The Glenn Beck Program - Best of the Program ｜ Guests： Chris Stewart & Brian Will ｜ 1⧸9⧸24

00:00:00.860 Hey, great podcast today. We talk about all the things that you need to know and give you some frank observations of what's coming in our economy, what's coming in the next year, some really topics that need to be discussed so you can mentally prepare for 2024.

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00:01:47.960 You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck program.

00:01:52.000 You know, Biden has continued his attacks on Donald Trump and his supporters. Now, this is something, again, the New York Times just said that Donald Trump does, but apparently not Joe Biden. But let me just tell you what happened. It is a speech last night in Charleston, South Carolina.

00:02:15.380 Uh, he said that Donald Trump and his supporters, uh, are defeated Confederates. Oh, so wait, we would be Democrats after the civil war, the defeated Confederates wouldn't accept the verdict of the war they lost.

00:02:34.320 So they say they embraced what is known as the lost cause, the self-serving lie that civil war was not about slavery, but about state rights. Uh, they call that the noble cause. That was a lie. Yes, Joe, it was a lie. It is really weird, but you would know it best because you're a Democrat.

00:02:55.320 And that was the lie of the Southern Democratic Party. Uh, next, we're living in an era of second loss cause. Once again, there are some in this country trying to turn a loss into a lie, a lie that if allowed to live, will once again, bring terrible damage to this country.

00:03:11.240 This time the lies about the 2020 election. Let me say what others cannot. We must reject political violence in America. I agree. Like the Klan, which was an arm of the Democratic Party or BLM, which is an arm of the Democratic Party. Um, he says always, not sometimes, but always it's never appropriate. So I would assume that would be like, you know, BLM.

00:03:41.220 Um, today, the violence of January 6th was the extension of an old playbook from the threats of violence and intimidation. Now there was a period there, but I would add, uh, just the kind of stuff we were talking about with the Klan, which was a, uh, a violent arm of the Democrat Party. I just thought I'd throw that in.

00:04:07.700 Hmm. Yeah. They don't, it doesn't get mentioned all that much, uh, the history of these institutions. Yeah, no, it really, it's strange. It doesn't. Now, um, Michelle Obama came out and, uh, she said she is terrified by what may come out of the 2024 election.

00:04:27.700 Is she giving a warning? Is she giving a warning? She's not, I mean, let me just, she's not saying that she's giving a warning about Donald Trump in 2024, is she?

00:04:35.640 Yeah, she is. She is. That's the same thing the New York Times did today.

00:04:39.340 Yeah. So she's on this podcast with Jay Shetty.

00:04:45.460 The Jay Shetty?

00:04:46.880 Yeah.

00:04:47.500 Wow.

00:04:47.900 Of course.

00:04:48.480 Of course. You don't get Michelle Obama if you're not, if you're a different Jay Shetty.

00:04:52.920 Oh, she says, what's going to happen this next election? I am terrified about what could possibly happen. That's weird because so am I, because our leaders matter who we select, who speaks for us, who holds that bully pulpit. It affects, it affects us in ways. Sometimes I think people take for granted. Here she is. Listen.

00:05:14.340 The things that keep me up because you, you don't have control over them and you wonder where are people, where are we in this? You know, where are our hearts? What's going to happen in this next election? I am terrified about what could possibly happen because our leaders matter. Who we select, who speaks for us, who holds that bully pulpit. It affects us in ways that sometimes I think people take for granted.

00:05:41.980 Yeah. Is he wearing a snuggie in that interview? He seems to be wearing a blanket with sleeves. Is it a snuggie? Is it a slanket? What is it? Because, uh, you know, this is, this is why shows in snuggies. I'm going to start doing the show in a snuggie. I didn't know that was allowed.

00:06:04.720 I have to tell you. I have to tell you, this is, this is why people put their good money into signing up for blaze TV because they get the kind of deep questions like slanket or snuggie, which is it. And I don't think I've heard anybody else ask that Stu. Congratulations. Thank you very much, Glenn.

00:06:22.440 Yeah. Um, she said she, uh, she knows too much because she was married to the president who knows everything about everything in the world. Wow. She listed wars in too many regions. Uh, the future of artificial intelligence, the environment, education, whether people will vote, people being too engrossed in their phones as other issues that keep her awake at night. Uh, then they focus the discussion.

00:06:52.440 They focus the discussion on what offends her, you know, and many times, uh, I've been in conversations and it's turned to that very familiar phrase. I wonder what offends Michelle Obama. Uh, and she spoke about it and she dislikes injustice. Thank God somebody does. Uh, she dislikes ego, right? Greed. Don't you know it. And racism.

00:07:20.580 She condemned unfairness and bullies. Um, and she also decried childish leadership in which somebody is just base and vulgar and cynical. You know, she's not cynical. The police don't always do you like that. White people don't always do you like that. That would be cynical. Uh, anyway, she says she just wants to resonate. Good.

00:07:42.240 I want to, I want to, I want to be a face of reason and compassion and empathy. And that's much more important than my feelings because my feelings, I can take care of those. She's on the road of being a Republican. Listen to that. Her feelings don't matter because she's in charge of those.

00:08:05.200 That's the first progressive Democrat I've ever heard say that. She also talked about, and this is going to come as a surprise to you about being another. She said, you know, you learn how to be excellent all the time because you can't be less, you know? Uh, and as she said, I just find it interesting that some people can be indicted a bunch of times and still run for office while black men can't.

00:08:30.460 And I thought of that. I thought of that when, uh, her husband won the presidency two times in a row. Uh, I thought, boy, you know, I thought this was a country where a black man can't run, uh, for office. And, uh, I, I must've been mistaken.

00:08:44.880 It's called oppression. It's called oppression. It's oppression that, you know, only eight years in the white house. Do you know that they created that constitutional amendment limiting presidents to two terms just to stop the first black president? 0.74

00:08:57.420 That's why they did it. Not, uh, I know it's sad. It's sad. And now it's hard to believe, but it's true.

00:09:03.820 It was a white guy that, uh, well, he was really our first black president. Um, FDR. Oh, really? FDR. Oh, okay. Yeah. All right. You didn't know that. I always thought it was Clinton.

00:09:14.820 No, he was second, but no, no, he was the second black president. Yes. And neither Clinton or FDR were black, but they were, but they, well, it depends on how they identified that particular term.

00:09:26.100 I mean, one of his terms where he was a black president and, and one of them, he was a native American president. One, well, he was, and he was a, a lesbian woman for one of his terms.

00:09:36.900 Really strange. Cause his wife was too, but anyway, this is the kind of thing that I shouldn't think she's talking about. The reason that she could bring to the table.

00:09:49.560 Now, Stu, I mean, that's exactly how I would introduce her to the political process is getting her on some big show like the Jay Shetty show, which is anything but Shetty. You know what I mean?

00:10:09.280 Yeah. The, the, the, the, the snuggie guy, this, the, you're going to put them on a show with a host that's wearing a snuggie and that's how you're going to launch the campaign. That's how you do it.

00:10:16.840 Right. That's how you do it. And, uh, and, you know, I know you still think that, you know, I'm crazy and I might be crazy for saying that she, cause she's keep saying she's not interested in it, you know, but wow, she's concerned.

00:10:29.720 And what, what kind of person are you, uh, that could save the Republic that, that your party would come to you and say, look, he clearly can't run.

00:10:41.800 We can't, we can't start a new campaign right now with anybody else. Uh, and you know, she might say, well, you've got a great qualified black woman in Kamala Harris. 1.00

00:10:52.960 And I mean, you'd have to say, well, no, we just picked her for color. Um, she's not strong enough to be the president. Everybody hated her even in our own party. 1.00

00:11:05.280 And then she would remember, and then she would go, Oh, you, you know what? You're right. And I could be probably the only replacement because you can't replace him with another white man. 0.62

00:11:15.960 If you have a black woman right there on the side of the stage, well, okay. I care about my country. I don't, my president will run it anyway. 1.00

00:11:24.220 To be clear. I don't think you're crazy on this, uh, on this theory. I think it's plausible, especially if things continue to go badly. I mean, you know, you know what Joe Biden's approval rating is right now on average 38%.

00:11:39.180 Holy cow. I mean, it's that high.

00:11:41.660 Okay. I really would have thought it was shocking. Yeah. It is. I, I, wow.

00:11:48.300 But like that is down. I mean, he's down from when it was terrible. Like this is, it's just really ugly.

00:11:56.100 Well, wait a minute. Wasn't Donald Trump's at like 39.

00:11:58.760 Trump's wasn't good either. Trump's always terrible on approval rating though. From the moment he walked into office, that was not the case with, uh, Barack Obama or Joe Biden.

00:12:06.880 And it continues to go down for Biden. Things continue to get worse for his candidacy. And of course he has other limitations that neither of those candidates had, you know, including an age that starts with an eight.

00:12:18.640 If they, if they could just, and I mean this sincerely, if they could just shut up or imprison anyone that would speak out against his policies or point out that, you know, they're not working.

00:12:31.280 For democracy. Right. For democracy. People would love him.

00:12:35.520 Yeah. If they, if he was the only choice, my belief is he'd get 100% of the vote and that would show real unity in this country. That's how democracy works. Every single person, one man, one vote, one available candidate. That's democracy.

00:12:52.520 As it was outlined by our founders. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. So I don't know. I mean, I, I, so I don't think your, your idea of Michelle Obama making this, you know, his heroic run is, is, is implausible.

00:13:06.680 I don't know that it's the most likely outcome, but I do think it's a long shot. Yeah. It's a long, it's a long shot, but it would be, it would be one that I think would win the election immediately unless she went out and she started talking to people.

00:13:21.600 So they'd have, they'd have to run it in that very democratic fashion of keeping her under lock and key, you know, kind of like they did with Joe Biden. Just, you know, once in a while she'd appear from the basement.

00:13:32.420 Um, but, uh, you couldn't have her actually speaking on her own because she hates America and it's clear once you start to hear her. 0.85

00:13:41.960 Yeah. Can we investigate the, investigate that a little bit? Because I think the assumption is because if you look at Michelle Obama, Obama's approval ratings, for example, occasionally that's pulled and they're very, very good.

00:13:53.560 I mean, they, she's overwhelmingly liked by the American people. Now I don't understand that myself, but it's the abs, it's the, the arms.

00:14:02.260 I thought it was the arms. Oh yeah. The arms, the arms. Her arms are so beautiful. So whatever it is, she's got good approval ratings.

00:14:08.120 Hang on just a second. Hold on. Look, can we just think about her arms for a minute? Just a moment.

00:14:12.040 Man, they were beautiful. And they still are Glenn in every way. I miss them. I miss them.

00:14:16.380 She's the most beautiful woman in the world. Wow. I'm just, sometimes you just get that, that sense of what that woman really is. You know, all woman, just hear her roar. 0.99

00:14:32.260 This is the best of the Glenn Beck program.

00:14:38.120 If you've gone into restaurants lately and you've been shocked at the price of anything, soup, sandwiches to steak, anything, you, you can fall into what's going on.

00:14:54.300 This is a scam. How can a BLT be 16 bucks? We wanted to get Brian will on.

00:15:00.500 He's a serial entrepreneur, two-time wall street journal, bestselling author, leading consultant in business and sales management management.

00:15:06.300 He's, he's founded seven different country, uh, country, uh, companies across four distinct industries.

00:15:13.220 Um, he is currently, uh, the head of, uh, a chain of restaurants, uh, and, uh, they are the Derby sports bar, Cantina Loca, uh, the tavern house in central city tavern.

00:15:27.320 You might have one in your town.

00:15:29.020 He is also in his spare time, uh, a member of the city council, uh, in the town of, uh, Alpharetta, Georgia.

00:15:37.200 I hope we have time to talk about that a little bit.

00:15:40.240 Um, but he was just on talking about the price of a BLT on, uh, Varney and company and everyone on my staff, uh, Brian found that fascinating and how you broke that down.

00:15:53.660 How you doing, Brian?

00:15:56.360 I'm good, Glenn.

00:15:57.380 Thanks for having me.

00:15:58.080 This is awesome.

00:15:59.620 So, so can you break this down?

00:16:02.360 Why should, why should we look at the price of $16 for a BLT and say, okay, I understand it.

00:16:11.160 It's reasonable.

00:16:13.020 Yeah.

00:16:13.440 This whole conversation, uh, Glenn started with a friend of mine who sent me this text when he was sitting in my restaurant saying, Hey, Brian, uh, I'm sitting here eating your BLT and it's $16.

00:16:22.880 You know, it's only bacon, lettuce, tomato, and bread.

00:16:26.400 And I said, you know, Dan, let me break this down for you.

00:16:29.120 I want to give you some perspective.

00:16:31.140 That sandwich might cost $16, but we've got $20,000 of rent in that building.

00:16:36.700 We've got $6,000 of utility.

00:16:38.520 We've got $60,000 of payroll.

00:16:41.740 And then we've got our general OPEX expenses that all have to get paid for out of the gross profit margin in that sandwich.

00:16:50.240 And so we actually did a breakdown on that.

00:16:52.100 If you'd like to hear this, it'll break down.

00:16:53.700 I do.

00:16:54.300 I do.

00:16:55.080 That's six, that's $16 sandwich has about $5 of actual food costs, which leaves about $11 of gross profit.

00:17:02.160 But out of that 11, $2 of that goes towards rent and utilities.

00:17:07.060 $2 and 50 cents goes towards, we call our fixed operational expenses, like the TVs and the music and the mats and the towels and all that stuff.

00:17:15.440 So labor to make that sandwich was $4 and 50 cents, which only leaves me a profit of $2.

00:17:22.300 So on a $16 sandwich, I have $2 of actual net profit that I get to keep unless or until something breaks or something goes wrong.

00:17:32.260 That's my gross potential net profit.

00:17:35.800 So how many BLTs do you have to sell to be able to keep your doors open?

00:17:40.120 Yeah, so I was laughing about that.

00:17:42.660 If you take our $86,000 a month in general expenses, figure in a 30% food cost, we've got to sell 93,000 sandwiches a year to get to zero.

00:17:54.580 Every restaurant has a break-even point.

00:17:56.860 The break-even point in that restaurant is about $1.5 million a year.

00:18:00.120 So if I do $1,499,000 in revenue, I lose $1,000.

00:18:05.920 Everything above $1.5 million we can make a profit margin on.

00:18:09.200 But if you never get to the $1.5 million, you're just spinning your wheels.

00:18:13.640 So what has changed?

00:18:15.860 I mean, it's not just the price of food, is it?

00:18:19.860 No, food has gone up, but our biggest increase in expenses has been labor.

00:18:25.100 If you remember, obviously, when COVID hit and everybody was getting all these extended unemployment benefits, when we came out of COVID and tried to bring people back, they didn't want to come back to work.

00:18:35.540 Right.

00:18:35.700 But we immediately went to a $15 minimum, and that's for kids coming out of high school, and this was three years ago.

00:18:42.040 That's now jumped up to about a $1,650.

00:18:44.320 So I have people with zero experience, 18 years old, come to work for me, and we start them out at $33,000.

00:18:50.740 Where our chefs are now at $60,000, $60,000, our managers are now at $70,000 to $80,000.

00:18:57.060 So if you look at my restaurant three years ago, we were paying $500,000 for labor on $2.9 million of revenue.

00:19:04.940 Today, we pay $650,000 for labor on $2.5 million of revenue.

00:19:11.260 My revenue is down $350,000, and my labor is up $150,000.

00:19:14.900 And that's why we have to keep driving the price of these things up.

00:19:17.560 Everybody wants to get paid, and they want a big salary.

00:19:19.960 They want a living wage, but all that does is drive everything up. 0.99

00:19:23.920 At some point, we still have to make a profit.

00:19:26.440 This is what happened in Seattle, except they did it by choice.

00:19:31.140 When Seattle raised the minimum wage, I don't remember what it was, I think $15 or $16 an hour,

00:19:37.680 all the restaurants said, we can't afford this.

00:19:40.440 And a lot of them left, closed shop, and left Seattle.

00:19:44.720 Some of them stayed, and some of them just went out of business because of it.

00:19:49.820 But that's not the only cost.

00:19:51.800 You now have food going up.

00:19:53.460 You have labor going up.

00:19:55.920 Rent is—

00:19:57.140 Utilities went up 40%.

00:19:58.700 40%.

00:20:00.060 Just our gas and electric, right?

00:20:01.680 Our insurance went up 40%.

00:20:03.200 Everything is—I mean, the whole supply chain from us down.

00:20:06.620 Everybody's costs go up in that compounds.

00:20:08.900 Why did insurance go up 40%?

00:20:12.540 Because they can?

00:20:13.700 I mean, I don't—that's a good question.

00:20:18.620 Because you have no choice but to buy it, because if you don't buy it, you can't stay in business.

00:20:22.700 So it goes up.

00:20:25.040 You know?

00:20:26.180 It's crazy how much costs have gone up.

00:20:29.720 So how do you see us weathering this?

00:20:33.480 You know, business is interesting.

00:20:35.620 I have a picture in my office of a guy on a tightrope, and he's got that big, long bar, right, that goes on both sides.

00:20:41.720 And I always say we have to balance.

00:20:43.240 Business owners are on this tightrope, and you have to balance what you can charge on one end with what the consumer is willing to pay on the other.

00:20:51.140 And so as long as you can keep that balance, you can stay on the tightrope and stay in business.

00:20:54.880 But if you charge too much, they stop coming.

00:20:56.800 You fall off.

00:20:57.960 If you don't charge enough, you get more business at a loss.

00:21:00.960 You go out of business.

00:21:01.980 So there's always a balance.

00:21:03.920 And in our case, we've made sure we put our locations in what we call high-traffic areas.

00:21:09.320 So we're getting, you know, organic traffic running around our restaurants, which helps us drastically.

00:21:15.800 But you look at these small operators that are out there, you know, fighting all these costs that don't have that organic type of traffic, and that's why they're going under.

00:21:25.880 I mean, you're a serial entrepreneur.

00:21:29.380 What do you hear from entrepreneurs that are just beginning today?

00:21:34.440 I mean, it's a completely different world.

00:21:39.640 Can you make it?

00:21:40.460 It is.

00:21:41.580 It's a different world in a lot of ways.

00:21:43.300 And I actually do a lot of sales and management training.

00:21:45.620 And one of the other things we know in today's environment is there's so much information online that people can research almost anything before they ever walk in your door.

00:21:54.760 And they already know what your competition's charging.

00:21:57.240 They already know what they should be paying.

00:21:59.320 And so, again, you're back to this balance of you either need to create something extremely unique that will drive people in and make them want to buy from you,

00:22:08.980 or your chances of success are diminished greatly.

00:22:11.520 So, I called COVID the great washout, Glenn.

00:22:14.940 All the weak operators that used to be able to make it because we were in a booming economy, when COVID hit, it just washed out all those weak operators and only left the ones that are strong.

00:22:25.420 Now, you've got people that are coming in behind us and trying to come in and undercut.

00:22:29.840 But all they're going to do is lose all their money and go out of business and hurt the rest of us.

00:22:34.380 It's an interesting time to be in business.

00:22:37.760 But if you're a true entrepreneur, it washed out a lot of people who were just, you know, my dad used to have his own bakery.

00:22:45.300 And that is hard keeping that afloat, you know, a one little one-man shop in whatever you're doing.

00:22:52.440 And food is the worst at that.

00:22:55.680 It wiped out a lot of people who are just working for themselves.

00:22:59.000 Yeah, just working for themselves and only making enough money to live on.

00:23:04.020 And most of the people that got washed out didn't have any financial security behind them, savings, you know, they just weren't able to weather that bump.

00:23:12.500 Which is one of the things I teach entrepreneurs today is you better have enough security behind you that if the next COVID comes along or if something weird happens, you're not going to get wiped out at the drop of a hat.

00:23:22.420 We laid off 150 people in one day in March of 2020.

00:23:25.660 It was a horrible day.

00:23:30.000 Your thoughts of what's coming in 2024?

00:23:33.640 Any insight on?

00:23:36.040 Yeah.

00:23:37.020 I've had this question a good bit.

00:23:39.460 And I have friends in the M&A field.

00:23:41.820 And I see everybody waiting to see what's going to happen with this election.

00:23:47.580 We just don't know what's going to happen.

00:23:49.280 I think if, you know, if Biden gets elected again, he doesn't have to worry about getting reelected.

00:23:53.800 So who knows what's going to happen, you know, with the people pulling the strings up there in Washington and what they're going to do.

00:24:00.000 So I think we're in a tenuous time right now, particularly in small business, that we need to be very careful.

00:24:05.440 And we need to be keeping some powder dry to keep us safe just in case something else pops up.

00:24:10.680 But if Donald Trump were to be elected, he doesn't go to jail and the left doesn't set the country on fire.

00:24:18.460 Better or worse for business?

00:24:20.160 If he can start taking some of these regulations away, if he can start making it easy for us to get those interest rates back down.

00:24:28.020 I mean, the other issue we have, and I love this topic.

00:24:31.100 I did a video on it the other day about inflation.

00:24:33.400 Inflation is going to affect us forever, right?

00:24:35.160 We had a 5%.

00:24:36.020 We had an 8%.

00:24:36.980 Even if it's 3%, that doesn't mean prices are going down.

00:24:40.200 Correct.

00:24:40.680 Right.

00:24:41.060 That means they've just compounded, right?

00:24:42.680 They're never going back down.

00:24:44.920 Maybe they won't go up as much, but they're not going back down.

00:24:47.040 People get very confused on how that works.

00:24:49.080 But if we can get the economy booming again to where people aren't afraid to spend their money and they aren't hoarding it, trying to wait to see what's going to happen, then people go out and they'll have more fun.

00:24:59.100 They'll spend more money, and I think we'll all be okay.

00:25:01.100 It's just taking a little bit of time.

00:25:03.660 Yeah.

00:25:04.060 Brian, thank you so much.

00:25:05.500 Really appreciate it.

00:25:07.120 Glenn, I appreciate you having me.

00:25:08.820 You bet.

00:25:09.160 Bye-bye.

00:25:09.440 Brian Will, he's an entrepreneur and explaining what is really going on.

00:25:13.740 It's going to get harder and harder for people to see and easier and easier for politicians to create boogeymen and say, you know, it's these evil store owners. 0.97

00:25:31.440 It's these evil whatever.

00:25:32.540 When, in reality, all of the regulations, just what's happening with meat in California is truly terrifying.

00:25:41.460 Stu, would you write down – I'd love to get somebody from, you know, the pork producers or the beef producers of America to explain to America the dilemma that they are in right now.

00:25:53.720 Chicken producers, anybody who's producing eggs, all of this.

00:25:58.340 California just passed a law before the new year, and it's now in effect that animal pens have to be a certain size.

00:26:09.280 If the pork and beef producers, pork producers say, if we have to put this in, then that's going to cost about $3,500 a head for every pig.

00:26:22.620 And that would obviously put us out of business or raise the price skyrocket.

00:26:29.060 And so they're put into this position to where they either are not going to sell to California, which is a big buyer, or they have to abide by California law.

00:26:45.300 And that will cost the entire country more money because they have to build all of these different pens and barns and everything else. 0.98

00:26:56.960 I personally, and I'm in a different situation than any of the other farmers are or ranchers are, but I personally would say, screw you, California.

00:27:06.480 California, I'm tired of California dictating to us what we can and cannot do.

00:27:13.560 That is a failed system.

00:27:16.280 And why we're allowing it to drag all of us into that failed system is beyond me.

00:27:22.900 It's not going to last because it can't.

00:27:26.840 Numbers are numbers.

00:27:28.240 Math is math.

00:27:29.320 It just can't continue.

00:27:31.160 This is the best of the Glenn Beck program.

00:27:45.840 Now, Stu, I don't want to speak out of turn, but I have heard the reason Secretary of Defense, you know, he doesn't want to say why he was in the hospital.

00:27:57.180 It was for elective surgery, and I've heard a lot of people joke about this.

00:28:02.820 What does he have in transgender surgery?

00:28:04.520 I mean, why not just share what you have?

00:28:06.640 And to be clear, that's wrong to do because that's not elective.

00:28:12.240 Transgender surgery is the most important thing you can do for your health.

00:28:15.600 Yes, it's not an elective.

00:28:16.460 This is. 0.84

00:28:16.960 And so I understand that he was in for, I think, a fourth time for penile reduction surgery. 0.80

00:28:28.200 He just wants it very, very small. 0.93

00:28:32.680 And I think his exact quote was, Doc, make it smaller than it is when I'm in a cold pool.

00:28:38.840 And the first four or five times he did this, they couldn't get it small enough.

00:28:44.120 And so he was in one more, take one more stab at it.

00:28:47.760 So I don't, I don't know if that's necessary per se.

00:28:50.840 Is that confirmed with this report?

00:28:53.180 No, but I have it on, you know, pretty good, you know, pretty good sources.

00:28:57.900 It's helpful.

00:28:58.640 Yeah.

00:28:59.180 Thank you.

00:29:00.120 Chris Stewart is with us now.

00:29:02.140 Hello, Chris.

00:29:02.700 How are you?

00:29:04.060 Glenn, that's twice.

00:29:05.240 You've made me really laugh this week, but how am I supposed to follow that kind of thing?

00:29:09.560 Well, I don't, I didn't mean to make you laugh.

00:29:12.020 I just trying to tell the truth.

00:29:13.600 I think that's what he was in for, but I'm not, I'm not entirely sure.

00:29:18.260 A couple of days ago, you gave us flowers out in the garden or something.

00:29:23.380 And I was laughing as well.

00:29:24.720 So it's good to be with you.

00:29:26.400 Yeah, good.

00:29:27.060 So Chris, I mean, I immediately thought of you when I read this over the weekend,

00:29:31.980 because, you know, you, you know, a lot about how the Pentagon works and, you know, how,

00:29:38.360 how the military works.

00:29:40.360 And I haven't seen a secretary of defense kind of go missing for a week and nobody really

00:29:49.260 noticed.

00:29:50.620 Have you?

00:29:51.280 Yeah.

00:29:52.620 Well, let's just say it's unusual.

00:29:55.760 But who's, who's surprised about this Glenn?

00:29:58.460 I mean, you talked about the judgment.

00:29:59.900 I would add, in addition to it, it displays his poor judgment, the arrogance that the

00:30:06.040 secretary has demonstrated again and again, but it's perfectly on brand for his leadership

00:30:11.280 and for the Biden administration.

00:30:13.040 And one thing I would emphasize, Glenn, that I think some of your listeners may understand,

00:30:17.680 but not all of them.

00:30:19.740 And that is the culture and the expectations of the military.

00:30:22.860 They're different than it is in the civilian world.

00:30:25.640 You give military members tremendous trust because you give them tremendous power, but

00:30:32.280 that demands certain behavior.

00:30:33.940 And one of those is that you just don't show up at work, you know, without telling someone,

00:30:38.680 without, you know, telling the people who are going to cover for you, without telling your

00:30:43.020 boss.

00:30:43.360 If a young sergeant or a young lieutenant did that, they'd be facing severe repercussions.

00:30:49.860 And yet he didn't show up.

00:30:51.060 He didn't tell the assistant secretary, who is everyone knows now, was vacationing in Puerto

00:30:55.360 Rico.

00:30:55.700 She didn't even know.

00:30:57.080 And worse, he didn't tell his boss.

00:30:59.420 I don't know.

00:31:00.060 Maybe he told Biden and maybe President Biden forgot because that would be a possible explanation

00:31:05.100 as well.

00:31:05.640 But it's just so far outside the norms of what you would expect from any responsible person,

00:31:12.160 let alone, for heaven's sakes, the secretary of defense.

00:31:15.980 Well, did, I mean, we are currently, you know, shooting down like they're clay pigeons missiles

00:31:26.280 from, you know, the Houthis and the Iran proxies.

00:31:33.620 I mean, our ships are kind of busy right now.

00:31:36.900 Is there no, in a week, is there no thought that maybe somebody might call in and say,

00:31:42.680 hey, what should we do?

00:31:44.700 Yeah.

00:31:45.540 Yeah.

00:31:46.020 So not only the ongoing, you know, skirmishes we're having with the Houthis, which is a whole

00:31:51.180 nother conversation, by the way.

00:31:52.920 But, you know, there's also the efforts that we have in the war in Gaza.

00:31:57.460 Who's coordinating with the Israel Air Defense Ministers on those efforts?

00:32:01.220 What about the fact that we had a strike into Baghdad during this week on January 4th?

00:32:08.140 Who coordinated that?

00:32:10.320 I mean, that's the kind of thing that if you're going to strike in Baghdad, my understanding

00:32:14.220 was that the secretary of defense would be the final arbiter for that decision and as

00:32:18.940 a minimum would have been informed on it.

00:32:21.620 And apparently that didn't happen.

00:32:25.200 These are the kinds of things that you have to have leadership from inside the Pentagon.

00:32:29.060 And it turns out that just simply wasn't happening.

00:32:32.140 And by the way, Glenn, if you'll allow me, that's not the first time because everyone,

00:32:35.300 I mean, I've said the secretary should resign immediately after the debacle in Afghanistan.

00:32:40.880 Again, after the kind of balloon, the fact that we have not met our recruiting goals, all of

00:32:46.940 these things fall on his shoulders.

00:32:48.580 He should have resigned two years ago.

00:32:51.340 So who's actually running things, Chris?

00:32:55.820 Yeah, people ask that question all the time, both about the White House and in some cases

00:33:00.900 about the Pentagon.

00:33:01.820 Well, I think absent or aside from his absence this last week that, you know, this general

00:33:09.500 is running things.

00:33:10.560 I've seen it reflected in the decisions they make or the lack of decisions or the poor decisions.

00:33:16.880 Now, if you ask about who's running the White House, I truly don't know.

00:33:20.200 And we used to say that, Glenn, is kind of a joke.

00:33:22.640 But now we say it very seriously because you look at this president and you know that he

00:33:26.140 doesn't have the capability to be running the most powerful government in the world.

00:33:31.080 So then who is?

00:33:32.920 But there's no question Secretary Austin's running the Pentagon again, short of last week.

00:33:37.560 And you see it reflected in the decisions that they make and the poor judgment that is now

00:33:42.120 filtered down through the entire Pentagon, through the entire Department of Defense.

00:33:47.020 And it breaks my heart to see the institution that I spent much of my life serving, and so

00:33:53.440 did my brothers and my fathers and now our nephews and nieces, to see it so abused by arrogance

00:34:00.040 and judgment that just isn't up to what these fine young men and women deserve.

00:34:06.800 Well, I understand why he, you know, didn't want to talk about the penile reduction surgery.

00:34:12.640 But if it wasn't that, let's just say it wasn't that, why not say why you're going in?

00:34:21.220 What's the big deal?

00:34:24.320 Well, and so, you know, if people, and I have an understanding of this, Glenn, as you know,

00:34:30.320 that I recently resigned from Congress because of health concerns with my wife.

00:34:35.080 So I'm sensitive to the fact that, you know, in a day that is very, very public or when

00:34:39.960 you serve in a public position that, you know, there are sensitivities regarding health concerns.

00:34:45.580 I get that.

00:34:47.020 But you don't hide it.

00:34:49.300 I mean, so maybe we don't need to know why he went in for elective surgery.

00:34:53.040 But if you have a reaction that puts you in intensive care, that's different.

00:34:56.520 And that has to be discussed.

00:34:59.840 And if you're not going to discuss the reasons why, and I think, again, being in intensive care

00:35:06.240 just kind of demands an answer.

00:35:08.380 But if you're unwilling to talk about that, you still have to tell people, here I am.

00:35:12.500 And don't worry, because my assistant secretary knows I'm here.

00:35:17.080 No, she didn't.

00:35:18.860 And don't worry, because my boss, the president of the United States, knows and has made accommodations.

00:35:24.340 No, he didn't.

00:35:25.200 But I mean, that's the minimum that we would expect is communications about it.

00:35:31.340 And one last thing on this, Glenn, and I think this is important.

00:35:34.140 The secretary doesn't disappear into a hospital and not have a large team of people know that. 0.99

00:35:41.140 I mean, he was certainly accompanied in the hospital with probably more than a dozen people,

00:35:47.360 maybe several dozen.

00:35:49.040 And none of them acted responsibly either.

00:35:52.760 Some of them should have raised their hand and said, hey, the American people and leadership

00:35:58.640 at the White House deserves to know where we are today.

00:36:01.740 Chris Stewart is with us.

00:36:03.600 Chris, you've been a congressman.

00:36:05.820 You've worked in intelligence.

00:36:09.700 You have been with the services forever, you and your family.

00:36:19.140 What do you look at now and say, this is something that keeps me up, or this is something that I keep looking at and saying, well, that's good.

00:36:29.820 There's some good news coming.

00:36:30.880 Yeah.

00:36:33.120 Well, okay, let me do the good news.

00:36:34.920 Because I do think that we are on a tactical basis, which is we haven't won the war, but we've won a few battles.

00:36:41.900 I do think we are turning the tide on some things.

00:36:44.960 You mentioned earlier about ESG or some of the real battles, social battles that we've had.

00:36:54.360 And I think people are just exhausted by it, and frankly, I think they're sickened by it.

00:36:58.180 And we are winning on a couple of those things.

00:37:00.100 And I think we're going to – it's going to clearly be one of the primary conversations during the election.

00:37:05.640 And I think, again, we're winning some of those battles, or at least we're slowing some of them down.

00:37:09.980 But I think this year, Glenn, just has the potential to be just such a mess, and it's going to hinge on the election.

00:37:21.160 And you know, Glenn, the last book I wrote that you and I have talked about, kind of the premise of that is the contested election, where we truly have half the country who just says, whoever wins, he's not legitimate.

00:37:35.740 I will never recognize him as our president.

00:37:38.660 And President Trump is going to be found guilty of some charges.

00:37:42.580 It's just almost inevitable.

00:37:44.180 We don't know which ones, but he will be.

00:37:45.900 And then the Democrats are going to say, look, he's a criminal.

00:37:48.460 He can't be the president of the United States.

00:37:50.120 Well, we know that's not true.

00:37:51.760 The criteria to be the president of the United States is really simple.

00:37:54.440 You've got to be 35 years old.

00:37:55.740 You've got to be a U.S. citizen.

00:37:56.640 And no state, no person, no other agency or organization can add requirements.

00:38:03.180 That's it.

00:38:04.460 And so the president's going to continue to run, and the Democrats are already setting it up to say, well, two things. 0.94

00:38:10.480 Number one is he's a Nazi. 0.63

00:38:11.920 He's authoritarian, and therefore we can never let him serve. 1.00

00:38:15.960 And the second is, you know, he's a criminal.

00:38:17.660 And I think, meanwhile, the Republicans look at this and go, well, you all, the projection on this is just beyond irony about them accusing Republicans of being totalitarian when we've seen the history of what they've done.

00:38:31.140 And I just don't have a plan about the election this year.

00:38:36.200 I worry about the chaos and the riots.

00:38:38.200 I think it's going to make 2020 look like a garden party, or at least potentially could.

00:38:43.420 And then ultimately putting us in a place where there's actual real uncertainty about who is the president.

00:38:51.680 And I don't know how our country walks through that without some just real pain.

00:38:57.860 And deep, deep scars.

00:38:59.800 That would destabilize.

00:39:03.060 I mean, if we were going through that, if I were China, I'd go into Taiwan right away. 0.70

00:39:07.880 Yeah.

00:39:08.660 Because we would just not have the capability.

00:39:12.020 So you'd lose that.

00:39:14.820 Any of the bad guys just come after us.

00:39:17.800 I mean, we're entering that time I talked about in 2008 where all of our enemies will see that we are so weakened that without coordination, they'll just all look at each other and go, now, go, go, go, go, go.

00:39:30.940 100%.

00:39:31.380 100%.

00:39:32.820 That's a great fear.

00:39:33.660 And you have to recognize that these leaders do watch what's happening internally, and they do take measure of that.

00:39:39.820 It is part of their dynamic.

00:39:41.540 How will the U.S. respond?

00:39:43.160 And how are they going to respond if they're divided or if they're chaotic or if there's uncertainty about who the actual president is?

00:39:48.820 And, by the way, the American people will be exhausted by this effort as well, and it's much harder for them to say, well, okay, while we're in the midst of all this, yeah, let's go ahead and intervene in a war in the South China Sea.

00:40:00.460 And here's something else to keep in mind with that, Glenn, that's really important.

00:40:04.240 Most of the wars that we've been involved with for the last generation, very little sacrifice for most Americans.

00:40:11.360 Now, for those people serving, it's incredible sacrifice, but most Americans, it's not.

00:40:16.140 But a war with China, for no other reason than this, the best analysis shows a 9% reduction in GDP from a war in the South China Sea.

00:40:26.080 To give that some measure, there was a 7% reduction during the Great Depression.

00:40:33.060 Every one of us will feel it if we have a war with China.

00:40:37.020 And it won't be the kind of thing where we think, gosh, I pray for our soldiers because they're over there fighting a war.

00:40:43.940 Every one of us will be praying it intensely because every one of us will be affected by it.

00:40:49.180 But there's no way we could go in and protect Taiwan at this point, is there?

00:40:57.720 Yeah, there actually is, Glenn.

00:40:59.320 I mean, it's very, very difficult.

00:41:01.320 I mean, the hope is that we can manage a deterrence, which would convince China it's just not worth the cost, which is, of course, what we're trying to do now.

00:41:10.080 But, you know, if you think that, or someone who would suppose, well, you know, Taiwan won't be nearly destroyed in the effort.

00:41:19.500 And as an example of that, some of these exquisite chip manufacturers where the world relies on them,

00:41:26.060 they are placed in a position geographically where the focus of the war will be.

00:41:30.840 There's very little chance that they would survive unharmed.

00:41:33.420 And so when you say, well, you know, can we really go in and protect Taiwan?

00:41:37.240 Yeah, we can probably protect the island from being actually militarily taken over.

00:41:43.080 But it's going to, again, it's going to come at a real cost.

00:41:47.220 What happens if you lose those chip plants?

00:41:49.980 What's the world look like?

00:41:52.140 Oh, well, it's very, very different, obviously.

00:41:54.320 I mean, because those are used not just in our products.

00:41:57.180 They're used primarily in the manufacturing of, you know, millions of products.

00:42:01.380 So that's one of the reasons that you get this 9% reduction in GDP.

00:42:06.600 And it's not just the U.S.

00:42:07.680 It's globally that that has that impact.

00:42:10.200 And it takes years to build that.

00:42:13.020 I mean, it would take 10 years for us to build up that capacity that we would lose.

00:42:17.880 The good news is China, it will take them a generation. 1.00

00:42:20.640 They have no capability or very, very limited capability to build it up.

00:42:25.060 It would not be in President Xi's lifetime.

00:42:27.420 So they would be hurt more than we would.

00:42:29.300 But still, it would be a dramatic impact on the global economy.

00:42:33.620 Is it reasonable to say, just let them have it?

00:42:38.300 Just let them take it.

00:42:39.900 Why defend it?

00:42:41.000 Let them take it.

00:42:42.640 They can control all of those chips, those chip plants. 0.83

00:42:46.140 Yeah.

00:42:46.820 Some people argue that.

00:42:48.080 And the interesting thing, too, Glenn, is that we're going to see what Taiwan thinks next week.

00:42:53.440 Because they're going to have their election, and there are different views on that.

00:42:56.460 If you do polling in Taiwan, there's a number of them, about 30% of them, who say, yeah, let's just go to China.

00:43:01.940 It's not that big of a deal.

00:43:03.680 I think it would be a catastrophe for us to let that happen, though.

00:43:06.940 Yeah.

00:43:07.840 Chris, thank you so much.

00:43:08.880 Na, na, na, na, na!

00:43:11.020 Na, na, na, na!

00:43:11.420 Na, na, na, na!

00:43:12.280 Na, na, na, na!

00:43:12.520 Na, na, na, na!

00:43:12.820 Na, na, na, na, na!

00:43:13.420 Na, na, na, na, na!

00:43:13.580 Na, na, na, na.

00:43:14.760 Na, na, na, na, na, na.

00:43:16.580 Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na na, naa.

00:43:19.180 Na, na, na, na, na!

00:43:25.220 Na, na, na, na, na, na!

00:43:30.480 Na, na, na, na, na, na, na wna.

00:43:35.000 Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na.

00:43:37.040 Hahaha Na, na, na, na, na, na naaa!

The Glenn Beck Program - January 09, 2024

Best of the Program ｜ Guests： Chris Stewart & Brian Will ｜ 1⧸9⧸24

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