The Glenn Beck Program - Best of the Program ｜ Guests： Gov. Greg Abbott & Leland Vittert ｜ 10⧸13⧸25

00:00:00.000 A historic day. We look into what President Trump's legacy will be after the negotiation of this

00:00:06.040 historic Middle East deal. Also, Governor Greg Abbott talks to us a little bit about what's

00:00:12.440 happening with the National Guard up in Illinois. It's the Texas National Guard.

00:00:19.140 And Leland Vittert. Leland is the host of On Balance for News Nation, but he's also written

00:00:25.200 a book called Born Lucky. He's a Middle East expert. We talked to him about that. But then

00:00:30.000 we get into his life story. He had, and still does, autism and was barely functional. But

00:00:39.640 his father made all the difference in his world. And now Leland is a raging success. Born

00:00:47.620 Lucky is the name of the book. The author is Leland Vittert, and he joins me on today's

00:00:51.640 podcast. Every life begins as a sound, a steady flickering heartbeat. That sound changes everything

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00:02:17.300 Hello, America. You know, we've been fighting every single day. We push back against the lies,

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00:03:02.200 Welcome to the Glenn Beck program. Quite an incredible day. And, you know, I would just like

00:03:22.240 to hear from those people today that have been saying, you know, Donald Trump is going to get

00:03:25.980 in all kinds of wars and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Uh, no, apparently not. Um, you know,

00:03:31.380 the, the real problem is, is that people, when, when George W. Bush told me in the Oval Office

00:03:39.000 back in 2007 or eight, he said, don't worry, Glenn, the next person that gets in here,

00:03:45.800 no matter what party they're from, they're going to realize they're going to have to do pretty much

00:03:51.360 the same thing because they'll have the same advisors and they'll know that their hands are

00:03:56.800 really tied as president. And that scared the hell out of me. I mean, he was trying to make me feel

00:04:01.840 better, but I didn't feel better. Wait a minute. The president really doesn't have any power to do

00:04:06.940 anything. We're going to continue to go down this road, even though it doesn't work. That's why when

00:04:11.500 Obama got in, nothing really changed. He didn't shut anything down or do anything big because he was

00:04:17.580 going for the same advisors. And so all these advisors that are like, you know, we've got a

00:04:22.840 hundred years of experience. Uh, we've been working on these things and it's, uh, Donald Trump came in

00:04:28.680 and said, I don't agree with any of this stuff. We're going to try something different. And so he

00:04:35.300 got rid of those advisors and he's like, who'd you just marry? Honey? Yeah. Okay. Bring him over here.

00:04:41.160 We're gonna send him to the middle East. Um, I mean, he just, he broke all of the rules and he's a 0.94

00:04:49.640 negotiator and he's a business guy and he's, he's a builder. So he thinks differently. Um, and look at

00:04:58.860 the difference. I mean, if you, you want to look at, uh, the way he has changed the world, he has

00:05:06.300 greatly changed the world. We're not out of the woods by any stretch of the imagination.

00:05:11.160 But he is greatly changing the world. He is breaking everything that the state department

00:05:16.640 and the years of the guys who have been thinking exactly the same way, what they've been building.

00:05:21.900 He's breaking all of that. And he's like, no, we're going to build it a different way. We're

00:05:26.240 not going to be a global community where everybody is answering to, you know, the United nations.

00:05:31.640 We're going to be our own States. And that's the way it should be. Now, if you don't like that, 0.75

00:05:36.680 if you want to be a global community, that's fine. But that doesn't mean we all go to war

00:05:40.320 with each other as you're seeing. If you find a way for everybody to work together, if you

00:05:46.480 find a way that where everybody wants to be successful and have some peace. Now, there

00:05:50.980 are going to be some people like Iran. I don't know what's going to happen with Iran, but 0.72

00:05:55.580 I'm hoping that there is some sort of mutual agreement between the Arab States that, you

00:06:01.120 know, if Iran starts something, it's not going to just be, you know, um, it's not just going

00:06:11.000 to be Israel that has to respond or the United States. It's time for the Middle East. Now 0.99

00:06:17.200 that they're together to take that on themselves. If there is trouble there, because that one

00:06:23.560 hasn't been solved yet, but he reached out and said, look, Iran, we don't have to be enemies.

00:06:29.840 We, we, now is the time for you to come to the table as well.

00:06:35.220 It's so clear that this is how he actually sees the world, right? He does see the world. Peace

00:06:41.420 through strength is something that he really believes in. He talked about it quite a bit in

00:06:46.460 the speech about how this is, this didn't happen because he was decided to let everyone have what

00:06:54.080 they want or to be super nice to everyone. This happened because they have really big weapons

00:06:58.820 that are really powerful, that hit the targets they want to hit. And many of them he shared,

00:07:03.380 as he pointed out, shared with Israel, uh, many of which that they have themselves to use when needed.

00:07:09.900 And, uh, he didn't, that is the, the approach here. This is not a, it's, it's so weird because I

00:07:16.240 think the left and the media see Donald Trump as a guy who is either this maniacal hawk that is

00:07:23.180 going to go just blow up everything all the time. That's one of the worries that they said. And we

00:07:27.540 said at the time, that's none of his history points to this. Nothing. What are you talking about that?

00:07:32.080 Um, but back to when he was 20 years old, he talked about this stuff. He hates war. Yeah. And I think

00:07:37.480 some other establishment, uh, criticism comes to him because, you know, you look at like what Russia did

00:07:44.640 with Ukraine. Right. And you say, okay, well, Russia invaded Ukraine. And, and there's a lot

00:07:49.060 of people like on the hawkish, you know, right. Who would say, okay, like, right. They're in the

00:07:53.240 wrong here. What are we going, why are we going to go and do anything with them and say that, you know,

00:07:57.780 he's too weak on these issues. He's constantly trying to give everyone what they want. He's

00:08:02.260 always negotiating. And like, neither of those are really true. Like there, some, there are elements

00:08:07.860 of those, like Donald Trump will attack a country he believes is in the wrong. If he needs to,

00:08:13.860 you've seen it with Soleimani back in the day, he'll do the things he believes he needs to do,

00:08:17.660 but he's not ideologically committed to doing that all the time. The same thing with negotiating.

00:08:22.400 He's also limited in his scope. Yeah. Usually limited in his scope. Uh, same thing with, uh,

00:08:27.940 but like not limited in his scope when it comes to ISIS. No. Right. Like he came in and was like,

00:08:32.200 he talked about that in the speech too. He's like, I talked to, to, to general, uh, raising Cain

00:08:36.620 and, uh, everyone told me it was going to take four or five years. He told me it would take four

00:08:40.600 weeks, but we'd probably have time left over. And he was right. We went in, he, we did it his way.

00:08:45.780 He found a general who was on the ground who said, look, I don't want to talk ill about my superiors,

00:08:50.120 but here's what I think we could do. And he picked him and he said, we'll do it your way because

00:08:54.040 your way makes sense. And then it was over in a month. Right. Incredible. That is a totally different

00:08:58.940 way of looking at these things. And because he just doesn't have that, he doesn't, he's not

00:09:04.580 involved in that, that world where there's just calcification over ideas. Like exactly what we

00:09:09.760 talked about when it, when it comes to, uh, George W. Bush, right? Like, uh, you know, this is kind

00:09:14.360 of where we are and the same advisors advise the same things. And it doesn't always mean that it

00:09:19.680 works out perfectly. It doesn't always mean he's always right. He is a guy, I think with that type of

00:09:24.640 stuff, at least when he, when it does go down the wrong road, oftentimes he'll reconsider.

00:09:29.620 You know, I mean, I think that's what happened with Russia. He went down that road with Russia. 0.73

00:09:33.620 He really, and again, he talked about this in the speech, believed he could solve that

00:09:36.700 immediately. He said it before the election. He said, we could get that done in a couple of days.

00:09:40.480 He said, I, I talked, I called over and, uh, and Whitcoff was in there talking and it was 15

00:09:46.700 minutes in. And I called him like, what's going on? Why is this taking so long? And they're like,

00:09:50.680 he's still in there. And he talked to him for five hours and it didn't happen. And he,

00:09:54.500 he admitted it didn't happen. And you saw the change that he had there where he was all of a

00:09:59.540 sudden saying, well, you know what, maybe Russia isn't serious about this and we should start doing

00:10:02.620 more to, to put pressure on them in other ways. But like, that's oftentimes just mocked as failure,

00:10:08.780 right? He went in there with this big approach and it didn't work. Well, he's trying something else.

00:10:14.180 He's trying things that he believes will end these conflicts. And that is consistent with who he's been

00:10:18.700 for a very long time. I mean, you can come up with criticisms for Donald Trump, but this stuff has

00:10:22.600 been pretty successful. His, the stuff that he's done, particularly in the Middle East

00:10:26.640 has been incredibly successful. Name the president that has not moved us closer to war

00:10:33.560 or brought us into war in the last, you know, five where we've had troops on the ground. We're

00:10:39.720 sending troops everywhere. Name, name the last president that didn't do that.

00:10:44.100 I mean, you know, you could, I guess you could say, you know, Joe Biden, who's withdrew a bunch

00:10:52.940 of troops from Afghanistan. That didn't work out very well. It didn't get us just slaughtered. 0.95

00:10:56.920 It made everything worse. Yeah. Uh, no, you're right. I mean, I, it's, it's not his, he has a

00:11:03.680 priority for this not to occur. It's very important to Donald Trump, I think quite clearly. And he

00:11:09.560 believes he can get it done. And in, in some circumstances it's worked, which by the way,

00:11:16.000 nothing else we try typically works. You know, sometimes war will end the, the thing you're

00:11:22.460 dealing with at that given moment. We have seen that happen, but oftentimes does turn into something,

00:11:27.860 uh, worse in the longterm. And to be clear here, you know, one of the problems that if we were going

00:11:33.240 to poke holes in this at all, as to what happens so far, there is always a completely ridiculous

00:11:39.540 ratio of how many Palestinians get released compared to how many Israelis get. 20 to 2000.

00:11:46.520 To 2000. It's a hundred to one in this case. And it's always 50, a hundred, 150 to one. It's

00:11:51.700 always something like this. And you look at the guys who are coming back from Israel and they're

00:11:55.520 all healthy and well-fed, look like they've just been at a resort. And then you look at the

00:12:00.140 hostages coming back from Hamas and they just look horrible. Many, you know, they look either 0.90

00:12:05.020 bad to horrible. Yeah. And, um, the issue here is all of the people that were taken hostage

00:12:12.120 by Hamas will return back to life in Israel, hopefully be able to adjust to life with their 0.98

00:12:18.300 families, going to church, uh, living, uh, as, as they were, or at least as close as they

00:12:23.880 can get to that. It'd be weird if the Jews started going to church. 1.00

00:12:26.820 Well, you know, whatever. I don't know if they're all Jews. I mean, there was people

00:12:31.700 from other countries as well. Um, but, uh, the, uh, the opposite will happen likely with

00:12:38.240 the 2000 Palestinians. Many of these were hardcore terrorists. Many of them were real criminals. 0.97

00:12:45.660 Many of them were in, you know, either involved or, uh, suspected to be involved heavily in the

00:12:53.220 October 7th attacks. Yeah. A lot of these people do in the future. There's a lot to come here.

00:12:57.600 So there's a difference though. They're releasing many of them that are being released

00:13:01.860 did not have charges against them. They were scooped up and not charged with something.

00:13:07.620 So, you know, they were holding these to keep combatants off the battlefield, but they were

00:13:13.440 not necessarily charged. They didn't have them. They were the ones on video murdering children,

00:13:18.100 right? Like it wasn't them. So correct. But again, some of them were suspected. They

00:13:22.940 believed they had planning, um, you know, possibilities. They were in groups with the

00:13:28.680 people who were doing these things. And there is certainly a risk as we've seen after 9-11

00:13:34.140 that when you take terrorists and you put them in Guantanamo for a few months and then you

00:13:38.840 release them back, they become the heads of ISIS. Like this stuff does happen. So there's a long

00:13:43.780 road ahead. This is not a, it's, it's a victory lap for a very small piece of this, but a very

00:13:48.820 important piece of it. If they can keep the peace between the Arab world, forget about 1.00

00:13:54.220 Hamas. You keep the peace and you hold together a coalition of the Arab world with Israel. 0.90

00:14:01.520 That's, that's worth all of it. Massively important. Massive. And while it might not

00:14:07.540 necessarily solve Hamas or Hezbollah or any of these other groups, it, if we have a place 0.95

00:14:16.240 where Israel and these, and many of these Arab nations are in a good place together.

00:14:21.220 Trading with each other.

00:14:22.180 And maybe some of these countries are actually overseeing Gaza. Yeah. Um, and they are the 0.73

00:14:28.600 ones that need to come in and be the bad guys when Hamas does these things. It's a totally 0.92

00:14:33.760 different dynamic. There's no way to turn against Israel if that situation is true. If that, that 0.97

00:14:41.620 relationship can be maintained and that'll be difficult. There will be times where that's

00:14:46.280 going to be really difficult to maintain. But again, it's a path. It's, it's like a possibility

00:14:50.860 of success. We were in a situation. I mean, as long as we've done the show together, Glenn,

00:14:55.200 a hundred percent of the time I can, I was convinced this was never going to occur where there would

00:15:00.860 even be a chance where Arab nations and Israel would be buddy, buddy, or at least something close

00:15:05.940 to it. I would say 99.9% of the time, because the Arab accords were so historic. You're like,

00:15:11.800 wait, what just happened? Yeah. Yeah. The Abraham accords. Yeah. I agree with that. And of course, 1.00

00:15:16.340 there's always the possibility of a miracle. That's the only thing really I held out hope

00:15:19.880 for. This is, this might be it manifesting itself. And that's great. Uh, here's what Hillary Clinton

00:15:25.160 said. I really commend president Trump and his administration, as well as Arab leaders in the

00:15:29.860 region for making the commitment to a 20 point plan and seeing path forward, uh, for what's often

00:15:34.580 called the day after it's going to take a lot of work. It's going to take a lot of coordination.

00:15:39.200 Uh, but the U S took advantage of a opening that was available and we were able to be successful.

00:15:45.640 That's great. Good for her. Not what Biden said. No, the Biden administration is like, Donald, what

00:15:51.440 who doc are you? I don't know what you're talking about, but congratulations, Hillary Clinton,

00:15:56.280 for at least being honest, uh, which you know, who's honest today. If you're not saying, wow, good job,

00:16:03.900 Donald Trump. Well, you know, you're not an honest broker of anything. Yeah. I don't really know who

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00:17:16.580 real estate agents. I trust.com that's real estate agents. I trust.com. Now back to the podcast.

00:17:23.140 This is the best of the Glenn Beck program. And don't forget, rate us on iTunes.

00:17:29.100 Governor Abbott, welcome to the program.

00:17:32.660 Hey Glenn.

00:17:33.800 Hey, how are you?

00:17:35.160 Man, I'm doing great. How are you doing?

00:17:36.700 I'm good. I'm good. I just wanted to ask you a couple of questions. First, any thoughts on the

00:17:42.620 peace deal in Israel and the Arab world today?

00:17:48.660 It's just remarkable. It's, I haven't seen anything like this before. When, as you know,

00:17:56.340 the Middle East is one of the most complicated areas in the entire world. And to see President

00:18:01.680 Trump be able to go in there, work with other countries across the entire region, as well as

00:18:06.980 over in Europe and other places like that to galvanize countries, literally across the globe

00:18:12.700 and say, this is what we have to do. Uh, so we have to have peace there. We have to stop the

00:18:18.340 shooting, uh, stop the killing. We have to release the hostages, uh, all of that. Uh, and, and to do

00:18:24.320 that in such a short period of time and to see the effectuation of it, uh, begin overnight, uh, is

00:18:30.580 just stunning. Uh, and, uh, so I would say so far, so good with the release of the hostages, uh, the,

00:18:40.500 the, the test will be tougher, uh, when we get to the next stage, uh, where Hamas, uh, actually has 0.64

00:18:46.840 to, uh, step down, uh, from running Gaza, uh, controlling Gaza. Uh, and we have to see them 0.59

00:18:55.040 live up to that component of the peace deal. Uh, if, if they're able to pull that off, uh, and if,

00:19:00.480 uh, international, uh, troops will be the ones who will be, uh, ensuring, uh, the, the safety of it

00:19:06.660 in, in, ensuring that it's not U S international troops, but, uh, from other countries, uh, that

00:19:12.760 will be stabilizing Gaza, uh, as opposed to Hamas, uh, then it may be, uh, an extraordinarily 0.75

00:19:19.700 valuable deal. Uh, well, we'll keep our fingers crossed on that. Um, I wanted to talk to you

00:19:24.640 because, um, uh, Pritzker, uh, and the courts have just said to the national guard, to the

00:19:30.680 Texas national guard, you can't do anything. Now, last week, I think they said you couldn't

00:19:35.420 deploy them there. You did because of what the constitution actually says, but now you've

00:19:40.580 got a hold on them protecting ice. What's the status on this? All right. So let's, let's

00:19:46.840 go back to fundamentals here, because what I have found is everybody in the country, uh,

00:19:50.800 doesn't understand the fundamentals. I'll rip through it real quick. Uh, one is they are

00:19:55.320 obviously be quote national guard. Uh, and the, the president has the authority, uh, under

00:20:01.580 the constitution, under federal statutes to be able to call up the national guard.

00:20:05.420 And to deploy them under certain circumstances, uh, one of which, which is to deploy the national

00:20:10.900 guard to prevent interference with execution of federal law. And that's exactly what the

00:20:16.520 president has done in, in Illinois, uh, in Oregon, uh, in, uh, California and places like

00:20:23.320 that. And, uh, as you kind of pointed out, and this is detailed, you got to be kind of a

00:20:27.920 lawyer to figure out what these courts said, but very importantly, uh, the federal court of

00:20:32.700 appeals in California, the federal court of appeals in Illinois, all said that the president

00:20:39.180 is fully authorized to call up these national guards, uh, for purposes, uh, that were articulated

00:20:46.000 by the president of why they were needed. Uh, what happened in, and this actually occurred

00:20:50.940 before the national guard were even sent to Illinois, because the trial court judge there

00:20:56.920 said, uh, the trial court, uh, wanted to hear evidence, uh, about whether, uh, what was actually

00:21:03.120 going on the ground satisfy the criteria, uh, of preventing interference with execution of

00:21:09.120 federal laws. And so that, that's all that that's going to happen. Uh, you got to prove that

00:21:14.580 that that's exactly what they are for, because, uh, if they do that, uh, they will be allowed

00:21:19.520 not only to be discharged there, which they are allowed by the courts to do, but they will

00:21:24.360 also be able to be there to carry out the function of protecting ICE as ICE is trying to perform

00:21:30.980 its duty, uh, to, uh, enforce federal law. Now, listen, Glenn, what we've all seen on TV

00:21:37.500 screens across the entire country, the, the way that, uh, people in communities, uh, it could

00:21:43.000 be protesters, it could be assassinators, uh, in these communities across country are interfering

00:21:48.120 with ICE performing their jobs. Uh, and so, uh, this is fundamental, uh, and I know whether it

00:21:54.240 be at these federal court of appeals or when it gets to the United States Supreme Court,

00:21:59.260 President Trump is going to be judicially authorized, uh, to fully enforce title 10, uh,

00:22:07.180 of the federal law to make sure that these National Guard troopers are going to be able to be deployed

00:22:12.680 and protect ICE members who are coming under assault in states across the entire country.

00:22:20.860 He's not allowed to have them, uh, do police duties though. Right. I mean, that's the difference,

00:22:27.540 right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so, and that's the deal. And that's one of the evidence

00:22:31.320 issues that the trial court wants to hear. So, uh, he, he, the president doesn't have the authority

00:22:38.500 to call up National Guard to act like police officers there, but that's not what he's doing.

00:22:43.520 He's never even said he's trying to do that. But of course, that's the bogus arguments being made

00:22:48.440 by Prisker, uh, and by people like Gavin Newsom and, and, and, and you know, as well as I do

00:22:53.200 Prisker and Gavin Newsom, uh, they, they, they are sanctuary city governors and they are more than

00:23:00.280 happy having chaos in their communities. And the last thing they want to do is to, uh, push down that

00:23:06.240 chaos and allow some National Guard soldier to come in and make the communities more safe. And

00:23:11.680 it's just disgusting that we have governors in this country, uh, who, who actually promote,

00:23:18.820 uh, crime and chaos in their own communities. Now, these are governors who are promoting

00:23:24.420 endangering federal officials who are trying to carry out the functions of their office.

00:23:29.880 And I'm telling you, Glenn, if any of these people, any of these, uh, ICE agents or any federal

00:23:35.200 employees, if they're injured in any way whatsoever, uh, then governor Prisker and

00:23:40.080 mayor Johnson of Chicago, they are an accomplice, uh, in the crime that would injure, uh, one of

00:23:46.080 our National Guard or one of the ICE agents trying to carry out the functions of federal law.

00:23:50.640 Um, tell me why Donald Trump chose Texas. Cause I know he always does everything he does is for a

00:23:58.240 reason. Why did he choose the Texas National Guard?

00:24:01.200 Uh, president Trump knows that the Texas National Guard is the most elite National Guard that we have

00:24:08.080 in the United States, uh, whether it be serving, uh, on our homeland or serving on foreign lands. Uh,

00:24:14.640 he knows that they have the expertise, uh, of dealing with, uh, civil riot control. Uh, they have done

00:24:22.880 that on the border, uh, in the harshest developments in the toughest of times. Uh, they have been deployed

00:24:28.840 around the state of Texas by me, uh, to deal with situations like this, uh, where we needed the

00:24:34.760 National Guard to, uh, have the back of our law enforcement officers during the George Floyd

00:24:41.000 protest during other protests. Uh, and so, uh, these are proven and tested, uh, National Guard, uh, who we

00:24:49.240 have a very large number of them. And he, he knew also that if we sent our guard there, uh, we would

00:24:54.840 still have plenty of guard, uh, thousands of them on the border as we do right now, uh, as well as

00:25:00.440 plenty of other National Guard to be able to perform whatever other function, uh, that I, as governor

00:25:06.280 would need, uh, them to be able to provide. And so, uh, this is just easy math for him, uh, and coming

00:25:13.560 from a state, uh, that has the kind and quality and training of National Guard that President Trump

00:25:20.040 respects. Um, the rules of engagement, I've always concerned about, you know, the National Guard kind

00:25:26.440 of just being sitting ducks. They can't really do anything. What are you going to do? Shoot. Um,

00:25:31.400 what are the rules of engagement? Yes, it's very simple and great, great question. Uh, and, but there

00:25:37.640 are rules of engagement, uh, that our guard had been very well trained on for literally years. Uh, and

00:25:43.720 then when they arrived in Illinois, uh, they went back over the rules of engagement and that is, uh,

00:25:49.800 they don't go proactively and shoot somebody or anything like that. Uh, if their, their mandate,

00:25:56.760 uh, is to protect the ICE agents, but in protecting ICE agents and other federal employees, uh, if they

00:26:04.760 come under assault, uh, they have, uh, certain tactics and strategies that they can use, uh, to

00:26:11.720 make sure that they're going to maintain safety around them. Some easy examples, uh, they would,

00:26:15.960 and, and I haven't been told exactly what they are down there, but I'm going to

00:26:19.720 change generally what they do. Uh, they, they would have, uh, tear gas capabilities, uh, flashbang

00:26:25.400 capabilities, pepper ball capabilities, uh, less than lethal force capabilities, uh, to make sure

00:26:31.400 that they're, they're going to be able to maintain crowd control, uh, in, in ways that will protect

00:26:36.360 the safety of the federal officials while at the very same time, not doing any physical harm, uh, to

00:26:42.840 anybody in the community who is threatening them. But also Glenn, remember this, uh, it was just a few

00:26:49.160 weeks ago, uh, where, you know, guard needed to be there, but they were not there, uh, at the time

00:26:55.160 of the shooting in Dallas, Texas, uh, when there was an assassination attempt by a gunman trying to

00:27:01.080 kill murder, uh, the, uh, uh, uh, national, I'm sorry, the, the ice agents there. Uh, and, and, uh, 0.96

00:27:10.040 you know, are you supposed to just stand back and say, yeah, have at it, take your best shot.

00:27:14.920 Of course not. Uh, they would, they would have been, uh, in charge, uh, of trying to eliminate

00:27:21.800 that shooter before that shooter, uh, shot, uh, what turned out to be, uh, two illegal immigrants

00:27:29.000 who were in detention. You know, there's, there's, um, uh, that's the second incident here in Texas.

00:27:35.000 Um, and I know the first one, the first one, I think everybody, but one has been, uh, arrested

00:27:41.240 and that was, that's, you know, quite a, um, uh, quite the accomplishment, uh, on that to get,

00:27:48.240 make sure you get everybody involved. Um, let me, let me switch to the border here real quick.

00:27:53.520 I read a story today about how the drug cartels have, at least in Baja, uh, have declared war

00:28:01.680 on Americans. Um, are we seeing anything, uh, any upswing in dangerous engagement from the

00:28:10.240 drug cartels on our border? Well, it, it depends on where you are because, you know, the border runs

00:28:16.880 from the Gulf of America to the Pacific coast. Uh, and you're, you were talking about, uh, in the

00:28:23.280 California area and we, we have not yet seen in Texas, anything exactly like that. We are prepared

00:28:31.040 for it in Texas, which is why we still have thousands of national guard and Texas department

00:28:36.080 of public safety officers on the border. And it's also why we are working in a very close collaboration,

00:28:41.840 uh, with the Trump administration to make sure that we're going to be able to push back on

00:28:46.640 anything like this. But, uh, I'll tell you about two things, uh, further in response to this one,

00:28:51.440 remember, uh, Trump has publicly stated, uh, what is also privacy privately stated. And that is,

00:28:58.320 uh, he is looking to take out the heads, uh, of the cartels, uh, in Mexico. Uh, and he is not backed

00:29:05.840 off of that, uh, in any way, uh, whatsoever. Uh, the, the other thing is, is that we, we all know that

00:29:13.200 we need to be prepared, uh, uh, in, in every region of the border, uh, about a new form of

00:29:19.520 engagement by the cartels. And that will be active drone warfare. And I know in Texas,

00:29:26.000 we're prepared for it. Uh, and we're gearing up the other thing, something that moved that just

00:29:30.320 came out over the weekend, uh, but they'd been working on a couple of weeks. Do you remember

00:29:34.800 back when Biden was president and I was doing everything I could to protect the border and

00:29:40.880 I deployed those big orange buoys, uh, into the water, into the real grand that

00:29:45.680 prevented people from being across the border. Uh, there was an announcement made by the Trump

00:29:50.400 administration that they are, uh, putting down about 80 miles of those big orange buoys, uh,

00:29:57.680 especially in the Eagle Pass area, uh, that would prevent people from being able to cross. And

00:30:02.480 they're looking at other spaces where they would be adding, uh, in the aggregate,

00:30:06.320 more than a hundred miles of those buoys. One thing about those buoys,

00:30:10.080 uh, they are fully effective at preventing people from crossing in those areas. Uh,

00:30:15.040 but they're about, I don't know, about a tenth of the cost of a border wall. And so it's a very

00:30:20.640 effective tool for the federal government to continue to deny illegal entry. But there's also,

00:30:26.800 there's also, we, listen, we, we know the commitment of president Trump to make sure that

00:30:30.640 we're going to have zero people crossing the border during his administration. But what I told

00:30:35.200 president Trump is, listen, uh, you know, we want to work with you for the next three years to make

00:30:40.160 sure that, uh, we stopped that, uh, the flow coming across the border, but we need to do it in a way.

00:30:45.440 So it's effective for more than just three years for the next 30, for the next 30 years, uh, is what

00:30:51.680 we need to do. And those buoys on the border, the border wall that he's building, some other things

00:30:56.640 are doing in the state of Texas, uh, is ensuring, uh, that what he has done during this term in

00:31:02.880 presidency is going to have a lasting effect to deny illegal entry into the United States of America.

00:31:09.200 Uh, Governor Greg, Greg Abbott, I know you need to run. Um, but I do want to congratulate you on

00:31:14.320 what you've done with Epic City. And, uh, you know, you immediately sprung into action the minute we

00:31:19.280 started hearing about these Muslim Sharia laws that he's possibly springing up. And I want to thank

00:31:23.760 you for that. And, uh, we'll keep our eye on the attorney general to make sure that he enforces

00:31:28.800 those laws. Thank you. You got it. Great to have you on. How are you, sir?

00:31:46.480 Pleasure to be with you, Glenn. Uh, I remember when you and I worked together at Fox.

00:31:51.440 Absolutely. Absolutely. Um, you first, I want to start before I get into your story,

00:31:57.120 because your story is so great. Um, before we get into that, tell me your analysis,

00:32:03.360 because you are foreign correspondent based in Jerusalem forever. What is your take on what's

00:32:08.560 happening right now over in Egypt and, uh, and also in Israel that we don't understand right now.

00:32:17.920 And that's fine in real time, how historic and seismic the shift in the Middle East is right now,

00:32:25.120 because Trump turned 50 years of conventional wisdom on its head. Jared Kushner understood and

00:32:33.200 explained to Trump that the root of all the problems in the Middle East is not the Israeli

00:32:38.000 Palestinian conflict. It is Iran. And I think what we saw over the past eight months and to be fair

00:32:43.600 over Trump's first term, but it culminated in the past eight months is the isolation and degradation

00:32:49.600 of both Iran's ability to act militarily on its own and its proxies. And thus has allowed a total 0.73

00:32:57.520 sea change in the power dynamic of the Middle East away from Iran and towards the Gulf countries and

00:33:06.240 towards Israel. So that has totally changed everything. And we're seeing, I think the 1.00

00:33:15.120 beginning of it, not the end of how much is going to change in the Middle East for the good.

00:33:19.920 What is it? What does it mean? What does today mean in five years or 10 years?

00:33:24.160 Look, the one thing I learned about being in the Middle East is if you want to predict the future 1.00

00:33:29.200 in the Middle East, OK, you must be a prophet himself. You will be proven.

00:33:36.320 And here's why is because things change. If two years ago I had told you after October 7th,

00:33:44.160 Hezbollah and Hamas would be destroyed. Iran's nuclear program would be in ashes. But the real threat, 0.69

00:33:49.760 both in Europe and in the United States, would be this wild rise of anti-Semitism and radical Islam 0.92

00:33:59.360 terror now calling for the death of Jews and attacks on Jews around the world, you would 0.96

00:34:04.560 have called me crazy. Because everybody would have said, oh, you know, everybody's going to rally 0.96

00:34:07.680 around Israel. It's the exact opposite of what has happened. So I can't predict the future, 0.88

00:34:12.080 but what I can say is, is that for the first time, I think, since the Iranian revolution in 1979,

00:34:18.960 there is a realization of where the real evil in in the Middle East is and a willingness by the 0.99

00:34:24.080 United States to confront it honestly. And there are people on how quickly things are changing.

00:34:29.840 There are people on the right, Leland now, that do not recognize Hamas as evil. They are so

00:34:38.880 down this rabbit hole of the Jews controlling the world and Donald Trump and, you know, all of this 1.00

00:34:46.400 stuff that they don't, I don't think they actually see the evil in the Middle East. They see it coming 0.99

00:34:57.280 from Israel. It's, it's bizarre. And I'm trying to get my arms around it to understand it and

00:35:03.360 understand where it's coming from. But have you noticed it in the right? And what, what is the

00:35:10.700 solution here? Well, I think the solution, Glenn, is exactly what you're doing, which is calling it

00:35:17.620 out for what it is, which is, it's not some new age critical way of thinking. It's rank anti-Semitism

00:35:25.680 and Jew hatred. There's a difference. You would agree, you would agree with me that you can dislike 0.97

00:35:31.920 what Israel, how Israel fought the war. You can say, I don't want to fight their wars. I don't want 0.96

00:35:36.140 anything to do with it. And I disagree with them. That's different than the message of I'm for Hamas

00:35:42.320 or Israel has to be, you know, destroyed because they're just, they're, they're the source of all 1.00

00:35:50.900 the problems in the world. Yeah. And I'll go one step further. It's different than saying 0.97

00:35:56.900 Hamas is anything other than an evil terror organization. Um, there, there, there is good 1.00

00:36:05.560 and evil and in the world, there is, there is a difference between the two. And I, I don't necessarily

00:36:14.520 like the term moral clarity, but I don't have a better one, um, for what is required in these

00:36:20.200 situations. And this sort of Hamas adjacent talking points or agreeing with these talking

00:36:25.360 points. It's no different than Mamdami, um, who, who sort of, it's like, well, Hamas may,

00:36:30.680 may be bad, but they have legitimate grievances. No, they don't. And, and I'm sorry, once you,

00:36:37.420 once you start raping and pillaging and waging war against civilians, I don't care what your 1.00

00:36:42.680 grievances are, you must be destroyed. And then we can deal with whatever the other issues are later. 1.00

00:36:48.860 So what do you think happens to this Palestinian movement here in America now that this is over?

00:36:54.600 I don't know, but it scares me number one. And I think number two, uh, what we've seen is it's not

00:37:00.340 really a Palestinian movement. It was an anti-Jew movement. It was the sort of graph on a BLI of the,

00:37:07.860 the neo-Marxist oppressed oppressor worldview that just grafted on to the pro-Palestinian movement.

00:37:17.340 But at their core, they're neo-Marxist anti-Semites. Um, and we know that because now that there is a

00:37:23.340 peace deal in Gaza, okay. And ceasefire. And if anything, it's going to help the Gazan people who

00:37:28.700 they said were starving and so on, you know, terribly oppressed. Well, they're not anymore,

00:37:32.980 but yet these people are still marching around calling for the death of Jews, right? You know, 0.98

00:37:38.060 when we knew a peace deal was happening on October 7th, there were thousands in the streets of New

00:37:42.140 York saying we needed another October 7th, this one even stronger. So that's who we're dealing with.

00:37:50.380 And I appreciate you calling it out from the right, because I think there is a, an element of the

00:37:55.280 right, but thank God there are people like you, Glenn, who on the right are saying, this is crazy and

00:38:01.820 this is wrong and this is despicable. That doesn't happen on the left. Okay. You've got Kathy Hochul

00:38:06.620 endorsing Mamdami in New York city. That's the governor of the second or third largest state in 0.96

00:38:11.680 the country endorsing a guy who is Hamas adjacent. That doesn't happen in the Republican party or on

00:38:17.780 the right. Can it though? I mean, on the left, can it, I mean, they have let this go for so long

00:38:23.820 that it is really powerful. And those are the kinds of people that do kill people. Um, and so

00:38:31.100 it is, it is so empowered on the left. Can the politician expect to live, uh, if they go against

00:38:39.580 this? I think when it requires politicians with actual moral courage, um, and people can take from

00:38:47.340 that what they will, but if you are, if you're more concerned, if you're so concerned about your own

00:38:51.680 political future, as so many on the left are, that you are unwilling to name, shame, call out whatever

00:39:00.380 you want to use the term as people who are Hamas adjacent and those who endorse people who are Hamas

00:39:07.560 adjacent, that pretty much says everything about who you are and what you care about.

00:39:12.320 I'm not sure it's just about your career politically though, anymore. I think we're,

00:39:17.760 you know, we've entered a, you know, this we've turned a page and, uh, the violence is real now.

00:39:23.760 And there are people that are unhinged that will, uh, they'll, they'll take you out. They will take

00:39:31.380 you out. That I think that's very true. And I think where we are seeing the most of that language

00:39:39.540 is from the left, but that is a different discussion. Yeah. Leland has a new book, um,

00:39:44.740 out that is called born lucky. And, uh, you wouldn't think that when you actually hear his

00:39:50.960 story. Um, and I didn't know this about you Leland at all. And you are a, you're an amazing success

00:39:59.140 story. Um, well, go ahead. No, no, I was just gonna say, thank you. Um, you know, I think what

00:40:05.300 you're talking about is the fact that when I was five years old, I was diagnosed with what we now

00:40:09.440 know to be autism. Um, and born lucky is the story of my dad adapting me to the world rather than the

00:40:18.260 world to me. And the reason, you know, we debuted on the New York times bestseller list at number

00:40:22.940 four, and we've sold out three times on Amazon back in stock now is not because of me. Um, you

00:40:28.980 know, Glenn, I'm a television anchor, but I'm not that narcissistic to think it's about me.

00:40:32.820 It's about this story. And born lucky is proof for every parent of a kid who's having a hard time.

00:40:38.420 It doesn't matter if it's autism, anxiety, ADHD, anything. It is proof for every parent of a kid

00:40:44.420 who's having a hard time, how much power they have, how much agency they have, what they can do.

00:40:50.260 And it's not anything that the experts tell you. So when you were in fourth grade, you did an IQ

00:40:55.700 test for the school and your spread was 68 points. You were borderline retarded on the low end when it 1.00

00:41:03.140 was your verbal test, uh, but nonverbal, you were in the genius category. That's phenomenal. 0.89

00:41:10.340 Well, now my wife would tell me I'm probably still borderline many things, um, right now,

00:41:16.880 but so you pick up on this moment in the book where my parents are told they need to get me

00:41:23.380 evaluated, which is what no parent wants to hear. Right. And I was having terrible issues in school.

00:41:28.260 I never got invited to a birthday party or anything like that. But if a kid touched me in line,

00:41:32.180 I would turn around and hit them. Uh, you know, kids would make jokes and I would try to be serious.

00:41:36.580 I would run into kids on the playground. It just, nothing worked and had really terrible sensory

00:41:41.940 issues. You know, uh, I had my socks on the way I didn't like, or a jacket or anything like that.

00:41:46.180 I would completely melt down. And then obviously what was all these learning disabilities. So the

00:41:51.300 parents take me to this medical office building for all this testing, linoleum floors,

00:41:56.660 bad magazines, old coffee, whatever. They wait for two hours. They're terrified. I'm their son, uh,

00:42:03.060 who's that my sister at the time was one or two years old. So they bring me back from all the testing

00:42:09.220 and they say to my parents, we really don't understand what's going on inside his head.

00:42:13.700 Um, you know, severe learning disabilities, terrible behavioral problems, awful sensory issues,

00:42:19.540 all the things of what we now know to be autism. And my dad said, what do we do? And the woman said,

00:42:24.980 there's not much. And he said, is there anything we can do? And she said, generally not.

00:42:30.260 And that began my dad's quest to adapt me to the world and to find things that I could have self

00:42:38.020 esteem in and to, to help me earn self-esteem rather than given. So wasn't going to be good

00:42:43.140 at school. Wasn't going to have friends. Wasn't going to be good at athletics, but he started me

00:42:46.980 at that age a little bit earlier, actually doing 200 pushups a day, five days a week,

00:42:52.180 hard work, effort equals achievement. It's something you can take pride in. Um, your character was a huge

00:42:57.620 part of his lessons. Um, something you can take pride in. And that was, that was this process.

00:43:02.980 And you write in the book about the pushups. It was also, so your dad, dad knew you were going

00:43:06.900 to need to protect yourself, right? Yeah. No, I look at my sister who plays a really important

00:43:12.900 role in this book. And I think one of the things that people don't understand, and so many families

00:43:17.460 are suffering silently right now and feel alone with their kid. Who's having a hard time. Doesn't

00:43:22.980 matter what the issue is, is how much the siblings are affected. I mean, my sister's a PhD in math and

00:43:27.860 professor at MIT and Harvard and, you know, unbelievable in every way, but you know, her

00:43:33.380 first memories of me, and I didn't know this until we interviewed her for born lucky is she was in

00:43:38.980 kindergarten. I was in fifth grade and I would come from my classroom downstairs to her classroom,

00:43:44.420 pick her up. And then we would walk home. It's about a quarter mile. And we would get to the back

00:43:48.580 of the school where the PE fields were to the woods, which led to our house. And as we walked into

00:43:53.780 the woods, Liberty said the first memory of my brother ever was every day when he got to the

00:43:59.700 woods, he would start crying and I would hold his hand as I walked home with him. And, you know,

00:44:06.260 that, and that was the bullying and the isolation and sort of the crushing, uh, issues that came not

00:44:12.980 only from the kids, but from the teachers as I grew up, because my, you know, my dad never told

00:44:18.420 anybody about this diagnosis, no teachers, no counselors, nothing. Wow. And, uh, so take me

00:44:26.100 through some of the things that your dad, um, did. Cause I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm impressed with you

00:44:32.340 and what you've accomplished, but your father is remarkable. How did he come up with the things

00:44:38.820 that he did? Cause you are fully more than fully functional in today's society. You're a huge success.

00:44:47.140 What did he do to get you there? Well, it's a great question. Um, I would just tell you,

00:44:52.980 and I'll give you a story a little later that I still deal with this every day. You know,

00:44:57.300 autism is not something you're ever cured of. This is a daily, almost hourly discipline

00:45:02.740 of seeing the world as others see them as my dad taught me to interact and understand the social

00:45:08.820 fabric. But you know, one thing he did, um, he knew I wasn't going to have any friends. So as he said,

00:45:13.140 I thought maybe I could be your friend. So starting at five or six, he and I spent

00:45:17.060 hundreds of hours together every month. I mean, thousands of hours together.

00:45:21.780 And he would take me to lunches with his friends. And I would have loved to have gone to a lunch,

00:45:27.620 like with Mr. Beck, right? Because I was a mini me to my dad. He talked to me about politics and

00:45:32.260 news and events and on and on. And we would get to lunch and you would be talking about, you know,

00:45:38.900 your family or whatever you were doing that weekend or whatever. And I would interrupt

00:45:41.700 like a thousand questions a minute where, you know, how do you pick your topics?

00:45:46.900 How do you do your monologue? Where do you get your advertisers from? How much do you charge for

00:45:50.900 ads on and on and on? And my dad then would never say anything publicly to me, but he would tap his

00:45:55.540 watch. And that was my cue to stop talking number one, but number two, to kind of bookmark that.

00:46:01.140 Right. And so now we're driving home in the car and he says, okay, lucky, you know, when Mr.

00:46:06.900 Beck was talking about his weekend plans or his lunch with, you know, whoever, whatever it was,

00:46:11.380 and you interrupted and asked about his commercials. Why did you think Mr. Beck wanted to talk about

00:46:19.300 commercials at that moment? Well, gee, dad, I don't know. I thought it was interesting. Okay.

00:46:23.140 Well, what could we have talked about that Mr. Beck would have found interesting? That was,

00:46:27.300 you know, with what he was talking about, how do you connect with him? And that was the

00:46:33.620 basis of granularly teaching me the social and emotional connections of everyday life and

00:46:41.300 born lucky is that story of how my dad made me understand that he loved me, but that boy,

00:46:47.620 there was so much work I had to do to fit in, in the world. At one point, um, you know, there was a

00:46:57.300 kid you use right in the book, a kid in middle school who kept pushing me both figuratively, literally

00:47:02.500 teachers wouldn't do anything, came home, told my dad what the kids had done, blah, blah, blah.

00:47:07.380 I finally asked, can I hit him yet? Right. Tell that story.

00:47:13.060 So you have to understand that the school situation that I was in, I've been pulled out of

00:47:17.700 two or three schools before I get started in seventh grade. It was a seventh through 12th grade school

00:47:23.220 and two weeks into school, the principal calls my parents in. So my parents think they're coming in

00:47:28.420 for like a normal, like, Hey, how's two weeks going into school? And they're sitting there and the

00:47:35.700 principal sits my parents down in the little office, looks across the desk at them and says,

00:47:42.980 everybody at this school thinks lucky is really weird. So that's arrow number one through my parents'

00:47:49.220 heart. And then she follows up and I do too. So I had no protection, right? There was an eighth grade

00:47:57.540 art teacher who didn't think I was going to become Picasso and said in front of the entire class,

00:48:02.500 uh, Hey Vitter, if my dog was ugly as you, I would shave its bleep and make it walk backwards. 0.99

00:48:07.860 So that was the environment I lived in every day. But there was this kid and he kept Maldon off and my

00:48:13.620 dad had turned me into a pretty hefty little fella. I was fat and kind of chunky and awkward,

00:48:18.580 but I was pretty strong. And you know, my dad had said, you know, the way you deal with bullies,

00:48:23.620 you eventually just hit him in the nose. Great. Um, and I didn't, I slammed his head down on the desk,

00:48:31.940 but it was, it was the beginning of me starting to fight back. And I think born lucky will,

00:48:36.820 people will see how fighting back affected things.

00:48:40.100 That was the last time you had to do that. Correct. It was the last time I was allowed to.

00:48:46.660 Okay. Bornluckybook.com. Bornluckybook.com. This is, you will love, love, love this book. Bornluckybook.com.

The Glenn Beck Program - October 13, 2025

Best of the Program ｜ Guests： Gov. Greg Abbott & Leland Vittert ｜ 10⧸13⧸25

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