BLOGAugust 16, 2017

Author: Anger, Hate, Division Gets Clicks, Likes and Votes

Why do racial tensions seem worse than ever in 2017?

Journalist and author Jason Riley joined the radio show Wednesday to talk about the motivation behind discouraging race relations and his new book, “False Black Power.”

Riley pointed both to former President Barack Obama and to President Donald Trump as figures who have been unhelpful. Obama encouraged racial tensions in a time when social media could add more fuel to the fire, and now Trump isn’t helping matters.

“I think we currently have a president who isn’t that concerned with trying to bridge these divides,” Riley said.

Glenn wondered if we have someone today who can bring people together the way civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King did.

“To me, there’s nothing more offensive to the memory of real civil rights leaders than these so-called civil rights leaders today,” Glenn said.

Unfortunately, we don’t really have a King-esque leader; instead, the civil rights movement has been exploited and turned into something else altogether, Riley asserted.

“I’m someone who’s argued that the civil rights movement that we associate with King has become a civil rights industry,” he said.

GLENN: I want to introduce you to Jason Riley. He's the author of the book Please Stop Helping Us. I think you have to say it that way. And now a new book called False Black Power. He -- we could sit here and talk about all the bad things. But why don't we figure out ways to fix it? That's why Jason is on today. Jason, welcome to the program. How are you, sir?

JASON RILEY: I'm good. Thanks for having me.

GLENN: So, Jason, first of all, you know, I'd like to tie this into the umbrella of what is happening in our communities and what I think is coming our way, unfortunately. But I don't want to just concentrate on that.

I want to find, what is the -- what is the squeeze or the pressure point on people, you know, in the white community and in the -- in the black community, that is allowing us to feel comfortable to play the game of whataboutism. Yeah, yeah. That's wrong. But what about when they?

We're losing sight of everything. What is the pressure point in the black community that is giving people the feeling that it's okay to excuse people who are calling for, you know, hate and destruction and, you know, death to cops, et cetera, et cetera. Do you have any idea?

JASON RILEY: Well, I don't know that it's really anything new. I think that in recent years, there's been more polarization. We can all look at -- also, the polling at the end of the Obama administration. The race relations were at their lowest point since the 1992 riots in Los Angeles.

So I think it has partly to do with the social media phenomenon. You know, the anecdotal evidence of police shootings being captured on phones and passed around --

GLENN: Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

JASON RILEY: -- the internet very quickly. And then run on loops on cable news every night. You know, statistically, it doesn't hold up. The data tells us that -- that shootings -- police shootings are way down in recent decades. But you know how powerful and emotional an anecdote can be. So I think that has fueled it as well. And then I think we currently have a president who isn't that concerned with trying to bridge these divides.

GLENN: Yeah.

JASON RILEY: I think he has made some political hay out of it. He probably believes it's helped him. And perhaps it has in some ways. I don't think it's why he got elected. I think he got elected because a lot of people that voted for Obama decided to vote for Donald Trump. But maybe he thinks these groups helped him.

GLENN: Yeah. Yeah.

JASON RILEY: And he's a little hesitant to go after them too hard.

GLENN: So here's -- here's -- and I think this is really the thrust of the conversation we should have about your book. And that is, there's a lot of people -- and I think the press is partly at fault with this. And I include myself.

You know, hate, anger, outrage, it sells. It gets the clicks. And everybody is driven by clicks and views and ratings. Because that's --

JASON RILEY: Oh, it's more than that. It's more than that. It also wins you votes.

GLENN: Right.

JASON RILEY: And I think that is what Obama was doing by -- and then I think that's part of the problem. That's part of the reason that race relations worsened to the extent they did on his watch. It wasn't just the shootings caught on video. It was how he exploited them. How he played to fears of -- of blacks in particular.

GLENN: Yes.

JASON RILEY: You know, the Democrats get a lot of mileage out of keeping blacks racially paranoid and angry and upset. And Obama really played that up.

GLENN: So I watched this weekend, and, you know, there's nothing -- to me, there's nothing more offensive to the memory of real civil rights leaders than these so-called civil rights leaders today.

Where is the Martin Luther King of today, that -- on either side, anywhere, from any walk of life, that is standing up and saying, "Love. Reconciliation. This is wrong on both sides, and we've got to stop it. We've got to call evil by its name. Nazis are evil. And it's got to stop. But we have to stop feeding into the hate." Where is that person? Is there that person?

JASON RILEY: No. I don't believe there's a King figure out there. I'm someone who's argued that the civil rights movement that we associate with King has become a civil rights industry.

GLENN: Yes.

JASON RILEY: And that's what you have out there, are civil rights industrialists, so to speak. People that make a living -- you know, that deal in racial spoils, that deal in using race as an all-purpose explanation or racism as an all-purpose explanation for all that's negative in black America. And essentially blaming whites. You know, Dr. King was about colorblindness. He was about personal responsibility.

Today, you have groups like Black Lives Matter. You know, Black Lives Matter is not interested in colorblindness, obviously, right? I mean, they're interested in color consciousness, keeping race front and center. You know, King said, "Judge me by the content of my character, not the color of my skin."

These guys are saying, "Black lives matter, and don't you say otherwise."

So we've done a 180. We've done a 180 here. We have color consciousness as the modus operandi today, where it used to be about, you know, race blindness.

GLENN: Jason Riley who just released the book False Black Power, also wrote Please Stop Helping Us, on the situation in black America today and these false civil rights activists.

When you have something like Black Lives Matter, did that grow out of, you know, people supporting -- and I use that loosely because I don't know very many African-Americans or blacks that support Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton. Everybody I know thinks they're frauds. That may just be because I hang around, you know, more conservatives than anybody else.

But is it -- did that come from a place to where, "All right. I've trusted the Democratic Party. I've trusted the civil rights leaders. You know, and nobody really cares. Nobody is doing anything. Nothing in my life is changing. They whip me up for my vote or for my money, and I get nothing and they get rich and powerful?"

JASON RILEY: There's some of that going on. I think maybe a younger generation who has grown impatient with the civil rights old guard, that people like Jackson and Sharpton and the NAACP represent, I think that is partly it.

According -- I mean, the official history there is that it grew out of the Trayvon Martin shooting and then what happened in Ferguson. Something resembling Black Lives Matter was in its infancy at that point and then really took off to become what it has today.

GLENN: What are we headed towards?

JASON RILEY: I think things could get worse before they get better. And I think what you're seeing with the -- with the white nationalists and the alt-right folks is something of a backlash against the Black Lives Matter types. And we've seen this before. If you go back and look at what came after the black power movement in the 1960s, we got in the 1970s and '80s, a rise in skinheads and other white identity groups pushing back.

Two can play this game. I mean, you want to play identity politics. You can play white identity politics, you can play black identity politics. I think it leads us in a very bad way. I think it's bad for our national discourse obviously. I think it's bad for our politics.

GLENN: Jason, is there -- is there such a thing as a national discourse anymore?

JASON RILEY: That's a good question. I'd like to think -- I'd like to think there is. Or something that passes for one. But it's tough. It's tough partly because, as you know, being in the media, it's a very segmented audience there.

People tend to tune into what they want to hear. They don't spend a lot of time flipping around the channels, listening to different points of view, or reading a variety of different news outlets. You basically listen to what you want to hear, and that makes it tough to have a so-called national conversation.

GLENN: But doesn't that also make it impossible to survive?

JASON RILEY: I hope not. I'm an optimist. I hope not.

But I do hope that things could get worse before they get better, unfortunately.

GLENN: Do you see a growing segment anywhere? Because I do. But maybe it's just my anecdotal, you know, experiences.

Do you see a growing want of people wanting to spit themselves out of the system and are concerned about their own side? They're just not yet really willing to stand up and say it out loud. But privately, they're like, you know, "My side is starting to scare the hell out of me too."

JASON RILEY: Perhaps. On the one hand, you see a lot of the sort of hyper politicized environment. And you go, "Are people getting sick of this stuff, being in their living rooms every night? At the same time, the ratings are off the charts. People have never been more engaged than they are today." So I wonder if we've reached a tipping point yet. I do. I'm not sure we have.

GLENN: Do you believe that the -- the perception in the black community, is it -- is it an easy thing to say, or do people actually believe that their station in life is really kept in place because of racism?

JASON RILEY: I -- I don't think your average black person believes that. I believe that your typical black leader, be it a political leader or someone at an activist organization pushes that narrative. But, no, I don't think everyday blacks think that, believe that, and haven't for a long time. People speaking in their name, however, continue to push that. I talk about that a little bit in the book. Where I talk about what blacks say among themselves when whites aren't around. Versus what black leaders say in front of the cameras and to reporters.

GLENN: I will tell you that I just executive produced a program with a bunch of black people, and they came and they did a show. And I watched it. And I'm like, "Okay. Why would anyone want to watch it? I mean, it's the same stuff I see everywhere else." And I said, "I know you guys. That's not how you talk. How you dress. I don't care." We had a conversation. I said, "Don't do a show for me. Do a show for you. Do a show for who you hang out with." The show came back wildly different and unbelievable. And I felt like I was not uncomfortable at all. Where sometimes you feel like, "Oh, this is a show that's not meant for me. And I'm not comfortable." I heard discussions in a black community that I've never heard before. And not in a -- not in a pandering way of any way -- it was like I was just a fly on the wall.

And it's amazing how much we have in common, when we just are not -- we don't have a filter between us. Does that make sense?

JASON RILEY: It does. It makes a lot of sense. But as I said, the civil rights movement is now an industry -- it's a very lucrative industry. Dealing in racial spoils is a very lucrative way to go.

And that is why playing the victim card continues to be popular, on the left, on the black left in particular. And this narrative continues to be pushed.

My argument is, that is not doing, you know, everyday blacks any favors.

GLENN: No.

JASON RILEY: It's -- you know, to send young people out there to school with a chip on their shoulder, that the world is out to get them, the cops are out to shoot them down, and that all of their problems are a result of white America, you're just not doing these young people any favors at all when you send them out there with that mentality. With that victim mindset.

But pushing that narrative, again, in the media, you're not going to go poor, you're not going to go hungry. There seems to be a great appetite for that.

GLENN: From the Wall Street Journal, Jason Riley, author of the book False Black Power. Thank you for being on, and God bless. We'll talk to you again. Thanks, Jason.

JASON RILEY: Thank you.

RADIO

Glenn GOES OFF on Senators Trying to Block Trump’s Cabinet Nominees

What's actually going on in Washington, DC? President Trump's cabinet nominees like Tulsi Gabbard, Kash Patel, and RFK Jr. faced hostile confirmation hearings as both Republican and Democratic senators grilled them on insane things. But why would Bernie Sanders, for instance, oppose RFK Jr., a fellow critic of Big Pharma? And why would someone like Doug Burgum get an easy pass to lead the Department of the Interior when climate change is allegedly the biggest crisis we face? It's because these senators don't actually care about "truth," Glenn argues. They care more about preserving themselves and stopping any nominee who will expose their corruption. But the American people have had enough. The truth WILL be revealed. And that's why Trump needs his cabinet ...

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: All righty. I have a few things to say.

Let's start with, who is having a hard time getting confirmed?

Okay. Let's just go through the names here in a second.

What's really being discussed here.

Who is under the gun?

Let's start with Pete Hegseth. What is he going to do?

He's going into the Department of Defense. He's looking for those weasels, that have been changing everything in our Defense Department.

Has been culling anybody who disagreed with Joe Biden.

Anybody who thought Donald Trump might be right.

They got rid of all of those people.

Then they committed another atrocity, I believe, for our military.

Demanded that you get the COVID shot, or you were out! It was crimes, incompetence, maybe crimes of incompetence, in Afghanistan, at least. They were trying to control the message. Control the military through DEI.

So Pete Hegseth is a target. Why? Because he's going to find out what's going on. He's going to run investigations. And he's going to stop it.

Okay! Next. FBI DOJ.

So why -- what is he going to do? What is Kash Patel going to do when he gets into the FBI?

Well, he's going to investigate crimes, the weaponization of the FBI. Also, the way that they protected those in Congress, or those in power.

I.e., the Hunter Biden laptop. I.e., the FISA courts.

So he's looking for bad guys, while also trying to clean it up. Because you can't clean it up, if you don't know who the bad guys are.

Then you have the Director of National Intelligence. And Tulsi Gabbard. She's under fire. Why?

Well, she needs to go in and expose all of the black ops, and those leaking lies to the press. And shoring up lies to the members of Congress.

And rooting out the darkness between the members of Congress, the White House, the military industrial complex, and the intelligence community.

What is RFK? Why is he being challenging?

Because he's going to expose the lies of COVID, the corruption, and corruption with pharmaceutical companies.

He's going after and breaking that all up. These are all big businesses. You know, big businesses, for congressmen and senators. And the government!

This is -- this is the center of public/private partnerships. Okay?

And they all involve people who want to go in and find out the root of what's really going wrong here! So they're all under attack.

But what did the Democrats say, is the existential threat to the republic, and all mankind?

What was it?

STU: Global warming!

GLENN: Global warming. Global warming. Guess who just -- whose nomination just flew by!

Doug Burgum.

STU: Burgumentum, yeah. It sure did fly by.

GLENN: Doug Burgum. That is weird.

STU: You would think for Department of the Interior, the concern for a bunch of people who think global warming is the big concern.

GLENN: What he's going to do is reverse a lot of the things and make coal, gas, oil exploration okay for many parts of the Interior of the United States.

He sailed through!

Now, how does he sail through, if he's just going to be -- his role will be to destroy the opposition to oil, gas, and coal?

Notice what he's not going to be doing. He's not going to be investigating the government.

So forget about what we said about the biggest threat. No, no. The biggest threat seems to be the people who are looking into corruption!

So I was a little outraged. I've been a little outraging all week.

And I want to clarify things. And make very, very clear.

We're talking about threats to our democracy.

That's what they said. And I believe that to be true! We're talking about the rule of lay. Right?

But let's -- let's actually look at what is being said in the so-called confirmation hearings.

On day one, with Bernie Sanders and RFK. America's favorite millionaire socialist was railing about onesies.

Onesies! What? That's the great moral crisis facing this country? While we teeter on the edge of war. While the economy is in free fall. While we have corruption all throughout our government? With COVID and pharmaceuticals. Onesies is the thing you're bringing up?

While the very institutions, he claims to protect, have all been turned into political weapons.
Then when RFK Jr had the audacity, the unmitigated gall to point out, that this self-styled champion of the working class was the single largest recipient of pharmaceutical money in 2020, what happened? What happened?

The old man went -- oh! I knew this was going to come up in my socialist dreams.

What did he do?

He did what they all do. He had to silence RFK.

He had to have him dismissed. He needed to discredit him.

He needed people not to hear what RFK was saying.

The same man who spent decades raging against corporate greed. Suddenly has nothing, but caveats and excuses, when the money was going his way.

Now, I don't think it was. But let's just say, that was a lie about Bernie Sanders!

Let's just say that RFK just made that up.

Okay. What had to happen?

Well, Bernie Sanders needed to be able to clarify. Right?

He needed to be able to say, that's not true. And here's why that's not true.

But he couldn't. Okay? He just had to shout it over what RFK was saying. He had to silence and talk over RFK to stop the accusation.

He needed to defend himself, and explain. That's what would happen in a fair system.

But no one on the receiving end can silence the senators. No one on the receiving end can talk over them, and say, that's a lie! And get the control of the room back, so they can set the record straight. The senators can. See, the questions are akin to, when did you stop beating your wife? And I think that was an actual question for Pete Hegseth, last week. Was it not? When did you stop beating your wife?

These hearings are not advice and consent as the Constitution requires. They are smear, destroy, and delay.

Let's move on to Kash Patel. The man accused, without any evidence, of course, of planning to weaponize the DOJ and FBI. That's laughable!

Who is accusing him of that? The very senators, who have spent the last 20-plus years. Weaponizing the entire government, against the American people.

The same people who oversaw the raids on journalists. The spying on sitting presidents. The suppression of political opponents. The imprisonment of pro-life activists, while violent rioters just walked free.

Are these the people who have the audacity, to clutch their pearls about the politicization about law enforcement?

The hypocrisy is so thick, I almost choked to death on it!

And then there's Tulsi Gabbard. God bless Tulsi Gabbard.

When she finally got a chance to speak, she laid it out, plain. Corruption in our intelligence community, is not a theory. It's a fact!

It's a matter of record. It's not even in dispute.

But did anybody talk about that?

No!

Smear, silence, destroy.

Instead, they smeared her. She's a Russian agent.

She's a traitor. She's a spy for Syria. She doesn't care about the Constitution.

These people are so desperate to maintain their stranglehold on power, they will destroy anyone who has -- who has the gall or the opportunity to expose them. They're all rallying around the idea that these people must be stopped, why?

Why did Doug fly through with the Department of Interior, if that's the biggest problem? Because that's not the biggest problem.

They know the biggest problem right now is, they're about to be exposed. So they have got to destroy and delay and stop these people.

They asked her if Edward Snowden was a traitor. They weren't interested in their answer. Because the truth is too dangerous for them. They're not interested in an actual answer on any of these questions.

Here's the truth: Is Edward Snowden a traitor?

Well, I don't know. We could talk about that back and forth.

But I know he shouldn't have ever had to blow the whistle.

Especially to the press.

But it's because of this very committee, senators, it is because of many of you, in fact, you from Colorado, that are questioning me on that!

You were in the Senate, at the time.

Why did -- why didn't -- why wasn't he comfortable coming to you, to blow the whistle.

Why is it he couldn't, become a whistle-blower?

He had to go to the outside press?

See, all of the things that they were doing, that he exposed, I don't like the fact that he exposed them.

Because it hurt the United States. But I'm glad he exposed them. Because what you were doing. What you in Oversight were allowing to happen for years, was against the Constitution.

Was against our rule of law.

So he shouldn't have had to have blown the whistle.

You, all of you, sitting right here on this panel, you're in charge of oversight. You failed!

And you dare question me. Maybe you should do your damn job. Maybe you should stop the unconstitutional surveillance programs, before they ever begin.

These are the people that oversaw the FBI lying to the American people about Hunter Biden's laptop. The laptop that proved the sitting president of the United States and his family took tens of millions of dollars from foreign adversaries, including China!

The same China that is threatening the United States, threatening Taiwan, the same China that these very senators allowed to buy up American farmland and land around our own military bases.

The same China that floods our streets with fentanyl, while their partners in Mexico, butcher Americans, at the same border. While these same senators do nothing, while millions of unknown, undocumented people flood over our borders. And have empowered the cartels.

Don't you dare ask me who the traitor is, Senator!

Don't do it.

Where are you on any of these?

Let me ask you, Senator. Let me all of you.

Who is the traitor here?

Is Edward Snowden the traitor that just has to be executed?

Because treason comes with execution. So is he the traitor here?

Is he the biggest traitor? That happened 15 years ago. Your technology on spying, and corruption, is far beyond anything he ever said!

Is he the traitor? Or is Senator, let me ask you, the president.

President Joe Biden, is he the traitor for taking millions of dollars from our enemy!

Is his family? Did they commit treason? Or is it the people under your oversight, who knowingly spread false information, to protect that family?

Or is it you, Senator? Are you complicit? Are you corrupt, or are you just simply incompetent!

Because it's one of the three. Incompetence. Corruption. Or outright treason. Which is it, Senator. That's what I would like to hear.

Pick one! Because the country is waking up. And the American people are demanding an answer.

And we will get it in the end.

You cannot build this house of lies.

It's already crumbling around. Now would be the time to tell the truth, senator.

Because we're looking for a lot of answers here.

Who was actually executing the duties of the president of the United States, in the last six months?

Maybe the last four years.

I don't know how long. When did you know, Senator? Did you know who was protecting? Who was silencing anyone that was trying to say, maybe we have a problem here? The president is clueless.

By the way, while we're on this topic. Who was responsible for the coup?

To overthrow a president of the United States!

Because that's what it was.

How did that happen?

Who was actually there? Who made that happen? And then selected Harris to be the democratic candidate. Who did that? How did that happen? I'm so interested to know, because none of it is constitutional. And why did, whomever actually came up with the huge list of names for presidential pardons. Include so many of you!

Senators.

So many congressmen, so many people who dared to point the finger my way. Who was in charge of that list. And why are you on those lists?

Is this the reason you're afraid of people that are simply looking for the truth?

Because I want to be crystal clear on what this really is.

I'll continue in 60 seconds.

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Ten-second station ID.
(music)

GLENN: I want to be clear at this point in my rant, of what this is really about. What's really happening in Washington, DC, right now.

This is the Deep State, and all of the corrupt senators, right now, fighting for their survival.

That's all this is.

It is the act of desperate people doing all they can, to stay out of jail. Literally, stay out of jail. You start exposing the corruption in the military-industrial complex.

It goes right to the senators. You start exposing the corruption, and the black ops that are happening in Intel community, it goes right to the senators.

You start exposing what happened next at the DOJ and FBI. It goes right to the senators.

They're all Oversight. Many of them benefited from these things, politically. And in power. They're trying to stay out of jail. This is the ruling class. Democrats and Republicans panicking for the first time in decades, their grip on power is slipping.

Because this president is appointing people in all positions, that are going to go grab it by its roots, and root it out! And show it to the American people. At best, it's -- it's those who have been in bed with the intelligence and military complex.

Who believe at best, that war and American intervention works. Doing all that they can, to keep their secrets and their secret policies, that keep us in these wars, alive.

The problem is: None of their old tricks work. We've had these tricks for over 100 years.

Conspiracy theory. That's a Karl Marx thing. That was used by Woodrow Wilson.

That was used again, by the Soviet Union. And the plants here in the United States.

Call them conspiracy theorists. Discredit them.

Destroy them. You've called us so many names now. We don't believe any of them.

Words don't have any meaning anymore. Your tricks don't work. The smears. The leaks. The media hit jobs.

The fake outrage.

You've played that role too many times. It's a -- no.

It's a Mexican soap opera. A Spanish soap opera. They're so over the top, they're hysterical.

You've played that role too many times.

We know. We know the system is corrupt. We know the game is rigged. And we know there is no moral high ground left for you to stand on.

WEF'S Terrifying Plan to Revive the Great Reset EXPOSED | Ep 409

“By 2030, you will not recognize life on this planet,” Glenn Beck foretells in this episode of Glenn TV. We are at the precipice of a new form of intelligence — but not in human form. There’s a global arms race to find out who will be the first to create artificial general intelligence and then superintelligence. It’s no longer a matter of if it will happen but when and who will pull it off first. The wolves are at the gates. China just unveiled DeepSeek, an AI chatbot that claims it’s on the same level as ChatGPT. Glenn downloaded the Chinese app so you don’t have to, but what he found was dystopian. The other wolf at the gate is the World Economic Forum, which just held its annual gathering in Davos. While this audience helped crush Klaus Schwab’s dreams of a Great Reset and a weaponized ESG system, the WEF elites have a new sinister agenda called the “Collaboration for the Intelligent Age.” Glenn reveals what’s in their plans in their own words. But can the U.S. afford to stay out of the intelligence race while globalist elites plot ahead? Trump put our enemies on notice when he announced the Stargate Project, which got a $500 billion investment in AI infrastructure from Oracle, SoftBank, and OpenAI. This could be the Manhattan Project of our generation, but can we trust the tech titans suddenly flocking to Trump? Big Tech veteran and Brownstone Research CEO Jeff Brown tells Glenn, “No ... they are still actively censoring political content.”

BlazeTV subscribers get exclusive access to Jeff Brown’s entire interview available now at https://get.blazetv.com/glenn/.

RADIO

Why the Reagan National Airport Crash Isn’t Surprising

A mid-air collision has occurred between a passenger jet and a Black Hawk helicopter at Washington DC’s Reagan National Airport. While the facts are still coming in and it’s unclear whether the pilots, the FAA, or something else was at fault, it appears that there were no survivors. But while the event was tragic, it wasn’t fully surprising. Glenn and Stu review how there has been an increase in near-misses at airports over the past few years, as Stu revealed in his Blaze Originals documentary, “Countdown to the Next Aviation Disaster.” But it’s not just the FAA that has had issues. Glenn discusses how the entire government was focusing on the wrong things under Biden and how Trump and his cabinet nominees, like Tulsi Gabbard, can fix things.

Watch “Countdown to the Next Aviation Disaster" HERE: Countdown to the Next Aviation Disaster...

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: First, let's start with the plane crash in Washington, DC. First thing that has to be said. Is pray for the families and the rescue workers. It is horrible. An experienced pilot of a passenger jet collided with what a -- what they're saying, is a fairly experienced crew of a Black Hawk helicopter. There appear to be no survivors. Sixty-seven people believed to be dead. They are still diving in the icy, icy waters of the Potomac.

The Reagan National Airport in Washington, DC, is a very dangerous airport. So pray for everybody involved.

Now it's too early to assign any blame, but the usual is happening in the world much politics. Donald Trump is responsible. Blah, blah, blah.

But we do know that there is a problem. A real problem with our air traffic control system. Nobody has talked about it. Nobody in the press wants to talk about it. But there have been several near-misses and something is happening. Now, in the end, it may not be this.

But I want to bring this up. Because Stu did a whole Blaze original documentary on the dangerous conditions that are currently par for the course in our control towers.

STU: Yeah. It was called Countdown to the Next Aviation Disaster, which turned out to be 70 days from when we released it. You know, we talked about a lot of this. We don't know the cause obviously. There's still a lot of investigation to do.

You're talking about these air traffic controllers are overworked and understaffed.

And, you know, we -- of course, there are lots of concerns about things like DEI. No idea at this point whether that has anything to do with it.

One thing we did know and did see over and over in the documentary, how many times we had close calls over the past couple of years.

The pace has picked up like crazy.

The fact that we had gone all these years, without one of these incidents. Was a miracle.

I mean, it's bound to happen. There's still a lot of investigation to find out.

But this is America's like busiest runway.

GLENN: I know. And one of our shorter runways.

STU: Shorter runways.

GLENN: It's dangerous.

STU: We were just there. I just took off from that airport, a week or two ago. It is tight. Everything around there is really, really tight. It's amazing that that many helicopters could go up and down that river, and not have more of these incidents. It's very scary.

GLENN: Right. Here's the audio from the control tower.

VOICE: Aircraft in sight?

VOICE: (inaudible)

VOICE: Fire command, the accident happened in the river. Both the helicopter and the plane crashed in the river, the approach end of Runway 33.

VOICE: Is the airfield closed?

VOICE: Yes. The airfield is closed.

VOICE: Runways are closed?

VOICE: Yes, all runways are closed. Nobody is landing. No one is moving at all.

STU: Hmm.

GLENN: Our government is out of control, and we all know this. If you are being honest with yourself, we know this. Our government is given billions of dollars out in COVID fraud. They -- they were fraudulent with what they even said about COVID. When they gave all that money out. Nobody caught it. We're not going to get it back. Hundreds of billions of dollars at the Pentagon has just been misplaced.

They've done like 18 audits.

They have no idea where they put $600 billion.

Our Navy was told to build a dock to distribute aid to the Palestinians. After millions of dollars, it failed.

Our -- our -- our extraction from Afghanistan, everything we have touched. Not just in the last four years. But everything that had -- we have touched from the financial situation, that our government was involved in. Our health care.

Everything over the last few decades has revealed incompetence, graft, stupidity, waste, and I think intentional sabotage of our nation's will, wealth, and reputation.

But we don't have to go over that. Because that's why Donald Trump was elected.

But as I told you before, we have many dark days, ahead of us.

But then, if we allow this administration, to do what they promised, the clouds will break and be it will be a morning in America again.

And we will be able to write a new chapter. But we are in the thick of it.

Let me give you this.

You and I both know, something deeply. It deeply wrong with our intelligence agencies in this country. And every American, I don't care who you voted for. Every American should be concerned about this.

Because these agencies were supposed to be on the front line of our defense.

Keeping us safe from foreign threats, working in the shadows to protect the freedoms that we all take for granted.

That was the idea.

But I don't know when it changed. But it changed.

Somewhere along the way, the people trusted to defend our Constitution and be our rule of law. Started seeing the American people as the very people they swore to protect, as the enemy!

You've seen it. You may have even felt it personally.

The agencies that are supposed to protect us from threats abroad have turned inward. Instead of focusing on the real dangerous like China's economic warfare.

Cyber threats.

Terrorist networks.

They've been caught spying on American citizens. Censoring their dissent. Manipulating public perception.

The intelligence community, whether intentionally or through sheer institutional rot, has become a political weapon.

And you cannot deny it. This is not just some theory. You don't have to go digging into the shadows to find proof.

You don't have to listen to any conspiracy theories. It's right there in plain sight!

We watched intelligence officials interfere with the election. They buried stories that were inconvenient for the powerful. They targeted sitting presidents. They excused other sitting presidents. And if you spoke out against it, those people became a target. The best example is, well, Donald Trump.

But the next one is Tulsi Gabbard. She was a Democrat. You probably remember the moment she went from being a rising star in Washington, to a threat that had to be destroyed.

It wasn't when she served as a Democrat in Congress.

It wasn't when she was deployed to Iraq. And served honorably.

It was when she started asking questions and refused to fall in line. When she called out the war machine, they smeared her.

She became a traitor when she started to question the political machine. And when she challenged the intelligence community's narratives. She was labeled a Russian asset, almost immediately.

When she stood up to the establishment, she was quietly and without cause placed on a government terror watchlist.

Now, think about that for a second. Somebody, who is a lieutenant colonel, I believe, served honorably. I believe still serves. Ran for president of the United States, as a Democrat!

A sitting member of Congress. A woman who swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution. Labeled as a potential terrorist. By the institutions that are supposed to defend American democracy.

That's out of control.

You know it, and I know it.

But she, despite everything they threw at her, did not back down. She fought back. She stood.

She refused to stop asking questions.

That is exactly why she needs to be confirmed as the Director of National Intelligence.

She is a proven warrior. That has shown she is not afraid to take a bullet in the field. Practice ever or a metaphorical, or physical bullet here in the country, to defend our way of life.

To ask the questions that must be asked. The person leading the intelligence community right now, should not be and cannot be another Washington insider.

It cannot be somebody who spent their year from moving from one agency to another.

It cannot be somebody who has just made all the right connections.

Learned to play the game. It must be someone who has seen the system from both the inside and the outside.

And truly understands, in her case, firsthand, how broken it is.

Because she was targeted by it.

Believe me, there is a difference between the Donald Trump of 2016, and the Trump of 2024.

What is it?

He saw the machine from the inside and the outside. And it tried to destroy him.

So he knows how dangerous it is. Much of this, in our country, is coming from black ops.

Money that just is never accounted for. Our intelligence agency turning all of the weapons, in coordination with five eyes, on you.

You know, when I talked to Donald Trump, I feel the same way I feel about Tulsi Gabbard.

When Donald Trump was on the stage in Pennsylvania, bleeding, he told me, his only thought was, this is pathetic. Get up!

Don't show them weakness. Get up!

And he got up and said, fight!

I feel the same way about Tulsi Gabbard. She has been under the gun. And she has had the courage to stand up, and face it! And continue to say it to their face. You want somebody that has the courage to make sure that what happened to them, never happens to you?

Tulsi Gabbard is that person. She knows what needs to be fixed. She knows these agencies have been abused.

And unlike the career bureaucrats, who see reform as nothing, but a talking points, she actually has the will to do something about it.

Now, think about what that means to you. A Director of National Intelligence, that isn't owned by a party.

Left or right!

Who isn't loyal to an administration.

Biden or Trump!

But is loyal to the truth.

Who has a record of saying, you know what, I was wrong about that.

Who isn't interested in maintaining the status quo.

But in restoring intelligence agencies to what they were meant to be. And if not, shut them down!

They are supposed to be defenders of the American people and our Constitution, not enforcers of an agenda! This is not about left or right. It is about whether you believe the intelligence agencies should be used to protect the country, or control the country.

Whether you think these agencies should work for you, or whether they should -- should have to live in fear, that one day, they might, might decide that you're a problem.

I know, because I've talked to senators. And I've talked to congressmen, who have told me, in the dead of night. With no cell phones around. And outdoors. They are afraid of the intelligence agencies, because they're being watched and monitored.

And they feel under threat. Now, the Senate today, is going to try to make this all about politics. They'll ask all the stupid questions like yesterday.

Are you for onesies or not? They'll pretend they're vetting her like any other nominee. But what they're really deciding is whether they want somebody in that position who will challenge the system, or just let sleeping dogs lie.

Do you want somebody who does that? Or who will shine the light where the light isn't supposed to be shined?

You want somebody who can be bullied? Can be compromised?

Or do you want someone who cannot be bullied, bought, or blackmailed into compliance.

If that's what you want, the latter. If you believe intelligence should serve truth, not power, let your senators know Tulsi Gabbard is the only choice.

RADIO

Why Tulsi Gabbard Faces a TOUGH Battle to Get Confirmed as DNI

Tulsi Gabbard faced tons of hostility in her congressional hearing as President Trump’s DNI nominee. Glenn speaks with The Federalist National Correspondent Tristan Justice, who argues that the Deep State will go after her, even if she’s confirmed. “She can’t afford to lose a single vote on the committee,” he says, and there are quite a few Republican senators on this committee who are questionable. Tristan also touches on Kash Patel's nomination hearing and RFK Jr.’s hearing, in which nearly every Democrat was hostile towards him.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: One of my favorite guests is Tristan Justice. The Federalist national correspondent. Coauthor of Fat and Unhappy.

Welcome, Tristan. How are you?

TRISTAN: Good. How are you?

GLENN: So I read your story in the Federalist, and I think it tells everything people need to know about what Tulsi Gabbard is facing. Can you -- can you relay it, your main points here for the audience?

TRISTAN: Yeah. Of course, the New York Times came out with a story that Tulsi Gabbard came under scrutiny from the Deep State for her overseas travel.

That includes intelligence that she apparently met with this leader of Hezbollah. And that is based on two anonymous terrorist sources.

And so this is really just kind of the same playbook, that they always use, whenever there's been a disruptor, threatening to change the status quo. The Deep State can and will make up, and do anything it really wants, to topple that political opponent.

The same thing they do with Donald Trump.

And now it's the same thing they do with Tulsi Gabbard, as she threatens to take over the director of National Intelligence.

GLENN: I think she has the most dangerous job. I mean, the president obviously.

But when you get into the Deep State and Intelligence, you've got spooks everywhere.

And, you know, I -- I wouldn't be -- I wouldn't be sleeping well at night.

Knowing that I was going in to take down black ops.

Take down things that nobody wants to have the light of day come on.

Even people in your own party. Would you agree with that assessment?

TRISTAN: Yeah, I mean, I think out of any of Trump's nominees, I think the one who probably has -- is probably Tulsi Gabbard.

GLENN: Yeah. Yeah.

TRISTAN: But it's not too hard to imagine, because what she is up against.

She is running as the disruptor of the status quo that has been in Washington for decades at this point. You saw how hard the Deep State went after Donald Trump for eight years. You know, it didn't stop once the Russiagate hoax fell apart in 2018, after the Mueller Report.

So you saw host after host after host, culminating in 91 state and federal charges trying to bankrupt their political opponent.

And so I think whenever these cabinet nominees, whenever these politicians raise their hands and threaten to disrupt, that regime in Washington, you know, the nail that sticks up, gets knocked down.

That's exactly what's happening, against the Deep State.

GLENN: Right.

I mean, the church commission happened in the '70s. And it exposed all kinds of things that America didn't understand.

What her job is, as I understand it, you know, the DNI was created after 9/11.

So it is responsible for all of the agencies talking to each other. So she has access to all of the agencies.

And Trump has said to her, I want you to go in and find all the bodies that have been buried. I want to find out exactly what's going on. What's corrupt. What's not. And we will shut it down.

This is -- if people think, well, what about the CIA?

She's going to be the one leading -- how many is it?

How many agencies are there? Like 118?

No. Eighteen. Good, not 118. Eighteen intelligence agencies and bureaus.

That's a lot.

TRISTAN: Can you imagine if there would be 118 agencies and bureaus?

So we just created this massive government, Washington has just been out of control.

And when we think, that, oh, Americans might be safer with someone like Tulsi Gabbard, taking the role of DNI. And making the DNI. And the intelligence community do what it's supposed to do.

And that is protect our national security to the highest standards, while protecting our civil liberties of Americans.

And so, but, you know, Tulsi is about to go into this hearing. It probably will be a hostile hearing.

There should be no surprise on fireworks, that I think people are about to see. Hear in a couple of moments.

But I would just say this about Tulsi. She should not be going into this hearing, guns blazing as the destructor and reformer that she has campaigned on.

Because she has to convince them, that is reluctant to reform that status quo, that her top interest in running the nation's intelligence agencies is protecting our national security while safeguarding American civil liberties.

If she goes in there, guns blazing as the disruptor, and she will not score points to the very senators she has to convince with their vote.

Especially for the secret vote like this one.

GLENN: So Tristan, tell me about the Republicans that are on this committee.

How many of them do you think are interested in reform?

TRISTAN: Well, she can't afford to lose a single vote on the committee. Or else, she won't pass the committee.

But it's not unprecedented for a nominee to be voted on for the full Senate vote. While not passing the committee.

One lawmaker that people are watching here, is Senator (inaudible) called -- she had just voted against Trump's pick for the Department of Defense, Pete Hegseth last week.

She's not -- she never was intimidated to reject nominees from President Trump. There's also a number of other senators on the committee, who are questionable. Senator Todd Young, who did not support Trump.

People are saying, he -- so I think Collins and Young are the two primary senators to watch this process, continues to unfold.

GLENN: Are we going to find out. It's my understanding.

DNI. The committee vote is always a secret vote.

You will know the number. And you won't know who voted what.

But I think is an abomination. Are we going to have that vote out in the open?

Are we going to know?

TRISTAN: Well, I certainly hope it will be public and transparent. I think Americans deserve that, especially after elections where President Trump was given such a mandate.

Right?

I think his nominees should enjoy that same mandate, unless something is abjectly disqualifying, that were issued to keep them from a power position. Democrats have often picked their battles. Some of their other nominees made it through, no problem.

Sean Duffy, transportation. Doug Burgum can confirm. And these other nominees have gone through with very little drama.

Obviously, honed in on unsurprisingly the two nominees who were former Democrats, prior to this last election. Robert F Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard. It seems one of their biggest defenses to Democrats, is meeting the party in the first place.

So I'm a little surprised, Democrats honed in on details in particular.

GLENN: Right. Right.

So let's talk about the other nominations.
How do you think RFK did yesterday?

TRISTAN: Well, Robert F. Kennedy as big Pharma and the chief antagonist is no surprise.

He went into another hostile hearing yesterday.

GLENN: Oh, my gosh. It was insane. It was insane.

TRISTAN: But I do think there was some surprise as to how hostile Democrats were in that hearing yesterday. The hostility was near unanimous among every Democrat on that panel. And I think there was some -- at least some hope from the Trump transition team and the Kennedy's team, that they might pull a Democrat or two. But I think those hopes probably faded. And right from the getgo, when the first thing Ron Wyden did once they opened the questioning period was, enter into the Congressional Record, a letter sent from Kennedy's cousin, Carolyn Kennedy, the former ambassador to Australia with still personal hysterical attacks that Robert F. Kennedy that he has predators as pets, and putting chickens in the blender.

I mean, the fact that the Democrat-ranking member on the Senate finance committee would enter a letter full of personal attacks from a family member, said all you needed to know about how the rest of those three and a half members went for the Democrats and Kennedy.

GLENN: Is he going to make it, do you think?

TRISTAN: I think Kennedy is up in the air. I think Republicans largely showed, that they're not too willing to resist Trump's wish for this pick for Health and Human Services. I think if Republicans are going to reject Trump's pick on any of these nominees, it will probably be Tulsi Gabbard after they pose -- oppose Pete Hegseth for McConnell.

But I -- I'm not sure Kennedy is a sure thing. And I don't think Kennedy thinks he's sure in a confirmation bill either.

So I think a lot hinges on this next hearing here in a couple of moments.

GLENN: So tell me about Kash Patel.

TRISTAN: Hmm. Well, Kash Patel is running against the same apparatus of Tulsi Gabbard, of course. He hasn't faced the same level of attacks with anonymous sources, leaking to the New York Times. These terrorists are claiming, that he met with -- overseas.

GLENN: Right. Right. No pictures of him with Hitler. Yet!

So it's good.

TRISTAN: But Kash Patel, he's been a conservative media personnel for the past four years.

He's blown the whistle on some of the lies of the January 6 committee, claiming that he was formerly the chief of staff, the Department of Defense at the end of Trump's first term, and he blew the whistle on, no.

Trump did actually demand 10,000 national guard troops to the Democrats, both to the Democrats, both within the Department of Defense and running Washington, DC.

And running House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's death, reduce the president's request at every opportunity they had. And so Kash Patel, Democrats, and probably some of the Republicans, with someone more in the role of Christopher Wray.

Who was perfectly weathering to weaponize the agency, to -- to prosecute political dissidents.

And I think it's -- it's -- but Kash Patel, what Tulsi has to do today.

And that is, convince what the senator, what his top priority is.

Returning the FBI to its intended purpose. Which is to keep Americans safe, while protecting civil liberties.

GLENN: Tristan, thank you.

I'm a big fan of your writing.

And thank you for being on the program. I appreciate it.

TRISTAN: Thank you for having me.

GLENN: The Federalist National Correspondent Tristan Justice.

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