The Glenn Beck Program - Best of the Program ｜ Guests： Tulsi Gabbard & Jason Whitlock ｜ 8⧸18⧸23

00:00:00.000 A lot, a jam-packed episode and podcast for Friday on the Glenn Beck program.

00:00:07.600 We begin with the truth about so much.

00:00:13.860 Hawaii, Biden, the scandals.

00:00:17.320 Did we, I mean, we actually cover this.

00:00:19.220 Did we actually go to the moon?

00:00:21.120 You don't want to miss that segment.

00:00:23.040 And I also tell you the inspiring story of the guy from Appalachia with a guitar.

00:00:30.380 It's an amazing story.

00:00:32.040 You don't want to miss a second, including Tulsi Gabbard right at the toe end of the podcast.

00:00:38.220 She gives us information on what's happening in Maui that I don't think you've heard yet.

00:00:43.000 We'll give that to you coming up on today's podcast.

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00:01:40.140 Here's the podcast.

00:01:48.540 You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck program.

00:01:55.300 Yesterday on Facebook, Oliver Anthony.

00:02:00.100 Sarah, do we have a little bit of the Oliver Anthony song?

00:02:02.740 For anybody who hasn't heard it yet, I find it hard to believe that you haven't, but maybe you haven't.

00:02:07.940 Here's a piece of his song.

00:02:10.400 Working home today.

00:02:12.440 North of Richmond.

00:02:13.120 Double time hours.

00:02:15.020 Bulls pay so I can sit out here. 0.98

00:02:18.660 Waste my life away.

00:02:21.020 Drag back home and drink my troubles away. 0.99

00:02:24.280 It's a damn shame what the world's gotten to. 0.99

00:02:28.940 For people like me and people like you. 0.82

00:02:32.760 Wish I could just wake up and it not be true.

00:02:36.940 But it is.

00:02:38.720 All it is.

00:02:40.360 Living in the new world.

00:02:42.980 With an old soul.

00:02:48.800 These rich men north of Richmond.

00:02:51.460 Lord knows they all just want to have total control.

00:02:56.320 Want to know what you think.

00:02:58.440 Want to know what you do.

00:03:00.560 And they don't think you know.

00:03:02.580 But I know that you do.

00:03:04.300 Cause your dollar ain't.

00:03:06.520 And it's taxed to no end.

00:03:08.680 Cause the rich men.

00:03:10.780 North of Richmond.

00:03:12.100 This is an amazing song.

00:03:15.600 An amazing story.

00:03:16.380 As it was.

00:03:17.320 And then last night.

00:03:18.620 He went and posted on Facebook.

00:03:20.960 He said.

00:03:21.920 It's been difficult as I browse through the 50,000 plus messages and emails I've received in just the last week.

00:03:28.480 The stories that have been shared paint a brutally honest picture.

00:03:32.900 Suicide.

00:03:33.680 Addiction.

00:03:34.340 Unemployment.

00:03:35.220 Anxiety.

00:03:36.080 Depression.

00:03:37.360 Hopelessness.

00:03:38.380 And the list goes on.

00:03:40.260 I'm sitting at such a weird place in my life right now.

00:03:43.600 I never wanted to be a full-time musician.

00:03:45.880 Much less sit at the top of the iTunes charts.

00:03:48.660 Draven.

00:03:49.360 A friend from Radio West Virginia.

00:03:51.500 And I filmed these tunes on my land.

00:03:54.080 With the hope that it might.

00:03:55.980 Maybe hit 300,000 views.

00:03:58.480 I still don't believe what has went on since we uploaded that.

00:04:02.480 It's strange to me.

00:04:04.240 People in the music industry give me blank stares when I brush off $8 million offers.

00:04:09.900 I don't want six tour buses.

00:04:11.880 15 tractor trailers and a jet.

00:04:14.780 I don't want to play stadium shows.

00:04:16.860 I don't want to be in the spotlight.

00:04:19.080 I wrote the music I wrote.

00:04:21.120 Because I was suffering with mental health and depression.

00:04:24.920 These songs have connected with millions of people on such a deep level.

00:04:28.000 Because they're being sung by somebody feeling the words in the very moment they were being sung.

00:04:32.820 No editing.

00:04:34.480 No agent.

00:04:35.600 No BS. 1.00

00:04:36.540 Just some idiot and his guitar. 1.00

00:04:39.180 The style of music that we should have never gotten away from in the first place. 1.00

00:04:44.440 That being said, I've never taken time to tell you who I actually am.

00:04:48.020 So here's the formal introduction.

00:04:49.480 My legal name is Christopher Anthony Lunsford.

00:04:53.640 My grandfather was Oliver Anthony.

00:04:56.740 And Oliver Anthony music is a dedication not only to him, but the 1930s Appalachia where I was born and raised.

00:05:04.380 Dirt floors.

00:05:05.560 Seven kids.

00:05:06.780 Hard times.

00:05:08.300 At this point, I'll gladly go by Oliver because everybody knows me as such.

00:05:12.760 But my friends and family still call me Chris.

00:05:15.440 You decide for yourself.

00:05:17.440 Either way is fine with me.

00:05:18.800 I feel you on that one, Oliver.

00:05:20.220 I feel you.

00:05:21.420 I feel you as Stu.

00:05:24.280 I feel you.

00:05:26.280 In 2010, I dropped out of high school at the age of 17.

00:05:30.540 I have a GED from Spruce Pine, North Carolina.

00:05:34.200 I worked multiple plant jobs in western North Carolina.

00:05:37.440 My last job being in a paper mill in McDowell County.

00:05:40.800 I worked third shift six days a week for $14.50 an hour in a living hell.

00:05:47.420 In 2013, I had a bad fall at work, fractured my skull, and it forced me to move back home to Virginia.

00:05:53.580 Due to complications from the injury, it took me six months or so before I could work again.

00:05:58.140 From 2014 until just a few days ago, I worked outside sales in the industrial manufacturing world.

00:06:06.300 My job's taken me all over Virginia and into the Carolinas, getting to know tens of thousands of other blue-collar workers on job sites and in factories.

00:06:14.040 I've spent all day, every day, for the last 10 years hearing the same story.

00:06:19.240 People are so damn tired of being neglected.

00:06:22.220 So tired of being divided and manipulated.

00:06:25.380 In 2019, I paid $97,500 for the property, and I still owe about $60,000 on it.

00:06:32.220 I'm living in a 20-foot camper with a tarp on the roof that I got off Craigslist for $750.

00:06:39.520 There's nothing really special about me.

00:06:41.360 I'm not a good musician.

00:06:42.580 I'm not really even a very good person.

00:06:45.960 I've spent the last five years struggling with mental health and using alcohol to drown it.

00:06:51.420 I'm sad to see the world the state's in, with everyone fighting with each other.

00:06:56.020 I've spent many nights feeling hopeless that the greatest country on Earth is quickly fading away.

00:07:02.060 That being said, I hate the way the Internet has divided all of us.

00:07:06.720 The Internet is a parasite that infects the minds of humans and has their way with them.

00:07:13.280 Hours wasted, goals forgotten, loved ones sitting in houses with each other,

00:07:17.500 distracted all day by technology made by the hands of other poor souls in sweatshops in a foreign land. 0.99

00:07:24.160 When is enough enough?

00:07:25.840 When are we going to fight for what's right again?

00:07:30.600 Millions have died protecting the liberties we have.

00:07:33.980 Freedom of speech is such a precious gift.

00:07:37.460 Never in the world history has the world had freedom that it currently has today.

00:07:43.440 Don't let them take that away from you.

00:07:47.720 Just like those once wandering in the desert, we have lost our way from God

00:07:51.520 and have let false idols distract us and divide us. 0.99

00:07:55.860 It's a damn shame. 0.99

00:07:57.300 I want you to take his words at heart for a minute. 0.96

00:08:09.120 That he only did this because he only wrote this song, not because he's a songwriter,

00:08:14.400 but because that's in him.

00:08:17.080 And he was struggling with something and he shared it.

00:08:22.260 He didn't share it knowing that it would become this.

00:08:26.040 He wasn't trying to do anything grand.

00:08:28.300 He was just trying to solve a problem for himself.

00:08:31.320 And then he shared.

00:08:35.240 That's really the hard part.

00:08:38.620 Sharing.

00:08:39.860 Because we're all so afraid and we're becoming more and more afraid of each other

00:08:44.300 because people are actively trying to destroy our relationships with one another,

00:08:50.260 destroy our modes of communication, our empathy.

00:08:56.040 for one another.

00:08:57.520 We look at people now, if we even look at them, as just, I don't even know, objects?

00:09:05.320 Because the real world has become real in the fake world.

00:09:11.900 That's the world too many people are living in.

00:09:14.240 They're living online.

00:09:15.340 And we're not treating people.

00:09:18.300 We're treating people like we treat people online.

00:09:22.100 And everybody's feeling it.

00:09:24.680 Everybody knows it.

00:09:28.040 He's not just connecting.

00:09:29.720 The reason why he has to be destroyed is because he's the average guy

00:09:34.820 who's just in his own way.

00:09:37.780 Let his voice be heard.

00:09:42.480 I'm on this incredible journey this summer.

00:09:44.940 I don't know where this is going to take me or take us.

00:09:48.320 But I'm trying to solve a problem for my children.

00:09:54.880 And I shared it on the air a few weeks ago.

00:10:00.120 And it was just me just sharing.

00:10:02.040 I wasn't trying to do anything other than just share what I was going through.

00:10:06.760 And I can't tell you how many people have reached out to me and said,

00:10:11.560 Oh my gosh, I'm having the same problem.

00:10:16.080 I don't know what to do.

00:10:17.860 But I'm with you.

00:10:22.380 I think this is what Billy Graham told me.

00:10:26.260 That if people will just do exactly what the Lord says to do.

00:10:31.820 And some people don't know what that is.

00:10:33.740 Some people don't hear him clearly.

00:10:36.980 I honestly, I think I hear him.

00:10:39.940 I think I'm going to die and I'm going to get up there.

00:10:42.040 And he's like, dude, that wasn't me.

00:10:43.740 More medication next time around.

00:10:47.100 But I feel like I'm guided in some ways.

00:10:51.560 You know, everything I do wrong, it's me.

00:10:53.780 Everything that I do that is good is because of him.

00:10:56.740 But Billy Graham told me, if everybody will just do their one thing,

00:11:05.540 and they're going to think that it is no big deal. 1.00

00:11:08.860 They're going to think this is stupid. 1.00

00:11:10.280 This isn't going to change anything. 1.00

00:11:14.040 He said, it's as if the Lord is planning a surprise party for Satan.

00:11:18.980 And the lights are going to come on, and we'll be just as surprised as he is.

00:11:25.440 And the Lord will just go, surprise.

00:11:27.820 And what we'll see in the light is that everyone doing just what they were supposed to do,

00:11:34.640 nothing more, nothing less, has made this mosaic that we will all recognize

00:11:40.740 only the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob could put together. 0.88

00:11:43.740 The things you do just to solve something for yourself,

00:11:53.340 when you share them,

00:11:57.080 I think shocking things come out of them.

00:12:01.360 We all think that we don't have anything important to share or anything important.

00:12:06.340 We hide.

00:12:07.780 We hide our, in my case, alcoholism and self-doubt.

00:12:13.740 We all think, I don't, there's nothing special about me.

00:12:20.940 But there is.

00:12:22.380 There really is.

00:12:24.400 I mean, look at this.

00:12:25.820 Here's this song that has just broken all of the,

00:12:30.120 I mean, I've never seen the top ten.

00:12:33.980 You know, in the Beatles era, in Elvis' era,

00:12:37.460 it wasn't uncommon for the top ten to have five Beatles songs in it.

00:12:42.420 I haven't seen that from a guy who's completely unknown.

00:12:47.140 This is why evil is tearing us apart.

00:12:53.980 This is why evil is trying to get us to not talk to each other.

00:12:59.160 Evil cannot allow us to share what we really believe.

00:13:05.300 Evil cannot allow us to see our common humanity,

00:13:09.400 our common fears, our common problems,

00:13:11.180 our common solutions, our joys, our wants.

00:13:16.180 I'm convinced the first time I went over to Israel,

00:13:19.400 I met with a bunch of Palestinians,

00:13:21.660 and I met with a bunch of Jewish people separately.

00:13:27.420 And what struck me was,

00:13:30.300 they're saying the same things.

00:13:32.060 I don't know why they can't solve this problem.

00:13:35.660 They're saying the same things.

00:13:37.500 I just want my kids to grow up in peace.

00:13:41.400 I just want to go to work and be safe

00:13:44.860 and maybe have enough to be able just to live my life.

00:13:50.520 I don't need a jet.

00:13:51.700 I don't need a big house.

00:13:52.880 I don't need any of that.

00:13:54.120 I just want my children to do a little better than I am.

00:13:57.560 And that doesn't mean necessarily that they do better financially.

00:14:02.880 We've put everything into finances.

00:14:06.320 I've never said to my kids,

00:14:09.880 you know what?

00:14:11.160 Someday you're going to do better than I have.

00:14:14.260 I've told my kids the whole time,

00:14:16.160 good luck with that because I won the lottery.

00:14:19.800 There's no excuse, no reason I'm the success that I am.

00:14:25.820 Here's what I want you to do.

00:14:28.500 My dream for you is this,

00:14:30.160 that you're happier than I am,

00:14:33.020 that you have found peace faster than I found it.

00:14:40.620 Others make us feel needy,

00:14:42.920 make us need to follow our wants and to fear one another.

00:14:48.820 Don't.

00:14:51.440 Share the real you with people

00:14:53.840 and you just might be surprised.

00:14:57.560 In the end,

00:14:59.520 how much you've contributed to a better society.

00:15:07.700 This is the best of the Glenn Beck program.

00:15:10.400 I'm going to go to Jason Whitlock.

00:15:12.360 He is the Blaze TV host of Fearless.

00:15:15.860 And he's one of the nicest guys and most decent men that I know.

00:15:21.040 Welcome to the program, Jason.

00:15:22.540 How are you?

00:15:23.600 I'm great, Glenn.

00:15:24.840 Thanks for having me.

00:15:26.440 You bet.

00:15:26.800 All week, we just haven't had time to get into the Michael Orr story about the movie Blindside.

00:15:35.160 And I wanted to ask you,

00:15:38.120 because I think you probably know all of the players,

00:15:42.020 maybe even personally,

00:15:43.060 but I wanted to get your take on this,

00:15:45.900 because yesterday I saw a tweet that the Oscars should be given back because it was all a lie.

00:15:54.280 And is it a lie?

00:15:56.760 Was this all a lie?

00:15:57.740 No, not at all.

00:16:00.340 And I can say that having re-read the book,

00:16:06.400 The Blindside, published in 2006,

00:16:10.020 read Michael Orr's memoir,

00:16:13.600 his first one in 2011,

00:16:16.520 I Beat the Odds,

00:16:18.340 having re-watched the movie,

00:16:21.380 I did all this this week,

00:16:23.420 no,

00:16:24.080 it's not all a lie.

00:16:25.780 The movie is actually pretty accurate to the book,

00:16:32.480 and Michael Orr endorsed the book in his 2011 memoir,

00:16:38.300 and in subsequent interviews the years since.

00:16:41.800 He has said he liked the book, 0.95

00:16:44.860 but he didn't like the way the movie portrayed him as dumb, 0.91

00:16:49.640 and as not totally responsible for his own success. 0.83

00:16:55.020 And so then you go back and re-read the book,

00:16:58.560 The Blindside,

00:16:59.300 which he says he endorses,

00:17:01.440 and the movie portrays him not only fairly,

00:17:05.160 but probably in a far more positive and uplifting light than the book did.

00:17:13.200 This kid came to that family with some severe problems.

00:17:17.020 He couldn't read at age 16,

00:17:20.020 and he had to be taught how to shake hands.

00:17:23.820 He didn't engage with people.

00:17:25.920 He had faced so much neglect,

00:17:27.680 trauma,

00:17:28.240 abandonment from ages 0 to 15 or 16,

00:17:32.980 that,

00:17:33.460 you know,

00:17:34.100 he was embarrassingly shy and reclusive,

00:17:38.240 couldn't read. 1.00

00:17:39.240 I didn't get the impression that he was stupid in the movie. 0.99

00:17:46.340 I didn't read the book, 1.00

00:17:47.220 but I didn't get the impression he was stupid. 1.00

00:17:49.440 I got the impression that he had been neglected, 0.99

00:17:51.440 and he had never been taught any of these things.

00:17:54.100 And I actually came out of the movie having tremendous respect for him

00:17:57.960 because of what he had conquered.

00:18:00.980 Exactly.

00:18:01.420 And again,

00:18:03.620 one of the subtle points of this remaking,

00:18:07.900 recasting of the blind side and the way the media is covering it,

00:18:11.740 the underlying message is that,

00:18:14.980 hey,

00:18:16.240 the nuclear family being raised properly,

00:18:19.920 that's all irrelevant.

00:18:21.320 The only thing that's relevant is,

00:18:23.960 you know,

00:18:25.540 did you face racism?

00:18:27.020 And it's like family and upbringing,

00:18:32.240 we're pretending like this didn't damage this young man incredibly,

00:18:37.680 and that the Toohey family and many other families at this private school

00:18:43.000 and friends tried to put a broken child back together and send him along his way.

00:18:50.220 And it's all being denigrated right now.

00:18:52.600 And this rewriting of history that we,

00:18:55.080 it's just,

00:18:56.300 the blind side is just another statue being torn down,

00:18:59.360 Glenn.

00:19:00.020 So before we get to motivation,

00:19:02.220 the one thing that I heard,

00:19:04.400 that I've heard differently since,

00:19:06.660 but I want you to address it,

00:19:08.200 was that the Toohey family,

00:19:10.500 they were using him.

00:19:12.500 They never adopted him.

00:19:14.460 He thought he was adopted,

00:19:16.220 and it was all a lie.

00:19:18.420 Any of that true,

00:19:19.420 Jason?

00:19:20.300 No.

00:19:20.700 In his 2011 memoir,

00:19:23.580 he writes about the conservatorship,

00:19:26.360 knew that he was not adopted.

00:19:28.620 This is all a rewriting of history.

00:19:30.740 As it relates to their motivation,

00:19:32.860 Sean Toohey,

00:19:33.640 the dad,

00:19:34.700 was a all-time great Ole Miss basketball player.

00:19:38.300 His background is basketball.

00:19:40.120 He was a volunteer assistant coach at the Christian High School that brought Michael Orr in.

00:19:45.720 And his original interest in Michael was as a basketball player and was writing letters to small colleges,

00:19:55.680 thinking if we could ever get this kid academically straight,

00:19:59.140 he could be a 6'5", 300-pound, Division III, Division II basketball player,

00:20:05.920 and that's how we'll push him along.

00:20:08.040 They discover the football talent after he's moved into their home.

00:20:14.060 And so this whole thing,

00:20:15.500 like they knew there was NFL riches and he was this great prospect.

00:20:19.080 No,

00:20:19.340 he was a 6'5", 345-pound kid when they got him.

00:20:23.740 And they hoped they could turn him into some Division II, Division III basketball player

00:20:28.820 and get him educated that way.

00:20:31.980 It's a whole recreation of history.

00:20:34.160 The facts just don't line up with what was written in the 2006 book,

00:20:39.800 what Michael Orr cops to in his own original memoir.

00:20:46.140 It's another rewriting of history.

00:20:49.020 So let me go to motivation.

00:20:52.400 I can see the motivation in the press.

00:20:54.420 They love this kind of story.

00:20:56.060 Here you had some heroes.

00:20:57.440 They were, you know, God-centered people,

00:20:59.840 showed the truth about families and what happens when there isn't a family.

00:21:03.860 So I can understand that.

00:21:05.160 But Michael, to be involved in this, is it true that he was blackmailing the family for a while?

00:21:15.540 I guess that was the right word.

00:21:17.140 And saying, look, I'm going to come out with this unless you pay me.

00:21:20.860 Is that true?

00:21:21.500 That's certainly the allegations that the Tui's lawyers have raised and the Tui's son has stated.

00:21:32.360 I guess we'll have to find out over time.

00:21:34.940 But I think as it relates to Michael Orr's motivation, read the book, read his memoir.

00:21:41.360 Or this is a broken child who has never been put back together, and he's still a broken person.

00:21:50.880 And so there's reason to have great sympathy.

00:21:53.260 And, again, this is where it goes back to the message everybody should be taking from this is just like,

00:21:58.700 hey, man, family and upbringing, those first formative years of a child are so vital, so important.

00:22:05.980 If they're damaged in the womb from not being properly cared for and the mother being a crack addict, 0.85

00:22:13.120 and if they're abandoned and neglected as a child, these ramifications will go on for a lifetime.

00:22:19.960 And as best I could tell from his 2011 memoir and from reading The Blind Side,

00:22:24.840 he's never gotten that type of therapy and treatment that he obviously needs.

00:22:30.900 And so I think he's come up on hard times.

00:22:34.100 He's written a new book, When Your Back's Against the Wall.

00:22:38.700 It's out right now.

00:22:40.340 I think he's hyping his book.

00:22:42.600 I think he hopes that someone, some Hollywood producer, Netflix, someone will say,

00:22:47.800 hey, let's do a remake of The Blind Side and tell it the proper way 0.93

00:22:51.760 and make the black kid the hero and the white people evil 0.95

00:22:55.880 and let's cut Michael Orr a big check for the new blind side. 0.99

00:23:00.320 I think that's his angle.

00:23:03.400 Wow, that is tragically sad, and it probably will happen.

00:23:08.780 Do the Tui family, have you had a chance to talk to them

00:23:13.920 or anybody talk to them personally without attorneys

00:23:16.320 and not to say, oh, it's a real score, but how do they feel?

00:23:22.540 They have made a public statement, the dad has, that they're devastated,

00:23:26.400 and they should be.

00:23:28.520 This relationship deteriorated years ago.

00:23:33.320 And, again, it's not uncommon, Glenn.

00:23:36.760 I have not talked to the Tui's. 0.93

00:23:38.380 I want to be perfectly clear with that.

00:23:39.720 I have talked to people that say, contend they know the Tui's. 0.87

00:23:43.880 But I'll just talk about myself having been involved with, let's call it, at-risk kids.

00:23:53.700 Took a cousin into my home when I lived in Kansas City for two years

00:23:58.340 to get him up out of a gang lifestyle.

00:24:01.600 After two years, we fell out.

00:24:04.060 He went back home to Indianapolis, got in trouble.

00:24:07.640 We are now very close.

00:24:09.540 He now acknowledges all the things I was trying to teach him when he was younger

00:24:15.040 were legitimate, and he wished he had listened closer then.

00:24:19.680 But, Glenn, and I know or I can speculate about the amount of charitable work

00:24:25.620 and the people you've tried to help.

00:24:27.340 Sometimes they're just ungrateful.

00:24:30.560 And sometimes the damage that they experience at a young age is too much to overcome,

00:24:36.680 and they eventually lash out at the very people who have shown them love

00:24:42.660 and have tried to help them because they don't know what to do with their emotions.

00:24:48.680 Michael Orr's mom and dad failed him horribly.

00:24:55.040 And the dad is dead.

00:24:58.480 The mom is strung out on drugs or has been for many years.

00:25:03.040 Maybe today, hopefully, she's sober.

00:25:04.820 But he's lashing out at some people that have a lot of money

00:25:10.480 and, you know, had showered him with a lot of resources.

00:25:18.740 And sometimes, I hate to make the analogy, but you feed a cat,

00:25:22.760 and the cat never leaves your doorstep.

00:25:24.720 No matter where you might set them up in a new home,

00:25:27.780 they may make $30 million, $40 million in the NFL,

00:25:31.600 but eventually may blow that money and return to you,

00:25:37.080 the people that previously supplied them resources, and ask again.

00:25:43.040 Well, I will tell you, you know, I learned several years back

00:25:52.020 that if you're doing charity to get love back, you know, good luck with that.

00:25:57.740 You know, it can't change you because so many times you will do something,

00:26:04.980 you know, because you just feel it's right.

00:26:07.100 And, you know, the thing that I learned, and I say this all the time,

00:26:12.440 I'll do something and people say,

00:26:13.900 really, you're expecting that to go well?

00:26:17.540 I'm like, no, I feel compelled to do that.

00:26:22.540 Now, that's up to them with what they do with it.

00:26:26.660 But, you know, I just, I don't ever want to close my heart

00:26:31.260 because you will get burned several times.

00:26:34.320 But there is also those who occasionally will step up

00:26:39.060 and something will happen, and it will be glorious, absolutely glorious.

00:26:44.480 And that's much, that's what we should concentrate on,

00:26:48.680 not necessarily the ones that don't work out.

00:26:51.480 Because also, he's got the rest of his life.

00:26:54.900 I mean, this thing may turn around yet again.

00:26:58.040 Who knows?

00:26:58.960 It certainly could.

00:27:00.020 And I do want to back up your hopeful note and just say that

00:27:04.860 I got involved with a Ball State football player.

00:27:07.680 I played football at Ball State.

00:27:08.880 He broke his neck in 2007.

00:27:12.000 Kid named Dante Love.

00:27:13.280 It's been one of the greatest experiences of my life.

00:27:16.920 And Dante's probably now 36, 37 years old, married, two kids, great career,

00:27:25.180 very appreciative of all the things that I did for him.

00:27:30.940 He's like an adopted son to me.

00:27:33.360 And so a lot of these things work out.

00:27:35.720 And Dante comes from a very, very tough, similar,

00:27:39.020 very similar to Michael Orr's background.

00:27:40.840 When he was a student at Ball State, we had to do a lot of things.

00:27:45.480 Coaches, coaches' wives, do a lot of things to help him get through school

00:27:49.760 and to help him catch up from all the neglect he experienced at 10, 11, 12, 13 years old.

00:27:57.800 This is a great young man.

00:27:59.700 Knows the Bible forward and backwards.

00:28:02.260 I call him for biblical interpretation.

00:28:05.280 I mean, he's just a great young man, great.

00:28:07.740 And so all the time, resources, well worth it.

00:28:11.480 And was it easy?

00:28:12.980 No.

00:28:13.540 Did we have some bad moments?

00:28:15.040 Yes.

00:28:15.740 On the other side, is it awesome and is it great?

00:28:18.920 And I agree with you.

00:28:20.120 Don't do any of it looking for anything other than hopefully you'll get to heaven one day

00:28:27.020 and God will say, hey, I'm well pleased with what you did there.

00:28:29.920 That will be your only reward.

00:28:31.460 Yeah.

00:28:32.960 Jason, thank you so much, as always.

00:28:35.320 I just love you, man.

00:28:36.720 Jason Whitlock, Blaze TV host of Fearless.

00:28:39.580 If you have not seen Fearless yet, you need to.

00:28:43.160 Jason is just doing a tremendous, tremendous job

00:28:46.340 and comes at things at a completely different angle that I think you'll really enjoy.

00:28:50.160 Jason Whitlock.

00:28:51.140 Thank you so much, Jason.

00:28:52.180 I appreciate it.

00:28:53.680 You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck program.

00:28:56.300 Thank you so much for everything that you're doing for Maui.

00:29:02.020 Mentioned this a couple of days ago.

00:29:04.580 We're approaching a million dollars in aid just from this audience.

00:29:09.420 The average donation is about a hundred bucks.

00:29:11.980 And I just, I love you.

00:29:14.160 I just love you.

00:29:15.060 Thank you for caring about people's plight, no matter where they are.

00:29:20.920 This is a, this is just a growing into a disturbing story.

00:29:25.240 And I'm not sure exactly what's going on,

00:29:29.160 except at least incompetence seems to be coming forward.

00:29:35.920 I hope it doesn't get worse than that.

00:29:38.640 Tulsi Gabbard is here.

00:29:40.460 This used to be one of her districts that she would, you know, 0.98

00:29:43.800 frequently visit when she was a congresswoman.

00:29:46.940 Tulsi Gabbard is on reserve duty right now.

00:29:51.700 So we can't talk at all about politics.

00:29:53.700 I don't want to get her into trouble.

00:29:55.420 So we're just going to talk about the situation because I don't know what's happening.

00:30:01.860 And I'm hearing all kinds of things.

00:30:03.980 I don't know if those are true or not.

00:30:06.180 I'm just seeing things that I've never seen as a broadcaster before.

00:30:10.180 So I don't know how to answer them.

00:30:11.800 Tulsi, welcome.

00:30:13.980 Hey, and to all of your listeners for, for, for all of their support.

00:30:20.080 It really means so much to our community there on Maui that is continuing now,

00:30:25.800 nine days after this crisis began, really struggling and suffering and,

00:30:31.120 and is having a hard time looking to see what that road towards rebuilding looks like.

00:30:35.360 But your support means the world.

00:30:37.460 Thank you, Tulsi.

00:30:39.680 So we, we, we're hearing things like homeowners are not allowed to go back.

00:30:45.760 We are nine days after this, and we still have a thousand people missing.

00:30:50.740 Uh, I don't know of a natural disaster in America that has been, uh, in such a tight area where this many days after we are still missing a thousand people.

00:31:05.600 Um, we've heard stories that these numbers are being quashed intentionally, uh, that the National Guard has closed this whole area off.

00:31:15.040 I've never seen that before.

00:31:16.880 What's happening?

00:31:19.240 Uh, these, these are all a lot of questions that, that folks, uh, folks on the ground have and, and, uh, are, are very appropriate.

00:31:27.740 It's unfortunate there has been so little communication coming through official channels, uh, at a time where, you know,

00:31:36.020 the mayor, uh, needs to be out there on social media or on TV every single day giving extensive and open update briefs, uh,

00:31:45.000 to be, be as completely transparent as possible, uh, so that people know what's going on.

00:31:51.140 There's been a vacuum of communication.

00:31:52.780 And as you know, uh, and in that vacuum, uh, a lot of questions and a lot of fears, um, and concerns arise.

00:32:00.380 So, uh, let's just kind of start with, with the first, uh, you know, some of the first questions that you asked there.

00:32:06.520 Uh, this is an unprecedented crisis in, in, you know, the last hundred years in our country.

00:32:12.560 Uh, right now we have first responders out there in, uh, on the island of Maui who are, from across the country,

00:32:18.660 who are helping to support the foremost mission, which is remains recovery.

00:32:23.500 Uh, this wildfire started with a small brush fire that quickly grew out of control because of these hundred mile an hour winds.

00:32:31.960 It's suspected that downed electric lines, uh, contributed to its spread.

00:32:38.220 Uh, but really the, the word that I have heard best described this wildfire is it was like a blowtorch.

00:32:45.200 It was an out of control wildfire that's, that swept horizontally and very quickly in less than an hour across the historic town of Lahaina,

00:32:56.660 taking down and turning into ash, everything, uh, in its path.

00:33:01.560 Uh, people have, have explained how these flames sometimes hopped and skipped, uh, which is why you saw boats that were, you know,

00:33:10.860 a little bit far off of land, uh, get completely, uh, completely destroyed.

00:33:17.220 The questions about how is it possible that there are still over a thousand people missing?

00:33:23.220 How is it possible that at last count, they have only identified the remains?

00:33:27.600 Actually, they haven't identified the who, but they have recovered the remains of 111 people.

00:33:34.240 When you think about the quickness of this fire and the destruction, just imagine you have a, uh, you know,

00:33:42.520 three or four story boutique hotel there in Lahaina.

00:33:46.960 Uh, this fire comes in and levels that hotel down to the ground.

00:33:54.500 We don't know how many people were in their hotel rooms.

00:33:58.540 Uh, from what I'm told, they're not able to recover records of who might have been in that hotel.

00:34:06.880 And, uh, and, and then you take that example and, and just spread that across the entire town and homes and

00:34:13.600 shops, front street in Lahaina had shops lining both sides of the streets.

00:34:17.940 You had restaurants, you have tourists, you have residents, you have service workers.

00:34:22.300 Uh, you know, you have a lot of people in a very small area, uh, who, who very sadly perished,

00:34:31.400 uh, in a very short period of time.

00:34:34.100 Now there's, there's a Google spreadsheet that's going around where family members have listed the

00:34:38.920 names of their loved ones, uh, as missing.

00:34:42.000 Uh, but this recovery is going, this remains recovery mission is so slow because it requires

00:34:50.200 cadaver dogs to go and find these remains.

00:34:55.580 Uh, unfortunately the destruction is so great that the human eye is not enough in many of these cases

00:35:03.960 to identify these remains. And so this, this process is going to go on. And, and I, I expect

00:35:10.500 the, uh, the mayor or the governor will be making an announcement with a time estimate

00:35:14.260 soon, but they've got, uh, there are not very many cadaver dogs in the United States of America,

00:35:20.820 trained cadaver dogs. Uh, I've been told that there are 20 on the ground there. They can work

00:35:26.180 for 20 minutes, then they need 20 minutes rest. So they're, they're rotating these cadaver dogs,

00:35:31.700 uh, so that they can go through, uh, and, and do their work, but they are not moving from one area

00:35:39.120 to the next until all the remains in that specific area, uh, have been, uh, identified by these dogs

00:35:48.460 and then allowing the humans to come in and do that work. It's a very slow, slow process.

00:35:54.780 And that's not, sorry, I just to finish that, that's not even beginning the process of

00:35:58.460 the identification of DNA and figuring out, uh, you know, matching these remains to, uh, people.

00:36:05.060 Correct. So this would put to rest another question that I have had. I've never seen anything

00:36:11.640 where people can't return in to go through their own rubble. They, the insurance injustors are not

00:36:17.920 allowed to go in and they've blocked everything. So nobody can go back in. That would answer the

00:36:24.120 question on why that's happening is there's too many, they don't want anything to touch too many

00:36:28.620 people. Go ahead. Correct. There's two, there's two main reasons for that is they need to preserve

00:36:32.440 the area for the remains recovery mission to go on undisturbed. Number one, number two,

00:36:39.000 as you can imagine, you know, along with all of the different buildings and houses, uh, there were,

00:36:45.720 you know, two gas stations completely leveled to the ground. Those gas stations had underground

00:36:52.020 fuel, uh, fuel tanks. The level of toxicity in this area is, uh, is, is very, very serious.

00:37:01.660 Uh, and so that is another factor that, that, uh, local officials are rightly taking into account

00:37:07.440 of coming up with a plan on both for the, the near term, you know, okay, well, we've got to make

00:37:13.920 sure that anybody going in there at, at the point where they are able to open it up to families to be

00:37:19.060 able to go back to their homes, which, which needs to happen as soon as possible. If nothing else,

00:37:25.000 but for closure, um, they've got to make sure they've got the protective, uh, respirators and,

00:37:31.020 and gear to make sure that they are not, uh, they're, they're not causing a medical crisis

00:37:36.660 in the process. Uh, the, the, the removal of the toxic, um, you know, this is not just going to be

00:37:44.060 about clearing debris in this case. I've been told in order to remove the toxic elements that have

00:37:49.500 been caused by this fire, they're going to have to dig down, you know, five to 10 feet to be able

00:37:54.980 to remove all of that and then figure out where does it go? How do they transport it and everything

00:37:59.060 else that follows there? All right. So I've only got a couple of minutes. I have a couple more

00:38:03.400 questions left. Um, one of them, uh, is about the guy who has just resigned and I actually feel bad

00:38:12.320 for him because I think he probably thought he was doing the right thing by not turning on the air

00:38:18.020 siren. Because what I read, he said, if I would have turned it on, uh, people would have gone to the

00:38:24.140 top of the mountain because that's what they're trained to do. And they would have gone right into

00:38:28.220 the fire. Do you believe that? Or, or, I mean, I, I don't want to throw this guy underneath the bus.

00:38:35.600 Well, you know what? I, I, I call bull on that. And, uh, hearing that response really pissed me off.

00:38:41.120 It really pissed me off because of a couple of reasons. He's the department of emergency

00:38:46.840 management director. Why did it take him? What is it? Eight days for him to show up in front of the

00:38:52.860 media and answer questions. He should have been the first guy out there when this thing happened,

00:38:57.300 answering questions, fielding concerns. It took him eight days to show up at that podium and show

00:39:03.160 his face to the public. Number one, number two, we have a highly sophisticated alarm system across

00:39:09.120 the state of Hawaii because of our proximity to hurricanes and tsunamis and all sorts of different

00:39:15.440 natural disasters. We know that if it's a tsunami, we get days warning. If there's an earthquake in

00:39:22.360 Japan, they say, Hey, tsunami alert, a tsunami may be headed your way. That, that didn't happen.

00:39:28.660 And we're smart enough to know that these alarm systems are used in the case of any form of natural

00:39:33.640 disaster. A tsunami alert could have been ruled out immediately because they don't just show up out

00:39:39.720 of nowhere. We will get that notice. That alarm sounding could have, could have possibly prevented

00:39:47.900 loss of life. So I don't buy that. I don't buy that reasoning at all. Tell me about the water guy

00:39:54.580 who seems to have some love affair with water being more sacred than people in some of his former

00:40:00.080 statements that, that didn't act to turn on the water. And it looks now like it was because of water

00:40:06.640 equity. Is that true? This is a much, this is a much longer question, unfortunately, than you have

00:40:13.000 time for it. Maui has a long history of different, uh, entities fighting over who owns the water on 0.69

00:40:21.600 Maui. And unfortunately for decades now, people, the people have been suffering as a result. Uh, so I'm

00:40:29.780 still learning the details of, you know, they say they made the request to use the water for the fire

00:40:34.820 trucks. The state didn't approve it quickly enough. Uh, you know, there, there, I could tell

00:40:39.980 you what I would do in that position. I would have just said, use the water. I'll ask for permission

00:40:43.320 later. But you know, there, there's, it's, it's a really complex, uh, problem that ultimately can be

00:40:49.660 summed up to, uh, corporations buying water rights to, uh, irrigate plantation fields and local

00:40:58.180 people suffering, uh, uh, from drought and lack of water as a result. That's the historical, that's the

00:41:05.300 historical context that we're operating under. This is, uh, this is just a mess. Um, and, um,

00:41:13.360 and I wish, I wish you and your family all the luck in the world and our love and prayers and our

00:41:20.080 hard-earned money, um, are going out to, um, everybody who's affected. I, I don't know how this ends up,

00:41:27.220 but, um, it's really bad so far. Good, good things. I'd love to keep in touch with you cup and keep in

00:41:34.040 touch with you and your listeners and, and just ask you to stand with us for the long haul, even

00:41:38.560 though there has been, and we will continue to learn about, uh, incompetency and failures and

00:41:44.500 perhaps negligence on the part of, of the government and, and, you know, who knows the electric company,

00:41:49.400 who knows who else is really, uh, culpable for things that should have been done, but didn't.

00:41:54.820 But ultimately I just, I just ask that your hearts and prayers stay with the people of Maui

00:41:59.080 who are, um, you know, who, who need our support in every way as this recovery and rebuild goes on.

00:42:06.980 I want you to know, at least with my audience, um, I'm pretty sure their hearts are with the people

00:42:13.220 of Maui. Um, it's, uh, they're, they're responding as usual. They're responding in a, in a big way.

00:42:20.960 And we've already sent a, uh, a gigantic plane load of, uh, supplies out. We're on the ground. I think

00:42:29.020 we were one of the first people on the ground and will be the last to leave. So Tulsi, thank you.

00:42:33.340 Thank you so much. Thank you, Glenn.

The Glenn Beck Program - August 18, 2023

Best of the Program ｜ Guests： Tulsi Gabbard & Jason Whitlock ｜ 8⧸18⧸23

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