The Glenn Beck Program - Best of the Program | Guest: Chad Wolf | 3/11/26

Episode Date: March 11, 2026

Glenn starts the show by connecting a few stories that at first glance are unrelated, but Glenn pieces them together to show how power is working in America. These stories include the latest update in... the SAVE America Act, the coverage of the Iranian conflict, and how Democrats are reacting to current conflicts. Glenn warns that life doesn’t move at a consistent pace and encourages people to take some time to fully acknowledge where they are and soak it all in. Former acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf joins to warn that after the U.S.-Israel strikes in Iran, America must prepare for strikes on the homeland.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 60% of the vans on Amazon come a vendor independent like Sac Magic. Hello, here Camille of Sac Magic. Our compresses, show of fraud are fabriced in Quebec, and our presence on Amazon
Starting point is 00:00:09 enlarge our clientele to the world entire. Trouve of little enterprises like that other on our own.com. Today's podcast, I begin with the news and kind of tying a few stories together. What is the news of the day
Starting point is 00:00:21 telling us about America and where we're at? Also, a message of love and the trade you made. with your time. And from DHS, Chad Wolf, what are we actually facing with the possible sleeper cells here in America? And what? How bad is it with the airports and with DHS? Because the Democrats won't fund our Department of Homeland Security. All of that and so much more on today's podcast. Ever notice how people will spend hours comparing prices before they buy a television, but they
Starting point is 00:00:56 will sign a mortgage at last 30 years and never look at it again? It's strange when you think about it. A family will research vacations for weeks. They'll make sure they're getting the very best value. But at a mortgage, one of the biggest financial commitments most people will ever make, often, you know, it just sits there year after year without anybody asking a simple question. Is this still the best structure for our finances? Because interest rates change and your financial situation evolves over time.
Starting point is 00:01:23 And sometimes just revisiting that structure can make a real difference. That's where American financing comes in. Their salary-based team of mortgage consultants who take the time to walk you through your entire financial picture and see if there's a way to refinance your mortgage or consolidate your high-interest credit card debt and put you in a stronger position. So I want you to go right now to Americanfinancing.net, Americanfinancing.net, 800906 2440. Hello, America. You know we've been fighting every single day. We push back against the lies, the censorship, the nonsense of the mainstream media that they're trying to feed you. tirelessly to bring you the unfiltered truth because you deserve it. But to keep this fight going, we need you. Right now, would you take a moment and rate and review the Glenn Beck podcast? Give us five stars and lead a comment because every single review helps us break through big tech's
Starting point is 00:02:15 algorithm to reach more Americans who need to hear the truth. This isn't a podcast. This is a movement. And you're part of it, a big part of it. So if you believe in what we're doing, you want more people to wake up. Help us push this podcast to the top. Rate, review. review, share. Together, we'll make a difference. And thanks for standing with us. Now let's get to work. You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck program. I go over the news of the day and we talk about the Save America Act or we debate what's happening in Iran. We're we're forcing each other into making trades and and no way. We're not thinking about that. We when you're, when you're, choosing one over another and both of them may be true. What are you trading? What are you trading? What are you
Starting point is 00:03:22 trading? What value? What principle? Are you trading away? Because society has taught you that two things cannot be true at once. And that is a huge lie. Two things can be true at once. I am not for war, but I think this limited action may be right. Notice I say maybe right. I don't know. I don't know because I can't see the future. I can see what I believe the intent is, but I can't see the future. So it may be a huge mistake.
Starting point is 00:03:58 Okay, Glenn, you think it's a huge mistake. Maybe a huge mistake. Well, then why would you do it? Well, because I can't see the future, it may not be a huge mistake. It may be the right thing to do because of all of the ramifications of what comes if you don't make that move. but everybody acts so sure and we're trading so much away. We were just talking about the Iranian girls. I don't understand how the men on the left.
Starting point is 00:04:35 Do you not have somebody in your life, a woman, a daughter, a mom, a wife, a sister, that you can't see what these women are going through over in Iran and you can't empathize with them? How can you say you want to stand up against the great oppression here in America on homosexuals? And yet you will not say anything about this regime that throws homosexuals off building tops or executes them in the public square. What have you traded? Let me tell you what I'm thinking, why I'm thinking this way. Yesterday, it was my mother-in-law's 83rd birthday. She lives with us during the winter now.
Starting point is 00:05:37 She was younger than I am now when we first met. And that seems like yesterday. I watch her and I listen to her now and I think, where has the time gone? When we first met, she was a dynamo. She still is. But she was a dynamo, very successful in what she does, very powerful. And I was young and stupid and full of nothing but wide open highways to dreams and worlds, you know, yet to be explored and built. And a long list and seemingly never ending
Starting point is 00:06:19 time to do those things. I was 35 years old when we met. And I was a young man who already had lived a very harsh and fast life, and I wanted to marry her 26-year-old daughter. I told her at the time, I wouldn't be for that. I understand your reluctance here. But I promised her I would love and cherish her daughter, and I would treat her right. And I hope I have. I tried really hard. But so much time has passed. So much has happened. and now just sitting with her, I feel like I've missed it all. People bitch about their mother-in-law all the time.
Starting point is 00:07:18 It's a joke. But she has brought such wisdom. She has brought prayer, calm, steady, quiet foundation. Almost every day, she says to me, I hope that you slow down. I hope that there's going to come a time when you slow down. And at first, when she was saying that, I keep thinking, I have got to speed up. There's not a lot of time left.
Starting point is 00:07:59 But this is the first time I've lived with a parent since I was 18. And maybe it's just that I'm getting to the age where I am starting to get it, but I'm starting to see things wildly differently. we both realize that time is speeding up, the time is shorter than either of us think. But I think only with time, with age, can you understand the value of those things you trade for time? My grandparents, my parents told me when I was younger.
Starting point is 00:08:39 They told me things that I just didn't understand, you know. Those are the things they told me when I was younger. I heard, but didn't understand. maybe you can't understand until you've lived long enough to see the pattern. But older people, older people used to tell me all of the time that they would say, you know, time just goes by so fast. It just goes so fast. Well, you know, when you're young, that really sounds ridiculous.
Starting point is 00:09:16 A year feels like forever when you're 20. 10 years feels like an entire lifetime, but I'm beginning to understand what they meant. Life does not move at a constant speed. It moves really slowly until it doesn't. Jason said something to me, Jason who does our research for the show and also is the host of our insider broadcast
Starting point is 00:09:46 that happens during this show on Torch. He said something this week that he was quoting something You've probably heard. I heard a million times. But it hit me differently this week. And for two reasons. One, with everything that's happening in the world, he said there are decades where nothing happens
Starting point is 00:10:05 and then weeks where decades happen. And that is very true in the world that Jason and I are living in right now, on the radio and podcasting in news. That's what's happening right now to the world. But when it comes to life, it doesn't quite fit what I see in my life with my wife and kids and my mom celebrating her 83rd birthday. Last night to celebrate her birthday was really simple. We went to a small gelato shop in a small town called Stewart, Florida.
Starting point is 00:10:44 And I watched her pick out the flavors of gelato she wanted. And we sat there. And she said, why am I always the last to finish? And my wife said, because you talk a lot. but what she was doing was she was talking about the days that have just slipped by while life happened. And that's when I heard that axiom differently. Perhaps it's better stated, in everything that really matters, there are years where nothing seems to change. And then there are these moments when everything has already changed before you even noticed it.
Starting point is 00:11:32 When did my children get taller? Oh, I know when I was busy working. Our parents get older while we're busy planning. The world is quietly rearranging itself while we're focused on the next thing. And one day you realize that that thing that people told you but never really explained clearly enough, time is not something you spend. It is something you trade. And no one tells you that every day you're making trades.
Starting point is 00:12:18 You're trading your morning for a meeting, dinner for returning phone calls or emails. You trade patience for exhaustion. You tell yourself, how many times have I said this? It's just this season. It'll slow down. You trade a bedtime story for just one more thing. You trade walks to get the laundry done.
Starting point is 00:12:53 You trade being really present for just getting through the day. And it feels normal and everybody does it. But here's the part you don't get until you notice things have passed. Trades don't cost you right away. they compound and they show up later when your children move out or your child doesn't reach for your hand as much when you can't remember the last time you were really excited when your life is really loud but somehow empty you don't notice it week to week you notice it once years have passed I saw this Instagram post last night.
Starting point is 00:13:59 It said, you notice it when the photos on your phone carry more memories than your body does. I don't remember anybody sitting me down and seeing be careful what you trade away because the quiet trades are the permanent ones. And I don't know if I would have gotten it. So let me just say this. Today, be aware of what you're trading. hold their hand a second longer. Put your phone down mid-scroll. Say no to something that doesn't matter
Starting point is 00:14:45 and say yes to something that does just today. Because life isn't made in the big moments and that's what I have lived my whole life thinking. It's made of all the tiny ones you didn't realize were important until they were gone. And you've traded it away for, money, ambition, comfort, convenience, peace of mind. And some of those trades just are not worth it.
Starting point is 00:15:19 Some of them you only realize were real mistakes years later. Be careful what you trade away. Be careful what you trade your time for because time doesn't give refunds. Thanks for teaching me that, Mom. Even though I don't think you knew you were teaching me that. I really love having you down the hall. And thanks for the years of worry, the prayers, and your wisdom. Relief factor, you know, the human body is an incredible machine.
Starting point is 00:16:14 It is capable of remarkable things, healing, adapting, recovering. But like any machine, when something starts building up in the system that shouldn't be there, things stop running the way they should. And one of those things is inflammation. Inflammation is part of your body's natural response. to stresses and injury, and it lingers. And when it doesn't settle down the way it's supposed to, it starts showing up as everyday aches and pains and also illness. This is where a relief factor comes in. Relief factor is designed to support your body's response to inflammation by using
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Starting point is 00:17:21 800, the number four relief or relieffactor. Now back to the podcast. This is the best of the Glenn Beck program. I want to connect a few stories that on the surface look completely unrelated, but they're actually not. They're all telling you the same thing about how power is working in America right now. So let me start in Washington. The Senate now is preparing to vote on the Save Act. This is a complete sham.
Starting point is 00:17:54 Now, this is just a bill that says you have to prove you're a citizen to vote in American elections. think about that for just a second, just this basic idea. If you're voting in the United States, you should be an American citizen. That's it. But the Senate leadership is already warning that it might need 60 votes to pass. Well, yeah, if you don't do your job, it will. And that's where the game begins. Because technically they are right.
Starting point is 00:18:25 Practically, they're hiding behind the rules. The Senate has called for something, or has something called the filibuster. And originally, if you wanted to block a bill, all you had to do is stand on the floor and talk, hour after hour, day after day, you know, your voice giving up, your leg shaking. Mr. Stewart, Mr. Smith goes to Washington. Okay. That's the whole point of that movie. But today you don't have to do that anymore because it's hard.
Starting point is 00:18:53 You just threaten a filibuster and then walk away and you need a 60-person vote to bring it back to the floor. No speeches, no fight, no accountability, okay? No courage, just a zombie filibuster. Republican senators know something most Americans don't. They could force the issue. They could keep the Senate in continuous session for day after day after day. And if Democrats want to block voter citizenship requirements, then let them stand there for 24 hours a day explaining why. make them hold the floor, make them say it out loud. But that would require something rare in Washington. Effort, conviction, courage, a belief in our system.
Starting point is 00:19:43 So instead, the bill just will quietly die and the public will never see the fight. Okay, why does this matter? Well, let me tie the next story to this, because at the end, exact same time this is happening, the Justice Department is saying something else that could stop the country, should stop the country cold. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dillon says investigators now are finding tens of thousands of non-citizens on voter rolls and hundreds of thousands of dead people still registered. Now, maybe most of these people will never vote, but not one of them should. You know, when it comes to our air travel,
Starting point is 00:20:26 we don't say, relax, most planes land safely. Have you ever heard anyone actually suggest that Boeing should just come out and say, you know, we've had thousands and thousands of flights, and it was only one door that blew out in the middle of the flight. It was only one plane that crashed. Okay, maybe three. But we've had hundreds of thousands of flights. No, zero tolerance.
Starting point is 00:20:53 because the system only works if the public trusts it. Not only is the Boeing example ridiculous to think that we would accept because of the loss of life, but even Boeing knows they have to fix that. They have one more plane go down. If they don't restore the confidence in the system of Boeing and their airplanes, no one will buy or fly a Boeing airplane. It's the same thing. Trust right now is the rarest currency in America.
Starting point is 00:21:26 You have to have trust in the system. Look what else dropped. FBI director now says the Bureau ran four secret counterintelligence operations from 2016 to 2025 that monitored over a thousand Trump associates, journalists, lawmakers, and advisors. Excuse me, what? This makes Nixon look like child's play. Some of these probes are now under civil rights review. The same institutions that tell you trust the system
Starting point is 00:22:03 are quietly admitting the system has been used to spy on political movements. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, investigators just uncovered something almost unbelievable, and we are in the sea of unbelievable and incomprehensible. Nearly half of the hospices in L.A. County show fraud warning signs. Companies were billing Medicare, your tax dollars, that are supposed to go to the people who actually need it. They were billing with zero patients. Multiple hospices registered at the same buildings. This is in L.A. now.
Starting point is 00:22:46 Patients discovering that they were fraudulently enrolled in hospice care, and they didn't even know it. So somebody was using their name to get money to provide care that they never got, and no one did. And every patient was billed to the taxpayer for $29,000. That's not a glitch. That's an industry. And when government money flows without any accountability, predators follow it like sharks follow blood. Do you understand why they had to get rid of Elon Musk now and Doge? Do you see? Do you see? Now let me zoom out because something even bigger is happening.
Starting point is 00:23:28 While our institutions are fighting over Senate procedure to trust the system of voting and Medicare fraud to trust that your tax dollars are going where they said the world is moving and the world is moving fast. The United States just sank 16 Iranian mine layers in the Persian Gulf, 16. Iran is threatening to mine the strait of Hormuz. That is a 20, no, I'm sorry, is it 20? I think it's a 20 mile stretch, okay, where one fifth of the world's oil passes every single day. And what Iran is saying is, you want this war? Good, enjoy $200 a barrel oil.
Starting point is 00:24:12 But here's what they didn't expect. Their submarines, the one they call black holes, because supposedly they're invisible. Yeah. They have giant black holes through them now. And inside Iran itself, something really extraordinary is happening. The Arab tribal leaders in the country's oil region, this is the place that produces about 60% of Iran's crude, just issued a statement calling for a free Iran and the end of the Islamic Republic. That is massive.
Starting point is 00:24:44 That's like the oil workers in Soviet Russia demanding the fall of the Kremlin. It tells you the regime is weaker than anyone realized. But revolutions rarely happen cleanly. Sometimes the regime collapses, sometimes it thrashes around for years. And all the while, when that is unfolding overseas, back here at home, we're arguing whether you should have to prove you're a citizen to vote. What? See, that's the disconnect here.
Starting point is 00:25:20 the world is playing geopolitical chess for the whole game. And Washington is arguing whether the players are even allowed to sit at the board. There's another lesson buried in today's headlines. Look at the media coverage of Iran. Look at the media coverage of the Iranian, the girls' soccer team, which I get into here in a minute. One major newspaper, I just say, the New York Times led with photos of people mourning the Ayatollah.
Starting point is 00:25:50 but buried deep in the story are the lines that show Iranians are saying they actually hope the bombing continues if it means the regime falls. Wait, what? When is the last time you heard a people in a nation say, please America continue to bomb because you can't stop until the job is done? Why does the New York Times show the 10%
Starting point is 00:26:18 instead of the 90% because the story they want to tell you is always the same. America, bad, enemies misunderstood, so step back. Here is what the headlines today actually reveal. The institutions that are supposed to protect trust, elections, law enforcement,
Starting point is 00:26:42 government spending, the media, are all under strain at the same time. They're not broken beyond repair, but they are deeply sustained. strained. Jonathan Martin made a point about me today in Politico. He said, how can one spend decades in and around American politics and not understand the basic macro politics of midterm elections?
Starting point is 00:27:03 He's talking about why I'm for the Save Act and he says it's going to hurt the Republicans in the midterms. I don't know your proof on that one, but I don't care about the midterms. Jonathan, that's your job at Politico, Politico. You should be about the midterm elections. My job is to care about the principles of the republic. You know, only caring about the next election, which is very important, don't get me wrong, is what got us here in the first place. A strained system that wobbles more and more each passing day.
Starting point is 00:27:38 And when the systems are strained like this, there are only a few things that matter. Principles, transparency, and courage. Transparency means letting Americans actually see the fight, whether it's a Senate filibuster or an FBI investigation. Courage means you have to be willing to stand there and defend your position in the light and let the chips fall where they may. Because if you're not willing to stand up and explain what you believe, you know, maybe you shouldn't be blocking the vote in the first place. And that's the real story. Not just what happened, but what it reveals about where our country is today. A moment where the truth is fighting to surface.
Starting point is 00:28:28 And the people running the system are deciding whether or not they're going to help it surface or keep it sinking. The truth is surfacing whether they like it or not. I don't know how it all works out. But the truth will always set you free. This is the best of the Glenn Beck program. All right, welcome to the program. We're talking to Chad Wolf. He is the America First Policy Institute, Homeland Security, Immigration Chair.
Starting point is 00:29:04 He's also the former DHS acting secretary. And I wanted to get him on because the Democrats still are not, you know, are not allowing DHS to be funded. And that is the craziest thing I've ever heard. I mean, at this time, what are you trying to get us all killed? Chad Wolf is here with us now. Chad, the headlines today in some cities are you got to get to the airport super, super early, because you might be in line for several hours because people are not showing up for work.
Starting point is 00:29:40 I mean, I don't know if I would either, but not showing up for work. You know, it's overwhelming the system. That I don't think should be the headline. I think the headline is what's being missed at the airports because of this shutdown. How safe are we, Chad? Yeah, well, thanks for having me on. I agree with you. I think there's two issues at play here.
Starting point is 00:30:01 One is requiring DHS workers, and in this case, you know, airport officers and screeners to do, have to go to work, do their job, but not get paid to do it. And then the second piece which you rightfully point out is the security aspect of that And so this hits hardest probably in our airports, but there are other parts of DHS that are impacted as well. Because a lot of these screeners at airports are living paycheck to paycheck. And after they miss one or two paychecks, you know, what we're starting to see, and you indicated long lines at airports is they start to call out. They start to call out sick because they have to go drive an Uber. They've got to pick up another part-time job to pay the rent, the mortgage, or pay.
Starting point is 00:30:48 put food on the table. And so that becomes a problem. It becomes a problem for the traveling public and it becomes an inconvenience. But the security aspect of it is even if they show up for work, I would want them totally focused and committed on their job at hand. What I don't want are screeners at the airport going through the motions, but really their mind is how do I support my family? How do I support my family? And pissed off. I know, you know, if I'm pissed off, at a company. I don't do my best work. And I don't think that these people, you know, intentionally would let something go through or anything like that. I mean, they're still Americans and they're human beings. But it is, it's just part of being human. You know,
Starting point is 00:31:33 it is wrong to ask them to step up to the plate and come in for a long period of time. Because there doesn't seem to be any indication that this is going to end soon. Democrats just don't seem to care about it. Yeah. No, and I think what's the frustrating thing is this is entirely preventable. It's, you know, particularly at a time when we have conflicts with Iran and, you know, very, very dangerous world in which we live in, the fact that we would not fund the Department of Homeland Security that is hand in glove with the Department of War, making sure that we're keeping the homeland and everyday Americans safe is just bizarre. It's bizarre to me that the Democrats can continue to hold out on this position. And it's a little, you know, I don't know, I haven't
Starting point is 00:32:17 seen any polling or anything, but I suspect that the American people do not support this. No, and as the lines get longer, it's going to get worse. And then people will know who's responsible because, I mean, I was just talking to Cheryl Atkinson and she said, you know, she had just seen a report. 10,000 known terrorists have been on our radar that have come into the country. Fifteen hundred from Iran. Yeah. How bad is, you? the possible terror network here in America? Well, it's bad, right? We talked about four years of the Biden administration.
Starting point is 00:32:57 So over the course of four years, you had over 11 to 12 million individuals come into the United States. Over 18,000 known or suspected terrorists, right? The National Counterterrorism Center just testified about that. Over 18,000 known or suspected terrorists tried to enter the country during Joe Biden's tenure. and a variety of them made it in. And so you combine that with the existing networks of Hamas, Hezbollah, and other proxies that have been here in the United States since the 80s, more or less.
Starting point is 00:33:31 And it starts to paint a picture of a real kind of heightened risk and threat environment. Now, we have an outstanding law enforcement apparatus, FBI, joint terrorism task forces, and other things that keep the American people safe. but we're asking so much of them because we don't know who really is in the country, because I said it at the time, and I think we're facing it right now, is the four years of the Biden administration, we won't really know the destructive nature of their immigration policies for years and years to come, and I think we are staring down the barrel of that right now.
Starting point is 00:34:09 Big time. I have to tell you, I would never talk about this on the air. I would love to be a part of a red cell team just on terror, because I have wargamed this out since 2001. And there are things that I don't understand why terrorists haven't done. Again, I wouldn't say any of it on the air, but I got to tell you, we are very vulnerable, and it doesn't take a lot of people to pull off some really, truly devastating things in our country. Again, I would agree with that.
Starting point is 00:34:39 I think we have, again, certainly a risk of, you know, either cells or lone individuals doing a variety of, different things here in the United States and we've seen some of that unfortunately and we'll continue to do that. I think the threat environment that we're in today is as high as we've probably seen it and you see that with the IEDs in New York City and elsewhere. So again, I go back to not funding the department is absolutely crazy that you're going to have the airport workers, you're going to have the men and women of the Coast Guard. Also, very junior, live paycheck to paycheck in some instances as well. You know, they're hand in glove overseas with the Navy down in the Caribbean.
Starting point is 00:35:25 And again, you want them totally focused. And they're professionals. They will be focused, but they're human, as you indicated. And they're going to be worried about their family because when they're deployed, you know, that paycheck needs to come in to make sure that their wife, their kids, their family are taking care of. And that's going to be on their mind as well. Are you more concerned about places like Dearborn?
Starting point is 00:35:48 and Minneapolis, or is it all around the country? I mean, are there particular hotspots that we should be watching and concerned about? Yeah, I think my concern is throughout the country. I understand the Dearborn reference, but I think if you are an individual with, you know, bad motives that you're going to target, you could target iconic landmarks, things that get high visibility, obviously New York City, Los Angeles, your big cities pop up there. But those cities also have the best infrastructure and law enforcement, right? And those targets have been hardened over the past several decades.
Starting point is 00:36:31 So maybe you're perhaps looking to a softer target. Or perhaps you're going to lay in wait, right? Because the threat environment and law enforcement is on their guard right now, but perhaps you wait until the summer until the World Cup arrives. and you decide to do something there at a stadium and a mass gathering of some kind. So you can see all of the implications out there of really kind of what the challenge is today here and here in the homeland. We are sitting at a time where we are now at war with the biggest terror organization and funder of terrorism in the world with Iran. and they have allies of China and Russia.
Starting point is 00:37:14 And doesn't DHS also look at all of our cyber protection? I mean, how vulnerable are we with cyber now? Yeah, absolutely. They certainly have a, you know, the cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency or SISA, as it's referred to, has a big role there. Now, it's mainly defensive posture because what they try to do is not only protecting government networks,
Starting point is 00:37:38 But it's important to remember that about 85% of our critical infrastructure, such as water, you know, waste treatment plants, water plants and the like are privately owned. And so SISA provides a lot of intelligence and a lot of capabilities to those private sector companies to make sure that their cybersecurity, hygiene and measures are up to date. And you've got about two-thirds of that agency that are not working because of the shutdown today. So that's really, really concerning as well. So aviation, cyber, obviously the border and others, you know, that DHS does is it's all being impacted. Now, look, 85% of the employees at DHS are exempt from the shutdown, which means they have to go to work. Even if they're not getting paid, they still have to work. But as we've talked about, as this drags on, you know, they could be six weeks without getting a paycheck.
Starting point is 00:38:34 And even when the government opens back up, it's not like they get paid the next day. day, it's going to take two to three weeks for that back pay to come in. So again, you can see how this could draw out for eight weeks. And we're asking these agents and officers, 75,000 law enforcement officers at the Department of Homeland Security. We're asking them to risk their lives every day to protect Americans. And Congress can't even give them the pay. I would say the low pay that we paid them. But they can't even do that. I think it sends absolutely the message on a variety of different fronts. We heard last week that one of the last things that happened, you know, as we were
Starting point is 00:39:17 bombing Iran at the very beginning, was there seemed to be some encrypted message that went out and they were talking about the possibility that that was an activation of sleeper cells. Do you have any indication that's real? Yeah, I saw that public reporting as well and just what I saw, I can't ascertain on how real that is on whether that's just some reporting or whether that is truly what the intelligence community has picked up on. But regardless of that, I think as soon as conflicts, kinetic conflicts start
Starting point is 00:39:51 to happen overseas in Iran, the Department of Homeland Security goes shields up, right, on a variety of different fronts. So even whether or not this went out or not, they are doing everything that they can during a shutdown, mind you, to protect a variety, you know, all the different, you know, from a maritime perspective or a cyber perspective or a border perspective or how do we screen travelers coming into the country? Obviously, CBP does that on a real world basis. And so they will, they will augment all of their apparatus to look for suspicious activities around proxies I tied to the Iranian regime and others. And so the threat environment as a threat environment ticks up the alertness and what you're looking for across the department
Starting point is 00:40:50 as you screen travelers and do other things also ticks up as well. Chad, if you were still the acting DHS secretary, what advice would you give to the American people today? Yeah, I would say, look, Look, you know, continue your lives, continuing what you do each and every day, but have some awareness around what you do. It's, you know, if you go out and you want to go out to dinner and you want to eat on a sidewalk, that's fine. Just have a little bit more awareness of your surroundings and where you're at and making sure that you're, you know, continuing to understand kind of the threat environment the United States is. And I wouldn't say you need to disrupt or change your pattern. I think that's what the terrorists want us to do.
Starting point is 00:41:44 So don't give them that satisfaction. But be aware of your surroundings and understand kind of the situation that we're in. Are we at more risk because of the funding coupled with Mullen in transition? Does that compound this problem? I, you know, the transition of a new secretary coming in, I hope it happens very soon because it helps, it does help to stabilize the department. But look, there are a lot of professionals at the department underneath the secretary at all of the operating components that are doing their job right now. And so I have a lot of faith, because I know a lot of them, that they're going to do that regardless of what is happening at the secretarial level. Now, we need to get some, Senator Mullen in there and in there quickly to again stabilize. And hopefully, because he's coming from Congress, hopefully can break the logjam on DHS funding.
Starting point is 00:42:43 But I would say my overall concern is just the overall threat environment that we are now in tied with the lack of funding for the department. Thank you so much, Chad. I appreciate it. Really appreciate it. Thanks for all that you do. God bless. Yeah, thanks.
Starting point is 00:42:59 I appreciate it. That's Chad Wolf, former acting secretary of, of DHS. I have to tell you, I'm flying, I have to be in two different cities this week by Friday afternoon and my first stop is in Phoenix to give a speech here on Thursday.
Starting point is 00:43:16 So I'm going to be flying through these airports and I have to tell you, please, if you're traveling, thank the TSA that are showing up. The stress that they're under right now with their own families, none of these people make a lot of money, the stress that they're under,
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