RADIOMarch 15, 2022

Dave Ramsey: Don’t let FEAR derail your financial plans

Dave Ramsey, financial expert and host of ‘The Ramsey Show,’ joins Glenn to discuss how fear of our unknown future may be affecting how some Americans invest or plan their finances today. It’s always best to assess risk in the marketplace, Ramsey explains, but ‘when the fear kicks in it coats your brain and lowers your critical thinking skills.’ Plus, Ramsey describes the three components of inflation we’re experiencing today, and he predicts how much further inflation may go…

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: So if it isn't Dave Ramsey. Hi, Dave, how are you?

DAVE: Great, my friend. How are you is this?

GLENN: I'm very good. But I do want to thank you for the pleasure of having my wife come home, who listens to you every day, and say, honey, see, I told you, you were crazy.

Dave Ramsey said you were crazy. Thank you for that, Dave.
(laughter)

DAVE: Any time, my friend. I am just here to help. I'm a big Glenn Beck supporter.

GLENN: Yeah, no. No. We don't even have to go down this road. We are good friends. We have been for a long time. I have a lot of respect for you, and I know it goes the other way. Here's what I do want to do. You were talking about the Great Reset.

You're in a different business, really, than I am.

You give financial advice. I don't. I always say, this is what I'm doing. But don't listen to me. Because I have no idea, what I'm talking about.

I wanted to get from you, what you think The Great Reset is.

DAVE: Well, the irony of this is, is that both our books came out the same day. January the 11th.

GLENN: Yeah. That's right.

DAVE: And both of them were on the best-seller list, at the same time.

Baby steps, millionaires. That actually started this conversation this morning too. Because what happened, a guy followed our baby steps, and became a millionaire.

Completely out of debt.

Has a net worth of $100 million. Calls in. And says, hey. I'm thinking about not investing anymore, because of the Glenn Beck reset. That's what started --

GLENN: Hold on. Hold on. Just a second. First of all, it's The Great Reset. Not the Glenn Beck reset. And I have never said that. I still -- I said, if you are concerned about it, spread your money out as wide as you can, because I don't know what will hold.

But I still have my house. I still have money in the stock market. I'm very careful on who I invest with. I don't want to invest with BlackRock. Although, if you want to make money, that's what you should do.

If you want to make money.

DAVE: Well, if you have no principles.

GLENN: Yeah.

DAVE: So, you know, no. I'm not an expert on the great reset.

You are. You wrote the book on it. And diversification, what you're talking about there. Spreading your money out.

The Bible says, spread your portions to seven, yes, to eight. For disaster, make them upon -- diversification is the oldest financial rule ever. Never put all your eggs in one basket. Some dude has the basket, and he's been smoking pot. Do not put all your eggs in one basket. Correct?

GLENN: Correct.

DAVE: So that's what we're talking about. And, certainly, we would espouse that as well. What I was trying to do was keeping the guy from freaking out. Becoming scared that the world was coming to an end, and trashing all his investments, that caused him to become a millionaire in the first place.

GLENN: Yeah. So, Dave, this is one of the reasons why I'm thrilled to have you on. Because honestly, you know, I don't know if you know what stakeholder capitalism is. But that's the driving force, or the theory behind The Great Reset.

And you've got the Treasury. You have Yellen saying, this is what we're doing. We're going to have stakeholder capitalism. That's 21st century fascism.

And if you don't mind, not telling your school board, I think you're wrong.

Then you're not going to have a problem with ESG scores.

But you have to play ball, exactly the way, they are telling you. Down the road. With digital money, which is something that the executive order came out last week on.

And so I don't know what it's going to look like on the other side of this.

I have no idea. What's going on. I do know, just with inflation, we have got to batten down the hatches. So what should people do, to batten down the hatches?

DAVE: Well, when we go back in history, the thing we always want to avoid. We always want to be safe. We always want to assess risk in the marketplace. What you want to talk about. We always want to be wise then. The storms are coming. We perceive a storm. Here's where people get crazy. When the fear kicks in, it coats your brain and lowers your critical thinking skills, and they go nuts.

And so I'll give you an old example, I was thinking of this morning, knowing I was going to be on here.

In 1982 Peter Crase (phonetic) was put on the Grace Commission by Ronald Reagan, to study government overspending.

And the deficit, and the damage of the deficits. His cochair on that was a guy named Harry Figgie.

Both of them were billionaires at the time. And Figgie wrote a book later that year, called Bankruptcy 1995, predicting the end of the American economy as we know it because of the deficit increase. Apparently, he was wrong.

Larry Burkett wrote a book called The Coming Economic Earthquake that was predicted in 1992, the world was going to come to an end, and the economic crisis was going to cause America to end as we know it. And, apparently, was wrong.

My good friend, Robert Kiyosaki who wrote a wonderful book called Rich Dad Poor Dad, wrote a book called Rich Dad's Prophecy, where he predicted the end of the stock market as we know it in 2016. Apparently, he was wrong.

So I don't want people to not invest because of fear, by going -- swinging the pendulum too far to the other side. But it is wisdom, there in the middle, to say, hey. I don't like what's going on. I smell fascism. I smell Fauci running the economy. You know, I'm a Libertarian. Leave me free.

Because a free man will drive an economy. But when you start tinkering around in the background, in the back rooms with these things, is there something to be concerned about?

Sure. So you have to be wise about it. But don't oversteer the car, and flip it.

GLENN: Absolutely.

But let me ask you a couple of things.

First of all, I was called a fearmonger in 2006 and '7, when I said, this housing stuff, with the banks, it doesn't work.

There's going to be a collapse. Everybody called me crazy.

As he know, what happened was the crash of 2008. Now, it wasn't as bad as I thought. And that is only because of TARP.

Which was something that is absolutely unconstitutional. And unthinkable, before that crash.

DAVE: No question. No question.

GLENN: Now, I haven't read Kiyosaki's book, but I know him and I respect him.

DAVE: He's the guy.

GLENN: But there's a difference between the end of America and the end of, as he said, the stock market, as we know it.

Because I look at the stock market today, and it makes no sense. We're closing down all of -- you know, all businesses in America, and the rest of the world?

And the stock market continues to go up?

That's not the stock market that I know.

DAVE: Well, the stock market on the short-term is driven by profits. And profits are very, very real right now. In spite of all the economic crap out there. The profits are very real.

But to predict the end of the stock market. Is to predict every household name, that we know of, evaporating.

GLENN: Right. Right.

DAVE: Home Depot. Microsoft. Apple. McDonald's. Coca-cola are all zero. That's the end of the stock market. That's the end of America.

GLENN: Yes, it is.

But what I'm asking you is, the end of the stock market as we know it. I don't know what he wrote. And maybe he wrote, it will be at zero. I don't believe that.

I believe there are companies that will -- just like in the Great Depression. Companies that will fall away. Companies that are tried and true. And rock solid. And they will continue.

DAVE: Yeah. Well, any time stupid is stress tested. We get to see it's stupid. So that's what happens.

I think in '08, maybe you and I were arguing about gold if you remember. Or I was arguing with somebody about it, because everybody was buying gold in that crash. And I just pulled this up a minute ago.

I told people, don't buy gold. I've always told them not to buy gold.

So in the last 10 years, gold had a 3.71 percent rate of return, and the stock market has had a 12.2 percent rate of return.

GLENN: So I don't --

DAVE: Don't buy gold.

GLENN: Well, I disagree with you. The 3.5. When I started talking about it, it's up 10X. However, I don't buy it as my get rich thing. And I say this all the time. I don't buy it for investment. I buy it for insurance against insanity. It's the same reason why China just purchased 220,000 tons of gold. In the end, when the madness of printing becomes clear, the world generally resets, to some sort of a commodity, usually gold.

That's what they're doing now, in China.

DAVE: It completely melts down, it resets to a barter economy. Then a currency will erupt. And you will see that, on a completely collapsed economy. Venezuela or Nazi Germany, when hyperinflation. And it was a wheelbarrow load of money to buy a loaf of bread. So you have hyperinflation kick in. What happens is, currency is based on trust. So it's actually a spiritual animal, in that sense.

And so when you quit trusting that a piece of green paper, with the president's face on it, will buy something. Then you have to trust that something else will work.

And if you trust gold will work, that's fine.

But in a completely melted down economy, people really want bullets, water, blue jeans, and gasoline.

GLENN: So what do you say about the reset of a currency? Which Russia and China are doing clearly, trying to take the petrodollar apart.

So half the world would go that way if their plan would work. And a reset to a digital dollar.
DAVE: Well, it can happen. Again, the thing that has to happen for these things to occur is trust has to evaporate.

You have to no longer believe -- when a certain number of people believe that a bitcoin is worth something, that's the only thing that makes it worth something.

It has no intrinsic value. Actually, a bar of gold has no intrinsic value. Any more than a piece of paper does. It's when people are fighting over it. Arguing with it about. Negotiating for it, that gives it value. That's the trust factor.

You can move trust around in currencies. And that's why -- and I don't recommend trading currencies. I don't trade currencies. But if you will trade on the yin, you would say, all right. What is the outlook for China's economic conditioning?

GLENN: Right. So I'm not talking about trading currencies. I'm talking about the trading of currencies.

DAVE: Well, it's the same thing.

GLENN: The average person loses about 40 percent on their dollar. If you read Yellen. Yellen is talking about, this time it will be different because it will be an equitable exchange, when the new currency would be introduced.

Which scares the hell out of me.

DAVE: Sure. That's all socialism language. That's just BS. The thing that will happen --

GLENN: Wait. Wait.

When you say BS. You mean, it will not happen.

DAVE: She does not have the power she thinks she has. There's too many of us that really trust and believe in the free enterprise system. That really trust and believe in America for a couple of -- handful of socialists to actually run the dadgum thing. We're not going to tolerate it.

You think people would have stayed in their houses much longer off of Fauci? We were about done, boy? I mean, we were all about done, weren't we?

Were we about to come out of our houses with pitchforks and torches?

GLENN: I don't know. I live in Texas, so it was fine. I live in Texas, so it was fine here. But I think the rest of the country was.

DAVE: Yeah. If we go to back to work, and I was trying to kill my employees. So it was nutty. Just nutty. So the bottom line is, there are enough critical thinkers out there that are capitalist, that do believe in this.

That it's harder to take over the world than it sounds, in my opinion. I don't know. It's a fun discussion, because I love you. You have such a great brain. I love talking to you about this stuff. And, again, if we know it's a friendly territory, because we've got so much respect for each other over the years.

But so I think that I'm not going to write a book, that predicts a crash.

Because I've seen too many books written.

GLENN: Written. Sure.

DAVE: And I'm not predicting that on you, by the way. I'm just saying, I'm not going to change my investment strategy, dramatically, because I am fearful of the world as we know it, to quit operating.

GLENN: Well, I will tell you, that there's a lot of people out there, that having advice. That I think are morons.

I agree with your advice.

Because you are built around, get out of debt.

DAVE: Yeah. Sure.

GLENN: And there's nothing that you could do, that is better for preparedness, for any eventuality. Good or bad.

DAVE: And the funny thing, that works when you're prospering, and the economy is going bonkers good. And it works when there's really bad times. And these people in control are fascist and nutty.

It's hard to foreclose under my house, under current law, when I don't have a mortgage.

GLENN: Real quick.

I only have about a minute. Minute and a half. Your thoughts on inflation?

DAVE: There's two components to it right now.

The energy component is 100 percent on Biden's desk. He's completely screwed the pooch on this.

It's a supply/demand problem. He cut the faucet off, trying to be all greeny, and he drove gas prices through the roof.

He single-handedly did it. It's an administrative nightmare. There's another portion he had nothing to do with, but he's getting blamed for. And that was, we shut everything down, factories and everything for 90 days. Or 120 days. Or six months.

And we screwed up the supply. Then we screwed up the supply chain. Then there was an earthquake at sea, and when the tsunami hit, it was everybody came out and started buying stuff, and there wasn't any stuff to buy.

So the supply/demand curve drove prices through the roof. That wasn't his fault.

Then the third piece is the labor disruption.

Part of that is his fault, because he paid people to sit on their butts at home, when they should have gotten back to work.

If they had gotten back to work, we could have gotten the economy moving again in a proper way.

Instead, they're coming back. We're paying people $20 an hour at Target. Guess what, Target marks up the price of those goods on the shelf, to govern the $20 guy putting them on the shelf. So you're paying for his living wage.

GLENN: How much -- how much worse does it get?

DAVE: Yeah. I -- you know, I think it's going to smooth out pretty quick. The energy thing is the most disturbing. He could be controlled. He could fix it really quick. But he's not going to.

GLENN: Dave. I love you. Dave Ramsey. I mean, I disagree with you on almost all of this. The name of his book is Baby Steps.

DAVE: Agree with. What good say friend you agree with all the time?

GLENN: Baby Step Millionaires is the name of the book. It's a New York Times best-seller. As if that means anything anymore.

DAVE: No, it does not.

GLENN: Baby Steps Millionaires. If you've never listened to the show, you should. It's a great way to get your house in order. Dave, thank you very much. God bless.

DAVE: Love you, bro. Be good.

For a Night, We Were Human | The Christmas Truce Music Video

In the frozen trenches of World War I along the Lys River in 1914, amidst the relentless thunder of artillery, a miraculous unofficial truce unfolded on Christmas Day. British and German soldiers, weary enemies, emerged from the mud and wire to share gifts, songs, and stories of home together in the ruins. Produced by Glenn Beck in collaboration with AI, this poignant music video and original song recapture the true story of the Christmas Truce, reminding us that even in the darkest times, a single brave act or small light can awaken our shared humanity, allowing soldiers to lay down their weapons and remember they are human... just for a night.

Stay tuned at GlennBeck.com for more musical storytelling inspired by Glenn’s artifacts next year on Torch.

The HIDDEN history behind Trump’s controversial Rob Reiner comments

President Trump recently received heat from his own party over his comments about the allegedly murdered actor Rob Reiner. Glenn Beck explains why he believes Trump’s comments were not a good move, but also tells of a meeting he had with Trump that he believes explains why Trump hates TDS so much…

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: You know, I don't -- I don't -- I don't want to get into -- into the mix with everybody and personalities. I like -- my goal is to make things about right and wrong, and not about personalities.

But I do want to spend just a second on President Trump's post yesterday about Rob Reiner. It made me sad. It made me really sad. Because I like the president.

And -- and he doesn't help himself when he does things like this. But I think I understand this in a different way.

You know, the President has said, you know, all kinds of things about me at times when I disagree with him. He'll say, "Oh, he's just a failing fat blob," or whatever. And that's just him. That's just the way -- when he's in a fight, he is a -- he's a knife fighter. And I get it. I don't like it. But I get it. This was different. This was different.
And this was -- you know, you can say a lot of stuff politically about Rob Reiner. But politics didn't matter yesterday. We weren't -- I mean, that's not -- it just didn't matter. It didn't matter.

But I think to the President, it does. I saw a change in the President -- I've seen two changes in the President. I've seen a change in him when they started going after him and his family. After 2020. And they really started going after his family. And we know this because we showed you the documents. What they -- they had a plan. Take him down.

Take his family down to stop MAGA at all costs. Put them in jail. I mean, those are their words.

And it's -- it was frightening to read.

And I talked to the president, I don't know. Maybe six months after, you know, we were in 2021. Maybe six months. Eight months.

And I said, how are you holding up?

And he had talked a little about how he felt. He had really let people down because he had things going in the right direction. And now, look at it, and look how screwed up things are going to get. And how the economy is going to be damn near impossible to fix. It will take us time. But we can't fix it. Pragmatism, but they've just destroyed it. And I said, how are you personally.

How are you holding up?

And this is the first change I saw. He -- his body changed. And he said, they're going after my damn children!

And it was this Dad. All of a sudden, he wasn't the president or former president, he wasn't Donald Trump. He was a Dad. And it was every Dad response in him. And he said, "You don't go after our children."

And I saw him really, truly mad for the very first time, and it was righteous indignation.

Then after he was shot, I saw another change. I saw him recognize that God existed. I mean, I know he believed that in God. I don't know that he believed that God was actually part of, you know, the story. The everyday story. You know, I don't know how he views God in that way.

But I know that he recognized that God was in his -- in the story of America now.

Firsthand, he witnessed it. The reason why I said this made me sad yesterday, is because -- I don't agree with what he said. I feel -- it was -- it was sad.

Because he is -- he has been kicked in the head over and over and over again by some of these people, that he -- Christmas is about the baby Jesus coming again.

And what he can do in your life. And the biggest thing that he taught was, love your enemies. Don't hate them. But that's really, really hard to do. And the President isn't there yet. On this. And it -- it made me sad. How did you feel about it, Stu?

STU: I didn't like it at all. I think maybe the same as you. You know, one of the things that bothered me about it.

Because you hit many of the points that I had on it without the personal insight that is illustrative of -- of -- of what he's going through. I think there is something to understand there. You know, obviously I --

GLENN: Big time.

STU: One of the things that is difficult about life in your attempt to master it is to try to act the right way, even when you're faced with circumstances like that. And, you know, I get it. I get why he's angry and doesn't like the guy. The man -- you used a phrase, I think in there, where you said, he's a knife fighter. This guy was actually just in a legitimate knife fight and was murdered. It was a -- it was -- this actually really happened.

GLENN: Oh, yeah.

STU: And, look, my honest opinion is, it's indefensible. You know, I like President Trump. I think he does a lot of great things for the country. We've defended him on a lot of different things. A lot of times when he's being attacked, I think he deserves defense. In this case, you know, it is -- you know, it is what it is.

It is priced in to everyone's understanding of who Donald Trump is. And everything I heard about him in personal situations where he cares about the person. Is that he's very generous. He's very likable.

He's very -- he's one of those people that you like being around. You know, that is something that I've heard from tons of people. This part of him is really hard for me to square with what I've heard from -- from other -- from everybody that I've talked to, and has been on the inside with him.

And so I don't -- I don't have a defense for it. I think it's really bad. And I will say one more thing on this real quickly, Glenn.

I know a part of this that I think is difficult. In that, one of the things I took from the aftermath of that immediately was -- I don't know if pride is the right word. But like, I really liked the way conservatives responded to it.

We didn't do what they did, after Charlie Kirk.

We didn't do what they did after they shot the president. Right?

Like we -- they celebrated it. They -- they were horrible human beings, and I enjoyed the high ground, that we had there.

GLENN: Yeah. Me too.

STU: And it's difficult to make the argument that we have the high ground. When, you know, the President of the Republican Party. The Republican President of the United States, the most high profile person on, quote, unquote, our side, whatever that means these days, is a guy who, you know, kind of did some of the things that they did.

You know, so I don't -- I don't like that. I understand as part of Donald Trump. And I think if we're all adults here, we're able to kind of price that in and judge him on everything that he's doing. And when I mean pricing in. I think that's a negative part of him. Overall, you have to take everything into context.

GLENN: Right. And if we're all adults here, you know, we should be able to say, to those we love and respect, bad move. I didn't like that. Don't do that.

And I think, you know, I think because the left always says, well, you never take on your own.

Yes, we do. We take on our own, all the time. All the time. And I think it's important that we say, didn't like that. Thought that was a bad move. It didn't look good. It just wasn't right.

He's -- I wish -- and, again, though, I -- I'm not excusing it, but I am tempering it with none of us have gone through what he has gone through.

STU: So true.

GLENN: His family, somebody is shooting at him. He's being called fascist Hitler all the time. I mean, that wears on you and changes you.

And, you know, he's having a hard time forgiving that. And I kind of understand that. I wish he would take that on and take on the forgiveness, so he could be more a peacemaker in all of those things. But that is his own personal journey.

But --

STU: Yeah. And I think when we talk about like a terrible crime that's occurred.

GLENN: Sad.

STU: Like, I don't know. If there was -- think about some awful situation and at times you'll see -- he'll hear family members say the worst possible thing.

You know, if your kid is murdered. And by some -- somewhat of a particular area or group or whatever.

And they might react with just an awful thing about that group or area.

And you just. We all have a bit of understanding. Right?

A person going through a massively emotional thing.

And lashing out.

You want -- you know, the example you bring up all the time, Glenn.

Of the maybe -- the ultimate example of being able to have restraint was the Amish situation from years ago. Where, you know, you were talking about mass murder. And they were to the family's house that night, right?

And saying, we --

GLENN: Not that night. That afternoon.

I mean, within an hour. The kids were not even out of the schools yet. Their bodies were still laying in the school. And the Amish went, oh, my gosh. The killer is dead too.

He was a member of our community. His wife lives here.

What is she feeling? She's feeling completely alone. My gosh. What an example. I couldn't do that.

STU: Right. I don't even think I come close to that standard in that moment.

GLENN: No. But I would like to.

STU: That's the range. Some people act -- react really well. Some people react really poorly.

And I think we all understand the emotion and everything that takes over in a situation like that. And that has to be factored in, I think, to Trump. Of course, Rob Reiner wasn't responsible to the shooting. He was just a liberal who said bad things about Trump. And look, he's a very unique person. And a very unique situation, that I don't think anyone in the world has ever experienced.

You know, what happened with him over his life.

But may I just say, you still haven't forgiven RFK Jr for what he said about me.
(laughter)
Okay?

STU: As I said, I'm not Amish. You know, I like technology. I don't have any wagons. I didn't say I'm perfect.

GLENN: Right.

STU: No. I have -- I have -- I have absolutely forgiven RFK Jr for what he said. And if you didn't know, he accused Glenn of being a traitor. He said, he should be charged with treason. The penalty of which is death.

So, you know, I don't like that. And RFK Jr. I don't like for a lot of his policies. Some of them, by the way, I do really like. Some of them, I think are really positive. I could give you a list of some of the negative things he's done as well.

GLENN: I can too.

STU: That doesn't mean -- I certainly was find that to be an appropriate context, when the embrace of RFK Jr is occurring.

I think we need to understand what people are, and what they're doing. If he's apologetic about that, I do forgive him in that sense. Do I want him on the show and promoting all his books and his candidacy?

No. I did not -- I did not like that. But, you know, a lot of people do. I will say is, you're right, though.

We all have our hang-ups.

GLENN: I do. I certainly was.

STU: I will say this, though.

And, you know, again, all the context here. I know people are really defensive of Donald Trump, appropriately.

Because of the fact that he's targeted unfairly. I understand why people are defensive of him. I can tell you this. I really don't like RFK Jr.

He's one of my least favorite people in politics. I'm just not a fan. I could give you other names of people. Most of them revolve around Olivia Nuzzi, who whatever. I don't have feelings about her. But the story was packed with people.

GLENN: Yeah.

STU: Cuomos for sure.
GLENN: Yeah.

STU: God forbid, one of these people that I really don't like, was murdered and his family and his spouse.

I can promise you. I can promise you, I will not be tweeting anything like what Donald Trump tweeted.

That is just a -- is a -- is a situation where I understand -- I understand the context around it, that we just discussed.

I don't think there's a defense to it. I think there's something, I really hope he has an awakening to at some point.

GLENN: I think that is enough to be said on that.

Now maybe we should examine ourselves, and say, where do we have that hardness in our heart that we should learn from and remove this holiday season?

Why America's "Surveillance State" Has Proven to be a TOTAL Failure

America is facing a shocking security breakdown—from a mass shooting at one of the most heavily surveilled campuses in the United States to a deadly ISIS attack in Syria that exposes the cracks in U.S. intelligence and foreign-policy strategy. As surveillance systems fail, former extremists gain power abroad, and radical Islamist networks globalize their reach, the West is confronting a threat both inside and outside its borders. This episode uncovers the uncomfortable truth behind Brown University’s unanswered questions, Syria’s escalating instability, and why the West may be running out of time to get its own house in order.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: I wanted to bring Jason in -- I wanted to bring Jason in because the news that we talked about a minute ago in Australia, then Brown.

There's some weird stuff happening with the Brown shooting. And we -- we don't know much about that. And also, Syria. So let me start with Brown University, Jason. Why is this one weird, as our chief researcher, why is this one weird?

JASON: Well, there comes a point where, you know, as a society, we just end up getting used to the massive surveillance state we live in. And I think we're just like, okay. Fine.

We're never not going to be surveilled 24/7. Maybe there's some benefits to it.

Well, no!

It doesn't seem that way. Because the people were asking the people at Brown. Like, how is it that you have not fully identified the shooter yet? And that's a very good question. Because if you go back to around 2021, there were people writing about how Brown University was one of the most surveilled campuses of the United States.

GLENN: How is it we only have one picture of this guy from the back?

JASON: Right!

GLENN: Apparently the one thing that will help you get away with any crime is a hoodie.

JASON: Yeah. Wear something over your head and a coat.

Apparently, that foils the entire surveillance state. Also, we have nothing to worry about with surveillance. I don't know.

GLENN: Yeah. Right. Right.

JASON: And on top of that, Kash Patel, the FBI director said that they sprung into action. And they activated their cellular monitoring system to help identify the person that has now been let go. Again, that's another layer of this surveillance state that I think a lot of us have been worried about.

And that didn't do anything either. That helped give us the wrong suspect? What is all this stuff for?

It's not keeping us safe, that's for sure.

GLENN: Hmm. I don't want to jump to any conclusions on, you know, what we have, what we don't have. I'm assuming that they have more. They just haven't shown it.

I would like to -- you know, we could help. You show us some pictures.

I think it's odd.

What happened in Syria over the weekend with al-Qaeda.

JASON: Yeah. In Syria.

There's a ton of news, especially involving ISIS, who is very much active and still very much planning attacks.

GLENN: So wait. Wait. Wait. Was this ISIS, or was this al-Qaeda?

JASON: This is ISIS. That's what they're saying. They're saying it's a lone ISIS perpetrator. The location was symbolic as well. The location as in or around Palmyra. Which, I don't know if you remember, that was a scene of a gruesome ISIS video back at the height of their caliphate, where they behead a lot of people in that area.

GLENN: Right. Right. Yes. That's where they lined them up in the orange jumpsuits. Remember everybody was kneeling down in the sand. And they started beheading people. Yes, I remember.

JASON: It was one of those UNESCO sites with ruins all around. And it was very crazy. Brutal video. But another brutal attack. I believe it was three US service members that were killed in this attack. There's a lot of speculation about to go, on if this person was working. I think he was actually at a time working with the security services that are in Syria right now, under the new president. He -- he could have been, you know, a sleeper in that organization. Who knows? But for -- the one thing I do know. And I don't understand the direction we're moving in Syria. I don't understand how a former al-Qaeda guy suddenly is an all right guy because he puts a suit on. And now he's the president of Syria. And he's our ally.

I don't understand that. The Trump administration, maybe they have more information, that I don't know.

I would love to get more of an explanation on this.

As of now, I don't see this going any direction other than a whole lot worse.

You look around that entire area. You have a former al-Qaeda guy now the president of Syria.

You have the rest of Syria, an absolute Dumpster fire. You have Iraq. I hesitate to call these countries.

They're so far down the sectarian, you know, spiral that this is.

But I don't see how this is going to go anywhere, but south, from here on out.

We're in an absolute war with these radical Islamists. And it's not just in the Middle East. It's globalize the intifada has landed on shores all over the world. And while there are politicians that will not denounce that. That is exactly what's happening. Sorry!

GLENN: So I think that's where -- I think that's what -- that explains Trump's thinking. That Trump does not want these everlasting wars to go on.

He does not want to be fighting in the Middle East. He doesn't want to really be fighting anywhere. He will, if he has to. But he's focused more on the American homeland. And the American hemisphere.

And so I think he is -- I think he's letting the Middle East take care of itself.

And as long as they can all get along with each other and Israel.

And recognize that, you know, Iran and the -- the -- the al-Qaeda, the, you know, Muslim Brotherhood. Et cetera, et cetera.

Trying to coax them all into. Hey. These are kind of your enemies here.

You know, ISIS is a big enemy to us and to peace.

And I think he's hoping that they will start to take care of themselves. Whether they will or not, I don't know. You know, it's never happened were. But it's worth trying. We've been playing this other game of us getting involved in everything for 100 years. We know that doesn't work.

So I'm guessing what Trump is thinking is, we know that doesn't work. We're not going to do that. Let's try to give peace a chance, and help them stomp this out, because it will be prosperous for all of them and plant those seeds as deeply as you can to see what happens. But we're not getting involved in any of that. I have a feeling, but there will be a military response to this, I'm sure. Won't you agree?

JASON: Oh, one hundred percent, and to tack on to what you're saying, I would hope that the President would go with his gut on this.

Because the previous ways this has been handled with Islamists, especially in this area. They've screwed it up.

They don't know what they're doing. Although, they think they know what they're doing. I'll go back to history. The Iran and Iraq War. We supported both size on that. In a similar -- in a similar strategy. So we're like, okay. We don't like either one of these groups. Sectarian groups to get too large. Let's fund this country at the same time we fund this country. We'll arm them. They'll fight each other, and they'll be fine. We do that all the time.

So now, the only thing I can think of is that's what they're thinking with the Syria president, this former al-Qaeda guy. Okay. Well, fine. They'll be anti-Iran, so they can counter Iran.

It's literally the same exact strategy, that they're going for. And I get it. That means that we don't have to get involved. I guess in the initial point.

But we always end up having to get involved after the fire erupts and --

GLENN: We know -- look, I think he's trying to buy time, quite honestly. Get us out of that.

Let us recover, and hopefully not go back to it. Try to buy hopefully some real peace.

But we all know how this will end. It's never going to work in the long-term. Because we as the West have to concentrate on our own homelands. You're seeing that with what happened in Australia. We have let the barbarian into the gates. And we've got to focus on that. We've got to get this cancer, cut out of our own societies. Because it's not good.

Why Biden's Corrupt Pardons CANNOT Stand... And Why it STILL Matters!

A new wave of sweeping “pardons” has triggered one of the most urgent constitutional alarms Glenn Beck has ever raised — not because the individuals involved are controversial, but because the actions themselves may not even qualify as pardons at all. Glenn Beck breaks down how these broad, immunity-style declarations can bypass investigations, rewrite laws by fiat, and push executive power into territory the Founders explicitly warned against. With mass clemency increasingly used as a political shield and executive actions replacing the legislative process, America is drifting toward a model of governance that no longer resembles a constitutional republic. This episode exposes how the pardon power is being stretched beyond recognition, why Congress has surrendered its role as a check, and what must happen before the nation crosses a point of no return. The question now is unavoidable: Who will stop this before the Constitution becomes optional?

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

CALLER: I wanted to talk about the pardons. Hunter's pardon was legitimate. He was actually accused of a crime. I know you're plugged in with the president. I haven't heard anybody say this anywhere. I have been watching everything.

These pardons. Forget the auto-pen. The auto-pen doesn't even matter. Because these were immunity deals. These were not pardons. None of these people were under investigation. None of these people had any crimes they were accused of.

So you can't pardon somebody for something they may have or may not have done. That's an immunity deal.

Again, I've watched everything. I don't hear anybody bring that stuff -- I don't think the auto-pen matters. I just think those things are null and void from the jump.

GLENN: Who --

CALLER: Like I said.

GLENN: Who do we have besides Mike Lee? Because Mike is always hard to get a hold of at this time. He's like, I'm working on Senate stuff, Glenn.

Who do we have that is a Constitutional scholar that we can call real quick, and see if we can get an answer on that before the end of the show? At least put a call out to Mike Lee, will you?

But I would like to know that happen at that. Because the president has. And Stu and I have talked about this for a while. This has gotten out of control. These pardons are out of control. Out of control.

It's something Constitutional. It's been there since George Washington. The President has always had this right, and it's a privilege of his. But you're right.

These things where, wait. I can't investigate this? What that does is if you're as a president doing something that you shouldn't be doing, all you have to do then is say, I pardon everyone in my administration for anything that they might have done wrong.

That can't stand. You're absolutely right on that.

STU: Yeah. You have the immunity deal. Which again, I think is -- I don't see -- I don't see how a pre-pardon is even possibly covered.
Like, it's just such an insane concept.

The way that Biden. He's right that Hunter Biden actually committed a crime and pardoning him from that in theory, obviously, outside the family interest was the way that that was supposed to work.

But they also pardoned him for multiple years of question marks, whether he committed crimes or not. Right? That was all included on that.

To go a step farther on this, I am on a bit of a personal jihad against the pardon. I'm done with it. I'm done with it personally. There's reasons the Founders were very, very smart. But the Founders were smart enough to also have a process for Constitutional amendments. And I would support one, getting rid of the part in power completely. I'm done with it.

GLENN: Wait, may I just interrupt for a second. I just want to point out. We now have verification, not only is Stu a Canadian spy, but he's also a hidden Nazi. Noticed the word he used, jihad, which translates to my struggle. Hitler's book, My Struggle, Mein Kampf. I just want to point it out.

JASON: Exposed.

STU: Just to be clear, I'm not planning a genocide on the power of pardons.

But I'm against it, strongly. But the other part I would say that I think is every worse and is never discussed, are these types of pardons where they say, you know, all marijuana crimes. They're -- everyone -- there are 17,000 people.

That is just you legislating. If I wanted to New Jersey and say, hey.

I think marijuana should be legal. I could theoretically be president.

Saying, everyone convicted of a marijuana-related crime is now pardoned.

And that's just you making laws. It's you going completely around Congress. And the entire process we have there.

At the very least. It should be massively restricted from the way it's being utilized. Not only -- several presidents in a row, I would argue.

But it's -- it should just -- I think it should just go away completely. It's the most king-like power the president has. And it doesn't make any sense to me.

GLENN: Yes. Yes.

So I'm looking this up here.

Barack Obama did this.

He gave clemency for anybody who was convicted of a non-violent federal drug crime.

With no significant criminal history, while serving extraordinarily long sentences. And anybody who was a violent offender was not eligible.

And it was -- it wasn't a -- a true mass pardon. But it was pretty close to it. You know, it was -- it was mass in scale, but not blanketed.

STU: Right.

GLENN: And I think there were like 2,000 people that he parted on that.

STU: It was a law. Creating a new law.

GLENN: Yeah. You're saying, oh, by the way. That law that I personally disagree with.

We're not going to -- it's gone.

STU: The whole law doesn't count at him. We have a whole process to make laws. When someone -- when they pass a law, you can't say, eh. And shrug your shoulders. And say, I don't particularly like it.

And for some reason, that's the way the pardon power has been translated.

GLENN: The problem is the President can. The President has just always had the restraint not to do that.

STU: Right.

GLENN: Because it was bad for the country. And bad for laws.

You know, you don't just -- you don't do this. We're becoming more and more of a king. In our administration.

And it's not Donald Trump.

This has been about to go for a long time.

Barack Obama I think got really, really bad.

But this was going on before him. Obviously.

But Barack Obama kind of set something off.

And then because we couldn't get any legislation passed. We had Donald Trump try to do executive orders, to combat Barack Obama's executive orders.

Then Biden did it. And Trump. It's got to stop.

Because here's the problem. One of the things I said in our special on Wednesday.

Which was, biggest stories of the year.

And predictions for next year. I said, you will start to see rolling brownouts in places like Texas in 2026. Texans, wake up. Wake up.

But you're going to start to see rolling brownouts. But I also made another prediction. And I've just lost what I was going to say was the prediction.

Oh!

This massive swing. We're getting whiplash.

You can't -- you can't run a country like this.

You can't run a country where it's all being done by executive order.

Because look, we were all the way over to one side. When Trump was here. Then we swung way farther than that. With Biden.

Now Trump is bringing us back this way. If you don't pass laws, it's just going to swing.

And you can't -- you can't run a country like that.

This has got to stop!

We have to pass laws. Congress must do its job.