The Glenn Beck Program - Best of the Program | 9/12/18

Episode Date: September 12, 2018

Ep #179- The Daily Best of GB Podcast: 9/12/18  - Spartacus for President? - Are You a Rageaholic? - 'I Am Neil Armstrong' (w/ Brad Meltzer)  - Bye-bye Pope Francis? (w/ Matt Walsh)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Blaze Radio Network On Demand Hey it's Stu, welcome to the podcast. Glenn Beck also joining me here. Can we get a president, Spartacus, is where we start the show today. I hope we... I need one. I need a president's

It's very, very important. We go through Cory Booker's potential run for president. He's going to Iowa. No way. He's just going to help. I'd say he has no chance, but I've learned not to say that. That's something.

Over a million order to evacuate, as North Carolina looks like it's getting really hard. The models have worsened significantly in the last 24 hours. We'll see how that goes. Also, this is September 12th. This is the day we all came together. And I ask you to come together and help us. We already have over 200 semi-trucks on the road headed towards the Carolinas, loaded with food and water and supplies, shovels and chainsaws. We have Operation Barbecue there.

We can feed 30,000 people a day. We have a team from Rubicon that is already on the ground. Those guys are amazing in helping people in bad situations. But we need your help at Mercury 1.org. We talked to Brad Meltzer today about his new book and also his experience with his son's homework, which is incredible. Really great.

And also a professor who is a conservative as he says it, the only conservative professor he's ever known himself. English, English-lit professor. Yep. Talks about how his students can get offended by words. And what he's done to try to solve that at the beginning, a preemptive blast against political correctness. It's actually a very sad but compelling story at the same time.

And I felt positive afterwards. Yeah. Oh, good. Yeah, and you'll hear it from a guy who's inside and who's dealing with us every day. on today's podcast. You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck program. It's Wednesday, September 12th.

Well, guess who's coming to Iowa? Everybody's favorite Spartacus, Senator Cory Booker. That's right. He's coming to Iowa. The senator from New Jersey is moving on from his I am Spartacus moment

during the Kavanaugh hearing just last week. A moment, by the way, that was more heroic than anything I think most Americans have ever seen, according to Cory Booker. Now he's preparing to dazzle Iowa Democrats as the featured speaker at their fall gala in October. Uh, is it too early for me to start printing Spartacus for President bumper stickers? I don't think so. It's never too early because potential Democratic candidates are already jockeying

for position. Seven other Democrats, plus Bernie Sanders, have made appearances in Iowa just recently, each one nurturing their own Oval Office dream. Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Troy Price says, we welcome anybody who wants to help us get Democrats elected in 2018, and we're sure happy to have Senator Cory Booker's help. This dinner is only about the great opportunities ahead of us in this election this fall. I'm sure. It is. Now, there's two schools of thought here when you show up in Iowa. You know, it's kind of like, you know, asking the most popular girl in school to the prom.

You can either come out right out and ask her early and often. Hey, whoa, what do you think about me and me going to the prom? You know, that's what, you know, Bernie Sanders did. The other one is to go, so, how you doing? Fine. Yeah. I just wanted to say hi. Hey, I know we just saw each other yesterday, but I'm back. I just, could I carry your books or something like that that would maybe make you notice me? Because then I will ask around, my friends will ask around to see if you like me after you notice me. That is what Cory Booker and so many people do in Iowa. They're just hanging out trying to see.

want to ask. I don't know, no, no, I don't want to be president. I just, hey, Iowa, I'm just here. Could I carry your books home from school? Uh-huh. Booker has placed four staffers in Iowa to work on the campaigns of state Democratic candidates. That's usually an indicator that you want to do something with the White House. But we're talking Spartacus. Over the next couple of weeks, if Booker is this photograph wearing a hard hat, kissing a baby, eating pancakes in a small town diner, or doing all three of those things at once? Well, you'll know Spartacus 2020 is a done deal. But why spend time talking about that? When there's something more important that actually matters. and even Spartacus

cannot help us I want to begin the show there let me take a quick just 20 seconds break and then I want to come back with some audio and another piece of a story that you have not heard

so we got Spartacus and that's the news that everybody wants to know who's running for president 2020 is that really effective you at all? Is that is important to you now to strategize 2020? Or is it better to look at what the hell is happening to us right now? Because you can have all the slick ad campaigns you want. But who are the Democrats really appealing to? Let me play something that came out yesterday. Carol Cook, she's a, she's an old jamie, a Broadway actress. I remember in

1956 when she was, hello, dolly. Uh, and, uh, she was, she was coming out of, of, of some restaurant or a show or something, uh, with her husband, who was a spry 90 himself. And, uh, she was asked, hey, what do you think about those people that brought the Trump 2020 banner? to the Frozen show. Now, why would you do that? Why would you do that? What is the point? So they brought this big banner.

They unfurled it right in the front row. One of the actors broke character and took the thing away and put it backstage. Appropriate. Well, they had to ask. TMZ had to ask. legend Carol Cook about what she thought. And here's what she said. Is that a proper venue for, you know, a trumper to bring a...

Well, my answer to that is. Oh, this is good. Where was... Okay, stop. Stop it right there. Stop it right there. Her husband says, oh, this is good. Where would you say?

Her husband, they've already said this. Multiple times. apparently because it always gets a big laugh it gets a huge laugh it gets a usual so he interrupts and he's going to say but no no no no you say it you're going to be so funny when you say it here's what she says

where is John Wilkes's booth when you need him That's what you say. And you're going to ask me who the hell, John Wilkes. No, I know who John Wilkes Smith is. Thank you, darling. He killed president. Where is he when you need him? He has to know.

So we need to kill President now? Why not? Stop. Stop for a second. So she's like, You don't ask me about John Witton. I dated him back in the 40s, the 1840s. So she's, she is immediately,

the thing that she has said it so many times, apparently somebody said to her, who's John Wilkes Booth? You're not going to ask me? Oh, thank you, darling. I'm so sick of the stupid people who don't remember, I don't know,

the history of John Wilkes Booth. I live on the Upper West Side, and there are so many Cretans that just don't know their history. So she is taking this to thank you for at least knowing your history. Instead of, oh, am I going to be in real trouble? Then the press says, so you think we should kill Donald Trump? And you have to see the video. She stands there slyly.

Her husband tries to laugh it off. You know, I didn't know. Oh, no. This joke means something entirely different. I'm sorry. What were we talking about? We're both senile. She says, yeah.

Why not? Well, I don't know, other than it being an assassination of a president. You know, it's usually a bad thing. Other than, you know, even making that joke is really dangerous. Even though if I would have said anything like that about President Obama, You would have led a team of senior citizens to try to beat me with their Broadway canes. I don't know, maybe that's why not. So that's the outrage today.

But I'm not really outraged by it. Because I know who she is. And she doesn't affect my life at all. None of those Broadway people do. I don't really care. It should concern the Secret Service. not that she said it, not like she's going to be John Wilkes, but that she has said this so much and people have laughed about it so much. I mean, is the press concerned? Because words do have

consequences. You never know, even in a joke, I learned this from them. Between 2008 and 2016, they taught me very, very well, that words have consequences and even when you're joking, you don't know who might be hearing that and what it might cause them to do, they might think you're serious. Well, yes, they might think you're serious. Of course, when she said it and she said, seriously, well, why not? I kind of took her seriously, you know? I think she meant that. But let's go for today's outrage.

That was yesterday's outrage. And if anybody, do we have the jingle? if anybody is addicted to outrage, today's your lucky day. Addicted to outrage. Yes. Here's today's outrage. On Facebook,

no, it's got the blue check mark, so this is Twitter. On Twitter, a woman, just I don't even want, just give her first name, Cassandra, wrote, who's going to the MAGA meetup tonight? So there's a meetup, you know, where she's at,

Who's going? Okay. Dreamstar Justice. He or she wrote in, I'm coming, but I'm coming with a gun, and I expect to get numerous blood-stained MAGA hats as trophies.

Oh. Okay. All right. Okay, well, that's okay. We can say things like that on Twitter. That's okay. we can we can we can we can we can say that and the press won't even notice it now here's the thing why has why did why did this fail in 1968 why did this fail for a couple of reasons the the

communist revolution and democrats if you are not awake yet to see that you are in with people who want to shut down capitalism, they want to destroy the Constitution, all you have to do is listen to them. Not all Democrats are saying that, but the social Democrats are, and that's who's running your party right now. You are a, you're a host for a virus

that is trying to destroy the Western way of life. Now, you can either start taking medicine, and I'm not suggesting that you take my medicine and you turn into a Republican. I'm not suggesting that. I'm saying you take some medicine and turn into a decent American. You separate yourself from people like this. You separate yourself from people who say, you know what, capitalism doesn't work. If you don't think capitalism works, that's fine. Then state that loudly and clearly.

but if you do you need to state that just as loudly and clearly in your own circles and outside of your own circles there are people on the far left that are now leaving the far left because they realize how dangerous these people are becoming not me saying this people in the far left they're saying it they are separating themselves because they realize these guys will kill people you give them power and they will kill people who disagree with them because they're already trying to silence them on the fringes but they've already also started to take off the masks and say yeah we don't believe in capitalism we don't believe in the constitution we believe this is a failure we've got to try something new great but is that

that you as a Democrat? Is that who you want in your party? Because anybody who is saying that on my side, I reject. Anybody who says, yeah, and I'm going to the pussy ad party and I'm going to I'm going to collect a lot of bloodstained pink hats. I reject. I call out. And if I think they're serious, I report them. If that was on Twitter, I would say, and it was a, you know, somebody on the right, I would notify Twitter. Oh, that hurts your side. No, it doesn't.

It helps my side. Because the reason why things failed in the 1960s is the violence. Americans, I don't care who you are, but the majority of Americans, and it might be 52%, but the majority of Americans, Americans do not want to overturn the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, even if they don't even know really what it means. But they certainly do not want to be a part of violence in the streets.

They do not want to be a part of killing people. They don't want to be a part of assassinations. Here we are with the same atmosphere of 1968. We have been so blessed not to have assassinations. and you have Broadway stars joking about it anybody who's serious

is not joking about that anybody who really knows what time we're living in we're not joking about that we want no part of that and that includes many I believe Democrats I could be wrong but I don't think so

I think there is a different kind of Tea Party coming for the Democrats. I think they are exposing themselves now for who they really are, anti-capitalist communists, people who will come and eat their own because they're already doing it. And the intellectual leaders of the left are beginning to leave and say,

I want no part of this. I am more afraid of the left than I am of the right, and I'm really pretty afraid of the right. The wise people have already caught on, and they're getting out. I don't think it will take much longer for the Democrats. The people that are your neighbors in the center of the country, I don't think it's going to take much more for them to say,

I can't be a part of this at all. But they have to know that they're not just going to be an orphan. We don't have to agree with each other. But as long as we agree on decency, the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, we can be friends forever. The Best of the Glenn Beck Program. So, you know, I worked really a long time on this book. And it's a book that I feel passionately about.

and in the same way that I did about common sense, when I wrote that, I felt that I was alone. And I considered just releasing it on the internet as anonymous. And then Simon & Schuster reminded me about contracts and the written word, so I couldn't do that. But I felt as strongly about that. In fact, I went to Simon & Schuster and I said, please don't publish this in Hardbound.

Please, I want to make this as cheap as possible. I want this to be $8 so people could buy two of them as opposed to one and give it to a friend. So I have been giving it to some friends. And I just got an email back from a guy who shall remain nameless because he lives in a dicey. part of the country where he cannot say who he is, but he is, you know who I'm talking about, Stu, he's a brilliant

guy, brilliant guy, and doesn't always agree with me. He said, Glenn, I want you to know, I finish the book today. Then I deleted my Twitter account, not that I used it that much, and Facebook.

Let me lead with my conclusion and then walk through my notes, because I asked him, I said, tell me what you like, what you didn't understand, yada, yada, yada. He said, in the beginning of the book, which is so interesting because I knew it, because I hadn't heard from him for a while. And I knew, uh-oh, he's having a problem with this. Let me leave with my conclusion, then walk through my nose.

In the beginning of the book, I felt like I was just reading three different books in one. But about two-thirds of the way through, I realized, one, you can't ask or expect someone to read three books and two, all of the information had to be in a single book and it was actually exactly the right way to do it. For a lot of the book, I felt like I know what you're saying, but I mean, you're not talking to me because I don't have an outrage addiction problem. But at some point, I got the sense of what it must feel like to realize you're in denial and actually have a problem. By the last few chapters, I had a sense that this was exactly the book I needed to read right now.

It's been a rough few months, and he goes into some personal problems. One of them was, one of my friends, a buddy of mine, I just found out, is now a transhumanist who thinks humans need to be extinct, and animals are more important than people, and religion is just a cover for racist and rapists. I also feel like I'm golden handcuffed in a job, and I want to wake up and leave, but I I can't and I have to hide who I really am. I don't drink, but I have to admit, I do like some outrage when I come home after a hard day. Hi, my name is blank, and I'm a rageaholic.

By the end of the book, I realized this might be the book you were born to write, even if it's before its time. I hope people read this cover to cover and don't set it down halfway through and not pick it back up. the ending is the most important part. But here's the thread you were running throughout that stood out to me, that I just need to sort out. I've been able to see the clouds in the horizon as long as I can remember, and I know whatever is coming is building up to something that's going to be a very rough go. I worry there's a big step missing that would be required to make people understand this book, something similar to rock bottom, in AA. I have assumed that it will be civil war or a world war or both. Can we as humans skip over that rock bottom and go right to the healing? That's the part I have to pray on and I still doubt

I'll have the answer. I think for your audience the answer is yes, but who else? I don't know if you can be a better person without rock bottom. But we all have different rock bottoms. I have friends who are not going to shed their outrage because it feels good. And they like it. And they feel that for the first time they're winning. And I can't argue with that. You are pushing back.

You are opening people's eyes to, you are saying the thing. that you weren't allowed to say to the mainstream media and you've got them on the ropes. I agree with you. However, that is a short-term high. And it does feel good. And I understand as an alcoholic that sometimes you're in so much pain that you will pick up the bottle and you will drink And at the beginning, it just feels good. And you say to yourself, I need this. I need this to blow off steam. I need this to be able to cope with the day.

It's been a horrible, horrible day. And I need it. And this just makes me feel better. I even got to a point to where I was saying to myself, I was a better dad as an alcoholic. I have to drink because it slows me down enough to be able to play with the kids and be with the kids. So I'm a better dad.

no I really wasn't and for a short period of time maybe it did slow me down enough because I'm riddled with ADD maybe it did slow me down enough to be able to play with the kids but in the long run

it made me a horrible dad because all the alcohol did was let me avoid what the real problem was and the real problem is not Donald Trump that is not the problem if Donald Trump was sucked into space suddenly

because some Broadway actresses had a portal and they could open up the envelope of space and just suck him out. That wouldn't happen because of Space Force, but go ahead. Okay, that's probably why he wants Space Force. But our problems, our problems wouldn't change. They would just move to Mike Pence.

So it's not Donald Trump. and it's not that they are the Democratic Party. It's not the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party is being consumed because they are playing host to a very dangerous virus, and that virus is post-modernism. And once you understand that, you will understand that it relies, on chaos. Do you remember when I said years ago, chaos is going to be the operative word. And I remember, I remember because I saw the word chaos with the 12tham. And the, the ideology of

those who are, you know, behind the government in Iran is the ideology of the 12th, the mom, that he will return and he will wash the world in blood. No, I'm sorry, that the world will be washed in blood by his supporters. And when they create enough chaos, that's when the 12th, the mom will return. Well, that's another way of saying Armageddon. But they specifically use the word chaos. And then I noticed Russia, the chief advisor to Russia,

is a guy whose symbol is the ancient symbol of chaos, and he's trying to destroy the Western way of life through nationalism. chaos. What was the goal of Russia? Because we're arguing about Donald Trump, we're missing the point. The point was not about getting Donald Trump elected. The point was to cause chaos. It was to pit us against each other and our institutions, to get us to not believe in the government, not believe in the FBI, not believe in the election, not believe that we can hold fair elections,

not believe in the Republicans, not believe in the Democrats. You'll notice what they did is they pitted the Democrats against each other. They all, by the only thing they did was expose them for dividing the party in half. Well, what did that do? that caused chaos with the inside the party.

Putin is applauding. This plan has worked out far better than he could have ever hoped because we've turned on each other. If Lincoln was right, this country will never be destroyed from the outside. It will only be destroyed when we turn on each other in chaos. And when you're afraid, because things are chaotic.

And when you are afraid because someone is beating up on you, all reason leaves. You go back to your lizard brain. We cannot engage in chaos. We cannot engage in outrage. We must instead re-fortify the force.

the fort and the walls around reason. And both sides have to do it. And we have to have reasonable conversations. Somebody said to me last week, Glenn, I think the big difference between us is you believe in reconciliation. And there are people that we cannot reconcile with. And I said, oh, I understand that.

I'm not stupid. Martin Luther King did not say, hey go hug it out at a cross-burning. You don't know. They want to kill you. Now, if there is a cross-burner who takes off the hood and says, you know what? I see the error of my ways. I can reconcile with you.

But if you still want to kill me, if you're still trying to destroy the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, I can't reconcile with you. I can love you. I can despise the things you're doing. And I don't have to hate you. but I'm not going to give you the power over my life to make me outraged. That power belongs to me. You cannot make me outrage.

My outrage comes from me, and I'll decide when I'm going to be outraged and how I'm going to react to everything that you're doing. And I know that if we are going to save the Western way of life, then we must go to the principles that the Western way of life was was founded on and that is reason and logic and yes the teachings of Jesus Christ love one another treat them as you want to be treated yourself even when they slap you across the face that is not a retreat you never retreat from your principles you there is a time to fight. But this is not the time, because that is exactly what they need. They need you

to respond and be vitriolic, vengeful, spiteful, because that's the way to destroy everything that has taken centuries to build. This is the best of the Glenn Beck program. Like listening to this podcast, if you're not a subscriber, become one now on iTunes. But while you're there, do us a favor and rate the show. Glenn Beck is coming live to talk about the right path forward and to make fun of the people standing in the way. He might not be able to save the country, but at least we can all go down laughing. Glenn Back Live, the Addicted to Outrage Tour, on tour this fall. I believe we have Brad Meltzer on the phone.

He is the author of a new children's book that we'll talk about here in a second called I am Neil Armstrong. wrong. But Brad, it is, it's the day after 9-11. Where were you on 9-11? I was in Washington, D.C. My nine-month pregnant wife worked in the U.S. Capitol, and she was driving to the Capitol after the towers were hit. And she said, you know, I wonder if they're going to up security at the Capitol because, and then she stopped on the side of the road, she pulled over off on the side and said, wait a minute, the Capitol has terrible, terrible security. I have a bad feeling I'm not going to go into work today. And we all know now, of course, that the Pennsylvania flight was believed to be headed to the Capitol. So those people on that flight in a different universe

with a twist of fate, it was headed right for my nine-month pregnant wife. And we owe those people forever. And I came outside because our dear friend Michelle Heidenberger, our neighbor, who lived truly across the street from us, she was the flight attendant on the Pentagon flight. So needless to say, when we were searching for the 9-11 flag, it was one of the most personal searches we've ever undertaken. I have to tell you, one of the most incredible stories I think I've ever heard, I had no idea that your wife was nine months old and pregnant. I don't even know how that happens. It's weird, but... I was going to say it's an amazing...

I want to bring up the flag, because the flag, the one that was flown by the firefighters, that famous shot of the firefighters with the flag, that flag went missing quickly. You are the guy who found the flag and returned it to ground zero. And then if I'm not mistaken, your child was just assigned a homework assignment, right?

Can we, this may be the greatest thing that's ever happened to me. So I am leaving for the book tour for I am Neil Armstrong yesterday. I am an hour away from headed for the plane. My son walks in, my young son walks in and says, Dad, look what our homework assignment is. And it's a homework assignment about the person who's finding the 9-11 flag. And my son proudly says, Dad, they don't mention you in it.

They just mentioned that a TV show found it. And I was like, son, you are going to crush homework tomorrow. We're going to crush it. And the best part of this is I wake up this morning. I just found this. And it has gone to national news. I put it on my Twitter account. Yahoo just picked it up.

It's become a national news story that the guy who found the 9-11 flag that his teacher assigned an assignment on him, and she didn't even know. So the funniest part of the whole thing is at 6 o'clock this morning, I get an email from the teacher that says, I'm so sorry, I didn't know it was you. And I'm like, it's fine. It was so many of us.

It was obviously one of the great blessings of my life is to play a small role in its return. And the fact that it leads to one of the greatest, you know, she said, I said, you don't understand. I need to thank you because this comedy bit is going to play forever. Oh, and your son, your son sees you as a hero. That's fantastic. I mean, anything that will reinforce. You know, my dad is cool, I think is great.

That's an impossibility, right? That's like the fine gravity is my dad is cool. So, yes, we will take it any day. So did Yahoo know that on 9-11 you were married to a nine-month-old who was pregnant? That's the bigger story. It really is. It really is. Okay, tell me about the book, Neil Armstrong.

The reason why I'm having you on is I love your books in the first place. I love your adult books. but the children books are just fantastic for children. They teach principles and they teach all about heroes. I wanted to have you on because Neil Armstrong, been in the news recently. I mean, I really believe, Glenn, that, you know, it is no coincidence that he's in the news.

And it's not just because of obviously the ridiculousness that the new movie does, apparently doesn't have him planting the flag. It's not just that I wrote a book and these things happen for a reason. I really believe that in all times of history, you don't get the heroes you want. You get the heroes you need. There's a need out there. And I think a humble person like Neil Armstrong is the hero we need right now.

And I wrote the book purposely because I wanted my kids to learn that kind of humility. I mean, this is a children's book. It teaches you about, of course, the space launch. But Neil Armstrong used to never use the word I. He used the word we. We did this. His quote was when they took the Apollo mission, he said, please tell everyone who worked on this that this is their launch. Tell them that they'll be riding with us all the way.

And he meant the scientists. He meant the mathematicians. He meant the people who sewed the tailors who sewed the spacesuit together. Remember when humility was a great American value? I am Neil Armstrong because I want my sons to learn that humility. I want my daughter to learn that kind of humility again because we've lost it. What was the outrage over the flag? Was that, what did you make of all of that?

You know, so here's what I think. I mean, let's be very clear. The movie's not out yet, so no one's seen it. Apparently, I tried, of course, to check it out. Apparently, the flag is featured predominantly, but let's also be clear. Landing on the moon was an American achievement without question, right? It happened because the president of the United States said we are going to do this going to do it together, and it was America who got us there. It was a race against the Russians,

truly. I think that the big mess up that they made was simply that they, you know, the star of the movie said, oh, it's a, it's a human achievement. It's not a human achievement. I mean, certainly humans were responsible. It's an American achievement. But from what I hear, Neil Armstrong's sons said the flags feature predominantly. I'm going to trust his family that if they're happy with it, I'm going to be happy with it. And I tend to not want to get in controversies where no one's seen the movie and we just want to have a controversy because we're having a controversy. That seems, you know, antithetical to what Neil Armstrong stands for, which is, you know,

that be humble and let's be calm and let's, you know, hold it together. What did Neil Armstrong do, you know, with his life after the moon? I had dinner or I had lunch with, um, uh, Buzz Aldrin. And I brought my dad because I thought, how cool is this that my dad can come with me to have lunch with Buzz Aldrin. And we sat there and I have to tell you, it was the saddest, it was the saddest thing I've ever seen because he talked about, you know, his alcoholism and everything else.

He got back and, you know, he was just a guy who went on tour to try to raise money and awareness for NASA and, you know, keep things going. He's obviously really accomplished, very, very bright. but how do you beat going to the moon? And he couldn't let that moment go. I don't know if I could, but he couldn't let that moment go. He's very different than Neil Armstrong. What happened with Neil Armstrong?

Yeah, Neil Armstrong was a different guy. You know, they picked Neil Armstrong instead of Buzz Aldrin. They had this moment where they had to pick. Who's the first one else? That's a choice. It's not just who gets to the door. It was a clearly calculated plan. they picked Neil Armstrong to be the first one as opposed to Buzz Aldrin.

There was big controversy. Buzz obviously campaigned and wanted to be out there. He was not chosen. They picked Neil Armstrong because of his humility. Because he was the guy who wasn't going to put his face on a t-shirt and go out there and try and make money off of it, because he was just going to go back to Ohio and be fine with the achievement. And, you know, I think, you know, the best way you can always show someone's characters look at their childhood.

Neil Armstrong, when he was eight years old, the thing he wanted to do more than anything else, he wanted to climb this big maple tree in his backyard. And when you climb a tree, you got to make a plan. It's a puzzle, right? You grab one branch, and then you've got to grab this branch. And as he's grabbing one of the dead branches, the branch snaps. And Neil Armstrong falls 15 feet, lands flat on his back, has a wind knocked out of him. His sister comes running over.

Says, are you okay? She goes and grabs their mother. The most important thing. And this is the opening of I Am Neil Armstrong, the children's book, is this moment. I teach my kids the most important thing that Neil Armstrong does after that moment is he gets back up again. He gets a job mowing grass in a cemetery because he wants to fly. He buys toy plane, saves his money. Then he saves up for a pilot's license.

He gets his pilot's license. He's a teenager before he gets his driver's license. It becomes a test pilot, of course, an astronaut. And we all today celebrate that giant leap for all mankind that Neil Armstrong took. But we need to teach our kids that you don't get to take the giant leap until you take. the thousands of smaller steps before. We've got to teach our kids what hard work really means again. That to me is what this children's book stands for.

And I think it shows to answer your question what and how Neil Armstrong was able to deal with it because he was built from that solid American value system that let him say, I am not my achievement. I'm just a man. Brad Meltzer. That's why he was fine. Brad Meltzer, thank you so much. I am Neil Armstrong.

It's available at bookstores everywhere. You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck program. Matt Walsh is a, just a great, great writer and somebody who really sees the world and refuses to go down the path of insanity. He wrote for many years for The Blaze. He's now with The Daily Wire. I have been following his work on what's happening with the Catholic Church because he's Catholic. And I'd like to get somebody's opinion who doesn't have an axe to grind with religion or the Catholic Church. So, Matt, welcome to the program.

How are you? Hey, Glenn. Thanks for having me. So can you tell me what the hell happened with the Pope yesterday? There's a few things going on, but I think the thing is called on people's eyes here in the United States is that he got up and said that Satan is at work in the church, which I agree with that part of it. But he said that Satan is at work amongst the accusers. Satan is the great accuser, and he is, you know, victimizing the poor bishops through, I guess, I didn't specify any more than that, but I guess he's saying that the people that are accusing

the bishops are Satan and also the faithful Catholics or demanding answers. I guess we are also in league with Satan. That appears to be what the Pope is insinuating, and I find it absolutely horrific. Tell me a little bit about the scandal in Pennsylvania because depending on who you're listening to, I don't know who to believe. You know, you listen to the New York Times and their spin is, yes, these things happened, but most of them happened a long time ago. and while the pope was involved a little bit, it's more on the fringes, and this is only being brought up

because this is a war between the people who want a more traditional church and, you know, the people who agree with Francis. Yeah, it's a very weird thing for, you know, traditional, quote-to-quote, traditional Catholics like myself, it's a weird thing to see the media all of a sudden circling the wagons around the Vatican.

It's just, we've never seen anything like this, because usually they're very eager to, tear apart. You know, blame the Vatican for anything. But so in, in Pennsylvania, you do have, you know, you have the Grand Jury report from about a month ago, I guess, now, which talks about abuses among, among priests and also cover-ups by bishops.

And that dates back, you know, it goes back, I think, 50 or 60 years. And much of had a good percentage of those abuses, were, you know, 20 years or more older. And so I guess some apologists are now using that as a reason to say, well, this problem has been contained since then. So this is old news. And maybe they could get away with that. Maybe they could get away with that excuse,

if not for the fact that there has been this problem in diocese across the country. And now they're talking about another investigation in New York, another one in New Jersey. And then on top of that, you have two other things as well. You've got Cardinal McCarrick, with the most prominent cardinal in the United States, and what's been, who's, you know, all those information is coming out about him now, and his abuse, not just of children, but of seminarians of young men. And then you've got someone in the Vatican, a high-ranking, former high-ranking official

who wrote an 11-page letter indicting the Pope himself and accusing him personally of covering up. So all of these things together just make it impossible to minimize this or to claim that it's all in the past because of not. This is right now. These are things happening right now. And what about the claim that this Cardinal in the 11-page letter, this guy has been against Francis the whole time and is just using this to try to get to Francis? Well, number one, it's irrelevant. That's just that's just a character assassination. Even if it's true that he's got some kind of acts to grind with Pope Francis, that doesn't mean that he's wrong about what he's saying.

The question is, are the accusations true or not? And it's very relevant that of all the men accused by Vegan-O, the Archbishop Vegan-O, the accuser, of all the men accused, but none of them have actually denied it. Not a single one, including the Pope. But secondly, that's actually not true. This Archbishop Vigano has had a long reputation as someone who is a whistleblower, who stands against corruption, you know, is not afraid to root out corruption. That's what he has, that's what he has a reputation for. It doesn't have a reputation for trying to undermine the Pope.

This is the first time he's ever done this. You know, the Pope has been there for six or seven years. It's the first time Vigano has come out and said anything like this against the Pope. So I think that accusation is just incorrect. So what does the average Catholic do now? What are they thinking? Yeah, that's a million-dollar question. And there are a lot of Catholics who, you know, I hear from a lot of Catholics,

and you talk to a lot of Catholics personally, and many of them are on the edge of or over the edge of despair at this point because they just look at the church and they think, well, I think for a lot of, especially for a lot of devout Catholics. I'm talking about the ones who really care about their faith and go to church, you really try to live according to it. The thing is it's not easy to live according to the teachings of the church. A lot is asked of us, and I think rightfully so.

But then when we look and we're trying so hard to live according to these teachings and making all the sacrifice necessary, and then we look and we see that the people running the church don't apparently even care about these teachings at all, it's very deflating. But what I would say, you know, as a Catholic, I'm not leaving the church over this. I think either you believe that the Catholic Church is the true faith, and you believe that it has a historical claim to being the true church or not. And if you don't believe that, then I guess you're not Catholic. You shouldn't be Catholic.

But if you do believe that, then I think these scandals as awful as they are. They don't change that. Don't change that simple thing. All they mean, and we should keep in mind as Christians that, look, I mean, Jesus Christ chose 12 apostles. One denied them, one betrayed them. Only one was there with them at the cross on Calvary. So there's a long precedent of this kind of treachery. going all the way back to the very beginning.

The Pope, however, being the leader. I mean, when I saw this story break, we were on the air, and I said, you know, if I'm the Pope, I get onto the plane today. And I hold a press conference in Philadelphia or Pittsburgh, and I say, I am here because we take this seriously, and the children are the most precious to us. I mean, you want to be Francis. That's what you do.

And you hit it straight. on, for him to not answer any of the questions and then on top of it to come out later and say, you know, it's the devil is making people do this is, in my opinion, obscene. I mean, it is obscene. I mean, there's, you know, you could use a lot of different words to describe it. I think that the Pope's behavior throughout this entire scandal and apparently going back, you know, there's entire papacy, according to Vigna, his behavior has been cowardly. It's been despicable.

I mean, like I said, it's just, and it for, again, for a devout Catholic to say those kinds of things about Pope, I mean, I don't say that kind of stuff lightly. I mean, I would say that lightly maybe about a politician, but I don't say it lightly about the Pope because I do have so much obvious respect for the office of the Pope. But because of that, and when I see what this man is doing to that office and how, in my opinion, and he's acting in ways that are disgraceful. I think we have no choice as Catholics, but to stand up and say that.

So what does that mean? What does that mean? Does there a chance this Pope is removed from office or leaves office because of this? As far as I know, there's not any way to actually remove a Pope because he's not a president and he can't really be impeached as far as I know. However, I do think that bishop, and Cardinals and the laity, if they were to stand up in essentially one voice and say there

need to be big changes, this Pope has failed us, he needs to step down. I think if that pressure was put on and there were enough people saying that and being consistent in their outcry, I think maybe this Pope could be, let's say, encouraged to step down. But I think I hope that will happen. I think it should. I don't think it will, though, because this Pope has obviously shown with his strategy. as you're going to be. And that's going to be, number one, to ignore the charges that are specifically against him. He said nothing about them. And then number two, to recast the entire

thing as, you know, essentially making the bishops into victims. And in order to get past that, what would be needed is, you know, the laity, we need to stay focused on this issue. Even as the media forgets about it and disregards it, as hope doesn't address it, we would have to stay focused. But unfortunately, in, you know, modern society, it's hard to keep people focused and concentrated on one issue for very long. So I'm afraid that like a month from now, nobody's going to be talking about this anymore, and the Pope will have just essentially gotten away with it.

That's what I'm afraid is going to happen. Matt, this guy has not been, you know, traditional, and he's, you know, he's done a lot of things that a lot of Catholics or traditionalists would say. Oh, yeah, that's really weird. This is in a totally different category. Would you have ever expected this Pope to react this way to a scandal this big?

No, I didn't. Although now that I see him acting this way, I see that there are plenty of reason, there's plenty of precedent for it, because this is actually, it's been his pattern, maybe not with scandals up until now, by where he'll say something or issue some kind of proclamation or write something that's very confusing to conservative Catholics, and we're thinking, wait, is he contradicting Catholic teaching what's going on here? And then he's asked to clarify, he just refuses to. He's been doing that for the last six years. So now he's just taking that strategy and applying it to this. But no, I didn't, when these allegations came out against him personally, I really did not. I honestly thought that he would at least say something within the first couple of days. The fact that he said nothing is to me, I mean, it's really shocking to me. And as I said, I find it utterly completely disgraceful. I mean, for him to take the name of Francis, I don't think this is the way St. Francis would have dealt with it. No, certainly not. I mean, this is not how any hope or not, this is not how.

This is not how any Christian should respond. And there are some people that have made excuses for the Pope saying, well, when Jesus was accused, he didn't say anything. When Harriet accused, when we was talking to Herod, Jesus refused to respond. But this is not the same thing. And when Jesus refused to answer accusations against them, the reason why, in those cases, why he refused, is because the accusations were disingenuous.

They were men in bad faith. The people that were saying it didn't really mean, it didn't really care. They were just looking for an excuse. crucify him, and Jesus knew that, if he wasn't going to entertain it or humor it. That's why Jesus remains silent. That's not the case here. People are, there's actually real scandal going on. People are legitimately distressed and in despair over it, and they want some leadership, and they want answers.

And so for the Pope to look at those people and treat them like we're all a bunch of herds, it's unthinkable. Matt Walsh, thank you very much. We'll continue to read your blog on the Daily Wire, and thank you for keeping us abreast on what's happening. Matt Walsh from the Daily Wire. The Blaze Radio Network On Demand.