Florida Governor Ron DeSantis talks about the Weasels. Also, Callie Means makes a case for R.F.K. Mark and reprisal. And Mike Lee has comments about RFK. This is all on today s Best Up podcast.
00:00:46.240Some pirate, really, honestly, anti-pirate stuff that's in the Constitution that Mike Lee is saying we need to use against the drug cartels and it's starting to catch on.
00:00:57.520He also has comments about RFK, who we will be covering tomorrow in the hearing.
00:01:03.400This is all on today's Best Up podcast.
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00:02:14.300You're listening to The Best of the Glenn Beck Program.
00:02:18.300The first 100 days of the Trump administration have been breathtaking.
00:02:22.980A lot like the early days of Ron DeSantis in Florida.
00:02:28.400And what he's doing in Florida is trying to get the state to do everything they can to make sure that Trump's policies are going through, especially on illegals.
00:02:40.300There is a house with these unbelievable rhinos that, in a special session, they didn't want to come back because they said it's not an emergency.
00:04:03.180They didn't want to do anything on illegal immigration.
00:04:06.720And after the election, I said, this is our chance.
00:04:09.820This is the number one issue the president ran on, and we need to get it right.
00:04:14.120And so there's no way President Trump can fulfill his mandate if the state and local governments and law enforcement are not actively supporting his deportation efforts.
00:04:34.120Well, extrapolate that out, 365,000 a year times four.
00:04:38.560Biden let in 10 million illegals on his own.
00:04:41.040Now, I do think the Trump administration will ramp up.
00:04:43.460I think they'll get better numbers as time goes on.
00:04:46.140But if you just had every red state, say, all police departments, all sheriff departments, all state agents, law enforcement agencies have to participate maximally in the programs that the Trump administration is offering for immigration enforcement, you would increase those numbers dramatically.
00:05:07.840Now, what you'll have in California and in Chicago, they're going to be trying to sabotage Trump's agenda.
00:05:13.800They're going to be sanctuary jurisdictions.
00:05:15.460Now, we don't allow that in Florida, but I think most states who are not sanctuary, they're just going to say, hey, it's the federal government's responsibility.
00:05:22.480Yeah, we won't sabotage it, but we're not going to be in that fight.
00:07:09.460The values that we all ran on, that Donald Trump got elected on, that all your listeners subscribe to, those are reflected in the proposals that I did.
00:07:19.560They are not reflected in what the Florida legislative leaders are doing.
00:07:24.420And you mentioned the Commissioner of Agriculture.
00:07:26.380They're actually taking away immigration enforcement authority from the governor and putting it in the Commissioner of Agriculture.
00:07:33.480Which is like the Fox guarding the hen house.
00:07:59.260And if we're not doing what needs to be done right now to get ready for this, then, you know, there'll be some successes, don't get me wrong, but we're not going to be able to actually deliver on the mandate that the voters gave us.
00:08:12.280And here, just the final point I make, Republicans all run, for four years in Florida, they all ran on hashing Biden's border policies, saying we needed to get tough, supporting Donald Trump's agenda in 2024.
00:09:38.200Well, look, I think that that just all the legislators, you know, they just need to hear from their constituents and they're getting upset, saying that somehow like they're getting threatened because some of their constituents are telling them that this is not right.
00:09:52.660But that they need to be held accountable for their actions.
00:09:55.400And if what they did, if what they're doing is consistent with what they told the voters they were doing, they're not going to have any problem.
00:10:02.060Right. But I'll tell you, Glenn, I've been doing this now for six years.
00:10:05.980This I've never seen our base react more negatively on an issue than what the legislature is trying to pull right now.
00:10:13.540It is like ninety nine to one in terms of opposition.
00:10:17.620So I think sunlight's the best disinfectant.
00:10:21.300People just have to make their voice heard.
00:10:23.840But but we shouldn't let this slip through our fingertips.
00:10:26.200I think some of it is, you know, some inside baseball up there.
00:10:29.980You know, Wilton Simpson was the Senate president.
00:10:32.160A lot of the stuff, tough immigration policies we did two years ago, I wasn't able to get through when he was Senate president because he did block it.
00:10:40.720And he did support things like driver's licenses for illegals when he was in the Florida Senate.
00:10:44.740But he really exercises a lot of influence over the Florida Senate.
00:10:50.140So the fact that he was put into that bill, I don't think that that was an accident.
00:10:54.500I think that that was definitely something that they were trying to do.
00:11:32.020And the way the bill is written, you know, we think it's unconstitutional because it actually takes away some of the core executive power that is vested in the governor's office under Florida's constitution.
00:11:50.180If their proposals were consistent with what they campaigned on and would actually work and they had competing, hey, if it works, it works.
00:12:23.520If you let them register, by the time they vote, even if you prosecute them after the fact, the vote counts.
00:12:30.260The time to stop it is when they try to register in the first place, and yet they're not doing anything about that.
00:12:36.440We have in our proposals a rebuttable presumption that illegals that get brought up on criminal charges are detained and then turned over to ICE.
00:12:45.640They watered that down so that judges are just going to release these guys back on the street.
00:12:50.520So it's a lack of seriousness about what it really takes to get this issue right.
00:12:55.940And I can tell you this, when they proposed their so-called Trump Act, misnamed Trump Act, Democrats in the Florida Senate were high-fiving them.
00:13:05.420Liberal media in Florida have been singing their praises.
00:13:08.860The ACLU of Florida tweeted, thank you for what you're doing.
00:13:16.040When we banned sanctuary cities, Democrats were not high-fiving anyone.
00:13:20.480When we eliminated DEI a couple years ago, no Democrats were high-fiving anyone.
00:13:26.540When we eliminated the woke, when we did the stop the gender insanity, when we did all those things that Florida became famous for, no Democrats were high-fiving.
00:14:08.280What are these stupid Republicans going to do?
00:14:11.020And honestly, I just – if we don't get all of these weasels out and get the people in that actually believe in what we're trying to do, the state's going to go back to the same wishy-washy garbage that makes it a garbage state as it always has.
00:14:31.500You guys have led the way, and it's the reason why you're leading the United States right now because you're doing what the people are asking for.
00:14:41.480These guys who don't get it, man, they should be on notice.
00:14:44.480I, like you, have never seen the Republican voters as awake as they are right now.
00:14:56.680And if you are a voter in Florida, you need to get on the phone because your state's going to go to trash the minute this guy leaves if you don't have people that understand what – and believe and will execute what you want to happen.
00:15:15.120You need to get on the phone right now and call your Florida representative.
00:15:19.260By the way, we have Sheriff Wayne Ivey on with us, Governor, in just a few minutes.
00:15:23.040I think he's going to be kind of telling the story about what you're actually looking for, isn't he?
00:15:28.840Yeah, look, I mean, people like Wayne, they want to solve the problem, and so they want to participate in these federal programs.
00:15:35.320Not everyone wants to do that, which is why we have to make it an expectation that all police departments and sheriff's departments want to do it.
00:15:42.220But just think about, yes, we focus on criminal aliens, and that's important, but I want to get these guys before they commit crimes.
00:15:49.100I want to make sure our schools aren't overrun with illegals.
00:15:51.780I want to make sure our health care system isn't overrun.
00:15:54.700I want to make sure that illegals aren't getting into accidents, and they don't have insurance, and then you're out of luck.
00:15:59.720So there's so many ways that this problem impacts our society, and unless we get it right on enforcement right now under Donald Trump's leadership, we're never going to solve this problem.
00:16:12.360And the quality of life is going to increase dramatically.
00:16:26.520There was a sharp contrast between us and the left, and we've had more political success in Florida than Republicans have ever had.
00:16:34.220When you water down, when you do the corporatism, where you're not standing for working people, but you're worried about things like cheap labor, when you do that, you will lose political support.
00:16:46.660And I think the reason the Democrats were high-fiving is because they see the leaders in the legislature, they're giving them a lifeline to regain relevance in Florida.
00:16:56.860They're giving them a pathway where they can return to power in the future.
00:17:38.620And with expenses being so high, it can be hard to manage without grabbing the credit cards.
00:17:43.340And when you do, if you are sitting behind the eight ball of one of these credit cards that is charging you 20%, 25%, 30%, my gosh, even 18%.
00:17:52.660If you can get that down into the low single digits, even mid single digits, you're going to save a ton of money.
00:18:01.020In fact, the average person from this listening audience, just like you, they're saving about $800 a month.
00:18:08.920That would free you up from an awful lot.
00:20:16.800The life plank is a vital part, a crucial part of the Republican platform.
00:20:22.420But let me explain to you how this game is played.
00:20:25.040CNN, of all places, recently reported that the pharmaceutical industry is the chief funder
00:20:31.320of Mike Pence's group, and the pharmaceutical industry is funding money to that group for Mike Pence to, in my opinion, bastardize the life issue and run ads and reach out to senators like Senator Lankford to say that Bobby's going to be an attack on life.
00:20:48.700Let me be clear about one thing, Glenn, and I know you saw this.
00:20:51.940I don't think there's been a more pro-life movement than what happened between Donald Trump and Bobby Kennedy in recent memory.
00:20:58.840I mean, the heart of what they talked about is a spiritual issue of what the heck is happening to our kids, where we're the sickest country in the developed world, where 38% of teens have prediabetes, where 50% of teens are overweight or obese, where we have a mental health crisis among children, where we're living seven years less than the Italians right now because of our broken health care incentives, where we're stunting.
00:21:22.940And through our incentives, not enabling our children to thrive, and just to be super direct, watching this process with Bobby and President Trump, Bobby fully understands the centrality of the life platform to the Republican coalition that have given him and President Trump an opportunity to serve, and is going to be fully executing the Trump administration's directives at that.
00:21:50.140And I know staying very close to many of the pro-life leaders in the Senate who have already endorsed him.
00:21:55.680So, very cynical move by Mike Pence here.
00:21:58.320So, you do believe he will make a clear statement that he won't thwart the Trump administration on life?
00:22:06.540I mean, I'll let him speak for himself tomorrow, and I know he'll do that very well, but I can tell you that Bobby Kennedy believes that this is a fight for life,
00:22:14.600and deeply respects the centrality of the pro-life coalition and the Republican coalition that have put him in power,
00:22:24.060and I think has already had very productive conversations with pro-life leaders who have come out and endorsed him,
00:22:30.320and I know it's going to be very close to them.
00:22:32.340And he's not in there to subvert any promises made by the Trump administration on that.
00:22:38.720He is there to fight for the lives of our children.
00:22:40.660So, let me ask you, Kelly, because, you know, I agree with you that there is something wrong with our healthcare system,
00:23:11.240I know that we have some vaccines that have been, you know, good, polio, smallpox.
00:23:17.880They've been – you know, I had it, you know, when I was a kid.
00:23:20.860But now we're getting 80 different shots at birth, and there's something wrong with the way our kids are growing up and everything else.
00:23:30.780And I don't know what that is, but I like Bobby coming in because he is going to at least expose the things that need to be exposed.
00:23:42.120But I don't want somebody who's in there saying, no, no smallpox vaccine, you know, no polio vaccines.
00:23:49.420Glenn, I think this is really the next key point to make because, you know, he's getting, I think, very cynical pharma-funded attacks on the pro-life issue.
00:23:59.340And then you get to this vaccine issue.
00:24:00.980You get to this really idea that Bobby's going to come in and come in with strong opinions and start banning and regulating things.
00:24:06.720And I want to make something really clear.
00:24:08.440And this should be clear from what Bobby and President Trump have said during the campaign, is Bobby is not a scientist, and he is not coming in there with a list of medical opinions or even food opinions.
00:24:20.540President Trump and Bobby have been very clear that the directive is to figure out what the heck is going on.
00:24:26.860Phase one of Maha is getting to the truth.
00:24:29.460It's getting Jay Bhattacharya into the NIH.
00:24:31.980And right now, Glenn, 85% of NIH spending is pharmaceutical R&D.
00:25:04.840And I actually, and this is my opinion, I think President Trump is going to win the Nobel Prize when Bobby Kennedy and Jay Bhattacharya are done with the HHS and the NIH.
00:25:14.540Because if there's one accomplishment that can be made in the next two years, it's let's get back to science.
00:25:19.060Let's give the American people and policymakers accurate information that we're not getting.
00:25:24.280Because Glenn, you know, I don't think Europe has very good health policy, but they're living 10 years more than us, right?
00:25:31.940I think it's because the strong arm of mandates isn't as pronounced there, that there's more informed consent, that people are able to make better decisions.
00:25:42.320I mean, Maha is about, and what Bobby King's talked about, is just getting back to science.
00:25:46.260And the last thing I'll say, Glenn, just being in some of these discussions, there's zero ideology.
00:25:51.300The directive from President Trump isn't to get to a specific outcome or solution on a food or pharmaceuticals or vaccines or whatever.
00:25:58.160It is to get money to the best scientists in the world so we can figure out what's going on.
00:26:02.440So I think that's a very important point.
00:26:04.340So he's got a lot of opposition tomorrow.
00:26:09.920How are you going to get Mitch McConnell and Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, you know, Cory Booker on board?
00:26:18.760I think it's I think we've been dragged into darkness inevitably now that power is close at hand, you know, with pharma funding pro life groups, ostensibly with, you know, so many interests at play and so much money at play.
00:26:35.760I mean, let's not forget health care is the largest and fastest growing and most employed industry in the country.
00:26:43.280And, you know, our message, my message going into this week is there was a spiritual strain hit during the campaign with Bobby Kennedy and President Trump.
00:26:53.040I mean, they talked about unimpeachable issues of, you know, figure out why our kids are getting sick, getting absolute rank corruption out of our medical authorities that we saw during COVID.
00:27:03.300I mean, why is why is 75 percent of the FDA's drug approval department funded by pharma?
00:27:08.940You know, why are NIH folks during COVID employees able to take hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties?
00:27:17.240You know, why is the CDC able to have a nonprofit that accepts hundreds of millions of dollars in pharma to buy off the agency?
00:27:25.100These are these are very simple things.
00:27:27.320And even larger than that, Glenn, I mean, I think what Bobby Kennedy and President Trump actually represented with Kennedy walking out on that stage with the sparklers with President Trump is that this administration is not about left versus right.
00:27:40.340This is not about debating page 300 of the Medicare party law.
00:27:58.700So I think what we need to do this week is just remind people of the stakes, is remind people of the fact that, you know, kids, right, are the sickest.
00:28:08.840American kids are the sickest kids in the world right now.
00:28:12.720And I would just urge Mitch McConnell or anyone on the fence.
00:28:16.500It can't be worse than what's happening now.
00:28:18.780Our public health authorities have totally failed us.
00:28:21.800Bobby Kennedy and President Trump tapped into this unimpeachable spiritual issues of figuring out why our kids are getting sick.
00:28:50.240And, you know, it will be a disaster if senators overrule that clear mandate for voters.
00:28:57.120Kelly, I appreciate you coming on and making a good case for Bobby Kennedy.
00:29:01.720I will tell you, I am all in on exposing bad things.
00:29:09.140Finding out, because I am convinced, I mean, well, COVID, there are bad things that are happening with our government and pharmaceutical companies.
00:29:17.260Not all things that pharmaceutical companies do are bad, but there are a lot of bad things.
00:29:22.200And our government is being wagged by food and pharmaceuticals right now.
00:30:22.720That is step one of Maha, and Bobby Kennedy and President Trump, as we know, are committed to a deregulation agenda, a freedom agenda.
00:30:31.540But that requires informed consent of the truth.
00:30:33.880Kelly, I think that if the Maha agenda, if it is about exposure and freedom, then if that agenda is not part of this, I think that's a big part of the mandate that will be lost.
00:30:50.360Because I think this is a spiritual, this is a physical, it's a metaphysical thing that we're dealing with right now.
00:31:00.520We have to deal with all of it, or we can't cure any of it, quite honestly, I believe.
00:31:28.600Yesterday, he proposed using letters of mark and reprisal to weaken the drug cartels.
00:31:35.660And, I mean, I'm in love with this old-timey constitutional idea, but it basically would make private citizens or companies, give them permission to be kind of like pirates, where they could just go and just bust them up and take all their booty as long as they share it with the United States.
00:32:07.220Mike, explain the letters of mark and reprisal.
00:32:13.020A letter of mark and reprisal amounts to a government-issued commission of sorts, authorizing private citizens, known as privateers, to perform acts that would otherwise be considered piracy, like attacking enemy ships during wartime.
00:32:29.240And privateers are typically rewarded with a cut of whatever loot they bring home.
00:32:34.120If they're able to make it back to the United States and bring home assets that can be sold, liquidated, reduced to an economic value, then the government sets up what's called a prize court, which decides who gets what.
00:32:48.760And typically the government keeps half of it and then has a system for giving the privateers involved in it each their fair share of the other 50%.
00:33:01.960So these guys, let's say Eric Prince, Eric Prince loves this idea.
00:33:09.820And he would go down to the border and he would, what, break up the cartels by, as they're shipping stuff across the border, grab their cash, their guns, their cars.
00:33:21.780They're using boats, whatever, and the drugs, and then give those to the government and the government would say, OK, Eric, this part is yours.
00:33:32.020Yeah. Now, to be clear, when you say the border, we're talking outside the United States, I don't think this works for things found in the United States.
00:33:42.540But if outside the United States, they recover assets, typically what we'd be looking at are assets that could be liquidated by the government, gold, silver, cash, equipment.
00:33:56.740If they can bring those things back into the United States and they can then be sold.
00:34:00.900Now, that also raises the question of the drugs.
00:34:03.080Obviously, we're not going to allow those to be sold.
00:34:05.620And so you'd either have to exclude those or the government would just have to go out of pocket to reward them for bringing that back in.
00:34:13.160And that's one of the things that would have to be discussed.
00:34:15.740This is a tool that hasn't been used by the United States for a long time.
00:34:20.340But it's a tool that harnesses self-interest, harnesses what people could gain by this in a way that could really be advantageous to the United States.
00:34:29.700Boy, I got to tell you, I love this idea.
00:34:49.480Hardworking, individual Mexican citizens who have lived under the tyranny of these cartels who have been affected by the violence that is rampant throughout the country and sponsored by the cartels.
00:35:05.160A lot of them would perhaps not have much of an objection, if any objection at all, because they want to be free of this stuff.
00:35:15.720But, yeah, I can imagine that the Mexican government might have feelings about it.
00:35:22.760This is different in the sense that it's not the United States undertaking any kind of an effort to have a military presence in Mexico, which would, of course, be unacceptable to Mexico.
00:35:33.520This is about private citizens going out and trying to seize assets of these terror organizations, of this international criminal enterprise, bringing it back to the United States with the understanding that they'll be entitled to a cut of about half of it once they get back.
00:35:52.120So the one thing that I was thinking before this idea was we're going to send in SEAL teams and they'll just be gone before the sun comes up and you'll never know who did it.
00:36:02.560And there will just be a lot of dead cartel members laying there in the sun as it starts to rise.
00:36:23.120Once that happens, you can imagine there might be circumstances in which that would occur.
00:36:28.540But, again, a letter of marketing reprisal allows us to avoid doing that.
00:36:33.420That creates an additional set of difficulties for us that we wouldn't face if we were sending in, if we were authorizing privateers to do that.
00:36:42.000These are matters of degree, of course.
00:36:44.300But it would be foolish of us to assume that our only option involves sending in the Marines, so to speak.
00:36:51.460U.S. boots on the ground has a very different feel than privateers going in and doing something on their own.
00:36:59.720And it's one of the reasons why I felt it important enough.
00:37:02.640I put out a thread on X yesterday through my at-base Mike Lee account in which I explained a brief history
00:37:11.660of letters of marketing reprisal, how they function, and that they ought to be considered here.
00:39:24.020But whereas here we've got a different type of adversary than we sometimes face in the past,
00:39:30.400this is not the government of Mexico, but these are criminal organizations within Mexico
00:39:39.520that have an international footprint that affect the United States and that have taken actions that are hostile to the interests of the United States and her citizens.
00:39:49.540So in this circumstance, it would be irresponsible of us not to consider it.
00:39:55.120And I think we ought to explore this and perhaps issue some letters of mark and reprisal.
00:40:00.780So the fact that it hasn't happened in a long time, likely since the 1800s, doesn't mean that the power doesn't exist.
00:40:08.900And it certainly doesn't mean that we couldn't benefit from it.
00:41:21.640And has now moved in the other direction, particularly someone with as prominent a name as RFK Jr.
00:41:28.800has and particularly someone who has shown a degree of contempt for the deep state, for the administrative state, for things that have gone wrong.
00:41:37.560And so we're going to have to rely on my hope is that we can pick up some Democratic votes.
00:41:44.780Assume that we won't be able to win, that we need to be ready to produce enough Republicans to make sure that he gets through, just as we did with Pete Pegg said.
00:41:52.460I think it will be a tight vote there.
00:42:04.120Had a great meeting with him the other day.
00:42:06.500And I think he brings to the table an innovative approach with a fresh set of eyes that can see that we've created a lot of problems through our own government.
00:42:18.020The very department that he's been asked to head as the Secretary of Health and Human Services has been a big part of the problem.
00:42:36.720Okay, so similarly to what we face with RFK, with Cash Patel, and also with Tulsi Gabbard, we're going to have to confront both of those with the expectation that we may not get a single Democratic vote.
00:42:58.180And so that's why Republicans are so important.
00:42:59.980Remember, it's unusual for an incoming president to not have his top-level picks supported by pretty much every member of the president's own party in confirmation votes.
00:43:18.240And so a lot of the same people who are on the list of those who might oppose them are people who time and time again voted to confirm Democratic nominees named by President Biden.
00:43:31.520I hope they will give Republican nominees nominated by President Trump at least the same degree of deference that they gave to those nominated by President Biden.
00:43:41.020And often, by the way, with the justification that he is the elected president, we can't run the world as if our guy were president.
00:43:50.100Well, if that's the case, it should be the case here.
00:43:52.660Well, that's a nice way of saying what I believe, which is vote these weasels out if they fail to support the president.
00:44:02.100We have one shot at this, and so far, Donald Trump and those who are supporting him are doing amazing things in the first week, things that I never thought I would see.