21:58.040 changes uh you want to think about what it might take to stop business as usual they are

00:22:04.680 they are there are there are these groups that do not believe in the electoral college do not believe

00:22:13.860 in the court system do not believe in the american constitution that i can find and they are saying they want

00:22:23.720 to overthrow these things they want the destruction can you tell me where the legal definition of insurrection

00:22:31.580 kicks in well i mean that's definitely it i mean if those things happened uh i did see the president

00:22:38.760 comment on this and he said those if that happens after the election that will be shut down you know

00:22:45.020 immediately now we'll see i hope so uh the pre we had 21 different presidents uh use you know the the

00:22:52.840 power they have under their insurrection act to to actually do that i think president uh trump has been

00:22:59.760 trying to respect federalism at some sort and also not you know they want to make him a dictator so i

00:23:06.400 didn't think he wants to walk into looking like that so he's been incredibly restrained i think on

00:23:11.020 what he's done uh in these situations like in seattle and all these but uh i i think if it's after the

00:23:18.180 election and that's attempted i think he'll exercise the power that he should and any president should

00:23:22.820 to put any of that down i hope and i pray that it would that nobody in the country really i mean

00:23:28.580 these are this is a lunatic fringe in our country and they shouldn't be allowed to roam free and

00:23:33.380 and engage in violence and looting and all this thing uh i don't think the american people um i think 0.90

00:23:39.740 they've had enough of that so much so that the democrats have even a little bit started to back away

00:23:45.300 uh even though that some of their some of their base wants them to not do so kelly thank you so much

00:23:50.720 are you foreseeing any problems with uh barrett's confirmation not yet i mean it's bizarre the

00:23:57.180 approach that is being taken which is to say that she's gonna that if barrett's uh appointed to the

00:24:02.820 court that she's gonna take everybody's health care away it's just it is i just sometimes i'm amazed 0.98

00:24:09.100 that do they think people are that stupid um i mean i i i just it's just a bizarre argument i mean 0.94

00:24:16.720 the case they're talking about that's up there amy coney barrett hasn't has never talked about any of 0.98

00:24:21.560 the issues in that case it's about severability a lot of other things uh the odds are huge that

00:24:26.580 that case won't uh strike down the aca in a non-severable way so all of it's false and it has

00:24:34.940 really nothing to do with her but they've just decided that's their best political issue is the

00:24:40.160 issue of health care and so they're seeing if they can scare people by saying if you allow her on the 0.76

00:24:45.440 court you'll all lose your health care and you'll die for the coronavirus and i'm like 0.99

00:24:49.100 are do you think people are that stupid i i don't think they are you know i don't think they are 0.99

00:24:53.420 either but i'm beginning to wonder i am i you know what we'll find out in november we'll find out on 0.98

00:24:59.440 november 3rd thank you so much kelly i appreciate it

00:25:02.280 this is the best of the glenn beck program and we really want to thank you for listening

00:25:15.440 if you want to try to teach your kids about ben franklin and i mean the little kids about ben

00:25:22.800 franklin uh or ann frank there are two new books out by our good friend brad melzer and he joins us

00:25:29.140 now hello brad good to hear your voice my friend good to hear you how are things um nothing going on

00:25:37.460 in the world how about you yeah you know what it's so hard to find things to talk about

00:25:42.660 i you know what's crazy is you know we plan these books two years in advance and here we are

00:25:50.700 talking about you know tearing down a statue of abraham lincoln and and we've got a book on ben

00:25:56.880 franklin and the founders and a report comes out last week that says millennials don't know the basic

00:26:02.700 facts about the holocaust and we have a book on ann frank and i'm like sometimes the universe

00:26:07.260 produces the heroes you need it's not the heroes you want but it's heroes you need yeah it's a it's um

00:26:13.140 it's amazing i i really have found divine providence in some of the stuff that you know we've done i just

00:26:18.460 put out the book arguing with socialists and then this summer hit it's like wow exactly get what you

00:26:26.300 need yeah holy cow uh so brad tell me about tell me about the books um this is part of your

00:26:32.320 xavier riddle and the uh secret museum series um that that's on pbs i wanted to carry that so badly

00:26:38.740 on the blaze but i'm not rich enough for brad melzer's uh programs listen we've done our shows

00:26:44.960 and i love you for it you know as you know i started writing these kids books because i wanted to give my

00:26:50.520 kids better heroes to look up to and give them heroes who could teach them kindness and compassion

00:26:55.100 and character and again look at the world anti-semitism is that it's 40 year high our kids

00:27:02.760 need hope right now and the best way to teach that is with ann frank the little girl who hides from the

00:27:08.520 nazis in an attic and still believes that people are good at heart and i want my kids to know that even

00:27:15.380 in the darkest places you can still find light that's what hope is glenn right it's like a fire that

00:27:21.140 burns within you and when you put it on nothing puts it out and i need my daughter to have that

00:27:25.940 lesson i need my sons to have that lesson so i am ann frank is that illustrated kids book

00:27:30.820 to teach hope for our kids right now and i am benjamin franklin yeah benjamin franklin um we all

00:27:37.840 know the stories of him with electricity great experiments but to me his greatest experiment is

00:27:44.020 the experiments that he does on himself he actually spent his whole life trying to improve himself

00:27:49.140 he even has rules you and i've talked about him privately like him and george washington have

00:27:53.260 rules to live by his rules are one be frugal don't spend money you don't have to tell the truth three

00:27:59.660 work hard and four don't speak badly about other people look at the world right now where they're

00:28:06.220 tearing down the founding fathers you know oh this you know ben franklin owns slaves and i'm like yes but

00:28:11.300 he also at the end of his life was the president of an organization that stood against slavery so how can you

00:28:18.640 say he's bad or is he good or is he just complicated like all of us and our kids need that lesson that

00:28:24.660 rather than pointing fingers at everyone else ben franklin knew if you want to change the world

00:28:29.200 you start with yourself and it moves out from there rippling outward he was phenomenal can you think of

00:28:35.200 anyone alive today i mean i think one of the most impressive people alive today that would fit in the

00:28:41.020 founding era would be maybe elon musk do you know and he would be a breath of ideas a hundred percent

00:28:49.060 like that's the ben franklin i mean you know it was one of the hardest books to write because it's a

00:28:54.500 kid's book obviously we're trying to entertain and educate your kids and give them values but i'm like

00:28:59.280 do i talk about electricity do i talk about his inventions do i talk about the science he does do i talk

00:29:05.340 about the greatest experiment the american experiment he literally edits the declaration of independence

00:29:10.740 and george i mean george russian and thomas jefferson writes the first draft gives it to ben

00:29:15.940 franklin and and we showed this in the book ben franklin is like hmm this part you have here we

00:29:22.140 hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable what if we change it to this we hold these truths to be

00:29:28.300 self-evident that all men are created equal that's benjamin franklin's edit and i need our kids to see

00:29:34.720 that that is how you teach your kids to be great americans i have an 1836 or is it no it might be

00:29:42.720 1826 uh version of the declaration of independence first draft have you ever seen it have you ever

00:29:50.960 seen that you and i when we were to get when we were together last time i almost jumped the desk for

00:29:55.400 the key uh it is telling me that i haven't seen it i have been to the national archives in their secret

00:30:01.180 private room where i saw their copy um so you've seen the first draft have you ever read it in the

00:30:06.740 first draft yes um i could know i couldn't read i mean i've read online the translations of it and

00:30:12.260 you can see the edits that change in there right and the and in the third page i urge you to go back

00:30:17.660 and read the third page the longest usurptation or the longest problem that uh you know they had with

00:30:25.740 the king was his uh treatment of african uh americans and africans as slaves and it is a whole paragraph

00:30:35.200 on it and it's uh thomas jefferson writes it his his handwriting changes he capitalizes uh words like men

00:30:43.300 uh when he's calling you know the and then he puts these men up for auction on the auction block i mean

00:30:50.620 it's phenomenal and completely changes i gotta go back i have to go back i mean and then think about

00:30:56.000 ben franklin is you know when i get my edits back from my editor and i'm always like griping about

00:31:01.240 him like ben franklin's editing thomas jefferson at the height i know i can't complain about that

00:31:07.820 anymore and the thing about the thing about franklin just to go back to elon musk comment

00:31:11.460 is he does it his whole life one of the great stories that my kids reacted to is franklin's a little

00:31:16.680 boy and when benjamin franklin's a little boy he used to love swimming and he realizes if you have

00:31:21.300 bigger hands and bigger feet you can move faster in the water you can paddle faster so he makes these

00:31:25.760 homemade like kind of oven mitts big mitts and they put some on his feet too like flippers and he says

00:31:31.380 flying through the water this is as a little kid and my youngest who's very creative and likes to

00:31:37.220 color and play legos i'm like i need you to see what you can do when you unleash creativity that's

00:31:43.840 what ben franklin gives us there was there a story about him getting in trouble because he was always

00:31:49.120 in trouble i think as a kid um and he was like damming up a river or something he was taking uh

00:31:57.200 rocks and damming up a river and that's when finally his his parents i believe said you're going to work

00:32:03.820 you're going to work and sent him to it depends on the work as a kid the thing that he does also by a

00:32:08.460 river is he runs his he runs his kite by the river and there's a kite again you know what he does later

00:32:13.260 in life with a little boy runs the kite on the river when it goes in the air he jumps in the river

00:32:18.280 ties it around his ways to test the theory that it will pull him across the lake which it does

00:32:23.480 and and as you said soon after that the parents are like this is what a blacksmith is get to work

00:32:28.720 you know like taking him to work but it you know again we we spend so much time as a culture right

00:32:35.460 now arguing about our founding fathers arguing over world war ii arguing over the civil war

00:32:40.500 and we have to remember that our kids see these arguments and we have to remember that if we don't

00:32:45.700 you know it's not your school's job um to teach your kids the values that you want it's your job

00:32:51.060 you got to do it at least the school did it too but we have to be in control of making sure that our

00:32:57.380 kids see the american history and the amazingness and the beauty of it to see the hope of anne frank in

00:33:04.000 the lowest moment in life and still says you know what i believe in good because there is something

00:33:09.560 to that and there is something to each one of these heroes and and i love that this series helps us

00:33:15.520 you build libraries for your kids your grandkids your nieces your nephews at this time when history

00:33:20.340 feels like it's under siege you know i think it really does our kids and injustice to you know i'm a

00:33:27.340 huge fan of winston churchill and uh churchill led this amazing life but if you read the uh biographies

00:33:37.260 of of churchill from the indian perspective he's a pastor he's really yeah he's really a bad guy 1.00

00:33:45.780 is he good is he good is he bad or is he complicated like the rest of us right and if we can't just go in

00:33:51.680 and say you know here's my belief if you're looking for perfection everyone fails the only thing

00:33:57.440 perfect is god everyone else take a number right and by not teaching that by not showing our kids

00:34:04.620 that they are flawed individuals we set them up for a life of misery because a hundred percent

00:34:12.580 and then and that's the problem is what we do is we are holy like listen there are voices that have

00:34:18.880 been marginalized that need to be told like you just said look at native americans look at indigenous

00:34:23.640 people look at what winston churchill does that's the bad side does also amazing things yeah but

00:34:29.980 every book we do when we do i am abraham lincoln we show you eight elections that he loses when george

00:34:36.460 washington goes we show you him losing his first election that doesn't show weakness it shows your kid

00:34:41.860 how to get back up again and when you do that for your kid with our i am series that's how you teach

00:34:46.680 your kids to fly brad melter thank you i'm i'm so proud to be a friend of yours and i just am such

00:34:53.480 a big fan and uh and it's always a pleasure to have you on i i i'd like to speak to you off air

00:34:59.360 here in the next couple of days i'm i'm launching an education series and and we're going to have

00:35:03.860 just great teachers teach certain things and i'd love to invite you to be one of the first teachers

00:35:09.380 to i would love it we're doing with sandra day o'connor we're just so connor's organization

00:35:13.260 civics asking kids for their best ideas to change the world you know it's the ordinary people change

00:35:17.540 the world series this is called ordinary kids change the world and uh justice o'connor has been

00:35:22.540 amazing to uh we're doing a an actual a gift to the kids that win to help them change the world so

00:35:28.360 whatever you need an education i'm your man and let me just say this thank you for giving me since

00:35:33.940 the start of my career uh so many chances but to give kids history you've always been the biggest

00:35:38.640 proponent of these books and i can't thank you enough oh brad you're too kind thank you very much

00:35:42.940 you

00:35:43.440 you

The Glenn Beck Program - October 13, 2020

Best of The Program ｜ Guests： Carrie Severino, Kelly Shackelford, & Brad Meltzer ｜ 10⧸13⧸20

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