Best of The Program ｜ Guests： Rep. Mullin, Bill O'Reilly, & Dave Isay ｜ 9⧸10⧸21
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Summary
On this episode of the Glenn Beck Program, Rep. Markwayne Mullen (R-Oklahoma) tells the story of how he went to Afghanistan to try to save people on September 11th, 2001, from the rubble of the World Trade Center.
Transcript
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Hey, welcome to the program. Just a quick update on the Nazarene Fund. We're in critical time
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period right now, and we could sure use your prayers. We need prayer coverage on the ground,
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on all the people involved, and for a couple of miracles to happen this weekend. And hopefully
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I'll have more to tell you on Monday, but please pray. This podcast today is a little bit of,
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well, I think it's all a reflection of September 11th. Where we are today is because of September
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11th. And I remember September 11th, 2001. And if I would have looked 20 years in the future,
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I wouldn't have believed this was our nation. But here we are. We talk a little bit about the
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president and his new power through OSHA to regulate all things, his dismissal and getting rid of
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quote, getting them out of the way, our governors, so he can rule. Also, we have stories you've never
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heard from the World Trade Center, but taking places you never even thought about, at least I
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hadn't. And Bill O'Reilly with the news of the day, all on today's podcast.
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You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck program.
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There's people over there in God, we trust on the money. Why are we having God? We trust. I know.
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I think it's a little outdated. I think it's a little dusty. I'm thinking you're not the boss of me.
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What do you think? As our new national motto, you're not the boss of me.
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Because that's exactly what the government is trying to do. They're trying to tell us exactly
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what to do. And they're trying to teach people a lesson. You don't have the authority. You don't
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have the power to make a difference. And I'm here to tell you, yes, you do. I think actually we should
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adopt the slogan, the old Barack Obama. Yes, we can. Yes, we can. You can't. You can't control
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your own body. Yes, we can. You can't control your own state. Yes, we can. You can't go into
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Afghanistan and save people we left behind. Yes, we can. There's a congressman that has been trying
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hard to get over to Afghanistan and save people. Last week, he was reported missing and very
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irresponsible, according to the State Department. Then he popped back up on the radar. And I'm going
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to have him tell the story. Congressman Mark Wayne Mullen is joining us now. He is the congressman
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from Oklahoma. Hello, sir. How are you? Hey, Glenn. How you doing? I got to say, it's a pleasure
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to be on your show. I've listened to you for years. In fact, I met you a long time ago when
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you came into Tulsa to do an event for KFAQ. Oh, my gosh. Wow. Wow. Well, thank you.
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And thank you. It's an honor to have you on the show. I'd love for you to tell the audience
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exactly what you did and how difficult it was for a U.S. congressman to go into Afghanistan
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and try to save people. Well, first of all, I just want to make it very clear. I went in
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as a citizen, not as a congressman. I wanted to make that. I went on a blue passport or so
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to say on a blue passport. Now, you need to have a passport to get in Afghanistan right
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now. But in a State Department literally fought us every way. And every time I hear the
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president, I hear Secretary Lincoln, I hear General Milley or General McKenzie go out there
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and talk about every American that wanted out, could have got out, and how they were negotiating
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with the Taliban, which when did we as a nation negotiate with a terrorist organization, saying
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that they negotiated self-passage. All that is a flat-out lie. Even when they go out there
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and said that they helped four Americans, Miriam and her three kids, get out of Afghanistan,
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that's a flat-out lie. It was my team and I and really my team that I was blessed to be able to
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work with because I'm the little man on the totem pole that worked tirelessly for three weeks to get
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her out. And not one time did the State Department help us. In fact, at one time they told us that they
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weren't going to assist me in any way. And so it's a bold-faced lie when they're saying this stuff,
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and they have to be held accountable. But what's amazing to me, Glenn, is how many Americans,
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true Americans, veterans and non-veterans, and private individuals and companies and
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non-profit organizations, including yourself, that have stepped up in a big way. And I want to thank
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you because we know you're out there and you're helping. We know that you have put finances behind
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this because we're a small group that's over there working still. And we know who's over there
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helping. And I just want to thank you for what you're doing because you're making a big difference
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too. I mean, you're really poning up and helping in huge ways. And we've been trying to help you
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in the backside too, trying to get some of those flights out of Messrs. I know.
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And in fact, we have guys out there that's working on it. And I don't know if you know this,
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but I offered the State Department on one of your planes, we offered the State Department. I spoke to
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him myself. I said, listen, if you're concerned about the manifest sheet, let me use one. And
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I'll put only AMSETs and SIVs. I'll give you a complete manifest sheet. I'll tell you everybody
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that's on it. I'll give you a copy of their paperwork, a copy of their passport. We will
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put people on it and we will fly back with them and make sure the flight is secure. And they still
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wouldn't give us clearance to leave. And it's disheartening on how that happened.
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Uh, I will tell you, um, last week, I don't know if you've heard this Congressman,
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but, uh, last week, the State Department openly laughed and mocked us. They laughed at us and
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mocked us. Uh, are you familiar with the story of where they said that, yeah, we needed, we needed
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a different kind of paperwork. We said, where, where do you get that paperwork? And they said,
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the embassy, and we said, there is no embassy. And they laughed, laughed at us and said, well,
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you're just going to have to work on that. Then I guess what, you know what they told me,
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they said, we don't control the airspace over Afghanistan anymore. Oh my gosh. Oh, okay. Well,
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then, then, then, then we don't need your permission to leave. Is that what you're telling
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me? Uh, no, because you have to enter our airspace. Well, how do we get to that point? We can't help
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you on that. And it's absolutely absurd. I mean, why is this administration fighting us so hard
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to do a job that they failed to do? So why is it? Why are they, why are they doing this?
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Other than just the fact of trying to squash the story and make it go away. I, I can't understand
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it. There are several reasons. And I, I, I, I'm not sure what's right, but squash the story to make
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it go away. Teach Americans. Don't you dare step out of line. You cannot go around us. If we say we
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can't do it, you're not doing it. Uh, which is unbelievable to me. Um, the other, I mean, then you
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get down to things like, I don't know, they're evil. I mean, the, some of the stuff that's going
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on is when you're mocking people who are trying to save American lives, as well as the lives of
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women who have been promised to be brides of the Taliban and you are mocking them.
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Doesn't that kind of fall into the category of evil?
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I, I, I, I, I will be real quick to say it has to be because who, who could do this? You know,
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we got, we got, we have, we've got four Americans out the team that I've been blessed to work with.
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We're the only ones that's actually got the Americans out so far. And we had to take her
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over 300 miles and her three kids across the land through Afghanistan, which isn't easy to do
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to finally get her out. And three o'clock in the morning on labor day, I'm on the phone with her
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while the Taliban has threatened to kill her, to kill her. If she came, if she tried to approach
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again, we have guys on the other side of the bridge negotiating with the Taliban. And I hate to say
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it, but trying to, trying to get her released, trying to convince them that they're American
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citizens and they should release them. And the state department said that they did that, which
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they didn't. But here's another thing right now, as we speak, we have 23, the team that I'm working
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with, we have 23 AMSETs, American citizens and safe houses. And you know, a safe house in that area
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is only safe until the first time we use it. Getting supplies is nearly impossible. We can't get
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any type of medication. I've got a young girl right now. I've got a mom and two, and two young
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ladies, two young girls that one of the young girls has severe infections in her legs. The
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state department knows this because we, she was in Kabul and we were trying to get the state
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department to help us get her through the gate because for severe medical need. And they couldn't
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help us. We've had to now transport her to another country. And I'll tell you where she's at.
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She's in Caduce. Um, and we have her up in a safe house and she can't move anymore. So we're
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trying to negotiate a helo that can go in and get her. So we, we've developed a HLZ to land,
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but we're honestly, it's expensive and, and we're, we're, we're, we're short on resources.
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All right. You're not anymore. You hang on after and we'll get you the resources.
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Hello. You're going to make me emotional, Glenn. I've literally taken this personal
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and, uh, that touches me. Thank you. Uh, but, but we've got to get her out. I mean,
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she may have already lost her legs and we can't get the state department to help us. And so when
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you say evil, how, how can you not, because they know we've sent pictures of her legs because they
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asked us, we sent pictures of her, of, of, of her passport. They know who she is. And their,
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their, their argument is, is they can't help because her mom has a legal green card.
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She's legal. She's legal to be inside the United States, but she doesn't have a passport because
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she's only got her green card and they're saying they can't help, but both their daughters have
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passports. Um, and I'm like, so you're saying that we got to leave from, we got, we get, we can take
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out the girl, but we can't take out the mom. And they said, no, we can't say that. Well, so how,
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what are we supposed to do here? And they couldn't give us an answer. It, and this kind of stuff has
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been so disheartening. We, we, we have fought them literally every step of the way. I know,
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Glenn. And it is, and it's, it shouldn't be this way. They shouldn't be doing this. Even
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the story that they leaked about us by saying that they, I was lost in Afghanistan. I was never
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lost in Afghanistan. I know exactly where we were at the whole time. Oh, they were making you,
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we were, we were watching you. And when you went dark, I knew why you went dark, but the state
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department started leaking things that you were irresponsible and you're lost and probably dead.
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And this is what happens. And you're like, are you rooting for the man to die?
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Yeah. I mean, what, what ended up happening to me is that I had to immediately get away
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because all of a sudden my face gets plastered all over international news and no one knew who I was.
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I've never been a showboat member of Congress. I'm not, I don't do that. I don't, I'm passionate
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about what I do, but I'm not, I'm not out there trying to grab headlines.
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Representative from Oklahoma, Congressman Mark Wayne Mullen, who just got back from Afghanistan,
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helped save American citizens, still trying to help save American citizens. So they made you,
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I saw this, I saw this line from you. You said, I was, it wasn't just me trying to be a cowboy.
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And I would just ask you to reconsider that. I think you were the ultimate cowboy. And I mean that
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in a good way. I trust cowboys. Cowboys know what honor and integrity is. Their word is their bond.
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They don't leave, they don't leave an animal behind, let alone one of the, you know, a person
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behind. They do the right thing. And that is the, the embodiment of the American spirit. And so
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I think you were a cowboy and I mean it in the best of ways.
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Well, I, I, I appreciate that Glenn, but listen, I was working with some just great Americans. I mean,
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these are veterans. These are tier one operators. These guys, when they're not doing what they're
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doing right now, what their, what their real job is, which they volunteer their time for is to go
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get, um, young men and young women out of sex trafficking that had been kidnapped, um,
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or sold into to the rings. And they do it all over the, all over the world. And that's what
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it's called the Sentinel foundation. And that's what they do. Uh, and they are, they're non-political.
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They don't get involved in it, but I was blessed enough to build a, to work with them. And so,
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uh, I, all, I couldn't, you know, I was, all I was trying to do is be an asset to these,
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these professionals. It's what they do. And the idea that I was able to work with them,
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I'm blessed, but they are the, you know, people want to say a Rambo, these guys are,
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they, they, they embody that, that personality. And there's great people.
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I, I, I will tell you, I've never seen senators and congressmen as powerless as they are in the
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government. The, the state department's not afraid of packs of senators and congressmen working
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together. No, I, I truly believe the reason why they had, they released that ridiculous story and
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even said that I was lost in Afghanistan, which wasn't true was because they wanted to get a
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headline. They wanted to put the pressure on me and make me leave because they knew what was going
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to happen. They, they, they are absolutely trying, but that's what a socialist country is, right?
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The socialist country isn't about for the people, by the people. It's not, it's not about the people
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that are actually elected. It's about the top few. And that's what this administration has taken.
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And I would have never thought we would be to where we're at, but you know, a socialist country,
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they go in and they start promising people everything. They start taking care of all their needs.
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And what they end up doing is they create a, a, a lazy nation. And then a lazy nation
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becomes dependent on the federal government, the federal government, they become dependent on the
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federal government. And then they don't care about the elected officials. It's just the ones that are
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up top. That's literally signing the checks. And when, and they, and they strip away the power of the
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people and they take it and they centralize it. And which is exactly what this administration is
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openly trying to do. I mean, they, they are embracing socialism and, and they, they will use
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anything possible, including the sold out media. Uh, that is not you, but the sold out, you know,
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the media, corporate media, just do whatever they want to and put out their message. I will MSVNBC
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I will tell you, well, they have a right to free, free speech. Um, the, what's, what's crazy to me
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is, um, Joe Biden being so bold yesterday saying he will get those governors like Greg Abbott, uh,
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out of the people's way on his new, uh, vaccine mandate. You have quite a job ahead of you to hold
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the hold tight to the constitution. And we have to, even them threatening, um, employees that have
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over a hundred employees. Well, my wife and I, we've been blessed and we have, we have, you know,
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well over a hundred employees, uh, and, and my employees don't want to be, I mean, the employees
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that want to be vaccinated, get vaccinated. I don't say don't, but you can't force us to do that. If
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you don't want it, you shouldn't have to do it, but that's what the government is saying. We're going
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to force you to do it anyways. Yeah. Um, Congressman, thank you so much. Hang on the phone. I just want
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to make sure that we have each other's information, uh, so we can help you in any way we can, uh,
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representative Mark Wayne Mullen, the Congressman from Oklahoma on his efforts in Afghanistan.
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You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck program.
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Bill, I want to ask you one more question about, uh, the vaccine mandates as it relates to Afghanistan.
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Um, you said earlier that, um, this is clearly just him trying to distract people. Um, however,
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I see everything that is going on. And, and again, I, I watch the news differently than most people,
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but I see things that are going on and the way, uh, Afghanistan went and everything that they do
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seems so minuscule there. We're worried about the kids in the school with the mask. It seems almost
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like a farce to me. Will this work for Biden? Um, his approval numbers will come up next week a little
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bit. Um, because it's a, he, his base wants as much COVID restriction as possible. So the, the
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progressive movement, very liberal people, they love this. I don't really know why, but they love it.
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And so the independence that they poll who are liberal will probably seek, you know, see him
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better than they did over Afghanistan. So I expect he'll bump up a little bit on it.
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You don't think people are going to see, I'm going to get your governor out of the way.
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Well, the conservatives will, and the Republicans will, and the, and the traditional leaning
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independence. They'll all, what about all those people that said that Donald Trump was acting
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like a dictator and we don't need a dictator. What about all those people? Yeah, but we don't need
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a Trump dictator, but we'd love to have a progressive dictator. All right. Look, wait,
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one more, one more point. This is important. If you look at the whole world, all right, which I do
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because that's my job. All right. There has never been a socialist country that has not been run
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in a fairly totalitarian way. Sure. Never. And in order to get that in America, which is
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the end game for the progressives, they want socialism. You have to have a strong central
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government in DC that obliterates states rights. And that is the overarching. All right, Bill,
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let me switch to Afghanistan. Um, I've never seen, uh, our government openly, openly standing on the wrong
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side of the lives of American citizens. Uh, like they are now the state department has crossed the
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Rubicon into, uh, I don't even know what, um, there are many, many Americans that are still trapped
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there. And the state department by all accounts, I have not seen anyone that is a private, uh, group
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that is trying to get these people out. There's no nonprofits, NGOs, not a single one that I have seen
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says anything other than this white house and the state department are obstructing us every step of
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the way. And I believe that, I mean, you're in that, you know, that, uh, the Nazarene fund is in
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that. I believe it. Um, and I can only guess at why. And that is they don't want to be embarrassed
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by these people now coming out because they couldn't get them out. Right? So if Biden can't
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get the Americans out, but Glenn Beck can, what does that do? That makes Biden look pretty weak,
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right? So that's what you're seeing. So you think this is all about pride or always that way.
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That's the way our federal government works in most states as well. It's all about CYA.
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So Biden made a terrible decision about extricating us forces from Afghanistan. There's no question
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about that. You know, uh, nine 11 anniversary tomorrow. And I, I'm doing a lot of interviews
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and, um, uh, the question is, are we safer now? And I say, yeah, tomorrow we're safer than we were
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20 years ago because the USA was successful in eradicating Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and booting
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the Taliban out. So we had some control over that terror Haven. And then of course we got bin Laden
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and then Al Qaeda collapsed. So yeah, right now we're safer than we were the day before nine 11,
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20 years ago, but in six months when ISIS has, uh, will reconstitute inside Afghanistan? So will
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Al Qaeda training camps will be set up. Recruiting camps will be set up. All of that's going to happen.
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Are we going to be a safe six months from now? And the answer is no. I mean,
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is Anthony Blinken going to protect you? How about general Milley? You want those guys out front?
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How about Joe Biden, the commander in chief? Oh, we'll do it over the horizon. You know,
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Mr. Biden, with all due respect to the office, you went over the horizon decades ago.
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The Afghan journalists that were beaten for covering a women's protest. Uh, there are pictures
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of these guys. I don't know if you've seen them, but there I have it's almost, I mean, you,
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you could barely look at these guys, the, the bruises and the blood, um, they could barely walk.
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They were kicked to the ground, their heads smashed against concrete, repeatedly beaten with
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bludgeons. Uh, and this is the, this is the group that the, do you think the white house ever believed
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that the Taliban was going to be possibly different than we all knew they were?
00:22:03.100
No, I don't think Biden has any idea who the Taliban is. And by the way, the Taliban called
00:22:10.260
Putin, uh, to get his opinion on how they should handle a journalist. Um, those journalists were
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lucky they weren't beheaded and they will be by the way. They said that they, the one, they said
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the Taliban said it again. Yeah. If they do it again, then it's beheading. This was just a
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warning. I mean, people don't understand or don't care. And, and the latter is, is Joe Biden. You
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know, if you're gay in Afghanistan and they catch you being gay or whatever, they're going to throw
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you off a roof. He's dead. Um, if you steal, you're going to lose your hand, you get your hand cut
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off. Uh, if you're a woman and you look sideways, God help you. And I mean that literally. So of
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course, Biden and, and all the Intel services in the Pentagon and the state department, of
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course they knew that. What do you think? These guys went to sensitivity camp, woke camp in Napa
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Valley, California. The Taliban just kind of went over there. Oh yeah. Now we see where we're
00:23:15.040
woke and these guys are savages and there always will be. So are you saying that the, the people
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that actually, you know, the thing I like about, uh, David Horowitz, um, is that he was a radical
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in the sixties and changed, um, because he saw what his policies, what he was screaming about
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led to the deaths of all of the people, you know, uh, in the, in, in the far East after
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we pulled out. And he saw that and he realized you people don't actually care about anybody.
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Do you, do you, do you think that there are any women that are looking at this and saying,
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wait a minute, I thought you guys believed in something or is it?
00:24:05.840
No, I don't. I mean, I'm generalizing now. I'm sure there are, uh, I'm sure there are
00:24:11.020
times up women and whatever else they're doing, but no, I, I, I really believe that people who
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allow ideology to consume them. And this is on all spectrums. They lose sight of what's real
00:24:29.920
of what actually is happening because they're lost in their ideology, trying to justify everything
00:24:35.660
they do. And so you don't hear women's groups in America saying, Oh, the Afghan women. Have you
00:24:43.160
heard that? Have you heard code pink? I don't know. No, no. I mean, none of them. Yeah. Uh,
00:24:49.780
where's Alyssa Milano? I mean, I don't even know who that is, by the way. Is that a real person?
00:24:55.520
Alyssa Milano. I just see the name. Was she in my mother, the car? What show was she in? I don't know.
00:25:03.280
Uh, Bill, let me, uh, wrap it up with this 20 years ago, tomorrow, nine 11, your reflection on
00:25:11.500
this. Well, I ran a clip of my report, um, on Fox news last night on the no spin news,
00:25:18.660
and I wouldn't change a word of it, uh, that I, what I reported on 20 years ago, um, people could
00:25:25.380
see what I did. Um, you know, my town on long Island, uh, dozens dead. Uh, my children grew up
00:25:33.480
with their children. If you lose a loved one, a friend to violent crime, and that's what this is,
00:25:42.380
of course, violent murder that never ever goes away. That pain is there with you your whole life.
00:25:49.460
And I think that's a central theme of our remembrance. And obviously we can't ever let
00:25:58.000
that happen again here in America. And obviously the progressive left is bringing us back to a time
00:26:04.660
where it could happen again. Bill O'Reilly from billoreilly.com. Make sure you join and see his
00:26:11.340
no spin news every day at billoreilly.com. Thanks Bill. You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck
00:26:19.220
program. Dave, I see is a, uh, a friend of the program and, uh, the guy who started story core
00:26:41.020
how long ago, Dave, did you do this? Hey Glenn, um, story core started 17 years ago, 17 years ago.
00:26:49.400
And, um, and a lot of conservatives aren't aware of story core because they're generally have been
00:26:55.660
carried on NPR. Uh, but it's not a liberal conservative kind of thing. It's American stories
00:27:02.080
and they're all being preserved by the national archives and they are fantastic. And we wanted
00:27:07.420
to concentrate on nine 11 and your archives must be incredible on nine 11.
00:27:15.700
We do have a lot of stories on nine 11 Glenn, and you're right about conservatives not knowing about
00:27:20.840
story core, but thanks to you, that's starting to change, uh, which is really important to us.
00:27:25.840
Cause as you said, you know, we, we hope to grow into kind of a national treasure collecting the
00:27:31.460
wisdom of who we are as, as Americans. Um, yeah, we've had a bunch of special initiatives,
00:27:36.080
but it doesn't through the years that story core. And our first one was with a nine 11 Memorial
00:27:41.140
and museum. And we are working with them to record a story to honor every one of the life lives lost
00:27:47.940
on September 11th. Um, so we have lots and lots and lots and lots of, of, of stories collected. Um,
00:27:55.560
uh, you know, just honoring the, the, the, it's, they're not so much about what happened on the day
00:28:00.640
of September 11th, but finding out who that person was, who was lost on that, on that, um,
00:28:06.180
terrible day. So I want to end with the ticket counter guy. Um, tell me what else you brought
00:28:11.820
to the table today. Tell me the first story you want to share. Sure. So, um, we were, I'm going to,
00:28:16.780
I'm going to play this is, these are tough stories, just a warning to your audience, especially the
00:28:22.300
first one. Um, this first story was recorded by a retired, uh, FDNY fire department captain named
00:28:29.980
John Vigiano. He had two sons, John, who was a police officer and Joe, a firefighter, like his dad.
00:28:36.500
Um, they were both killed on the attacks on the world trade center on September 11th, 2001.
00:28:41.720
John came to story core with his wife, Jan, to remember to the two sons that he lost on that day.
00:28:47.040
Here it is. There were a couple of days each year, you were allowed to take your children to work
00:28:52.300
and Joe loved it. That was his birthday present that he would spend the night in the firehouse.
00:28:58.040
We'd have a cake and the guys I work with, they would take a milk container and they'd cut out
00:29:03.560
the facsimile of a building and they'd put it on the top of the cake and then they would light it up
00:29:08.580
and they would tell Joe to put it out and he would throw a pot of water on it. The birthday cake was a
00:29:13.820
little soggy, but this is what he wanted. Joe started dating a young lady whose father was a
00:29:19.460
police officer and he come home one day and he says, I'm taking the police test. I says, Joe,
00:29:24.820
you're only 17 years old. He says, no big deal. On the other side of the room, my son, John,
00:29:31.820
wanted to be the next Donald Trump. He was going to make a million dollars and take care of his mother
00:29:36.260
and father. But in 1984, I came down with throat cancer. He noticed then how my unit took care of
00:29:44.680
us and he says, I'm going to become a fireman. I says, you're kidding me. Firemen don't make
00:29:49.580
millions of dollars. How am I going to live like a king? But I was very happy, very proud. My father
00:29:56.820
had been on the fire department and he was the first one to be issued badge number 3436 and they reissued
00:30:04.980
it to my son, John. So the badge was only used by two. Both the boys would call me when they were
00:30:12.860
working. John would always call around 3.34 o'clock and that particular night, September 10th,
00:30:21.260
we spoke for a few minutes and I says, I love you. And he says, I love you. Joe called me in the
00:30:31.020
morning and told me to turn on the television that a plane just hit the trade center. He says,
00:30:36.900
I'm heading south on West Street. This is a big one. And I just says, be careful. I love you. He said,
00:30:42.820
I love you too. That was it. We had the boys for John for 36 years, Joe for 34 years,
00:30:50.400
ironically. Badge number 3436. I don't have any could've, should've, or would'ves. I wouldn't have
00:30:59.900
changed anything. There's not many people that the last words they said to their son or daughter
00:31:06.880
was, I love you. And the last words they heard was, I love you. So that makes me sleep at night.
00:31:15.860
It is, uh, it's so unnatural to die before your children. Um, but to lose two of them,
00:31:30.920
the same tragedy on the same day is in, in different roles is, is just, um, I can't imagine
00:31:39.780
the pain. Uh, there was a, there was a story that you guys did at the ticket counter that we want to
00:31:46.800
play and set this up. Cause you know, as I listened to this before you came on, I, I've never even
00:31:54.100
thought of this guy and what he's been walking around with is unbelievable. Um, and I'd like to hear
00:32:07.200
an update on him. If you have one after we listened to the story, can you set this up?
00:32:12.300
Sure. Uh, and I will say, you know, you and I talk about story core, you know, collecting the
00:32:17.340
wisdom of humanity and on that John and Joe piece, you know, when you hear him say the importance of
00:32:21.980
saying, I love you to the people who matter to you, you know, as those of us who are dads and moms,
00:32:27.480
you know, when you hear a story like that, you're never not going to say, I love you as the last thing
00:32:31.860
you say to your kids ever again, you know, cause it, it just reminds you what's important. Yeah.
00:32:36.420
This is, so this is, this is a story that, um, that's, that takes place, um, on September 12th.
00:32:43.740
Um, it's a guy named Vaughn Alex, who, um, very well may be a listener to this show. Um, who was,
00:32:49.860
who was working, um, the ticket counter at Dulles airport. He checked in two men who arrived late.
00:32:55.520
He followed all the security protocols. Um, and the next day he learned that they were two of the
00:33:01.340
five hijackers who diverted American airlines flight 77 to crash into the Pentagon, killing 59 passengers
00:33:08.700
and crew and 125 people at the Pentagon. So this is Vaughn Alex coming to story core, um, to talk
00:33:15.600
about, um, about that day. Listen, I didn't know what I had done. It wasn't until the next day,
00:33:23.500
September 12th, that I started finding out what happened. I came to work and people wouldn't look
00:33:30.280
at me in the eye and they handed me the manifest for the flight. I just stared at it for a second.
00:33:39.140
And then I looked up, I go, I did it, didn't I? I checked in a family. It was a retiree and his wife.
00:33:49.260
I had time to talk to them. There was a student group and I checked in a lot of those kids and
00:33:56.480
parents, teachers. And, uh, they were gone. They were just all gone.
00:34:06.340
Once it became known, people didn't talk to me. And I, I had this wild kind of thing in my mind
00:34:17.340
that everything that happened on September 11th was my fault personally, that I could have changed
00:34:24.800
it. I, I felt there was no place for me in the world. There were all these support groups
00:34:33.760
and I didn't belong there because how do I sit in a room with people that are,
00:34:40.200
that are mourning and crying and they're like, you know, what's your role in this whole thing?
00:34:44.760
Well, I checked in a couple of the hijackers and made sure they got on the flight.
00:34:50.120
I might go weeks or months and everything would be just going along fine. And then
00:34:54.800
there'd be something that would trigger it. I was checking in somebody and what she said was,
00:35:03.620
my husband got killed on September 11th. And what I heard was, you killed my husband on September 11th.
00:35:13.000
Uh, you know, you don't really move past it. It's still always there in some form,
00:35:21.720
but now, you know, I'm able to talk about it. I mean, I feel like in, in some ways I've,
00:35:31.500
I really have come out of a shadow and I'm, I'm back in the light now.
00:35:37.180
Um, that's Vaughn Alex. Um, and if you Vaughn, if you happen to be listening to us, I, it would be an
00:35:46.140
honor to talk to you. Um, uh, please reach out. We're going to try to reach out and, and see if
00:35:51.780
we can get ahold of him. Um, you know, I, I don't think I've ever, I don't think I can recall a story
00:36:01.120
that is as big and profound as this, um, where I didn't even think of the people at the, at the
00:36:12.420
counter checking in maybe in the, maybe around that time. I, I might've in a passing thought
00:36:20.440
thought, wow, how would it be if you were, but I never really thought how alone those people were
00:36:26.320
in their grief. I mean, what are there three? Yeah, that is, that is a very small support group.
00:36:34.620
Yeah. Well, I mean, it's a, that's when you have a, you know, part of, part of what goes on with a
00:36:42.300
tragedy that's as big as this is that we can't conceive all of the, you know, ripples that come
00:36:47.920
off of a tragedy like that. You know, there's a woman who came to, uh, StoryCorps who was the last
00:36:54.920
person on the last elevator down from the world trade center. The door was closing and she saw a
00:36:59.400
friend and she said, hold that door. And he put his hand in the door and the door opened and she walked
00:37:04.140
in and that was it. One second later, she would have, you know, she would have been dead. She
00:37:07.760
actually came in with the guy who opened the door for her. So there's so many stories like that. And,
00:37:12.880
you know, part of, part of what we try and do it's so it's, it's hard for, you know, there's the saying
00:37:18.200
that, you know, uh, uh, uh, that, that, uh, one death is a tragedy, a thousand deaths is, uh, you know,
00:37:25.500
is, uh, is, uh, is, uh, is, uh, statistic. Um, and what we try and do with StoryCorps is, is remind people,
00:37:32.240
you know, the, the sanctity of, of every single life and of every single story.
00:37:36.820
Dave, I, I, I can't thank you enough for what you're doing. I mean, it, it is,
00:37:42.080
you know, when, when societies begin to separate themselves and they no longer see themselves as
00:37:50.220
one, um, those societies are, are headed towards really bad things. And we've so demonized one
00:37:59.680
another and we have isolated ourselves, even though we have connections like we've never had
00:38:05.480
in the history of all mankind. Um, and we don't know each other and, um, keeping our humanity
00:38:13.040
is going to mean the difference between the horrors of what we know man can do, uh, and the great
00:38:25.440
things that we know man can do. And I think you're playing a big role in that.
00:38:30.080
Well, you, you are too. You know, we, what we, what we usually talk about when I come on
00:38:34.100
is, uh, one small step, which is this new effort of StoryCorps. You know, we've had 750,000 people
00:38:40.620
who love each other come to StoryCorps. And with one small step, we're putting strangers across the
00:38:45.160
political divide together. And, and your show has become the number one, number one referrer for
00:38:50.080
conservatives in the country. Um, so this is where it starts. And, you know, I've spent a lot of time
00:38:54.640
thinking about September 12th. I was in New York and, you know, this has been talked about a lot,
00:38:59.460
but it was a different world for a couple of days. Um, and we're not in that world anymore.
00:39:05.060
You know, is this a country we're going to leave for our kids where we see our neighbors as our most
00:39:09.140
dangerous enemies who, you know, John Vigiano, did he vote for Trump? Did he vote for Biden? I don't
00:39:15.380
know. Don't care. Does it matter? No, don't care. So I hope, I hope that people will continue.
00:39:21.260
We have thousands of people on our waiting list now, thanks to you. Um, we're going to get through
00:39:25.540
all of them. We're ramping up. Um, the idea is to have a conversation with someone who, um, is on the
00:39:31.440
opposite side of the political divides, not about your politics, but just about who you are as human
00:39:36.200
beings so that we can begin to see each other again. Mother Teresa said, we've forgotten that
00:39:40.500
we belong to each other. Um, and we can, we, you know, either, either we keep going down the path
00:39:47.500
we're going. Um, and if that, if that happens, the only thing we know for sure is it's not going to
00:39:52.520
end well. Um, and there is another path and I hope that your listeners will help us, um, you know,
00:39:58.880
lead the country down that other path where it can be like September 12th, where you can begin to see
00:40:03.280
each other again. And we can, you know, be the greatest country that we can possibly be.
00:40:10.760
Take one small step.org, um, come sign up, be a part of this, get to know, uh, through a conversation
00:40:17.820
over, um, a secure, uh, portal that goes to the library of Congress, get to know someone on the,
00:40:24.040
on the opposite side of the political divides. Um, everybody who's done this has had a good
00:40:28.540
experience. It always ends with people asking for the phone numbers of the people that they talked
00:40:33.240
to. In fact, I have to say the last time it was on, we played a story of a mother and her son,
00:40:38.680
the kid had Asperger's syndrome. And afterwards, um, she is a newspaper columnist and someone from
00:40:45.140
your show reached out and said, I don't believe, uh, I don't, I don't agree with anything you say
00:40:49.600
in politics, but we agree on the most important things in life, which is about how to raise a family
00:40:54.540
and how to raise our children. I want to do one small step recording with you.
00:40:57.860
So hopefully next time I come on, they'll let me know.
00:41:00.020
Oh, that'll be great. That'll be great. Dave, thank you so much. Take one small step.org.