The Glenn Beck Program - Best of the Program | Guest: Rep. Anna Paulina Luna | 7/2/26

Episode Date: July 2, 2026

Rather than celebrating America’s 250th birthday, something historic that will never happen again, the Washington Post decided to publish an article attacking fireworks. Glenn outlines the history of the Declaration of Independence, which had intense secret debates, compromises, threats of death, and a betrayal. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) joins to give the latest update on the SAVE America Act and weighs the chances of it passing.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, on today's podcast, The Washington Post, their focus on our 250 birthday. Not the amazing celebration plan, but the smoke caused by the fireworks. I have a few things to say about that. The final part of the creation of the Declaration of Independence is Jefferson's words are slashed right in front of him. And the one and only Anna Paulina Luna. Wow. Wow, what a fascinating conversation. You don't want to miss it.

It's all right here on today's podcast. 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. We work 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 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, 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 Glenback program. We're in Washington, D.C. It's a 250th birthday of America. And I was complaining yesterday because no, Nobody knows about these fireworks that are happening. This is the largest fireworks show ever attempted by man on earth on Saturday.

Ten times the largest fireworks show America has ever seen. You'll never see anything like this. It is absolutely incredible what is being planned. And I said, you know, nobody knows about the state fair. Nobody knows about what's happening in Washington, D.C. And the streets are empty here, and it's sad. It's really sad. and then the Washington Post decided to cover it.

And I have had it. I've had it. I drove by the Washington Post here in Washington, D.C., and I thought, oh, wow, I wonder why half of the building's lights are out. Because you're going broke, and I can't wait until you are entirely broke. America has survived 250 years. We've survived 250 years, and that is fabulous. But I have to tell you, I've had it with the reflex from the press, the automatic impulse to search every American moment for the dark cloud instead of the sunlight. Think about what is happening this week.

Not next year. This week, this week, the United States turns 250 years old. Do you know how remarkable that is? We have the same constitution. The average Constitution lasts 17 years. No one living has ever seen anything like this. No one living will ever see it again. This is not another Fourth of July.

This is the Fourth of July. I saw as a kid the 200th. This is the 250. I'll be long dead and my kids will remember, oh, I saw the 250. And they'll remember it. when it's the 300. Grandchildren, our great-grandchildren, will read about this in history books.

And one of the nation's most influential newspapers looked at this moment, said, gee, Bob, how could we cover this today? I don't know. Have we covered the fireworks? Nah, are they really worth it? Well, have we thought about how much pollution the fireworks are going to cause?

That's it, Bob. but let's run to the press. You gotta be kidding me. That's your front page instinct. Pollution. Not the greatest experiment in self-government. No. Not that.

God. God, not that. No. The astonishing fact that a republic born in the age of kings has survived invasions, civil war, world wars, depression, terrorism, every prediction of collapse. Not the millions of families gathering to remember

where freedom came from this weekend. Not the veterans who carried that freedom, bled and died for that freedom. Not the children seeing the Capitol for the very first time. No. Smoke. Smoke. That's what the Washington Post chooses.

Smoke. Now before some liberal tweets, some angry tweeted me, let me say I know. Yes. Fireworks produce smoke. I've known that the very first time I saw fireworks

it's kind of like don't tweet me fireworks cause smoke water is wet and the sun is hot I get it people with asthma should know that large firework displays can temporarily affect air quality

now if you think that that is news to anybody reported maybe on page A-17. But if your first instinct on America's 250th birthday is to warn people about the smoke instead of reminding them why fireworks exist in the first place, then somewhere along the line,

you've really forgotten what news is supposed to do. Have we alerted them that there's going to be smoke? Maybe they should stay away from the nation's capital because there's a lot of fireworks. There's got to be a lot of smoke. I have no use for these. people anymore. I really, I so, they're just such a source of frustration. Journalism is not just about facts. It's also about judgment. Every editor tells you what matters by what place

they put above the fold. Whatever they place above the fold, that's what matters. Every headline is a declaration of their values. Every front page says, this is what everybody should talk about and think about today. So on the most extraordinary independence week in American history, they decide what matters most. Not liberty, not history. Not what's actually happening. Not gratitude, but particulate matter. You know, when I got up this morning, I thought, what is the particulate count today? I'm wondering. You see why people are exhausted? You see

why nobody reads the crappy Washington Post anymore? I mean, honestly. Do you see why trust has collapsed? Because you're morons. Every American achievement arrives with a lecture. Hey, there's going to be smoke in the air. And did you know you're standing on stolen ground? Celebration now comes wrapped with guilt. Every flag needs an apology. I got a firecracker. I'd like to shove up. Every victory requires a disclaimer. It's relentless and we're done with it. But just know it has consequences. Everything you're doing today has consequences because the people who are taught to roll their eyes at their own history will eventually stop defending

it. People who cannot celebrate can't get past themselves to celebrate what their nation did has forgotten themselves. I walked on the National Mall. I saw children staring up with wonder at some of the monuments yesterday. I saw veterans standing quietly before the monuments built for friends who never came home. I saw families from every corner of the country. That's the story, Washington Post. That's the headline. That's what deserves to be remembered.

You don't have to pretend America is perfect to lover. The founders didn't. Read their letters. They argued constantly. They knew this nation had sins to confront and promises yet to fulfill. I wait to tell you here what I say, what Thomas Jefferson, the guy who wrote the Declaration of Independence, let me tell you what he wrote about that declaration.

But they still pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their honor to her. Because they understood something. Too many people in our elite institutions have completely forgotten. Love does not require perfection. Do you go home at night? Washington Post reporters, do you go home at night and just keep reminding your wife, you know, you once were really fat. You know, I love it when you're skinny.

I love it when you're healthy looking, but you remember when you were pregnant how fat you were? I don't know, because I keep thinking about all the fatness in your history. Is that love? Love requires gratitude. So let me say something here that apparently has become controversial. America is worth celebrating without apology, without caveats, without the freaking stolen land, without embarrassment, without an asterisk. And if that offends you, the problem is not with the fireworks, the problem's not with the country,

the problem is you. The problem is somewhere, somehow, you lost the ability to be grateful for the greatest inheritance of liberty ever handed from one generation to the next. And that is far more dangerous than a little smoke. in the air. This is the best of the Glenn Beck program. Anna, welcome. Thanks for having that one.

It is so great to have you. Thank you. Yeah, especially on the 250th birthday weekend. I know, it's nuts. It's nuts. I don't remember what congressman. I'm sorry to change this subject, but I just noticed your congressional pen there.

And I had a congressman walking with me at one point, or maybe it was a senator, and he took it off. The minute he got off the Capitol grounds, he took it off. and he said, this is the ring. He's like, this is,

I feel like, I think it's Massey. It was Massey. He's right. I like to wear it during press interviews for speech and debate clause. Because people try to sue you. Oh,

as long as you're wearing that. Well, you know, because you've invited me as my official capacity. So, you know, when I'm talking about people's

inside of trading and stuff, yeah. Wow. Wow. Yeah, he took it off. He said, I don't like it

because he's like, it's the power of the ring. It's like, it's my pressure. My precious. He's not wrong. He's not wrong for a lot of people. You know, especially right now with the political climate too, you don't want to wear it unless you're, you know, on the hill because it's a target.

Scary? It's definitely changed, especially after Charlie. But what's even crazier is that, you know, there's this sentiment of assassination culture where people are actually pushing it and embracing it. And I mean, we can probably do a whole segment on what just happened in New York with a lot of. of the DSA candidates getting elected. But, you know, there's been a lot of anti-white rhetoric, a lot of, I believe I saw one comment specifically that said gas, and it was referencing a group, you know, of predominantly Jewish Americans. And so, you know, that type of stuff is really horrifying to see because these people say, oh, well, communism or socialism just hasn't been done

correctly. Yeah. And we know that that's wrong. When, when, I mean, how many times do we have to go through this? It's the same, it's the same thing. It just doesn't work. generally speaking, you, you hopeful? Well, yeah. So last time I was talking with you, I think we were talking about the Neville-Roy-Singham and the network. And you saw that the Department of Justice has a massive investigation and has been working on investigating him, going after him criminally. So yes, absolutely hopeful. So I had, Jason was with me. I had the FBI call. How long ago was that?

Three months ago, Jason? Oh, yeah. Easy. Maybe six months ago. the FBI called and said, we'd like to talk to you. And I'm like, do I need to come? Is there a problem? Always bring a lawyer. I know, I know. What he said, Jason? What did you do? Yeah. Yeah, I did. So I said, sure, come on over to the house. So a couple of agents came over to the house and they were actually, you know, gathering information. And they said, you know so much about these networks. And I said, well, tell me what you guys know. And it was almost nothing. Yeah, they're new. A lot of them, you know, you'd figure that the criminal aspect, this gets in too far. So I. So I I actually have the legislation already back. I'm writing it with Derek Van Orden, who's another member of Congress. And so it's specifically to force influencers to kind of actually go after these networks also for taking money from foreign government. So we know that with the Singham network specifically is getting a lot of funding from China. But now that the Department of Justice is actually doing their job instead of going after, you know, people at abortion clinics that are simply protesting or, you know, Catholics.

Right. It's crazy what happens when the government does their job. And it was crazy to me as they sat down, Jason and I, they left him. Jason and I were like, oh my gosh. I mean, and it makes sense that, you know, Obama, Biden, they're not investigating any of this stuff. They don't want any investigation on this stuff. And it was amazing to me how little they knew at the time, because these are advanced networks. And if those networks are put on notice, oh, we're coming for you. Some of it will go deeper into hiding, but a lot of it will do.

just stop because it's right on the surface. Well, a lot of these people to include the individuals that were knowingly engaged with taking money from foreign governments are now also under investigation. But you can't just do investigations or has to be punitive action to it. And so that's going to happen. Wait, wait, wait. Say that again because that's like conservative porn. You don't hear that all the time. Yeah. So it's going to happen. They're not just investigating to investigate. They are going after these people. And so I have known about the investigation for some time. I just can't talk about it until the DOJ actually does their announcement. But, you know, this goes back to...

Even with the pin. Even with the pin. I think the pin gives you permission to say it here. Well, yeah, depending on who's interpreting the rules, right? Right, right. Senator Rubio at the time, when he was on Senate Intelligence actually had written a letter, was following the Singham Network. Senator Rick Scott actually also just did a letter to say, hey, some of these organizations like Code Pink, we need to read. remove the 501c3 status of them.

Yeah. Also to Senator Jim Banks. So we have a lot of good conservative senators that are following this. But, you know, I mean, can we please go to the Senate? Because I got a lot to share. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

So let's go. Yeah. So, you know, I want to just be really clear about something. We're on America's 250th birthday right now, our birthday celebration, basically this entire year. And we control the House, the Senate and the White House. And yet you have a group of four Republicans in. Senate and really John Thune, who has every ability to enforce the talking filibuster and just

doesn't want to do it. Mike Lee is beside himself. But the thing is that you cannot, like if you're going to continue the cycle of insanity, then you can't complain about it. But that's why I'm taking such a hardline position on what I'm doing right now with, by the way, other members of Congress. This is not just my fight. I mean, you have members of the Freedom Caucus, Representative Tim Burchett, Max Miller.

All these members are saying, hey, hold up. we have the ability to in the text of the National Defense Authorization Act put D.C. of America Act. And yet, why are we not doing it? And so I'm not voting for the rule. They're not going to vote for the rule. And the excuse that I got from leadership, actually, I got a call from Steve Scalese. And he said, we can't put it in because it's considered not germane.

That means it has nothing to do with the bill. First of all, there's been many cases this year in the 119th Congress where they've done other legislation that you could argue was not germane and they stuck things in. And secondly, as a veteran, if you are telling me that voter ID and proof of citizenship and everything else in California is not important to national defense and security, maybe you haven't been paying attention. It is. And so we have. Especially with, especially with what's happening with China, especially with what's happening with Iran. It's not just China and Iran.

It is Chuck Schumer saying that he wants to give citizenship to millions of illegal people here. It is the fact that it doesn't matter if it's one or 100 or 1,000 cases of voter fraud. Why would you not want to secure that? It is the fact that you have, you know, I call them blue an ons, but these Democrats that are saying, oh, the, you know, the Trump machine is going to steal the election. You hear this crazy concept that they stole the last election. Well, let's play devil's advocate. If you really think the election's going to be stolen, don't you want voter ID? But like even aside from that, even aside from party politics, black, white, Hispanic, Democrat, Republican, Republican, Independent.

men, women. We all want voter ID. Period. And so I'm not going to, I don't care if they go on television and trash me. Everyone who's paying attention knows that if we don't stick this in the NDA, if we don't stick it in FISA, if we don't try everything, if we don't try in reconciliation, it will never become law. And that's not, that's not an option. Is the president for you on this or against you? I won't speak for the president. But what I will say is that I have been one of President Trump's very few from the beginning, protectors and defenders, and I was with him in New York City

and I will continue to have his back. And there are some members of Congress that are using this fight right now for some personal reasons and gains. I think he's addressing them, not me. Can you tell me what the hell is wrong with Thune? People ask me all the time, why won't they do it?

What are they gaining by not doing it other than just continuing to play the game. You know, John Thune's GOP went to censure him. Then they said, well, if we censure him, it's going to give the Democrats a win. I would argue that, you know, when you have someone that's failing to deliver on one of the promises that the Republican Party made to the American people, then that's a failure in itself. And in the military, you learn when you have poor leadership, you don't blame the enlisted. You take responsibility as a commanding officer. So where is the responsibility taking of the Senate?

Then you have these other members that don't care. So this idea in the Senate is, and you can see it, they were more concerned about putting the automatic win for some of the lawsuits that they had for their cases than they were debating Save America. They were more concerned about dog parades than Save America. They all went on recess and vacation, and then they're attacking Mike Lee behind closed doors. and Senator Scott because he's fighting, I don't care.

I don't want to be in Senate. And what I will tell you is part of the freeing part of, I think, my mentality in this is that I don't care if I'm here for 10 years or not. So like I can do what's right and necessary. So let me tell you something, when you actually don't care, because that's what terrified people. When I was at the network level, that terrified them. Because I didn't care if I was on Fox for another day or CNN. It didn't matter to me. I don't care. When you actually can say, I don't care, and people believe you, the power that

comes with that is remarkable because people don't know what to do with you. There's no way to intimidate you. You're like, go ahead. I don't care. The best advice I ever got was from Jim Jordan, two things. The first thing he said is, always travel with your spouse because you know, you're a young woman and they'll try to spread rumors, which I do always travel to my spouse and my child as well. And then the other thing was is if you promise to do what you said you were going to do on the campaign trail, it's remarkable how easy it will be for you at this job. And I promise to do this to every single one of my voters. And you know what? When people go to the press and they trash me, I'm not going to bring up their stock trades that look remarkably similar to insider trading.

I'll let the American people do that. But what I will focus on is my parliamentary tools and my toolkit. And guess what? you want my vote, put the text of the Save America Act in the National Defense Authorization Act. Stop giving me excuses. Stop pulling parliamentary procedure. Stop lying to the American people and saying that we're obstructing. We are fighting. You all promised to do this when you guys got elected. Again, I have to go back. Why won't they? Well, there is some concern, I think, in the House, that Senate would have to take a tough vote on the NDA. But I don't care. Oh, my gosh. But who crime me a river? Let's send it over. Let's help our frontline member.

that depend on this. Let's help them get elected because guess what? The midterms are only a few months away. Let's give the American people faith in their vote and the election process. Let's deliver for the president. But more importantly, if the Senate's going to then make the decision to strip that out, let them offer the amendment to strip it out. Let them take that vote and let John Thune say, this is what my chamber did. But it is not my job. And I refuse to run cover for the Senate. And I refuse to run cover for those in the House that are trying to protect the Senate. Do you think the GOP, is anyone learning the lesson from Cornyn and what happened, that the GOP voter is just done? We're not playing the same game anymore.

I think the Senate made a very terrible mistake in trying to back candidates that they knew would fail because they live up here. They've gotten too complacent in their circle. And that's why the founding fathers never wanted politics to be a full-time job. But they'll just have to learn the hard way. And I look forward to the president's convention because some of these people won't be able to show their face. And it's not about shaming people. It's about calling them out for promising and failing to deliver. 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. Okay, so Thomas Jefferson has been for 17 days eking out this draft of the Declaration of Independence. And now comes the part of the story that will tell you more about what America actually is. is than any fireworks show ever could. I don't know, this fireworks show on Saturday is going to be pretty amazing, but I digress. The Declaration of Independence was not handed down from heaven on a golden tablet, okay? It was argued over. It was cut.

It was compromised. It was mangled. Jefferson's own friends used that word, mangled in a hot, sealed, frightened room of really flawed men. and I promise you the true story is a thousand times better than the myth or anything that they ever taught you. I don't even know. I don't even know what I learned about the Declaration of Independence and School, but I can tell you what I know now. It's completely different.

But first, you have to understand the air in that building. Congress was seated in Philadelphia in a sworn oath of secrecy. The members had to take a pledge. Not one word of what was being said inside leaves this room. not one word. So the doors were shut and the windows were closed. Remind you, this is in Philadelphia in July. It's super hot.

It is like what it is now here in Washington, D.C. It's like 90 or, you know, 100 degrees. And then you add the humidity. Then add, think of this. They're sitting in this room closed off. They're wearing wool jackets, wool socks, wool vests, heavy wigs. There are no fans. There's no ice. Air conditioning would have to wait for the guy in San Antonio, Texas to invent it in the 1950s. And there was no deodorant. Deodorant had to wait almost, well, over 100 years, 1888. It was invented in Philadelphia. Oh, I know this. It was mom's deodorant, okay? But again, I digress. No deodorant. For now, no open doors or windows because every sentence spoken in that chamber was hanging. It was a hanging of. offense. If it reached the king's ear, you would be drawn and quartered. So there's no

press in the room, no public, no record of the debate for the world to see, just a few dozen men sweating through their shirts, deciding whether to commit treason with the windows nailed shut against spies. That's the pressure cooker these sacred words came out of. So Jefferson, who trusted their judgment most, didn't show his draft to the whole committee. first. He just slipped it to the two men whose opinion he valued above all others. And that was Benjamin Franklin, who was so crippled by that summer he could barely climb a staircase and John Adams. And the two of them only made a handful of small changes. And they're marked on our copy, the original engraving from 1826 of Jefferson's first draft. We have it and you can see it.

There's just a word here and a word there. And they're signed, B. Franklin. J. Adams. But one of the small changes, I'd argue, is one of the most important edits in the history of the English language. Jefferson had originally written that these truths were sacred and undeniable. Sacred and undeniable. And we think it was Franklin who crossed it out and wrote self-evident. Why? Sacred means you have to believe it. you can't really question it. It's sacred. It's scripture. It rests on your faith. It asks you to bow. Self-evident means you only have to think for a minute. It rests on reason. It's available to every human being who can look at the world and see it plainly. It's self-evident. It's right there. With one stroke of the old man's pen, the most important sentence in the document was thrown open to all of mankind, believer and skeptic. Christian, Jew, deus, doubter, all of it. So you don't have to take it on faith that you were born free. You only have to open your eyes. That is an edit that changed the world. And the man who probably made it thought he

was just tidying up the pros a bit. So it's June 28th. The committee lays the draft before full Congress. And that's when the knives come out. Okay. Not the committee's gentle trims. But Congresses. Over the first few days of July, they fought their way towards a vote itself. The whole body went through Jefferson's draft line by line, and then they cut a quarter of it, a quarter. And Jefferson had to sit there the whole time, in the room, sweating, silent. He couldn't bring himself to defend his own work out loud.

He would sit there and he would watch them carve up his words in front of everybody. Can you imagine? Imagine being a genius sitting in a room and watching a committee carve up everything you do. Anybody who's ever poured their soul into something and then watched a committee, you know, redline it, you know exactly the particular agony that that guy was going through. And then comes the most human part of the story, part I never heard before. Ben Franklin is sitting next to Thomas Jefferson the whole time, and he's watching that kid suffer. he's watching him flinch at every cut they make. So Franklin leans over.

He says, Tom, I want to tell you a story. The story about a young hatter. And he's opening up a new shop. And he was so proud of what he was doing. He was so excited about it that he wants to make a huge sign. Tom, let me tell you a story. there's this guy named John Thompson. He was a store.

He was a hatter. And he wanted to open a shop. And he wanted to make the best hat shop ever. And he wanted this grand sign. And he said, he's going to say, John Thompson, Hatter makes and sells hats ready for money.

And I would have a picture of a hat on it. And he shows it to his friends. And Tom looks over at Ben Franklin, smiling, painfully, most likely. Mm-hmm. And his friend says,

Hatter. That's redundant. You have right there on the sign, Makes hats. Why do you need Hatter? Cut it. And the next one says, Makes. Why do you need makes? Nobody cares who made them. Cut it. And the next guy says, ready for money. Of course it's for money. Cut it. On and on, friend by friend,

until all that was left on the sign was John Thompson and a picture of a hat. Franklin winked at him. I know what you're going through. And so does John Thompson the hatter. Don't take it personally. That's the wisest comfort an old man ever gave a wounded young one, I think. But one of those cuts wasn't small. And you need to hear of this part clearly and squarely because it's the hardest and most important truth in the whole document. Jefferson's original draft contained a long, blazing, furious paragraph, laid out the entire Atlantic slave trade, and he put it right at the king, George III, right at his feet. He called it a cruel war against human nature itself. The king was violating the most sacred

rights of life and liberty, and he was keeping this piratical warfare. He's called him a pirate. Who was the pirate? Who were the pirates at the time? The pirates at the time were the Barbary pirates. They were the Muslims. They could just take people. If you weren't Muslim, they could take you and they could kill you. They could rape you. They could sell you into slavery because you're not really a person. Because you're, you're an infidel. Thomas Jefferson says this piratical warfare is the warfare. And then he prints the Christian king and underlines it. saying, how dare you call yourself a Christian? And he is determined to keep an open market where men are to be bought and sold,

capitalized, men are to be bought and sold. Because he wants the king to see it and remember, I said men, all men are created equal, and I count slaves as men. But wait a minute, didn't Thomas Jefferson say, didn't he have slaves? Why didn't he free? Why would he say that and then have slaves? because in Virginia, in 1767, in Virginia, Thomas Jefferson proposes an emancipation proclamation. Did you know that? In the state of Virginia, long before he writes the Declaration

of Independence, he authors an emancipation proclamation that all slaves must be freed. You know who stopped it? King George III. That's why he was so passionate about this because he goes on. He says, you have stopped every attempt to stop slavery. It was the most radical, most morally explosive passage in the entire declaration, a whole paragraph, half a page. Now, this doesn't let anybody off the hook in either direction because the truth cuts both ways, and you should hear all of it. The contradiction is staggering, and it is real. The man who wrote the searing condemnation of slavery owned more than a human beings himself freed almost none of them, even at his death, because he couldn't.

He was in debt and they were property. That's why he didn't include life, liberty, and property. But you have to hold on to all of these things, both good and bad. Don't flinch from it. That anti-slavery paragraph was in the document. It was written. It was written by Thomas Jefferson. That's important.

The committee of five, Franklin, Adams, all of them left it in. They didn't cut it. It was for the full Congress that had to strike it out. And Jefferson told us exactly why they did it. And who did it? He wrote it down because he never forgived the Congress for doing this. The clause condemning slavery, he said, was struck out, quote, in complacence to South Carolina and Georgia. The two colonies that have never once tried to restrain the importation of slaves and who fully intended to keep right on, end quote two colonies that's who would not abide it it means 11 colonies said no to slavery a hundred years we were the only one saying this and were still the only ones that feel bad about it and they did it to keep all 13 colonies in the same boat to keep the unanimity that if we didn't the whole thing would have died the bravest paragraph in the declaration was thrown overboard it was replaced with a vague watered down line about the king stirring up

domestic insurrections among us. The thunder is gone. The compromise was made and that unpaid debt would come due. Four score and nine years later to be paid in a sea of blood at places called and Teetam and Gettysburg. So how confident were these men in what they had just done? It depends on the man, really. John Adams was certain it was monument. He wrote home to his wife. Tomorrow is the anniversary 250 years ago that he wrote to his wife, Abigail, and said, boy, what we did yesterday on July 2nd will be remembered forever. It'll be celebrated down through the generations with pomp and parade and bonfires and

illuminations in the sky from one end of the continent to the other. July 2nd, he wrote, will be remembered forever. He just sat on the wrong day. he thought the day of the actual vote, not the fourth. The fourth is when we announced it to the world. I think he might have been baffled to learn that we light up the skies two days late, at least at the beginning. And Jefferson?

Jefferson never made peace with it. Never. The cuts wounded him for the rest of his life. In the days right after the 4th of July, everybody else was celebrating and he sat down and he quietly made clean copies of his original draft his director's cut if you will the version before congress took the knife to it and he mailed them to his friends like richard henlery lee and george wife and he sent them each a note one of them is almost funny in its wounded pride you judge for yourself he told lee

whether the thing is better or worse for the critics. Did the critics do the right thing? Lee wrote him back and said, no, no, no. They mangled it, Tom. They mangled it. Another friend Pendleton wrote Thomas Jefferson back after he sent them the original draft, and he said they changed it for the worst.

Jefferson spent decades convinced that Congress had damaged his masterpiece. I want you to decide for yourself, because both versions survive. It is so easy. Look up Thomas Jefferson's first draft of the Declaration of Independence. Do you know it's this audience that is making this famous? I found this about eight years ago and no one was talking about it. The Department of Education has announced it's going to be taught in schools beginning in 2030 now.

We showed the Department of Education this original draft and I explained it to them. They were like, wait, what? How is it no one knows this? Because it answers all of the questions. You can find it online. Read that to your children. Read the first draft and then explain what happened. Here's what I want you to leave with.

I want you to leave with the truth. I want you to lead with the argument because it wasn't a parade. It was a fight. The finest words ever written down about human equality sit inside the very same document as deafening silence about the millions of human beings that equality did not yet reach, a silence that those men chose with open eyes. They knew what they were doing, but they felt at the time we won't make any progress if we don't first get free of the king because he will never change.

They knew it was a compromise, and they knew it was both more than they could live up to at the time a hundred years before anybody else was and a promise their grandchildren would be measured against and found wanting but they signed it anyway let me ask you put yourself in their days what would you have done they pledged their lives their fortunes and their sacred honor to a promise they knew they were already breaking and they trusted us the people standing here 250 years downstream to finish what they could not. So go find it. Go read the original. Cut passages and all.

Lay George Mason's Declaration of Rights beside it. Read the flawed, frightened, brilliant, compromise, magnificent men who actually wrote it with a rope in plain sight and the windows nailed shut. The version they hand you in a schoolbook is a statue. It's cold, it's finished, it's safe, it's wrong. The real one bleeds. Na Na Na Na