RADIOJanuary 31, 2023

Glenn tells the TRUTH about how BAD our economy REALLY is

The U.S. economy is struggling, and signs show the strength of the U.S. dollar is only getting worse. In this clip, Glenn explains why — thanks to Saudi Arabia — the petrodollar is in HUGE danger. And, if the petrodollar disintegrates, so will the U.S. economy. But you won’t hear this anywhere in the mainstream media, Glenn says. So, he gives you the FACTS about how dire our economic and monetary situations truly are: ‘No one is telling you the truth. No one will tell you how bad things are.’

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: I want to share something with you that comes from Branden Smith.

I think this is probably the most accurate on what is coming. I told you -- I've been telling you this for a long time. But I told you a couple of weeks ago, that you were going to start to see Saudi Arabia with the World Economic Forum, get off of the US dollar.

I have said, since 2008, show me a path where the dollar doesn't collapse. And I've been giving two answers every time from all the experts.

Glenn, the US dollar is the only way for think about in any country, to buy oil. It's called the petrodollar.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I get that. But what happens if the petrodollar -- it's never going to go away.

Okay. Saudi Arabia is our good friend.

They know what getting off the petrodollar would do to their very friend, and protector, of the United States.

So it's not going to happen.

Okay. Okay. Okay.

And, you know, another thing, Glenn, that you don't understand, is that there's just too much out there to lose.

And these banks, and these countries, they're not just going to let the dollar collapse.

They'll lose too much.

So stop worrying your cute little head about the dollar.

Okay. All right. Well, that's what you will hear from all of the experts.

That is either head in the sand ignorance, or a blatant lie.

The thing that has kept our dollar in place, is the petro status. It means that Saudi Arabia will only trade in -- and OPEC will only trade in US dollars. So if you have a wan or a ruble or a yak, you have to buy a dollar that you can send them to OPEC. Okay?

That's why all the countries keep the US dollar on hand. They need it to buy fuel.

Well, guess what just happened at the World Economic Forum.

Something that will never, ever happen. The Saudis have now said, yeah. We'll pretty much take anything. They're not that picky. Yeah. You can buy it with other things. Sure, go ahead. Let's give that a whirl.

Well, Glenn, that will never -- it just did.

It just did.

Well, I mean, the -- the rich and the powerful, I mean, they have too much to lose, and they'll never just allow the dollar to -- hmm. Unless the rich and powerful are part of something like a great reset. Unless the rich and powerful are the ones that know what's coming, because they're the ones that screwed it up, they're the ones that have been funneling money to themselves, from our Treasuries and from our printing presses. While they're screwing the little guy. They seem to get richer. Why is that? How come the banks have received trillions of dollars, but the little people didn't even know that was happening?

It's almost as if, these people were robbing our Treasuries. Looting our countries. Knowing that it's going to collapse, and they're positioning themselves to be ready, when it collapses into the system they are building.

The only ones who don't know is you. Well, it's a conspiracy theory. Is it? Is it?

You can play that as much as you want. I'm telling you, these are the robbers. These are the guys that have been hiding in the hills.

These are the ones that are stealing you blind.
It's the golden goose. It will never -- uh-huh. Uh-huh.

They will cut the head off the golden goose. And when they actually start to get out of dollars. These countries are already selling their dollars. But it hasn't really started yet. As they start to get rid of those dollars. What happens to those dollars? They're no longer in somebody's vault. They're now pouring in all over the country. Which makes our inflation even higher.

You'll have to have a way out. I mean. Hey, what a coincidence.

We have the central bank digital currencies being approved right now.

All over the western world.

The IMF has been working on a basket of currencies for a while now.

Just in case the US dollar would ever collapse. Oh. Good thing they've done that just recently, when one of them must have figured out that, oh, all the things they've been telling us is not true.

So somebody at 2 o'clock yesterday was like, hey. I know it's Sunday, but I just figured something out.

We should do something.

Yeah. They've been planning this for a long, long, long time.

Okay. I want you to listen to Brandon Smith. 2017, he said, I published an article, the Saudi coup signals war, and the New World War reset. I noted at the time that the sudden power shift over to the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, indicated a change in Saudi Arabia's relationship to the US. To understand how drastic this coup has been. Consider this: For decades, Saudi kings maintained political balance by doing -- by doling out vital power positions to separate, carefully chosen successors.

Positions such as the Defense Minister, the Interior Minister, the head of the National Guard.

But today, Mohammed bin Salman controls all three positions. Foreign policy, defense matters, oil and economic decisions, and social changes are all in the hands of one man.

So who backed this? Well, it was backed by the public investment fund. A fund comprised of trillions of dollars.

Where did that come? From globalists. Goldman Sachs, Blackstone, BlackRock, the head of the Saudis now fell into favor with the globalists for one reason. He openly supports vision for 2030. What is the vision for 2030?

Oh. The vision for 2030.

That's the World Economic Forum.

That's the UN.

That's The Great Reset.

We're going to get all of these carbon fuels.

These fossil fuels.

And we're going to have carbon controls.

Wait. Glenn, that is the -- that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

It's Saudi Arabia. Why would they ever do that?

Because the Saudis have been given assets to ESG-like funding. As well as access to AI advancements. The so-called digital economy.

Hmm. So the Saudi elites are willing to dump the dollar and even oil for access to a reimagined economy. A reimagined world. Fantastic.

Fantastic.

Here's the thing: Saudi Arabia has jumped on this bandwagon. China has bumped -- has jumped on this bandwagon.

When this really starts to kick in, our economy -- well, let me just put it this way. We outsource our inflation. Okay?

Because everybody else is running on dollars, that they have to buy from us.

Their inflation goes up. Because of what we do. So I think I told you this in 2009, the rest of the world is going to hate America. If this ever comes really out. And everybody really knows. There's a couple of heads on the chopping block.

One, America, that's just over. Because we've destroyed -- our choices, to just spend and spend and spend. Our choices are going to be used against us, by foreign leaders who can't keep their people in control and need a villain. And it will be the United States.

Then on top of that, you have the World Economic Forum. The World Economic Forum, which has orchestrated a lot of this. The Federal Reserve.

What happens when the Federal Reserve raises interest rates? Because they have to suck all that money back in.

And yet, we don't stop spending. Hmm.

That's going to be a problem. Don't you think?

And we're going to have to start spending.

Because things like Social Security. It's on the brink of collapse.

When is somebody going to stand up? A politician? A real leader?

I mean, I'm going to be 59 in a couple of weeks. Fifty-nine. I can't believe it. I don't know what happened. But all of a sudden, I'm 59 years old. I've known my whole life, I'm not getting Social Security. If I get Social Security, it's going to be worthless. It's going to be worthless. I've known this my whole life.

Okay. Why is it short?

Because at one point, we had enough people working that could pay for the older people. Okay?

We used to have a bunch of young people working, and they all contributed to the Social Security. I think it was 16:1.

So people working, and they -- their portion of their Social Security, would go to the one.

It's now two and a half to one. How are you going to keep that up? Especially when people start losing their jobs. How are you going to do that?

The -- the most logical thing to do right now: Is to begin telling everyone, when you hit 65, you've got to keep working. Unless there is, you know -- if you're 65 and you're getting it, you're 65 and you're getting it.

But you've got to keep working. And if you're 60, you get half. Now, this is going to be a real problem. Because I paid Social Security my whole life. Why don't I get it? Because it doesn't work. I fought against it, but we could never get it changed. Okay.

So for the next 15 years, 20 years, whatever it is, but it has to change. And people who are 59, need to understand, you've got to work until 72.

I don't want to work until I'm 72, but I'll work into I'll 72 or 75. Social Security was designed at a time when the average guy, who was the main worker, died at 62.

It was rare that you made it to 65. So maybe, if you want to go back to that, maybe you're working until you're 80 now.

But nobody will touch that, because no one is telling you the truth. No one will tell you how bad things are. But you know how bad things are.

Do you know 25 percent of all millennials right now, have their rent paid by mom and dad?

Twenty-five percent has their rent paid by mom and dad. And there's more. Sixty seconds.

If you've suffered from agonizing pain, you don't know what it's like, and you think managing pain is the equivalent of shaking a magic wand and thinking it's gone. That's not true. The truth is pain is difficult to manage, especially every single day.

A lot of the things that we take to manage pain, either don't work, or have some sort of drug in them, makes you feel crazy all day.

You've got to stop with all of this stuff. If you or somebody you love are dealing with pain, please, give Relief Factor a try. It's not a drug. It was developed by doctors. It has four key ingredients to fight inflammation. Which causes most of our pain. So give it a shot.

Don't really have much to lose, except your pain. Three-week Quick Start. 19.95. It's a trial pack. Try it now. Seventy percent of the people who order it, go on to order more. ReliefFactor.com.

800-4-Relief. ReliefFactor.com. 800-4-Relief. Relief Factor. Feel the difference. Ten-second station ID.
(music)

GLENN: Okay. So there's a new poll out, this is a story in TheBlaze today. Poll measured how many millennials are getting their bills paid by their parents. One-fourth of millennials get their parents to either pay their rent or help pay their rent.

Another one, is 19 percent -- 19 percent of all adults say their parents pay their rent in another poll. Another 19 percent of adults say their parents pay for their groceries. 16 percent say their parents pay for utilities. 39 percent of millennials struggle to find information and other resources to help with their finances.

Now, 69 percent of respondents in the northeast say they earn money by helping their neighbors, only 43 percent say the same in the southeast.

I'm wondering if that's because people just help their neighbors. 85 percent of respondents see themselves as financially responsible when it comes to things like credit scores and savings. But 50 percent of them struggle with unnecessary spending and unbudgeted expenses. Forty percent struggled to remember to pay the bills on time, to remember to pay the bills on time.

Not -- do you struggle to pay your bills on time? Do you struggle to remember to pay your -- when I -- I remember when I was, you know, the age of a millennial, that was the scariest time of the month. I remembered.

It was constantly there in the back of mine. Oh, my gosh. How am I going to make it? How am I going to make it? How am I going to make it? I didn't struggle to remember it. But there's also something else that is coming. So we have Social Security. It's collapsing. Nobody is going to do anything about that.

Because it's always framed as freak out, freak out. We're all going to die. We're killing grandma. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. It's not going to happen. Americans care. We have -- we have -- I believe stopped caring as much because the government has just I think destroyed so much of our responsibility, that we just think, well, somebody is going to take care of it. No, we're supposed to take care of our elderly. We're supposed to be taking care of the widow. We're supposed to be doing these things. So Social Security is collapsing. Then you find that millennials are not finding jobs.

Then the last piece: The perfect storm. More Americans cannot afford their car payments today, than during the peak of the financial crisis of '08. Now, what's happening with that?

What Glenn Beck Never Got to Say to Charlie Kirk | Glenn TV | Ep 456

Charlie Kirk would have been president. Political violence robbed him of fulfilling that destiny, so now his friends, colleagues, and supporters throughout the world must figure out how to pick up the pieces and ensure that his legacy never ends. On a special episode of "Glenn TV," Glenn replays the most powerful, touching, and inspirational moments from his time guest-hosting "The Charlie Kirk Show" on Wednesday morning, one week after Charlie’s death. In a touching tribute to his friend, Glenn places Rush Limbaugh’s golden microphone next to Charlie’s — a symbol of Charlie’s longtime dream and the influence he has had throughout the world. Plus, Glenn speaks to "The Charlie Kirk Show" executive producer Andrew Kolvet and Turning Point USA COO Tyler Bowyer about who their dear friend was behind the scenes, the influence he’s had on America and the MAGA movement, and how Charlie’s fingerprints will still be present on future elections. Also, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) and Glenn discuss how Charlie Kirk helped launched her career, and Research Center Investigative Researcher Ryan Mauro shares how he has the smoking gun President Trump needs to take on George Soros’ network. These are the voices who knew Charlie well, but the number of people he indirectly touched and influenced is spread far and wide. Glenn ends with a beautiful song tribute by David Osmond and Cheyenne Grace, depicting just how mournful the entire world truly is. Rest in peace, Charlie.

Fact-check: The 5 LIES circulating about Charlie Kirk

In the first week after Charlie Kirk’s assassination, some in the media and on the Left have tried to either justify or dismiss his death by spreading lies about what he said. Glenn Beck reviews an article by The Federalist, which debunks the 5 biggest lies.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: We were just talking about the five lies that are going around, about Charlie Kirk.

And it is -- it's reprehensible about what's going on.

Because people who are saying these things. Who are starting these things. They really need -- I mean, they know. They know.

Like Stephen King, really?

You really think that Stephen King.

You really think that Charlie Kirk is for the stoning of gay people?

I --

STU: I do think, though. A lot of these people have an image of everyone on the right, that --

GLENN: But it shows how unbelievably isolated you are.

STU: Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Now, king, in particular, I think -- like, I don't think Stephen King was lying on that.

I think he's -- and I don't think he's the sharpest knife in the -- in the drawer.

GLENN: He ought to be. You can't write like he does.

STU: He's not an idiot, right? He can form thoughts. But I think he's so completely isolated in his bubble. Like, if someone says something terrible, about a person like Charlie Kirk, and your image of him is he's basically Hitler.

Well, you don't -- you don't spend time fact-checking it.

Of course, that guy -- he's that terrible human being. Of course, he said something like that. You don't even bother to check it.

You know, it's like, if I -- if you ran into a quote from Hitler, you've never seen, that was negative from Jews. As a journalist, you should probably check it.

You might think. That was probably true. He said a lot of things like that. That's how they think about people who are normal conservatives who want lower taxes and less regulation. And that is really, really disturbing.

So these lies are really prominent. People really believe these things.

GLENN: So there's a couple of -- here are the five. The first one is Charlie Kirk said black people were better off in slavery.

How big of an idiot, do you have to be, to believe that?

Okay?

Unless you're Crockett. Unless your last name is Crockett.

And I don't mean Davey. Black Americans were better off than slavery. No. That's absolutely no true -- not true. He never said anything like that. Now, what he -- what you're probably getting this from, and I'm going -- searching. I am on -- way metal detector on the beach with board shorts, sandals, and socks, looking for anything that even kind of sounds like that. But Charlie Kirk did say that, you know, they were talking about Jim Crow and how evil Jim Crow was. But he said with be, but if you look at the family, the black family before the passage of the civil rights act, which ended the Jim Crow laws, he said, the family was thriving.

And it was!

It was. Blacks had a lower divorce rate than whites did in I think 1961. They -- their families were stronger. Dads were in the homes. They had lower crime rates. I mean, it -- something happened around the time of the Civil Rights Act.

Now, my theory is, the Civil Rights Act was a -- was done by progressives. I mean, these are the guys who said no to the Civil Rights Act, just four years before. And -- and worked hard to stop the Civil Rights Act.

So what changed in those four years?

The assassination of President Kennedy. That changed your mind. Not even. Not even.

I mean, Johnson was the biggest racist up until he -- up until he died. Why would he create the great society?

My theory, this is just a theory. But my theory is, is because finally, the progressives had a way to keep blacks under their thumb and destroy the family. And destroy them, as people.

I mean, the Civil Rights Act, and more the Great Society.

The Great Society did more damage to the black family than -- than anybody could have done outside of Margaret Sanger. I think that's what he meant by that. It was evil.

You know, Jim Crow, et cetera, et cetera.

But if you look at the numbers on specifics, family, et cetera, et cetera. Blacks were doing better as families, before the Great Society.

And I think that undoing is absolutely -- is absolutely tied to it. And it was intentional, myself, I believe that.

Also, the next claim is that -- that Charlie Kirk said, black women have inferior intelligence. No, that's not what he said.

Now, they're quoting him saying that black women don't have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously.

How -- how bad does your image have to be of people on the other side to believe that they could say that?

That Charlie Kirk could say that?

STU: Like, if you were to -- you know, I think about this a lot of times. When I think about how we react to crazy statements on the left.

My reaction a lot of times, when I hear someone saying that is wait a minute.

GLENN: Yes.

STU: Even if they believed that, they wouldn't just blurt it out. What is the context of this? I want to know. I want to understand. That should be your first question when you run into a quote like that.

GLENN: Well, go to Snopes. They rate this one true.

STU: This is true.

GLENN: They rate it absolutely true.

STU: Hmm.

GLENN: Until you get to the last paragraph, when they say, well, we should point out, he wasn't talking about all black women. He was talking about four specific black women.

STU: Oh. Oh.

GLENN: So he's talking about Joy Reid, absolutely true. Sheila Jackson Lee, absolutely true.

STU: Hmm.

GLENN: Ketanji Brown Jackson. Jackson Brown, absolutely true.

STU: Well, she's not a biologist, Glenn.

GLENN: No. She doesn't know what a woman is. I'm not a biologist. Yeah.

And Michelle Obama, which I don't think is true. I think Michelle Obama is actually rather smart and conniving and just flatout evil.

STU: Yeah. There's a mix there. Ketanji Brown Jackson, for all the flaws that would happen. There's a Supreme Court justice, obviously isn't a moron.

GLENN: Well.

STU: I would say Sotomayor, I would be more confident saying she is a moron.

Though, I am -- for the job that she has, Ketanji Brown Jackson is a moron. You know, Joy Reid is a complete idiot. Wasn't Sheila Jackson Lee, those two follow the same category? You're right. Michelle Obama, I would not call an idiot.

Again, criticizing four members of a group does not mean you're criticizing the group.

GLENN: And he was criticizing people he thought were unqualified to make statements of -- of any intelligence on whatever topic it was that he was talking about.

And what they did, is they said, he thinks that all black women are just dumb.

I mean, that is so incredibly dishonest.

Charlie Kirk said, gun deaths are worth it to keep the Second Amendment.

STU: This is one I heard a lot.

This is one that a lot of people on the left are using as justification for their celebration.

He said, you know, well, you just have to deal with the deaths if you want to have a Second Amendment.

And, you know, I don't know if you have the context --

GLENN: I have it -- I have his answer right here.

You ready? You will never live in a society where you have an armed citizenry. And you won't have a single gun death.

That's nonsense.

It's drivel.

But I am -- I think it's worth it. I think it's worth to have a cost of unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year.

So you can have the Second Amendment right to protect your other God-given rights.

It's a prudent deal. It is rational to think that way.

STU: I mean, and obviously -- every time -- if you have a free society, you take risks with it.

There will always be people. Horrible, horrible human beings that all seem to donate to Democrat causes, that will do things, like we saw one week ago today.

GLENN: Yeah.

STU: And that is -- you know, I -- again, you can't speak for Charlie Kirk.

He spoke for himself so eloquently.

But he -- even what occurred last week, would not change his mind on that.

Even -- now that something terrible has happened to me and my family, we should overturn the Second Amendment. And people shouldn't have the right to defend themselves.

You know that's how he would feel about it. And this is, if anything, pointing to his incredible consistency on the rights that we have, in this country. You know, it is a sad -- sad, unfortunate fact about so many things.

Sad, unfortunate fact about automobile travel.

That you do have to deal with some automobile accidents.

When you have highways where you can drive 55, 65, 75 miles an hour, we all understand that to be true.

GLENN: It's unreasonable to think that you can live in a society with automobiles, and not have some automobile accidents.

STU: It's absolutely true.

GLENN: It's exactly what he said about guns.

STU: And, frankly, the other thing that is important to understand, if you did eliminate all guns, you would not eliminate all murders.

GLENN: No. They did in England.

STU: Oh, they did. We're all set?

GLENN: There's no murder there.

STU: No violent crimes there.

I keep reading about them. Is that all false?

GLENN: Yeah. That's Donald Trump. You know what I mean?

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: And he's -- last one, Charlie used an Asian slur. Now, I'm not going to use the slur, obviously. I'm just going to say, it's what happens sometimes with armor. There's a very famous saying with armor, that has nothing to do with the Chinese or Asian at all. But I'm not even going to put those together in this context now, you you'll have to figure it out.

The thing is going around, he used that slur to yell at an Asian woman in the audience.

Now, again, what kind of monster -- or how --

STU: You should know on its face, that's false. You should know that's false.

GLENN: Yeah. How stupid would Charlie Kirk have to be, okay?

So, you know, there's nothing. There's nothing like that. Well, I'm sorry.

He was screaming something at a woman when they were talking about capitalism, and he was yelling, Cenk, not the other word. Okay? And who is that? From the Young Turks --

STU: The guys from the Young Turks.

GLENN: That's what he was saying.

STU: Oh, gosh, that's just so bad. You know, the other one was the Stephen King situation, where he quoted some horrible thing that Charlie Kirk said.

And, again, he knitted eventually, that -- that it was false.

But it was -- it was -- he was quoting someone else, in an incident, and critiquing that position.

GLENN: Yes. Yes. Yes.

STU: Which was a bad position. But he was bringing it up to quote him and critique him, which is a very standard thing they did on the left. This is a standard tactic of Media Matters when you're quoting someone else or saying something.

They'll act as if I say it.

GLENN: You repeat a lie often enough, and the public will remember it. Glenn Beck is quoting Hitler. Glenn Beck loves Hitler.

STU: Uh-huh.

GLENN: Yeah. Hitler said that, but that's not what I was saying. That had nothing to do with the conversation, for the love of Pete.

STU: Yeah, again, if you had something against Charlie Kirk, you wouldn't need to go to this stuff. If our opinion of Kirk, which was a guy who worked hard to debate people.

Who tried to practice politics and civic life the right way. Who tried to be a shining light for his faith, which was vitally important to him and his family. If that vision of Charlie Kirk was false, you wouldn't need to go to these things.

GLENN: No.

STU: You could come up with 50 different things he said that were really offensive. Instead, what you come up with are lies. Because that's what you're in the business of.

GLENN: Yeah. And there is a problem.

The -- we now know. And we'll have more on this later today. On the Charlie Kirk show.

And then on tomorrow.

But we now know that the Chinese and Russia are involved with disinformation campaigns.

Based on Charlie Kirk, trying to get us to push us into Civil War. And we know it for a fact now.

So just be very careful what you read online.

And don't necessarily repeat everything that you see.

Shocking timeline: How “protests” turned into radical attacks in 2025

In the aftermath of the assassination of Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk, it is important to realize that a chilling pattern of far-left radical attacks had already emerged in 2025. Glenn Beck heads to the chalkboard to lay out the timeline, connect the dots, and explain why what looks like a “protest” on one day can turn into an actual attack on the next. Glenn walks through each high-profile incident, the groups and ideologies involved, and the national implications for safety, free speech, and public order.

Watch This FULL Episode of 'Glenn TV' HERE

Did government PROPAGANDA lead to Charlie Kirk’s assassination?

President Trump and others have posted in support of a proposed Charlie Kirk Act. But Glenn Beck gives a warning: there are 2 versions of this going around. One, proposed by Sen. Mike Lee, would stop the government from using propaganda against Americans. The other would go further, giving the government dangerous powers over truth. Glenn Beck explains the differences as well as what the Smith-Mundt Act was and why an Obama-era decision may be connected to the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Okay. I want you to just spend a couple of minutes with me, and switch everything that you've been thinking on, off for a minute. This is very important. I want to take you back to the world in 1948, okay?

The ashes of World War II are still warm. The Cold War is already beginning to chill in the air, and the Soviet Union has a propaganda machine that is in full swing.

Radio Moscow, Pravda, endless streams of anti-American stories are pouring into the homes of men and women, all across the globe.

And Congress looked at this. And said, we need a counterbalance on this.

America needs to tell her story to the world about liberty and about her finding ideals.

And we need to tell it to the rest of the world.

This is the birth of the Smith-Mundt Act. Okay? We needed to launch things, at that time. Like the Voice of America, and radio-free Europe, and Radio Liberty.

These were not just radio stations. For many who were behind the curtain, these were lifelines.

A Polish dissident in the 1970s or a Hungarian who lived through the 1956 uprising, they'll tell you, they're huddled in the dark, and they have that dial of that radio.

And they can tune it. They carefully tune it, listening to an American voice break through the static and break through the darkness. That says, freedom is real. And the world hasn't forgotten you. They remember that as being very important.

But and here is the key: We, as a society, drew a very bright red line, none of this could ever be used in the United States. Congress rightfully was terrified of unleashing a government propaganda machine on its own citizens. Now, I want you to remember. 1948, Congress is still Democrat.

Okay?

You just had 20 years of the same president, FDR.

They're about to say, no president can serve that long.

The Democrats said, no Democrat president. No Republican president can ever serve that long. Because we were so close to fascism.

So the Democrats are very concerned about the government going fascistic.

And they should know about it. Because they remembered the control commission.

Now, let me take you back to World War I. The Creel Commission is something that nobody remembers, and everyone should.

Because it's what whipped America up in a frenzy, to get us to go into World War I.

You know it, because you remember the I want you Uncle Sam poster. And I've always hated that Uncle Sam poster because of the Creel Commission. I love it. I think it's really beautiful. It was created by an artist, that he didn't create it for the Creel Commission. So, you know, he was innocent. But it was the Creel machine that plastered it on every wall, every post office, every train station.

And suddenly Uncle Sam's finger was pointing at you. It wasn't just a poster. It was a summons. It was you. We need you to go to war. Americans did not want to go to World War I. In fact, Woodrow Wilson said, the other side, he will put you into war. I will keep I out of war. He knew that wasn't true.

Within three months after his reelection, we're at war. But he had to bring the country along. So the Creel Commission, through films and songs, films like the Kaiser, the Beast of Berlin, it turned the -- it turned Germany into a cartoon villain. George Cohan, he wrote songs, over there. Over there.

All of these things were done by the government, as propaganda to get Americans to go over there.

And fight. Then the government went even further. And they started hiring these, what were called Four Minute Men.

Now, imagine this, you're sitting in a movie theater.

The film. You're watching maybe the -- the newsreel. And as they're changing the reels, some guy who just in the audience, stands up, walks to the front. Clears his throat. And he delivers this really well-thought out and rousing four minute speech about patriotism. And liberty.

And crushing Germany.

The government had 75,000 volunteers. They gave millions of speeches, when anybody would pause in churches and schools. In parks.

In theaters. They were called Four Minute Men.

This was social media before social media. They were short bursts. And they seemingly were everywhere, and always on message.

Because the message was crafted by the government. Then the Creel group, through our government, published booklets, official bulletins. They planted stories in the press. This is when we really started really getting into the press, and information was -- had one goal. All of the information. And that was rallies for the -- rally support for the war, and drown out anybody that was disagreeing with that. Okay?

The government actually encouraged kids to spy on their neighbors.

That you were encouraged and post -- post men did this.

To go through the mail, if they saw -- if they saw letters that were coming in. Ask they wanted to know, who it was. And are you a German spy. Are you somebody who is going to be against the war?

Postal workers went through your mail. And it was legal at the time!

You were encouraged, operators were encouraged to listen to people's phone calls, and to report if they were on the other side.

This is Germany.

In fact, because of the Creel Commission, Germans, and what's his name?

The head of the German propaganda, oh, what's his name? The German douche bag. I can't remember his name. Anyway, what was his name?

STU: Goebbels, is that who you're talking about?

GLENN: Goebbels.

STU: Although, I like your name for it, frankly.

GLENN: Yeah. Goebbels, the douche bag.

Anyway, he said, we lost World War I because of American propaganda. But we learned how Americans did it.

And that's what Goebbels did in World War II. All of this propaganda. Okay?

By the way, American advertising, up until World War II, it was called propaganda.

What I heard, I wouldn't have said, now a message from our advertiser.

I was delivering literally and it was cool at the time, to call it propaganda.

Because that's what it was. Paid for propaganda.

Bit after Goebbels took it. And did what he did with it. We were like, oh, propaganda is bad!

Okay?

So here's what -- here's what happened because of the Creel Commission. They were pushing uniformity of thought. They did that by making sure Americans were hearing the same slogans. The same images. The same stories from every direction. Which created the illusion of unanimous consent. I want you to think about life today.

I want you to think about life during COVID.

What was the goal of the government.

To crush any dissent, and to control all of the messages that were going out, to make sure that you were hearing the same slogans, the same images. The same stories from every direction, to give you the illusion that it was unanimous consent.

What about the global warming? It's exactly the same.

Then on top of it, the Creel Commission demonized dissent. Okay? German Americans were part of this country forever.

In fact, we were I think two votes away from making German our official language, as the United States, not English. But they were all of a sudden, branded as traitors.

You couldn't -- a priest went to jail, because he gave the last rites to a German who fell down in front of him on the streets and was dying. And a priest spoke German and gave him the last rites in German. That priest went to jail! Okay??

Okay? So they demonized dissent. Then they suppressed free speech. The propaganda campaign dovetailed with the Espionage Act of 1917. The Sedition Act of 1918. If you criticized the draft, if you questioned the war, you could be fined. You would be ostracized, and you would go to jail.

This is Woodrow Wilson, gang. Does any of it sound familiar?

Now, here's what the aftermath was, after the war. When the war ended, the mask came off. Millions were dead, and Americans felt absolutely duped. They felt that they were tricked into going into a war that they were manipulated into. They didn't even understand it. And that's why we were such isolationists, in the 1920s and our 1930s, because our own government had manipulated the population to go in to fight this war, and they felt so manipulated and so betrayed by their own government. They were like, I don't want anything to do with foreign wars, okay?

So why did this -- why did this happen in 1948?

Well, because in 1948, all of this stuff is happening, and we're saying, okay. We need to have some sort of -- some sort of boundary.

Because we're going to start all of this propaganda, for the United States. And it cannot be ever turned on the people of the United States. Okay?

So then why -- why was it repealed?

It was repealed without any really kind of conversation. Because it was slipped in, called the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act.

It was slipped in to a defense authorization bill. Just like it's happening right now, the government didn't pay its bills.

They couldn't come up with the -- with a way to actually fund everything. Because we have to act as an emergency, otherwise all of our war machine. And it's all going to stop. And the world is going to die. And panic and all of that.

;And so somebody has slipped the bill in. And we modernized it.

Why did we modernize?

Well, because don't you like transparency?

I mean, we're doing this overseas. We're doing this propaganda overseas. Do you know -- taxpayer. You're paying for it. Shouldn't you see it?

There was a Congressman Max Thornberry. He was one of the sponsors. And he said, quote, today the law prevents the American people from seeing or hearing the same things we broadcast overseas, and that doesn't make any sense.

We paid for it. Okay. Then they switched that from transparency to, and it's helping fight terrorism. It will let the Department of Defense and the State Department share counter radicalization material both abroad and at home, because we have to modernize this. The internet is everywhere, okay?
So who doesn't want to fight terrorists? Who doesn't want transparency?

Now, here's what actually happened. I'll tell you in 60 seconds. First, Stu.

STU: Yeah. Let me tell you about Prize Picks. You know, we're talking about daily fantasy sports, which is a nice escape, honestly from where we've been over the past three weeks.

If you remember fantasy sports and you're like, oh, gosh.

Yeah, that's a lot of work. I have to be on there, every single day. You don't have to do it that way. Prize Picks brings it back to what it was meant to be. Simple and quick and actually enjoyable.

No drafts. No leagues. No season-long commitments. You just look at the player projections for the day, decide if they'll do more or less than what is listed, build your lineup. And then you're in.

It takes less than a minute to play. And you can mix or match players across different sports, football, baseball. Basketball.

Whatever -- whatever you want.

You don't have to be a stat wizard. You don't have to be a sports insider. You just got instincts, and you have an opinion.

You can win Prize Picks. It's daily fantasy, the way it should be. Fun, flexible, and easy to fit into real life and a nice escape. No stress. Just sports your way.

Download the app today. Use the code Stu.

Get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. The code is Stu, to get 50 bucks instantly when you play your first 5-dollar lineup. It's Prize Picks. And it's good to be right. Ten-second station ID.
(music)

GLENN: So in 2012, the left decides, we have to get rid of this propaganda thing.

Okay?

Once the firewall was gone, and it's just a blip, no one even really noticed it. Suddenly, the government agencies could circulate diplomacy campaigns, inside of the United States.

And we saw this. This is where you get your USAID. The NGOs. Doing all the things here in the United States.

Because they can all do it. During COVID, you saw this.

You saw government-funded messaging, quietly merging with the media campaigns and big tech content moderation. Narratives weren't debated. They were handed out by the government. And then they were enforced. Then take the DHS disinformation governance board.

This is a direct descendent from this shift. Okay?

It was the government openly declaring it had a role in policing speech at home.

Look at the 2016 aftermath of the elections. Reports now confirm that the US government funds originally intended for overseas information campaigns that had filtered into domestic projects that fact-checked, flagged, and suppressed certain narratives online. The line between foreign propaganda and domestic persuasion was completely gone. Everything they worried about in 1948, was now happening after 2012. Okay. So why am I bringing this up today?

Because after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, we have been asking for this to be reinstated.

This Smith-Mundt Act has to be reinstated. But after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, there is a new wave of enthusiasm for this as there should be.

But some people on our side, are now demanding more than just a firewall.

You go to change.org. And there's petitions for a Charlie Kirk act.

And it will not only stop government propaganda. But it goes further than that. It starts to punish private media. Educators. Social media platforms. For spreading what they call false narratives. So this is -- this is our side saying, yeah, well, now we want the power to do what they did. Okay? Hear me clearly.

Accountability matters! Lives are destroyed, reputations are smeared. And that matters.

But we have systems in place for that.

What this proposal opens is a new door. A terror where government decides, what is and isn't falsehood.

And the government cannot do that. History teaches us. Once the government claims the authority to define truth.

Liberty is gone. Okay?

Now, enter Mike Lee.

Mike Lee has another proposal. Mike Lee has a version. That he is submitting to Congress. And trying to get it passed. And every American should be for this.

Right or left.

Every American should be for this. He's not going to reinvent the wheel. He just wants the old firewall put back. That's it.

Period.

The government must not, and cannot propagandize its own people. Restore the very bright red line that was attacked in 1948.

It's not about silencing speech. It's about preventing the most powerful institution on earth, with the endless resources of that institution, the government.

And the endless reach, from turning its firehose of influence in on the American people.

This is why it matters. I want you to think of -- I want you to think of football.

Oh, boy. Dangerous.

You wouldn't let the referee this a football game, put on a jersey, and join one of the teams. Okay?

But that's what the repeal did. It let the government be both the referee and the player in the arena of ideas. Mike Lee is saying, put the stripes back on their jerseys. Make sure they're in black and white stripes. So we know exactly who they are!

Change.org and some people on our side want to make the ref not only a player, but the judge, the jury, and the executioner. It cannot happen.

This is -- I'm telling you, if this goes through, Mike Lee is proposing something that is clean. Doesn't have any of this in.

So support the Mike Lee Mundt Act. But if you're hearing people talk about, we have to go further, that is the Patriot Act of our day. We're standing at a fork in the road.

Reinstating the Smith-Mundt protections. They're not going to solve all the problems of misinformation, but it reestablishes the ground rules. And tells Washington, you cannot propagandize us, period.
(music)

Once truth belongs to the state, truth itself ceases to exist. Support Mike Lee's bill.

Restore the Smith-Mundt Act.