The Glenn Beck Program - Best of The Program | Guest: Alan Dershowitz | 1/20/21

Episode Date: January 20, 2021

This Inauguration Day, Glenn does what no one else in the media will and lists President Trump’s many accomplishments as president. Attorney Alan Dershowitz joins to discuss whether it’s constitutional for the Senate to try Trump and bar him from running again after he has already left office and Trump’s legal responsibility regarding the Capitol riot. Glenn tells the story of President Lincoln’s second inauguration, his message of unity, and John Wilkes Booth’s first attempt on his life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Well, it's Inauguration Day, and we do the coverage of that here and bring you through all the events of the day. Go back to looking at some of the history as far as inaugurations of the past go. Some really interesting stories you probably don't know. And the invasion of the vampire space bunnies, which I'm expecting at any time. That does happen. Any time. And it's the logical next event. It really is.

It is. So you don't want to miss a second of today's show, including the interview with Alan Dershowitz, who talks specifically about. about the unconstitutional act of now taking and trying Donald Trump in the Senate. He says it's not right. It's unconstitutional. We talk to him about that. Also, the growing police state and what he thinks about it. All of it today on the podcast.

Cow, do we have a lot to share? with you today. The left is calling for an army of citizen detectives to spy on Trump supporters and report anything. The Democrats have pledged to fight the Trump rule that ensures that banks will allow service

to Republicans. They're going to fight that one. And it's an exciting day. It's an exciting day. Because finally, finally Donald Trump is gone you know what I'm saying and we now have a God replacing him I don't know if you I don't know if you saw any of the reports last night but CNN with the lights on the reflecting pool and MSNBC talking about how just I mean if I may quote Psalms Biden's God that was kind of what they said last last

I will give that to you. But first, I want to start with Donald Trump. It is really sad that in his farewell address last night, he had to actually list his accomplishments because nobody in the media has. So we wanted to play it because we think Americans should remember that he did a lot of good for this country. Now more than ever, we must unify around our shared values

and rise above the partisan rancor and forge our comments. destiny. Four years ago, I came to Washington as the only true outsider ever to win the presidency. I had not spent my career as a politician, but as a builder looking at open skylines and imagining infinite possibilities. I ran for president because I knew there were towering new summits for America, just waiting to be scaled. I knew the potential for our nation was boundless, as long as we put America first. So I left behind my former life and stepped into a very difficult arena,

but an arena nevertheless, with all sorts of potential, if properly done. America had given me so much, and I wanted to give something back. Together with millions of hardworking patriots across this land, we built the greatest political movement in the history of our country. We also built the greatest economy

in the history of the world. It was about America first because we all wanted to make America great again. We restored the principle that a nation exists to serve as citizens. Our agenda was not about right or left. It wasn't about Republican or Democrat, but about the good of a nation,

and that means the whole nation. With the support and prayers of the American people, we achieved more than anyone thought possible. Nobody thought we could even come close. We passed the largest package of tax cuts and reforms in American history. We slashed more job-killing regulations than any administration had ever done before. We fixed our broken trade deals, withdrew from the horrible trans-Pacific partnership and the impossible Paris Climate Accord. Renegotiated the one-sided South Korea deal, and we replaced NAFTA with the groundbreaking USMCA, that's Mexico and Canada, a deal that's worked out very, very well.

Also, and very importantly, we imposed historic and monumental tariffs on China, made a great new deal with China. But before the ink was even dry, we and the whole world got hit with the China virus. Our trade relationship was rapidly changing. Billions and billions and billions of dollars were pouring into the U.S., but the virus forced us to go in a different direction. The whole world suffered, but America outperformed other countries economically because of our incredible economy and the economy that we built. Without the foundations and footings, it wouldn't have worked out this way. We wouldn't have some of the best numbers we've ever had. We also unlocked our energy resources and became the world's number one producer of oil and natural gas by far.

Powered by these policies, we built the greatest economy in the history of the world. We reignited America's job creation and achieved record low unemployment for African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, women, almost everyone. Income soared, wages boomed. The American dream was restored. and millions were lifted from poverty in just a few short years. It was a miracle. Stock market set one record after another with 148 stock market highs during this short period of time

and boosted the retirements and pensions of hardworking citizens all across our nation. 401ks are at a level they've never been at before. We've never seen numbers like we've seen. we've seen, and that's before the pandemic and after the pandemic. We rebuilt the American manufacturing base, opened up thousands of new factories, and brought back the beautiful phrase made in the USA. To make life better for working families, we doubled the child tax credit and signed the largest ever expansion of funding for child care and development. We joined

with the private sector to secure commitments to train more than 16 million American workers for the jobs of tomorrow. When our nation was hit with the terrible pandemic, we produced not one but two vaccines with record-breaking speed, and more will quickly follow. They said it couldn't be done, but we did it. They called it a medical miracle, and that's what they're calling it right now, a medical miracle. Another administration, would have taken three, four, five, maybe even up to ten years to develop a vaccine. We did it in nine months. We grieve for every life lost, and we pledge in their memory to wipe out this horrible pandemic once and for all. When the virus took its brutal toll on the world's economy, we launched

the fastest economic recovery our country has ever seen. We passed nearly four trillion dollars in economic relief, saved or supported over 50 million jobs, and slashed the unemployment rate and half. These are numbers that our country has never seen before. We created choice and transparency in health care, stood up to Big Pharma in so many ways, but especially in our effort to get favored nations clauses added, which will give us the lowest prescription drug prices anywhere in the world. We passed VA choice, VA accountability, right to try, and landmark criminal justice reform. We confirmed three new justices of the United States Supreme Court. We appointed nearly 300 federal judges to interpret our Constitution as written. For years, the American people

pleaded with Washington to finally secure the nation's borders. I am pleased to see. We answered that plea and achieved the most secure border in U.S. history. We have given our brave border agents and heroic ICE officers the tools they need to do their jobs better than they have ever done before and to enforce our laws and keep America safe. We proudly leave the next administration with the strongest and most robust border security measures ever put into place. This includes historic agreements with Mexico,

Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, along with more than 450 miles of powerful new wall. We restored American strength at home and American leadership abroad. The world respects us again. Please don't lose that respect. We reclaimed our sovereignty by standing up for America at the United Nations and withdrawing from the one-sided global deals that never served our interests. And NATO countries are now paying hundreds of billions of dollars more than when I arrived just a few years ago. It was very unfair. We were paying the cost for the world. Now the world is helping us. And perhaps,

most importantly of all, with nearly $3 trillion, we fully rebuilt the American military, all made in the USA. We launched the first new branch of the United States Armed Forces in 75 years, the Space Force. And last spring, I stood at Kennedy Space Center in Florida and watched as American astronauts return to space on American rockets for the first time in many, many years. We revitalized our alliances and rallied the nations of the world to stand up to China like never before. We obliterated the ISIS caliphate and ended the regulations. and ended the wretched life of its founder and leader, al-Baghdadi. We stood up to the oppressive Iranian regime and killed the world's top terrorist, Iranian butcher Qasem Soleimani.

We recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. As a result of our bold diplomacy and principled realism, we achieved a series of historic peace deals in the Middle East. nobody believed it could happen. The Abraham Accords opened the doors to a future of peace and harmony, not violence and bloodshed. It is the dawn of a new Middle East, and we are bringing our soldiers home. I am especially proud to be the first president in decades, who has started no new wars.

Above all, we have reasserted the sacred idea that in America, the government answers to the people. it is it's an amazing list of accomplishments that most people i would dare say have not heard it is a list that most people would listen to if you're on the left and say not true those things didn't happen those things aren't true they they know things like the border security is true and i think it's interesting that he brought that up as we have honduras uh and Honduran's thousands of them on the way to the border ready to claim their amnesty, which Joe Biden says he will give 11 million people amnesty in his first week. You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck program. It's finally 2021 with all of your worries behind you in that stink we called

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their newsletter, but I want you to A-B, compare a rec tech with all the other grill contenders out there. This is the best. R-E-C-E-Q.com. That's rectech.com. The host of the DIRS show, Professor Emeritus at Harvard Law School, probably the most famous attorney of our generation. It's Alan Dershowitz. Welcome to the program. Alan, how are you? Well, thanks. I love doing the Dershow. All it's missing from my name is the wits. And the wits are provided by my callers and my viewers who ask me the hardest question. So it's, you know,

it's like a law school seminar. Yesterday, we, you know, dealt with the issue of impeachment, what we're dealing with today on your show. And whether the president was responsible. So all of the issues of the day, we discuss. You can get it on any of the platforms, Rumble, YouTube, anything else. So please subscribe. Great. So, Alan, go over what you went over yesterday on the DIRS show. Is this even constitutional to go after a president after he's been removed? Of course not. It's never happened in our history. When Richard Nixon was removed, he resigned under pressure he would have been impeached. But as soon as he resigned, they let him alone. They didn't go after him. The Constitution says the purpose of impeachment is to remove. somebody. He's out of office. There's nothing left to do. It doesn't say you can impeach him to disqualify him for the future. It says if you remove him, you can then add disqualification,

but you can't just impeach somebody to disqualify him. If they could, they could impeach you and me. Because we can run. I'm over 35. I don't know about you. I can run for president. Right. And if the Republicans were to come up with a strong candidate for the next election, and all they do is say, oh, let's impeach them, let's find something and impeach them. The Senate can't try ordinary citizens. So once you're an ordinary citizen, you get tried only in the courts, not in the Senate. So it's clearly unconstitutional. So it's never been done even with non-presidents in the past.

One case back in 1876, and they had a divided vote, who was the former Secretary of War, who resigned on the eve of his impeachment, and they had a close vote and they said, yes, they did have jurisdiction. And then they voted to acquit him on the ground that they didn't have jurisdiction. So it's not really a precedent either way. But even if there were a precedent, it would just be wrong. The Constitution doesn't permit it. So does the president, let's switching topics to the Capitol break in, does the president have any legal responsibility for this?

Let me tell you why not. So there were thousands and thousands of people listen to a speech. from that group only a relatively small number went to the Capitol. They all went legally initially protesting in front of the capitals perfectly legitimate. From the group that was there legally, an even smaller group went inside. They committed a crime. Among those people, an even smaller group destroyed property and an even smaller group engaged in violence against people.

So to say that the president directly caused what went on inside, just ignores the fact, ignores the fact. I have been, I started warning when Donald, I mean, sorry, when George W. Bush was in office, be very careful about domestic terror and the Patriot Act and how it can be used by one side or another to claim its enemies are domestic terrorists. It's happening now, Alan. Oh, yeah. Is anything going to stop this madness? Well, let me tell you, I got a call from a friend of mine in Israel who was so insulted that people use the word terrorism to describe what happened in the Capitol.

My friend in Israel says, we know what terrorism is. It's going to a school in Malo and murdering 34 children in cold blood. It's blowing up an airplane. It's blowing up a bus. It's designed just to kill civilians. That's what terrorism is. This was not terrorism. This was not insubordination. This was not a resolution. This was not an insurrection. This was a violent riot. And the people who did it should be punished. But let's not elevate it above what it actually was. It was a terrible, terrible thing.

The Department of- It was not an insurrection or a revolution. The guy who was testifying yesterday to be confirmed by the Senate for Department of Homeland Security said his number one issue is going to be to root out domestic terrorism. and he's not talking about ISIS. He's talking about the right. Yeah. Well, there's some on the left, too. I mean, I think Antifa is the terrorism. I agree with you.

I agree. They would like to basically never allow anybody else to speak. They come and they protest when I speak, and they threaten violence, and, you know, they're disorganized, but they're anarchists. So, you know, there's extremism on both sides, but terrorism has a particular meaning it's designed to kill civilians, to target civilians, in order to bring about a change in government policies. This just was not that. Nobody set out to kill civilians.

Tragically, they died, along with police officers, but it was not an act of deliberate domestic terrorists. There may have been among the group some domestic terrorists, some people who are part of a terrorist organization. That will find out through investigation. But remember, the president used two words, peacefully, patriotically. That was his message. Do it peacefully and patriotically. When he says that, he obviously was appalled when the people committed the crimes they committed and they ought to be punished for that. One last thing, Alan, because I know you have to run, but I'm very concerned.

The Democrats have now pledged to fight the rule ensuring that banks' banks, will continue to serve conservatives. That is so disturbing, and they're talking now about the fairness doctrine to get rid of people like me, who they say are inciting violence and domestic terrorism, couldn't be further from the truth. And we are already seeing companies and everything else starting to back away saying, it's just too dangerous of a situation, can't be by your side. Well, it's just like McCarthyism. That's what happened in McCarthyism.

The people in power said to private citizens don't have any association with anybody who's red, pink, anybody who we accuse and think is not a core American. And they did it. They established television restrictions, movie restrictions, blacklists, and we're repeating it. We're seeing it now on university campuses where they're trying to rescind the degrees of students who they don't, like because they were associated with the Trump administration. They're trying to rescind my emeritus professorship, which I earned for 50 years of teaching because I defended the president on the floor of the Senate, which was a great privilege for me to do as a constitutional lawyer.

And there's no stopping them unless we stop them now because there are future leaders. So how do we? So how do we? How do we do that? How do that? I use the word, I use the word fight back. People will say, well, he must be asserting violence. Fight back is a metaphor. It just means that we have to resist and we have to answer in the marketplace of ideas. I fight back by writing articles and by beating our shows like this and expressing my points of view. But we can't just take it sitting down.

We can't just accept a new McCarthyism and a new form of censorship. That would be wrong for America, wrong for the First Amendment, wrong for our Constitution. And we have an obligation to be better than they are. Is this what America felt like in the early 50s and 60s? Do you even remember that? Well, I do, of course. I'm 82 years old. I was a student-body president at Brooklyn College during McCarthyism.

Although I was a fervent anti-communist, I defended the right of teachers and speakers to speak out, and I was attacked for it. People said, oh, you're a fellow traveler. No, no, I wasn't. I just believed in the First Amendment. So it is very much like the 50s, not the 60s. The 60s were different. But the middle 50s was very much like this when McCarthy was still having the power and control that he had.

Alan Dershowitz, thank you very much. Appreciate it. My pleasure. You can follow him and watch his podcast, The Dershow. His website is Alan hashershowitz.com or follow him on Twitter at Alan Dersh. You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck program. Joe Biden is about to become number 46.

He's about to be sworn in today in the capital. And it's a strange day, 20,000 troops for Donald Trump's. inauguration. We had 5,000 troops that were deployed in Washington, D.C. Now 20,000 troops. It is a very strange scene, but it's also complicated by the coronavirus where everybody is social distancing six feet apart, but they're all hugging each other, shaking hands and when wearing mask anyway. And they're outside, so I don't know what that does. The inauguration of the president has changed an awful lot. It was not that big of a deal. It didn't have all this pomp and ceremony that it does now. In fact, the vice president was was sworn in inside in the Senate chamber

beforehand and the vice president at the second inaugural of Lincoln was drunk. Johnson, horrible, horrible guy. And he was just another thing. And Lincoln actually had to say to him, go home. Get into your carriage and go home. Lincoln was really upset. When Lincoln gave his second inaugural address, which is, let's time to bind the wounds of this nation

and care for the wounded and care for the, and care for the widow with malice toward none charity toward all um john wilkes booth was just probably about 30 yards behind him and it drove him crazy because john wilkes booth hated him and wanted wanted the south to rise up again and the south had just surrendered and he's like we can't surrender and he was convinced that if the president were killed, it would get the South to rise up and start the war again and fight on. But on the inauguration day of his second inauguration, John Wilkes Booth, who was a very famous actor, kind of our Leonardo DiCaprio of the time, very famous actor that had been in, you know,

performing plays in New York and Boston and Washington, some of the biggest cities. he was there on the Capitol behind. And in fact, do we have this picture? This is the only picture in existence of Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth in the same photograph. And it's hard to see, but I'll point it out if you're watching us on Blaze TV. I'll try to point this out. John Wilkes Booth is up here in the corner on the balcony. and if you can really get close to it,

which you can, if you come to our American Journey Museum, you can actually see his face, you can make out his face. And have you ever seen this up close to? I don't think I have, no. Okay, so this picture right here is John Wilkes Booth. This is Abraham Lincoln. Notice that the crowd can't hear Abraham Lincoln.

They're not even listening. They're standing around, milling around talking. Oh, yeah. Right? There's kind of like walking by, it looks like. Walking by. They're not paying any attention to what the president is because you couldn't hear him. So there's the president.

That's him standing there right in the corner. Right in the corner. Up above, he's one of the higher heads. Yeah, yeah. Okay, you see him? Mm-hmm. So he was up in the corner and after he finished with Malice Dorda and Charity for All, it was the first attempt on his life.

Wilkes was so enraged. He couldn't control it. And he was going to kill him with his bare hands. And he came around that. that little gate there at the top and came down the stairs as Lincoln was finishing up and he's almost running and he's trying to intercept Lincoln as he leaves and he was going to really kill him with his own hands. There in the crowd.

The problem is he was running down the stairs and he slipped and tripped and fell and he fell kind of just beyond Lincoln. So kind of grabbed Lincoln from behind. but missed him and he was down on the ground. Police officer lifts him up because a police officer was in between Lincoln now and Booth. He picks him up and he's like, hey, and the police officer at the time, I think knew this was an attempt to get the president.

But as soon as he saw John Wilkes Booth's face, the police officer knew him, knew he was famous and knew that a famous actor would never do something like that to the president. And so he said, oh my gosh, Mr. Booth, are you okay? He's like, yes, yes, I just, I tripped. I'm sorry. I hope the president is fine. The president had already moved on. But that was the first attempt on the life of Abraham Lincoln.

No, I'm sorry, it wasn't the first attempt. It was the first attempt by John Wilkes Booth on the life of Abraham Lincoln. And if Booth would have killed him that day, I think even his vice president Johnson, who was drunk now in his carriage going home. I don't think he would have minded because he was in a different, the entire country was in a different mindset than malice toward none, charity for all. Everybody wanted blood.

But Abraham Lincoln, when he called for unity, he meant it. He meant it. when when the south surrendered the the the surrender happened and the the white flag actually was a white and red checked dishcloth and we actually at our mercury museum have a piece of that surrender flag again just just a dishcloth that you probably have one like it at your house and they said, we have them. They were sent a telegram. We have them.

We have their surrender. What do you want us to do? And Lincoln, and I'm paraphrasing, said, take your foot off their neck, help them up, remind them that we're friends. Send them home. We're all a marriage. when we believe in forgiveness, when we believe in redemption, and when we believe in the same things.

John Wilkes Booth did not believe in the same thing. He believed in slavery. He believed in violence. It killed Lincoln, I mean, literally, but figuratively. The man was dying. This was such a horrible experience for him. He didn't know what to do. Everybody asks today, how much more of this are we going to take?

Lincoln was asking the exact opposite. Please don't do this. Please. We don't want a separation. We don't want a war. Please don't do this. the righteous, I believe, know what violence begets. And they plead, don't, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this, please don't do this.

The South did it. But the South was also rooted in evil in many ways with the slavery thing being the issue. At the very first, it was about secession. a state didn't have a right to secede the North thought and Lincoln thought. He was just trying to bring the union back together so we could solve things and work together. But it was about slavery. By the end of it, it was absolutely about slavery. And it was about slavery at the very beginning in many ways.