Best of the Program | Guests: Bill O'Reilly & Sam Brownback and Dave Isay |11/30/18

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Hello, and welcome to the Friday Podcast.

Very excited.

We're from Florida today.

We're tonight and tomorrow.

We are going to be in concert.

Stu's going to be playing the cello

tonight in Orlando, Florida, and

tonight in Tampa, tomorrow in Orlando, Florida.

And we would love to see you.

Tickets, you can still grab a couple of tickets at glennbeck.com slash tour.

Love to see you.

Yep, we have a bunch of stuff going on today.

Bill O'Reilly joins us, and as usual, he goes through the news of the week, and there was a lot of it.

Yeah, and he has an interesting thing that I'm not sure what it's going to mean in the future, but it is something that is going to be used in the future that he was talking about with Cohen

and Donald Trump and what's really going on.

He said there was something that was important, but he didn't think it happened.

And if it's it's proven that it happened, it's going to mean something important.

I don't know what it's going to mean, but it's an interesting point of view.

We also talked to Sam Brombach, former governor and senator from Kansas.

He's now the ambassador for religious freedom around the world.

He's an ambassador at large, which I think means he's on the land.

I'm not pretty sure that's not true.

I think we cleared that up for him, unfortunately, during the interview, but

that's entirely true.

There's a lot going on in the Middle East, and he covers a lot of that.

We get into that.

Yeah, a lot of great stuff on today's podcast.

You're listening to the best of the Glenbeck program.

It's Friday, November 30th.

You're listening to the Glenbeck program.

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Yeah, when you have the word food in it, it should usually be food.

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Glenn back.

All right, here's some of the questions that we should have our president asked today.

He's, you know, he's in Argentina at the G20.

Mr.

President, Mr.

President, how is your meeting with China's president?

Mr.

President, Mr.

President, have you ended the trade war?

Mr.

President, Mr.

President, insert anything relevant here that might show that we've solved any problems that actually will affect us.

But that's not going to happen.

Instead, we're going to have, Mr.

President, Mr.

President, can you tell us what

you said to Robert Mueller?

Mr.

President, Mr.

President, you told the American people that you've never had any dealings in Russia.

And now yesterday you came out and said, yeah,

I was trying to build a Trump tower in Moscow at the time.

What?

No problem with that.

Oh, dear God.

Mr.

President, Mr.

President, could I ask you this?

Why do you make it so tough?

Why do you do this to your supporters?

Stop it.

Stop it.

You make it really hard to defend.

Because what we have to say is, no, it doesn't matter.

And we all know that lying matters.

We all know that.

But we don't say that because by saying that, then the press has more ammunition to come after you.

But it hurts us because we have to say, what?

It doesn't matter.

Of course it matters.

Of course it matters.

You say you care about us,

and I believe you.

Can you just not lie to us?

Just don't lie to us.

Since he was president, how many times?

11 times?

15 times since he was president?

Did he say, I have no dealings in Russia?

I don't, I was never, nobody, to the best of my recollection, had any dealings with the Russians

about 14

times.

I mean, why?

Why?

We have now the signed document where you signed off on a letter of intent to build a Trump tower in Moscow

while you were saying there was nothing going on.

Why?

Nobody's going to,

nobody would have had a problem if you would have just come out and said, yeah, I'm trying to build a Trump tower.

What?

I'm a businessman.

I try to build them all over the world.

Right.

Everyone knows that.

That's his business.

That's your business.

Why would you do that?

So now

we've got really, really important meetings.

The

President G is...

This is one of the most important meetings.

This could decide whether or not the world goes to war in the next two years.

Literally, it's that important

meeting with the President of China.

Now, the President said last night, you know, that he's not sure he even wants to do a deal with President

Z.

Why?

Because of all the tax revenue coming in from China for because of the trade, you know, embargo or the trade tariffs.

Come on.

Now, I'm hoping that that is just

hyperbole getting ready to meet.

That's, you know, that's what you do.

Well, I'm not really interested in that car over there that I've been drooling over for the last two years.

I don't know.

I'm not really in the market for the car right now.

I just happen to be, well, I live across town and I drove 45 minutes in traffic to get to your car lot, but I'm not really that interested.

Hopefully, it's that kind of thing.

Hopefully it's just a negotiating tactic.

But the one thing that I have learned is absolutely nothing, nothing this president said

or says or tweets should be discussed.

Just what he does, just that,

just that.

If we were just looking at what this president does,

he'd be pretty popular.

He'd be pretty popular.

He wouldn't be having all of these problems.

But because of what the president says,

people get their

panties in a bunch.

Look at how much every time he tweets, the press goes crazy.

And you know what?

Oh, what's so infuriating about this is the way the press reacts every single time.

Once again,

I read two stories from two people at CNN that said, you know, this is the first time that I felt we really have him here.

They always

you said that every time.

So it was the first time for them.

This is really the first time.

Really?

When he was on the bus talking about, you know, touching women, you didn't feel that?

It's like a prostitute constantly over and over losing their virginity.

Yeah, that's what happens with the press every time.

Every time.

Every time it's brand new.

Yeah, every time.

I think Madonna wrote a song about that at one point.

And it's amazing the press can continue to do it.

You're right.

I mean, and the thing is about what Trump says and tweets, he himself says over and over again that he's negotiating, right?

We're not supposed to, you know, talk about, like, people will talk, when we would complain about tariffs, a lot of people will say, well, he's just negotiating.

And, you know, I mean, I think that one he has implemented, so that no longer is really a talking point.

But the point is, he says he's negotiating all the time.

So if he's negotiating, he has some,

right, some agenda to win some battle he's trying to do behind the scenes or whatever.

Well, there's no reason to listen to those words specifically.

And I, you know, look, it's a double standard because I would not have accepted that from Barack Obama because when he said things, I wanted to help hold them to them.

But, you know, Trump makes an art a form of it.

He's not even, I mean, this is a great point in that his supporters

should not have to deal with with trying to defend these things.

Look,

he didn't even do anything wrong trying to build it.

His business is building towers in other countries.

This is what he does for a living.

Do you remember how many times when I was at Fox and we were at the very height of all the controversy around me?

How many times I came on the air and I said, I'm really sorry because I know it makes it hard to defend me.

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

I used to say that all the time because I would say something stupid and it would be taken out of context or whatever, or it was just plain stupid, and I knew that it caused you trouble to defend me.

And you'd be like, oh, thanks, Glenn.

Thanks.

Now you've added that to the pile.

Okay?

And I know that.

And that's what I'm begging the president.

Please, please, if you look at

Trump's policies,

he's a good president.

Some of them are really good.

I mean, I think the best example of this is...

But the trade thing is kind of a big one that's starting to really scare the hell out of of me.

But the best example of this is Russia.

If you look at what he says about Russia, you would think, oh, well, he's way too friendly with Vladimir Putin.

A lot of people believe, you know, you see that, and it's notable.

I mean, I know.

Because it is notable on what he says.

Right, but if you look at what he does, his policies are pretty hawkish against Russia.

Very hawkish.

The administration has taken a lot of major steps against Russia through this period.

This has not been a presidency that has kissed the butt of Vladimir Putin.

Just because he said a few few nice things in press conferences does not mean that the actions of the administration back, you know, go down that road.

And I think if

you realize that Trump is a guy who, he's a big talker, right?

He's saying that, you know, I have the best of everything in the world.

And, you know, for years when he was back in the entertainment days, people would know, okay, he's saying that, but it's bluster.

He's talking big.

We get that.

We're not really going to pay attention.

We know he's not actually meaning it's the biggest or best in the world.

And this is the thing here.

It's like he, he, because he says something in public or he says something to the press, or he's fighting with the press and says something defensive, like I have absolutely no business with Russia, you can't take it seriously because you don't know what the truth is until that's why we've been saying with the mother thing.

Let's just wait for it to come out and we'll read it.

And here's what liberals and the press don't understand.

They look at us, and this is what's so frustrating, is because there's, look, 70% of this nation sick to death, sick to death of this crap.

I think it's actually 80%

that they're exhausted by this.

They don't want to play this game anymore.

They don't want to fight.

They just want everybody just to shut up and do their job.

Okay.

And what the press doesn't understand is that there are many people in America that

are so tired of the lies of the press, not just the Trump lies, but the lies that have gone on forever and the double standard forever.

Trump hates, I mean, Bush hates black people.

They didn't care.

They didn't care.

How can you possibly say that?

What's his name?

Dick Cheney blew up the levees.

George Bush knew about the towers when 60%

of Democrats believed that in 2005, that George Bush had something to do with 9-11.

Now, of course, they deny it and say, we're not into conspiracy theories.

Well, the evidence is there, okay?

And that came from a press not being a bulldog on that stuff.

They were at best neutral.

It's why I went on the air and said, we're going to get to the bottom of the FEMA camp thing.

I'm going to find out if they're happening or they're not.

I'm going to go in with an open mind and I'm going to say, are they happening or not?

I get bashed as a conspiracy theorist because I said, are they happening or not?

We're going to tell you next week.

And the answer, by the way, wasn't no.

It was no.

And quite honestly, I was pretty sure the answer was no, unless Dick Cheney had been building underground camps.

Right, but look at the way the press approached the birtherism stuff, right?

They went out and

they did segments on it debunking it every day.

They'd show you all the documents.

They'd go back and show all the history, the reports in the newspapers.

They did such a thorough job debunking that.

They did not do that with Bush.

They did not try to debunk.

They don't try to debunk the crazy conspiracies against Trump.

They don't do it.

They just let them sit out there and don't really answer them.

And again,

at times with him, in fact, they spread them through speculation.

They just spread them, and then they don't correct them afterwards, and they never apologize for saying, you know what, we were wrong on this one, and make a big deal out of it.

Nobody cares about your apology that happened one time, two o'clock in the afternoon, after you've spent three weeks saying it.

Yeah, and it's not universal.

I've heard Jake Tapper specifically go after their

conspiracy theories even against Trump.

Jake Tapper, I think, is in a different category most times.

It's not universal, but it's common.

It is way too common.

It's why so many people agree when he says, you know, the enemy of the people, because it feels that way a lot of times.

Right.

So look at the border.

So

when you're sitting here, media, you're like, how can these people, how can they just keep putting up with the president lying about this?

Because in our minds, this is what happens.

A.

I know the president lies.

I get it.

What?

I thought

I was voting for the Pope.

I was voting for Mother Teresa.

Please, I've baked all of this crap in a long time.

You really thought we thought Cohen was a good guy?

Come on.

We knew he was a slippery fixer.

That's who he was.

So we've already baked that in.

Now,

are we happy about this?

No.

But here's what we think.

If Donald Trump would have said during the election,

yeah, well, I'm trying to to build Trump Tower, which there's nothing wrong with that, as long as it's disclosed.

There's nothing wrong with that.

That's his job.

I was shocked when he denied it so vehemently because I'm like, of course he's trying to, he's trying to build one in my backyard.

He's trying to build them everywhere.

What do you mean?

In all of Russia, he doesn't want to put a hotel?

Of course he does.

That's what every businessman wants to do.

Correct and make more money.

Correct.

And that's one of the reasons we like Figure.

So we knew that.

However,

him saying, Yeah, I've got business dealings in Moscow right now.

What would the press say?

He's in bed with Moscow.

So if he would have admitted it, they would have made it into exactly what it is

today.

Not what it actually was, but what it is today.

A big scandal.

They would have used it against him.

So what happens, and let me explain this one more time as simply as I can to the media and to people on the on the left, not to the left, people who are Democrats.

Look,

we don't like this either.

We don't like this either.

But what is he supposed to do when you've got a when you have a media that will take anything and everything

and turn it into a massive scandal when the media, the media created this guy

they created him

in two ways donald trump if we trusted the news during the uh obama administration if they were actually telling us what was really going on and did investigations when when the government was out of control and when obama was clearly lying about things like obamacare that was a third of our economy.

That's the greatest health care system the world has ever seen.

And he lied, $2,500 back for every family.

No, that's not possible.

The math shows that's never possible.

That you can keep your doctor.

No, here is the documented evidence that that will not happen.

But you let it slide until, what, a year after we lost our doctors and were paying higher prices

because we didn't trust you at all

We needed somebody like Donald Trump to tell you shut up

That's not healthy and you created him in another way because you thought he was going to be the easiest candidate to beat you ran wall-to-wall coverage on him You took down everyone else in his path, but you just

loved him for ratings, and you thought he was going to be the easiest one for Hillary to beat.

Well, you were wrong now, weren't you?

And you can't live with yourself.

You'll never admit to that, but he is your creation.

So now you don't like it.

Oh, what a surprise.

This is the best of the Glenbeck program.

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I love Patriot Mobile.

I love Patriot Mobile, too.

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I don't know either because I think people just get, you know, you get stuck in the rut of, you know, some company you've been with for a while with your cell phone, and you don't think about where your money's going.

But I mean, it's going to, a lot of times, hardcore left-wing causes because these companies spend tens of millions of dollars supporting progressive candidates, progressive causes, and it's your money, right?

You're paying it to them and they're paying it to that.

The great thing is you still have the same great service, you know, using backbones and you have the great service.

However, you're not paying all the extra fees to these companies that they're taking and diverting to causes that you hate.

Yeah,

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Yeah, I remember you telling the story of, I think it was your grandfather who got to a place where he could no longer drive a car.

And it ripped him apart.

And he wanted to, and then he wound up driving his lawnmower to town, right?

Well, he drove, well, first he drove his truck to Denny's.

And then when he was backing out, he went the opposite direction really fast, so he went through the front window of Denny's.

So we had to take the keys of the truck away, and then he decided he was going to take the tractor to Denny's, and so they had to stop him taking the tractor.

So we had to take the keys away from that.

And then we caught him literally on the highway

on his little riding lawnmower.

trying to get to Denny's.

And he was just like,

first of all, the ultimate commercial for Denny's.

I I mean, I like Denny's too.

I don't know if I'm going to those lengths.

But it's true.

You lose those things, and

you feel like you're no longer a person.

But

you have two ways to go.

Let's be honest.

May I share a story with you from the news?

Okay.

Now, imagine you're in line at the Dollar General store.

Okay.

And the person in front of you is passing gas.

And I don't mean passing gas like, oh, boy, you spelled something?

I mean ripping them.

Okay.

Okay.

It's a woman in front of you, and she is just

okay.

That one.

That one.

Okay.

Okay.

She's just ripping them.

We've all had that moment.

We all have that moment.

We all had that moment.

Wait a minute.

Okay, I'm done.

Okay, so she's just ripping them.

And this this guy, you would, what would you do?

You would expect the person to go, oh my gosh, I am so sorry.

But she didn't.

And she's like, yeah, okay.

And I need one of these.

And the guy standing behind her is backing up.

You know, there could be a fire.

Can we open a door here?

And he finally says something because she's just crass about it.

And And

so she

she

turns around, she said, you have a you have a problem with what's happening.

And he's like, well, I mean, it is just, I mean, can you, I mean, can you at least say, excuse me?

And she reaches into her purse and he pulled it, she pulls a knife.

And she pulls a knife on the guy and he starts to back away.

And she said, you, you say another word,

and I'm going to

gut you.

And she threatens to gut the guy.

Okay?

Now, rational reaction to the situation.

Now, the one reason why this caught my eye today is: guess which state this story is from?

I mean,

I would probably guess the one we're sitting in right now.

Florida.

Yes.

Yes.

This state is is the

home of the craziest news up until probably 2007.

Then all news became like Florida.

But Florida, I think the reason why Florida is so chill is because

they watch the news.

They've been seeing that stuff go on for a long time.

It's like, that's Florida.

So when you got a president who's up there, look, I didn't,

oh, crap.

I had a bowl of chili that was fantastic.

You know,

nobody in Florida is like, oh, yeah, yeah.

I got a neighbor like that.

That is, I think, the way they digest this information.

I think so, too.

Now,

I don't have the answer to this one, but I do, there's a problem with this story.

A woman gets onto a plane with her five-year-old daughter.

And

she gets on the plane, and the flight attendants make fun of her daughter's name.

And then they go an extra step.

And this part is way over the line.

They post a picture of the boarding pass and a picture of the daughter online.

Okay.

Well, yeah, I don't think that's cool.

But they're making fun of her because she told ABC News that her daughter, ABCD,

it was not right.

I'm sorry, it's ABCDE.

It's not right to make fun of her name, ABCDE.

Is that a pronounceable name, or is it?

Of course it is.

It's ABCD.

Ab CD.

Ab C D.

Ab C D.

Ab C D.

But it is spelled ABCDE.

Okay?

So

if I had to ask you

what state the parent was from

that would name their kids ABCD E.

E.

Abcdi.

Ab C D.

See, that sounds normal-ish.

Absidi could be a name.

Absidi could be a name.

This is ABCDE.

Okay?

It's the alphabet, in case anybody is not following this closely.

If I had to ask you, what state would a parent be most likely to name their kid A, B, C, D, E, what would you say?

I would guess the one we're sitting in right now.

I would have said Florida or California.

Okay.

No chance it's any place other than Florida or California.

Texas.

Ah, really?

Now.

I believe this parent is a transplant.

We need a border wall.

We do.

I think this is a case why we need a border wall.

Yeah, yeah, the president can build it on the south, the south side.

I would like it on the west side of Texas

because they're swarming in, these Californians.

And only

no Texan, no self-respecting Texan would ever name their child ABCDE.

Never.

That is an immigrant.

A Texas immigrant?

Like they're from another state?

Yeah.

Okay.

That's somebody from California that's like, I kind of like that country of Texas.

No.

You're going to name your kid after fruit,

after

space rocks, or any part of the alphabet.

I know my name is also part of the alphabet, but it's arranged in a name.

You're not allowed in Texas.

I want somebody on the staff of the Blaze to take 20 minutes out of their day today.

They don't even have to write a story, but I'm the boss.

I want to find out if this is a California immigrant.

I want to find out.

I suspect she's a white person

who's a social justice warrior from California.

I cannot stand white people.

I am just

so irritated.

The only person that hates white people more than

you is probably the white person that names her child ABCDE.

All right.

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

Let me go to Bill O'Reilly.

Hello, Bill.

I wanted to start with this because I know that your column is about another epidemic that you say nobody's really paying paying attention to.

Yeah, and there's a correlation

to the rise of drug addiction in the hard drug arena to the massive amount of internet addiction we're seeing not only in the United States, but the world.

There's a correlation to it.

And

it's a very complicated issue, as you know, Beck.

By the way, I appreciate you guys labeling me Father Christmas, because as you know,

I saved Christmas for the United States of America.

I know you did,

and you've got rosy cheeks and

you just.

No spin elves on billorilly.com working around the clock.

That's not it.

But now, back to addiction.

So

it's a very complicated situation because

you are dealing with individuals who make a decision.

And the decision is I'm going to take hard drugs for recreational purposes you know there there are people get addicted because of medical reasons but not that many all right and and I'm gonna do it despite knowing I may die and I might become addicted and destroy my family but I'm I'm gonna do it anyway

so you're starting with a person who's troubled Because rational people, they don't make that decision.

And therefore, all of this pie in the sky about, well, all we need is more money for rehab and the government's fault because they don't provide whatever to these people.

I mean, it's just a lie.

The second thing is the society itself, with the legalization of marijuana and the basic glorification of drug use in the media in Hollywood, sends a message to young and mature people that, you know what?

It's cool.

It's cool.

Look at Snoop Dogg.

Look, it's cool to do it.

All right.

And yeah, getting intoxicated when you're 14, that's a good thing.

You go right ahead and do it.

Okay, so you have that, that massive wave of, oh, inebriation is good.

And if you do it, you'll be accepted and you'll be one of the cool kids.

Absolutely happening everywhere.

All right.

So this is like a wave that comes in.

And the final piece to it is, and we're looking at it now, well, if you're a seller of fentanyl,

you know, it's a non-violent crime.

Yeah, you might be handing people poison and they might die, but no, it's not that bad.

You shouldn't really be spending a lot of time in prison.

We need to rehab you.

So all of this

is why

the CDC comes out with this,

you know, and by the way, more people died last year of drug overdoses than in the entire Vietnam War by a lot.

So

there you go.

There's the analysis across the board.

It's pretty bleak.

Well, but there's also something else that you talk about, and that is the addiction to devices and the internet.

And now

there is this actual term.

What did you say it was?

I heard about it just a couple of days ago, and then I read it in your column.

It's internet

addiction.

Disorder.

So now there are rehab clinics, of course, capitalism.

You're going to have four kids, mostly kids,

ages 11, if you can imagine, to 23, 24, and costs a fortune because insurance is not going to handle it,

to go there and to try to pry their iPhones out of their hands.

But every parent and grandparent knows about the addiction, and there are plenty of adults addicted to it, too.

They didn't pay attention to their kids, they don't pay attention to their pets.

I mean, nobody talks about that, but pets used to be

brought in and you pay attention to them and you walk them and you nurture them.

And now the pets look at you, how come nobody's paying attention to me?

Because everybody's texting or Snapchatting.

I mean, I know it.

That's why I got my dog an iPhone and an Instagram picture.

That's a good move.

Very good, Beck.

Yeah, yeah.

All right, let's go into politics.

Let's talk a little bit about Cohen and what happened yesterday, what you think

it actually means, and then what you think it politically means.

Okay.

I don't know

what it means, and no one else does either.

Therefore, all the pundits who are telling you on television and in the newspaper op-ed pages that they do know are lying.

Beck.

Okay, well, wait a minute.

Hang on.

Hang on.

Let's just go over what we do know.

He came out and said

this is Cohen.

He came out and he said he lied

to

some congresspeople under oath about a Russian condominium project.

Okay.

Now,

he is already

not a credible person.

He's never been credible in my book.

However, he made that claim.

Then Trump, who has been saying the whole time, 14 times since he's been president, that we've had no business dealings at all over in Russia.

Yesterday he came out and he said he's weak and pathetic.

Don't believe it.

Then he came out later and said,

yes.

Okay, so I was trying to, of course I was.

I'm a businessman.

I was trying to build the Trump Tower,

but there's nothing wrong with that, which is true,

with an exception of the denials, but not under oath.

We do understand, we think, this coming from Rudy Giuliani, that the president answered honestly in his deposition.

So there's no,

if Giuliani is telling the truth, there is no perjury trap here for him.

So there doesn't look like there's anything

that there was any laws broken.

It's just about Trump lying about it.

But he didn't lie about it because he said quite clearly, I don't have any business with Russia.

This was all pie in the sky.

Maybe we could do it.

Oh, might help.

Don't cut that one.

Are you really cutting that line?

I'm telling you in a court of law.

No, no, no, I'm not talking about court of law.

I'm not talking about court of law because we don't, as far as I'm concerned.

And Trump and his lawyers can say, as they said, we didn't have any business dealings with Russia.

Correct.

And

I'm not talking about the law because I don't think there's any laws broken here.

I don't think there's any laws broken.

He's going to say, Beck, and you can disagree with it and disparage him if you want to, but he's going to say, I didn't have any business dealings with him.

A conversation about maybe someday we'll build a condo in Moscow is not a business dealing.

He did sign a letter of intent.

He didn't say that.

And you can't.

He did.

He signed a letter of intent.

I mean,

his intent was to

do business, and he formally engaged them.

Who?

The letters.

I mean, obviously, you know, it's been reported on.

If it comes out, yeah, I haven't seen any letter, and until I see the letter, I don't believe it.

So if there is a letter,

does it matter?

Yeah, that would matter.

Because if there's a letter of intent to build a condominium in Moscow, that's a business dealing.

So that would matter.

Okay, so even if he ⁇ see, this is interesting because

I buy into the letter, and I don't think that

anybody's going to

come from.

Seen it in several places.

October 28th, 2015 was the date.

It was the date of the third Republican presidential debate.

And I think this is an interesting one, Bill, because it's one of those things, everyone can throw out these accusations.

This one should be provable.

Well, if they have the letter, they should be able to show it, right?

If they have the letter, it should be in the Mueller report when it comes to it.

It would have been a leaky

time ago.

If Cohen

had a letter and Cohen would be the guy.

If he was the guy just yesterday, he just yesterday came out and said, okay, yes, I did lie about this two corners.

So here's the thing.

I don't want to even, I don't really care.

I get to the point on this when, when the facts are out, then you'll be able to comment on it.

I'm not holding the letter out as

because I'm not talking about

politics here.

Don't use the word lie and fall into the trap of all of the hate Trump media.

Look, listen to Father Christmas.

It's the season of joy.

You sit on a throne of lies.

Man, lie, don't use the word.

Well, this would be proof then.

You are saying it would be proof if this letter existed and he signed it.

It was a letter of intent

to build a condominium in Moscow that is a business dealing.

Okay.

So what does that mean then if that

makes sense to know about

what his contacts with Russia were?

That would be a

good question.

I got it.

So then what would that actually mean?

Because it's not illegal.

No.

So is anybody

going to change anything?

Well, unless

he said that under oath in his deposition.

Right.

Right.

And

no.

It would just be another

thing that the anti-Trump people could say, the guy's not trustworthy.

That's all.

Right.

Okay.

So now let me ask you this question.

Yeah.

Because if you Sue and I were talking about this earlier, if you listen to what the president says,

you have a good chance at one point or another during your day of getting pissed off.

Okay.

But if you don't listen to what he says, you just watch his actions, like

on Russia.

He's very strong against Russia.

He has taken real sanctions to Russia that we have not seen before.

When you watch his actions, they don't match the words because he's a guy, like, this is the most beautiful sink ever built.

And you're like, okay,

it's a sink, man.

You wash your hands in it.

So

you have to not look at his language, but when you actually listen to him,

you have to defend it.

And,

you know, we're put into a role to where

we have to somehow or another say it's okay

that he said, I had nothing to do with paying those girls off.

And we know now that he did.

If this happens with Russia, and there's a couple of other things that are like this.

Yeah, you have to make a decision whether his policies

override

his personal behavior.

It's the same thing with Bill Clinton.

And I think the American people

as the Republicans are doing with Trump.

Right.

And I think everybody has already made their decision on that.

Right?

I'm not sure because if Trump needs, if he wants to be reelected, he's got to win over about 7% more votes than he has now in the polls.

All right.

So let's get more persuadable people, depending on who runs against him.

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

20th anniversary of the International Religious Freedom Act.

20 years this has been in, and I'm not sure that religious freedom is getting better at all.

We have the ambassador at large, Sam Brownback.

He was a senator and governor of Kansas

and now the ambassador at large, which I think means he's either on the lamb or

they don't give him a cool residence to live in.

I'm not really sure.

Let's ask him.

That's an important first question.

It really is.

Ambassador Brownback, how are you, sir?

I'm doing well.

How are you guys today?

Very good.

I'm sure that at-large means that you're not on the lamb, right?

That's correct.

It means you cover the whole world.

The at-large is not religious freedom for

a particular country, Bulgaria or Iran or something like that.

It covers the entire world.

So we work on issues around the world.

I'm stationed out of the State Department, but I do do a lot of traveling to different countries and work around the Administration on religious freedom topics.

Yeah, you're right.

The situation has gotten worse over the last 20 years.

But this Administration's serious about what we can do to

change that trend line, get it going back the right way.

Now, I know you're an ambassador, so

if we ask anything that we shouldn't be asking,

we want people to be free, and

I don't care about the interview or anything else.

I just want people to be free.

So feel free to say, shut up, Glenn, at any time.

But

can we talk a little bit about the Middle East

and start with the Middle East on

what's happening there.

We are,

you know, Mercury One has done a remarkable job on bringing thousands of Christians out of the Middle East.

And the lion's share, really, now at this point, has gone to

Australia.

And these are good Christians who were marked for death in the Middle East.

We've got one, one, not family, one person into America.

How come America is not embracing the persecuted Christians

like some other countries around the world?

Well, we historically have.

You can look at a number of people that have fled the Middle East, particularly religious minorities, over the last 30 years, and a number have come to the United States.

And I don't know why the recent situation has changed where they're not coming into the United States, because because we've always been a haven for religious minorities.

One of the new things that we're trying to do more is, though, to make the situation safer in the Middle East for religious minorities to stay.

And that's the

same thing.

Yeah, a lot of them want to.

So what are we doing

to secure that?

Northern Iraq is probably the best example where a number of them are moving back.

I toured there 1st of July.

We're rebuilding homes, rebuilding churches, institutions, hospitals.

And the key long term is to get a better security environment so that people don't feel threatened.

But they are moving back,

and now we're starting to focus on that security agenda to be able to

tell people that, you know, yes, you can leave.

You can seek asylum status in other places, and people will grant it, but we really need you to stay.

We don't want to see these historic religions, particularly Christianity, but also the Yazidis in that region, just continue to get pushed out of the Middle East like they have for the past 30 years.

Well, I tell you,

most of them have reluctantly left.

The ones that we deal with, they don't want to leave because

they all say the same thing.

If we leave, we are the original people that you read about in the Bible, the ones that were persecuted,

the ones that the apostles first went to talk talk to.

That's us.

And if we leave, it completely, it leaves a vacuum.

And so they don't want to leave, most of them.

I agree.

I agree.

And that's why I was happy to hear that a number of them are moving back now

into these communities.

We just held

some meetings every week at Tuesday from 11 to noon, Washington, D.C., usually on the Hill.

We do a religious freedom roundtable with outside groups and a number of outside individuals then that have been persecuted or represent persecuted communities come in and tell their story.

And recently I was at one of those where people were saying, no, our community, Northern Iraq, about 55% have moved back now to the community.

The homes have been rebuilt.

The churches have been rebuilt.

And they're happy to be able to move back home.

But the security situation is still tenuous.

At any time, a new ISIS type variety could build up.

And so, you know, they kind of sleep with a bagpack,

ready to flee to Erbil or somewhere else in the region where they can get to near-term safety.

But that's the situation we've got to correct, where they don't have to sleep with a bagpack to leave at a moment's notice.

So,

you know, the Saudi Arabia situation with Khashoggi was an absolute nightmare.

And, you know, they're not the friendliest place to visit, especially if you're Christian and open about it.

However, I have heard that things are dramatically changing there.

And

there are some areas in the Middle East that are even now openly embracing Israel.

Are you sensing

something happening in the Middle East?

More than just an opposition to Iran?

No, I am.

I am.

I'm headed to the UAE, United Arab Emirates, next week, speaking to a major mostly Muslim leadership conference and going to talk about

ending violence between the Abrahamic faiths

and talk about

that what we

need to do is have a respect

for each other and that these are different faiths.

They have different beliefs.

There's no question about it.

But people, we should have a respect for that, and that there should not be,

and that the theologians should say that our religion does not support the use of violence in the promotion, the propagation of the faith,

to renounce that use of violence.

That seems

you know, that seems just like something that people are going to say, and they don't really mean it, because that's the way it has been.

But I have, again, heard that in Saudi Arabia, they are now arresting and closing down many of the extremist mosques, the Wahhabiist

clerics, that there are

1,500 to 3,000 that

have lost their mosque

and have been stopped because of their view.

Is that true?

Do you know?

I can't verify that particular thing, but I can tell you that things are changing.

Just that

you are seeing a

leadership at the governmental level

in these countries that is more open,

respectful, and then seeing too, Glenn, that when you decide as a nation, we are only going to have one faith and we are only going to have one interpretation of that one faith in our country and all else are not welcome and they can easily be

vandalized, terrorized, killed.

You limit the growth of your own country.

You limit your potential and you actually increase extremism and terrorism and you almost authorize mob violence.

by doing that.

A number of the governments in the region are seeing this is a bad strategy for us long term.

We can't grow based on this strategy.

We have to be open and let the faiths compete

in an environment that protects all faiths, being able to practice as they see fit as long as they're peaceful.

So, I'm sure you've seen what's been happening on our borders,

and

it has been a little agonizing

to many people to hear

the refugee word thrown around so much and asylum thrown around for people that

many of them are on record stating that they are here because they can't find a job or they want to finish their education in America, et cetera, et cetera.

I'm sure there are qualified people that need asylum

that are headed towards our border, but it's in the vast minority, I'm guessing.

And it seems like we've lost touch with what a refugee really is.

When the United States opens its arms to say,

we will provide shelter for you,

it is for something vastly different than what we're seeing on the border.

Can you define

what persecution looks like, what a refugee or someone who needs asylum looks like

in your world of religious freedom?

Well, I mean, there are legal definitions, and there are courts that make these determinations, and we have hundreds of thousands probably of people in the United States currently seeking asylum status.

And I pulled that number out of the air, so I'm not certain, but I'm certain it's thousands that are seeking, and courts make that determination.

But generally, the situation that has to prevail is that they were from or in a country where, in their set of beliefs, they could not

function.

They were subject to terrorism, to arrest,

that they were not allowed to go to school or to practice their freedom freely.

So that they had this level of systematic persecution that was taking place at the hands of the government

or that they had no protection provided by the government and this was allowed to take place against them.

Those are the the sort of factual situations that you're looking for on an asylum status,

which can often be pretty hard to

actually achieve to meet the factual setting that we require to grant somebody a legal asylum status.

Is

the increase of religious persecution,

is it a factor of the governments of the world getting worse, or is it a factor that the churches have pretty much fallen asleep at the switch?

You know, I ask this question of experts all the time

because it seemed like to me that we had a burst of religious freedom after the fall of communism.

Yes.

That those nations opened up.

There was a freedom that happened that they hadn't breathed for a long period of time.

It was more exclusive to there, but there was a nice push of it around the world.

And then that things have been constricting since that period of time.

And I was talking with an expert about that earlier this week, and he said, you know, it's a series of factors.

It's government seeing religion and its importance

and its impact, and then dabbling in it, in some cases funding it.

But if you fund something by government, government's tentacles go into you and they

tend towards control of a means.

In other cases, it's a political move by government where a majority faith-oriented people

don't like a new minority faith that's coming in, and they want them

kicked out, limited, and they'll pursue laws that do that.

There's any number of factors, but it's probably really reflective as much as anything of the growing importance of religion at a time when much of the world thought religion would be in decline.

The impact and the importance of religion is growing around the world, and governments are

active

around that space, more active.

So let me ask you this, and it kind of goes to what you just said.

As I travel the world and I am with persecuted people

and persecuted for their religion,

I am struck by how shallow my faith really is.

It is remarkable for the country that is known to be one of the most religious, at least in Christianity, how shallow our faith is overall compared to those countries where Christianity is being persecuted, those people,

their faith is remarkably different.

You agree?

Oh, absolutely.

I'm around people

weekly whose faith astounds me, whose beautiful faith.

And there's a calm peace.

and joy about them that you're looking this you you can't make that up.

I was

on the phone with Andrew Brunson and we worked his case.

The president got him out.

The president leaned in and got that done.

But that man, Andrew Brunson, has a remarkable calm and peaceful faith.

And he spent two years in a Turkish prison and had great difficulty and lots of spiritual failures, but towards the end is getting successes.

And you're just going, yeah, yeah, you just see the purified faith there.

And that's what I get to see regularly.

And people speaking clearly about miracles and signs and things that they've seen personally that have caused them to make this bold proclamation of their faith.

It's a gorgeous thing.

Ambassador Sam Brownback, you are a great governor and a great senator, and

thank you for all of your hard work through the years.

And thank you so much for your work as the ambassador of uh religious international religious freedom.

Thank you, Sam.

Appreciate it.

My honor.

Take care.

Thanks, Glenn.

God bless you all.

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