The Glenn Beck Program - Best of the Program | Guest: Ann Bauer | 2/27/26

Episode Date: February 27, 2026

As we're coming close to the end of President Trump's final term in the White House, who will the Democrats claim is the next "even worse than …" candidate? Gavin Newsom laid out some possibilities, including Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Glenn rants against any member of Congress who refuses to support the return of the speaking filibuster. Allowing a zombie filibuster doesn't preserve deliberation; it institutionalizes gridlock. Essayist Ann Bauer joins to discuss a recent interaction she had with a radical feminist in Minnesota. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A rant on the filibuster that, quite honestly, I have to thank the United States government for the FCC. I've never said that in 49 years of broadcast. I've never been grateful for the FCC. But I think my mother, my family are probably grateful for it today because it stopped me from saying the words that I really felt when I told you the history of the filibuster. That is part of the podcast. And a great conversation with the essayist Anne Bauer, who had a conversation, well, had a couple of conversations in Minnesota where she used to live. and one of them went the typical way, but another one went in unexpected ways.

What can we possibly learn from that, if anything, on how to talk to our friends and neighbors? Why do we hit a wall? All that and more on today's podcast. First, let me tell you about our sponsor. It's Patriot Mobile. Your current mobile company does not need you to agree with the things they believe in. They just need you not to pay attention to it.

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I am well, and I loved your dramatic reading of my tweet. I think we should just do that all the time. And I just loved your tweet. By the way, Anne is an essayist, and she is the co-founder of Storyalize. So tell us what happened next after that. I assumed that I had mouthed off and would not hear back from this woman whom I've known for 25 years. That's happened a lot with people in Minneapolis.

But after, oh, about 25 minutes, I got a text from her. And she said, oh, sorry, I didn't think of that. Perhaps I should have, I didn't mean to offend. I was only sharing photos of the items at the places of Memorial. Yes, you are correct. it is not a fair comparison. And I just was God's smack. I was like,

you know, what a gracious response. So then the bubbles on your side went off. And what did you write? I said thank you. I have had many people. I had, I'd been deluged by that Anne Frank quote that everyone was sending about, you know,

they came to round us up from people in Minneapolis during the ice raids. And I had just hit my limit. And so I said to this woman, Tim Walts was censured by the Holocaust Museum for his constant comparisons to mass genocide, which was something I'd been so happy to see, you know, this governor who I have been loathing, frankly,

and terrified of for years. And at one point, you know, tells around the country. He's a little terrifying in a wimpy sort of way. Oh, he's terrifying because he is both evil and dumb. And I went all around the country saying this before the election of 2020. I was like, oh, people, you do not want this man, a heartbeat away from the presidency. But when I said this to her about Tim Walts' being. being really harshly, I thought, criticized by the Holocaust Museum accurately, harshly criticized.

She said, oh my, I was not aware. And of course, the reason she wasn't aware is because Minneapolis media is a blackout when it comes to any news that does not reflect wonderfully upon the governor. And so this very smart lady who I've known for all these years who really does care and is deeply religious in her own way and would never say something that she thought was offensive had no idea, no idea. Thought that this was just a marvelous comparison to make. And so then what happened? What news sources she read and she of course said the Star Tribune, the Star Tribune, the Star Tribune was her, you know, compass. Yeah.

Right. And the Star Tribune is run by a publisher named Steve Grove, who served as commissioner of employment and economic development under Tim Waltz, who is like an arm of the state administration. And it is shocking how the news in the Star Tribune. Tribune specifically elsewhere to some degree is shaped in order to protect this man, which is how you all ended up saying in whatever fall 2024, my God, how can all these things just be coming out about the lies that he's told and the service that he didn't perform that he said he did?

And the trips to China that happened at really hinky times. how is that not reported? Well, it wasn't reported because Minneapolis has only ever covered him as if he's the little prince who ascended and rules bountifully over the land. And you said to her at this point, you know, what was it? I believe Tim Wals jinned up this dangerous violence situations and he did it to run cover for fraud investigations. I think that is absolutely accurate. absolutely accurate. Right. And she replied,

What fraud investigations? Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. This is my favorite line from you. After you said that, after you wrote, you know, what fraud you just wrote, oh, sweet Jesus. Right. That is exactly. I mean, that is the nicest way of saying, good God Almighty help us. Oh, sweet Jesus. Oh. So. How do you even? encapsulate in the message. I happen to be sitting at Bradley Airport waiting for a flight. How do I say, oh, of rampant, ongoing state-sponsored fraud that has been sucking billions of dollars, both state and federal, into Minnesota NGOs and then funneling it back to the DFL, that fraud. That's what I wanted to say.

I was like, well, send me some articles. Well, here's the problem. Can I send her some articles? Sure. I had to be very choosy. Yeah, will they be articles from sources she will find credible? Exactly. Could I find articles in the Star Tribune?

Here's what I could find. An individual, oh, such and such a defendant was sentenced on this fraud that it completely freakish and we have no idea how it happened, but luckily we sent the bad guy to jail. That kind of article I could find in the Star Tribune, they had done, you know, little smatterings of bad Somali criminal, basically. Yeah, yeah. We sent these people away, don't worry, it's all good. And Tim Walt is heading up fraud prevention. What I did was I found one or two pieces that made some links. You know,

how could the Waltz administration be ignorant of this? Was the way that it came out in, for instance, National Public Radio and the New York Times. And I did send those. I knew she wouldn't read anything with a paywall because, you know, she has her own life, her own media choices. I knew she wouldn't read anything from a right-leaning source, so everything from Fox or, you know, daily wire, things like that was out. And so I sent her, you know, these two articles, and about an hour later, I got it text that said, oh, my God, do we ever get the money back?

And what in the world do you say? I really, I was like, oh, dear lady, no, in fact. Don't get the money back. No. It is electing your attorney general again, no longer my attorney general. Thank God, because I left. But where did you move? Did you move to Connecticut?

I heard you say Bradley Airport. You didn't move to Connecticut. Oh, no. I was out in Connecticut doing a speech. No, no, because that would have been like, The junior version. Right. Okay.

No, I'm a very proud resident of Thomas Massey's district in Kentucky. Oh, okay. Good, good, good, good. And, you know, I read this and I thought you handled this so well. I wonder if you got the first response of I'm sorry. I don't even know. Are you Jewish? yeah, I mean, in the way that one is,

I'm wondering if you got, I wonder if you got the, right, but I wonder if you got the first benefit of the doubt because she knew, I better be careful on this one. Or if she would have reacted that to somebody who wasn't, didn't have any Jewish background at all. I do. I think she would have. I think just a genuinely nice lady. So how do we?

how do we how do we spread that how do you know i mean i talk to so many people are like i can't talk to anybody i say anything and it's just it's like talking to a wall how do we spread this how do we change what we do to be able to find those people like her that are genuinely good people that are just lost would you learn i'm so sorry i don't know i don't know i don't know if i have an answer She is the outlier. I have lost almost every contact I have in Minneapolis, St. Paul. You're streaming the best of Glenn Beck. To hear more of this interview and others, download the full show podcasts wherever you get podcasts.

They've just announced the election is on. Gavin Newsom. He just did an interview where he said, You know who scares me more than Donald Trump? No, Satan? Well, no, you probably aren't scared by. I don't know who scares you more than Donald Trump. You've spent what seems a lifetime now saying he's the scariest thing out there.

And I told you, because remember, Ronald Reagan was a Nazi. George H.W. Bush was a Nazi. George W. Bush was a Nazi. Of all people, Mitt Romney was a Nazi. Oh, and a car and a dog torturer who would just strap animals to the top of station wagons. And then Donald Trump, he was he was the, he was Hitler's Hitler, okay? He was he was the guy that Hitler was afraid he might become someday. Now that we're coming towards the next presidential election, we have to have somebody worse than Donald Trump and he's said it.

So Gavin Newsom, and I love, I just. This is one of my favorite quotes. There are some people waiting in the wings in the MAGA world who would love to be the chosen ones of the Trump orbit. J.D. Vance is one of them. Marco Rubio is one of them. You know, for whatever reason, Vance scares me. Why?

Well, he scares me almost more than Trump. I don't know. I mean, talk about a guy who put a mask on and his face grew into it. This is Gavin Newsom talking about how Jady Vance is wearing a mask. And when I hear Gavin Newsom, when I read that today,

honestly, this is how it sounded in my head. Coming from Gavin Newsom, it sounded like this. I got to tell you, I got to tell you, he scares me more than Trump. I mean, I don't know. I mean,

talk about a guy who put a mask on and his face just grew into it. he wears a mask the guy who just said you know what let me tell you i'm just like you i'm just like you oh you black people in this room i'm i'm i'm just dumb as a box of rocks just like i can't read just like you oh my gosh oh my gosh okay Gavin all right thank you i mean they're going run out of people. I mean, at some point, well, maybe not, maybe not. Because... Apparently,

everybody's as dumb as Gavin Newsom. I mean, at some point, do people stop buying? Wait a minute. You just said that guy was Hitler. And if that guy's Hitler, where do you go scarier than Hitler? I mean, at least be creative. Just say, you know, like the German cannibal. I think JD Vance is like that

German cannibal that was eating people. At least give me somebody new. my gosh okay all right and i don't want to be uh hyperbolic about any of this i just think that he's hitler okay okay well thank you for keeping the hyperbole out of it no no no i i appreciate that uh by the way jason can i bring you in here for a second yes sir um said about 10 days ago that uh iran would have about 10 or 15 days before we would have action that would come up this weekend. Do we have any, you know, I don't know, America 250, Freedom 250 events planned over the skies of Duran this weekend? A firework shows happening in Iran this weekend? Well, that's the big question.

So the USS Ford is now in striking range. It's off the coast of Israel right now. So all the assets are in place. We are getting a lot of signs that we could be seeing some fireworks displays. You always look at some of the embassies that are around there and see what happens. The embassy in Lebanon, the U.S. said that non-emergency personnel should get out of there. China is now evacuating their people out of Iran. Canadians are just announced having their people leave Iran. The U.S. State Department just said for non-emergency personnel to leave Israel, to leave Israel. That's another big sign.

That's a big one. Yeah, it's not trending well for the Iranian regime right now. Let's just put it that way. So J.D. Vance came out and said, we're not going to get into a long protracted war in Iran. I mean, I don't know if you can say that, can you? I mean, it would be our intention. It is not our intention to get into a long, you know, intracted. Protracted, yes, thank you.

I was trying to like, what is that word again? Protracted war. we don't want to get into that. That's not our intention. But I mean, you know, once you open a can of whoop ass, it's hard to get the ass back into the whoop and put the can back together. You know what I mean? You don't know how that's going to go. It's not our intention. We hope that that doesn't happen, but it could. I mean, that's like saying, you know, FDR going and say, look, we're not going to get into a long. We're just going to go over and kick Hitler's ass and then come back and then we'll just elect a bunch of Republican presidents are just like Hitler.

You know, you just don't know how it's going to go. And it concerns me because, you know, Iran is not, they're not good. They're not, they're not, it's not a good regime, you know, and they, they, they, they got a lot of assets all around the world, I think, including here in America. Yeah, well, and that's probably one of the biggest things that we should worry about is asymmetrically, what the Iranian regime is going to do because that will be their main I guess a point of attack on us

to see if they can pull that off. So that's whatever sleeper cells they have in both South America and within our own country. But not only that, but cells within are close to military bases all over the Middle East. You also got to look at the big one shutting down the Strait of Hormuz, which has

always been their major Trump card. And they've already signaled that they plan on doing that while talks were going on in Amman a couple of weeks ago or a week ago. This is going by so fast. They actually did military drills where they shut down briefly the Strait of Hormuz, a huge signal of, you know, signal of what they plan on doing. But when you talk about a long protracted war, I would like to know the definition of long

in today's modern warfare. Because, I mean, is two weeks long? Is three weeks long? That's probably what I'm looking at. It's going to take them a while to get air superiority, I think. But I don't even know the capability. After Venezuela, I don't even know what our. capabilities are as of now. But fully expect the big guns to come out, like cyber warfare, all of that.

It's going to be interesting. Donald Trump, the one thing is, I mean, the one reason why I think J.D. Vance could possibly get away with saying that is because he knows possibly what we don't know. He knows what we used in Venezuela. I mean, you know, I would be shocked after Venezuela. I would be shocked if we can have, if we can't have air superiority minute one, the minute we cross the airspace, if any of their planes can actually get up off of the ground, would shock me just based on what we did in Venezuela.

I don't know what happened in Venezuela. And I think that's the point. Nobody knows really what happened in Venezuela. It was just like, huh, that's interesting. Never seen a country be able to do that before, which. Let's just savor that for a moment. Let's just savor that for a moment.

We went from a country that was like, what? What? I mean, our withdrawal from Afghanistan was perfectly reasonable. I mean, that was a well-executed plan. People fallen from the sky out of airplanes. Okay, we went from that four years ago to what the hell just happened in Venezuela? And no one knows. And China and Russia and everybody's like, what the hell?

hell is going on? I mean, doesn't that feel good? That's what keeps enemies at bay. Just saying. By the way, we're going to take your phone calls here in a second. 888-727 BCK. I just have to give you this quick story. What was going through J.D. Vance's mind when the Democrats lost it at the state of the Union. Did you see this? I had one thought in my head the whole time, which is don't make a stupid face for two hours, which is hard for me. I love that. Can you imagine the pressure of sitting behind the president and not making a face? Because, I mean, you're sitting there literally for two hours.

There's got to be times when you're like not thinking about stuff and you're like, yeah, I got an itch on the inside of my nose. You know what I mean? It's got to be really difficult, got to be really difficult, especially with that, which, I mean, he did such a good job at that. I don't remember even seeing any expressions on his face or what's his face from the speaker of the house. I don't remember seeing an expression from either one of them, which says an awful lot because I remember seeing Nancy Pelosi sitting behind him and rolling her eyes and everything else. There was no, there's no memory of what they did.

They allowed Donald Trump to do, I mean, that was such. Stephen Miller was responsible for that, wasn't he? Ricky. That's my theory. That man is a political genius. He's a genius. I mean, that just seems like Stephen Miller, because that thing was so well executed. He set them up. He just set them up and they walked right into the trap. And then he didn't have to say anything. When he asked that question, you know, to stand up, stand up if you agree with this. He didn't, he didn't say, you know, you have to agree with it. He gave them the opportunity. Stand up. On the easiest question in the world, stand up if you believe that the government of the U.S. serves U.S. citizens over illegal aliens.

Didn't stand. And what did he do? Do you remember? He just stood back, smiled, and gestured like, look America. Look, he did that twice, smiling. Look. It was brilliant, absolutely brilliant. brilliant. And Jeannie pants had to be sitting there going, don't, don't, don't look. Don't do, don't do anything. Don't do anything. Let that moment sit by itself. And it did. This is the best of the Glenn Beck program. And we really want to thank you for listening. Let me explain the standing filibuster. Let me start at the beginning. If you want to know how America and the filibuster is supposed to work, all you need to do really is watch Mr. Smith goes to Washington.

Remember Jimmy Stewart? He was standing at the table, just a glass of water, stack of papers, and the weight of his convictions. In that movie, he was a man all alone, and he was willing to lose it all. That's key. This is the original filibuster. Not a trick, not a procedural ghost, not a backroom email that says, hey, we're blocking this. A man standing, speaking, burning daylight, and paying a price. So what does filibuster mean? What does a word filibuster mean? It actually comes, it's from the Dutch,

and it's like a vertebutter or something like that, and it basically means pirate. It's a freebooter. Somebody who seizes control. That's what filibuster means, someone who can seize control. Early in our history, in the United States Senate, that's what it meant.

There was no formal filibuster rule at all, 1806 at the urging of Vice President Aaron Burr, the Senate removed its previous question motion. That was the rule that allowed a simple majority just to cut off debate. And it was considered redundant. Why? Because think how old-timey this is. Because the Senate was so small,

they just knew gentlemen would restrain themselves. Uh-huh. They just assumed honor. Well, history has a way of challenging assumptions, doesn't it? So for decades, they put the filibuster in, and it was very, very rare. It was dramatic when it happened. It was the last stand. It was a warning flare.

It was somebody who said, no, this is wrong. And the people need to know it. What is the reason we have the checks and balances? Why do we have our Congress and our Senate and everything set up the way it is? One of the reasons is to slow things down because people get passionate and they make stupid patriotic come to mind you make stupid moves when you are heated and in the moment so everything is built to slow things down filibuster was one of those things if there was something passing a group of people or one guy could stand up but he had to stand and he had to speak the whole

time. 1917 comes along. Guess who was president at the time. Woodrow Wilson, I'm telling you everything crappy about this country, came from the Woodrow Wilson period or his acolytes. So they were, there was a small group of two people, both progressives. One was defoliate, what was his name, Robert, I think, from Wisconsin. He is like a godfather of progressivism, okay?

And two progressives stood up because Wilson wanted to now arm merchant marine ships because war was coming. And so we were sending stuff over and he's like, we have to have cannons on these ships so they can defend themselves. Two progressives actually stood up and went, no, that's a prelude to war. We'll be at war. You do that. We will be at war.

And they said, no. And so they started a filibuster. Well, that just pissed Woodrow Wilson off. How dare you stand against me? And so he told the Senate, you need a new rule. And so this is when that stupid word that nobody knows what it means, cloture came to play. It was rule 22.

And it ruled that it, cloture meant that a super majority could end debate. It would require a super majority to end debate. At first, it was two-thirds. In 1975, that was lowered to three-fifths, 60 votes. So if you still wanted to stop something, you still had to stand there.

You had to speak. And the whole country could see you. Again, think of Mr. Smith goes to Washington. Jimmy Stewart standing there, hoarse, trembling, you know, collapsing under the weight of corruption and exhaustion, reading from the Constitution, from the phone book, from the soul of the republic, but he had to stand there and speak. That scene is part of our bloodstream because it captures something really essential. If you believe enough, if you believe something is

really wrong, then you must be willing to stand up and pay a price. And that may just be enduring, you know, enduring days and days of standing up and speaking. Okay. The filibuster was not meant to be easy. It was meant to be costly because it, it separates the serious from just the political. It's costly in time. It's costly in stamina. And it is costly in political capital.

If you don't believe it, you're not going to do it. And it forces whoever wants to stop things. to prove that they're serious. But in 1970, things changed. Why? Well, the Senate adopted something called a two-track system. And instead of grinding everything to a halt while a senator spoke, the chamber could set aside the bill and move on with other business.

It's efficient, okay? And it was. The two-track system solved the problem they were trying to solve, which was paralysis of the entire chamber. okay. What was happening was because of FDR, another progressive, they had growed the administrative state so large. Congress and the Senate still had to pass the laws, the rules for the administrative state. This is before they gave that up. And so they had all of these things they had to do. And so filibusters would start popping up and people would stand up

and they're like, we have so much we have to do. We can't stand here with this anymore. Okay? So here's what happened. They created another problem. It turned the filibuster from a rare act of physical resistance into just a routine procedural veto. Before there were two track filibusters, the filibuster was exhausting and therefore scarce, and it cost the people. You had to believe it. So think of this. Why is, why are people like me saying, enforce the standing filibuster on these guys? Why? Because we know it will cost them, just like the state of the union cost them. They are going to be arguing against 80% of America, 71% of their own constituents believe in the Save America Act.

It's wildly popular. One of the most popular unifying things I have seen come through Congress. in 20 years, and it will require them to pay the price with their own constituents. If you really believe that, go ahead, stand there, tell the American people why you're shutting down the business of this government, the business of the people, to do something the people are against. That's the price. but once you take that price away, it's effortless.

You can obstruct anything you want. The real breaking point was not one speech, not one villain. It was the overload of the institution. 1806, the Senate could afford endless debate. 1970, Vietnam, civil rights, Cold War, sprawling administrative state. it could not afford any time. Efficiency became the priority. Deliberation became negotiable.

Notice we don't even read the bills anymore. This is just slid into hell. In trying to prevent the paralysis, the Senate made paralysis easier because when obstruction no longer requires stamina, it no longer requires effort, It no longer even requires conviction. It only requires strategy.

And strategy is always cheaper than sacrifice. And that was the pivot point in America. History is full of institutions that were destroyed by bad intentions. But sometimes, you know, in the name of practicality, really bad things happens. And this is one of those things. so it creates the modern zombie filibuster. What is that? That's what Mike Lee and everybody else is saying we must end.

Not the filibuster, the zombie filibuster, where a senator doesn't have to stand. They don't have to speak. They don't have to read the phone book. They don't even have to make a case. They just have to signal an intent to filibuster. And then that bill can't come back to the floor without 60 votes to proceed.

That's unreasonable. Absolutely unreasonable because it doesn't require any sweat. There's no spectacle. There's no accountability. And the pirate is now a phantom. So here's the key question. If you require your elected senator to stand and talk and defend why he wants to obstruct something,

especially this popular, are you really weakening the filibuster? No. No, you are not, senators. You are restoring it. You are restoring responsibility. You're restoring the demand that you actually believe in something.

Because the American people do. Returning to a talking filibuster does not change the cloture threshold. It does not abolish minority rights. It does not alter the law or the rule. It changes the burden. Under the zombie filibuster, the majority must muster 60 votes automatically.

Under the standing filibuster, the minority just has to continuously hold the floor. That's not destroying the filibuster. That's demanding conviction. Period. The zombie filibuster flips the entire constitution on its head. The framers designed a Senate to cool the passions. They were the saucer to the house's hot teapot.

But they did not design paralysis by default. Congress requires supermajorities in very specific cases, treaties, treaties, impeachments, constitutional amendments, but ordinary legislation, majority's rule. The filibuster evolved as a tool of extended debate, not as a permanent 60 vote requirement for everything. You can't get anything done. And when the minority can silently raise the threshold to 60 without lifting a finger, without standing there and saying, this is why it's important, you have not preserved deliberation. You have institutionalized gridlock.

You know, accountability is everything. Everything. Why would you oppose the zombie filibuster? Accountability matters. If you're willing to halt the nation's business, you should be willing to stand in the well of the Senate and explain to the American people why, hour after hour, day after day,

look into the camera, let the American people decide whether your stand is heroic or absurd. The talking filibuster forces sunlight. The zombie filibuster thrives in the darkness. When senators no longer have to fight physically for their objections, they object more often, wouldn't you? The cost drops. The usage skyrockets.

The Senate becomes a graveyard of legislation, not because ideas were defeated, but because no one had to sweat. a talking filibuster disciplines both sides. The majority must listen. The majority must, the minority must endure. That tension is healthy. It's constitutional muscle. So it doesn't change laws. It changes behavior, period. It means fewer automatic 60 vote hurdles. It would mean only the most serious objections turned into full-fledged filibusters. It would mean that when a bill dies, it dies in public. And we all should know where you stood and who stood and what you stood for. The Senate calls itself the world's greatest deliberative body. Well, deliberation requires a voice, not emails, not procedural threats, voices. Period. Stop playing the game, senators. We know the truth. Stop playing the game. Do what America is demanding.

on both sides in overwhelming numbers, what you pass. Have the balls to stand up for something you actually believe in.