The Glenn Beck Program - Best of The Program | Guests: Glenn Greenwald & Michael Knowles | 4/20/23

Episode Date: April 20, 2023

Glenn rips the Washington Post for claiming conservatives have long embraced cancel culture. Journalist Glenn Greenwald discusses why a federal indictment of four black radicals for allegedly working with Russian spies is a dangerous slippery slope. The Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles discusses the latest attacks against Daily Wire hosts, including the hacking of Matt Walsh’s phone, as the White House throws its full support behind the radical trans movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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But that's... A trillion dollars. That's it. That's it. That's not it. It is been way more than that. You're saying a guy who's had severe depression enough to be hospitalized because he realized what he got the job, he can't really function or understand anyone.

You're saying him being in charge, the head of the committee producing the farm bill. A trillion dollar bill. A measly trillion dollars. You're saying he's not the guy to get it done right? You are correctly identifying what I'm saying. Yes, that is not what should happen. I think more discussion is needed on that. And we do discuss the return of Federman on the podcast.

on the podcast today. A lot of great stuff. You don't want to miss it. We have Matt Walsh. I have Glenn Greenwald. Talking about the media, the transgender shooting, and the lack of any manifesto,

and the fact that he couldn't get an attorney to represent him to go in and demand the manifesto. You know, political arm twisting there at all? No. No, not at all. This and so much more. on today's podcast brought to you by American Giant. There's an American giant in all of us,

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You're looking for great American clothing, 100% American? American-giant.com. That's American-dash-giant.com slash Glenn. Go there now. You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck program. There's so much going on today, especially with cancel culture, that I think it's important that we kind of have a reset and we talk about what we believe

and how we're handling ourselves. Coming up later today, Michael Knowles is going to be with us, but there is an attack on Matt Walsh, Michael Knowles, the Daily Wire. Things I haven't seen, well, ever, I don't think. The violence, I believe somebody's going to get killed. Pray for everybody at the Daily Wire. And everybody who does this job, because the left has ratcheted up a notch.

They yesterday hacked in to Matt Walsh's email. They took 20 years. of his email and they're just going to start releasing it. By the way, 20 years ago, he was 16. So I'm guessing there's going to be some crazy things in his email. And who hasn't changed in 20 years? They are threatening the security that has to be around all of us that do these jobs now is becoming incomprehensible. Most people who do this job do not make the kind of money that can afford security. So they either live in fear and in risk of being killed or they shut their mouths.

Well, luckily there's enough people like you and me that won't shut our mouths. The left is so infuriating. Let's start with the Bud Light debacle. If they understood, if they just try to understand what we're saying, they would understand a couple of things. We're not after anybody. We're not threatening anybody. But we've had enough.

Tolerance and acceptance is really no longer possible because we are so far apart from each other. We have nothing in common. See, what brought us together, our e-pluribus unum, was an idea. And that idea is all based on the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. Okay? That's it. We always disagreed with each other.

We celebrated the differences. Okay? Diversity was something that we got back in. the 60. We got it. We were making great progress on physical diversity. Great progress. That's gone. Now you're trying

to limit the key to the individual. And that is intellectual and spiritual diversity. It's either your way or the highway.

And I don't mean the highway like beat it kid. I mean they're going to put you in the center of the highway and they're going to run over you with a truck. Look at the violent obsession with Donald Trump. Really, all they had to do was either ignore him or the scariest thing would have been to side with him. Bring him in. Oh, Donald, you're the greatest. He wouldn't have been that big of a problem, but they went after him with everything. They're sick. They're really sick people. It is time we start defining many people on the left as mentally ill. That's what's so annoying is we're blamed for their sickness. No, I have nothing to do with your

sickness. I have nothing to do with your sickness. The attack on Matt Walsh. Matt's account was hacked last night. Ben Shapiro pointed out after the past few months, my friend Matt Walsh has been threatened to the extent that he's had to have full-time security at his home. protect his family. Now he's been hacked. The tolerant and diverse and kind crowd are celebrating, of course. I've said this for a very long time. They self-diagnose. Whatever they accuse you of doing, they are doing. Okay. They accuse us of every crime they ever commit. And that is a consistent trait of theirs. Their moral relativism is so frustrating to deal with. And that's where we really kind of separate. There seems to be moral relativism

and also a complete disregard for the facts of history and individual cases. The left's response from, you know, Bud-like, why would you if you were just a regular beer drinker and you weren't loyal to Bud because it's just another light beer. And you were a blue-collar, red state kind of person. Why would you go by Budweiser when they've just slapped you across the face? And quite honestly, slapped your wife across the face. That's not a woman. Sorry.

He's not a woman. And if you decide to define women and hold that woman up and say, that's the epitome of a woman, she should have her face on a can of beer, then I'm going to find another beer. What is wrong with that? That's not cancel culture. That's an individual choice. Stu said it perfectly on Monday. The New York Times article, they achieved a gaslighting that I didn't even think was possible. And in the next breath, they claim that transgender activists don't exist.

They claim that transgender activists are under attack. Wait a minute. Which is it? They don't exist or they're under attack. Other times, they admit that they do exist, but they only blame us for their existence. Okay. I've just had enough. I don't think I'm much different than the average person.

I didn't get into this job to be this guy, to be a political. activist. I'd like to have my life. Okay, I'd like to do the things I want to do. I'd like to have the opportunities to do the things that I know I can do and I know others would join me, for instance, Paramount Pictures. I had a deal with them. Van Jones and Color of Change got that canceled. Well, I didn't think you guys were doing that. I'd just like to live my life. And whether I'm successful or not successful would be up to me. Do I have something of value to say to the society? If all of this stuff didn't happen, I don't know if I would have been a success.

I just happened to have this point of view and I'm not going to shut up about it. But I don't want to be an activist. I want nothing to do with it. I mock community organizers. Much to my shame now, we should have. to mock those guys. But I don't want to be a symbol. I don't want to be a martyr.

I don't want to be anything of the sort. I don't think anybody on the right does. I just want to live in a world that has verifiable truth, that you are allowed to question the truth. And the mob or the government is not the final arbiter of truth. The facts are. I want to live in a world that. that has verifiable truth, has equal justice where it doesn't matter if it's my son who's a drug addict,

hooking up with hookers, and making deals with the Chinese, if my son were doing that, he should go to jail. But so should the president's son. So, truth, real justice, and dare I say the American way. which is, do not be confused, the American way is that we have certain inalienable rights. And among them are life liberty in the pursuit of happiness. And a few more are outlined in the Bill of Rights. And if they're not mentioned there, that doesn't mean they don't exist. That's all I want.

That's all I want. But I'm sorry, leftist. I'm sorry, transgender people. you force me to stand up because this can't continue. You try to make, write this play in your own mind that none of this is new or even controversial. Like this has been happening the whole time. Suddenly they needed something to complain about. And so the right wing stood up and said,

hey, let's get those transgender people that are reading stories to our kids in the third grade, let's attack them. Like, that was normal. That was not happening. None of this stuff was happening. And they don't seem to ever have to try to make their case. They just do it and then call you names if you disagree. Let me ask you, this transgender stuff, where is the research that shows that this is healthy for children?

Where's the research? I'll tell you where the research is. Nowhere to be found in America, but you can find it in France and England and Sweden and Finland because those guys were on the same train. And now research is being done and they're like, get off this train. This is dangerous for our kids. The reality is so simple.

I don't care if you're transgender. I don't care. I don't. The left starts. coming for our kids. There have been trans shows since the beginning of time. Everything that Shakespeare

ever wrote was done by men and trans women because women couldn't perform. There had been drag shows, drag queens, trans shows forever. But nobody was forced to say that that is a woman by science.

No, no. There's no science that says that none. None. There have been strip clubs forever. Many Americans go to strip clubs. I don't. I think there's many more Americans that don't go to strip clubs. They don't think that it's necessarily moral. But we don't attack strippers. What's the difference? I thought we hated all women. Women strippers, well, we should go get them, right? Because we hate women, and we hate people who have different morals than us. So why isn't there just strippers being clubbed by church members all over the world?

Okay? Because we are tolerant. In fact, too tolerant. You don't threaten strippers or attack strippers. Now, if strippers overnight, all of a sudden, we're in almost all of our schools doing pole dances in third grade,

I think we might have a problem with that. The people who have been silent on strip clubs might start to talk about strippers and strip clubs. And they would wonder, how is this good for the children? And if those strippers said, oh, stop it, you just hate strippers. No, we would say,

this isn't good for our children. We'd question why all of this, all of a sudden. And parents would object. And just like now, some would not dare I say. Some would say, this is good physical exercise. We should have it in PE for first graders. At least that argument would have some very flimsy, but some scientific evidence. Drag shows for kids have no benefit for the kids or society. they deny this. This is the best of the Glenn Beck program.

So let's talk about the to share a case, which, Glenn, it just, there's something wrong with this case. And I know you've been following it. I've been following your writings in your Twitter feed. I think we agree on a lot of this stuff. Let's start with the actual, I can't even call it hacking, but getting into the system that this 21-year-old kid supposedly did,

from every source I have that knows these systems, they say it's impossible for him to get the documents that he had and get away with it for as long as he did. Now, if that's true, and he did just get him and he's working by himself, then there's a bigger issue here. What's broken? And nobody seems to be talking about that. So let's take that one issue. Did he do this alone?

Did he actually, was he the guy all by himself? So I'll tell you what I know. And obviously I agree totally. There's a very same case for so many reasons. And I think skepticism is warranted for every claim being made about it. When, you know, I think all of us are kind of inculcated to oppose the idea that people can leak top secret documents from the U.S. government on their own against the law because it seems like an irresponsible thing to do. Theoretically, it could put people in danger if it exposes the means of covert agents and the like. So all of us kind of just immediately when we hear someone leave classified top secret documents and things that,

That doesn't sound like a good thing to do. The problem is twofold. Number one, our government abuses the secrecy powers it has in ways that are impossible to overstays. Almost everything our government does immediately gets stamped, classified secret or top secret, which makes it a felony for anyone to disclose what our government is doing. When I worked on the Snowden documents, you know, I spent a year and a half going through hundreds of thousands of top secret documents, and the vast majority of them were worthless. They were banal.

Things like how do you get a parking credential or ask for vacation days got marked secret and then what was illegal to leak. The other thing is over a million people have access to the most basic kind of classified material. The same classification that he had, the same authority he had and nothing more, millions, right? A million. So how can we even call these documents secret when you're making them, available to a million or two million people who work, you know, not just within our government, but with all those corporations that are joined at the hip to the U.S. military state like

C.E. Now in Hamilton and all those private contractors right beyond general dynamics, they all have access to this gigantic database of things that are supposedly so classified. In this case, though, there do seem to be some really sensitive documents that are marked top secret for good reason, including things like showing that Biden has deployed special forces on the ground in Ukraine, despite telling us that he wasn't doing that, that do raise questions of how a 21-year-old in the Massachusetts National Guard could possibly have to be access to these materials and then spent months putting them on the Internet without being detected, given that we all live in a U.S. surveillance state, let alone people who have this kind of a job. It is very mysterious, I agree.

Okay, so from what I've been told to dumb it down for me, they said, imagine a house. He has the key to the front door, but everything else is compartmentalized, and you have to have a key to each door inside. Just because you can get into the front house doesn't mean you can get into the safe, doesn't mean you can get into the liquor cabinet or any of the other doors around. he doesn't have any of those codes or classifications to be able to get in to find these documents. And even when you do find them, you kind of find the doors, as I understand it, you'll have a better understanding. You can't just mill around and like, hey, here's a whole stack of documents. You kind of have to know where, what you're looking for.

Is that true or not? Yeah, that's a perfect metaphor. When I say there are, you know, more than a million people with access to. classified documents, of course, I do not mean that they have access to every classified document, right? So there's not a million people with access to, say, the new court codes or specific troop movements that the generals in Ukraine are helping the Ukrainians engineer. Those are compartmentalized and far fewer people have access to those, but higher you go up in the secrecy or sensitivity level. The issue, though, here is I really question how sensitive

these documents actually are. Like I said, they don't contain the names of any covert agents. And you have media outlets in the New York Times and the Washington Post, which on the one hand helped expose this kid. They found him, they hunted them down. I'm going to move over the FBI.

Hang on, I want to take this piece by piece. We're going to come back to that. So go ahead. Okay. Yeah. So now he's out of the way. And they are using this stash of documents. The Washington Post has branded them, you know, exclusive, the Discord leaks. and they're going them out every day by doing reporting, which implicitly means there are things in these documents that are

journalistically worthwhile that are in the public interest to know. It's very odd that they started off being released, and now suddenly the media outlets closest to the CIA and the Pentagon, the Washington Post of New York Times, have exclusive control over them and are kind of doling them out in a way that the government seems very comfortable with. It's all about now promoting U.S. narratives as opposed to doing anything that actually exposes incriminating information about the

Biden administration. That's what I find out about it. So do you believe this kid acted alone, or there was somebody else involved with better access that was pushing some sort of a narrative that they wanted pushed, somebody wanted pushed, or is he just a stupid kid that did this and was like, I just want to be popular with my friends? Yeah, I mean, of course. You know, whatever I say is so much speculative, since I don't actually know. But my view is you would be surprised at how sloppy the U.S. government is with even pretty sensitive secrets. Remember, Edward Stodon was 29 years old when he walked out with a massive archive from the most

sensitive agency, which was the NSA. Chelsea Manning was an army private and managed to send to WikiLeaks gigantic amounts of information. And it seems like what he did was photopied documents that were like. laying on a table, I would not at all be surprised if there were other people working with him, because, again, the way these weeks ended up happening seems to boost the U.S. agenda and not undermine anything the Biden administration is doing. But I also wouldn't be surprised if he was able to do this because the thing our government does with these classified documents is very reckless.

My good friend, Michael Knowles. How are you, Michael? I'm doing well. I'm doing better than that effigy. Yeah. pleased to report. I am not on fire, totally alive. Yeah. Well, I just wanted to reach out to you and everybody at the Daily Wire, let you know that our prayers are with you guys. We've been there, done that. We know what it's like. And anything we can do to help you on any front, Michael, let me know.

No, thank you, Glenn. I really appreciate it because we're trying to take it in stride. This is just par for the course. but the attacks are increasing, especially what they did to Matt. I mean, getting this guy's entire private correspondence going back 20 years. And why? Why, Glenn? It's all because of this one issue. It's because we have had the temerity to say that boys can't really be girls

and we shouldn't be pumping little kids full of hormones and cutting off their body parts. And because of this, the threats have gone absolutely through the roof. And I think it just exposes how ridiculous one of the classic lines from the left is, which is what the left always says is, why do you care? Why do you care so much if we pretend that men can really be women? Why do we care? Well, I don't think we're the ones who seem so fanatical about this and so obsessed. You're the ones hacking into people's cell phones.

You're the ones throwing off incendiary devices. Call it what it is. It's an explosive at a public debate over transgenderism, burning people in effigy. I don't think that we're the ones that started this fight. We're just trying to speak common sense and reason. And if you guys are so afraid of common sense and reason, that tells me this is exactly the fight that we've got to be in. So, Michael, you're in Nashville, which I told you guys should have come to Dallas. But you're in Nashville where you had a shooter and now you can't get the manifesto from the Nashville police.

I mean, Glenn Greenwald tried to hire two firms. He finally got one. Two firms they said they would represent him to get that released. And they called back like an hour later and they're like, yeah, we're not going to do that. And it was all because of political pressure. Right. In defense of the Nashville police, I strongly suspect that they're not the ones that are holding this up. I strongly suspect the minute that federal government got involved. I think probably the political pressure is coming all the way down from the White House.

Well, it's time for good men to stand up and good women. The attacks that are coming on you guys, as I walked out of the studio last night, I just thought somebody's going to get. killed. Somebody's going to die. And it's, I mean, we're entering a time of assassinations. And we have, thank God, not had any of the stuff that was happening in the 60s. But that happened because of zealots. And we are seeing people that are so bat, crap, crazy that I'm afraid they're going to kill

somebody. and this is exactly what the media has been saying is going to happen from the right, and we're damn close to it here from the left. And the media are encouraging it. We should be very clear about that. This is why the media lied about what I said at CPAC, when I said that for the good of society and especially for the good of the people who identify as transgender, we've got to eradicate this ideology because the ideology is false,

and it's really harming people. And if the media thought that what I said was so objectionable, they would have just printed what I said. Correct. They know that pretty much everybody agrees with that. And so they lied, and they said that I called to eradicate people. And I can't think of any explanations to why they would lie other than to call for violence

against us. And they've gotten what they've wanted. I mean, you're seeing these things increase. I always try to take this in stride and with a grain of salt. I think people mouth off on the internet all the time, and they think they're a lot tougher than they really are. But now we're seeing fruits of this kind of a threat. And specifically on this issue, we're seeing people who are not in control of their reason.

We're talking about people who are not the most rational. And so we might think, oh, people will come to their senses. They're mouthing off a little bit, but it's no big deal. Not on this issue. No, there's no sense. Anyone who's dealt with it can see. Yeah, there's no sense. to come to on this particular issue.

And the media, but also the administration, by having a group of children killed, and then the vice president come to Nashville and sit with the family of the killer and not the children is pretty remarkable. So if I am somebody who is in the transgender extremist movement, And I feel like, you know, I can do anything, you know, including kill people. That just sent the message to me that I'm right.

I'm right. This was a message we just saw today. It came out from the Biden administration that days after the Nashville shooting, where all of the evidence seems to suggest that the transgender ideology played a role here. Obviously, it's transgender identified shooter targeting and killing Christian kids. days after that shooting, the Biden administration through the EEOC sent out a message saying that increasingly trans people are at risk. They just will not give up the line. No evidence, no events can dissuade them.

And so the message is clear from the White House. The message is clear that we are behind this absurd ideology and you can do anything you want to defend it. Michael, what, where do you think this goes from here? I was just reading an old monologue from Rush Limbaugh today, and he said, we're at the point of a national split. We don't have anything in common anymore. There are no root principles that we can be in common. And this, you know, this is before he died.

Where are we? What's coming? When I was asleep, we asked him about certain basic issues in the country. At the time, I think we were talking about marriage. And we said, can there be a federalist solution here on this issue and the states just pick however they want to pick? And he said, well, I love federalism and I love states' rights. There are certain issues that seem so fundamental that we need to come to an agreement nationally. Slavery would be an issue.

Marriage, the fundamental building block of politics would be one of those issues. And I think even more fundamental than that, of course, would be what a man is and what a woman is. If a nation cannot agree on that, then a nation cannot agree on anything at all. You're seeing this play out right now in Colorado. Colorado has become a sanctuary state for transing the kids. And I don't think this will remain a state issue. If we cannot communicate with one another, if our speech is no longer intelligible, then we cannot have a self-governing republic, the premise of which is that we can talk about issues,

perceive the truth, and determine how we all want to live together. That is breaking down and accelerating before our eyes. I thought of two phrases yesterday from the founders, Franklin. A republic, ma'am, if you can keep it. And the other, I think was John Adams. This system is wholly unfit for an irreligious and, what did he say? Immoral people. I mean, I thought of both of those yesterday.

I thought, boy, they're right. I mean, we have these freedoms. But if we don't have some governor on ourselves, this is what happens. You have riots in the streets in Chicago, and nobody says anything. These are teenagers. If they don't learn now,

they've got, you know, if they're lucky, another five years before they're shot, you know, or the rest of their life to go. What are they going to be like when they're 40 if they make it? I'm so glad you brought up the John Adams quote because a lot of people misunderstand it. I think a lot of people think that that John Adams quote is just a nice platitude about how you should go to church. We should all be nice to each other. What John Adams is saying here is he's simply describing a fact about the Republic.

He's just observing that if a people does. not have a shared understanding of what's good and bad and right and wrong and true and false, if we do not make a conscious effort to pursue the good and to avoid evil, this is a basic requirement of statecraft, then the republic will break down. And that's just a fact you can rely on it like any other scientific fact. And now, unfortunately, we appear to be proving that right through our own experiment. I sense with some, I hope, I hope this is correct and I hope you're sensing it too. I am sensing a deeper understanding from the right on how fast this can fall apart on us,

how close we are, and how meek and humble and peaceful we need to be. I've been afraid of the right striking out, but I'm only afraid of the lone person like the trans shooter. I'm only afraid of that one crazy out there. I think that we're starting to understand the right is that we're dealing with evil. Our enemies are not our neighbors. It's evil. And it's almost like the entire nation is possessed. It is. I don't know how you can describe it, especially when we're talking about an ideology that tells you to hate your body and sterilize yourself.

And hate your neighbor. And hate your neighbor and hate your country and be destructive and burn things down. You're so right, though, Glenn, on people waking up and seeing how quickly this can happen. I'm reminded of that Ernest Hemingway quote from the sun also rises when he's asked how he went bankrupt. And he says, gradually, then suddenly. Yes. Things can slowly decline for a while, but then once you cross a certain threshold, once we no longer know what a man is or a woman is, once we no longer know what our country is, things can decay very quickly. It's happened many times before in history. We are not magically immune to that. If we don't make a conscious, concerted effort to preserve our society, our community, we're going to lose it. I said it years ago, I said, this is all going to build up. And then it's going to just come like a thief in the night.

And you'll have so many friends who will say, when did this happen? Right now. Right now is when it's happening. You weren't paying attention. But it's been happening for years. And you chose not to look at it. So don't come surprised. You just chose not to look at it.

And I think that's the choice a lot of Americans are making. But I'm glad. I think there are more Americans that are saying, wait, I should probably pay attention to what's going on here and are getting more and more involved. Michael, thank you. And also, I want to thank you as a non-Catholic, but thank you as a Catholic for standing up for your faith, being a great representation of your faith. I've heard you recently call for peace and, you know, all of the teachers. of Jesus, and I just can't thank you enough, Michael. I'm proud to call you a friend. Well, thank you, Glenn. I appreciate that, and the feeling is mutual, and let's just,

let's just pray as largely what we can do right now. Let's pray that there is a happy solution to what is now an urgent and increasingly dire problem. Thank you very much. God bless to everybody.