The Glenn Beck Program - Best of The Program | Guests: Russell Vought, Rebecca Friedrichs, & Matthew Bocci | 9/9/20

Episode Date: September 9, 2020

The Trump administration sent a cease-and-desist letter to all federal agencies holding critical race theory trainings, and Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought joins to explain. For Kids and Country founder Rebecca Friedrichs explains why parents and teachers must stand together against the radical teachers’ unions working to destroy our country and children. Glenn speaks with Matthew Bocci about his new book, “Sway,” which recounts the incredible story of losing his dad in 9/11 when he was 9 years old and overcoming his struggles afterward. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Spring break isn't what it used to be. It's better. This spring, stay three nights and get a $50 best Western gift card. Life's a trip. Make the most of it at Best Western. Visit bestwestern.com for complete terms and conditions. Hey, welcome to Wednesday. We have a big special on Blaze TV tonight that is about brainwashing our kids.

This time, it's part two. It's about the new sex ed course that is just horrific. We talk about it in great detail. And also what is happening in Washington with the critical theory, which is Marx. It's what's destroying our country right now. It's Black Lives Matter. It's what's happening in our schools. It's the cancel culture.

That's all critical race theory. Donald Trump is standing against it. We have the director of the OMB from the administration to talk about how they're going to cut all of these programs, how they are going to find out exactly what is going on. Now we found out that deep state is real, and the government, unbeknownst to the president, has been funding critical race theory of propaganda and lessons inside the government, trying to turn our own institutions against itself. It's phenomenal.

Then we find another document dump that the teachers' unions, along with the Board of Education, if you will, It has funded a radical group trying to teach teachers to overthrow the government of the United States. We got a comment from Betsy DeVos, who is, of course, against all this. This has been in play now since we think at least 2004. If you didn't believe in the deep state in 2016, I get it. If you don't believe in it now, you're a moron. What do we do about it? All that and an incredible story from a kid who is nine, who lost his dad on 9-11, the first survivor story from a child of a 9-11 victim, all on today's podcast.

And don't forget to subscribe at blazTV.com slash Glenn. Use the promo code Glenn. Get access to that special. Also, new studios America and so much more at Blaze TV. You're listening to the best of the Glenn. Today, we found out that the White House has ordered an end of critical. race theory training. Now for government agencies, that's a start. We need to get it out of our schools as well. We have Russ vote on with us. He's the director of office of management and budget. And what that does in case you don't know, this is the guy responsible for overseeing the implementation of the policy from the president, the management, the regulatory agendas all across the executive

branch, kind of a tough job when you got a guy that is doing so much to cut all of that stuff. Russ, how are you, sir? I'm doing fine. Thanks for having me on, Glenn. You bet. So, first of all, what was it that was seen at the federal level that got the president's attention and said, we got to stop this right now? Well, I think you've seen a lot of these kinds of reports begin to percolate up in the news. and we specifically mentioned that in the memo that we put out on Friday. But, you know, the president has seen some of the great work that's been put out there by Chris Rufo,

some of the investigative work that's being done as a result of whistleblowers, quite frankly, as we get a handle on the many areas where the agencies are often contracting out with third parties that have ideological events that are teaching content that's inconsistent. with the long history of our country, but quite frankly, the future of our country, because if you teach the workers of the federal government to hate their country, where are we going to be down the road? So we did some important work last week on behalf of the president, and we're going to be working to make sure it actually gets implemented, and it's not just a policy prescription. So how pervasive was it? How many agencies were involved?

was any of it systematic or was it all coming from, you know, this BLM movement? It's not new. That's for sure. But to be honest, you think, Glenn, we're just getting at the beginning of this process. We want to do a full review. We want to have extensive implementation guidance. We want to do a formal wrap-up of all the spending. We don't want it to just be anecdotal, although we have quite a bit of anecdotes that we know of,

which is why we put out essentially a cease and desist letter to get started in the meantime. But this has been going on for a number of years, it seems like, and is not just a result of the last several months of the BLM movement and the unrest that it has caused across the country. I think it, you know, if I'm guessing, a lot of it was ramped up in the last administration, and it has probably ramped up in the last several months as, as agencies trying to make sense of the moment that we're in. But unfortunately, they got some bad guidance and some bad instincts on that front.

So this is the kind of stuff that makes a deep state possible. When you have one arm of the federal government teaching that the federal government is racist and all of the anti-American Marxist kind of teachings that just go on, without really anyone saying anything or, I mean, at this point, can you even put a finger on when it started or where it started or who's responsible? Not yet. And we're hoping that our review can help us draw some firm conclusions from that. And if we need larger policy solutions, we'll do that as well. The president has made that clear. but I do think that it is a challenge when you have these big agencies. Often the policy officials that the president has put in charge

that represent the American people based on the last election don't have awareness of the types of professional development or workplace training that goes along. And I'm sure they get whiffs of emails that get sent around to invite them to this or that. Another aspect of, I think, what the president was trying to do, Glenn, is provide cover for the hard decisions that agency has can now make to root this stuff out. We had seen this before the memo from Secretary of Energy, Dan Briette, the minute he was made aware of some of the trainings that were going on in the national labs by Sandia Corporation. He immediately asked for a review.

But that takes courage, quite frankly, and the president has. has basically said, look, we're going to do this government-wide. And so all of my policy officials can get after the work, and I'll wear the pressure on his shoulder. So can you, and you may not be the right person to ask, but there's a lot of people that see critical theory. They don't know what it is. When you connect it to Marxism and communism, they roll their eyes. They think that's nonsense. can you can you explain what it is and why it's so destructive sure and i had this conversation with

a dear friend of mine last night who who had concerns about the memo or at least wanted to have an awareness of the memo and that is critical race theory is the view of our institutions that the reason we see some forms of inequity is because our institutions are rotten that they are systemically racist that the found was flawed because of its racism. And it is a kind of the critical aspect of it is the critique is that we're not headed towards, we were not, the civil rights movement was not successful that we have not moved towards a colorblind society and that one of the reasons is that our institutions are flawed

and are leading to ongoing inequities. And so that's the critical aspect of it that leads people to kind of think through. If something's fundamentally flawed to the core, then you need to tear it down. The institution needs to be brought down. And we look out over the last several months, and we see critical race theory on all of our TVs, the wages of putting this into the bloodstream, as opposed to a different view, which I think is what the American founding was about. and I've seen on your programs before Glenn, which is we are individuals made in the image of God,

and as a result we are afforded dignity as a result of that, and the highest aspirations of our country were reflected in the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution. And over time, we also have been reforming out of our system, little by little, individuals by individuals, movement by movement, an effort to eliminate where there is sin and where there is evil and dysfunction, and that gets reformed out. But it doesn't say that the whole enterprise, the whole project, that the whole country needs to be torn down because it's brought into the core. And really, those are the two worldviews that are represented here. And you see it with the hope and optimism of the Trump administration saying, look, this is the greatest country of the world has ever seen. And we're going to make reforms as we see it where we need to weed this out or weed that out or make reforms.

But we're not going to just toss out the entirety of our great country, which has led the world in freedom and opportunity for all people. Well, I will tell you, I hope that the president starts. to encourage companies to do the same because there's a lot of companies that are engaging these same people that have been engaged by the federal government to teach this nonsense that America is inherently evil and that whites are inherently racist and cannot be forgiven by it have to be. The only way you can have an end to racism is with reverse racism, if you will. It's craziness and very dangerous.

Can I ask you one unrelated question? Sure. There was a story that came out today that talked about how people are now starting to see, they're starting to fatigue on this whole coronavirus, and they're starting to see this more as a crisis of budget. Is the president considering anything like, you know, special economic zones or, you know, naming the entire country, you know, an economic zone to be able to relief the average business person from some of this regulation

that will help them get back on their feet? Well, we feel like we have over the last several months is to treat the economic crisis in the same way that we treat a public health crisis to the extent where any emergency authority that agencies had on the table we have tried to use. by our count, we were over about 700 different regulatory or enforcement relaxing decisions that were done on the basis of an emergency. And quite frankly, we're now trying to make many of those permanent, and we're going through a review of that right now.

So we haven't done anything as simple to be able to say, hey, the whole country is an opportunity zone. But piecemeal, we have tried to take that approach, We think we have been very successful on that front. And if people have good ideas, we're definitely have an open mind and where we can do more. As a businessman that has people coming through my business all the time, I worry about litigation.

It's only a matter of time of litigation. Somebody gets sick. Somebody says you haven't done enough, whatever. Is there any relief or protection from litigation that is coming? We hope so. We hope that that is a part of any eventual phase four. deal. The president does think we need more legislative initiatives. And so that's why he's tried to continue to stay at the table, even if the Democrats on the Hill have been in the magnitude of

their asks made it such that we could not reach an agreement. But of the things that we believe are still important is that certainty that comes from potential lawsuits, and I think that's certainly been something that we've heard from the hill as being an important least from Republicans on the Hill. Well, I will tell you, we really appreciate the cuts that you guys have made and the things that you have done to roll back a lot of this craziness from the last 15 years. I'd like to send you some golden scissors, but maybe it would be better to have an axe as you continue your job.

Thank you so much. I appreciate it. This is the best of the Glenn Beck program. On somebody who I just think is remarkable. Her name is Rebecca Friedrichs. She's the author of Standing Up to Goliath. She's the founder and president of Kids for Kids and Country.com, forkidsandcountry.com or dot org.

And she was a teacher. She saw what was happening. She stood up and she realized she might be able to do more good outside of the system. Rebecca, how are you? I'm doing great. Great to be here. So, Rebecca, after the special that we had last, what, two weeks ago, I got a ton of email from people who said, I went in and they treated me like a moron. They pretty much laughed at me.

They wouldn't give me any information. I am convinced that unless we stand together, we're not going to make an impact. You are exactly right. We have experienced the same thing. Even I'm in California. So even when we go to the State House, we've come together hundreds of us at the Senate Education Committee and they treat us like morons. They talk down to us.

They will not pass any bills that we bring forward saying, look, we just want some transparency. We just want, you know, let us know what's going on before you do this to our kids. And they shut us down every single time. We absolutely have to stand together. Teachers can't fight it alone, parents can't fight it alone, and we need our churches to step up too. We need faith leaders with us, and we need to help people to realize how important it is to vote and to vote their values, not to vote because they want free stuff, because if we can start getting good, godly people into office at every level, starting down at school board all the way up into the national level,

then we can end this nightmare. So the teachers union, taking on the teachers union, I mean, you took them on all the way to the Supreme Court, the California Teachers Union. And the National Education Association, yeah. And tell me what happened, because you didn't win, you were, it was looking like you were going to win, and then Scalia died. That's right. Our case was heard in January 2016. we were arguing for freedom from forced unionism for every single government employee in the United States of America. We didn't think it was right that we were forced to fund a union that stood against our values, that claimed to represent us but did not.

We didn't even want to be members. We didn't want their representation, but we were forced to pay. For example, my husband was a professor at San Diego State, and he was forced to pay $1,200 a year in fees as a non-conference. member of the union. And then they would file grievances against him when he was a director. So we didn't have a voice at all. So we wanted to end that. We took it to the U.S. Supreme Court. Cases heard January 2016. We were poised to win with a five to four decision because sadly there are four justices on that court who do the bidding of the unions. And anyway, one month after our case was

heard, Justice Scalia died. And there's a rule in the court that the justices have to be present when the decision comes down. So we lost his vote. We had a four to four tie. But the good news is another case was built upon our case and it was heard in 2018. And June 27th, 2018, every government employee in the United States of America was freed. It might still be stuck in a union, but they no longer have to pay them. Okay. So, here is the thing because I've been saying the last few days because everybody looks at their teacher and they're like, my teacher is good and they love my kid and blah, blah, blah, blah. However, you might feel really good about a teacher, but if they are in the teacher's union or they sing the praises of the NEA,

I don't trust them with my child because they must be part of it or they're so ignorant. I don't want them teaching my child. Is that fair? I think it's fair, and I think the listeners need to know one more thing. There's three issues with teachers. And first of all, they're all trapped in a corrupt system. So it doesn't matter how sweet or wonderful or incredible your particular teacher is. if that teacher is in a unionized school or school district, that teacher's trapped in a corrupt system.

So the three things people need to know about teachers is, number one, they either have no idea that the union is the bad guy. They know things are corrupt, but the union keeps telling them, we're your savior, we're here to take care of you. It's the legislators. It's the school board. It's the this. But these teachers have no idea that it's the union that put those legislatures. later is in office and those people on the school board. So these teachers truly are ignorant to what their union is doing.

That's a problem. Second thing, a lot of them know, but they're too terrified to stand up to their union. Like your whole entry to this interview, you were talking about how people are too afraid to stand up, afraid of losing their jobs in their career, afraid of all that. That's exactly how teachers are and they've been that way for about 50 years. And so then the last thing is we do have teachers who agree with the unions. Those are the scary ones. those are the activists that the unions have been planting in our schools.

So I agree with you, Glenn. Teachers have got to stand up, but parents have to stand up with them. Teachers can't do it alone, stand together. And those teachers that don't know what's going on, we have something on our website called adopt a teacher. It takes three minutes to read it. Adopt every teacher you know and educate them on the truth and then stand with them. And we can end this.

So I'm looking at your website now, which is for kids and country.org, and you adopt a teacher. And it's, it has videos there. But it talks about embracing, educate, enlighten, empathize, encourage, and empower. So this is not going in hostile. This is going in saying, hey, look, I just, you know, can we go have a cup of coffee? and let me pay for it because I just want to honor great teachers. Mm-hmm, precisely. And then I wrote an entire book called Standing Up to Goliath,

and I wrote that book with teachers in mind and parents, by the way, because parents don't realize that the teachers unions have corrupted the PTA and everything going on in our schools. So parents are actually paying into this sex ed and all these evils as well and don't know it. So, yes, I ask people to lovingly adopt teachers they know. teachers in their church, teachers in their neighborhood, their family, their child's teacher, and to approach them with grace, not to approach them attacking, because maybe the teacher doesn't have any idea. Educate them. Most people don't have any idea all the lies teachers have been told. So they try to talk to teachers and the teachers say,

but this, but that, but what about, what about? And people don't know what to say. That's why I wrote a whole book. All they have to do is hand it to them, you know, walk them through it, read a couple chapters, take you to coffee and let's talk about it and just help them warm up to the idea that they've been duped, that they've been deceived, that they're funding evil so that these teachers will stand up and get out of the union. Rebecca, thank you so much. I appreciate all of your hard work. I urge you to join the effort and just go to forkidsandcountry.org and look at the information that is there. I still recommend, Rebecca, that you organize and you help people come together in their own towns

because everybody feels alone and they don't know who's involved. And if there's a way to hook up with each other, you need to. You need to hook up with each other because we won't be able to do this by ourselves. Thank you, Rebecca. I appreciate it. For Kids and Country. dot org The best of the

Glenn Beck program I just wanted you to start with this somebody from the school district walks into your classroom you don't know anything about it but it's about 9 o'clock in the morning and what happens yeah so they pulled me out of my classroom

and I was met by my brother in the hall plane in my dad's building that my dad was safe and that she thought something was odd and I still didn't think too much of it though and I tried to just go about the rest of the day as normally as possible. What perplexed me the most was the fact that so many kids were getting pulled out of my school,

Nick and I and my brother, my mom kept us in school because she had spoken to my father and then started calling family who was coming over to the house to try to help her because I also had two young brothers at the time. There was just so much chaos and so much commotion at the house that she wanted us to just stay in school for as long as possible. And so you were in school, and you weren't watching it, but the rest of the students, they were watching what was happening, right? No, they weren't watching it. They were informed.

They pulled us out of the classroom and then told the rest of the students what exactly happened. Okay. So then, I don't think that the students, maybe my classmates knew, maybe they didn't know. But I actually don't really know what they said to them, too. I was in another classroom for a little while while they were informing the students on all the details. was that they fucked out. And at the end of the day, when we got on the bus, we were the only two kids on the bus. And I remember getting got inside and footage was on.

My dad and calling out, missing hotline two after another, I assured my brother and I out of that. Sure. The commotion at the house. Now, your dad, two weeks before 9-11, woke up in the middle of the night screaming. He had a dream. Tell me about that. Insisted it was a ghost. It had died of ALS, probably 20 years.

prior at the foot of his bed in perfect health condition and holding his late sister who died as an infant. Except unfortunately he didn't act upon the feelings that he was like instinctively feeling inside. He didn't he didn't follow through I guess too. You know he wanted to quit. He expressed that he was not happy. He died young that he wanted to be cremated and my mom just basically be a life and you're talking about my mom a cell phone which surprised my mom because she's thought that he was going to quit that weekend before he'll pranks on people and so when he told her a plane hit the building so um you for several days um you and your brothers um actually would call your dad's phone and leave messages to your dad thinking that maybe he was still alive

in my mind uh my mom actually for me i hoping that he'd pick up deal on his phone receive anymore. Basically begging him to come home and obviously he was naive but just not really understanding it. So you write in your book that the house was full of family and friends

and when you looked at the television you saw people jumping from the towers and that stuck with you and it actually led you kind of down a darker path if you will, of trying to what, figure out what they were thinking and trying to piece maybe

what your dad was thinking and feeling at that time? Tell me about the... Yeah, that's... Go ahead. That's exactly right. It was my dad's final moment. I described before. The second one was shortly thereafter, and he said goodbye. The last call that I know of, my father knew he was going to do with a courageous manner, scared on the phone, and he didn't want my mom. to fear and he didn't want my uncle to fear. And it really resembles my father as a man, too. In my mind was the fact that the majority of jumpers from the North Tower, I thought maybe he was one of them. Identifying their loved ones through these photos of jumpers or people hanging out

of the windows. And I reached out to photographers myself, a 14-year-old kid, and blown up photos for them so that they could see what was their loved one. These photographers never reached back out to me, he jumped and eventually stopped engaging in those conversations. We take on all of that responsibility and answer those questions. Boy did my vulnerability. My father jumped from the towers. In the reality, that wasn't true. This is where this story just goes in a direction you just don't see coming.

We're talking to the first time I've ever talked to somebody who was a child of a parent who's lost, life was lost on 9-11 for the first time. first memoir from a child of 9-11 called Sway. His name is Matthew Bocci, and the book is quite incredible. So this is the part of the book where you're 14 and you're using drugs and alcohol, right? And what, how old were you when this uncle by marriage comes into your life and starts to? It was being a recreational drinker. weeks like later and when I started to feel some, I guess I have the turk had to the point

on that today. So your mom told you at some point, look for the signs from your dad. And you had an odd spiritual moment. Will you go into that a bit? Yeah, I never tried, tried just constantly. I'd been brought back and inevitably I was away. There was a sign for my father. my mom was first pulled to look for the signs, and that sign that happened was in the room

that my dad was safe after 9-11, and we throughout my life into a teenage, and I was given one last chance, just sat there and started crying. And if they apply, for me and my family, we know what it is and can point it out, you know, look at me, and that fly flew away. I was up a detox facility, and I said, I need a bed a soon...