Best of the Program | Guests: Riley Gaines & Joe Kennedy | 3/17/23

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Hey, today's podcast is great.

We want to start by giving you an update on Hunter Biden.

Apparently, he's suing Jason Buttrell, our chief researcher and head writer of the program, is here.

So he's suing the

computer company for what, invasion of privacy?

Invasion of privacy.

So, yeah, I mean, he's suing over Russian disinformation, or is this actually his laptop?

Yeah, we have confirmation, Glenn.

Isn't that weird?

They've always said that it wasn't his laptop.

Now it is his laptop.

But you shouldn't have looked at it.

I'm imagining that this case, I'd like to see where the case was filed.

Bet you it was in, well, I don't know if they would have jurisdiction to be able to do it in Washington, D.C.

But they do it in Delaware.

That's dirty as hell, too.

But

that's trying to get all of the evidence on the laptop thrown out.

And it's getting pretty, they're getting close.

They're getting close.

Yeah, definitely do not look at what the House Oversight Committee was revealing yesterday and what we talked about today.

Right.

And so that's right at the beginning of the podcast.

There's a lot of stuff and some really good news.

We had Riley Gaines on

just at the end of the podcast.

She is fantastic.

Just fantastic.

Just wanted to check in with her and see what was going on in her world.

She's the woman who was standing up

against men coming in and swimming.

And she's the 12-time champion,

American women's swimming champion.

She's remarkable.

There's a lot on today's podcast you're going to really enjoy and learn from.

So

don't miss a second of it.

All right, sponsored by American Giant.

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You're listening to the best of the Glen Back program.

So Riley Gaines has been one of the people who have really stood up and just taken a beating for it.

We're going to have her on the program today.

Also, Joe Kennedy is coming up.

Joe is the Bremerton High School assistant coach that won the Supreme Court case for the right to play.

I can't believe he wanted his job back, but he did, and they gave it to him.

He's back at his old job after seven years of fighting.

It's an amazing story, and he is just happy as ever.

Joe Kennedy is going to be joining us in a few minutes.

And

I wanted to stop down, and

I kind of wanted our next guest to actually hear those interviews because he's in the throes of it right now.

His name is Dr.

Andrew Fox.

He is a former Austin, Texas Fire Department chaplain

and

he wrote a blog post explaining why he believes males should not compete in female sports and they fired him.

He's a chaplain.

Hmm, that seems like freedom of speech and religion, but maybe that's just me.

Dr.

Andrew Fox, welcome to the program.

Pleasure to be here.

Thank you for having me on.

You bet.

Your accent does not sound Texan.

Where are you from?

No, I was an immigrant from the United Kingdom, 1999, and now a citizen with my family.

Wow.

And you came here, why?

Religious workers' visa.

I came to be a pastor in Washington state.

And so, you know, the die was cast.

That's who I am, and that's what I'm known for.

So,

you know, when you came here, it was a different country than it is now.

Oh, my goodness.

23 years ago, the welcome to the United States to live here, work here, raise my family is now completely different in my mind 23 years later.

Not the same country I moved to.

I'm sorry.

So you were working for the fire department and you were counseling families and,

you know, what else did you do for the fire department?

Well, the role of a chaplain is a resource for crisis, especially for those in uniform, men and women.

I didn't care how they identified or who they associated with.

It was inclusive to everyone in uniform.

When you see death, be it a car accident or a fire or something else, and and then you have to give death notices to those families.

You're dealing with extreme situations that most people don't face regularly.

So when there's a knock on the door, I didn't know we did this.

There's a knock on a door.

It's not just a cop or a fireman.

You're told by a chaplain.

Yeah,

a chaplain is accompanied by law enforcement.

But yet that walk from the sidewalk to the front door,

you're about to change somebody's trajectory forever.

You must, that must be horrible, that walk every time.

Well, as a Christian man, I, you know, I

live in the grace of God to say the right thing and do the right thing and be a support to that family,

no matter what their beliefs are.

Okay, so you were writing on your own personal blog, correct?

Correct.

And what did you write?

You wrote about women's sports.

I did.

The blog is called Willie Woke and the Chocolate Factory.

And

I questioned biological men competing against

women as a woman, that it was yet another attack on the beauty of what it is to be a woman.

And I offered arguments from all sides, citing

athletes that are heterosexual, not heterosexual, that identified differently.

So a comprehensive view, not just a singular view.

And I was fired for it.

What did they say to you?

Well, the chief, the fire chief, first of all, told me that it wasn't his business to censor me in a private blog.

Weeks later,

I met with the representative of LBGTQ

to find out what offended them, and they couldn't tell me, but they were just offended but they couldn't tell me what what was wrong precisely and shortly after that i received a phone call telling me i was fired unless i wrote an open letter of apology for my

good heavens we have just

we've we've slipped into madness just madness um

so you probably

at least i hope immediately called an attorney

i did i called several attorneys and as soon as the city of Austin was mentioned, they backed off

until one very old,

very, very old attorney

recommended the Alliance Defending Freedom, who are,

I wouldn't be where I'm at today without them.

They are a stellar group of people.

They really are.

We are close to them.

They are really amazing people.

So they took on the case, and where does it stand?

Right now,

it is

the case is continuing to move forward.

I believe next month we're going to deposition,

but still very much

alive and kicking and

gathering momentum on both sides,

which again is not the country I move to.

It's a ridiculous

situation that I find myself in.

I find it terrifying that you couldn't find an attorney to take that that case quickly.

No, no.

As soon as they found out the details, they

backed off.

And if it wasn't for

the old boy that recommended Alliance Defending Freedom,

I'd have my head in my hands.

But

I'm grateful for those who fight for freedom.

It's opened my eyes to a bigger horizon.

It is

remarkable that

I had the best freedom of speech attorneys in the country,

a firm in Washington, D.C.

That's what they were known for.

And they have defended me in several cases.

And

at one point, about, I don't know, three, four years ago,

we were in the middle of a case, and they said, we can't take your case anymore.

What are you talking about?

And it was, you know, they said, we just have to kind of keep the peace in the firm.

And, you But they were representing people like Google.

And they just didn't want to have my name associated with their firm.

And

I said to them, are you kidding me?

Is the spirit of John Adams completely dead now?

And it is.

It is.

People,

you know, attorneys are afraid for their own career.

And you got nothing.

If you don't have a government that respects the Bill of Rights or attorneys that will stand for the Bill of Rights, you don't have a country of freedom anymore.

Right.

And that's what I was asked.

I was asked to write a letter of apology or I'd be fired.

But I...

You know, when you move to another country, you put everything on the line.

And I've been blessed in the work that I'm doing and that I've done.

But I was not prepared to put my character, my beliefs on the line and sell them short.

And so I refused.

And I think we need more voices that stand up and say no.

I am not going to do this.

That's why I wanted you on today.

And I wanted to encourage you to continue to stand.

And I'd be shocked if your case

wasn't overturned here.

Do you want to go back to the fire department?

I would like to be offered the position back.

Yes.

I still have many, many, many friends in the fire department.

There's 1,300 uniformed personnel.

And again, I never asked

about people's private lives.

If they're wearing a badge and they need a chaplain, I serve them inclusively.

And that need is still there.

I get calls still from battalion chiefs, captains, lieutenants asking me to come and visit their men and women.

not at the fire station, because that's government property, but in their homes.

So as a private citizen, I'm still in hospitals, homes, and

different places, public places.

The need is still there.

If you were living in England,

you'd probably be facing the same thing over in England.

And in Canada, you would as well.

If this falls, where do you go?

You know, I just got back from England from lecturing over there, and you're exactly absolutely right.

What's happening here is happening there where do I go

Glenn I can only say I can stand my ground

I'm a man of prayer I'm a man of conviction I didn't move to the United States to

get a job I had a job in England I was also in public ministry there I moved here to contribute it's my contribution to the country that welcomed me in and I still want to contribute and for me that is the United States of America.

It's an opportunity.

And

when a government agency does this to you in such a short time, 23 years,

it's wrong.

I have no other words for it.

It's wrong and it needs to change.

Dr.

Andrew Fox, thank you so much.

You know, and I guess we've had Ryan on the phone the whole time.

I didn't know this.

Ryan Bangert, I'm sorry, I didn't get to you.

But Ryan is with the Alliance Defending Freedom.

And Ryan, what can we do to help?

Hey, Graham.

The best thing you can do is go to adflegal.org, which is our website.

We have profiles of all of our cases, including Dr.

Fox's case, where we're fighting for his right to believe and his right not to be coerced by the government to accept government orthodoxy.

So all of our cases are there.

ADFlegal.org, best place to access all of our resources.

ADFlegal.org.

You might want to write that down.

You might also want to contribute now because you might need that at some point.

ADFlegal.org.

I appreciate all of the hard work that you guys do and the cases you do take on.

This seems, Ryan, to be a pretty open and shut case.

Or have we really fallen even further than I thought we have?

Well, you would think when it is an open and shut case.

This is a situation where the government, in this case, the city of Austin, is telling a citizen what to believe, how to think.

The shocking thing about this case is the government demanded that Dr.

Fox apologize for believing Christian Orthodoxy and publishing that on his own private blog.

And that was the condition of him keeping his job.

And if a government can force Dr.

Fox to do that, it can force anyone to do that.

And that's why this case is so important.

If a government can strip one citizen of their right to know the First Amendment to believe and speak as they will, then no one is safe.

And so this case is tremendously important for that reason.

Ryan Bangard, thank you so much.

Dr.

Andrew Fox, thank you.

We'll be watching this as it develops.

Sincerely,

you might want to contribute because you might be on the receiving end of this at some point.

And sincerely, write this down because you may need them at some point.

Dr.

Fox said, I called attorneys.

I didn't know who to call.

You call adflegal.org.

Go there now.

Help them see all of their cases.

ADFlegal.org.

this is the best of the Glenn Beck program

so I'm excited to talk to Joe Kennedy I Joe when was the last time we spoke it was before the decision wasn't it

yes it was it was uh yeah early last year yeah well congratulations

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

Yeah.

Joe Kennedy is the high school assistant coach from Bremington High School

that's up in Washington State.

And he was fired because he was praying.

And

he wasn't indoctrinating anybody.

I mean, I love schools telling us about indoctrination,

but he wasn't indoctrinating.

He was just praying.

And

they fired him for it.

And he's fought for seven years, didn't you?

Yeah, we're going into the ninth football season now.

Jeez, geez.

So for seven years, he fought this,

and he won in the Supreme Court and now you have your job back.

And I'm really shocked, Joe, that you wanted your job back.

Yeah.

Well, you know, that's a tough decision, but it really is the principle of it.

You know, they drug their feet and, you know, made this go on for so long that, you know, it's kind of the principle that I have to go back at least one more time to take one more knee on that 50-yard line and thank God for everything we've been through.

Yeah.

So

you're coming up now.

This will be the next year because you didn't play with the team this year, did you?

No, that is correct.

Yeah, the 2023 season.

And what's the reception been like?

Well, I wish I could say it was all warm and fuzzy.

Some of the people that I've met that I've used to know up at the school when I was doing my paperwork, they were very cordial, but kind of standoffish.

Everybody else is like walking on eggshells.

I wish that they would just open their arms and say, hey, welcome back, night, and we could all just move on and, you know, focus on our football program.

But yeah, I haven't got that warm, fuzzy feeling yet.

And why do you think that is?

You know, I wish people could talk more often instead of just, you know, thinking more

combat.

The superintendent and myself, we always said we were not going to take it personal.

This was going to be something that was left up to the judges to figure out out what our constitutional rights are.

So him and I are great, but everybody else seemed to have just taken aside and digged their heels in and feel like they just lost something.

And I'm like, you just gained your First Amendment rights.

You have more religious liberty.

You have more freedom of speech now more than ever in your lifetime.

So why aren't we all celebrating this?

It's really crazy when the people

win against the king and the king is

celebrated and not the individual.

It is nuts.

It's an upside-down world.

Absolutely.

Well, I'm glad you got your job back.

I just wanted to check in and just hear some good news

and

wish you all the best of luck.

But thanks for checking in with me, Joe.

Hey, I really appreciate it.

And hopefully I'll get you a book here real soon and have you sign it, buddy.

Oh, yeah, anytime, anytime.

Hey, Joe, let me ask you um the um uh if you had to do it all over again would you do it was it worth it oh absolutely yeah absolutely you know going through it sucked and you know i never want anybody or myself to go through something like it but you know Fighting for the First Amendment, some things are just absolutely 100% worth fighting for.

And I will take shots all day long for years, the rest of my life, just to make sure freedom is here in America.

Yeah.

What's crazy is getting to know you, you're not like a guy who can quote the Bible and everything else.

I mean, you're like a normal person that just wanted to pray and found themselves in this hurricane.

It's crazy, but glad you came out the other side.

Absolutely crazy.

We're stronger because of you, Joey.

Thank you.

Thanks, man.

You bet.

Bye-bye.

You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck program.

Yesterday, we had Missy Robinson on, and she was talking about something that she had experienced in Tennessee, and she mentioned that Riley Gaines was there.

And

this is the 12-time NCAA all-American swimmer who's been speaking out against, you know, guys competing as women in women's sports.

It's just, it's ridiculous what we're doing to women.

In the name of women,

we're letting guys swim.

It's just insanity.

Anyway, and I was thinking about Riley, and I don't know if we've ever had her on.

Riley, are you there?

I'm here.

How are you doing?

Feeling good.

Have I ever had you on?

No, you haven't actually.

Geez, I don't know why.

I just wanted to, I just, I wanted some good news at the end of the week and some people who are standing up.

And

you were brought up yesterday, and I thought I wanted to just say thank you to you, Riley.

Well, you know, what's actually so funny is

it's been one year exactly since Leah Thomas competed against the women at our NCAA championships.

And so this week, I'm actually at the NCAA championships watching my teammates, my old teammates and stuff.

And let me tell you, I have had so many female swimmers, parents, coaches come up to me and say the exact same thing, which I think is really important because it shows how the true majority of people, especially the ones who are directly impacted, feel about this.

So

I'm so grateful.

It's so crazy that it requires courage to speak up about this insanity, but I appreciate your think.

Well, so let me ask you,

where are these people?

Because I am convinced every day that people know the truth.

They know.

They may not, you know, they may not be right on the truth, but pretty much our common sense gut is pretty good.

And this stuff that's going on in almost all fronts, people are not for, but they won't say anything.

Absolutely.

People are scared.

Coming from my experience and talking to other athletes, again, who were directly impacted, their universities, the lengths these universities are going to silence their voices, it's actually really scary.

How are they doing it?

Well,

based off my conversations with Leah Thomas's teammates who dealt with this every day,

when they were concerned about sharing a locker room with someone who possessed and was exposing male genitalia, and they sent an email to their school, you know, expressing their concern, their administration responded back with, if you feel uncomfortable seeing male genitalia, here are some counseling resources that you should seek.

They were forced to go to mandatory LGBTQ meetings every week.

They were told that their school, that they were not allowed to use their voice because their school has already taken their stance for them.

They were told that they were responsible if any harm comes towards Liet Thomas's way.

And so they're emotionally blackmailing and threatening and intimidating their swimmers,

which is, which, like I said, it's terrifying.

This is a country that thrives because we have so many freedoms, one of which being the freedom of speech.

And we, I'm seeing that being taken away from these swimmers, from the parents, from people within the administration, from medical professionals, even.

Oh, I know.

That's terrifying.

The medical professionals that are being silenced now, it's absolutely horrifying what is going to happen.

That is the way to get groupthink

in your medical profession.

And when groupthink happens, we've seen it happen in the past before, and it never leads to anything but nightmares.

No, you're 100% right.

It's almost as if I feel like we're living in this George Orwell dystopian novel where they're trying to make us say two plus two is five, but we know two plus two is not five, but yet we have a sitting Supreme Court justice who can't even say what a woman is

because she's not a biologist.

But guess what?

Neither am I, neither are you, but we still know what a woman is.

We know what womanhood entails.

We know the differences between men and women.

And to deny that is denying science.

It's denying common sense and logic and all the things.

So how do you feel about,

I think it wasn't it a Catholic school where

they said they didn't want to be in a locker room with boys and so they the game was canceled and now they're they're not allowed to compete?

Right.

That right there shows you why more people aren't speaking up because this this team, they were very straightforward about how this goes against what they think the women's sporting category was created for, and now they're barred from other competitions.

There's another girl in Vermont actually who spoke out.

She's 14, she's in high school.

Same thing, she had a transgender individual on her volleyball team and she spoke out and she was immediately suspended from her high school.

Her dad was immediately fired from his job.

They tried to force her to write an apology to allow her back into school, to which she refused, refused, and then announced, of course, she's filing a lawsuit, to which the school quickly let her back in.

It's amazing.

I have to tell you,

Riley, you don't know this now, but you're young enough to where you will live to the other side of this.

You and people like you are going to be remembered as real heroes in this time.

Depending on how it goes,

how bad it has has to get before we wake up, the bigger of the statue they'll make of people like you.

But it happens every time.

You hold to your values while the country loses its mind and goes over a cliff.

It eventually comes back, and it's usually not in that person's lifetime.

But they are remembered as leaders.

Well, I think what you said is perfect.

A perfect analogy of what's happening is we've swung too far.

The pendulum, we have far exceeded what is sane.

And I believe we're in the process of hopefully restoring that pendulum to normalcy.

But I get told all the time, you know, you will be on the wrong side of history because you're not inclusive.

You're not being kind.

But guess what?

Affirming these people

These males who want to identify as women and infiltrate into our once sex protected spaces, that is not kind and that is not inclusive.

We are not helping these individuals, we are harming them with women being the collateral damage in the process.

Big time.

So, if you had advice to give to somebody to stand up, because I, you know, if I were leading a

coach, I'd be a very bad coach, but if I were a coach,

I would make the case, girls, this is much more important than any award we could ever win.

100%.

What advice would you give to

anybody who is in this situation and not speaking out?

First and foremost, I think it's crucial that parents, coaches, the people who are supposed to be protecting us.

Even me last year in this situation, I was 21 when all this happened.

I was an adult, but I felt like someone was supposed to be protecting us, and which there were.

were, you know, like I said, parents, coaches, people within the NCAA.

These are the people who need to use their voice.

Then, of course, it comes to the female athletes, just like you said, and it took me a while to realize this.

There is so much at stake when we're denying the sheer essence of humanity, man and woman.

We have got to be willing to stand firm.

and what that is and what our differences are and how we deserve to be recognized and celebrated because when we allow one man, one man into our spaces, this is a slippery slope.

It's only a matter of time before one male national champion becomes three and then five and so on and so forth and people will take advantage of the system that we have in place.

It's happening in prisons.

Just in California in the recent weeks, there's been 1,200 men apply to be in women's prisons because, of course, you get to be housed with women and these women or these men are convicted of heinous things like rape and child pornography and kidnapping but yet they're going to live with women because they say they are one.

We have to be bold.

We have to stand true.

We have to stay educated on the topic and I hate saying that because it makes me sound like some sort of advocate or activist.

But it's important.

We have to know that this is happening to believe the narrative that this is a non-issue.

That cannot be further from the truth.

I could list off examples for the next hour of the radio show, but

I don't want to bore you guys.

But it's important to stay educated and to use your voice, be bold, stand firm in your values, because like I said previously, this is the majority who feels the exact way I'm speaking.

Riley,

I don't know if you know this, but I collect history.

And

I've learned one thing, and that is there's been people in my life,

during my life, that have done remarkable things, and I have missed the opportunity to record

that.

And

I don't want to miss those.

You are one of those people, I think, that are important to our history.

I would love for you to, if you could, just even a page, just handwrite out your thoughts of why you stood and what you were standing for.

So

I could include it in our museum, and I'd love to have you come down at some point and do a podcast with me.

You're great.

Well, that sounds absolutely incredible, and I would be up for that anytime.

And I really appreciate you having me on and just continuing to shed light on this really important and detrimental issue.

Riley, thank you.

God bless.

Yeah, thanks.

See you back.