BLOGMay 03, 2017

Did Reagan's Assassination Attempt Thwart an Invasion of Poland and Nuclear War?

Paul Kengor, political science professor and author of the new book A Pope and a President: John Paul II, Ronald Reagan, and the Extraordinary Untold Story of the 20th Century, joined Glenn on radio for a fascinating discussion about the bond between Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II. Both men survived assassination attempts in an age when the Soviet Union met its end. Kengor revealed incredible details about the lives of these two great leaders and how divine intervention may have prevented a geopolitical disaster.

Enjoy the complimentary clip or read the transcript for details.

GLENN: Paul Kengor, professor at Grove City College, author of numerous books. He has a new one out about Ronald Reagan, The Extraordinary Untold Story of the 20th Century. I don't want to tell you the name of the book because it will spoil the surprise. I would have thought that the best friend -- that someone Ronald Reagan would have said was my best friend would be Nancy. That's not what Paul found. Paul, welcome to the program.

PAUL: Hey, Glenn, thanks so much.

GLENN: So how did you find this about Ronald Reagan? Where did you find this? And -- and were you shocked by it? Not shocked, but just shocked that you didn't know it.

PAUL: Yeah, I'd say both, really. And, in fact, Nancy Reagan -- and here's the giveaway, said that John Paul II was her husband's closest friend, which is an amazing thing to say. So you had Ronald Reagan referring to John Paul II as his best friend, and then Nancy said that John Paul II was her husband's closest friend.

GLENN: Isn't that amazing? I've never heard that. Never known that.

PAUL: That's right.

GLENN: That -- in many ways, that completely changes my view in a positive way of Ronald Reagan and who he was. To be John Paul's closest and best friend is remarkable.

PAUL: It is. And I think, look, to be sure, I think there's probably a little bit of a kind of genial overstatement, right? On the part of Reagan in saying that. But the first time that I heard it, it was about ten years ago. And somebody from the Polish Solidarity Movement told me about him and three other members of the Polish Solidarity Movement.

They were visiting with Reagan. This would have been the spring of 1989. And Reagan was no longer president. He was at his Century City office. They were about to hold these historic elections in Poland that would really -- I mean, that's what really took down the Communist bloc, those elections in Poland, even before the Berlin wall fell.

GLENN: Yeah, yeah.

PAUL: And he said, you won't believe this conversation. We're talking to Reagan. The old campaigner who won 49 out of 50 states. And we asked him for some campaign advice. And he looked at us and he said, "Yeah, listen to your conscience because that's where the Holy Spirit speaks to you." What? What was that?

And they gave him a sort of puzzled look. And then he turned, and he gestured to a picture on his office wall of Pope John Paul II. And he said, "He's my best friend." Said, "Yes, you know I'm Protestant. He's obviously Catholic. "But he's my best friend." And when I started asking people about this, including Nancy Reagan, who was great. Every time I had a question for Nancy, I usually sent it by email or phone call, and she would respond to all of these. She was wonderful because she loved John Paul II herself.

She said that John Paul II was her favorite leader among everybody that Ronnie met with. And I think, Glenn, what they both mean by that is it's not like the two were calling each other up and talking about the ball game or going fishing.

GLENN: Sure. Sure.

PAUL: Or -- but I think what Reagan meant was, in terms of this kind of historical and spiritual -- he and John Paul II both thought this way, this historical, spiritual struggle to take down and defeat this evil empire, atheistic Soviet communism, Reagan felt that there was no better friend or no closer friend that he had in that endeavor than Pope John Paul II.

GLENN: We're talking to Dr. Paul Kengor. A professor and a great author. Written several books. One of them is -- that he did with Mercury, Inc. The Communist, which was about Barack Obama's mentor, Frank Marshall Davis. Great researcher on history. His new book is A Pope and A President: John Paul II, Ronald Reagan, and The Extraordinary Untold Story of the 20th Century.

Paul, they had this -- they had this connection of not only bringing things down. But I think they also had -- and you talk about it in the book -- this connection because they both felt that they were men of destiny, and they both had an assassination attempt against them. And they both survived, which I think hardened that man of destiny, we're on God's side kind of feeling.

PAUL: Yeah, that's exactly right. People forget this now. Everybody remembers that they were both shot. But, I mean, they were shot only six weeks apart.

GLENN: I did not remember that.

PAUL: It was March 30th, 1981, that Reagan was shot by John Hinckley. And then John Paul II was shot on May 13th, 1981. And immediately after Reagan was shot, the pope sent his prayers to Reagan, you know, wishing him well for a speedy recovery. And then Reagan, right after John Paul II was shot, immediately tried to call the Vatican. He called Cardinal Cook, Cardinal Krol in New York and Philadelphia. Sent a letter off to the pope saying that he was horrified by this, telling him that he was praying for him. Had a personal letter delivered to him by Congressman Peter Rodino, a Democrat from New Jersey. Had it taken all the way to Rome. And, I mean, they -- they already had wanted to meet with each other, Glenn, at least since early 1981 when Reagan was president.

And actually for Reagan, he wanted to meet with John Paul II from the moment that he saw footage of the pope going to his homeland in June 1979. Reagan said we got to get elected, and we got to reach out to him and the Vatican and make him an ally. So now with the two of them being shot -- and people didn't know this then either. They both very nearly bled to death.

GLENN: Right.

PAUL: They should have died. The pope needed 6 pints transfused of blood. Reagan needed eight. They both should have bled to death on their respective ways to the hospital. And then when they finally got together for the first time at the Vatican in June 19832, they met for about an hour alone, and they confided to one another their mutual beliefs that they believed that God had spared their lives for a special purpose, to take down atheistic Soviet communism.

STU: Hmm. Talking to Paul Kengor. Paul, this is I think new. I've never heard this before. Reagan being shot may have prevented the Soviet Union from invading Poland. Is that true?

PAUL: Right. It's incredible. It's an incredible story. It was told to me by someone who was at the Berlin station at the time in the late '70s and early 1980s. And I first heard this about five years ago. And I was blown away by the -- by the possibility. I spent a summer at the Reagan Library, looking into this. And it pretty much checks out. And, I mean, look, here's what we know: Between about November 1980 and the time that the Soviets declared -- helped declare martial law in Poland. This would have been December 1981.

Everybody was on pins and needles that the Soviet Union was going to invade Poland. I mean, we thought it was possible. We were hoping it wouldn't happen. Thought it was possible.

I was told by my source that -- he said, "You have no idea how close this was." He was -- he was decrypting information from the Soviets, throughout March 1989. And he said that he had information that they were literally ready to march into Poland on March 30th, 1981. On that exact -- that exact date March 30th, 1981. And you say, well, why is that so profound? Because of course Reagan was shot on March 30th, 1981.

And he -- he claims that because Reagan was shot and the US military went on full nuclear alert, highest level of DEFCON --

GLENN: Wow.

PAUL: Al Hague, you know, stomped into the White House. Said, "I'm in charge here." It's funny because everybody made fun of Hague for that. But the Soviets saw that, and they said, Al Hague, you know, former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO. He's no one to mess around with.

STU: Hmm.

GLENN: Wow.

PAUL: And they sent a DEFCON alert. And my source told me they were ready to go. And then when Reagan was shot, that's what called off the whole thing.

STU: Wow.

GLENN: So --

PAUL: And I think --

GLENN: Go ahead.

PAUL: I think it's accurate.

GLENN: Let me go back to the assassination on the pope.

You have in your book, New Details, that the KGB was involved in the pope's assassination.

PAUL: That's right. And we've long suspected that the Soviets were involved. John Paul II, Glenn, fought it as early as July 1981. In fact, when he got to the hospital, before he passed out, he said to the nurse, "How could they do it? How could they do it?" They meaning who? The one guy that lifted his gun? Mehmet Agca. And shot him.

I mean, he suspected right away that something was going on. He was telling people by late '81 -- his aides and confidants -- that he thought Moscow ordered it.

Reagan, Bill Casey at the CIA -- Casey called a very tight meeting of the National Foreign Intelligence Board on F Street in Washington, the very next morning, May 14. Wanted to know what Moscow was up to.

Bill Clark, the National Security Council. So they all suspected Moscow. Then when the word got out that the Bulgarians were involved. And you and Pat and Stu knowing your Cold War history, I mean, you know what the Bulgarians were like. They were stooges of the Soviet Union. Some people called Bulgaria the 16th Soviet Republic.

So when they heard that Bulgaria was involved and was behind Mehmet Agca, that immediately raised red flags, pun intended.

And, you know, they -- when they heard Bulgaria, they thought, "Okay. Moscow had to have been involved." But they kept all of this quiet until Casey ordered a truly super secret investigation at the CIA. And this is really kind of the blockbuster thing that I broke in this book.

And Casey -- this was a very tight investigation. I was told it was spearheaded by two young women, one of them in her late 20s, early 30s. Another in her early 40s. And they came to the conclusion that Moscow did, in fact, order the hit on the pope. And, specifically, it was through the Soviet GRU -- military intelligence -- they're the ones that organized it. But they did it with the go ahead and the approval of Yuri Andropov at the KGB.

GLENN: How much -- and I'm trying to keep of the timing here. I think it was after the assassination. How much did this play a role in Ronald Reagan having zero doubt or fear of labeling the Soviet Union an evil empire?

PAUL: Well, that's a good question. Reagan said that in March of '83.

GLENN: Right.

PAUL: And I think for Reagan, I mean, he had always known they were evil.

GLENN: But, I mean, if you knew they were evil -- but even the pope said, "How could they do this?"

PAUL: Right.

GLENN: To go and try to assassinate the pope. And a guy who sees a black and white world already, that just pushes you into a whole new level of evil.

PAUL: That's right. It really does. And, I mean, it doesn't surprise me. Knowing the way that -- the Soviet Union, they had been killing priests and bishops, Russian Orthodox Church rabbis, Roman Catholic priests, Protestant priests. They had been doing this since 1917. I mean, they killed hundreds, if not thousands. They were blowing up churches. Reagan knew that history. John Paul II knew that from being in Poland, where they harassed him since the 1950s. So really I think the answer to your question, Glenn, whereas a lot of the establishmentarians in the State Department and the CIA couldn't imagine that the Soviets would descend to that level, Reagan and Bill Casey and John Paul II and guys like Bill Clark, they had no problem at all imagining that the Soviets --

GLENN: So I want to go -- I have to take a break. But I want to come back and talk to you -- we're talking to Paul Kengor. His new book is called A Pope and A President. You get into something that I wasn't aware of, and maybe others are, that the pope was a big scholar or big fan -- I don't know how you would describe it -- of the secrets of Fatima, which I would like you to describe what those secrets of Fatima are. How the Vatican has the last parts of the secrets of Fatima. Did Reagan know any of that? And the role that those secrets played with Russia. Something that nobody would have wanted to know about the president at the time. The press would have had a field day with that.

But I'd like to hear about his connections with the secrets of Fatima and the pope coming up in just a second.

PAUL: Sure.

GLENN: The name of the book again is A Pope and A President. Fascinating and new material on Ronald Reagan and the pope. Sponsor this half-hour is My Patriot Supply. Yesterday, two US B-1 bombers departed Anderson Air Force Base in Guam. And they conducted a joint drill with South Korea and Japan. They flew over the North Korean peninsula. And they flew close to the 39th parallel. Why? The reason why is they are showing -- they showed off our stealth and our -- our B-1 bombers, saying to North Korea -- they flew close enough to the zone for them to know what they were, to say, "We can knock out all of your infrastructure."

PAT: Does the 39th parallel scare them as much as the 38th does?

GLENN: I'm sorry. The 38th parallel. Thank you. No, it doesn't. It doesn't.

PAT: Okay.

[break]

GLENN: We're talking to Dr. Paul Kengor. Great friend of the show and a great brilliant historian and writer. A Pope and A President is his new book. And before we move into the secrets of Fatima, Paul, I want to go back to what you said about the Soviets planning on invading Poland the day of Ronald Reagan's shooting. And if it wasn't that Ronald Reagan was shot that day, they were going to invade.

A couple of things on that: If they would have invaded, even without Al Hague, America would have immediately assumed it was the Soviet Union that was behind this assassination attempt, which would have been false. But we would have immediately assumed that that was not a coincidence.

PAUL: That's right.

GLENN: And even if it wasn't for the shooting, if they would have invaded, we may have gone to nuclear war over that.

PAUL: That's right. You know, that would have been absolutely and ultra devastating. And I think one of the reasons why they pulled back, Glenn, is because people might have linked it to the shooting.

GLENN: Sure.

PAUL: The shooting of Reagan. It turns out, of course, it was John Hinckley and he was trying to get the attention of Jodi Foster. He wasn't involved in any kind of international conspiracy whatsoever, but people would have definitely thought of that.

RADIO

THIS could COLLAPSE every major civilization at the SAME TIME

The United States, Europe, and China are all preparing for a coming global reset. Throughout history, civilizations have risen and fallen according to the same cycle of prosperity and debt. But never before has EVERY major civilization been on the verge of collapse at the same time. Glenn Beck breaks it all down.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Because for the very first time in world history. There's something new that has happened. The entire globe is riding the same wheel at the same time.

Okay? We're all in this debt cycle. And this has never happened before.

The cycle always begins the same way. The first step in this at the time cycle is discipline.

Discipline equals prosperity. Okay.

It goes right into prosperity. And every great empire starts with discipline. Rome did, you know, rebuilding after all the wars, strict budgets. Every great empire starts with discipline. Rome did. You know, rebuilding after all the wars. The strict budgets. Silver coinage. Land reforms. It helped restore, you know, the battered middle class. The Dutch Republic did the same thing: They invented modern finance, turning the swamp into the world's largest trade hub. Then the British empire did it after the glorious revolution. It brought fiscal stability and a gold-back pound, that the world trusted for over 200 years.

When that fell, America did it. After World War II, our debts were manageable, our currency was solid, backed by gold, productivity was unmatched, and we prospered. That is stage one. Discipline into prosperity. And prosperity if not darted, always leads to the second stage. Complacency into excess, okay? So excess creates this fatal illusion. The moment, you know, where we all look at each other, and go, this is great. It's going to be like this forever. It was always like this. It will always be like that.

Rome began borrowing heavily to pay for endless bread and circuses. France, funded the palaces and the pensions and the perpetual wars, through loans it could never repay.

Britain, in the late 19th century, took its global empire for granted, and levered -- levered itself into World War I.

Then came World War II. And then America beginning in the 1970s, untethered from -- untethered the dollar from gold. And discovered that debt could replace discipline.

So the second stage of the debt cycle is the age of entitlement, expansion. Imperial overreach.

Cheap credit.

And political bribery disguised as compassion.

Any of that sound like we've been there?

Done that?

The Dutch called it win handle. The trade in the wind.

Paper promises that replace real production.

We call it stimulus.

Easy money. Deficit spending.

Different words. Same exact sin.

That lees you to stage three. Financialization.

That goes to fragility. This is the most seductive stage. Rome debased its money until it was worth less than 2 percent of the original silver. The Byzantines watered down their unshakable dollar, if you will, and confidence collapsed. France printed their money, backed by land, until they were worth less and used as wallpaper.

Weimar, Germany, did the same thing. They destroyed a thousand years of savings in 18 months. Japan, 1990. Papered over its real estate collapse, with 30 years of zero interest rates.

And America, after 2008, discovered this intoxicating illusion, started by George W. Bush. I can violate the free market system, to save the free market system. That's quantitative easing. Money conjured up, without cost. Without any restraint. Without any consequence.

In stage three, nations convinced themselves, they're immune to any kind of gravity. Okay?

This time, it's different! We can manage this debt. Well, modern tools, you just don't understand. You know, the rules no longer apply.

You don't understand. Really?

Don't understand. The older rules always apply.

Because math is math.

And stage three always ends exactly the same way. Wherever it's tried!

The markets no longer trust the promises they're being fed, which leads us into stage four, the breaking point. Every empire eventually reaches a moment where its debts cannot be serviced. They can't be inflated away quietly. They can't be rolled over without consequence.

Rome reached it when they froze prices and shattered the last productive parts of its competent multiply France reached it in 1788, when it can no longer borrow. And that whole thing came to a head. Britain reached it in 1931 when it abandoned the gold standard.

Weimar reached it when inflation ate the soul of the nation. And extremism took over. Yap reached it, when its bond market effectively became nationalize. Propped up by its own central bank. Right now, America, Europe, China, Japan. And every other major power, listen to this carefully, have all hit stage four at the same time.

Never before in human history has this happened.

The bond markets are shaking. The currencies are all volatile. Politicians are praying that no one notices the numbers.

You know, that they no longer add up.

Stage four is not coming. We are now living inside the opening act. This is so important.

Yesterday, there was a story that said, that this is going to be the biggest Christmas season ever. And I'm wondering to myself, I see the prices. I go to McDonald's.

I go to the grocery store.

Any of us Walmart this weekend. I see the prices. And I'm looking at the prices.

And every time I'm looking at the prices, I'm like, how's the average person afford any of this?

And yet, we're spending. Spending. Spending.

And I don't understand it. And I fear we're doing what the government is doing. We're just spending because we can -- we think we can get out of it.

Then comes stage five. It's called the reset. Hmm.

Every debt system ends in one of three ways.

They inflate the money, so they can pay off the debt. And that's just an absolute wipeout. Weimar republic did it. France did it. Rome did it.

Just a wipeout. Then there's a hard default and political upheaval. Russia did that in 1917.

Argentina did it over and over again.

War leading to a new monetary order. That's another one.

And the neo -- the -- the Napoleonic wars. The British gold standard. World War II. Bretton Woods.

All of that. But there's always a reset. Always a new order that's born from the ashes of the old.

And here's what makes this moment unprecedented. Rome collapsed by itself. France collapsed alone. Weimar collapsed by itself.

Britain declined while America rose.

It was always one country coming down, and another one coming up.

This time, all countries. All countries, on both size, the free world and the not so free world, there's no one rising.

China is drowning in its local government debt. It's never going to say this, but it's a paper tiger.

Europe is fractured. And coming apart at the seams. Japan, demographic time bomb.

America is politically frozen and insolvent fiscally.

So for the very first time in world history. Every major civilization has reached its peak of the debt cycle.

This time, all at the same moment.

No one is coming up!

So what does that mean?

Well, for the very first time in human history, it means, when it arrives, it will not be regional. It will be global. It will not be slow. It will be systemic. It will be everywhere. Now, the hope, the history books don't tell, and nobody in the media will tell you this, is when every one of those resets, every collapse, every crisis, it created the conditions for renewal.

Rome, its fall opened the door for a new Christian civilization. France, the revolution there, birthed the modern nation state. Britain's decline cleared space for America's rise. The devastation of World War II led to the great expansion of prosperity, the greatest the world has ever seen. So the next chapter is not written. What happens to us is not written.

And it -- whether we rise or fall, from what's coming depends not on Washington. Not on Wall Street. But on us. In our homes, in our families. In our churches. And our communities.

The debt cycle is not prophecy. It is a warning.

You cannot borrow your way out of moral, fiscal, or spiritual bankruptcy.

Now, I don't feel like I chose this path. This -- with Bretton Woods and then 1972 coming off the gold standard. And what they did in 2008, to bail out all the banks. I didn't have anything to say. Did you have anything to say about that?

I didn't. I didn't. I wouldn't have chosen those things. But the world is putting something together.

And I want to show you what our choices are. Because right now, people say, you know, I don't like what Donald Trump is doing. Or, I don't like the World Economic Forum.

Or, I don't like what China. Okay. Great. But I want you to know, it's going to be one of these systems. Because it's being built.

It always happens. When one is coming down, some new system, usually a country.

But not a country this time. A new system begins to rise.

And it happens before the fall.

RADIO

Sen. Mark Kelly's outrage over Franklin meme EXPOSED

Sen. Mark Kelly recently raged over War Secretary Pete Hegseth’s decision to post a meme portraying the children’s character Franklin the turtle blowing up Venezuelan drug boats. But Glenn Beck points out the insane hypocrisy of Sen. Kelly’s outrage…

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: First of all, the New York Times. The New York Times has refuted the WaPo reporting on the Hegseth story. Now, if you remember the Hegseth story from the Washington Post is -- was playing backup to people like Mark Kelly, who, you know, were part of that video where like, oh, you know. War crimes. And you will be tried for war crimes. And if you see a war crime. And an illegal border. You should disobey that.

Yeah. They're taught that. And everybody should know that. Again, the Pentagon teaches that to the sorrels. This has never been done by members of Congress. And they were going for something. I don't know what they were going for. But WaPo, of course, you know, sends the message to the rest of the world. That, well, it was our Secretary Hegseth. Who ordered the killing of some people that survived this launch on a boat. They survived. And then Pete called them up and said, kill them!

And that's what Mark Kelly was saying this last weekend. Okay. Washington Post. Now, the New York Times, not exactly a Trumpy kind of paper. Comes out and says, no. We actually have five sources on this.

That's not true. That's not what happened. White House responded yesterday, and they said, yeah. It was the commander that made that call. It was all within the law. Yada, yada.

So it wasn't Hegseth.

Oh. Then you have Mark Kelly coming on and saying, more things. This one is about the Franklin meme. You know, Franklin. The turtle. The kids book about the turtle.

Apparently, Hegseth retweeted or tweeted a picture of, you know, like Franklin magazine. And he's, you know, up on an American chopper. And he's firing down on, you know, drug runners and a boat.

And this causes Mark Kelly to say this.
MARK: -- global mission. And instead, he runs around, on a stage, like he's a 12-year-old playing Army. And it is ridiculous, it is embarrassing, and I -- I can't imagine what our allies think of looking at that guy, in this job, one of the most important jobs in our country. In my view, after the president of the United States, it is the next most important job. He is in the national command authority for nuclear weapons. And last night, he's putting out on the internet turtles with rocket-propelled grenades, killing -- I mean, have you seen this?

GLENN: Oh, it's outrageous. Let me ask you: Where were you on the leadership of the Pentagon when they pulled out of Afghanistan?

Were you saying, what are our allies thinking about that?

How about when, what's-his-face, decided to go get. What was it?

Surgery. Was out on surgery.

Didn't alert anyone that was -- what was his name, Lloyd Austin, right?

And he's out on surgery. And he didn't tell anybody.

Then he goes on vacation. Something happens.

Where are you?

He said, I'll come back, when I come back. Wait. Hold it. You want to talk about being in line with the nuclear weapons. Where was that one?

More importantly, Mr. Kelly, let me ask you: What do you think our allies thought about the health of our nation, when several democratic senators got together, and the for the first time in American history, pulled a Venezuela. And questioned the military and said, we will hold you responsible for any crimes against humanity. By the way, we're not telling you what those are. We'll judge, when we get back into power. And don't listen to the commander-in-chief. Let me ask you: If people -- if people in the Duma would have made that exact same video, and said, question the authority of Putin. And if he's telling you to go into Ukraine. That's going to be a war crime. And we're going to prosecute you.

And -- and don't listen to them. And don't listen to his secretary of war either. What do you think -- how would we analyze that?

Would we think that Putin was strong?

Would we think that their society is strong?

Would we think that they're a nation that can defend itself? Will defend itself?

Is willing to go to war?

Does that -- would we look at that and go, that's a strong nation, don't screw with them. Or if we had designs on that nation, would we say, you know what, up the pressure. Up the pressure.

Because this thing is about to fly apart. So, Mr. Kelly, let me ask you that.

Did you think about what our allies might have been saying, when you made the video and released it to the world?

Bueller.

Anybody? Anybody?

That -- that's the outrage here. The outrage is not that they said it. You can go to the Pentagon and say that. You can go and bring the Joint Chiefs of Staff in. And you can call them on the carpet and say, look, I've got to tell you something. We can investigate this, if we have control. But you bring that into a private room, and you say that to all your like-minded senators in a private room.

You don't make a video and release it to the world.

I'll never forget, George Bush called me into the Oval Office. And he was a little upset.

And I had said, you know, you want to impeach the guy, you can impeach him on this. Look what he's doing in the Middle East. Look what he's doing. I don't even remember what it was. That's the stuff that at least if it's true, is impeachable.
That day, I get a call. And Mr. Beck, the president would like to see you in the oval tomorrow.

I go in. And I knew this would be the longest hour of my life. And I sit down in the -- honest to God, it was in the -- the Zelinsky chair. Okay?

And I got -- I got from George Bush what Zelinsky got from Trump.

And he starts out, a lot of people think they know what it's like to be the President. You have no F-ing idea what it's like. And I was like, oh, my gosh. This is going to be very, very long and agonizing.

And we get about a half our into all of this stuff. And he's telling me what's actually going on, on the ground.

And he knows it all. And he's not hesitating. He's not like, and let me search for a word here.

None of that!

And I screw my courage to the sticking place, and say, excuse me. Mr. President, this is the President that America needs to see.

This is the guy. Why don't you say these things to the American public?

And he goes off on another tirade, and he tells me about how he's made deals with the Pentagon. He's made deals with the military. He's made deals -- he's also had all of the eyes. Listen to this. All of the eyes with all of the leaders of the world, including all of their intelligence officials.

And they watch everything that every major official says in the United States, especially the president. And whatever the President says, they analyze. He said, I shift my eyes at the wrong time, they think, well, that means he's not saying this. What he's actually saying is this.

He's like, I'm juggling so many things in my head, that I can't say or can't do, because of X, Y, or Z. And he said, that's the job of the president.

Now, whether you agree with that or not, it doesn't matter.

The reason why I tell you that story is, Mark Kelly, did you seen consider what Five Eyes might be saying about that video? What China, how they might be analyzing that video?

How Russia is analyzing that video. How that affects our national stability in this country.

Screw you're trying to, in my opinion, start a Colour Revolution!

Screw that. Let's just talk about, how's this make us stronger with national defense.

You call people into a private room and say that. Like has always been done in the United States of America.

What you did has never been done in the United States.

Not at the time of the Civil War even. Never has this been done!

Why?

Because people respected the republic. They respected the military.

They respected the fact that their voice would be heard by foreigners. And foreign nations. Many of them, adversaries.

And so they showed just a modicum of -- of restraint. That you, sir, couldn't find.

So please, don't preach to me about how embarrassing it is that he's putting a cartoon out. Yeah. I would rather have my secretary of war not put cartoons out. But unfortunately, that's the way of the world now, isn't it?

I mean, you know, you can only get attention by people doing stupid memes. You didn't need a meme. You didn't need a video.

You needed all of you, to get together, and say, we would like the Joint Chiefs to meet us at the Capitol.

Because they also answer to us. And we have a few things to say to them.

And then you say to them privately. And you make it very, very clear.

That's what you should have done.

I mean, unless you're trying to collapse the United States, make our enemies stronger. And foment a Colour Revolution. Which I'm not sure -- what?

Colour Revolution. I'm not even sure what that means.

RADIO

Country Music star John Rich reveals shocking truth about child predator epidemic

Country music singer John Rich joins Glenn Beck to expose the staggering reality of America’s child predator epidemic, a crisis far larger and darker than most parents realize. With 36 million online targeting reports in a single year and less than 1% of trafficked children ever returning home, Rich argues that parents can no longer be passive; predators, platforms, and cultural forces have infiltrated homes through screens, games, and social media. From demonic networks preying on kids to entertainment giants openly bragging about shaping young minds, this conversation delivers a wake-up call: if American parents don’t go on offense now, the wolves will keep winning.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: It's called the Righteous Hunter, and John Rich is with us now. Hey, John, how are you, man?

JOHN: I'm great, brother. It's been a long time since I had the pleasure of talking to you. So thanks for having me on.

GLENN: I know. You bet. So, first of all, what a great song. Powerful, powerful video. Really powerful. Why did you do this?

JOHN: So I'm a dad. I'm sure there are a lot of moms and dads, listening to you today. I know there are.

And when I started realizing the extent of child predators in the networks they have, in America, I was so overwhelmed by it. I couldn't believe the numbers. The Department of Homeland Security told me that in a 12-month period, they received 36 million reports of -- of kids being targeted online by child sex predators. I said, 36 million?

They said, yes. It's over three million a month. It is so huge and so massive, that regular parents, even Christian parents, patriotic parents, you know, the ones that pay attention, even we can become victims of these people. They are that tricky, that illusive, that demonic.

So that led to me writing the song. I'm sick and tired of us sitting around, hoping they don't get our kids next. You know, it tells us in the Bible, to go on the offense when you're a parent. You're supposed to not just defend, but go on defense.

You know there's a wolf in the front yard, you go out there and handle the wolf.

And that's how I look at these predators.
So The Righteous Hunter, that song was born from that thought.

GLENN: You know, you say, it can even hit us.

I've only told this story once before. But my son, when he was probably hmm. Fourteen.

He was playing on a PlayStation.

And it's, you 1 o'clock in the morning.

And the phone rings.

And we were lucky enough at that time, to have land lines. And the -- and we had multiple lines.

And it rang once. And then it hung up. And my wife was like, what was that?

And I said, I don't know. And then it bothered her so much.

She stayed awake. And she watched the lines. She saw line two light up.

She's like, somebody is on the phone.

And we went up.

We found out that my son was on the phone with a gamer. And we called the FBI. And my son was freaking out. He's like, Dad, he's just a normal kid. Blah, blah. Called the FBI.

They do an investigation. He was an adult. He was working at let's just say a major amusement park in the Los Angeles, Orange County area.

JOHN: Hmm.

GLENN: And was as the FBI agent told us, this is the way it happens, you don't see it. It's in the middle of the night. They had just caught somebody who had just -- in our general area, just caught somebody whose daughter was taken. And taken across state lines. And they said, you know, they just said, hey. We'll send you an airline ticket. Just come and visit us.

And, you know, it didn't turn out well. And they caught that person as well. But that doesn't happen all the time. You usually don't catch it. We were really blessed.

JOHN: Yeah. The stats are that less than 1 percent of kids who -- who wind up being trafficked are ever returned to their parents. This video that you're talking about, that I shot. I had to take some time to think about it.

I wrote this song almost a year ago. And it is such a disturbing subject. But I knew it was written for a reason. It was written to make parents wake up. It was written to make predators hopefully shake in fear from the wrath of God and the American parent. Because I don't think they have any fear. I know they don't have any fear of God. But they need to fear us.

So I took a lot of time shooting it. In this video, Glenn. There's a reenactment of adults, purchasing children in somebody's house.

GLENN: Yeah.

JOHN: Which is accurate because we had -- we had actual supervision in the room, from people who would do this for a living.

They would sting these people. They set them up.

They arrest them. We had them in the room to make sure everything they did was accurate. I urge people to watch it. As hard as it is for people to watch it, you need to look at it.

GLENN: Was the girl who was returned, was that just off the top of your head?

Was that just a hope or a true story?

In the video.

JOHN: There are kids who get returned. But it's less than 1 percent. Less than 1 percent, Glenn. I mean, that is --

GLENN: I can't imagine.

JOHN: That's unacceptable. When there's tens of millions of moms and dads who would go to the ends of the earth to get them. But less than 1 percent get them back. It is one of the most horrific blights, sins existing in the world today. I would say the most.

I mean, Jesus himself. Probably the most aggressive thing the son of God ever said.

STU: Oh, yeah.

JOHN: Is that you would be better off dead, than to hurt one of these kids. A millstone around your neck, as we know this phrase.

GLENN: Yeah. Did Sean Combs and what he was going through, play a role into bringing you this message?

JOHN: Sean Combs. You talking about Diddy?

GLENN: Yeah.

JOHN: Yeah. Well, I saw a video of him, about a year ago, on stage at some award show. And he looked right into the camera, and he said, I own your kids. I determine what they listen to. What they wear. What they think is cool.

I'll take your souls. He looks at the camera, with this demonic look in his eye. And proclaims this to American parents. And, you know, music is his weapon. Sean Combs and the industry, a lot of them, they use their music as a weapon to steal our sons and daughters, as the song says. To take them from us. To wreck their lives. To veer them off the path that God has intended for them to live.

They use their music to do it. And I was so enraged when I saw that demoniac say that with such arrogance. And we know the devil is the most arrogant creature ever created.

I said, oh, let Sean Comb's music, it's his weapon. Well, music is my weapon as well.

So I will write something. Let Sean combs. And the rest of the Sean combs of the world know, how the American parent feels about it. And what we're willing to do to protect our kids.

Because I don't think you guys are really aware of that.

And so that's -- that's where the song came from. I went to Sean Ryan.

A lot of people know Sean Ryan from his podcast. I asked him. He played the dad from the video. This is not a guy that will do music videos. I thought he would say, I appreciate it. But no.

But he said yes!

So Shawn Ryan is playing the dad, and it's his daughter being reenacted that's been taken.

GLENN: Well, it's very -- very powerful.

Let me ask you. What is the -- you know, I was thinking about what TikTok is here in America. And what TikTok is in China.

And TikTok in China is all positive.

It's all positive.

It's all kids doing amazing things. Et cetera, et cetera.

Because they know it's good for society. Here, they perverted it. Went the other direction.

What is it about our society that is attracted to stuff like this?

Why do we consume this garbage?

JASON: I think we have been programmed for decades, you know this. Programmed little by little by little.

Things that were shocking in the '80s, now would be rated PG. Things that were shocking even ten years ago, now you can click on it, and watch it on TikTok.

Degree by degree, they have come further and further into the -- the households of Americans. And conditioned those kids and parents, to just consider it normal.

And that's the trick. That's the deception.

That's why you have 36 million reports in one year in DHS alone. Of kids being targeted online.

Listen, this road is not just to yell into the void.

It's not just, hey. All these predators. We see you.

Yeah. That's part of it.

But bigger. The bigger point of parents watching video.

And the whole thing, by the way, is posted at John Rich on X. That's just at the top of my page, if you want to watch it.

The bigger point is that American parents start looking into their kids' devices. They go online. And figure out how to safeguard against this stuff. Don't let them in your house. Listen you wouldn't let a predator come through your front door, or play glass window in the middle of the night.

He would be met with gunfire. He would die! Inside your home, if he tried to take one of your kids. But we sit here. As we're following up on our emails or whatever we're doing. And our kids are off in the bedroom, they could be getting taken by Roblox.

GLENN: Big time.

JOHN: I mean, all these innocuous games that seem like nothing. These predators are coming in and posing as a kid and doing what you said in that story earlier, and they're very successful at it. We've got to stop that. Parents have to go on the offense. And it starts inside of your own home.

GLENN: Well, the one thing that you could do is cancel Meta. Make sure you don't have Meta. I don't know if you know this.

But Meta, if you were an account that engaged in trafficking of humans for sex, Meta doesn't believe in three strikes and you're out. They believe in 17 strikes and you're out.

Seventeen chances!

I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know what parent that would agree with that.

JOHN: Well, no parent agrees with that.

GLENN: No.

JOHN: But listen, we're up against an Army.

Battalions. Legions of demons in this world.

They are there. They possess people. Just like you and I are possessed by the Holy Spirit.

Because we gave our lives to Jesus Christ.

We're possessed by him. We're possessed by the Holy Spirit.

They're possessed by the spirit of their father. And it's an actual straight-up war.

If you think about it. What probably puts the most tears down the cheeks of Jesus Christ.

When you --

GLENN: Children.

JOHN: When you hurt the kids. Yes. Absolutely.

That's their motive. If they can derail the kids. They think they can win. But we can't let that happen.

RADIO

Tennessee Special Election is a MASSIVE Wake-Up Call for Republicans Ahead of 2026 Midterms

A Tennessee district that voted for Trump by 22 points is suddenly a 2-point race, and the warning signs for Republicans couldn’t be clearer. With a strong GOP candidate, a weak progressive Democrat, and a deep-red electorate, this race should be a blowout. Instead, low turnout and December timing have turned a safe seat into a dangerous toss-up. What happens here could preview 2026 and whether the GOP is ready, or already slipping.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Well, it's an interesting day in Tennessee.

There is an election going on today in Tennessee.

And it's kind of an important one. Because this is a -- this is a district that, you know, went to Trump by 22 points.

And the Democrats are not spending as much money as the Republicans are, which kind of tells you go. We better not lose this one.

Stu. Welcome.

STU: Yeah. It's an interesting one, Glenn. Seventh congressional district in Tennessee. And it is a race, as you point out, that should be very, very friendly to Republicans.

This should not be what they have to worry about. As you noted, a 22-point margin for Donald Trump, in 2024. And this race is going on because of a representative who stepped down and took a job with the private sector.

And so right off the bat, you know, the important part of right now, is the fact that the Republicans have a very small majority in the House. They came in with a small majority. So losing any representatives is a big deal. They've had to deal with a few months of this going on and on. They have to defend this seat.

The two in the race, Matt Van Epps is the Republican.

He is -- you know, you never know in one of these cases. When you have a bright red district, sometimes you get a candidate that is not very good.

Sometimes you get a candidate, you know, where you kind of get a crazy person who wins the primary. Does not seem to be the case here at all.

Matt Van Epps is a West Point graduated, a decorated helicopter pilot. He is seemingly a fiscal conservative, does not seem to be some crazy person with lots of wild tweets or anything like that. He seems to be a --

GLENN: Hasn't been on an island, Epstein or otherwise.

STU: I don't think so. Has avoided all pedophile islands, which is great. Really want -- even peninsulas. He doesn't even go anywhere that has the word pedophile on it. He's stayed away from it, which is fantastic.

GLENN: Yeah, that's great. That's great.

STU: That would be the type of risk that you might have, in a situation like this.

Where you have a fringy type candidate.

He does not seem to be that.

Also, when you look at the Republican side of the aisle, sometimes you get a candidate who is like super Trumpy. And maybe the old school conservatives aren't on board with it. Or you get an anti-Trump Republican that runs, and Trump won't stores endorsed.

It doesn't seem that either of those have happened. This is a guy that the club for growth seems to like.

And Trump has endorsed and rallied for.

So you have --

GLENN: Okay.

STU: They didn't blow this. Like, they didn't go in this with like, okay.

We're super confident. Seems to have handled this relatively competently. The other thing. And you kind of noted a little bit of this. Which is interesting. Is they saw this coming.

They were worried about this from the beginning. And decided to actually spend money on this race. Which sometimes, again, can be a problem.

Sometimes, they're like, we have this 22 points, we don't need to do anything.

Democrat comes in. Spends tons of money, and the Republican loses somehow. That didn't happen here. Republicans have spent I think over $3 million. The Democrats spend about two.

Again, they have both been spending.

This is an important race. The Republicans actually spent some cash in this race.

GLENN: Because if the Democrat wins, it's a one point majority?

STU: One, two. There's a bunch of seats in flux. It's very close, to put it that way. You can't lose seats right now. To the extent, the House majority, it's not completely out of the question, they could lose this before 2026.

GLENN: Oh, my gosh.

STU: With a couple of weird moments happening with -- again, most of these congressmen are over 96 years old, so you never what's going to happen. Retirements. A lot of these people in purple districts are looking at 2026 and are saying, I'm not going to win. So maybe I just bail now, and take a private sector job.

I don't think they will lose the majority because of that. But it is an outlier possibility in this case.

So you look at this race, and the other part about this is, do the Democrats poll a candidate who is great?

Every once in a while, you get a candidate, you know, a military member on the Democratic side who is a smooth talker and can talk to the average person.

Even though, they're a Democrat. And they don't sound like a lunatic.

GLENN: Tulsi Gabbard, that the Democrats would actually like.

STU: Right. Someone they didn't eject out of the party immediately, when they started making sense.

GLENN: Right. There's fewer and fewer of them. But they might still exist somewhere.

I'm not entirely unsure that unicorns don't exist. So it might have.

STU: Did they pull a unicorn. The answer to that does seem to be a flat no.

What they pulled was Aftyn Behn, which this is a candidate running who is seemingly more on, like, the kind of AOC side of the Democratic Party. Not someone who is going to relate to the average person.

Now, she's had a couple of moments, that have made some news as this race has gone on. And she -- this is -- let me give you cut three, first.

This is 2020, a podcast clip of one of her podcast clips of her, that has been resurfaced during this campaign, talking about the area she actually would be representing.

VOICE: Because I hate this city. I hate the bachlorettes. I hate the pedal taverns. I hate country music. I hate all of the things that make Nashville.

STU: So, again, suboptimal, Glenn. You would prefer --

GLENN: That's really kind of a hard thing. It's kind of like saying, I want to represent the part -- or the district, you know, of Orlando, where Walt Disney World is, but I hate Disney.

STU: I hate Disney. I hate talking mice. I don't like dogs without pants on. It's like, generally speaking --

GLENN: Right. I can understand. I don't like Vegas, but Vegas likes Vegas. You know, the states like Vegas. It's really an important thing. I mean, if you happen to have a store or, you know, country music and the stores and the -- you know, the honky-tonks and all that stuff, that's what makes Nashville a destination.

STU: Right. That's the thing.

GLENN: If you want to get rid of that, you're going to not do good things for the economy, just saying.

STU: I mean, Glenn, you and I both know people who live and work in Nashville. They're -- it's not an uncommon sentiment for people to be frustrated about the bachelorette parties and the pedal taverns and the things that go on downtown. It's wild. It's Nash-Vegas, right? It is wild. And it can be that way.

GLENN: Yes. Yes. Yes.

STU: And if you're a resident, there is some of that, that is somewhat common to the area. Though, saying that you hate the city when you're trying to represent the city. Is not necessarily optimal. I would say suboptimal. And I would say it's the economy. Right? It is -- if you hate that, if you're fighting against it, you're fighting against thousands and thousands of jobs, you're fighting against millions of dollars that are coming in.

That's not a great look. Even if you believe it, it's of type of thing that a consultant would correctly advise you to not say when you're running for office.

GLENN: In today's world, that might be the exact right thing to say, the things that consultants say, "Don't ever say that."

STU: Yeah, I think in this case, I would shy away from the city.

GLENN: I would too. I would too.

STU: You know, the other part of this is, we saw much, much worse out of Zohran Mamdani, and he won.

GLENN: Uh-huh.

STU: But he won a Democrat plus-20 city. This is a Republican plus 20 type of district. So probably not the approach you want to take. There is another one that is going on. You know, again, she's trying -- she's very much a progressive. But, of course, trying to message herself, as someone who can work across party lines. That's what you need to do as a Democrat to win in a Republican plus 20 district. That just means Republicans will win by 20 points, typically, on a typical cycle. Here is a 2023 political forum with that debate, talking about her ability to work across the aisle.

VOICE: You cannot work with these people. Working across the aisle has rarely been effective in the last ten years. Okay.

So what we need to do, one, we need to continue organizing external pressures in the Republican super majority, which is exactly what happened in April, when students and teachers came together and forced their frustration, and force Governor Lee to call a special session.

STU: So, again --

GLENN: Okay.

STU: -- suboptimal, probably if you're trying to present yourself that way, which is what she's tried to do.

She's tried to present herself -- her messaging and ads is like affordability. And can you believe these Republicans won't release the Epstein files?

It's like, your party had control of everything for four years, and didn't do this.

You are aware of that, right?

GLENN: And you noticed, as soon as they were released, how the Democrats just went completely silent.

STU: Right.

GLENN: Like Epstein files, no. There's nothing there. What are you talking about? So stupid.

STU: In polls, though, people want the Epstein files out. And that kind of goes across party lines. All of this basically set up to say, the Republicans didn't seem to blow this, with any of their decisions.

The Democrats didn't pick some generational talent to come into this race. And this is a race where you would say, normal times, maybe the Republicans win by 20 points.

The polling has not shown that. And nobody expects the Republicans to win this race by 20 points. That's kind of the bad news. A lot of the polling leading -- and it's -- it's a special election. To give you a quick outlier on that. Quick explaining on that. These races are weird. It's December. It's not an Election Day.

No one knows what the turnout is going to look like. It's a very strange, off-year, special election, anything can happen in these. And there's not a lot of polling to tell us what will happen.

GLENN: Yeah. And the really bad thing about this is, you know, you live in a place like this.

It will happen. And you're just so busy with everything else. You just don't even realize, oh, that was yesterday.

I was going to vote! You know what I mean?

STU: We talked about this. We talked about this yesterday in the meeting before the show. And we said, oh, that Tennessee election is going on. Oh, jeez. That's the one with the crazy lady.

It's out of our mind. We just came off of Thanksgiving weekend. I have no idea what the turnout will be on this.

And that is a real concern --

GLENN: Right. And the ones that win are the ones that can turn their base out. And if you have a democratic socialist. If you have somebody who can take these guys and hold them back, you're going to get your people out.

They will be motivated. Because they'll know, it won't take a lot of us to throw this election.

Just hoping that the tell me can -- or, the Republicans in -- in Nashville understand what they're up against today.

STU: It's a great point. If you're a democratic socialist, and you live in this district, there's no way you're not showing up.

You're going to be there. The question are the Republicans, the typical people who will win this race, going to be there?

GLENN: My guess is no. My guess is no.

Yeah. Twenty-two points, you're like, that will be fine.

STU: Every -- every indicator that we have, and I will say, there's not a lot of those indicators. Because it's lightly polled. And it's a weird time.

Every indicator that we have shows that some of those people that would typically come out and vote for Donald Trump in a presidential election, or a senator in Tennessee, are not going to show up for this election, like every indicator we have.

The polling leading up in a couple -- the couple months leading up to this showed typically Van Epps, the Republican, with a high single digits lead. So not a 22-point lead, which you would expect. More like eight or nine. That's still a victory. And it won't change the balance of the House and everything else.

GLENN: If they show up.

STU: If they show up.

Here's the bigger worry. And this is where you get really scared.

The last poll, the only one that we have that is very recent in the last few days, came out from Emerson. And Emerson is a pretty good pollster.

Did well on Trump.

They had this race as a two-point race.

Two!

GLENN: Jeez.

STU: The Republicans still winning.

But a two-point race. If you happen to be in this district, if you know somebody who is in this district, if you have someone who you know who is like, I think I will vote Republican. But we will win anyway. I wouldn't worry about it. Might be worth a phone call today.

Because if that poll is right, and I don't know that it is.

But if it's that close, this is a massively dangerous thing. To be clear, to say this in advance. So I can't take it back later. Would be completely catastrophic if they lost this race.

It's a special election. So there's asterisks around it.

The idea of what this points to in 2026.

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Sen. Mark Kelly's outrage over Franklin meme EXPOSED

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Country Music star John Rich reveals shocking truth about child predator epidemic

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Tennessee Special Election is a MASSIVE Wake-Up Call for Republicans Ahead of 2026 Midterms

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