Glenn’s debate preview with Rick Santorum

Rick Santorum has participated in countless debates over the course of his career, most recently during the GOP primary race. What does he think are the biggest problems caused by the format? How will Mitt Romney do tonight? Check out the conversation from radio today in the clip above.

Rough transcript of interview is below:

GLENN:  I have on the phone Rick Santorum.  Let talk about the debate.

VOICE:  I would say that this is going to be the an important debate that and I'm hopeful that they give the opportunity to have a real engagement.  I mean one of the big problems I have with the debates the 20 debates I was involved in that the media decided they were the story, and not the candidates.  They didn't allow the type of interaction that is really important to get a sense of who these candidates really are.  I'm hoping they try to get these guys engage each other.

GLENN:  President Obama has not been questioned except by Univision in four years.  Nobody has really pushed him up against the wall, and questioned him.  Romney I believe the goal should be if I'm a strategist, and I'm not saying Romney he's got to be very careful.  Through the power of prayer should be to get the President to reveal who he really is.  He's not a likable person and he's an arrogant, arrogant guy.  And you know when we were thinking about this.  There's only two candidates that ran on the right that Barack Obama absolutely 100% despises, and that is you, and Mitt Romney.  You're Christians.  You're good practicing Christians.  You're white males.  You might as be wearing a pilgrim outfit, and bringing a turkey.  You are Mr. Colonialist in his mind.  Mitt Romney is a big businessman.  He's got to despise Mitt Romney.  His faith, anti-abortion, anti-Planned Parenthood helped with the proposition 8 in California.  There's nobody he hates more.  Do you think.

VOICE:  It gets to why.  I think you sort of laid it out.  Barack Obama is a fundamentally different vision for America.  He wants to transform America.  But what he's not been clear about.  He's been clear on the policy but is his vision for America he sort of hides the ball.  What his real vision.  His vision he'd like us to be the French -- the culmination if you will of the French Republic as opposed to the American Republic.  One of the reasons I wrote this book.  I do I'm sort feeling I'm pro-Glenn Beck, and teaching us American history.  But I thought it's just really important for us to get out there, and lay out who we are.  Our founder's vision versus Obama's vision, and Obama's vision is the French Revolution now in its current iteration versus the American Revolution which is the founding principle as you mentioned God given rights, you know people being responsible for the problems they have, and their families and their communities.  And government is there to provide an atmosphere for these great treasures of family and faith and community to be able to knit a society as opposed to the French vision which is not liberty from the beginning.  But liberty in the end and the folks who're going to craft that liberty and equality is the government.  That's European socialism which has adopted the French model is all about.  That's what we mean.  That's Obama's vision.  Romney vision my vision your vision hopefully your listener's vision is something that is more akin to the American one that made us the greatest country in the world.

GLENN:  The heroes by Rick.

VOICE:  Disappeared.

GLENN:  They're erased.

VOICE:  Again, again, I feel like I'm repeating the words you say all the time on the radio.  They've erased it because this is the elites in our culture who're trying to transform America and you can't do it with one President.  You've got to do with it education system, and with entertainment, and Hollywood and news media.  So I tip to my hat to you, and to be out there and be willing to provide a place for the truth about who we are, and what America is, and what's going on in the world today.

GLENN:  I will tell you Rick that I look for books that I can read to my son that will get him involved in the American movement, and you know so many times you'll pick up a history book and they're boring as snot and they go and on and on and on and he just loses interest.  Great, great book.  Short, sweet.  To the point.  Well done.

VOICE:  Thank you.  Well, look again I don't want to be sucking up to you here.  One of the things I do learn in looking at you, and how you've effectively communicated is I thought some of your most powerful books from some of the little books that did that short sweet, delivered a message did it clearly and had the biggest impact.  Trying to follow in the footsteps of great steps of great fuss.

GLENN:  It's available everyone but you can get it Patriotic voices. The name of the book is Patriotic voices answering the call to freedom.  What is the one thing that Mitt Romney has got to do tonight.

VOICE:  You know, I really do believe this, and I saw it in me and my debates.  The debates I did well I was comfortable.  I was confident.  I wasn't arrogant but you conveyed a message by how you handled yourself.  And I think that is really important for -- how Obama is able to pull it off in so many cases is that he can pull it off he just -- he looks the part.  And I think Romney -- as much as you think people know Mitt Romney they don't.  And a lot of people for the first time are going to size him up in this kind of intense atmosphere, and see what is this guy made of, and I think it's really important for Romney just to relax, to be as natural as he possibly can.

GLENN:  Let ask you this.  How hard to relax.  Mitt Romney has to know if he blows it tonight he's blown it.  He's worked eight years.  As much as you say you want him to relax.  How hard to do that moment.

VOICE:  It's really hard.  In that moment for me I did particularly well.  I had a debate where that was sort of I thought one of the key points for me we had just done very, very well.  We were starting to gain momentum and I didn't come across well.  I didn't connect and communicate well.  I think it cost me a lot.  And I'll be honest with you.  It was the same thing for Mitt Romney, and he did.  He did very, very well.  It was my first moment to be in the kind of spotlight, and be under that kind of intensity.  I did okay.  I didn't do well as I could have.  I didn't do as well he could have.  I think it's hard but he's been through this.  He's done it with the debate with me.  But he did it in other debates with other folks at other times and Obama hasn't had that.  He hasn't been in the situation for four years.  Even when he was he has been so cobbled by the media that if Mitt Romney can have that AURA I think you're going to see the real people come out in this debate.

GLENN:  You're the President.  Let's say you're Mitt Romney, and you're standing against the President of the United States.  Mr. Romney you said 47%.  It appears that you don't care about 47% of this nation.  How would you respond.

VOICE:  You respond from the truth which is truth is that Mitt Romney is dedicated his career in creating opportunities and serving the public not and trying to help people experience a part of the American dream.  Mr. President you're the guy that's caused highest level of poverty in history.  You're your policies.  My career has been about successfully taking on and giving opportunities for those to get off the programs you want to put people on.  I think you've got to paint the positive vision what he's done, and what he's about.  Don't run away from dependency. It's not that people want to be dependency.  They make short-term economic decisions that where the government has come in with such largesse it makes the economic choices very, very difficult to go out and work, and sacrifice things in the short-term that which may end up long-term.

PAT:  How hard is that to turn the thing around in a positive light.  You went through the debates in the Republican debates.  First of all they never went to you.  Because you had two% support.  And then at the end when you were actually leading the race, then it was all spun in a negative way you had the war on women.  Is it hard to turn it around, and get your message out there and push forward your agenda.

VOICE:  It is.  But governor Romney has been prepping for this, and the lines of attack are going to be pretty obvious, and he has to be comfortable with again -- it's not just not what he says.  Does he come across Asner /SRUS and off balance when he's answering.  Or does he come across as Reagan would do.  He's not Ronald Reagan.  To slough it off, and take it seriously but sort of turn it into something that.

GLENN:  Make sure you have a twinkle in your eye.

VOICE:  Those are important.  It's hard to do.  That's what you've got to do.  If you want to be President of United States.

GLENN:  Rick Santorum.  A book that everyone should read.  Thanks Rick.  We'll talk again.

Is the U.N. plotting to control 30% of U.S. land by 2030?

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A reliable conservative senator faces cancellation for listening to voters. But the real threat to public lands comes from the last president’s backdoor globalist agenda.

Something ugly is unfolding on social media, and most people aren’t seeing it clearly. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) — one of the most constitutionally grounded conservatives in Washington — is under fire for a housing provision he first proposed in 2022.

You wouldn’t know that from scrolling through X. According to the latest online frenzy, Lee wants to sell off national parks, bulldoze public lands, gut hunting and fishing rights, and hand America’s wilderness to Amazon, BlackRock, and the Chinese Communist Party. None of that is true.

Lee’s bill would have protected against the massive land-grab that’s already under way — courtesy of the Biden administration.

I covered this last month. Since then, the backlash has grown into something like a political witch hunt — not just from the left but from the right. Even Donald Trump Jr., someone I typically agree with, has attacked Lee’s proposal. He’s not alone.

Time to look at the facts the media refuses to cover about Lee’s federal land plan.

What Lee actually proposed

Over the weekend, Lee announced that he would withdraw the federal land sale provision from his housing bill. He said the decision was in response to “a tremendous amount of misinformation — and in some cases, outright lies,” but also acknowledged that many Americans brought forward sincere, thoughtful concerns.

Because of the strict rules surrounding the budget reconciliation process, Lee couldn’t secure legally enforceable protections to ensure that the land would be made available “only to American families — not to China, not to BlackRock, and not to any foreign interests.” Without those safeguards, he chose to walk it back.

That’s not selling out. That’s leadership.

It's what the legislative process is supposed to look like: A senator proposes a bill, the people respond, and the lawmaker listens. That was once known as representative democracy. These days, it gets you labeled a globalist sellout.

The Biden land-grab

To many Americans, “public land” brings to mind open spaces for hunting, fishing, hiking, and recreation. But that’s not what Sen. Mike Lee’s bill targeted.

His proposal would have protected against the real land-grab already under way — the one pushed by the Biden administration.

In 2021, Biden launched a plan to “conserve” 30% of America’s lands and waters by 2030. This effort follows the United Nations-backed “30 by 30” initiative, which seeks to place one-third of all land and water under government control.

Ask yourself: Is the U.N. focused on preserving your right to hunt and fish? Or are radical environmentalists exploiting climate fears to restrict your access to American land?

  Smith Collection/Gado / Contributor | Getty Images

As it stands, the federal government already owns 640 million acres — nearly one-third of the entire country. At this rate, the government will hit that 30% benchmark with ease. But it doesn’t end there. The next phase is already in play: the “50 by 50” agenda.

That brings me to a piece of legislation most Americans haven’t even heard of: the Sustains Act.

Passed in 2023, the law allows the federal government to accept private funding from organizations, such as BlackRock or the Bill Gates Foundation, to support “conservation programs.” In practice, the law enables wealthy elites to buy influence over how American land is used and managed.

Moreover, the government doesn’t even need the landowner’s permission to declare that your property contributes to “pollination,” or “photosynthesis,” or “air quality” — and then regulate it accordingly. You could wake up one morning and find out that the land you own no longer belongs to you in any meaningful sense.

Where was the outrage then? Where were the online crusaders when private capital and federal bureaucrats teamed up to quietly erode private property rights across America?

American families pay the price

The real danger isn’t in Mike Lee’s attempt to offer more housing near population centers — land that would be limited, clarified, and safeguarded in the final bill. The real threat is the creeping partnership between unelected global elites and our own government, a partnership designed to consolidate land, control rural development, and keep Americans penned in so-called “15-minute cities.”

BlackRock buying entire neighborhoods and pricing out regular families isn’t by accident. It’s part of a larger strategy to centralize populations into manageable zones, where cars are unnecessary, rural living is unaffordable, and every facet of life is tracked, regulated, and optimized.

That’s the real agenda. And it’s already happening , and Mike Lee’s bill would have been an effort to ensure that you — not BlackRock, not China — get first dibs.

I live in a town of 451 people. Even here, in the middle of nowhere, housing is unaffordable. The American dream of owning a patch of land is slipping away, not because of one proposal from a constitutional conservative, but because global powers and their political allies are already devouring it.

Divide and conquer

This controversy isn’t really about Mike Lee. It’s about whether we, as a nation, are still capable of having honest debates about public policy — or whether the online mob now controls the narrative. It’s about whether conservatives will focus on facts or fall into the trap of friendly fire and circular firing squads.

More importantly, it’s about whether we’ll recognize the real land-grab happening in our country — and have the courage to fight back before it’s too late.


This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

URGENT: FIVE steps to CONTROL AI before it's too late!

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By now, many of us are familiar with AI and its potential benefits and threats. However, unless you're a tech tycoon, it can feel like you have little influence over the future of artificial intelligence.

For years, Glenn has warned about the dangers of rapidly developing AI technologies that have taken the world by storm.

He acknowledges their significant benefits but emphasizes the need to establish proper boundaries and ethics now, while we still have control. But since most people aren’t Silicon Valley tech leaders making the decisions, how can they help keep AI in check?

Recently, Glenn interviewed Tristan Harris, a tech ethicist deeply concerned about the potential harm of unchecked AI, to discuss its societal implications. Harris highlighted a concerning new piece of legislation proposed by Texas Senator Ted Cruz. This legislation proposes a state-level moratorium on AI regulation, meaning only the federal government could regulate AI. Harris noted that there’s currently no Federal plan for regulating AI. Until the federal government establishes a plan, tech companies would have nearly free rein with their AI. And we all know how slowly the federal government moves.

  

This is where you come in. Tristan Harris shared with Glenn the top five actions you should urge your representatives to take regarding AI, including opposing the moratorium until a concrete plan is in place. Now is your chance to influence the future of AI. Contact your senator and congressman today and share these five crucial steps they must take to keep AI in check:

Ban engagement-optimized AI companions for kids

Create legislation that will prevent AI from being designed to maximize addiction, sexualization, flattery, and attachment disorders, and to protect young people’s mental health and ability to form real-life friendships.

Establish basic liability laws

Companies need to be held accountable when their products cause real-world harm.

Pass increased whistleblower protections

Protect concerned technologists working inside the AI labs from facing untenable pressures and threats that prevent them from warning the public when the AI rollout is unsafe or crosses dangerous red lines.

Prevent AI from having legal rights

Enact laws so AIs don’t have protected speech or have their own bank accounts, making sure our legal system works for human interests over AI interests.

Oppose the state moratorium on AI 

Call your congressman or Senator Cruz’s office, and demand they oppose the state moratorium on AI without a plan for how we will set guardrails for this technology.

Glenn: Only Trump dared to deliver on decades of empty promises

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The Islamic regime has been killing Americans since 1979. Now Trump’s response proves we’re no longer playing defense — we’re finally hitting back.

The United States has taken direct military action against Iran’s nuclear program. Whatever you think of the strike, it’s over. It’s happened. And now, we have to predict what happens next. I want to help you understand the gravity of this situation: what happened, what it means, and what might come next. To that end, we need to begin with a little history.

Since 1979, Iran has been at war with us — even if we refused to call it that.

We are either on the verge of a remarkable strategic victory or a devastating global escalation. Time will tell.

It began with the hostage crisis, when 66 Americans were seized and 52 were held for over a year by the radical Islamic regime. Four years later, 17 more Americans were murdered in the U.S. Embassy bombing in Beirut, followed by 241 Marines in the Beirut barracks bombing.

Then came the Khobar Towers bombing in 1996, which killed 19 more U.S. airmen. Iran had its fingerprints all over it.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, Iranian-backed proxies killed hundreds of American soldiers. From 2001 to 2020 in Afghanistan and 2003 to 2011 in Iraq, Iran supplied IEDs and tactical support.

The Iranians have plotted assassinations and kidnappings on U.S. soil — in 2011, 2021, and again in 2024 — and yet we’ve never really responded.

The precedent for U.S. retaliation has always been present, but no president has chosen to pull the trigger until this past weekend. President Donald Trump struck decisively. And what our military pulled off this weekend was nothing short of extraordinary.

Operation Midnight Hammer

The strike was reportedly called Operation Midnight Hammer. It involved as many as 175 U.S. aircraft, including 12 B-2 stealth bombers — out of just 19 in our entire arsenal. Those bombers are among the most complex machines in the world, and they were kept mission-ready by some of the finest mechanics on the planet.

   USAF / Handout | Getty Images

To throw off Iranian radar and intelligence, some bombers flew west toward Guam — classic misdirection. The rest flew east, toward the real targets.

As the B-2s approached Iranian airspace, U.S. submarines launched dozens of Tomahawk missiles at Iran’s fortified nuclear facilities. Minutes later, the bombers dropped 14 MOPs — massive ordnance penetrators — each designed to drill deep into the earth and destroy underground bunkers. These bombs are the size of an F-16 and cost millions of dollars apiece. They are so accurate, I’ve been told they can hit the top of a soda can from 15,000 feet.

They were built for this mission — and we’ve been rehearsing this run for 15 years.

If the satellite imagery is accurate — and if what my sources tell me is true — the targeted nuclear sites were utterly destroyed. We’ll likely rely on the Israelis to confirm that on the ground.

This was a master class in strategy, execution, and deterrence. And it proved that only the United States could carry out a strike like this. I am very proud of our military, what we are capable of doing, and what we can accomplish.

What comes next

We don’t yet know how Iran will respond, but many of the possibilities are troubling. The Iranians could target U.S. forces across the Middle East. On Monday, Tehran launched 20 missiles at U.S. bases in Qatar, Syria, and Kuwait, to no effect. God forbid, they could also unleash Hezbollah or other terrorist proxies to strike here at home — and they just might.

Iran has also threatened to shut down the Strait of Hormuz — the artery through which nearly a fifth of the world’s oil flows. On Sunday, Iran’s parliament voted to begin the process. If the Supreme Council and the ayatollah give the go-ahead, we could see oil prices spike to $150 or even $200 a barrel.

That would be catastrophic.

The 2008 financial collapse was pushed over the edge when oil hit $130. Western economies — including ours — simply cannot sustain oil above $120 for long. If this conflict escalates and the Strait is closed, the global economy could unravel.

The strike also raises questions about regime stability. Will it spark an uprising, or will the Islamic regime respond with a brutal crackdown on dissidents?

Early signs aren’t hopeful. Reports suggest hundreds of arrests over the weekend and at least one dissident executed on charges of spying for Israel. The regime’s infamous morality police, the Gasht-e Ershad, are back on the streets. Every phone, every vehicle — monitored. The U.S. embassy in Qatar issued a shelter-in-place warning for Americans.

Russia and China both condemned the strike. On Monday, a senior Iranian official flew to Moscow to meet with Vladimir Putin. That meeting should alarm anyone paying attention. Their alliance continues to deepen — and that’s a serious concern.

Now we pray

We are either on the verge of a remarkable strategic victory or a devastating global escalation. Time will tell. But either way, President Trump didn’t start this. He inherited it — and he took decisive action.

The difference is, he did what they all said they would do. He didn’t send pallets of cash in the dead of night. He didn’t sign another failed treaty.

He acted. Now, we pray. For peace, for wisdom, and for the strength to meet whatever comes next.


This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Globalize the Intifada? Why Mamdani’s plan spells DOOM for America

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If New Yorkers hand City Hall to Zohran Mamdani, they’re not voting for change. They’re opening the door to an alliance of socialism, Islamism, and chaos.

It only took 25 years for New York City to go from the resilient, flag-waving pride following the 9/11 attacks to a political fever dream. To quote Michael Malice, “I'm old enough to remember when New Yorkers endured 9/11 instead of voting for it.”

Malice is talking about Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist assemblyman from Queens now eyeing the mayor’s office. Mamdani, a 33-year-old state representative emerging from relative political obscurity, is now receiving substantial funding for his mayoral campaign from the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

CAIR has a long and concerning history, including being born out of the Muslim Brotherhood and named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror funding case. Why would the group have dropped $100,000 into a PAC backing Mamdani’s campaign?

Mamdani blends political Islam with Marxist economics — two ideologies that have left tens of millions dead in the 20th century alone.

Perhaps CAIR has a vested interest in Mamdani’s call to “globalize the intifada.” That’s not a call for peaceful protest. Intifada refers to historic uprisings of Muslims against what they call the “Israeli occupation of Palestine.” Suicide bombings and street violence are part of the playbook. So when Mamdani says he wants to “globalize” that, who exactly is the enemy in this global scenario? Because it sure sounds like he's saying America is the new Israel, and anyone who supports Western democracy is the new Zionist.

Mamdani tried to clean up his language by citing the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, which once used “intifada” in an Arabic-language article to describe the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. So now he’s comparing Palestinians to Jewish victims of the Nazis? If that doesn’t twist your stomach into knots, you’re not paying attention.

If you’re “globalizing” an intifada, and positioning Israel — and now America — as the Nazis, that’s not a cry for human rights. That’s a call for chaos and violence.

Rising Islamism

But hey, this is New York. Faculty members at Columbia University — where Mamdani’s own father once worked — signed a letter defending students who supported Hamas after October 7. They also contributed to Mamdani’s mayoral campaign. And his father? He blamed Ronald Reagan and the religious right for inspiring Islamic terrorism, as if the roots of 9/11 grew in Washington, not the caves of Tora Bora.

   Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

 

This isn’t about Islam as a faith. We should distinguish between Islam and Islamism. Islam is a religion followed peacefully by millions. Islamism is something entirely different — an ideology that seeks to merge mosque and state, impose Sharia law, and destroy secular liberal democracies from within. Islamism isn’t about prayer and fasting. It’s about power.

Criticizing Islamism is not Islamophobia. It is not an attack on peaceful Muslims. In fact, Muslims are often its first victims.

Islamism is misogynistic, theocratic, violent, and supremacist. It’s hostile to free speech, religious pluralism, gay rights, secularism — even to moderate Muslims. Yet somehow, the progressive left — the same left that claims to fight for feminism, LGBTQ rights, and free expression — finds itself defending candidates like Mamdani. You can’t make this stuff up.

Blending the worst ideologies

And if that weren’t enough, Mamdani also identifies as a Democratic Socialist. He blends political Islam with Marxist economics — two ideologies that have left tens of millions dead in the 20th century alone. But don’t worry, New York. I’m sure this time socialism will totally work. Just like it always didn’t.

If you’re a business owner, a parent, a person who’s saved anything, or just someone who values sanity: Get out. I’m serious. If Mamdani becomes mayor, as seems likely, then New York City will become a case study in what happens when you marry ideological extremism with political power. And it won’t be pretty.

This is about more than one mayoral race. It’s about the future of Western liberalism. It’s about drawing a bright line between faith and fanaticism, between healthy pluralism and authoritarian dogma.

Call out radicalism

We must call out political Islam the same way we call out white nationalism or any other supremacist ideology. When someone chants “globalize the intifada,” that should send a chill down your spine — whether you’re Jewish, Christian, Muslim, atheist, or anything in between.

The left may try to shame you into silence with words like “Islamophobia,” but the record is worn out. The grooves are shallow. The American people see what’s happening. And we’re not buying it.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.