Best of The Program | Guests: Bill O’Reilly, Todd Bensman, & Shannon Bream | 4/2/21

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Welcome to the podcast.

Today we listen to a little Joe Scarborough.

Remember him?

You might remember him from when he used to have Donald Trump on the phone all the time and they were really close friends.

And then he just totally flip-flopped on him and is now saying he's the worst person on earth.

He goes into another randomly bizarre rant about how if you don't want a vaccine passport, you don't like Jesus or something.

I don't even know.

It's hard to follow, but you should hear it because it's that bizarre.

Bill O'Reilly joins us today to go through the news of the week on this Good Friday.

And Shannon Bream is here as well from Fox News Channel.

She has a new book out.

It's going to put you in the Good Friday spirit a little bit.

And to ruin that spirit, we'll talk about CNN and how they can't quite figure out if there's any characteristic that would determine someone's biological sex at birth.

No scientists apparently have no consensus on that.

I was not aware of this, but CNN does

know it.

By the way, you can subscribe to Blaze TV at blazetv.com slash Glenn.

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Glenn has a new show today, as well as a new Stew Does America.

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Here's the podcast:

you're listening to the best of the blend back program

Bill O'Reilly from billo reilly.com and also author of the book Killing Crazy Horse and Killing the Mob is coming out next month, just a few weeks away.

Order your copy now wherever you buy your books.

I want to talk to you, Bill, about a couple of things here.

One is the corporations that are coming out against

Georgia and now Texas because we're trying to to protect

voting integrity.

Every corporation seems like it's coming out against Georgia.

I'm so glad to see the Georgia House passed a bill stripping Delta Airlines of their tax break

because apparently

they are opinionated and they don't like the Georgia government for what they're doing.

Fine, you lose your tax break too on jet fuel.

I hope that costs them, I hope that costs them just a buttload of money.

In fact, you should raise taxes on Jet A fuel for Delta.

The same thing is happening now in Texas.

And it's all based on lies, all of it, Bill.

Well, when I first heard this story in Georgia, I went over the Georgia bill and I read the bill and

I was a simple man as always, and I posed the question, in this bill, please tell me one thing in the entire Georgia bill

that constricts voting,

that makes it harder to vote.

I didn't see one thing.

All right.

Now, then I went over to the CEO of Coca-Cola, the CEO of Delta, the CEO of Merck.

They're the three that are criticizing Georgia.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Wait.

You've got Bank of America, you've got Citigroup.

Okay, okay.

Those are the first three.

I mean, you got.

Yeah, okay.

All right.

Those are the first three out, okay, with statements.

They made statements to CEOs, but the statements don't say what they're objecting to.

They just say they don't like the bill.

It's Jim Crow.

All right.

So I had my staff call them and say, can you give us one specific in the bill that prevents people from voting or makes it harder?

None of them could.

So what this is, is a virtue-seeking play based upon the threat of a boycott, which has not been made public, but I know it's there.

Media Matters, you know, the usual suspects are going to say that if you don't get behind civil rights in this area, we're going to call for a boycott of you.

And of course, they folded in 30 seconds, which is what corporations do.

But if you look at the statements,

there isn't one specific that they can point to that these new laws that just certainly tighten up.

That's all they do.

They just tighten up the election so that

the

prospect of fraud diminishes, which is what you would want, right?

I think everybody would want.

They don't want fraud.

You sure would.

Again, this is, again,

the political correct virtue-seeking on the part of CEOs who have no blanket idea

what's going on, but they are afraid, Beck.

They are fearful.

And they have to get on the side of the New York Times, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

They have to get on that side because they're afraid if they don't, they'll get fired by their boards.

That's what's going on.

So, what's the best way to handle that, Bill?

But what does the average person do?

I don't drink Coca-Cola because it has a massive amount of sugar in it.

And as you get older, the more sugar you sugar.

That's why I've always loved it.

Yeah.

But as you get older, Beck, and you're ancient, the more sugar you have, the faster you're going to die.

I mean, it's just something like that.

If you're in the.

Yeah, that's another point in its favor.

At least.

Okay.

You know, look, I'll be there at the funeral singing

whatever songs.

Danny Boy.

I want you to sing Danny Boy.

It'll be Glenny Boy, but I will sing.

But I don't drink Coke because there's too much sugar in it.

Delta, I was like Delta.

They're all right.

But now, if I have a choice, I'll take whatever it is.

I'm not calling for a boy.

Well, American Airlines, American Airlines is doing the same thing now to Texas.

And, you know, Delta and America, American, you don't have any idea, but you have closeted conservatives.

You have closeted conservatives that are so afraid of saying anything, they have secret meetings meetings in both of your companies.

And

that is,

they do, I know for a fact.

And it is,

that should, shame on you, shame on you for creating such an atmosphere.

It's all about them.

It's all about the CEO.

Oh, it's all about, I don't want to get, I don't want them attacking me.

I don't want it.

I don't want it.

I mean, look, it's getting so bad with the airlines that I'm going to have to take the bike lane if I want to go anywhere now.

Let me play something from

CNN and Chris Cuomo.

We watch it so you don't have to.

Listen to what was said last night.

Clear to them that the vaccine is the ticket back to pre-pandemic life.

And the window to do that is really narrowing.

I mean you were mentioning Chris about how all these states are reopening.

They're reopening at 100%.

And we have a very narrow window to tie reopening policy to vaccination status.

Because otherwise, if everything is reopened, then what's the carrot going to be?

How are we going to incentivize people to actually get the vaccine?

So that's why I think the CDC and the Biden administration needs to come out a lot bolder and say, if you're vaccinated, you can do all these things.

Here are all these freedoms that you have.

Because otherwise, people are going to go out and enjoy these freedoms anyway.

Wow.

So we've got to make it so they can have the freedoms.

That way we can leverage those freedoms.

I don't think they've ever been more clear.

Your thoughts on the

I know.

Your thoughts on these vaccine passports.

Okay, it's illegal for the government to do it because it's an invasion of your medical privacy.

So the government can't do it.

State government can't do it.

Federal government can't do it.

So it's not going to happen.

Private business can do it.

So if you own a concert hall and you book in the Rolling Stones and

you say, if you want to come, you got to show us proof of vaccination.

They can do that.

That's a private concern.

I will tell you, I'm a libertarian, but there is, with the great reset, there is

collusion going on with public-private partnerships, NGOs, and the government with corporations.

And I'm telling you, Bill, that if you get an app, if you have a piece of paper that shows I got COVID and they want to check that piece of paper, but they're developing an app.

And if that app is open and has to be open to tell you where you can go in and can't go in, stores, shopping malls, whatever, you now have a social credit score ready to happen.

You have it.

All the groundwork is there and Americans will all be carrying it.

The next thing is, all you have to do is just shut down PayPal.

No, you can't pay anything for anything here.

You can't access this.

You can't access that.

All social credit score.

It would already be there.

I don't think that's going to happen.

I don't think that

what I think is going to happen is that certain private businesses, and where I live, there are signs in every private business.

You're not allowed to enter unless you have a mask.

Okay.

And they can do it.

They They can keep you out

because it's a private.

I don't think it's going to get to the level where the government is going to be able to harm you if you're not vaxed.

It will be an inconvenience if you don't get it.

And by the way, the government cannot force you to take a vaccination.

But schools, for example, if you don't take the measles shot, your kid can't go.

So there's a lot of this that has to be worked out.

And I would tell people I took the vaccination.

I didn't have any problem with the vaccination.

I hope as many people as possible come to the conclusion that I came to.

All right, I want to protect my family and friends.

I got to run three businesses here.

I got to be able to travel.

So I took it, and it works for me.

So that's all I can really say.

All right, Bill O'Reilly.

Are you nervous about killing the mob?

I mean, I know you've kept it secret and kept it away from me, so I couldn't read it.

Well, I'm nervous

I might get whacked.

Yeah, but I could get whacked by a lot of people.

Right.

Right.

But I want to tell people, it's Good Friday, and if you really, really want something worthy today,

the movie Killing Jesus,

which was nominated for an Emmy for Best Television Movie a few years back, that's $3

on on-demand.

That is a very worthwhile film to watch on on Good Friday.

And I appreciate you.

I hope you have a happy Easter, you and your family, you know, and I always enjoy the Fridays on the Beck program.

Thank you very much, Bill.

I appreciate it.

Have a good Easter.

This is the best of the Glenn Beck program.

Well, I'm bummed that I am not in the studio today.

I'm broadcasting from my home studio, and Todd Bensman has just come into

the newly redesigned Mercury Studios, and I'm bummed, Todd, I'm not there to shake your hand and welcome you to the studios.

How are you, sir?

I'm doing fine.

Thank you for having me.

I wish I could have had my picture with you, but.

Yeah, I'm sorry.

And you're wearing a tie and everything.

I mean, wow,

you cleaned up for this interview, and now I really feel bad.

Trim the beard and everything.

Yeah, yeah.

So, Todd,

tell everybody your background here just a little bit.

So, we know you're a guy with credibility on this issue.

23 years as a journalist, newspapers, recovering reporter,

and

including for the Dallas Morning News here in town for 10 years.

And

then I was recruited to join the Texas Department of Public Safety's Intelligence and Counterterrorism Division.

And in 2009, and I went into

intelligence business, I guess, in the state's multi-agency fusion center in Austin, where I worked.

Explain what a fusion center is, because this is a really important

aspect.

Fusion centers,

there are 50 or more across the country.

They were built after 9-11 as sharing, houses of sharing.

So you have like all the federal agencies are all under

one roof with state and local.

So there's FBI and ICE and DIA and all every possible agency.

We had 15 different federal agencies under our roof.

We all had security clearances and all worked on the same issues and problems, including here in Texas, of course, the border and who's coming over that border.

And then I did that for nine years and left in 2018 to join the Center for Immigration Studies as a senior national security fellow.

So I've been there for a couple of years.

I've been out of the business, out of the intel business.

All right.

So

you have a book out called America's Covert Border War, and it details what is really going on and coming across our border at any given time.

And the details are actually quite terrifying

because we just think, you know, American, I guess,

once the news stops talking about it, like we only seem to have a problem with rising gas prices when the news tells us we should have a problem with rising gas prices.

And they're not telling us what's coming across the border.

So

give us a look into what's happening at any given time on our border and who's coming across.

Sure.

Well, to start with, all year, every year, there is a stream, a flow, a river of migrants who are coming to the southern border from countries of national security interest, people from the Middle East, South Asia, think Pakistan, Afghanistan,

Yemen, Northern Africa, Somalia, all of the Muslim-majority nations.

That is not a gigantic population coming across, but it's significant.

These days, it's it's probably right around 3,000 to 4,000 a year being apprehended that we know of that get counted at the border.

And that

flow of people has given rise to a

national security enterprise and counterterrorism programs that were built to deal with it, to try to detect jihadists in that flow.

and to neutralize them.

And that's not just at the border, but it's also throughout Latin America, South America, where

those are the passageways

the routes to the border.

And it gets pretty complicated about how they are able to do that.

But

for sure, it is a topic that is taboo in the regular media.

Nobody ever wants to talk about it.

And when anybody does, man,

look out.

Well, I will tell you that nobody in the media even wants to talk about the drug cartels.

I know I've been at at CNN and I've been at Fox and no one wants to discuss the obscene amount of

the worst kind of horror movie violence

you could imagine.

Am I right on that?

Oh, yeah.

I mean the cartels are one of the greatest scourges on the planet.

They do a great deal of

pain and damage to

especially Mexico, but also the United States with the drugs that they're moving in and the sex trafficking and

the indentured servitude and other forms of violence that are unspeakable almost.

Yeah.

I have pictures in our files from something that I was never allowed to show until I started the Blaze.

And they were files that I just thought people should see of

warnings being sent to people in these small border towns by the drug cartels, don't screw with us.

And

in one bowling alley, the drug cartels came in and had a bag, and like bowling balls, they just threw these severed heads on the bowling lanes to let everybody know your friends are gone.

You don't need to be, but don't screw with us.

Yeah, that's right.

It's that's uh

about propagandizing their

strength and

control.

So

it's not that unlike what we saw ISIS doing in Syria when they were holding territory there.

They would have big public executions and do terrible things and burn people.

And it sends a message, and it tells people

you're going to obey us and stay out of our way, too.

It's propaganda and it's incitement to

let's talk about

the

actual border crisis.

All the kids that are from Mexico, from Mexico proper, they are all turned around at the border, right?

They're not part of this count.

I just saw a count from the Department of Homeland Security today about all the numbers of the people, but none of them are Mexican.

They say the Mexicans are turned right around and sent back to Mexico.

Of course not.

On the children, on the Mexican children, I'm not sure.

Definitely Mexican families that are coming over with that would be adults with children.

And that's part of the inconsistent application across the border of policy that's going on right now.

It's very confusing, not just to those of us who are down there spending time with the migrants, but the migrants, the immigrants themselves, often have no idea which given day in which area they might be able to get across.

But what we do know is the numbers tell us that

many, many tens of thousands are getting across and being put right through the turnstile.

the American turnstile and onto buses and being transported across the country.

I was on some of those buses just last week and saw it.

There's a conveyor belt

of buses that are moving from the border throughout the country, dropping off foreign national families that have just been paroled in.

We're paying for this with our tax dollars?

Well, the buses are actually the immigrants, I'm told, are paying their own way.

It's not like it's a huge expense,

but we are certainly enabling it, facilitating it, arranging it,

and providing the legal documents.

Remember that illegal immigration is not something that is reversible.

In almost all cases, it's permanent.

So whatever damage is being done now in terms of just mass numbers of people being shipped into the country, it's permanent.

They're not going to be able to remove

maybe a fraction of those at any point.

So

I've heard people, and Bill O'Reilly makes the case, and I think he makes a pretty good case that Joe Biden has no idea what day it is at this point.

But he says, you know, people don't understand in the administration, and Joe Biden doesn't understand what the consequences are and how bad it is.

I don't believe that for a second.

Do you?

Well,

you know, I'm not there.

I'm not his, I don't have access to his doctors, but his administration.

His administration.

Taking the doctor thing out.

out of it.

Yeah, taking the doctor thing out of it.

His administration surely understands what they're doing.

All of the people around him, and he has to understand what's happening as well.

There is a mass migration crisis underway that I believe is going to turn out to be historic in the nation's history.

We will never see any numbers like this.

I don't think we've seen numbers like this.

Already, we're looking at March is looking like it's going to come in probably at around 150,000 apprehended that we know of.

The numbers aren't out yet, but I'm told it's going to be right up in there, 140, 150.

It was 100 in February just that we know about.

That, if you were to tack 40,000,

40% rise from month to month, that's historic.

That is something we have never seen that type of a rush, of a crush of humanity over the border.

By the end of the year, we could be at 2 million that have crossed the border in just this year.

And when you're down there, I mean, it's like a D-Day invasion.

I mean, it's raft after raft after raft, four or five abreast, just washing up on our side, dumping their load, going back for more day in, day out.

That's what it's like.

And those are just the families and children,

rafts filled with children, infants.

And then you have adults who are supposed to be individual non-family adults who are supposed to be

Title 42 back.

A great many of those are being sent back, but they keep trying because they know that a lot of them are making it through.

The Border Patrol is babysitting, processing children and families.

And it certainly doesn't help when the President of the United States goes on an internationally televised press conference and says to the entire world, we will leave no child behind.

Nobody stays in Mexico.

All of you come.

So they are, and they will.

And that's a message.

Yeah.

Tell me, when you say rafts of children, are we talking of 15-year-olds?

I mean, you just, and I...

I assume that you were using descriptive language, not necessarily

accurate language.

When you said infants, rafts, and infants full of infants.

That's not happening, is it?

Rafts filled with infants.

Yes.

Yep.

So, like one adult or a couple of adults in a raft, and then,

I mean, I've seen some of these rafts, maybe 10 infants, 15 infants?

Yeah, I mean, you can see there's video out there.

You can find the video, and if you talk to Border Patrol like I have,

you will

hear these stories of just rafts filled with infants, and you can see the video out there too, infants,

but also six, seven-year-olds and five, four, three toddlers.

And

that's because the administration has messaged, we are taking children.

We're not turning children back.

And they're also taking family units.

What kind of family turns their infant or three-year-old over to a drug cartel to get them across the border.

And

what does that mean?

Well, I mean, the obvious,

you know, rationale behind that is that they absolutely hate where they live.

They feel that there is an open door.

They don't know how long the door is going to be open, but they see it open and there is a desperate rush to get in before it closes.

And

that is not my speculation.

That is from many, many interviews that I've done with the immigrants themselves in Mexico.

I last week had six or seven Central Americans in front of me, and I asked them all, I said, hey, if you are coming here now,

if you made the decision to come here now because of something Joe Biden said or did, raise your hand.

And every one of them just went like that.

They're all coming because now because

they're able to.

They've been invited.

They've been invited.

Yeah, of course.

Yeah.

Todd, thank you very much.

I'd like to have you on again and specifically talk about the book, America's Covert Border War,

because right now, Voice of America, which is a lie, Voice of America is telling us, no, no, no, these people aren't coming across, right?

Am I right?

There's no terrorist problem, according to Voice of America.

Well, according to all the regular media,

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who came back from a trip a couple weeks ago, saying, talking about three Yemenis on the terror watch list, and everybody said he was a liar.

Stop saying that, but it's true.

So we'll talk some more about this.

Thank you very much, Todd.

Todd Bensman, author of America's Covert Border War, senior national security fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies.

This is the best of the Glenbeck program.

This

is the Glenbeck program.

It's Friday, but also Good Friday.

I would be

a very ungrateful son if I

didn't mention

what our dad did for us on this day

by

not

intervening when his son is being crucified 2,000 years ago.

I owe everything,

I owe my life, I owe

everything,

everything

to his

dedication and sacrifice for me.

I lived my life one way for a long time and really blew it and

really didn't

really didn't think I was worth anything.

And

because

I was

dating a very wise woman who said, we need God in our lives,

I found him and

the forgiveness that you can allow yourself to accept

and

clean up your life and start over is

the greatest miracle I think one can receive and the greatest miracle in my life.

Today is Good Friday

and

as you know, I took when I went to college, I took early Christology from the history department, and I learned what it was really actually alike

you know, at that time.

And it was a brutal, brutal

world.

I wanted to bring Shannon Bream in because she is the author of the book, The Women of the Bible Speak.

You probably know her from Fox.

She's an anchor there.

But she is much more than just an anchor.

She has really led an impressive

life.

And she wrote

the book, The Women of the Bible Speak, trying to find the lessons for today

in the wisdom of the women in the Bible.

And Shannon joins us now.

Hi, Shannon.

How are you?

Glenn, it's such a joy to join you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So, I wanted to spend a few minutes just on Mary, since it is Friday.

I cannot imagine

seeing this happen to your child and what that must have been like and and how, I mean,

I've thought just recently, my daughter Mary went in for brain surgery and we had a scare and thought we might lose her and it was devastating just the thought watching crucifixion.

Tell me about what we can learn from Mary.

I mean, she was there at the foot of the cross.

I can't imagine, as you said, seeing your child wrongfully accused, being tortured and beaten, and watching them crucified to death.

It's almost too much.

But I feel like it's important always, and especially this time of year, for us to allow ourselves to think about what that was.

I've been reflecting on that and reading through the crucifixion a lot these last few weeks and thinking you have to come face to face with that and know the enormous beautiful sacrifice that was made for you.

That is

just to me an incredible message of redemption redemption that Christ knew what he would face.

He could have walked away from it.

And we see his anguished prayers where he says, your will, not mine.

And he goes through with that to save all of us.

And Mary has to be a witness to that.

And it's something I included in the book because I'm so used to studying her on the front end where she's this faithful young woman who gets visited by an angel and finds about her divine appointment.

But we wanted to follow her story all the way through,

unable to really get my mind around what it must have been like for her to sit there at that crucifixion.

But to know that in the days following, she was with the disciples, praying in the upper room.

She was a faithful, early part of launching the church as we now know it.

And she never shied away from the enormous pain that her son suffered all through his life, especially during his ministry in those

final hours.

Women did not have a place, really, at the table.

I mean, Jesus, I think, and I have nothing to

go on.

I took Christology through the history department, and so we just looked at the history of those times and what it must have really been like.

And I know when we got to Mary Magdalene,

it might have been a

You know, the fact that she was a prostitute might have been a fudge just because of what was happening in the year 200, you know, as they were, as they were assembling everything.

It may be absolutely true.

But one of the reasons why it may be

not accurate is for political reasons at the time, or she may have just been called that at the time because she was following Jesus.

And women didn't do that.

Unmarried women did not follow a pack of men.

Otherwise, you would have been considered a whore, correct?

Yeah, I mean, it's so important to look at the context of the time, and there is debate with theological scholars who are much more well-trained than I am.

But we know she had been delivered from a number of demons, and that she was following Christ.

And Christ included women in his inner circle.

They were his friends, they were taught, they were allowed to teach at his feet and learn at his feet, which was an amazing thing because that was not the norm back then.

But we see it not only with Mary Magdalene, but Mary, the sister payer, Martha and Mary, and other women who were close to him.

And think about the women he went to who were not accepted in society-the woman who was going to be stoned for adultery or the Samaritan woman in a well living in shame.

He never judged or condemned those people.

He would say, Go and sin no more, leave that part of your life.

But I don't condemn you.

I accept you.

You are my equal.

You're in the image of God.

And I think that's such a beautiful thing.

I don't want people to miss.

So, tell me, let's one of my

favorite

women of

the Bible is

Esther.

I just love the story of Esther.

Tell me her story and how you,

what lessons you take from her.

You know, she was part of the dispersed Jews who were all over the place.

They didn't have their own homeland at the time.

And so she was an orphan.

She was taken in by her uncle Mordecai, who raised her.

And at one point, the king of Persia gets very mad at the queen.

She will not show up and obey him.

And so he gets rid of her and he sends out this search nationwide for a new queen.

And at that point, Esther goes in, and Mordecai told her,

Don't talk about your Jewish background.

But all through this process, she had so much favor.

Everybody immediately loved her as a favorite.

When the king saw her, that was it.

She was the one for him.

So she is chosen as the queen of Persia now.

And during this process, there's Haman, this bad guy who is.