Glenn Beck talks about how close things have been in the past, and how the world would have been radically different if the vote margin was just 3,000 votes in the other direction. Glenn also talks about the election of 1916, and what it could have been like if it was a close election.
00:04:58.360So, history has a strange habit of turning on random events and fine, fine margins.
00:05:07.320Let me tell you about the election of 1916.
00:05:10.160Now, the election of 1916, of course, is the election that put into office for a second term Woodrow Wilson.
00:05:19.420But it could have been President Charles Evans Hughes.
00:05:23.500What would have happened if Charles Evans Hughes was our president instead of Wilson?
00:05:32.340This was a razor-thin defeat, and it gave Wilson a second term, and with it, one of the darkest four-year periods in U.S. history, including our entry into World War I, which Wilson said,
00:05:44.920I'm going to keep us out of as soon as the election was over.
00:05:50.620Charles Evans Hughes, a former two-term governor of New York and a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
00:05:56.920He actually stepped down from the court in 1916 to run for president against Woodrow Wilson.
00:06:03.760Now, it is wild to imagine now, but in 1916, California was a shoe-in for all Republicans.
00:06:12.720California had a popular Republican governor, Hiram Johnson.
00:06:16.920He was running for the state's U.S. Senate seat that year.
00:06:20.160But Johnson was from the progressive wing of the GOP.
00:06:24.400Charles Evans Hughes was representing the conservative part of the Republican wing.
00:06:30.680Again, imagine having a non-progressive conservative in office in 1916.
00:06:38.740Well, Hughes chose not to endorse Johnson, nor Johnson's more conservative opponent in the Senate primary.
00:06:46.020In an effort not to alienate either faction of the California Republicans, he just left it unsaid.
00:06:54.620Well, in August 1916, both Hughes and Johnson were campaigning in Southern California, and Hughes checked in at the Virginia Hotel in Long Beach, where, unbeknownst to him, the governor was also staying, and neither of them reached out to each other.
00:07:13.500Johnson expected and wanted a courtesy call from Hughes, but Hughes didn't know that Johnson was at the hotel, so he didn't reach out.
00:07:21.580Since Johnson did know that Hughes had checked in, but didn't reach out, he assumed the silence was deliberate, so he took it as a personal snub and a slight to his state's GOP progressives.
00:07:34.760Only after Hughes had left Long Beach did he learn that Johnson had been in the same hotel and he was really upset over the perceived snub.
00:07:43.320So Hughes immediately tried to patch things up.
00:07:46.280He sent his campaign manager to meet with Johnson and extended an offer for Johnson to speak at a campaign event, but it wasn't enough.
00:07:54.600Johnson, who was known for his bad temper, refused to play nice in California, and Johnson telegrammed the Hughes campaign, saying,
00:08:03.280From then on, Johnson and his fellow progressive Republicans in California refused to help Hughes win the state of California.
00:08:23.240The LA Times strongly supported Hughes and were openly critical of Johnson.
00:08:28.740The LA Times didn't report on the dust-up between the Republican leaders, but plenty of other California papers did.
00:08:36.460The story hung around and ate away at Hughes' big lead among the California Republicans.
00:08:43.760By the end of Election Day, 1916, Charles Evan Hughes appeared to be ahead.
00:08:51.980The New York Times went to press declaring Hughes to be the new president.
00:08:55.700But California was still counting their votes.
00:09:00.820When the dust settled, Wilson won the Golden State by only 3,420 votes.
00:09:08.300California's 13 electoral votes were enough to hand Wilson a second term.
00:09:15.720Wilson took us into war with a margin of 3,420 votes.
00:09:23.580Because the Republicans decided to sit it out because they were angry.
00:09:31.560That second term went on to be the most dictatorial presidential term in all of U.S. history.
00:09:40.140Wilson used World War I to launch the most severe restriction on the First Amendment freedoms the nation has ever seen.
00:09:47.720Essentially, all types of protests were made punishable by law.
00:09:52.040People went to prison for protesting the war or the administration.
00:09:57.840People went to prison because they spoke German in public.
00:10:03.760A priest who spoke German was with a man who died of a heart attack in the middle of a crowd.
00:18:28.840So every single election of my lifetime as an adult, they have said the election was stolen.
00:18:34.340And every Republican in my lifetime, because in 67, 68, I was three, so every Republican in my lifetime has been called a fascist or a Nazi every single time.
00:18:55.480Gosh, and how can I have any currency anymore?
00:25:10.460So yesterday, Biden said that the supporters of Donald Trump were garbage, and that's because a comedian on stage who is known for his just destruction of everything he takes on said that there was a big, you know, floating, floating garbage just off the eastern seaboard.
00:26:34.260And one of the things that really obviously bothered me when, you know, I think what's wrong currently with its Democrat politics or the political class or the media classes, I think they've taken Latinos and minority voters for granted for a long time.
00:26:52.300And Latinos, like the millions of Americans that make up this country, care about the core principles that you and I care about.
00:28:33.220But I will tell you, I think we can live in a world where you can either be for or against a joke and still realize that at the end of the day, it's about the policies that will impact us on a daily basis.
00:29:38.980You know, with the power grid there, that's an issue.
00:29:40.660You can't account for the fact that the infrastructure is not where it's supposed to be.
00:29:45.640I mean, there are potholes where there shouldn't.
00:29:47.960And so, frankly, what, in my opinion, is garbage is it's the fact that you've got a government in Puerto Rico that should be attending to its people, great people.
00:29:57.340But you saw it with the hurricane that happened back in 2017.
00:30:04.300And so I think a lot of Puerto Ricans, to answer your question, Glenn, are awakening to that fact.
00:30:09.660And you see change actually happen within Puerto Rico, within their government.
00:30:13.300And that's what I'm attesting to is Latinos in the U.S. who are voting in these elections see those things, whether you're Puerto Rican or Mexican descent, whatever minority you are or wherever you come from, minorities see that.
00:30:54.020They're strong, strong families, good values.
00:30:58.580I mean, the Hispanics that I know make us stronger because they're living, quite honestly, the way a lot of us in America used to live or should be still living.
00:31:08.500And the they've always pandered to the left is always pandered to the Hispanics by by saying, you know, we need to bring more illegals in.
00:31:18.760That just doesn't that never seemed right to me because the people who that I know that are Hispanic that moved here, they spent like 10 years trying to get citizenship.
00:31:28.000They understand the value of that citizenship.
00:32:06.300But the good news is Latinos, Hispanics, minorities are awakening to it and have seen through it.
00:32:12.980And again, it's, you know, the numbers for Donald Trump as far as the Latinos, it's historic.
00:32:18.140When you look back at presidential cycles, probably the best comparison is maybe George Bush, but Donald Trump is actually pulling better than that.
00:32:26.480And so I think it's going to mean well for November 5th.
00:32:30.300So what does Donald Trump bring to the table that other Republicans haven't?
00:32:53.180Donald Trump, whether you like the man or not, said he was going to do certain things when he ran.
00:32:59.580And when he got into office, he did those things.
00:33:02.640And I think for President Donald Trump, that is what bodes well with Latinos and with minorities, is you're doing what you say you're going to do.
00:33:10.220For the millions of people that have come to this wonderful country legally, Donald Trump has been clear.
00:33:16.680We want to open up the doors for legal migration, but you have to have a country that abides by our laws.
00:33:23.400Otherwise, you have no country at all.
00:33:25.060And I think for the many migrants and legal immigrants that have come here, they see that and they say it is not fair for us to have gone through.
00:33:33.260I've got family members, whether from my Iranian culture or that have come here, but did it the right way.
00:33:47.660And you, being from Iranian descent, know that the Iranians that are coming across now, not the Iranians that you would like to have come across the border.
00:33:54.480Well, you've got to vet everybody, right?
00:34:03.920But I will tell you, I think for the many folks that are coming here and doing it the right way, you know, the biggest concern also, one of the concerns actually is for the folks that are here illegally, they're unaccounted for, undocumented.
00:34:15.520And frankly, if you really kind of break it down and look at its core, it's not right for them because they're essentially living in the shadows.
00:34:23.340And so if we can have a process where we can continue to promote all the great things the country is with illegal immigration, but at the same time address what's wrong with illegal immigration.
00:34:33.940And that's what Donald Trump has done.
00:34:35.720So do Hispanics generally, like Cubans, are very clear about communism.
00:34:44.000But Mexico, they just elected a communist and Central America has communism running through it.
00:34:52.340Do Hispanics, when they get here, the kind that do it the right way, do they recognize the roots of communism and like Cubans say, we've seen this movie before?
00:35:24.300And for all those reasons, it's why, again, many Hispanics, many minorities, I think in this cycle more than any, have paid attention to the policy, not to the rhetoric.
00:35:34.760We don't want to be taken for granted anymore, which I believe we have in many years past.
00:35:39.760And so we are awakening to it, and we're looking past some of this rhetoric, and a joke is not going to motivate us.
00:39:02.640And unfortunately, it's one of the least-known crimes.
00:39:06.080But if it hits you, you're really going to know it.
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00:39:38.800So many people have been victims of this, and they've tried to unwind it through the courts and the legal system and the local government, and it's tough to do.
00:39:46.080You don't want to be on the wrong side of something like this.
00:40:18.480I can't wait for you to hear this album.
00:40:26.180We went to Prague over the summer, early, last spring, early summer, and it was all orchestrated by the Prague Symphony Orchestra, and it is fantastic.
00:40:40.660It's all standards, so it's all songs traditional, and I think you're really, really going to like it.
01:28:21.760Now, you can also vote with your money.
01:28:23.200And the one way to vote that is advised, because this is a mobile phone company that does not spend the money that they make off of you and give it to people like Planned Parenthood and everything else, it's Patriot Mobile.
01:30:34.160Just a few seconds ago, I came into the studio, rocket sirens again in Israel, millions of Israelis running for bomb shelters.
01:30:42.220A few hours ago, morning time in Israel, millions of Israelis had to run for bomb shelters because they were firing rockets both from Lebanon and from Syria.
01:30:52.660So there's a lot of things that don't transpire.
01:30:58.880With a lot of faith and based on the understanding that, yes, it's tough, it's definitely inconvenient, but this is our ancestral homeland and we fight for it.
01:31:07.980And even if it isn't convenient, this is all we have.
01:31:10.820I talked to several rabbis over in Israel and they all say there is a, I don't know, an awakening going on with the Jewish people and their faith, that there is a great growth of faith in Israel right now.
01:31:26.600I would say that there are more patriots.
01:31:28.740I think that people who perhaps before had dreams of, you know, let's become like, I don't know, Denmark or Switzerland or some other very well-to-do convenient European country, which allegedly doesn't have security challenges and let's aspire for that.
01:31:46.380But then reality came knocking in the most brutal way on October 7 when Hamas invaded into Israel.
01:31:52.780And since then, we've been fighting for a year.
01:31:55.260I have friends who have been deployed three and four times in Lebanon and in Gaza with leaving their families back home, wife and children, their businesses, and just, you know, going to the front, fighting.
01:32:08.200And that takes a toll and it is difficult.
01:32:10.720But at the end of the day, people, you know, we get the reality check.
01:32:14.080And as we are a peace-loving people, we greet ourselves, we greet others by saying shalom.
01:32:22.440But many people have come to the understanding now that in order to achieve that, we have to be strong, protected, and we have to signal to our neighbors and enemies that you're not going to get anywhere by attacking us and by killing and raping and murdering.
01:32:40.500It'll only be suffering for you because we're here to stay.
01:32:43.420So there is definitely a lot of awakening in Israel.
01:32:45.800I have to tell you, I think you're the only country that is fighting the war or fighting a war the way I think it's supposed to be fought.
01:32:54.100You fight hard and you fight with peace always in one hand.
01:33:02.780But until the bad guys' backs are broken, we would never have stopped going after the Germans until they completely broke the back and surrendered with the Nazis.
01:33:16.920And with ISIS, you didn't wait for them to say, well, you know, a partial agreement.
01:33:21.340No, with people like this, with monsters like this, with Nazis, with ISIS, with Hamas, with Hezbollah, with the Iranians, there is one way, and it's victory.
01:33:30.540Now, it may sound simplistic, and for people who think of themselves as nuanced and very sophisticated, perhaps it's too simplistic.
01:33:38.160But this is the very real reality of war, sadly.
01:33:42.060I mean, look at what did we do in Afghanistan.
01:34:44.320It was a good plan, but unfortunately, we didn't succeed with it and didn't follow through because our biggest concern was that we didn't know where our hostages were being held.
01:34:55.000And we had intel that most of the hostages were being held by Hamas inside tunnels.
01:35:44.240The head of the CIA was at a meeting together with the head of the Mossad and Qatari interlocutors in Doha.
01:35:52.620No big headlines coming out of that, unfortunately.
01:35:55.180Doesn't seem as if Hamas wants to do a deal.
01:35:58.900And the conditions that they put up is as if they're winning the war and not losing it.
01:36:03.520So we're facing an election in six days here in America.
01:36:08.060Tell me the difference between a Harris administration and a Trump administration from the point of Israel.
01:36:17.860So I understand that these elections are crucial for America from a perspective of, I mean, for internal domestic issues in America.
01:36:27.600A lot of things that I know little about, but I watch from the side.
01:36:31.560What I, my perspective is the Middle Eastern one.
01:36:34.580And when I look at the American posture, what matters for me is what kind of policy will Washington be dictating?
01:36:43.300What kind of leadership will Washington have when it comes to the Middle East and specifically Iran?
01:36:49.020And what I'm constantly listening, trying to understand is what are the candidates saying about what are they going to do about Iran?
01:36:56.980What's the policy going to be about their nuclear weapons program, which as we speak is going on, they are weaponizing.
01:37:05.940They're not only enriching uranium, but they continue to weaponize and to actually make concrete steps in order to build a nuclear bomb that they say that they will use.
01:37:15.820They call Israel, my country, a one bomb state.
01:37:18.780And that is what they plan to do, to have a nuclear bomb, to threaten to use it and to use it.
01:37:24.060They say openly by 2040, and this is on an official, there's a countdown in a square in Tehran, the Iranian capital.
01:37:33.760The square is called Palestine Square.
01:37:35.560And they have a countdown there from 2040.
01:37:38.060And they say that until 2040, we plan to annihilate the state of Israel.
01:37:42.160And if they'll have a nuclear bomb in their hands, then, of course, they will use it for that purpose.
01:37:46.920This is so outrageous for people who have a Western outlook.
01:38:06.440They're more into governance, and they just want to get by, and they want to look tough and hard with their jihadi peers.
01:38:13.720But, yeah, you have to listen to your enemies.
01:38:16.140And the Iranians, the Iranian regime is a serious, very dedicated, disciplined, absolutely crazy regime.
01:38:23.540And their intention is to annihilate Israel.
01:38:25.540So, therefore, American policy, in my mind, should reflect America's commitment to prevent Iran from being nuclear and to stop Iran from being the belligerent and source of terrorism in the region.
01:38:39.460And I'll remind everybody, especially Democratic voters that may be listening, there's a thing called the Jerusalem Convention.
01:38:47.280President Biden, about two and a half years ago, he traveled to Israel before Bibi became prime minister the last time, and it was with Prime Minister Lapid.
01:38:57.060And President Biden signed a declaration where he says that the United States will use all of the capacities of its national power in order to prevent Iran from ever going nuclear.
01:40:52.580Abraham Accords brought that above board.
01:40:55.380And it's been a tremendous boost for the region.
01:40:58.000On October 7, Hamas, one of its goals, and this was at the direct directive of the Iranians, they wanted to derail the possible expansion of the Abraham Accords between Israel and Saudi.
01:41:50.520And that's exactly the spirit that we need in the Middle East.
01:41:52.980Not wars and Iranians and nuclear and terrorists and all of that stuff.
01:41:56.980But we need people to be able to work, to prosper, to practice their faith.
01:42:01.040All of it in respect to others, in respect to others' history, but also with respect to our right to live in our homeland.
01:42:07.380How will – I've only got about 90 seconds here.
01:42:10.360How will Iran react to a return of Donald Trump?
01:42:16.260I think that the coming three months, the last part of the presidential period, will be a very sensitive one.
01:42:26.120And I think that whatever happens, whoever is elected, it'll be perhaps a time where Iran will try to break out
01:42:33.380and to really go from being a potential nuclear state to actually having the weapons.
01:42:38.540And I think that if President Trump is elected, then they would perhaps want to establish that as a fact before he goes into office.
01:42:46.880But I think that the Iranians fear, the Iranian regime are in fear of President Trump based on what President Trump did in his first presidency,
01:42:56.940where he was the first one to take out the terrorist mastermind, General Qasem Soleimani.
01:43:02.660That was a brilliant move for which the people of the Middle East, everybody, should be thankful
01:43:08.680because that was exactly what was needed.
01:43:11.300More is needed against the evil Iranian regime.
01:43:14.120And especially what the U.S. and Israel should be doing is supporting the Iranian people.
01:43:19.380Supporting the Iranian people against the Iranian regime, that's the way forward.
01:43:23.940And that is what Israel will start focusing on.
01:43:26.420And that is what I hope that the United States of America will do.
01:43:29.220Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Connery, because he's a retired former Israeli Defense Forces and spokesperson
01:43:35.160and also with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, senior fellow there.
01:46:51.160It's not something when you see what they're war gaming and who's involved might give you a little idea of how things might go after the election.