Buzzfeed has a new story about Donald Trump and Russia, and it's absolutely out of this world. Glenn explains why this story is fake news, and why the media should not be allowed to run it. Glenn also explains why CNN broke the story.
00:02:51.480A dossier compiled by a person who has claimed to be a former British intelligence official alleges Russia has compromising information on Trump.
00:03:06.160The allegations are unverified, and the report contains errors.
00:03:38.900James Colmey, you think that it's okay to release that we're looking at a computer that you've never seen of Hillary Clinton's without any information.
00:03:50.880You think it's okay to release that when we know you have information about Russia and Donald Trump.
00:05:16.300Multiple U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the briefings tell CNN that classified documents on Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election,
00:05:24.420presented last week to President Obama and to President-elect Trump, included allegations that Russian operatives claimed to have compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump.
00:05:36.200The allegations were part of a two-page synopsis.
00:05:40.040These were based on memos compiled by a former British intelligence operative whose past work U.S. intelligence officials consider credible.
00:05:48.760The FBI is now investigating the credibility and accuracy of the allegations, which are based primarily on information from Russian sources.
00:05:57.040But the FBI has not confirmed many essential details in the memos about Mr. Trump.
00:06:03.200The classified briefings last week, I should note, were presented by four of the senior-most U.S. intelligence chiefs.
00:06:09.440That is, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, FBI Director James Comey, the CIA Director John Brennan, and NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers.
00:06:18.680Okay, so that's a totally different view than what BuzzFeed has there.
00:08:59.040Logic will tell us, the President most times, or the President gets the best intelligence available to him.
00:09:11.060What is given to the President is sometimes wrong.
00:09:19.020Therefore, we must not dismiss or accept, but instead investigate.
00:09:29.420So, this is up to us now because it's been dropped into the laps of the American people.
00:09:36.500So, let's logically, dispassionately look at what we have and not accept or dismiss anything.
00:09:50.860Anybody who says, I'm not listening, you're a fool.
00:09:55.000Anybody who says, I'm not listening, trying to you, trying to excuse it all, you're a fool.
00:09:59.920I'm not listening to you because you're talking about Donald Trump, you're a fool.
00:10:03.420Because, let's take it from the Trump side.
00:10:09.520This is Donald Trump's birther problem now.
00:10:14.220This will forever be the birth certificate of Barack Obama.
00:10:21.100From here on out, the left will use this information to try to discredit.
00:10:26.980And they will say in all kinds of fake news, well, yes, he's proved that's wrong, but I've got better sources.
00:10:37.900And let me show you, I'm going to be making a statement about some better sources that will show you he's lying.
00:10:44.920And it will be used against Donald Trump from here on out.
00:10:48.760So, you better build a strong case based on logic, not on fear, not on anger, not on blind loyalty.
00:10:58.380Because they, the other side, will build it that way.
00:11:02.900And we're talking about the President of the United States.
00:11:05.620Both sides owe it to themselves and to the country to dig into this and investigate it.
00:11:13.080We were never birthers, but I will tell you that there were many people around us that were passionate about Barack Obama's birth certificate at the very beginning.
00:13:01.560But there's no, it's almost important to look at it the way it's presented, which is, I think, fair, the journalistically correct way is the way that Tapper's team did it.
00:13:14.160And by the way, what we clipped from that was who was on Tapper's team.
00:13:38.120So, and you see there, I think what happened with the BuzzFeed part of this is they all, all these media organizations have had this information since what they believe since August.
00:13:50.880And my initial inclination on a story like this is they would never do, look at this, they're just trying to take down a Republican president.
00:14:05.640So, they could have done this before the election.
00:14:08.720The CNN report, I think, breaks a lot, but they're not the only people with this information.
00:14:14.200CNN reports it, and then BuzzFeed says, well, we have this, let's get our piece of this story out there and try to claim as much of the reporting as we can.
00:15:09.420I mean, it is the other parts of this that are equally disturbing.
00:15:18.040I will tell you that the personal parts are almost irrelevant to me, you know, because, you know, you've either made your mind up about who Donald Trump is as a man, one way or another.
00:18:03.240It's because Hillary Clinton was a bad candidate.
00:18:06.880People were tired of the progressive, jam-down-your-throat approach of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
00:18:14.440There were too many things, even for Clinton supporters, that made her, made her a flawed candidate.
00:18:24.260The vast, the vast number of people that went out and voted, not only voted for Donald Trump, but some voted against Hillary Clinton, and some voted for Trump, even though they had questions.
00:18:45.520But no one voted and rigged the election.
00:19:09.540So, A, Trump won legitimately, fairly, and on his approach.
00:19:14.940His case on this, however, is hurt by him because he said, when he thought he was losing, the election was going to be rigged.
00:19:24.820But, it was and is fair and legitimate.
00:19:32.060It was not in question, nor is it in question, that Trump is the legitimate president, no matter what we find in these documents from Russia.
00:20:34.780So, the way to think about this, because the whole debate today is going to be, did Donald Trump have really weird sex with a bunch of prostitutes in Moscow?
00:20:46.920And Donald Trump will say, no, it's not true.
00:20:48.900And people who don't like Donald Trump will say it is true, or we really need to consider it seriously.
00:20:53.120I think the right way to think about this story is, even the intelligence sources weren't saying they thought it was true.
00:21:02.160It's an important thing to understand.
00:21:03.520They're not saying they investigated this, and what they found is Donald Trump was hooking up with prostitutes in Moscow.
00:21:09.420What they are saying is, Russia was trying to influence our election, and these are the sorts of things they were floating around to try to do that.
00:21:20.740That's why that information was important to the president and the president-elect.
00:21:26.940That it was, this is the sorts of, these are the sorts of things they were doing to try to influence and threaten operatives for Trump and others.
00:21:37.280Okay, so we're going to give you the report, but I want you to know that all of this, it's possible that all of this is true.
00:21:43.920It's possible that all of this is false.
00:21:46.300It's possible that, and most likely, that some of this is true, and big portions of this are false.
00:21:54.460We have to decide if it matters, why it matters, but we have to also ask ourselves the question, who benefits from this information getting out?
00:22:06.100We have a former military intelligence guy who's on our staff who came up to me in the break, and he said, I mean, this is Russia's fingerprints all over it.
00:22:18.060I can't believe that this actual dump of this information has Russia's fingerprints all over it.
00:22:26.340Okay, so there's multiple levels to look at, and this is a three-dimensional chess game, so let's get into it.
00:22:35.580U.S. presidential election, Republican candidate Donald Trump's activities in Russia and compromising relationship with the Kremlin.
00:22:42.240Summary, Russia regime has been cultivating, supporting, and assisting Donald Trump for at least five years.
00:22:50.160Aim, endorsed by Putin, has been to encourage splits and divisions in the Western alliance.
00:23:06.460It has nothing to say about Donald Trump.
00:23:08.680I believe that the Russian government has been doing that with any large businessman in America that has done business or wants to do business in the former Soviet Union.
00:23:43.780Putin himself, his advisors, and he himself have been on record talking about things like that, splitting up NATO and splitting the United States of America.
00:23:55.220So, nothing really new there at all, I think.
00:23:58.420So far, Trump has declined various sweetener real estate business deals offered him in Russia in order to further the Kremlin's cultivation of him.
00:24:11.820However, he and his inner circle have accepted a regular flow of intelligence from the Kremlin, including on his Democratic and other political rivals.
00:24:49.600Some, then this is the way intelligence works.
00:24:54.200Putin doesn't get on the phone with, or a spy doesn't get on the phone with Donald Trump.
00:25:01.000They use a third party, and that third party may even be somebody who is not knowing that the person that is giving them the information is FSB.
00:25:13.060So, the Kremlin says, we've got to get this to Donald Trump.
00:27:28.160Former top Russian intelligence officer claims FSB has compromised Trump through his activities in Moscow sufficiently to be able to blackmail him.
00:27:36.780According to several knowledgeable sources, his conduct in Moscow has included perverted sex acts, which have been arranged and monitored by the FSB.
00:27:46.580Last one, a dossier of compromising material on Hillary Clinton has been collated by the Russian intelligence services over many years and mainly comprises bugged conversations she had on various visits to Russia and intercepted phone calls rather than any embarrassing conduct.
00:28:02.940The dossier is controlled by the Kremlin spokesperson, the person directly on Putin's orders.
00:28:09.280However, it has not yet been distributed abroad, including to Trump.
00:28:13.060Russian intentions for its deployment still unclear.
00:28:16.340Okay, so they're not going to do anything on Hillary Clinton unless Hillary Clinton is a problem to them.
00:28:22.440If she was president, she would have been compromised.
00:55:17.760you're listening to the Glenn Beck program you
00:55:30.960know we'll have some idea if the government
00:55:34.140takes this report at all credible on Donald
00:55:37.340Trump because in that report it says that
00:55:39.000that Russia has made several deals on energy
00:55:43.100with Trump or the Trump surrogates I mean
00:55:48.260again where are we getting this how is it
00:55:51.640happening there's no reason to accept this
00:55:54.880information and there's no reason to dismiss
00:55:57.160this information it's just out now and it is
00:56:00.240what it is we have to use some logic but we'll see if
00:56:03.860anybody takes this seriously seeing that Tillerson
00:56:07.760is having his confirmation hearing today
00:56:11.920president of Exxon let's see if a senator brings
00:56:14.760that up if they don't that speaks volumes about
00:56:18.260the credibility of this Yarnbrook is here from
00:56:21.420the Ayn Rand Institute how are you sir I'm good
00:56:23.940good how about you crazy times yeah I know we had
00:56:26.400some plans to talk about some other things
00:56:28.300today that are important but first I want to
00:56:31.080get your thoughts on on this what this is you're
00:56:36.180a very logical reasoned man yeah we are living in
00:56:40.920a time beyond reason and logic it is because
00:56:44.180reason and logic require facts they require
00:56:47.900evidence they require the ability to to look at
00:56:51.220the world and know what's true and what's not or at
00:56:53.240least have an indication of what's true and
00:56:54.740what's not we're living in an era of fake news
00:56:57.680you don't know where this is coming from why
00:57:01.540this is being reported who's reporting it it's
00:57:04.120very hard to get your head around it and use
00:57:06.320reason can I ask you a question I have I have a
00:57:08.740two-volume set I think it's actually in my
00:57:10.520office I have a two-volume set from 1926 it's a
00:57:13.900reprint from the New York Historical Society and
00:57:17.060it's from the committee on the the committee
00:57:21.740looking into the conspiracies of the Revolutionary
00:57:24.540War it was con it was conveyed or convened right
00:57:28.140after the Revolutionary War they wanted to find
00:57:30.340out where all these rumors came from where all
00:57:32.640this fake news came from and it's I mean it's you
00:57:37.080know probably 500 pages sure sure so fake news is
00:57:40.400not new yes it's always been this way yeah but it's
00:57:43.700different it's never had the credibility it has
00:57:46.200today I mean people are taking it seriously yes in a
00:57:48.540way they never did before and generally we don't
00:57:52.400discuss issues in a reasonable logical way this
00:57:56.660election more than any other election I think was
00:57:59.400based so much on pure emotion yes and and what we're
00:58:03.440what we're seeing today is the media we're seeing our
00:58:05.740political leaders we're seeing our intellectuals so
00:58:08.940universities promote emotion as the means towards
00:58:13.360knowledge rather than thinking and reasoning and
00:58:15.580using logic we don't teach our kids logic so how would
00:58:17.960you how would you logically look at this story and say this
00:58:22.060is how we begin to untangle this story well I mean you
00:58:25.500really have to look at what are the real sources without
00:58:28.900sources it's really hard to untangle anything and but you
00:58:32.600also have to look at okay what are the incentives what are
00:58:36.120what's going on here and look the Russians are bad guys the
00:58:40.340Russians are bad guys Putin is not a good guy so and and I
00:58:45.120think there's there's some evidence to suggest there's a
00:58:47.880relationship there between Putin and and and Trump something
00:58:51.120is going on there Trump is so adamantly defending Putin was
00:58:55.760throughout the campaign is now there's some relationship
00:58:59.860between between Trump and Russia we don't know what it is you
00:59:04.380know there's no reason to believe these particular
00:59:06.500allegations but one has to be skeptical about what is going
00:59:10.420on given how adamant Trump is in in defending anything Russian
00:59:15.560could it be could it be let's talk about Tillerson yeah
00:59:19.160Tillerson is a deal maker okay what is our foreign policy I
00:59:25.300don't know we put a deal maker in and he's best at making
00:59:28.900deals where well Russia in the Middle East and and I think I
00:59:33.440think much of our foreign policy we are not going to be tough I
00:59:37.180can with Tillerson there we're not going to be tough on Russia we're
00:59:40.320unlikely to be tough on Saudi Arabia in in in the Gulf
00:59:43.180States and you like Tillerson I like Tillerson Tillerson's an
00:59:46.060Atlas Shrug fan he's a he's a he's a nice guy he's obviously
00:59:48.960incredibly competent CEO he did a good job I like CEOs I like
00:59:52.700businessmen I think they're great right but is he a foreign policy
00:59:56.700expert it does he bring a principled view of foreign policy I
01:00:02.280mean maybe I just don't know I haven't heard anything to
01:00:05.040suggest he does Donald Trump is a pragmatist as far as I can tell
01:00:09.480there's no principle driving a Trump administration and the people he
01:00:14.340surrounded himself with are mostly pragmatists on a case-by-case basis
01:00:19.560they might make the right choice they might make the wrong choice but
01:00:22.220there's no principle what is America's and and granted there hasn't
01:00:27.440been a principled foreign policy in the United States for a very very long
01:00:31.140time but but this is taking pragmatism to the next level because it's you know
01:00:37.220usually people apologize for not having principles these guys embrace the fact
01:00:41.680well they don't it's not that it's it's like to me we've always said or people
01:00:46.220have always said we just so I wish somebody would run this country as a
01:00:49.360business you're now going to see it run like a business and that's we don't have
01:00:54.860the CEO of the United States of America that's not the way this job works it
01:00:59.300shouldn't we're gonna see how it works as CEO of America I I've come to call
01:01:03.840Donald Trump the central planner in chief yeah because that's how he's acting he's
01:01:09.220acting as a central planner I'm gonna fly to Indiana talk to carrier I'm gonna go
01:01:14.480and talk to the CEO Ford I'm gonna I'm gonna be the CEO of CEOs I'm gonna tell
01:01:19.300the business world I'm gonna tell markets how they should run how they should
01:01:23.320function as if I'm the CEO of the marketplace but that's that's central
01:01:27.680planning and we know we know if anything the 20th century has taught us
01:01:32.060central planning does it does not work and it used to be what Democrats were
01:01:38.240proud of their central planners and Republicans pretended at least not to be
01:01:41.960central planners they were for free markets well only now that distinction
01:01:44.980has gone they pretended I know only after only after Hoover because Hoover was
01:01:49.420the last guy we had that was very much Donald Trump he was a central planner he was a
01:01:53.740builder well yes I mean Hoover was the last businessman to be president he gave
01:01:58.120a smooth holly yep which was the tariffs that drove us into Great Depression yep he
01:02:02.680increased taxes he didn't decrease taxes he was a terrible terrible president you
01:02:07.420know this this trend you know to a large extent accelerated under Hoover but it
01:02:12.340really goes back to Wilson yes it is the first president you don't have to be a
01:02:16.180central planner to bring it yeah to bring it into the United States you're plowing
01:02:20.560an old field let's plow a new one here the the GOP and what they're going to do
01:02:26.800with Obamacare we have had we have had years for this moment it's unbelievable to me six
01:02:33.960years right since Obamacare was passed they'd be talking about repeal replace
01:02:37.720repeal replace with okay so where's your plan right you've had six years to put
01:02:42.360together a plan the plan is not that hard we've seen outlines of this plan in the
01:02:47.680Wall Street Journal everywhere there is a plan out there find it put it together
01:02:52.020it might be flawed it might not be the perfect plan but don't come out as
01:02:55.620babbling idiots and and and and we've got a plan maybe we'll see you know it
01:03:00.960might take six months it may take three years who knows I mean this is really
01:03:05.160Republicans living up to the stupid party label what they're doing with Obamacare
01:03:09.360right now now on top of that there are suggestions that they want to keep real
01:03:14.820important parts of Obamacare yeah pre-existing conditions if you load
01:03:19.320pre-existing conditions onto insurance companies they're not insurance
01:03:22.680companies anymore right they're just Social Security type companies yes and
01:03:26.460they're subsidiaries of the government and the Democrats love this Obamacare was
01:03:30.240always planned to fail the whole purpose of Obamacare was to fail but to fail as a as
01:03:37.020as a as we tried markets we tried right places we let you have your private
01:03:41.620insurance that doesn't work so we have to have single-payer universal health care
01:03:45.840run by the government if Republicans play into that by keeping pre-existing
01:03:49.900conditions or by doing other things that are get basically destroy insurance
01:03:53.760markets they're just playing into the hands of the what you're saying right now is
01:03:58.780one of my biggest fears is that people look at whatever is going to come out of the GOP now
01:04:05.900as a conservative small government constitutional answer and I'm not seeing those yet I hope to
01:04:14.940but I'm not seeing them especially when it comes to Obamacare when they fail or God forbid make things
01:04:21.740worse look this is then then everybody will say it's time to go all the way let's go Marxist I mean this is the lesson
01:04:30.140everybody learned from from the George Bush years right yes if this is what
01:04:34.820small government conservatives are then we don't want anything to do with that and
01:04:38.300we got Obama and we got everything that Obama represents if this is what
01:04:41.800defending America means going to Iraq and screwing it up then we're gonna we're
01:04:46.780gonna we're gonna get a an Obama to to clean up the mess so yes the backlash
01:04:52.660against Republicans when they do really really stupid things is is what this is
01:04:56.980part of what destroys this country and there's nothing to suggest that this
01:05:01.540administration is going to be significantly different now we've seen have you seen
01:05:05.020anything that that surprises you that say wow like this is good you know some of
01:05:11.200his a point some of their appointments were yeah are not bad right I mean labor
01:05:14.320secretary I forget the guy's name but but seems like a good guy he gets gets
01:05:18.280minimum wage he gets he gets some of these issues on the right way you know
01:05:22.940prices a secretary of human health and human services I thought was a good choice
01:05:28.780price actually has a plan to replace Obamacare you know with free market
01:05:33.080reforms why not just embrace that right right he's the is a secretary of health and
01:05:38.200human services but for some reason the House and the Senate and this is
01:05:41.980partially because Republicans are such cowards they can't actually embrace a
01:05:46.660free market solution to anything the one thing we will get and we can guarantee
01:05:50.600this right is a tax cut Republicans are good at cutting taxes right they don't cut
01:05:56.080spending so the consequences the next president has to raise taxes in order to
01:06:00.520close the the deficit gap or pretend to close the deficit gap but we'll get tax cuts
01:06:05.220and that's a good thing right I'm not gonna demean tax cuts but if you don't cut
01:06:08.940spending yeah it doesn't matter okay so so one last thing here
01:06:13.140yarn broke from the Ayn Rand Institute and and one of the best critical thinkers
01:06:18.540in America when we're looking at all of the things that were were about to see what
01:06:30.100what is the what is the flag that you would raise up and say we have to do this one thing is it is
01:06:42.100it a policy is it we have to get a handle on on our our uniting with each other on fake news on what
01:06:51.580see I I don't buy into this uniting stuff I mean we're not gonna be united we're split in this country
01:06:57.680we're split 50 50 we don't agree and and I I don't have a problem with the fact that we don't agree
01:07:02.860there there are clearly different points of view out there I think some of us are right and and most
01:07:08.280people are wrong but but that's the reality there's there's disagreement and and I I for example have
01:07:13.900always loved gridlock in Washington I like disagreement in Washington because then they don't miss miss when I say when I say uniting I mean not
01:07:21.180not tearing each other not dehumanizing one another I mean that would be nice able to live next to each other and say why I really
01:07:28.300disagree with him but it's gonna be difficult I mean I think what we need to rediscover to unite us and to do a lot of other
01:07:35.000things is what is America I I think we've lost that I think in that sense Obama's one we have become another European country in in
01:07:43.340many respects the American spirit what made us uniquely American what what what what are the foundation ideas the
01:07:50.440foundational concepts of what America stands for the founding the true founding principles of this country
01:07:57.560that that is not in the debate nobody talks about it and this presidential you know run was was more than
01:08:06.600ever Donald Trump never mentions the founders he never really talks about the Constitution it's not
01:08:10.960important to him right those are principles God forbid we should have principles we need to rediscover what
01:08:15.980we are what what is American exceptionalism people throw that out all the time and they claim oh we're
01:08:22.540pro-american we love America but Donald Trump has raised that question up what does it mean to be pro-america
01:08:27.920what does America first actually mean unless you understand what America is America is not a
01:08:32.980geographical place idea it's an idea and the question is what is that idea and I think very few
01:08:40.060Americans today know what that idea is I think that's reflected in our politics that's reflected in our dialogue
01:08:46.380very few people know what the principles that this country was founded on are and what made us the greatest nation in
01:08:54.120human history let's have you back and and let's do a let's do an hour of just that yeah what is America what is
01:08:59.400America will you do that would be fabulous great love that Aaron thank you very much and you're on the book is equal is
01:09:04.060uh is on is unfair right equals I'm sorry I did not I am sorry I was not even told you had a book
01:09:09.880well you I I handed you a book not that long ago with the nice autograph okay but but the book is
01:09:15.820called equal is unfair it's it's available everywhere and uh uh it takes on one of these big issues is
01:09:22.140what does it mean when the founders say uh all men are created equal does it mean what the left suggests
01:09:29.140equality of outcome or even equality of opportunity and I argue no it just means
01:09:33.520equality of freedom equality of liberty equality of rights equality before the law the law properly
01:09:39.900understood uh and the whole idea of equality is a false god it's a false god
01:09:45.400we have one the Glenn Beck program mercury
01:09:51.600triple eight seven two seven back this is the Glenn Beck program holy cow stew has a uh stew has his own
01:10:05.920chalkboard uh on this uh Donald Trump briefing we'll get to here in a little while also his response he's
01:10:12.560supposed to go live here right after uh the top of the hour uh stations we will be taking that uh as
01:10:18.320well if it does happen um and we have good news to share we do sometime during the course of the day
01:10:24.380yeah we got good news to share yeah let's do I mean do we have time how much time do we have
01:10:28.580um 30 seconds no that's not enough there's some good news that we have to be happy for more than
01:10:34.58030 seconds is there a song that's coming on there might be there might be a song all the way a song
01:10:39.020happy happy news uh coming up and assuming this thing starts on time we're going to have this press
01:10:44.000conference here in a little bit obviously the story we've been talking about all day uh will be
01:10:48.520discussed at the same point the Rex Tillerson secretary of state hearings are going on Tillerson just said
01:10:54.580that Russia today is a danger um so he seems to disagree with Donald Trump it's a very strange
01:11:02.580this is a strange rollout as you'd expect uh but we'll see more here in just a few minutes