RADIO

Government collusion to PUNISH free speech was WORSE than we thought?

It has been a "disturbing day" for freedom of speech, Glenn says. After exposing a Biden administration plan to control the internet, Glenn speaks with RealClearInvestigations editor at large Benjamin Weingarten, who has been investigating federal collusion with private actors to police speech. The scheme went as far as to deem Glenn a super-spreader of misinformation for warning about a well-documented leftist plan to influence the 2020 election using "color revolution" tactics. Weingarten exposes the "censorship-to-criminalization pipeline" that this "Censorship Industrial Complex" has built and what it would mean if it's allowed to continue targeting dissent.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Benjamin, Ben.

BEN: Glenn, thanks for having me.

GLENN: You bet. Boy, what a disturbing day on -- on freedom of speech, quite frankly. You have been doing investigation. And it's come out in dribs and drabs here and there. But you hit some things that I think is so important.

This report where I'm a super spreader of misinformation during the last election.

Is there something more nefarious, than just smearing me and TheBlaze TV?

BEN: Yeah. Well, you were in good company with dozens upon dozens, if not hundreds of other Americans ranging from the former president of the United States. Who was, actually, targeted for censorship.

Not only by this, quote, unquote, public/private partnership, that I'm sure we will talk about.

But actually, by subordinate in an executive agency, alongside journalists and everyday Americans, who had their social media posts in 2020 surveilled, en masse, to the tune of hundreds of millions of tweets looked at by people who probably don't share your politics.

And then, had masses of that content flagged to the social media companies.

To suppress that content.

And this public/private partnership was hatched in conjunction actually by interns who were working at a federal agency, in the national security apparatus. And this is the tip of the iceberg, I think.

To a censorship industrial complex, as it's been called or a public/private censorship regime. And what we've reported at Real Clear investigations, are new details about the inner workings of this so-called public/private partnership.

Who specifically was targeted by it? Which speech was targeted?

Namely, protected core political speech in this First Amendment assault. And then how intimately involved government agencies themselves were, in getting social media companies to censor Americans again, en masse, on election administration and election outcomes.

The purest political speech, protected First Amendment speech that there is.

GLENN: What's amazing to me is that in this particular narrative, that they were squashing, of mine.

I was warning in September. I did with it shows. In September and October about Colour Revolution, and how the playbook, literally the playbook from the Democrats, we had the copy of it.

I mean, I showed you the pages of it. Was -- was putting together what amounted to the same strategy as our State Department's Colour Revolution. Should Donald Trump win the election.

And I warned the president. I warned the people. Look for these things.

It wasn't to -- it wasn't to start a Colour Revolution. It wasn't to overthrow the government.

It was a warning that people were planning to destabilize the government, through some of these organizations. And it was their own plan.

How did that become a super spreader of disinformation?

BEN: Well, the national security apparatus, and its apparent cutouts and forced multipliers, doing business as academics or research entities or think tanks, have taken this idea. And put on steroids that wrong think, disfavored speech, about virtually anything of significance.

Itself, could pose a threat to our election system, to our public health infrastructure, to our financial services infrastructure, to virtually anything the government can conceive of.

And so if you propagate speech, that they deem to be delegitimizing, or undermining, quote, unquote, our democracy, that poses a threat to our democracy.

And that is why, I vote to not only be suppressed by the social media companies, that is by the digital media square, by what has become federally deputized speech beliefs, but you can actually go to jail for it.

And we have the perfect example of this, in the case of, I'm sure you're familiar with of Douglas Mackey, who puts out a tweet in 2016. Which says, text your number to vote for Hillary Clinton, to this number. #I'mwithher.

And it's clearly a satirical post.

Well, the Feds prosecuted him for the suppression of voting rights. Because somebody might have texted their number there to vote for her, not realizing, that it wasn't actually a vote.

Douglass Mackey was just sentenced a couple weeks ago, to seven months in jail for that satirical tweet.

And, by the way, that same law, is being hung around the neck of Donald Trump and the January 6th case. So there is a censorship to criminalization pipeline that's been built. And it's all premised on the idea, that if Americans hold ideas, that our ruling regime doesn't like. It possess a threat to that regime.

They'll say it possess a threat to democracy, and that it incites a domestic violence extremism.

And so there's a national security or pubic health. Or protecting of our critical infrastructure, justification for the censorship.

But what it's really dressing up is quashing of dissent, and chilling of dissenters.

GLENN: So, Ben, where are we headed?

I'm looking at all the stuff with Islamophobia. Where they're trying to convince the American people, it's Islamophobia, that's the trouble.

When we all know that it's anti-Semitism that is growing through the roof right now. And a real danger to our way of life.

And, you know, they didn't say anything, when they were trying to tear the gates don't even of the White House. And if you think, they couldn't get past that gate. They wouldn't have gone in and done all kinds of damage to the White House.

You're fooling yourself.

The White House didn't do anything about that. Nothing.

If they control all speech, and they can silence people like you or like me, when we're talking about the true nature of Hamas, and they decide that we're a problem, because we're spreading. By telling the truth. Islamophobia. They wipe us out.

And you got -- you got no protection for the Jews or anyone else, that they decide is on the wrong side.

BEN: You can apply this to basically any aspect of speech, that might not comport with what authorized opinions are, according to our ruling elites.

There's a very telling quote from Director of CISA, which is this DHS subagency, Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency.

It's a mouthful, but which is devoted to protecting our critical infrastructure. And the director of that subagency, which helped spearhead and was the tip of the spear of the national security state's efforts to surveil and censor speech directly and by proxy.

She has said that our most critical infrastructure is our cognitive infrastructure.

Translation: Mind control is an imperative of the national security apparatus. And it's going to engage in a whole society effort, to ensure the American mind is controlled.

Now, on this much more narrow point that you are making, and it's such an important one.

This -- this elevation of Islamophobia, which, by the way, Islamophobia is now being raised as the issue of our time, in response to the slaughter of Jews.

At a level of an equivalent of 50,000 Americans, with atrocities on par with, if not more disgusting with than what occurred during the Holocaust.

They're leveraging the slaughter of Jews to silence criticism of the administration and its partners in the Middle East.

Because let's not forget, of course, the entire Biden administration, policy towards the Middle East, which is really just a third term of the Obama-Biden administration, was to make Iran the strong horse.

Flood its coffers with millions of dollars. Not impose sanctions on it.

Let it build up Hezbollah, Hamas, its other proxies, and make it the dominant power, while putting the screws to Israel. So the Biden administration has blood on its hands, in the slaughter of Americans and Israelis in Israel.

And now they want to use Islamophobia as a way to shut up dissent that points to the disastrous consequences of their policies.

That's certainly a part of it. More broadly, if you look at what Islam says about speech, and you use Islamophobia as a pretext to shut people up, who want to speak freely and openly, honestly, about Islam and Islamic supremacism. It's basically imposing -- it's an attempt to impose Islamic speech codes on Americans. It's just totally anathema, antithetical to our system.

And what it points to, our ruling elites just cannot tolerate any form of dissent.

They had a near death experience with Donald Trump. They had a near death experience with Brexit. And they can't allow the people to think for themselves, speak for themselves.

They have to constrain us, and shut us up.

Using ever more disturbing and Orwellian Chinese Communist Party-style modus operandi to shut us up.

GLENN: So, Ben, I have about 45 seconds.

Who is taking this seriously? And is anybody working to dismantle this?

BEN: So Republicans in the House primarily, and some in the Senate as well.

Have tried to put forth legislation. To, first they did oversight to expose this regime, and second, they put forth legislation to try and freeze federal speech police from engaging with the social media companies, to shut up largely conservative Americans and dissenters on Covidian orthodoxy and a slew of other issues.

Beyond that, there's a massive Supreme Court case. It was called Missouri v. Biden. Now Mercy v. Missouri.

That is the preeminent case, going before the court, next term.

Where the Supremes are going to rule on whether federal agencies, including the Biden White House, violated our First Amendment rights.

To colluding, coercing, cajoling the social media companies to censor wrong thinkers.

And another question the plaintiffs, in the case have asked the court it take off, is whether or not these third party cutouts as well, should be barred from working with the feds to mass surveil and flag for suppression and censorship our speech.

So the legislative and judicial avenues are open. We'll see what happens.

GLENN: Ben, thank you so much.

Benjamin Weingarten, Federalist senior contributor and Real Clear Investigations editor-at-large. Appreciate it, Ben. God bless.

BEN: Thanks for having me, Glenn. Appreciate it.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

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What was Jeffrey Epstein's operation all about. If he was at the center of a massive blackmail operation to compromise those in positions of power, who is in possession of that information now? Glenn Beck and ATF Whistleblower John Dodson analyze the details of this situation and give their thoughts on what is the most likely reality surrounding Epstein.

Watch Glenn Beck's FULL Interview with ATF Whistleblower John Dodson HERE

TV

WARNING: How America Elects a Socialist President in 2028 | Glenn TV | Ep 444

The rise of Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old socialist who just won the Democratic primary for mayor, is not just a political earthquake shaking New York City — it’s a warning for the rest of America. Backed by Bernie Sanders, AOC, and the Democratic Socialists of America, Mamdani promises free everything, to tax the rich, and to dismantle capitalism. There’s nothing new about this tired strategy, but the media is propping him up as a new political genius. And with Democrat leaders lining up behind him, it’s clear: This radicalism isn’t fringe anymore. It’s the Democratic Party’s future. Mamdani’s rise is part of a larger movement that’s rewriting America’s values. Glenn Beck explains how New York is the prototype for the Left’s socialist makeover of America. Victor Davis Hanson, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Standford, gives a terrifying prediction on Mamdani’s mayoral race chances and warns the revolution is coming for mainstream Democrats. He also dives into MAGA’s frustration with the Trump administration's handling of the Epstein files.

RADIO

Did CLOUD SEEDING cause the Texas floods?

Did cloud seeding cause the 4th of July Texas floods? Rainmaker founder and CEO Augustus Doricko, who has been blamed for the flooding, joins Glenn Beck to make the case that it’s impossible for his July 2nd operation to have caused the disaster.

RADIO

INSIDE Trump’s soul: How a bullet changed his heart forever

“I have a new purpose,” then-candidate Donald Trump told reporter Salena Zito after surviving the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania. Salena joins Glenn Beck to reveal what Trump told her about God, his purpose in life, and why he really said, “Fight! Fight! Fight!”, as she details in her new book, “Butler: The Untold Story of the Near Assassination of Donald Trump and the Fight for America's Heartland”.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Salena, congratulations on your book. It is so good.

Just started reading it. Or listening to it, last night.

And I wish you would have -- I wish you would have read it. But, you know, the lady you have reading it is really good.

I just enjoy the way you tell stories.

The writing of this is the best explanation on who Trump supporters are. That I think I've ever read, from anybody.

It's really good.

And the description of your experience there at the edge of the stage with Donald Trump is pretty remarkable as well. Welcome to the program.

SALENA: Thank you, Glenn. Thank you so much for having me.

You know, I was thinking about this, as I was ready to come on. You and I have been along for this ride forever. For what?

Since 2006? 2005?

Like 20 years, right?

GLENN: Yeah. Yeah.

SALENA: And I've been chronicling the American people for probably ten more years, before that. And it's really remarkable to me, as watching how this coalition has grown. Right?

And watching how people have the -- have become more aspirational.

And that's -- and that is what the conservative populist coalition is, right?

It is the aspirations of many, but the celebration of the individual.

And chronicling them, yeah. Has been -- has been, a great honor.

GLENN: You know, I was thinking about this yesterday, when -- when Elon Musk said he was starting another party.

And somebody asked me, well, isn't he doing what the Tea Party tried to do?

No. The Tea Party was not going to start a new party.

It was to -- you know, it was to coerce and convince the Republican Party to do the right thing. And it worked in many ways. It didn't accomplish what we hoped.

But it did accomplish a lot of things.

Donald Trump is a result of the Tea Party.

I truly believe that. And a lot of the people that were -- right?

Were with Donald Trump, are the people that were with the Tea Party.


SALENA: That's absolutely right.

So that was the inception.

So American politics has always had movements, that have been just outside of a party. Or within a party.

That galvanize and broaden the coalition. Right? They don't take away. Or walk away, and become another party.

If anything, if there is a third party out there, it's almost a Republican Party.

Because it has changed in so many viable and meaningful ways. And the Tea Party didn't go away. It strengthened and broadened the Republican Party. Because these weren't just Republicans that became part of this party.

It was independents. It was Democrats.

And just unhappy with the establishment Republicans. And unhappy with Democrats.

And that -- that movement is what we -- what I see today.

What I see every day. What I saw that day, in butler, when I showed I happen at that rally.

As I do, so many rallies, you know, throughout my career. And that one was riveting and changed everything.

GLENN: You made a great case in the opening chapter. You talk about how things were going for Donald Trump.

And how this moment really did change everything for Donald Trump.

Changed the trajectory, changed the mood.

I mean, Elon Musk was not on the Trump train, until this.

SALENA: Yeah.

GLENN: Moment. What do I -- what changed? How -- how did that work?

And -- and I contend, that we would have much more profound change, had the media actually done their job and reported this the way it really was. Pragmatism

SALENA: You know, and people will find this in the book. I'm laying on the ground with an agent on top of me.

I'm 4 feet away from the president.

And there's -- there's notices coming up on my phone. Saying, he was hit by broken glass.

And to this take, that remains part of this sibling culture, in American politics.

Because reporters were -- were so anxious to -- to right what they believed happened.

As opposed to what happened.

And it's been a continual frustration of mine, as a reporter, who is on the ground, all the time.

And I'll tell you, what changed in that moment.

And I say a nuance, and I believe nuance is dead in American journalism.

But it was a nuance and it was a powerful conversation, that I had with President Trump, the next day. He called me the next morning.

But it's a powerful conversation I had with him, just two weeks ago.

When he made this decision to say, fight, fight, fight.

People have put in their heads, why they think he said it. But he told me why he said that. And he said, Salena, in that moment, I was not Donald Trump the man. I was a former president. I was quite possibly going to be president again.

And I had an obligation to the country, and to the office that I have served in, to project strength. To project resolve.

To project that we will not be defeated.

And it's sort of like a symbolic eagle, that is always -- you know, that symbol that we look at, when we think about our country.

He said, that's why I said that. I didn't want the people behind me panicking. I didn't want the people watching, panicking.

I had to show strength. And it's that nuance -- that I think people really picked up on.

And galvanized people.

GLENN: So he told me, when he was laying down on the stage.

And you can hear him. Let me get up. Let me get up.

I've got to get up.

He told me, as I was laying on the stage. I asked him, what were you thinking? What was going through your head? Now, Salena, I don't know about you.

But with me. It would be like, how do I get off the stage? My first was survival.

He said, what was going on through his mind was, you're not pathetic. This is pathetic.

You're not afraid. Get up.

Get up.

And so is that what informed his fight, fight, fight, of that by the time that he's standing up, he's thinking, I'm a symbol? Or do you think he was thinking, I'm a symbol, this looks pathetic. It makes you look weak.

Stand up. How do you think that actually happened?

SALENA: He thinks, and we just talked about this weeks ago. He -- you know, and this is something that he's really thought about.

Right? You know, he's gone over and over and over. And also, purpose and God. Right? These are things that have lingered with him.

You know, he -- he thought, yes.

He did think, it was pathetic that he was on the ground. But he wasn't thinking about, I'm Donald Trump. It's pathetic.

He's thinking, my country is symbolically on the ground. I need to get up, and I need to show that my country is strong.

That our country is resolute.

And I need people to see that.

We can't go on looking like pathetic.

Right?

And I think that then goes to that image of Biden.

GLENN: You have been with so many presidents.

How many presidents do you think that you've personally been with, would have thought that and reacted that way?

SALENA: Probably only Reagan. Reagan would have. Reagan probably would have thought that.

And if you remember how he was out like standing outside.

You know, waving out the window. Right?

After he was shot.

GLENN: At the hospital, right.

SALENA: Had he not been knocked out, unconscious, you know, he probably would have done the same thing.

Because he was someone who deeply believed in American exceptionalism.

And American exceptionalism does not go lay on the ground.

GLENN: And the symbol.

Right. The symbol of the presidency.

SALENA: Yeah. Absolutely. And I think that affects him today.

GLENN: So let me go back to God.

Because you talked to him the next day. And your book Butler.

He calls you up.

I love the fact that your parents would be ashamed of you. On what you said to him.

The language you used. That you just have to read the book.

It's just a great part.

But he calls you the next morning. And wants to know if you're okay.

And you -- you then start talking to him, about God.

And I was -- I was thinking about this, as I was listening to it. You know, Lincoln said, I wasn't -- I wasn't a Christian.

Even though, he was.

I wasn't a Christian, when I was elected. I wasn't a Christian when my son died.

I became a Christian at Gettysburg.

Is -- is -- I mean, I believe Donald Trump always believes in God, et cetera, et cetera.

Do you think there was a real profound change at Butler with him?


SALENA: Absolutely. You know, he called me seven times that day. Seven times, the take after seven.

GLENN: Crazy.

SALENA: Talked about. And I think he was looking for someone that he knew, that was there. And to try to sort it out.

Right? And I let him do most of the talking. I didn't pressure him.

At all. I believed that he was having -- you know, he was struggling. And he needed to just talk. And I believed my purpose was to listen.

Right? I know other reporters would have handled it differently. And that's okay. That's not the kind of reporter that I am.

And I myself was having my own like, why didn't I die?

Right?

Because it went right over my head.

And -- and so I -- he had the conversation about God.

He's funny. I thought it was the biggest mosquito in the world that hit me.

But he had talked profoundly about purpose. You know, and God.

And how God was in that moment.

It --

GLENN: I love the way you -- in the book, I love the way you said that as he's kind of working it out in his own he head.

He was like, you know, I -- I -- I always knew that there was some sort of, you know -- that God was present.

He said, but now that this has happened.

I look back at all of the trials.

All of the tribulations. Literally, the trials.

All of the things that have happened. And he's like, I realized God was there the whole time.

SALENA: Yes. He does. And it's fascinating to have been that witness to history, to have those conversations with him. Because I'm telling you. And y'all know, I can talk. I didn't say much of anything.

I just -- I just listened. I felt that was my purpose, in that moment.

To give him that space, to work it out.

I'm someone that is, you know, believes in God.

I'm Catholic. I followed my faith.

And -- and so, I thought, well, this is why God put me here. Right?

And to -- to have that -- to hear him talk about purpose, to hear him say, Salena. Why did I put a chart down?

I'm like, sir. I don't know. I thought you were Ross Perot for a second.

He never has a chart. And he laughed. And then he said, why did I put that chart down?

By that term, I never turned my head away from people at the rally. That's true.

That relationship is very transactional. It's very -- they feed off of each other.

It's a very emotive moment when you attend a rally. Because he has a way of talking at a rally. That you believe that you are seeing.

And he said, and I never turn my head away.

I never turn my head away.

Why did I turn my head away?

I don't remember consciously thinking about turning my head away. And then he says to me, that was God, wasn't it?

Yes, sir. It was. It was God.

And he said, that's -- that's why I have a new purpose.

And so, Glenn. I think it's important, when you look at the breadth of what has happened, since he was sworn in.

You see that purpose, every day.

He doesn't let up.

He continues going.

And it brings back to the beginning of the book.

Where you find out, that there was another president that was shot at in Butler.

And that was George Washington. And how different the country would have been, had he died in that moment.

And now think about how different the country would be, had President Trump died in that moment. There would be --

GLENN: We're talking to -- we're talking to Salena Zito. About her new book called Butler. The assassination attempt on President Trump. And it is riveting.

And, you know, it is so good. I wish the press would read it. Because it really explains who we are, who Trump supporters are. Who are, you know, red staters. It is so good at that. She's the best at that.