BLOGMay 11, 2017

Navy SEAL Who Killed Bin Laden Talks With Glenn: 'We Knew It Was a One-Way Mission'

Robert O'Neill --- American hero, former Navy SEAL and author of the new book The Operator: Firing The Shots That Killed Osama Bin Laden And My Years As A SEAL Team Warrior --- joined Glenn in studio to talk about the incredible mission that ended the life of Osama bin Laden. The honor and heroism displayed by the SEAL team that took out bin Laden becomes even more amazing knowing each team member believed --- and accepted --- it would end their lives.

Here's what O'Neill had to say about their reasons for going:

I knew it was a one-way mission, and most of the guys there did too. But we accepted it because we had the conversation, we're doing this for the single mom who dropped her kids off at school on a Tuesday morning and then 45 minutes later jumped to her death out of the Windows On The World because that was a better alternative than 2,500 degrees fahrenheit inside, holding her skirt down as her last gesture of human decency so no one could see her underwear as she killed herself. You know, she wasn't supposed to do that. The people on Flight 93 that took over the cockpit to crash it in Pennsylvania to save people in Washington. You know, they didn't need to fight. The people in the Pentagon. We went for them because that wasn't their fight. The Port Authority, the police department, NYPD, FDNY. You know, that day, we were asked to take out the guy that funded that, that laughed about it, that thought it was part of his time on earth. We went for that, so we accepted the one-way mission.

The sentiments expressed by O'Neill did not go unnoticed.

"The reason why we cry when our military goes by --- at least, you know, some of the country does -- is because of the honor behind it," Glenn said. "At least me, I get teary-eyed because of the honor behind it. The idea that we can be better than we are today."

In addition to serving his country with honor and distinction, Robert O'Neill launched Your Grateful Nation, a nonprofit dedicated to matching the unique skills of Special Operations veterans with corporate careers, transitioning them from military service to civilian life.

The Operator: Firing The Shots That Killed Osama Bin Laden And My Years As A SEAL Team Warrior is available in bookstores everywhere.

GLENN: Hello, America. And welcome to the program. Glad you're here. We've got a lot to talk about. We've spent the last hour talking about James Comey and Donald Trump. This is turning into a very big nightmare. Apparently, this decision was not made because of the emails from the Justice Department. Those emails, Donald Trump asked them to write. This has been a decision that had been a long time coming, and it looks like for personal reasons, the president has a severe problem with leakage in the -- in the West Wing. The Washington Post has 30 sources on the story that are not saying good things. This is -- this is really not good.

The reason why I bring up the long-time coming -- and it wasn't a snap decision. I think the easiest decision to make in -- in my lifetime, that I've seen a president struggle over, was President Obama struggling over the decision to kill Osama bin Laden. What did it take him, six months or something like that? And finally they were like, "Mr. President, yes or no?" The guy who was there and fired the shot, the operator, Robert O'Neill, is here. Firing the shots that killed Osama bin Laden. And his years as a SEAL team warrior. He has been involved in some of the -- the biggest stories of the last ten or 15 years. And a lot of people don't know all the things that he has done. The guy who has helped the shape the world we live in today. O'Neill joins us right now.

(music)

GLENN: Robert O'Neill. How are you, sir?

ROBERT: I'm well. Thanks for having me here, Glenn.

GLENN: The Operator is the book. Firing the Shots That Killed Osama bin Laden.

I want to -- first, let's just talk a little bit about the country as you see it today. And we don't need to get into politics. We just need to -- I just want to get your sense of, as a guy who has seen countries -- and I know -- you know, I know Special Forces think about and train for -- for countries coming apart at the seams. Are we a country getting more healthy, or less healthy?

ROBERT: I think we're getting healthier now, as far as foreign policy. I worked under President Obama -- I'm sorry, Clinton, Bush, and Obama. And what I've seen -- what I did see over the past few years is the weakening of American leadership overseas. And that's not just -- that affects the entire country, because if our allies see we're not strong, they're going to back down too. And you have instances with China building the islands, you have the Crimea thing with Russia. You've got North Koreans. Everyone is kind of moving ahead because there wasn't a threat of deterrence. I'm not saying we need to go to war, but we definitely need the deterrent, to be able to say, we will do this, if you keep doing this. We lost it for a while.

GLENN: Yeah, I think the most impressive thing this president has done foreign policy-wise is Syria. I think that woke the president up, "Oh, wait. Wait. Wait. This guy means it. He's not just going to sit around." And we've restored a little bit of -- I mean, I think the president of the United States always needs to be a best friend to everybody, unless you are on the wrong side.

ROBERT: Well, yeah. And I think he's doing it the right way too. I mean, he's going to do something up front, and then possibly negotiate in the back. Like the strikes in Syria weren't because we're going to invade you now. It's like, look, we got your attention. Now maybe we're going to do something about it.

GLENN: What should we do in North Korea?

ROBERT: North Korea is -- I think needs to be something done from within, more of an agency thing. As a special operator, I had trouble in Afghanistan blending in, in Afghanistan.

GLENN: No. Long hair, blue eyes?

ROBERT: If we had been in Scotland, I might have been okay. But in North Korea and just with the logistics needed to get in, you're going to have a difficult time. So we're going to need something with an infiltration, hopefully a military coup. Because as the world gets smaller with social media and the internet, the North Korean people are starting to realize, wait a minute. We've been lied to for generations with Kim Il-sung. Kim Jong-il. And then this guy, Kim Jong-un, believing they're gods and having the people believe they're gods. That's what they're doing right now.

GLENN: How bizarre is it going to be to those people?

ROBERT: Well, they don't know any better. You only know what you're taught. I mean, I've been in places in Afghanistan where I might as well have been in the tenth century in some of these valleys. Not only do they not know how old they are, they don't know what time is. And that's -- that's in valleys. North Korea, I don't even imagine. The starvation, the slave labor, all the stuff that's normal to them, because they're taught propaganda.

GLENN: What's the most concerning -- geopolitically concerning thing to you right now?

ROBERT: It's got to be North Korea with the nukes, if they get intercontinental ballistic missiles. That's a problem.

GLENN: If we go to war with them -- if it comes down to, we have to go in and try to take them out, what does Seoul look like, day two?

ROBERT: I think Seoul is going to be a hit, but hopefully with some of the new air defenses we have might work. But it's the whole thing. What if they shoot a missile at you? We'll shoot it down. Okay. What if they shoot 10,000 missiles at you? Something is going to get through. That's a tough one too. And, again, hopefully it doesn't come to a war in Korea. We've seen what happens before. I mean, thankfully, our military is designed to fight big armies, and they'll do it really, really well. But with, now something needs to be with the sanctions imposed by China because they're their biggest trade partner. But it needs to go further because China won't enforce them. If we put sanctions on North Korea and someone is trading with them, then you need to put sanctions on those people that are not enforcing the sanctions. So hopefully it won't come to a war, but Kim Jong-un is a nut.

GLENN: You know, Russia said summer before last that we're already in World War III. He said this to a group of European reporters. And he said, you guys have to convince your leadership -- I've been begging to stay out of war. We're already in World War III. And it's happening digitally.

ROBERT: Putin is saying that?

GLENN: Putin is saying that.

ROBERT: Yeah, he's still mad about the Cold War. Because he's KGB. He been out of it the whole time. He wants that back. So he kind of wants to be at war because there hasn't been a reason for him not to be.

GLENN: But we are -- we are in a cyber war.

ROBERT: Cyber war, no doubt. We're having everything stolen from us.

GLENN: How concerned are you that -- that that's -- I mean, that's -- that is a weapon of mass destruction in the wrong hands.

ROBERT: Sure it is. Uh-huh.

GLENN: How concerned are you that we're not really -- the world is not really paying attention to any of the rules on cyber warfare?

ROBERT: They're not paying any attention. But I'm just hopeful eventually that when we need to take the gloves off, we have people smart enough to do it. We've proven it before with technology. But now we kind of back off because we want this big global society and make sure everyone is equal.

I mean, once -- I mean, when we get into electronic, eventually magnetic warfare, whatever is out there. Hypersonic aircraft. I don't know what's going to happen. You know, I just -- I've been to war a bunch of times. I hope it doesn't come to it. It's not pretty. It's very fast and permanent.

GLENN: Yesterday, I had a guy on who he wrote the book Homo Deus. And it is about how man is becoming god and is going to merge with machines and everything else. And he said, we are -- we're seeing this already. The military is leading the way to where it doesn't take necessarily a massive army. You can do it --

ROBERT: Oh, yeah.

GLENN: You can do it through the air. You can do it through drones. You can do it through robots and everything else. And he said, "You know, 20 years from now, Army will not be the same. You don't need all those bodies."

ROBERT: No. You probably won't. I was reading an article on the way here today that side the biggest problem with unmanned cars -- driverless cars is human drivers.

GLENN: Right.

ROBERT: If there were no human drivers, it would be fine. It wouldn't be a problem.

GLENN: Correct. Seriously, the problem with humanity is humans.

ROBERT: Yeah, it is. That's a good point.

GLENN: Right.

ROBERT: Well, I've been to four-way stop signs here in Dallas too. I can see what they're saying.

GLENN: Yeah.

ROBERT: That can be an evolution --

GLENN: Yeah, I know. So what does -- what does that do to the mentality, when there is no life to a country like ours? We can just pay for everything and just keep going. There's no life being expended. Does that bother you at all?

ROBERT: That's a lot to grasp. I think it does bother me once you lose the human element. And we're seeing it now with everyone's -- their faces in their phones. Humanity is kind of going -- I don't know. I haven't thought about it that deeply. But if we got wars with machines, eventually they're going to turn on us, we'll have a Terminator type thing going on. Spooky.

JEFFY: You've seen it in action with your military training, has gotten far superior with help from drones --

ROBERT: Oh, yeah. Drones. Lasers. Night vision. Part of the reason we were so successful in combat wasn't necessarily that we wanted it more. Because we're fighting people that know that if they die at our hands, they go to heaven. There's no doubt about it. We just happened to have the lights off, night vision, and lasers. And we're quieter --

JEFFY: Right.

GLENN: And the lasers -- that technology is -- you can paint people, and nobody sees it.

ROBERT: Nobody sees it. Not only that, you can line up an entire room with a floodlight that has a dot in the middle. I've come around corners lit up and have bad guys trying to ambush. And you're like, "Are you kidding me right now?" It's like playing paint ball with my sister. She's not great at paint ball. I was a SEAL for a while.

GLENN: Right.

STU: That's not a game you want to enter into.

ROBERT: No, that's not.

GLENN: I don't think I'm playing paint ball as a guy with SEALs.

ROBERT: We've had them before. Speaking with kids, some of this technology, especially the games they play. I've had kids come up to me and start talking about guns. And because of the games they play, they know more about the guns that I used in combat, to the point they're asking me about, how was the trigger shaved? And I'm like, I don't know, kid. It makes this sound when you shoot someone. Would you leave me alone?

(laughter)

That's pretty funny.

GLENN: Do you think the next generation will be better at killing? I mean, you've read -- I'm sure you've read On Killing?

ROBERT: Yeah. I have. I think probably because a lot of the internet stuff, they're not as sensitive to it. I mean, even with the horrible videos ISIS puts out -- I remember the first beheading video, even before Zarqawi did it. There was -- and I remember seeing it, thinking, that's the most horrific thing I've ever seen.

Now there's so much of it. It's like, oh, another beheading video. Oh, I mean, oh, another suicide bomber. Think about that. Suicide bomber. They're getting desensitized.

And I think a lot of it is the internet. And they might not be as good at it when it's up close, but it seems like it doesn't mean as much.

GLENN: My charity, Mercury One, moved 6,000 people out of Syria and Iraq. Christians and Yazidis. We moved them. 6,000. And we've started a program over there, to where we are going back in and using operators on the ground, not Americans, but people like you, to go in and rescue these moms and children that have been taken. And I just got a report last week that said, the things they were doing to these moms and children, it's a new generation now.

It's just like you said. It was one of the most horrific things they had ever seen. Now, it's the next generation. And I was told, it's beyond your imagination, on how evil.

ROBERT: It's evil. And it's so bad that people won't want to hear it. They won't want to know about it. They pretend it's not there. Even now, it's worth going in, just getting back on ISIS, it's worth going in and wiping them out because of when our kids -- our grandkids will have to fight. I always bring up, if you haven't seen the videos of they call it the cubs of the caliphate. They're these 5-year-old kids that are executing people in horrific ways.

If we don't stop that, what do you think those kids are going to be like in 13 years? Will they be normal?

They're executioners at five. And we'll just kick the can down the road. I hate that analogy. But okay, grandkids, have fun fighting the jihad. You know, it's a real thing.

GLENN: You were part of the rescue attempt to get Marcus Luttrell.

ROBERT: Yes. I was part of the coalition. A lot of us in different places. But we run the airfield when the rescue helicopters went to get him and were shot down. And I actually saw them come back. They were survivors of the second. A turbine 34, I believe, that survived. And then they had us walk in. So we spent about two and a half days awake walking -- we knew -- we knew the trail was missing. We thought Axelson (phonetic) was missing, and we didn't know if there were survivors. So we were walking -- it's like 120 degrees, walking through the mountains of Kunar Province. And that was my first deployment with the lead SEAL team.

GLENN: So when you go in there -- tell me the difference between trying to save that SEAL team and what you think it might have been like to save -- what his name that deserted --

ROBERT: Bowe Bergdahl. I attempted to rescue him too. I was on the base when he walked off too.

GLENN: So tell me the difference between those two.

ROBERT: Well, the difference was Marcus and his crew were in there on a noble mission, trying to kill -- trying to capture/kill Ahmad Shah, a Taliban leader in the neighborhood. They got into a fight, they could handle themselves. They were in there because they wanted to be there. It was noble. And then the rescue attempt was to get in the fight. Really good guys getting in the fight. It got shot down with whatever they say shot them down. And it's something that we want to do with Bergdahl. We know he walked off the day he walked off. The way that we used to work, we'd wake up when the sun was going down. Grab your coffee. Go listen to the brief. And then you start -- you work overnight and then go to bed, you know, during the day.

When we got up that one day, they said, hey, we had this private walk off base, and he got rolled up by the Taliban. And we had to stop the entire war effort and stopped trying to hit high-value individuals and go after this guy, trying to just get intelligence on the fly, always moving.

We were so close to the point to where I actually had the ransom in my hands, that the Taliban paid, to fail me to get rid of Bergdahl, to buy him. But the difference there was that we knew that we're going after this loon -- just misguided deserter. And Luttrell was a hero.

GLENN: So, yeah, you knew he was a deserter.

ROBERT: The second it happened.

GLENN: The second it happened?

ROBERT: Oh, yeah. I mention it in my book. There's stuff that was said, that we were intercepting traffic about how the Taliban really wanted him because they just wanted to abuse him. And that we found this guy on the side of the road. He walked off. We knew he walked off. We spent days -- I think 19 attempts, my team had. We lost one of our dogs on it. He got shot and killed in a gunfight, but I know some soldiers were killed in other attempts to rescue Bergdahl.

GLENN: So how did you -- how do you deal with that?

ROBERT: With?

GLENN: How do you deal with, you know -- how do you deal not -- be frank with you. Not beating the snot out of Bergdahl?

ROBERT: Well, we didn't get him. If we did, we would have wanted to. But it would be important to --

GLENN: To not.

ROBERT: To get him back. Well, you can't. I mean, he's an American. He's an idiot. That's -- being an idiot is not a crime. But deserting is.

GLENN: Yeah.

ROBERT: So we'd want to bring him back and have him properly punished.

GLENN: Because he wasn't treated like he was a criminal.

ROBERT: No. He -- well, he got his punishment with the Taliban. He had -- you know, he got his punishment in their custody. Yeah, but when they came back, they made it political. They wanted to -- you know, he's a hero. He's a distinguished --

GLENN: How did that make you feel?

ROBERT: It was terrible. I mean, the name Bergdahl, when we -- we knew who he was, we know what he was, a misguided deserter. But when they -- they even tried to change it over the course of the years to, well, he didn't desert. He fell back on a patrol, and they grabbed him. Which was not the case at all. He walked -- he mailed the stuff home. He walked off. No question. But they spun it politically like you can imagine politicians will do.

GLENN: Back in just a second. The name of the book is The Operator. O'Neill: Firing the Shots that Killed Osama bin Laden and My Years as a SEAL Team Warrior. Back with him in just a second.

First, our sponsor this half-hour is Goldline. South Korea's policy on North Korea, about to get a major overhaul. First day in office, the new South Korean president is talking about going to North Korea to meet with Kim Jong-un. I guess that's a little harder than he expected. New satellite images have discovered artificial islands northwest of the North Korean capital now. We believe that they may be missile launch sites. God only knows what's going to happen in North Korea. Hopefully nothing. But if we do go to war, it is not going to be a war like -- let me ask you, Robert, is this another Afghanistan or Iraq?

ROBERT: No. I don't think Korea would be.

STU: Say it again.

ROBERT: I don't think it would be like Iraq. It's going to be something way different. A bigger army, initially. And hopefully, the -- when -- if it was liberated -- if and when it's liberated, the population would realize, okay. This is a good thing, and you're going to get democracy. But you never know with the way they were raised. I mean, we thought it with the Shia. We kind of ditched in the first Gulf War. And the second one, they didn't rise up. And it's a tough one to read the future. I wonder where they're getting that island technology though. It's almost like they have Chinese neighbors.

GLENN: Yeah, that's what I'm concerned about is Russia, China, Iraq. A global meltdown on this one.

[break]

GLENN: Tomorrow, on this program, at this time, this hour, the top of the hour, at five minutes after the hour, tomorrow, we will be joined by Bill O'Reilly in his first interview since leaving Fox. We have a lot to talk to him about. That is tomorrow. Bill O'Reilly in his first interview, leaving Fox.

The operator is with us today. He is O'Neill. Firing the shots that killed Osama bin Laden. We were just talking about Bowe Bergdahl. And you said that you had the ransom in your hands. Was that --

ROBERT: We were near the base. He was on a base that we were on. And he walked off to one of the nearby satellite bases. The small operating post. And when they told us he was gone, we just started launching from there. Our strike team from our SEAL team. And we just started going after -- gathering Intel. And based on what we found on certain targets, we'd go after the next and the next, for a matter of days.

And we got to a point where we got into a house. Big pile of cash. Obviously, some shady characters in there. And the whole, well, my son works construction in Dubai, so he sent these millions and millions of rupees or whatever they were up there. So we had that. We were convinced that was it. We knew we were close, and then they eventually got him across the border to Pakistan.

GLENN: So that ransom was paid by --

ROBERT: The Taliban. To the locals. To take --

GLENN: Isn't that --

ROBERT: I think a lot of it is illegal.

STU: You just saw -- so you saw the payment actually? That's incredible.

ROBERT: We secured an area. Separated the people like we do. And then we went through the stuff. And there's a pile of cash. And part of the trail where Bergdahl was going and had been. It's pretty obvious what the money is doing there. They don't need that money there.

JEFFY: Right.

STU: It could have been bitcoin investment.

GLENN: Which is paying off right now.

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: Paying off really well.

Okay. Back to talk a little bit -- more on his book on killing Osama bin Laden. What that was like. How it was -- what it felt like to be told, hey, by the way, you guys are on your own. Something happens.

And a little bit about what he's doing now to -- to continue to pay in to America. The Operator is the name of the book. O'Neill. Back in a minute.

[break]

GLENN: O'Neill was raised in Montana. Joined the Navy at 19 in 1996. Deployed as a Navy SEAL more than a dozen times. Four hundred combat missions. Four different theaters of war. He was decorated more than 52 times. He's received two silver stars. Four bronze stars with valor. Holy cow. Joint service accomodation medal with valor. Three presidential unit citations. And a Navy Marine Corps accommodation metal with valor. Kind of a big deal.

Lone survivor. He was part of that mission to save Marcus Luttrell. "Captain Phillips" and the Somali pirates, which we're not going to get into today, but it's in his new book called The Operator. I'd love to hear about that. That is one of the most remarkable shooting I've ever seen.

ROBERT: Just getting there from a kiss on my daughter's forehead in her preschool for an Easter Tea Party, to the Indian Ocean in less than 16 hours. Because they let us know then. Then they called us out. And then we're out. Then we're over there. Then we rescued them on Easter.

GLENN: And then -- probably the -- if somebody would have actually gone in and killed Adolf Hitler, those guys would have been known as, you know -- known forever, that story would have been told.

The killing of Osama bin Laden is probably that big. And our president had a hard time deciding whether to do it or not. When you guys went in, it's my understanding, he said, don't call the State Department. You're on your own. If things go wrong, you're on your own. Is that true?

ROBERT: I'm not sure how it went down with that. I know that -- we had talks among the group, what would happen if we ran out of fuel and had to negotiate our ways out. Who were they going to send over to Islamabad to talk with Zardari (phonetic)? Who's going to do what? There's a lot of stuff that we compartmentalized, as far as, we know this, and we know that. We don't need to get involved with the politics.

GLENN: So -- but you went over there, fully expecting to die.

ROBERT: We knew -- I knew it was a one-way mission, and most of the guys there did too. But we accepted it because of -- we had the conversation. You know, we're doing this for the single mom who dropped her kids off at school on a Tuesday morning, and then 45 minutes later jumped to her death out of the windows on the World because that was a better alternative than 2500 degrees Fahrenheit inside, you know, holding her skirt down as her last gesture of human decency, so no one could see her underwear as she killed herself. You know, she wasn't supposed to do that.

The -- the people on Flight 93 that took over the cockpit, to crash it in Pennsylvania to save people in Washington. You know, they didn't need to fight people the people in the Pentagon. We went for them because that wasn't their fight. The Port Authority Police Department. The NYPD. FDNY. You know, that day, we were asked to take out the guy that funded that, that laughed at it. That thought it was part of his time on earth. We went for that. So we accepted the one-way mission.

STU: Because this is your life at stake here?

ROBERT: Yes.

STU: Is it offensive when you hear, say, Joe Biden say this is the most difficult decision in 500 years? I mean, this is -- this is -- if you had only a 1 percent chance of success and you knew there was a 99 percent chance that you were going to do to die, would you have still wanted to go on --

ROBERT: Dying didn't mean we didn't succeed. We knew that if -- I even moved myself from the perimeter to that rooftop team that was going to land there. And we called ourselves the martyr's brigade. Tongue in cheek, because once we get on the rooftop, the whole building is going up. But we're going to --

GLENN: You thought they would blow it up?

ROBERT: He would blow it up. If anyone is going to kill himself in a house-borne improvise explosive device, it's Osama bin Laden. But we accepted that because we got him. I mean, it's better -- it's -- we're going to die eventually. And we might as well get this guy for everybody else.

STU: Jeez.

GLENN: Okay. So you climbed up a stairwell. And you come to the third floor. And you say you come around the corner. And there standing in front of you is a guy who is skinnier.

ROBERT: Skinnier than I thought and taller. But how I got there was incredible. Because we didn't land where we were supposed to -- I was sort of in the back, and I watched my team work. And watching other guys knowing this is their last day on earth, watching them still do their jobs, methodically, slow and smooth. Smooth as (sic) fast. Get through this door. Get through that door. Went up the stairs. Cleared some more rooms. And then when we finally got to the top, I was right in the front with one guy in front of me. And he went up the stairs, knowing there were suicide bombers. He opened up a curtain and jumped on what he thought was suicide bombers. So I watched a guy jump on the grenade. It didn't go off. And that's historically heroic. He did that. And I turned the corner, just based on -- it's not like I came through the skylight and saved the day. I just did what every other special operator would have done. And there was Bin Laden. And he's taller, 6-3, skinnier, short beard, gray nose. That's his nose. He's a threat. He's not surrendering.

GLENN: And he's standing behind his wife.

ROBERT: Behind his wife. And he's sort of pushing her towards me. And he's a matter of feet away.

GLENN: How far?

ROBERT: Three or 4 feet. Just standing right there, and basically in the doorway. And just based on his movement -- he's not surrendering. He is a suicide bomber. And I need to treat him like a suicide bomber. That's why I shot him in the head. And I've dealt with suicide bombers before. There's stories in the book. It's so big and loud, and it's over fast. That if you don't shoot them in the head, you're going to die with them. And it was over before it started. I shot him.

GLENN: Did he have a vest?

ROBERT: No, he didn't. But I thought he did. He wasn't surrendering.

GLENN: All right. So you shoot him in the head. It's not like in the movies. They don't go flying back on the bed.

ROBERT: He fell straight down. His head went -- as I was looking at the bed, right to the bottom left-hand part of the bed -- his wife was there. And we just -- I grabbed her to move her aside. Gave her a brief search. Sat her on the bed. And I remember looking over, and his son was standing there. Like a 3-year-old. And I remember as a father just thinking, this poor guy has got nothing to do with this. And I picked him up and then moved him. And at that point, other SEALs are coming in the room. And that's when it kind of hit me. And a buddy came up to me and laughed. And he goes, are you all right? And I was like, yeah. What do we do now? And he smiled. And said, well, now we find the computers. You've done this hundreds of times. I'm like, yeah, you're right. I'm back. And he goes, yeah, bro. You just killed Bin Laden, so your life just changed. And we did the rest of our clearance. Found what we could electronically.

GLENN: What happened to his body?

ROBERT: We put it in a body bag. We carried him out on a helicopter. Brought him back and showed him to the admiral. Some of the analysts. Brought him to another spot. The FBI did a lot of DNA tests on him and photos. We handed him off to some rangers. They flew him out to the Persian Gulf and then disposed of him. That was it. It was a good call too. People ask about that too. And I get all the wild conspiracy theories about he was this and he was that. And you didn't kill him.

GLENN: I'm telling you, he's in the freezer next to Walt Disney, and the Jungle Book crew is right there. That's what's happening.

You've started a -- you've started a 501(c)(3).

ROBERT: Uh-huh.

GLENN: You've started a mission. It's -- your charity is YourGratefulNation.org. What is it?

ROBERT: Yes. I got out of the Navy at about 17 years, which is three years shy of a pension. And I realized how difficult you think it is to find a job. Because all you know is what you're doing. But you have skills especially as a veteran but especially as a special operator that employers want, which is stress management, team building, show up on time, loyalty, things like that. And they'll hire. And I talk to a lot of guys that want to get out, but they -- they'd rather go to combat than fill out a resume. Because at least combat makes sense. So what we do with Your Grateful Nation is we find out what line of work they want. It's individualized. Find out what they want. Where they want to live. We'll find that company. Get them a mentor. Put them through a nine-month program. And then they get placed in their second career. And it's -- the best email I get every other day -- you know, we placed Staff Sergeant Jones with this job with Fox Sports. Or we did this, and this guy is working at Merrill Lynch. And having the families -- the wives at some of the events we have, they'll just say, we couldn't have done this -- our family could not have done this without Your Grateful Nation. It's the best feeling. It's my passion --

GLENN: I'll tell you, the servicemen that I know -- and everybody has -- well, not a Bowe Bergdahl. But every -- you know, every profession has dirtbags in it. But there is a higher percentage of honor and integrity, I think, in the armed forces than any other --

ROBERT: Oh, no doubt about it. And the one thing you can't teach in college, that they said the military guys have is loyalty. They're so loyal. And, honestly, Your Grateful Nation started as, let's help the vets get jobs. Now it's, do you want to make your company better? We'll give you someone to --

GLENN: Are we still -- is the Navy that you went into, in '96, is it still the Navy that it -- I mean, a lot of parents that listen to this program are very concerned, especially over the last eight years. But they wonder what the rot has been. We've -- you know, we've taken out just war theory. I mean, we've changed fundamentally.

ROBERT: They -- a lot of the social experimentations affected it quite a bit. A lot of the verbiage -- like they said -- my favorite word, and I even use it in the book is shipmate. I love the word shipmate. They took it out of boot camp because it's derogatory. You can't call people shipmate. I love that term.

GLENN: Why is it derogatory?

ROBERT: They changed it to sea warrior.

GLENN: Oh, my gosh. Sea warrior.

ROBERT: I mean, that's just -- that's again hiding from the big elephant dungarees in the room. Come on.

GLENN: Oh, my gosh.

ROBERT: I mean, as far as the other stuff, there are places you don't need the military to test social experiments. I mean, should there be women in combat? Well, we've had women in combat. Should there be gays in the military? We have had gays in the military. Nobody cared. But the media wanted to make a big thing out of it. A big political thing. Said, yeah, they're here. They're doing fine. Why do we need to -- morale is so big in the military. In units in combat, you need to have morale high to succeed. And when you start putting nonsensical baggage on, it wears on the morale. There's no reason for it.

GLENN: Who is it we had in the last couple of weeks that was talking about the -- you know, all of the restrictions put on our military that, you know, it's --

ROBERT: Rules of engagement.

GLENN: Rules of engagement are just insane.

ROBERT: Yeah, that's a tough one. People shouldn't be wondering if they're going to go to jail for taking a shot when it's -- I had a -- a thought though, since we're experimenting. The person who is in an office typing up the rules of engagement, you should have someone shooting at them while they're typing.

(laughter)

How are you going to defend yourself? You sit there and type --

GLENN: The operator is the name of the book. Firing the shots that killed Osama bin Laden and my years as a SEAL team warrior.

Robert O'Neill writes it in a way that you are standing there behind and seeing everything and feeling everything that he felt. The Operator is the name of the book. And his charity, if you want to get involved, is YourGratefulNation.org. YourGratefulNation.org.

Thank you so much.

ROBERT: Thank you for having me.

GLENN: Appreciate it. You bet.

RADIO

Canada’s Euthanasia CRISIS: Assisted Suicide and Organ Harvesting

Canada’s MAID (Medical Assistance in Dying) program has crossed a moral threshold, and Glenn Beck is sounding the alarm. What began as a so-called “compassionate” option for the terminally ill has expanded into a dystopian system where citizens are being encouraged to end their lives over depression, poverty, or homelessness. As healthcare collapses, the government’s answer is to reduce the “surplus population” while even harvesting organs in the process. Glenn exposes how the normalization of euthanasia devalues human life, opens a dark ethical path, and serves as a chilling warning for America.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: It's -- getting really bad up in Canada. I was with some Canadians yesterday. I saw them. I was up in the Capitol after meeting with senator Lee. And I come out, and these people say, "That's Glenn Beck. Glenn Beck."

And I turn around. And they're like, "Oh, my gosh." And they come up to me, and they're Canadians. I'm like, "Can you guys still cross the border from Canada? I didn't even know that was legal, still."

STU: They love this humor, by the way.

GLENN: They loved this humor. But they were great. They were big fans, and, you know, I asked them about how things are going in Canada. And they said, "Really not good."

I said, "I'm really concerned about your MAID program."

And they were like, "Yeah. You think so?"

Canada is in a euthanasia crisis. The cheapening of life. This started out about ten years ago, in Canada.

You know, if you have a chronic illness and you are close to death. You're going to die, anyway, and I don't mean like from old age. I mean, you are close to death. And you are in massive death. You can end life.

Now, if you remember right, Stu and I talked about this in the days of Fox. One of the problems we had was the complete live system with -- with Obamacare.

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: When you have -- when you have a government health care system, all it takes is a shortage of any kind. And then you start devaluing life on both ends of the spectrum. Up until 12 -- I think he's up to 12 years old, you get very little Medicare -- or medicine and care.

And over 50, they begin to cut your care. They keep the ones who are actually working hard. And making all the money. They keep all the care there.

Because that's what's with good for society. Okay?

This is exactly what is happening for Canada. And they're not saying it.

They can't keep up with the system of care that they have there. People are dying all the time. And so what they're trying to do is just reduce the surplus population. And so now you can go in and get euthanasia for -- I mean, pain. You can't conduct yourself with meaningful activities anymore.

You can't perform your daily activities.

You have depression. Autism. I mean, all kinds of stuff.

STU: Really, any reason.

GLENN: Any reason.

STU: It's at least expanding to that eventually.

GLENN: It just expanded. There were two people that were just cleared for euthanasia. Because they got kicked out of their home. Because their home was being given to illegals.

So these Canadian citizens. They get kicked out of the home. They can't find a place to live.

And they're getting depressed about it. They go to the doctor. And the doctor is like, we don't have any beds for you.

It will be months before we can see you.

You can't give me any kind of help on this?

No.

STU: My gosh, they should have illegally crossed into this country.

I would be happy to help them.

GLENN: Well, no. They're Canadians. If they're Canadian, they're probably white. And we can't help them.

STU: Hmm.

GLENN: I know me too.

So they -- they convinced two of these people, just kill themselves.

STU: How --

GLENN: Because --

STU: So awful.

GLENN: Awful. Awful.

STU: But this is -- this is a -- can a long-standing. You know, you want to make a slippery slope argument.

This is a really easy place to be.

GLENN: And it's happening over and over again.

STU: It's the same place that happens every time.

GLENN: Yeah. Every time.

STU: You look at that, what is the movie, Million Dollar Baby, I believe it was. If I'm remembering right. It was Clint Eastwood. And so that was a really fascinating movie to watch, as someone -- in our position. If you're a conservative.

GLENN: Uh-huh.

STU: Because she -- spoiler alerts, throughout, she was a female boxer.

This is a wrong time. A apologize if I get it wrong. She has a terrible why are in the ring. And is put on basically life support.

And kind of wants to die.

And he unplugs her at the end. If I remember right, basically.

And she dies. And it's the best possible case in a way, for euthanasia. You feel terrible for her. She had all this to live for. This awful thing happened to her. She was incredibly unhappy.

And, you know, you felt like, he was doing the right thing.

The movie presented it in a way that it felt like, this is a tough choice. But he did the right thing.

GLENN: I'm trying to remember the Rachel McAdams' movie about kind of the very same thing.

STU: Okay.

GLENN: It was very disturbing.

Life without you, or something. And she falls in love with this guy.

And, you know, she thinks he has a great life. But he's in a wheelchair. And they have a great time. But she doesn't know that she's just care-taking because his parents are trying to get him to find purpose in life again. He was in an accident. Find purpose in life again. But he just wants to kill himself. So they fall in love and everything else.

It in the end, he says, I want to kill myself. And he see. And you're made to feel like, that's an okay --

STU: Yeah. Hey. And I think those are valuable vehicles. They challenge you a little bit. You're like, okay. This is a tough situation. A tough call or whatever.

And I don't remember at the end of the movie, yeah. I'm pretty sure.

GLENN: Me too. Me too.

STU: You don't want to unplug people, when there's no reason to.

GLENN: Uh-huh.

STU: And that is always where it starts. You feel like, there's a tough call to be made here. This person is in pain, they're suffering.

But if you don't prioritize above all else in these situations, above quality of life.

Above whether -- whether they feel that they have nothing to live for.

If you don't prioritize life. At least from a legal standpoint. You know, you -- you put your society, on slippery slope that ends this way, every single time. And, you know, we all kind of understand the truth of the situation, which is, it's very difficult to prevent over someone's life. If they want to take their own life. They will probably be able to do it.

GLENN: Yeah. Yeah.

STU: But coming to a societal acceptance of something like this.

Put you on a road to darkness.

GLENN: Well, they -- they say that we're doing this scientifically we have three doctors that have to sign up on this. Well, that's exactly the number that the Nazis have to.

STU: And they trim that number.

GLENN: They did. They did. And I think they had one or two. They trimmed that number.

It may be back up to three. Here's the good thing. You get more doctors involved. Because now they are prepping the people for euthanasia with -- I think it's Heparin. Which you put a line in of Heparin. And that preserves your organs. And so as soon as the doctors off you. Other doctors take you. And take out your organs. And now Canada is becoming one of the biggest organ warehouses since Hammond.

RADIO

Did Ketanji Brown Jackson say black voters are DISABLED?!

MegynKelly‬ joins Glenn Beck to discuss Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s “unbelievable” comparison of black people’s ability to vote with disabled Americans, Justin Trudeau and Katy Perry’s alleged romance, and Megyn’s upcoming stadium tour stop with Glenn.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Hello, Megyn, how are you?

MEGYN: Hello, friend. I'm great. How are you doing?

GLENN: I'm good. I'm good. I'm glad to be with you. What is it? Next Saturday, we're going to be together here in Texas.

MEGYN: Fort Worth, baby! Let's do this thing.

GLENN: Could you get a bigger arena, have you been to the Dickie's arena?

MEGYN: No. I can't wait to see it.

GLENN: Yeah, well, there's a lot of it. There's a lot of it.

But we're going to be together, and tickets are still available. Grab your tickets now. I would like to know a couple of things. First of all, I'm going to making a pretty big announcement, breaking some news with you. Because you're a journalist, and everybody goes to you for these things. But I'm going to be breaking some big news.

And then -- what -- I'm only asking this, because I just got off, you know, one of the shows from Charlie Kirk. And the audience kind of threw me for a loop. I didn't even -- I've never even pondered before, Megyn.

MEGYN: Well, I think we're going to be doing some Q&A with the audience too. And I'm looking forward to that. I've been hearing a lot of folks commenting on our social media feed, that they would love to interact. And I thought, maybe we'll kick it off with Q&A, have people have their say, and then we can do our interview and all that. But my goal overall is to just make it a good time. I think people, if you're going to go out on a Saturday night, you want to have fun. You want to keep it upbeat. There's so much to make fun of.

GLENN: Well, I'm good at that. I'm with you on that. I can be with you all day long on that.

MEGYN: This administration, which has a very healthy sense of humor. And the bizarre attacks. Did you see the Bradley Whitford thing on The View just yesterday saying, there are internment camps going on right now in the United States. Are there?

Really?

GLENN: What!

MEGYN: He played a political hack on the West Wing.

And now, ever since, he's kind of like Yul Brynner in the King & I.

Remember when he had really started asking the king, he thought what he really was. That's what happened with Bradley Whitford. Martin Sheen too, who played the president in that same series. Now they've both gone so hard-core left. And saying all the worst rumors you hear from your great, great granddad on, you know, Facebook are true.

The internment camps across the United States, where?

Where specifically, Bradley? Walk me through it.

GLENN: Can you help me out on Ketanji Brown Jackson yesterday? I think she said that blacks are mentally handicapped or maybe physically handicapped. But she compared the Voting Rights Act with the ADA. What kind of -- how low can they go in insulting black Americans before black Americans are like, okay, come on!

MEGYN: No, it was unbelievable. If one of the white justices had said that, it would be on the cover of every magazine, the top of every newspaper. The fact that I guess she's black and a woman, they give her a pass.

She actually tried to say that we need ongoing scrutiny of all voting schemes in America, because blacks are like people with disabilities, with basically no rights. Because she was saying, when we passed the American with Disabilities Act, we had no requirements that building the handicap accessible. And that's basically the position of blacks in America in 2025. There must be a national mandate requiring them.

GLENN: How do you build a building so it's black accessible?

Because I think they already are. What -- what kind of special ramps are needed to be built here? I don't understand.

MEGYN: Yeah. Do our black friends know that they can't just walk right into the buildings. I'm not sure I'm aware of that. Or is it just Ketanji?

How did she walk into the US Supreme Court to make the point that blacks are not equal, and being permanently disabled, as she puts on her robe, to take one of nine seats.

GLENN: It's just crazy. Just crazy on that.

And then, you know, we have the shutdown which is completely bizarre, the way the Democrats are trying to do this. And I think they're holding it closed now, because of the no kings rally. They want the big no kings thing.

Is that violent, or how is that going to turn out this weekend?

MEGYN: Did you see the Trump tweet saying, I'm so relieved. Thank you so much to the no kings crowd. I thought somebody was trying to become king. But thanks to you, I remain the president.

I appreciate it. He's a master troller. You know, they did this in June, with all of the same numbers. And nothing happened. No one cared.

Didn't really get a lot of press. And that's exactly what will happen this time.

One thing I found interesting, about the no kings media promo they're doing. One of the groups that's helping is the human rights campaign. And of course this is like an LGBTQ anti-pride group. Used to be more about gay rights. And now it's gone completely trans. And this is the group, that gives everybody their score. You know, their DEI score.

GLENN: Oh, yeah. That's right.

MEGYN: The math is totally off. You're actively out there protesting against the president, and we're still going to have anyone in corporate America, pretend that you're just an impartial arbiter, that is worried about a civil rights issue? As you're out there marching against the sitting president, with -- with people like Bradley Whitford, who are in internment camps. I mean, the mask is completely off.

They've already been defanged, thanks to Trump. And his active pushes through executive or his. And de I agenda. That's what's going to be there. The move on crew.

GLENN: How long does this go on? How long do we need the government and control of the government before it's crushed, the spirit of this is crushed? I know people will always believe some of the craziness of this stuff. But this -- the whole delusion that we were all living under for a long time. It seems to be over. Or at least dying. How long before it's dead?

MEGYN: Yeah. We need two terms with J.D. Vance, post Trump.

GLENN: That's exactly what Trump said.

MEGYN: Yeah. We can't -- and as much a miracle worker as Trump is. He can't get it done in four years. And we've learned from him how to do it.

And that's working. Just yesterday, there was a headline about is yet another hospital. This one in Boston. Shutting down the puberty blockers and cross sex hormones for anyone under age 19. Because Trump is defunding these hospitals that continue to provide that.

It's amazing. He did that via executive order.

So going three years without those so-called services. Is great. But if you go an extra eight on top of that, without them doing this, and then we see the difference in our youth, we're growing out of their gender dysphoria, just one example.

The case will be so much stronger for never bringing this barbarism, back again. And same with DEI. That's dying a fast death. Every day, you open the paper. And you see more stories. Sob stories on the left. About another DEI program that's been eliminated. And now these people have nothing to do with their useless degree that they got from Brown University or NYU or Harvard. So if we have another, let's say, three plus eight, and we go 11 years without people getting hired for these roles. The programs get eliminated at the universities.

No one wants to major in something that is not salable, after the fact. So if that's the case, and Trump has gotten us a jump-start on it all.

Yeah, it could be done in '28.

STU: I think you're referring to the numbers that we were just discussing. That there does seem to be a falloff. A decrease since 2023 of people who are identifying as, you know, LGBTQQIA2+. Is this a sign that it was a social contagion?

And you think the dropoff is real, or just a temporary thing.

MEGYN: Well, first, I think we have to give a shout-out to Justin Trudeau for leading the way and dating Katy Perry, abandoning his earlier, obvious confusion.

GLENN: That lesbian love that he's got. I didn't know that he's lesbian.

MEGYN: Exactly. I mean, honestly, I can't think of a man on earth, I would rather sleep with less than Justin Trudeau. Sorry!

GLENN: I'm -- you know what, I'm with you on that, and Katy Perry too. I'm like, Katy Perry is not somebody -- no, thank you!

MEGYN: I mean, obviously she's the dominant one in that relationship.

GLENN: Yeah.

MEGYN: But, yeah, no, that was great news. But it's -- when I was in Portugal. I was so encouraged, of course. Because I love to see those numbers fall. Absolutely awful, what we've been doing to children.

GLENN: Yes.

MEGYN: But I also feel so sad for the ones who got sucked in. You know, I got sucked into trends where we wore V-neck sweaters and long pearls that we tied in a knot. These kids are getting sucked into trends where they're having double mastectomies or huge portions of their forearm cut out and try to be built into a fake phallic. And they will never have sexual enjoyment. Never have sexual function. They will live the rest of their lives deformed. And obviously manipulated hormonally, where you can tell what they've done with the voice and so on.

And, you know, I just can't imagine.

The vast majority of them are sterile. They can never have children. These girls can never breast-feed.

GLENN: It's crazy.

MEGYN: They're confused if they wind up ever having them. So it's like great. Well-done, Democrats and barbaric doctors and hospitals. You've got a bunch of money. You worked out your woke bona fide on a bunch of 16-year-olds who will now have to walk around with the scars of your practice. You decided to practice on them, for the rest of their lives.

The only solution here is massive lawsuits. Huge, devastating lawsuits against the people who did this.

GLENN: I have to tell you, I'm watching Canada, what's happening with MAID up in Canada. And it's become barbaric up there.

We are probably five more years of, you know, full, you know, just full sprint out, the way we were going. Maximum ten, before we were in really, really scary, you know, 1930s kind of territory.

I -- I think there will come a time, where people, hopefully, that history books will -- you know, we will see these shows, where all of these and their people, and everything else. And it was all this woke stuff. This time period, will be just this weird time capsule. That people will look back and be like, what the hell happened to society?

What the hell were people thinking?

MEGYN: You're so right, Glenn. Ten years ago, people would ask that question. What will we look back that we're doing now? In a way we look back at lobotomizing people and say, that's horrible?

The conventional wisdom, ten, 15 years ago. Was the way we treat animals, like the slaughter of animals for human consumption.

GLENN: Yeah.

MEGYN: Boy, has that changed. I mean, in just a short amount of time, it switched to the mutilation of healthy children. For what?

At the hands of their own parents, who are working out their mental issues, on their children!

It's like -- and maybe they don't know, because the left doesn't tell them. Read about this in the New York Times. That 90 plus percent of these children will grow out of any gender confusion.

GLENN: But you have every doctor.

You have every doctor, you can go to, saying, you will kill your child, if you don't -- and there's a lot of people that are just -- they don't what an to do. They don't know what to do.

MEGYN: I know. And on top of that. The same doctors are saying, the child will kill themselves, unless we let them do this.

And you seek out a doctor, just for your child to have individual consultations with. And they're being told by all the medical societies, the only proper standard is to affirm, you may not explore any other mental issue with the child claiming German Shepherd confusion. So these psychologists and psychiatrists have their hands tied now by their licensing organizations.

We just have to go up to the Supreme Court, out of Colorado, where we tried to actually pass a law.

They did, pass a law. Saying, you may not say anything other than affirm. I affirm. I affirm.

We're making it known, a violation of law, for I to try to explore, whether the kid really is gender confused.

You have to affirm his delusion, or you committed, quote, conversion therapy on him. That law is going to get struck down.

STU: It is.

GLENN: It actually could be a nine-zero ruling. But, I mean, that's how crazy we've gotten in our stories. I think you mentioned this, Glenn, in the past five years, we've lost our mind on race and gender.

I think the tide has turned more dramatically on race, and as on the gender mania. That's an example of that.

But it has -- I feel that it's happening.

GLENN: I do too. I do too.

Megyn, thank you so much.

Megyn and I will be together on the Dick ease arena, next Saturday on the 25th of October.

You can get tickets at MegynKelly.com.

Glenn Beck’s EMOTIONAL & HEATED TPUSA Campus Speech | Glenn TV | Ep 462

A few weeks before Charlie Kirk’s assassination, he asked Glenn Beck to join him on one of his Turning Point USA campus tours. Glenn agreed, but with one caveat: “I do not want to debate college students.” The terms were set: Glenn would educate about the truth of America’s history, while Charlie would debate. Then, everything changed on September 10, 2025. Despite the loss of one of America’s greatest political and spiritual giants, the American Comeback Tour didn’t stop at Utah Valley University. Friends like Glenn, Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Michael Knowles, Allie Beth Stuckey, and Vice President JD Vance agreed to pick up Charlie’s torch to inspire the next generation of conservatives on college campuses. On October 9, Glenn delivered a powerful rallying cry to the students at North Dakota University. In this episode of Glenn TV, we bring you the best of his raw personal testimony. From his battles with addiction to discovering faith and purpose, Glenn shares transformative life principles drawn from his career journey. He also showcases priceless historical artifacts that challenge mainstream narratives about America’s complex legacy of good and evil. And he debuts a trailer for “George AI” — a groundbreaking AI tool he’s been quietly developing for a launch in 2026. Finally, Glenn takes heated questions from students about Israel, AIPAC, and October 7. All for Christ. For Country. For Charlie.

Watch Glenn's full TPUSA speech and Q&A HERE

RADIO

Glenn Beck's eye-opening experience at Charlie Kirk's Medal of Freedom ceremony

Glenn Beck attended the White House’s Medal of Freedom ceremony for Charlie Kirk and learned a lot. Glenn shares stories about President Trump, Erika Kirk, Marco Rubio, and others…

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: I have to tell you, I mean, listen to my voice. I'm tired from it.

The President went over on Sunday, conducted all of that business, got back on Air Force One, flew all the way back. He -- he said he flew back because he needed to do this on Charlie's birthday. He said he was going to delay it. And then he realized, "Oh. It's Charlie's birthday. Have to be down on his birthday." So flew all the way back. You know how much sheep he had in the 36 hours? Zero. Everybody else on the plane had about an hour and a half. Because if you're working for the President when he's up, you're up.

And they were zombies. Everybody was zombies. And he was -- I don't know how this guy does it. I mean, he doesn't take any drugs. He doesn't take -- you know, no -- nothing nonnatural goes into this guy's body.

STU: I mean, there's certain products at McDonald's, that do go down --

GLENN: Yes. You're right.

Okay. You're right. I can't say that. No stimulants go in his body.

STU: I don't know who RFK Jr is. Considering he see not drink.

He see not --

GLENN: Does not take drugs.

STU: He's very much against those stuff.

GLENN: Yeah, very much. Just good genetics, I think. The guy does not sleep. He just doesn't sleep.

STU: Is that concerning for long-term health? I mean, I guess --

GLENN: For everybody else. But he's been this way his whole life, I mean, this is the way he's operated his whole life. I don't think so. It's just the way he is. He doesn't need very much sleep.

The guy is changing the world. I mean, you remember we were watching -- we were watching when he arrived in Egypt. And I said, "I've never seen this before."

I'll have to narrow this down for you. Because I say this several times a day now.

When the world leaders get together, they stand on the stage and get one shot. Once in a while, they'll stand on stage, as they're assembling. And they'll talk amongst themselves. But I've never seen a photo line with world leaders, to take a picture one on one with the president. Okay?

Never seen that in my life. Okay?

That's what was happening on Monday. In Egypt!

He was two hours late. Okay?

And apparently, and I'm not going to divulge too. Apparently, one person was upset. And was like, I'm not waiting around for this.

Yet, they waited around for it.

And they lined up. Even the king of Saudi Arabia was in the line, waiting in the line for 30 minutes.

While he took photos with all of the leaders around the world.

They are treating him -- I mean, he's changed the world. The guy knows how to use power.

It's my understanding from conversations that I had piecing some things together. It's my understanding, Vladimir Putin has changed with him too.

Even Putin has known -- noticed, this is the guy who is kind of steering the world and is more deferential to Donald Trump.

And I hope that's true. I hope that begins to play out with Ukraine.

STU: It's quite key to understand who you're speaking with, right?

It's not always about what you want to say and what you want. It's about what the other person wants and what they understand.

Someone made the point that Donald Trump speaks Arabic better than any native speaker. And I thought that was an interesting comment.

It's like, you know, it is a -- he -- he seems to be able to communicate to the leaders in that part of the world.

GLENN: They understand strength.

STU: They understand it, yeah.

And they react to it.

GLENN: Uh-huh.

STU: And I think they don't see him as a -- a passing -- like, oh, he's here. But just wait him out.

They don't think he's going to change or fold on this stuff.

GLENN: And they think he's changing the world. And everybody who follows him, is going to follow in these footsteps.

They don't think, this is just, he has got three more years left, and then Kamala comes back. They don't think that --
STU: They think it's changed for good?
GLENN: They think it's changed for good. I believe they think J.D. Vance is going to be the next president. And I think so too.

I mean --

STU: Certainly, the favorite of the Republican Party, obviously.

GLENN: Yeah. He's -- he's killing it.

But then again, I saw Marco Rubio yesterday. He listens to the show. And his wife listens to every word of the show. And I said, "I hope you've noticed that we really like what Marco is doing."

I mean, the guy is -- and I said to him. I said, "Marco, what happened?"

And he's like, "What?" I said, "You know, we've always been a fan of yours. I mean, we interviewed him for the first time." You remember the first time we interviewed him for president, the very first time, and we all got into a car. You, me, and Pat, we did a video. We were like, "This guy is amazing. He's great."

STU: Really liked him.

GLENN: And then he got into the Senate and was kind of, I don't know, hard to pin down. I don't know what happened to him. And he immediately said, "It's the president."

I said, "Eh, the president is leading, yes. But there's a change in you. You are just killing it. Killing it."

STU: Should we join in here for one quick side bar of the current odds to win the presidential election at 2028.

Okay. So first -- first place, this is according to Kalshi. 32 percent chance, J.D. Vance. Second place, 21 percent chance, Gavin Newsom.

GLENN: Oh, my gosh.

STU: Third place -- I mean, again, this is prediction markets, what people believe will happen. This is not an official poll or anything.

Third place, 7 percent, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

GLENN: In third place.

STU: In third place. Comically, fourth place is also 7 percent actually is Donald J. Trump. You may have heard him. Currently president of the United States. And that would be -- that would be an interesting Constitutional amendment for that to occur for that to happen.

GLENN: It would be. It would be.

STU: Then you have Pete Buttigieg. Marco Rubio at 4 percent. Josh Shapiro. Kamala Harris. Wes Moore, Maryland. Gretchen Whitmer, Michigan. Andy Beshear, Kentucky.

GLENN: Okay, so it's way too early. It's way too early.

STU: Three percent. Glenn Youngkin, 2 percent.

GLENN: Oh, I'm sorry.

Glenn Youngkin. I thought you were saying Glenn Beck. Because then that would start to make sense. Everyone putting their money down is insane!

STU: Yeah, again, I would not be betting on that market now.

GLENN: No, I would not. But, I mean, he is -- he is on top of it.

And honestly, we're going need to somebody who operates like Donald Trump and can keep the republic. Keep the republic. Keep the Constitution.

Because we're going to head for some really, very difficult times. Very difficult times. But, anyway, back to the Charlie Kirk thing. It was very, very nice.

Erika is, you know, really gaining her voice. Only towards the end was she really kind of breaking down, but she was very good. The president was so gracious yesterday with everybody.

I mean, he is really an amazing man. But it is funny, because I have a picture of the two of us be by the Oval. Outside of the Oval. You open up the Oval Office door and you walk out, yeah, there it is.

Yeah. I have a picture of us. And he is right there, he's pointing to the Rose Garden. And I said, "You know, the worst thing that I think anybody has done to a First Lady was done to Melania."

I said, "They did so many bad things. But one of them is this Rose Garden." I said, "If I'm not mistaken, she just took Jackie O's exact plans and redid them."

And he said, "Yes. Yes!"

I said, "I can't believe how dishonest the press is. They just want to destroy you, and they'll go after your wife on that."

It's restoring the Jackie O plan!

And in their press coverage, they were like, "This is offensive. Jackie O would be..."

No, she would be happy that it was her plan.

Anyway, he said, "Yeah, I'm going to pave over this."

And I'm like, "Oh, my gosh, you're going to what?" And he said, "No, they're going to be nice pavers, but, you know, I'm going to pave over this." And he said, "Because it's useless." He said, "It's grass." So women come and they stand and they're on their heels, and they're sinking into the grass. It's usually wet." He said, "We need to be able to hold events out there." And he said, "And it would be beautiful, beyond anything like anybody has ever seen."

So he starts yesterday and he comes out. And he said, "This is the first time" -- he said, "I just put these pavers down."

And he said, "This is the first event in the Rose Garden with these pavers."

And it's absolutely beautiful. It's got flags on the corner. They have these special flags made. It's really, really -- it's beautiful. All the press was tanged in the back. And I haven't heard word one from the press on this. Not word one. Have you heard anything about what he's done with the Rose Garden?

STU: No. I did see some plans. Are these accurate plans where they will build another giant building on the property? Is that --

GLENN: Oh, that -- yeah. He's doing that.

STU: Is that going to happen?

GLENN: He's paying for it all, he's doing it all. It's a big ballroom.

He's like, "The country needs a ballroom." You know, "We have these state dinners." He said, "We put them on the grass." He said, "We need a ballroom."

And he said, "Tax payers don't want to pay for a ballroom, I'll pay for it."

So he's building it, and it will be done.

He said, by 2026. You know, some time early spring 2026. I'll believe it when I see it. But he tends to get things done quickly.

STU: Yeah. Sure.

GLENN: But the one thing I noticed was the security perimeter of the White House is astounding! It's at least doubled. Now you don't go into that park. You can go into the park. But you can only go in certain places in the park. But I think they're moving the perimeter, the security perimeter, at least a block around it. All the way around.

STU: Perfect sense, obviously with this environment.

GLENN: It was the first time I've seen the president in many months, outside without bulletproof glass between us.

I mean, he -- he stood outside, you know, trees in the area. Buildings in the area. And he was safe, outside. And it must be weird to live in that kind of bubble. But it was amazing. It was amazing.

They're really doing a good job. And the entire ceremony, the guy just knows, and he's just a showman. He just knows how to do things like this.

Except, somebody had hijacked. I mean, I think he had hijacked the music. Like ten minutes before he came out. It's like Abba, Dancing Queen, was playing. In the Rose Garden.

It was a little -- but then it stopped. And you could tell just -- you could tell when he actually picked. And I can guarantee you, he picked it.

And I was in -- remember I told you last time I was in the White House. I told you, he had selected all of these paintings of all of the presidents. And he put them strategically.

And when I was with him last, he said, I don't know what to do with this guy. And he had in the hallway kind of stuffed in the corner of the residence. The painting of Eisenhower.

And I said, "Eisenhower was the one who warned about everything you're dealing with right now."

I said, "Go back and read the industrial, you know, military-industrial complex speech. He talks about education and science and everything else."

I said, "He should be in your walk."

Because he said, "I put all of the paintings down strategically, so when I turn a corner, I see a face of somebody that reminds me, learn. Don't forget the lesson from him."

STU: Hmm.

GLENN: Now, you come down from out of the residence, and you turn that first corner, and he's moved the picture of Eisenhower. So the first president that he sees, as he comes down the stairs is Eisenhower. It's pretty cool.

STU: It's interesting. Do you think people see Donald Trump as a guy who thinks that way?

GLENN: No. But that's what they miss. That's what they miss.

He's -- he's really strategic in everything he does. I mean, he -- he -- he really knows, choose your thoughts. And so he's always -- you come down the stairs. And he's looking at Abraham Lincoln.

He turns that corner. And he's now looking at -- at -- at Eisenhower.

Every time he turns a corner, there is a Ronald Reagan, you know, there's George Washington.

He's always turning the corners, and looking at people to remind him. He -- he is a very thoughtful guy. Really thoughtful. Because he knows, choose your thoughts.

And that will -- and that will move your life forward in that direction.

STU: Seems to have a more complete understanding of history, now. Too. Would you say that the second term?

GLENN: Oh, my gosh.

STU: He went into that first term, obviously like -- you didn't even know at that point.

GLENN: No, his learning curve is almost straight up. The guy doesn't sleep.

So I was talking to I think Master Crowley. And she said that -- she walked in, in the middle of the night. Everybody is -- everybody is trying to get some shut eye. And she said, "He's in his office with stacks of books and papers. And he's just digesting all of this stuff." She said, "He's up all night just reading and getting stuff done."

It's remarkable.

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