Best of the Program | Guests: Jonathan Isaac & AG Daniel Cameron | 6/1/22

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Speaker 2 I get it.

Speaker 2 Hey, look at it. I'm already a Klerner.

Speaker 2 We're just talking about Jonathan Isaac, who is in studio later in the podcast today from the Orlando Magic. What a nice guy.
Really nice guy. And then Stu is challenging my knowledge of sports.

Speaker 2 And not just one sport, all sports. You know?

Speaker 2 He was like, hey, you know, tell me about the WNBA. And I said, I'm from Seattle.
I'm from the West Coast. I know that's part of the, that's the Western Western division of the NBA.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 anyway, he's on today's program and so much more. We talk about the Durham trial,

Speaker 2 kind of have

Speaker 2 a real big warning on what's coming this fall. We also talk about what we're doing tonight on television.

Speaker 2 There is an executive branch,

Speaker 2 all government, all levels

Speaker 2 sort of

Speaker 2 crisis

Speaker 2 and crisis SWAT team that has been created and it will be used. And tonight you'll see it at nine o'clock.
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Speaker 2 You're listening to the best of the Blend Beck program.

Speaker 2 Daniel Cameron is joining us now. He's the Kentucky Attorney General, the 51st Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Speaker 2 He's the first African-American independently elected to statewide office in Kentucky's history and the first Republican elected to the Attorney General's office since 1948.

Speaker 2 Daniel, welcome to the program. How are you?

Speaker 3 I'm doing well, Glenn. Thank you so much for having me on this morning.

Speaker 2 Thank you for everything that you're doing. You're one of these attorney generals that are taking ESG very seriously.

Speaker 2 And you say that stakeholder capitalism, environmental, social, and governance investment practices actually violate the laws of Kentucky, right?

Speaker 3 Yeah, I mean, Glenn, that's right. It is inconsistent with state law.
And honestly, I think if you look at our law or if you even look at some of the

Speaker 3 language in ERISA itself,

Speaker 3 the requirement of investors regarding pension systems here in the Commonwealth indicate that the way that the investments are supposed to work is that they are solely to

Speaker 3 bring money for

Speaker 3 the beneficiary. And so that is the sole mission and purpose of an investment.

Speaker 3 And so when you see things like ESG that

Speaker 3 are ancillary interests and could have a

Speaker 3 consequential negative impact on the investments of teachers, firefighters, law enforcement, other state public employees. That's something that as AG of Kentucky, I'm going to stand up against and

Speaker 3 make sure that folks here in the Commonwealth know that we're going to be watching this very closely to ensure that the investment practices are done in a way that is solely for the benefit of the beneficiary.

Speaker 3 as opposed to some of these ancillary interests related to ESG.

Speaker 2 If I'm not mistaken, a study just came out last week or the week before that showed that the ESG funds, many of them, are performing under the market.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 one of the big,

Speaker 2 it may have been BlackRock, I'm not sure which one, but one of the big funds came out and said, yeah, well, I mean, for a while, you are going to make less money, fewer returns on your investment.

Speaker 2 But in the long run, it's the right thing to do and it'll pay off. That's not, you can't do that.

Speaker 3 Glenn,

Speaker 3 I mean, you're exactly right.

Speaker 3 You think about the folks sitting at their dinner table who have worked in, here in Kentucky, at least, in state government or have served as teachers or firefighters or law enforcement.

Speaker 3 You know, they don't want to hear that their in their

Speaker 3 investments, their pensions might take a hit because somebody in New York at some asset management firm wants to figure out a way to include ESG in their

Speaker 3 financial strategy. That just is not something that's going to sit well with folks here in Kentucky, and I dare say, not going to sit well with a lot of your listeners.
They want sound financial

Speaker 3 investments that are based on the sole responsibility of looking out for the beneficiary rather than environmental, social, and governance type strategies that, again, are not specific to making money for the beneficiary.

Speaker 2 And it's, you know, another problem with this is people don't understand it's because of ESG we are having these gasoline prices.

Speaker 2 We're having the fuel shortages because the ESG investors are taking our state funds. You know, every union that has the funds, the pension funds, that all is going into investment.

Speaker 2 Most of it is going to places like BlackRock, and they won't invest in coal

Speaker 2 or petrochemicals. Well,

Speaker 2 you know,

Speaker 2 when you run out of money, you run out of gas and fuel.

Speaker 3 Yeah, that's right. I mean, I've talked to a lot of

Speaker 3 fossil fuels, natural gas, and coal companies that say that on the open market, it's hard for them to find financing.

Speaker 3 And it's because

Speaker 3 these

Speaker 3 index funds or these asset managers are using other people's money. I mean, let's call it what it is.
They're not using their own money. They're using other people's money.

Speaker 3 They're using retirees' money. They're using folks that have been working in state government and state systems, again, teachers, law enforcement.
They're using their money. to make these decisions.

Speaker 3 And, you know, your listeners and folks here at home don't necessarily know this. And so one of the reasons we wanted to issue this opinion

Speaker 3 and we were asked to issue this opinion is to put a spotlight on it.

Speaker 3 So that, and look, this is whether it's in this context or other contexts, the more information people have, the better decisions and informed decisions they can make in terms of where their money is going, how it's being spent.

Speaker 3 You're seeing this. in so many different contexts and so many different industries.
And that's why I'm obviously honored to be on with you this morning to talk about this, because think

Speaker 3 as patriots, as men and women who get up and work every day and want to see a better future for themselves and their children, they don't want their money going to some of these

Speaker 3 ideas or strategies that are not aligned with their own values. And so that's also another reason that we decided to issue this opinion.

Speaker 2 You stated in this opinion, investment management firms have publicly committed to coordinating joint action for ESG purposes, such as reducing climate change.

Speaker 2 For example, example, the steering committee at the Glasgow Alliance for Net Zero states, these, quote, the systematic change needed to alter the planet's climate trajectory can only happen if the entire financial system makes ambitious commitments and operationalizes those commitments with near-term action.

Speaker 2 Nobody voted for this.

Speaker 3 And Glenn, to your point earlier, right?

Speaker 3 As domestic production of gas and oil goes down, our prices at the pump are going up.

Speaker 3 And so the challenge that we are seeing is that this is hurting the pocketbooks of the working men and women of this country.

Speaker 3 And again, we, as you all often talk about, have got to stand up and be willing to push back against these notions that are out of line.

Speaker 3 with the majority of the values of the men, women, children across America.

Speaker 2 Okay, so what are you doing as Attorney General? You say you were asked to release this. Who asked you to do that?

Speaker 3 So our state treasurer, Allison Ball,

Speaker 3 asked us because she had concerns as well about

Speaker 3 how is our process here in Kentucky. Are we to be

Speaker 3 single-minded in making sure that the beneficiaries,

Speaker 3 that their money or the money that they put into the system,

Speaker 3 that the investments themselves mirror or make sure that

Speaker 3 those dollars can be maximized as opposed to taking some sort of hit because of these ESG goals. So she asked us to look into this.

Speaker 3 Obviously, as it relates to any single investment, that's a fact-intensive inquiry. So if we are asked to conduct any sort of investigation, we'd have to

Speaker 3 take a fine-tooth comb, if you will, and look through that analysis. But we wanted to put a marker down.

Speaker 3 We wanted to put a flag in the sand to say this cannot be a process that is jeopardized in Kentucky when it comes to making money for our beneficiaries.

Speaker 3 That process cannot be jeopardized by these ESG approaches.

Speaker 2 So the three biggest

Speaker 2 firms that are involved have, I mean, trillions of dollars. They most likely have some Kentucky money in it.

Speaker 2 Are you going after those? Are you taking those out or looking? Is she looking at individual firms that are ESG based?

Speaker 3 So we wanted to empower

Speaker 3 our pension boards, if you will, our trustees to have this information so that they can make wise decisions moving forward on what our investments look like and to

Speaker 3 scrutinize those closely and report back to us if there's anything that we need to be undertaking in terms of investigating any of the actions of the asset managers.

Speaker 2 Real quick, could you just talk to other attorney generals in other states that may not be pursuing something like this and to the American people on how important this is, how dangerous this is?

Speaker 3 Well, I'll say to my colleagues and other attorneys general across the country, this is a big issue. This is important to the pocketbooks of the working men and women.

Speaker 3 Look, I'm a part of a party, the Republican Party, that believes in standing up for the values of the working men and women and the working class folks all across this country.

Speaker 3 And I know a lot of my colleagues believe in that. This is a way to do it, to stand up to these ESG practices that have invaded a lot of the investment strategies across our financial markets.

Speaker 3 What I'll say

Speaker 3 to your listeners and folks back home is pay attention to this stuff, whether it's

Speaker 3 in the financial context or

Speaker 4 in

Speaker 3 Hollywood or entertainment more broadly, we've got to be careful about where our dollars are going and what they are funding.

Speaker 3 So this is a, again, these ESG practices are things that are an investment strategy that is using your money. Let's be clear on that.
It's not using

Speaker 3 the leaders of these investment funds. It's your money that's being used

Speaker 3 to finance and fund these

Speaker 3 ESG strategies. And again, I know that's not aligned with or in alignment with a lot of the values of the folks across our country.

Speaker 2 Thank you so much. I really appreciate you being attentive to this and being a leader out front.
His name is Daniel Cameron. He is the Kentucky Attorney General.

Speaker 2 You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck program.

Speaker 2 Welcome to the Glenbeck program.

Speaker 2 There is a new

Speaker 2 addition to our international pandemic regulations that come from the WHO.

Speaker 2 They were

Speaker 2 They were meeting last week in Davos, and I wanted to bring somebody on who has really been following this, Daniel Horowitz.

Speaker 2 He's a Blaze podcast host, conservative review and senior editor for theblaze.com. Daniel, how are you, sir?

Speaker 4 We are doing all right, even in this perilous time.

Speaker 2 Yeah, boy.

Speaker 2 I'll tell you, I'm doing a show tonight, Daniel, on all of the things that are happening. And I don't even think we touch, we might touch on the WHO

Speaker 2 and what they're doing, but that's not our main focus.

Speaker 2 Everything is being lined up for an emergency. And when that emergency is announced, you got nothing.
There's no freedom anywhere.

Speaker 2 Can you talk to us about the WHO and what they did with their new health policy?

Speaker 4 Sure. There's actually a lot of positive news and uncanny news as well, in which the East and the West have been mixed up in our lifetime.

Speaker 4 So essentially, to go over this, the Biden administration submitted 13 amendments, this international health regulations, that taken together would serve to cancel out all of the requirements to consult with the host country before declaring a public health emergency in that region.

Speaker 2 Hang on just a second. That wouldn't be, that's when you say the authority, that's that they don't, the WHO

Speaker 2 would not have to talk to our president or Canada's prime minister or anybody else if they wanted to declare a health emergency in the United States or Canada.

Speaker 2 That's crazy.

Speaker 4 See that crossed out in the language of the existing international health regulations by the Biden administration. If you remember, they did it quietly, no press release, no press conference.

Speaker 4 It was discovered three months later.

Speaker 4 But we had the most unusual results. Most of my lifetime, I'm used to criticizing the UN and similar organizations because of tinpot third world dictators.

Speaker 4 And we're like, man, you know, this is run by the third world. We need to pull out of it.
But here's what's happening now. We have become the communists.

Speaker 4 So it's the United States, Canada, and Australia really pushed it. All of the countries we would consider as the Western democratic nations pushed for it.
But they were ultimately scuttled. Why?

Speaker 4 Because 47 African nations led by Botswana, along with India, Brazil, and Russia, said, hey, we don't want a part of this. We're concerned about this.
We're concerned about the rush timeline of this.

Speaker 4 So it was ultimately voted down

Speaker 4 because of the third world countries. But it was emphatically pushed by the Western countries.

Speaker 2 That is incredible. Just incredible.

Speaker 2 So how is the West going to get it done anyway?

Speaker 2 You know,

Speaker 2 it's weird. They just don't take no for an answer.
They just find another way to do it.

Speaker 4 I think what we've learned from the last two years is we're not governed by the rule of law.

Speaker 3 We're governed by the rule of political will.

Speaker 4 And whoever wields it and controls it wins.

Speaker 4 Unfortunately, that's where we are. So it's not a matter of a formal treaty or even some sort of international regulation.

Speaker 4 It's funny, the fact-checkers were all over us saying, well, the WHO can't force you to do anything. Well, yeah, that's why I was was saying states need to preemptively just say we're not doing it.

Speaker 4 But the reason why I drew attention to this is because it demonstrated the intent of the Biden administration. I'm more concerned about them than the WHO.

Speaker 2 So, but

Speaker 2 you were hit by factcheck.org,

Speaker 2 the who has no authority to dictate U.S. health policy.

Speaker 2 And in fact,

Speaker 2 because you're the

Speaker 2 editor-in-chief of the Blaze,

Speaker 2 you were hit, the Blaze was hit, by Facebook

Speaker 2 when they said, no, this is not true, because SciCheck Digest says it's not true.

Speaker 4 It's kind of like the Amelia Bedelia books I read to my kids. Right.

Speaker 4 And they do this on purpose. They take this hyper-literalist approach when you raise a political concern.
Hey, why is the Biden administration truncating all the timelines for approval as well as

Speaker 4 vitiating any requirement to consult with the host nation in order to declare a public health emergency? And they're like, well, WHO can't do anything to you anyway.

Speaker 4 Well, yeah, I mean, that's why we're saying we need to stand up to that.

Speaker 4 But the broader point is that it demonstrates that the Biden administration is not done with this. They're not done with COVID.
It's not like they're moving on to gun control or other things.

Speaker 4 I mean, they might be doing that as well. But they see this as a permanent, great reset, and they want to codify this permanently.

Speaker 4 So, whether it's in a WHO regulation or not, this is what they plan to do domestically.

Speaker 4 And certainly, when you start hearing about monkeypox and the next thing, and the pediatric hepatitis pandemic they're talking about, you definitely know that lockdowns, masks, forced therapeutics, they're not done with that.

Speaker 2 Yeah, in fact, one of the articles I was reading earlier this morning as I prepared for this interview was

Speaker 2 the fact that the defenders of this are saying this is not, you know, this is

Speaker 2 not some crazy idea. Let me read part of it.
Global pandemic response had relatively little coordination, little unity.

Speaker 2 In fact, it was more like 1983 and 2009's TV miniseries V, where politicians, personalities, social media accounts, and others seemed like they were actually trying to help the enemy.

Speaker 2 In this case, the COVID-19. That allowed the virus to kill over 6.27 million people and counting.

Speaker 2 That's why the World Health Organization is discussing the global pandemic treaty at the upcoming 75th World Health Assembly.

Speaker 2 Yet, some celebrities, a bunch of social media accounts have been trying to, guess what, argue against such a treaty.

Speaker 2 Yeah, having no global agreement in place before the next pandemic is going to work out well, right?

Speaker 2 So it goes into how screwed up the response was. And if the WHO would have just had authority to make sure everybody was doing the same thing and the right thing, how many lives could have been saved?

Speaker 2 But we know the WHO was incompetent itself.

Speaker 4 Well, what's remarkable about all of this is that they never take ownership. for the results of their incumbency.

Speaker 4 We were not in control. I can tell you that much.
We yelped about it for two years, but no one listened to us.

Speaker 4 You had some isolated areas that over time moved away from these policies, but for the most part, whether it was formally coordinated or not, which it's hard to tell,

Speaker 4 nearly every corner of the world coalesced around closing schools, around masking, around mass vaccination,

Speaker 4 around denying treatment. It's funny, like you look at the denial of the hydroxyen ivermectin in America.
I mean, that occurred in almost every corner of the world.

Speaker 4 So they got what they wanted, and yet we have six times more cases now, even though it's kind of off-season in the summer, than we did this time in late May, early June of 2021, even though all the vulnerable people have at least three, if not four, shots, and it keeps going and going and going.

Speaker 4 They never take ownership for their policies. They act as if no one's vaccinated, as if we didn't try all these things, and if as if somehow we were in power, we had zero control over that.

Speaker 4 So in fact, they actually did this. I think what they're saying is that they want more like the Shanghai type of response

Speaker 4 time, and that's what they're working on.

Speaker 2 So because they say that another pandemic is right around the corner. It used to be a hundred-year pandemic.
Now it's another one. It's right around the corner, and we have to have

Speaker 2 all of these things to be able to control. Daniel, do you think that this is why the Biden administration is back in court trying to force people on airplanes to wear masks again?

Speaker 4 There's no question. I think people think that the masks have been repudiated.

Speaker 4 And they have been with the scientific literature. We're actually seeing evidence of negative correlation with outcomes.

Speaker 4 Certainly, obviously, carbon dioxide problems and many other language development problems with children are unbelievable. The U.K.

Speaker 4 Education Department is openly talking about that, but it hasn't been repudiated politically. And I'm seeing even places like Lincoln, Nebraska school districts bringing it back.

Speaker 4 Some places never got rid of it.

Speaker 4 You still have disabled people that have to wear it when they go to their numerous

Speaker 4 medical appointments. So this is not even over with yet.
They absolutely want to continue it. And I think it's funny when you look at

Speaker 4 Justin Trudeau, he announced his new gun control measure this week. They were all standing around wearing masks while announcing that.
I think it's a very powerful tool of control and submission.

Speaker 4 They absolutely do not want to let go. And there's very few states so far that have banned them.
A few of them have. New Hampshire legislature did, but the Rhino governor just vetoed it.
I mean,

Speaker 4 we have our work cut out for us. I think too many of us are moving on to the next issue because unfortunately there are so many issues, but this is not done yet.

Speaker 2 The senior editor for theblaze.com and host of the Conservative Review podcast, Daniel Horowitz. Daniel, thank you as always.

Speaker 2 You know, he wrote about this and he wrote about it accurately. The one thing about Daniel is he is

Speaker 2 he pays a lot of attention to the details and makes sure that he gets it exactly right.

Speaker 2 And this has hurt our Facebook pages, our social media, because they said that he was lying. He's not lying.
That is what he wrote is absolutely true.

Speaker 2 Now they say we're not going to lose our sovereignty, but

Speaker 2 really?

Speaker 2 You can't speak about things.

Speaker 2 Isn't that a loss of personal sovereignty, a loss of freedom of speech? Don't listen to these people anymore. They are dangerous.

Speaker 2 And they're going to become more dangerous as we get closer and closer to the next real emergency. And that emergency is going to be fuel,

Speaker 2 any kind of energy, and food.

Speaker 2 And it will be here by the fall.

Speaker 2 Make sure you're prepared. Tonight, I'm going to show you on my Wednesday night TV show the disasters that are coming.

Speaker 2 And they are Biden-made disasters and how they will cripple us, and what the administration in the bureaucracy is already laying the foundation for, because they're not only just creating it, they have a solution for those problems.

Speaker 2 And I don't think you're going to like them. And you didn't vote for any of them.
Tonight, famine and blackouts, 9 p.m.

Speaker 2 You don't want to miss it, only on Blaze TV.

Speaker 2 If you're, by the way, you're not a member of Blaze TV, go to Blazetv.com slash, is it Glenn or Beck?

Speaker 2 I think either would work, probably.

Speaker 2 Glenn, right? Yeah. Yeah, Blaze TV.
Blazetv.com slash Glenn and use the promo code Bidenflation.

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Speaker 5 The Best of the Glen Bank Program.

Speaker 5 This is the Glenn Bank Program.

Speaker 2 Finally, a sports figure both Stu and I can agree on.

Speaker 2 From the Orlando Magic, we have Jonathan Isaac, a great player. Stu knows everything about him.
I have no idea. But

Speaker 2 I know you because you are the guy who took two stands when it was really not in your best interest to do so. So welcome.

Speaker 5 I'm glad you're here. Glenn, thank you so much for having me, Stu.
I'm excited to talk with you guys. Thank you.

Speaker 2 you.

Speaker 2 So you've just put out the book, Why I Stand.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 take me through the first stand, which was the flag, right? Yes, sir. Everybody

Speaker 2 was kneeling, taking a knee for the flag, and you refused to do it.

Speaker 5 Yeah, so

Speaker 5 there's a lot of backstory and a lot of details that the book offers. So if you want to get all of it, you got to go get Why I Stand.

Speaker 5 But for me, when what happened to George Floyd was obviously tragic and it was obviously terrible.

Speaker 5 But what I tried my best to do was take a step back and think, what is the best way for me to respond in this moment? And looking out, I'm thinking to myself, man, the world needs healing.

Speaker 5 And to me, healing is not going to come through a movement. It's not going to come through an organization, a party, anything like that.

Speaker 5 When I looked at my own life, I said, man, my life has been supported, changed, and healed by the gospel of Jesus Christ, the love of Jesus Christ.

Speaker 5 And I was saying, man, this is the message that I want to push. And this is the message that I want to share in this moment.

Speaker 5 And so when I thought about healing, I know that racism and all the things that plague our society are heart issues and they're ultimately spiritual issues. And I said to myself, you know what?

Speaker 5 I can't think of a better message or antidote for these times other than that message. So I decided to share it.

Speaker 2 The one thing I love in your book, you talk about how

Speaker 2 you didn't feel, you kind of felt like a fraud.

Speaker 2 And it wasn't until you found a relationship with God that you realized, no, no, no, I.

Speaker 2 I have everything I need to be able to succeed and to thrive, right?

Speaker 5 Yes, sir. Absolutely.
I grew up Christian. So my parents always had me in the church like every single day.

Speaker 5 But as I begin to grow up and just kind of want what the world has to offer and went after it and all the things like that, but I have this great like coming to God moment in the book and stories full of details and just God orchestrating my footsteps and ultimately me coming to understand that God loves me for me.

Speaker 5 I don't have to work for it. I don't have to strive for it.
I don't have to make a basket.

Speaker 2 It changes everything, doesn't it? Yes, sir.

Speaker 2 I mean, I was

Speaker 2 so related to this section of the book because that's the way I was.

Speaker 2 And I was very formulaic when I was, I knew what the right thing to do was, you know, to be able to advance a career and everything else. And it was just, I was just miserable because it wasn't real.

Speaker 2 And I was just covering for all the things that I thought I was. deficient in you know and

Speaker 2 when you for me i had to have a bad break uh But when you have that God moment and you surrender, oh my gosh, it's crazy great.

Speaker 5 It's crazy great. And to your point about having that like bad break, like I was injured at the time.
And so it's like God uses those moments to kind of get our attention.

Speaker 5 And in that, he revealed himself to me. And I'm like, man, like this is great.
And I've been on this journey of just growing in relationship with him.

Speaker 5 ultimately to go from a young boy who struggled with anxiety, struggled with fear, self-insecurity to a man that was willing to stand up for what he believes in in these moments and display a form of courage that I hope that everyone can take from the book and internalize and ultimately do the same.

Speaker 2 And it is, it's only because,

Speaker 2 you know, I think that the, what God does for people, a belief in God, is

Speaker 2 give you the confidence that you need.

Speaker 2 And not an arrogant confidence, but give you the confidence to be able to go in on the basketball court and know, I got this, you know, go anywhere, I got this, and then go into the lion's den and say,

Speaker 2 Yeah, okay, I'm, uh, I'm not going to kneel. I'm not going to wear the,

Speaker 2 you know, the Black Lives Matter jersey either.

Speaker 5 Yes, sir. And to your point about what God does,

Speaker 5 what I was, the message that I was trying to get across in the moment is when you have these times like George Floyd or any tragedy or anything like that, what's so easy for us to do is immediately take the role of the judge and say, this person is awful.

Speaker 5 They did this. Throw them away.
they're terrible.

Speaker 5 But what I have seen in my own life is when I was able to look at my own sin, my own shortcomings, my own failures, I was able to sympathize with people who go through the same thing.

Speaker 5 And what the gospel does is it puts everybody on the same playing field. And it says, we are all in need.

Speaker 2 Yes, we're all in. It's justice.
It is real equity. You know what I mean? It's we are,

Speaker 2 when we come here, we are all equalized. Right.
You know,

Speaker 2 in our own way.

Speaker 5 Yes, sir. In need of a savior.
And so it's pretty much saying, like, we need to stand up for what we believe in. Because at the end of the day, I didn't kneel and I didn't wear the t-shirt.

Speaker 5 We need to do those things. But at the same time, we do it in love and we render to people what we would have them render to us.
And ultimately, the way God handles us is the right way to handle it.

Speaker 2 So what was the result from your teammates?

Speaker 2 Yeah, it was.

Speaker 5 So

Speaker 5 first off, it was a very emotional time. There were guys on my team who were extremely charged about the BLM movement and being all in.
And so we had a heated conversation afterwards.

Speaker 5 We had a team-only meeting, just the players, and certain guys, you know, felt the way about it and were upset about the stand that I took. And we were able to have a conversation and almost leave it.

Speaker 5 I look, you guys believed in what you were kneeling for, but I believe in what I'm standing for too. And I respect you guys' decisions and made,

Speaker 5 but I expect that same respect. And

Speaker 2 have those wounds healed? with everybody on the team?

Speaker 5 Well, I think as time has gone on, everyone has been able to kind of breathe a little bit and see kind of the landscape for what it was and to see the way that the organization or people were moving at that time.

Speaker 5 It was very angry. It was very, you know, vitriol, but have been able to take a step back and kind of see some of the things that are going on.

Speaker 2 And then you took another controversial stand. You wouldn't take the COVID vaccine.

Speaker 5 No, I didn't. And that for me was kind of the same trail where it was like, you know what? I need to take a step back, see what's going on because this thing is being forced.

Speaker 5 You know, people are losing their jobs.

Speaker 5 Medical and religious exemptions are being denied. This feels fishy to me.

Speaker 5 And And then we get to the point where the Rolling Stone article drops and they say that I came to my decision by watching Donald Trump press conferences and studying black history.

Speaker 5 And that was when I was like, you know what, on principle, even not saying that the vaccine is terrible and everybody's going to die if they take it, but on principle, this thing hasn't been gone about the right way.

Speaker 5 And so I decided not to take it and just be a voice for people who.

Speaker 2 I think they would have actually had more people get the vaccine if they hadn't been so creepy. I'd absolutely agree with that.
Yeah, I'd absolutely agree. I mean, it's just creepy.
I just agree.

Speaker 2 It leaves a lot of people out.

Speaker 5 I absolutely agree with that.

Speaker 5 And at the end of the day, it's just when you're coming across something like that and you're studying exactly what COVID is and everything that they're saying, it should have just been a choice.

Speaker 5 It should have just been a choice. And, you know, one of the questions that I got was, you know, you took vaccines when you were younger.

Speaker 5 But I was like, at the end of the day, that was my mother's choice to give it to me. And she wasn't forced to do it.

Speaker 5 And so I think just the way that it was forced, the way that it was pushed, and even throughout the season, I was the only one who didn't get vaccinated and I didn't get COVID.

Speaker 5 So many guys on the team who are vaccinated.

Speaker 2 So many people

Speaker 2 who had the COVID vaccine, you know,

Speaker 2 episode one through seven

Speaker 2 are getting the, you know, are getting COVID over and over and over again. I don't know what the stats are.
You probably do. I don't know what the stats are.

Speaker 5 At the bottom line, though, as you point out, it should be your choice.

Speaker 5 If you want to get it, you can get it. If you don't get it, you should want to get it.
The religious exemption thing is a really important part of this that you mentioned.

Speaker 5 I mean, if you believe that this is not for you,

Speaker 2 who's the NBA?

Speaker 5 Who is the government to tell you that you have to take it? Right.

Speaker 5 And that's the principle that I was talking about, about just like, not saying that the vaccine is some awful thing, but, you know, obviously some people have had adverse reactions to it. I'm young.

Speaker 5 I'm healthy. I've already had COVID in the past.
I have natural immunity. I don't see the wisdom in putting this into my body and still being able to get the virus and transmit it anyway.

Speaker 5 And so, but just for the principle of the people who were struggling in that time, the people who went from essential workers to, you know, being able to be excluded, I was like, you know, just on principle, I don't think this is right for me.

Speaker 2 So the name of the book is Why I Stand by Jonathan Isaac. It is a tremendous book.
How is it doing?

Speaker 5 It's doing fantastic. So we became a national bestseller this week.

Speaker 5 And again, they tell me that you're the guy and you're going to be the one to continue.

Speaker 2 I'm the guy. You are.

Speaker 5 You're the guy to push this thing.

Speaker 2 So well, I will tell you that it is exceptional. And you're number one on Christian, number one in sports.

Speaker 5 So this week, so when we first dropped, we were number one in Christian, number one in political books, number one in basketball biographies. and I think we got as high as 15 overall books.

Speaker 5 But I think after this interview, we're going to get to one in overall books.

Speaker 2 That would be, uh, I mean, I can't do that for my book in the New York Times. I can do it on all other lists, but not the New York Times, so don't count on it.

Speaker 2 Uh, but uh, the name of the book is Why I Stand, and it is truly an inspirational book. It is, I mean, there is a real shortage of two things, and they

Speaker 3 uh

Speaker 2 are correlated. Um,

Speaker 2 people who actually

Speaker 2 believe

Speaker 2 in god and the power of god i'm not saying that yeah i believe in god no no you actually believe in god and the other is we have a lack of people who actually have courage and those two go hand in hand you cannot break those two apart you'll have courage because you believe in god um and this book does a great job of explaining in just a story form of your own life.

Speaker 2 Right.

Speaker 5 And to the point about that, it's like, what I do really love about the book is that it's not a fairy tale.

Speaker 5 It's not like this guy is just the most courageous guy in the world and he has such great belief and he's just did this amazing thing. And it's not something that people can strive toward.

Speaker 5 There are moments in the book where, again, I talk about my early childhood, about how much I struggle with anxiety and how developing a relationship with Christ has been the thing and the people that were around me in that time to help me get through that.

Speaker 5 I mean, ultimately get me to be able to stand in the first place. So it's something that people can draw off of.
People can see themselves in the story.

Speaker 5 People can be encouraged and inspired that they can do the same because it's the same thing that I went through.

Speaker 2 And you had to have a conversation with your wife at some point going, honey, this is hundreds of millions of dollars that are at stake, right?

Speaker 5 Well, she wasn't my wife at the time. She was my fiancé.
Okay.

Speaker 2 But the night before. Did she encourage you to take a stand? Yes.

Speaker 5 So the night before.

Speaker 2 You married the right woman. I did.

Speaker 5 So the night before I stood, I was on the phone with my pastor. He was my first call.
My fiancé was my second.

Speaker 5 I called him and we're talking about, you know, you don't understand how big this is going to be.

Speaker 2 Like I'm going to be a coon.

Speaker 5 I'm going to be an Uncle Tom.

Speaker 5 You know, I hadn't signed my contract yet. And so that was still up in the air.
So that could have been, that could have been destroyed.

Speaker 5 But he said, you cannot stand for God and God not stand for you. And so we went with it.

Speaker 5 And the same thing I said to my wife, she was like, you're standing alone in there, but you're not standing alone because I'm standing with you.

Speaker 5 And so there are many people who have been encouraged by it, many Christians who are standing, and many people who just believe the message that ultimately the love of God is what heals.

Speaker 5 And being able to show the love of God in these moments, still standing for what you believe in, but rendering unto others the way that you would want to be.

Speaker 2 You would want to.

Speaker 5 So, if you did something that was wrong and it was caught on tape, you would want mercy. You would want forgiveness.
You would want people to handle you in a certain way.

Speaker 5 So, we have to be the ones that understand from a Christian perspective and want to show that same love and grace to other people.

Speaker 2 You get it. You're fantastic.

Speaker 5 To God,

Speaker 2 And I'm not just saying that because you just signed an $80 million contract, and I'd like a loan. But

Speaker 2 his name is Jonathan Isaac.

Speaker 2 He is with the Orlando Magic. Why I Stand.
It's tremendous. Buy it wherever you get your books.
Go to Amazon or wherever you buy your books. Now, Why I Stand.
Thank you, sir.

Speaker 5 Thank you. God bless you.