RADIOSeptember 06, 2022

Jared Kushner: How Team Trump ‘CRACKED THE CODE’ in Middle East

One of the Trump administration’s biggest successes — and a win the far-left loves to ignore — was finding peace in the Middle East. And Jared Kushner, Former Senior Advisor to President Trump, played an integral role in it all. He joins Glenn to detail how he helped Trump ‘crack the code’ regarding the Middle East, the tactics used that were ‘contrary to conventional wisdom,’ and the one question he asked world leaders that helped the progress begin...

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Do you remember this from Saturday Night Live?

VOICE: I was sitting in my little Kushball. Jared Kushner.
Yeah, unbelievable.(applauding)(laughter)Jared, I've sent you all around the world to represent me. But no one has ever heard you speak. You're like a little Jewish homily.
GLENN: You know what's amazing, in the time, that guy went on to shoot somebody on the set and to kill him. Alec Baldwin, which I didn't see coming. And also, I don't think people saw coming, the Abrahamic Accords. Jared Kushner joins us now. And his -- and his new book, that is out breaking history. A White House memoir. Hello, Jared. How are you?
JARED: Doing great. Thank you for having me, and thank you for reminding me of that. That SNL skit, that was quite funny.
GLENN: I mean, they really hammered you. At one point, they put you in little short pants.
And I don't know about you. I think you've -- based on that response, feel the same way. When they first started mocking me on Saturday Night Live.
I thought, wow. I've made it somehow or another. Even if they're making fun of you.
That's great. Even better. But how everybody said, Jared Kushner, how could you possibly send him to the Middle East?
We've been trying to crack this code for 80 years now.
And yet, you did. Can you talk a little bit about what you write about in the book. About how you crack that?
JARED: Sure. Well, first of all, it was definitely a challenge, that when we got involved. I don't know. Maybe they thought I couldn't make it any worse, than all the professionals who had worked on it for decades before.
But what I did was I went there. And I write about this extensively in my book. About how my first year was spent listening. I was meeting with all the listeners. I was asking them questions. Which actually had a hard time processing at first. Because they were so used to not having these questions asked, which is America has so much power, to influence things. And we've done some things that actually have made this reach knew-in so much worse.
If you were in my shoes, what would you be doing?
And finally, it got to really interesting conversations. And I listened to everyone's point of view.
And I really realized that pieces about the future, and that you have to get people to focus on their joint interests. Let's put everyone on the same side of the table.
And then there were certain patterns that became very clear to me, that were contrary to what all the conventional wisdom was.
And there was one example I give in the book, where I was meeting with one of the great foreign policy academics, who is well respected.
And I played out for him my approach.
And I said to him, well, do you think I have a chance of succeeding? And he said, absolutely not. I said, why so negative?
He said, Jared, nobody has made any money betting on success in the Middle East in the last 25 years. So I like that you're bringing new ideas, but you just have no chance of being successful.
But ultimately, I think by building strong relationships, by thinking outside the box.
Again, I write a lot in this book about President Trump and my interactions with him, and my interactions with all the world leaders.
We took a fresh approach. We tried to be empirical. We tried to be pragmatic. We saw things for what they were. And again, we were ruthlessly criticized for the approach we took in the Middle East, up until it worked
GLENN: So in the book, you talked about David Friedman, and he's a bankruptcy lawyer in Manhattan.
And he suggested, and you guys decided to use -- to look at the Israeli Palestinian conflict, like a bankruptcy.
So can you explain that? And is it that you guys were not council of foreign relations. Years and years of the State Department, that you came from a business background, and had a totally fresh set of eyes?
JARED: So you have to always look at a situation, and put yourself in the other people's shoes, and try to figure out what are the fulcrum components that are driving a situation. So when we look at the situation. You know, you couldn't equate the Israelis and the Palestinians. One was a democracy, and one was a kleptocracy.
One had a super powerful military, one was basically just kind of a -- it was -- it was kind of a con job, at some point. And so we saw it for what it was. And we weren't trying to be balanced. We were trying to be honest. And I think that really -- really was distorting for a lot of people. So we saw that the whole Palestinian situation was, I think, billions of dollars of aid. It was never conditions based. And we basically said, like US foreign aid is not entitlement.
If we're going to give you this money, we want to see certain things happen. So we worked very hard over a couple of years, to do certain things. And, again, I give President Trump tremendous credit for what he did. Because when he moved the embassy, I take people into the situation room, and how he had opposition from Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense. The Intel community said World War III would occur.
And what he basically did was he calibrated all the different advice. He made a very measured decision, decided to go forward with it, despite the advice of everyone, that it would cause war.
He tasked me with reaching out to all the different leaders and saying, look, don't -- you can't cherry-pick your relationship with America. We're helping you with Iran. We're helping you with military. We're helping you with economy.
You know, don't mess around with this. So he made the decision. Everyone said the world was going to end. And what happened the next morning, the sun rose. The next evening, the sun set.
And the light moved on, and it was done.
And the same thing happened with the Iran Deal. So President Trump was starting to realize, that certain variables that people thought were fixed were fluid. And I give many examples in the book of these interactions, and how we moved around all these different elements, in order to create the opportunity for people to see the Israeli-Palestinian issue for what it really was.
And to see that it was really about leadership, trying to stay in power, so they could maintain the flow of funds, they had. And they had no interest of making the lives of their people better. I believe the job of a leader is to number one keep their people safe. And to number two, give them an environment where they can have opportunity to better their lives and their children's lives, and have hope and excitement for the future. And the Palestinian leadership was not doing that.
GLENN: So in your book, we're talking to Jared Kushner, in his book, Breaking History: A White House Memoir. You talk about one of the things that you were doing. And totally makes sense. You united the Middle East, because you recognized the common foe was Iran. And that kind of brought people together. And -- and when your dad, or when your father-in-law, the president, got out of Iran -- you know, the stupid, dangerous Iran peace deal. That made a difference.
How much of a role did that play? And what does it mean, that we are sitting down at the table with Iran now?
JARED: So the first deal in 2014 was probably the worst transactions, ever done. Maybe in the history of diplomacy.
And it just made absolutely no sense. Iran was on a glide path to a nuclear weapon.
They had gotten $150 billion in funds, that were basically now, they were using to -- to fund Hezbollah, Hamas, all these different people.
They were chanting death to America, death to Israel. It made absolutely no sense. But what it did, it kind of scared the Cochran of all of the Arab countries, to say, okay. This could be that bad. Actually, when we got there, they were starting to rebuild their relationship with China. And saying, look, when America went and did the deal with Persia, we were thinking, we had to teach our kids Chinese, because America was not dependable anymore. And we said, wait, guys.
Wait -- wait a minute. Calm down here. These -- these relationships that we've had with you guys have been long-standing many, many decades. We agree what happened here was terrible. But let's figure out a rational policy. What we did was we reimposed sanctions on Iran, we took their oil exports down from 2.6 million barrels a day to 100,000.
GLENN: Wow.
JARED: We really dissected their economy. And we -- we -- there were data foreign currency reserves, and we stopped. And what Trump said about Iran, is that they never won a war, but they never lost a negotiation.
So he figured out how to really create a better condition than what we inherited. And we really tried to give the incoming administration a much stronger hand, which was only buttressed that we had Iraq much more stable than what we got there. ISIS caliphate was eliminated.
And now we had the Abraham Accords. So all the way from Haifa, our goal was to try to create a place of security from Haifa to Muscat in Oman, and then get economic activity between it all, to basically show the Iranian people that there would be the opportunity for you to live a better life, if you joined into this. So instead of falling -- again, we had six peace deals in the last six months. I wrote about how we made those occur, instead, the administration runs and goes back to Iran on their knees, begging to make the old stupid deal.
And so it makes no sense to me. But, again, I think what you'll see in this book, is that we came with an outsider's perspective. We tried to bring common sense. And, again, we really broke the mold on a lot of issues, and did things contrary to what people, who were the conventional thinkers in Washington did. And why they did those things, decades before it got there. I didn't understand why they were going back to some of those things. Now that we've seen that those policies that were different now, are working. It makes absolutely no sense.
GLENN: We are going to be short on time. So I -- there's so many questions, I would like to ask you. For instance, you know if you would have thrown in bad stuff about President Trump, you would have made a fortune. And the left would have loved you, and left you alone.
And you didn't do it. Congratulations.
JARED: Yeah. I learned that the love of the left is something that is -- it's not worth what people think it is. I see people contorting themselves and saying certain things that they don't believe. Or not saying things that they don't believe. But the left has no loyalty. They turn on you in a second. And I think it's knew better to say the truth. And look, I do think that being in the White House, I saw so much information asymmetry, in terms of how we recovered and what we did. But, again, there was two currents in this book, that I tried to capture happening at the same time. One that we were under relentless attacks being accused of collusion with Russia, and treason. And then, you know, impeached for trying to investigate corruption in Ukraine. And attacked by the media.
And I tried to show what it was like, living through all that. But also getting all these things done. What President Trump, in office, we had inflation was low. Gas prices were low. Wages were rising. The wealth gap was shrinking. We had peace in Europe. We had peace in China. We were making great deals. We had them on their back foot. And it didn't all happen by accident. So I tried to take people inside the room. And the treaty deals. And negotiations with President Putin.
The negotiations with King Salman, the negotiations with President Xi. And how Trump used his unusual style, in order to achieve these outcomes. And at the end of the day, I find a lot of my friends, on the left, they hyper ventilate over different things that Trump will say. Or how they perceive it. But I think that results matter. And I want people to understand how those results were achieved. And it's been very disheartening for me to watch how, again, you put the government bureaucrats back in charge. And inflation is rising. We have a war in Europe. China is, you know, being provocative with Taiwan.
North Korea is firing off weapons. I write about how Trump was able to create the relationship with Kim Jong-un. And going to the DMZ. How he walked into North Korea. Nobody knows how that came about. And how it almost didn't happen, many, many times. So I wanted people to really understand, how he did the things. And why him being the way he is, empowered by -- and working with the right people around him, enabled him to accomplish so much.
GLENN: Your book is fascinating. And it -- and it -- I mean, it really is a thriller. All of the things you just laid out, it is -- it's a thriller.
Let me ask you one thing: Because there was parts of the book, that get very, very personal.
And one of my favorite parts is when you talk about your grandma. We've only got about two minutes. Your grandmother was 16 when the Nazis invaded Poland. Your family went from ghettos to mansions in three generations. Which is remarkable.
Can you talk a little bit about what your grandmother went through? And how that affected you with the Abrahamic Accords.
GLENN: Sure. So my grandparents were both in Belarus. And then the Nazis came in. My grandmother I write about how, in her town, they took a 50th of the educated Jews. They shot them in the head, the Nazis, and then they made the young women. Like my grandmother, clean the blood off of the stones. While they had other Jews playing instruments, to -- to celebrate it. It was a brutal experience. They joined the resistance fighters. The Woods. Out of a town of 10,000, 250 that escaped. And then ultimately, they got married in Hungary. They came over to America on a boat. I read about how my grandfather went to New Jersey. He was a carpenter.
He said he was afraid of heights, so he couldn't work in the buildings in Brooklyn. So they said, go to New Jersey. They have shorter buildings there. And it's just an amazing American story. And so I try to take people through that very quickly.
But I'll say that for me, you know, again, what I saw working in the White House, going from, you know, the son of a refugee. The grandson of refugees. Is that America is an absolute amazing country. It's plagued with incredible opportunity. We have amazing people. And what president tried to do with the administration, was to allow for the American dream to be prevalent, allow it for it to be deep, to give everyone an equal opportunity.
And I think that's what our policies do. For me to be able to work on the Abraham Accords, as a grandchild of Holocaust survivors. And I talk about my interactions with the Germans. Where I was actually disappointed that the lack of enthusiasm, and the lack of -- of engagement that they had with us, given that, you know, the whole plight that we still have in the Middle East. I explain how it really is a remnant of the post World War II anti-Semitism that existed. Because of the Holocaust. And because of the Nazis.
And so I just think that it was an amazing honor to do it. And it is an extraordinary story. And I really -- you know, I believe has his hand in everything we do. I am very, very -- big believer in that. And just very, very grateful for all these experiences.
GLENN: I agree.
JARED: And again, a lot of it was very difficult. I write in the first year about how I had to adjust, I was surrounded by a lot of complicated people. But I go through the lessons I learned. And I was trying to give people who never served in Washington, who -- who obviously have followed the Trump administration. Who followed politics. A real insight to what it was like to serve in Washington. What it was like to work in the White House. And what it's like to navigate. And all the lessons I learned. So that hopefully, businessmen will -- will continue to go and serve in government so we don't have the career political class that often is trying to keep power as opposed to making people's lives better.
GLENN: Jared Kushner, the name of the book is breaking history. If you don't know, where have you been? He was a former senior adviser to President Trump. And this book is really a thriller to see from the inside. What was going on. And how they did the things that they did.
By the way, you were nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. Please tell me you don't lose it to Greta Thunberg or --
JARED: No. I lost it to a journalist who nobody has ever heard of. But I guess I -- I guess they created more peace than we did.
GLENN: Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy.
JARED: You know, it's -- the peace is the prize. And I see every day -- you know, people send me pictures of Israeli fruit being sold in Emirati supermarkets, or new flights or new business deals being done.
GLENN: That's great.
JARED: And really reuniting Israelis and Muslims. It's just -- Jews and Muslims in the Middle East. It's such a beautiful thing. So the dividends from this, is staying forever, in terms of the positivity that it unleashed.
GLENN: Well, I think it was truly a miracle. I agree with you. God was in the center of that, and I can't thank you enough. Jared Kushner. Author of the book, Breaking History.
JARED: Oh, thank you so much.
GLENN: All right.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

"Everything is For Sale" — How the Cartels Control Mexico's Government

It is widely accepted that the cartels in Mexico not only control significant swaths of land, but they also have incredible influence over how the country's government operates. Border Expert Brandon Darby sits down with Glenn Beck to explain exactly why this is the case and what the Trump administration's strategy truly needs to be in order to crush these powerful cartels.

Watch Glenn Beck's FULL Interview with Brandon Darby HERE

We're being played. THIS is the REAL threat to America

Conservatives in America are being divided over the wrong things. Glenn Beck asks: Who’s the real threat to America: Sen. Mike Lee, who wants to sell 3% of federally-owned land to states and cities, or the rising radical communist wing of the Democratic Party, who recently chose Zohran Mamdani as their NYC mayoral candidate?

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: I want to talk to you about the enemy being clear. Crystal clear!

But I'm not sure to everybody.

I'm so sick and tired of us turning on each other.

We saw it with Elon Musk and Donald Trump. I like both men. Can we stop?

Thankfully, they did.

You're seeing it with Trump's bombing of Iran. Where you were either a Jew-loving Zionist or raging anti-Semite, or if you're me.

Both!

And then there's something that really caught me off-guard. The people who are turning on Utah Senator Mike Lee over a housing proposal, he's had this housing proposal since 2022.

But if you go on X, you're going to learn, apparently Mike Lee, one of the most Constitutional loving conservatives I know, wants to sell off our national parks and forest.

You know, he was probably in Coeur d'Alene lighting the matches, because he hates our forest so much. He wants to make sure you never get to hunt.

All he wants to do is take away your fishing and hunting rights. And build cheap housing complexes. Amazon warehouses. And whatever China and BlackRock want.

You know, I addressed this a few weeks ago. I invited Mike to clarify where he stands. Because some of my family are very concerned.

You can find the segments on my YouTube channel. Go and subscribe to my YouTube channel. Will you please? But since then, apparently, there's a crusade out to cancel Senator Lee.

There have been a few major updates. So today, let me just take a look at just the facts here, where we stand on this right now.

Over the weekend, Mike Lee decided to withdraw his federal land sale provision from the big, beautiful bill.

He said, quote, while this has been a tremendous amount of misinformation, and in some cases, outright lies about my bill. Many people brought forward sincere concerns.

Because of the strict constraints of the budget reconciliation process, I was unable to secure clear, enforceable safeguards to guarantee, these lands would never be sold.

Only to American families. Not to China. To not BlackRock.

And never to any foreign interests.

Wow! What a shill for the globalists, right?

Or maybe how it should work. Members of Congress propose something presented to the people. And then they listen to the community. Instead of just insisting, we have to pass it, to know what's in it.

And I didn't hear this kind of outcry for that!

Here's one of the bigger issues here. We're speaking two different languages.

A lot of criticism online is that Mike Lee wants to sell off our public lands!

Our public lands. Pragmatism to a lot of Americans, those lands are the lands we use for recreation. And hiking. And haunting. And fishing.

And things like that. That's whatnot he wanted to sell. And he promised to make that much clearer in the revised bill.

Now, let me remind you, on the public lands. President Biden, under his administration. The federal government was ordered to conserve 30 percent of our lands. And our waters by 2030. So apparently, our public lands are being gobbled up even more.

That's another, I think six percentage points. Another 6 percent of the entire land in the United States, going to be seized by the federal government, by 2030. And it falls directly in line with the UN's 30 by 30 plan.

It's an initiative for governments to seize 30 percent of all land and water by 2030. Now, do you think the UN wants to give you more hunting and fishing land?

Do you think they're all for that? Or do you think these radical environmentalists want to restrict your access in the name of fighting climate change?

By the way, current -- currently, the US government owns 640 million acres of land. That's nearly a third of the country. So they've almost met that 30 by 30 goal.

And they will meet it, and then what's next? The 50 by 50 UN goal.

And in order to seize the rest of the land, there's the Sustains Act that passed. Do you know about this? I didn't hear about any outcry for this.

Where was the right on this one? It was enacted in 2023, allows the government to receive private funds to advance conservation programs.

So BlackRock, if they wanted to, could buy up the conservation lands! Does your property contribute to pollination, photosynthesis. The air we breathe. The water we drink?

Well, as I -- as I exposed, on a show back in September, the Sustains Act allows all of that to be monetized through the relationship of private investors like Bill Gates. And the government!

And it occurs without the landowners permission.

So they can take your land. Or tell you exactly what you want to do, or what they want you to do on that land, what you cannot do on that land, because photosynthesis happens.

Where was I?

Where were you on that?

This is the real seizing of American assets.

This is the real seizing of American assets, by the global corporations. That you were all so afraid of!

Mike Lee, oh, my gosh.

What about the Sustains Act?

In his revised bill. Which he's still working on.

Lee has promised to remove all forest land. Good. Significantly reduce the amount of BLM land in the bill.

Good. Only land within 5 miles of population centers is eligible.

Yeah. But when he gets that, then he'll build buildings there, and then he'll have another five.

And next thing you know, he will be putting a cap on -- on Old Faithful.

He'll establish freedom zones to ensure these lands benefit American families. Ranchers. Recreational users. But there's a lot of claims online.

Whatever.

Charlie Kirk said, the Democrats -- this is their war on single family housing.

Hmm.

Do you remember when we talked on the program about the globalist plan of 15-minute cities. That all of BlackRock and everything else is for.

Remember when BlackRock came in, and just started buying up whole neighborhoods. Just priced every regular citizen out of the neighborhood.

Why?

Because it's part of the plan to pack the majority of humanity into easily controllable cities where everything you need is just 15 minutes away. And you never need a car. But is that the American dream?

Currently, rural land is getting so expensive. Most Americans can't afford rural land!

I know. I'm living in a place that has a population of 400 -- I think it's 51. Might have had a baby, so maybe it's 452. And nobody can afford it.

How is it possible you're living in the middle of nowhere, with a population of 451 people, and you can't afford a house!

The elites don't need Mike Lee's proposal. But take more of your land.

They're already doing that. But here's my biggest issue.

This is not about Mike Lee's proposal. Okay?

It's not.

There is a much bigger issue.

And I'll share that when I come back.

GLENN: Welcome to the Glenn Beck Program. So I was talking about federal -- I want to get off that. I want to change to, instead, what the real problem here is.

What the real problem is. The real problem on the seizing of the federal lands. Is that we are so quick to turn on ourselves.

We are so quick, lately, to turn on our -- our allies.

See, that's -- the issue isn't Mike Lee's proposal.

It's how fast we turn on each other!

If you believe Mike Lee's proposal didn't go far enough to safeguard our land from adversaries. Great!

That's fine. And, you know what, you won!

He's revamping that.

He listened.

The government listened. Good!

But can you say that without calling him a traitorous shill for the elites?

I mean, I don't know what traitorous shill for the elites that actually listens.

Do you?

Donald Trump Jr. He was against my plan. He thanked him over the weekend for pulling the proposal saying, quote, Mike is a great friend. And we usually agree on almost everything. But this was a rare exemption of where we didn't! Hello!

We don't need to hear people tear each other down. Who is our real enemy?

Who is -- who is more dangerous?

Can we go to -- can we go?

I don't have number on these, unfortunately. Six.

Seven, eight, nine, ten. Let's go to cut ten, please, on whiter neighborhoods.

VOICE: I realized there's a policy proposal, and I'm going to quote it for folks to shift the tax burden from overtaxed homeowners in the outer bureaus toward expensive homes in richer and whiter neighborhoods.

Explain why you are bringing race into your tax proposal.

VOICE: That is just a description of what we see right now.

It's not driven by race.

It's more of an assessment of what neighborhoods are being undertaxed versus overtaxed. We've seen time and again, that this is a property tax system that is inequitable. It's one that actually Eric Adams ran on, saying that he would change in the first 100 days.

He since sought to defend it, and lost at every juncture in court.

VOICE: And I understand, you're saying, we're simply describing the types of neighborhood that would see these increases in taxes.

And yet by invoking race, do you run the risk of potentially alienating key constituents.

STU: I think I'm just naming things as they are. And ultimately, my -- the thing that motivates me in this, is to create a system of fairness.

It's not to work backwards from an original assessment of our neighborhood or our city. Rather, it's to ensure that we actually have an equal playing field.

And right now, what we see with the property tax system, is one that is overtaxing a number of New Yorkers and undertaxing others. And inability of political will to resolve that.

VOICE: So no plans to change that language on your website?

VOICE: The focus here is to actually ensure a fair property tax system, and the use of that language is an assessment of the neighborhood.

GLENN: Just want it to be fair. Just want it to be fair. Play the next cut. This is Mamdani, by the way, the candidate in New York, that looks like he might win, to become the next mayor of New York. Next cut.

VOICE: You are a self-described democratic socialist. Do you think that billionaires have a right to exist?
(laughter)

VOICE: I don't think that we should have billionaires, because frankly it is so much money, in a moment of such inequality.

And ultimately, what we need more of is equality across our city, and across our state, and across our country.

And I look forward to work with everyone. Including billionaires. To make a city that is fair for all of them.

GLENN: Wow!

That is fantastic.

We shouldn't have billionaires.

Hmm. So how would we get there?

What would be his ultimate goal?

Listen.

VOICE: Do you like capitalism?

VOICE: No. I have many critiques of capitalism.

And I think ultimately, the definition for me, of why I call myself a Democratic Socialist.

Is the words of Dr. King decades ago. He said, call it democracy, or call it democratic socialism.

There must be a better distribution of wealth for all of God's children in this country.

And that's what I'm focused on, is dignity and taking on income inequality. What the purpose is about, about this project, is not simply to raise much consciousness, to win socialism.

And obviously raise class consciousness. We were a part of that. But making sure that we have candidates that both understand that and are willing to put that forward, at every which moment they have.

Every which moment that they are given.

We have to continue to elect more socialists. And we have to ensure that we are unapologetic about our socialism. And there are also other issues that we firmly believe in.

Whether it's BS -- right? Or whether it's the end goal of seizing the means of production, where we don't have the same level --

GLENN: Wait. Can you say that again for me?

Whether it's the end goal of ceasing is the means of production.

Let me ask you the question: Which is more dangerous to our country, and our heritage?

Is it the -- the senator?

That controversial maybe. Says 3 percent of federal land should be transferred back to the states?

Or is it the politician standing at a modem declaring, you know, not in some offhanded gap, that he has a real problem with capitalism. That he wants to tax white neighborhoods. That he wants to get rid of billionaires. And seize the means of production.

Now, for those who studied history. I don't need to tell you why your blood has suddenly run cold. Seize the means of production, that's not economic theory.

That is a revolutionary war cry. It always has been. It's the heart of Lenin, of Marx, of Mao. Of Gulags. Of five-year plans. A food line. Total state control. It is the slogan, whispered in the barracks of all of the camps.

Printed on the walls of the Khmer Rouge Torture cells.

That's not American. That's not a goal any of us should look for. But let's take down Elon Musk.

Let's -- let's take down our FBI.

Let's -- let's take down Mike Lee. Let's take down Tucker Carlson. Let's take down at the scene. Because we don't have enough enemies. Riley rightfully, somebody on this program, asked around on this time, on Friday. Glenn, why did you have Steve Bannon on? This is why I had Steve Bannon. We have enough enemies, don't we?

Can we find people we generally agree with, maybe 80 percent. Even if that 20 percent is massive!

If I'm going to be friends with anybody, for the times I'm going to be friends with.

Then I have to say, I part with you here.

You will have to go on your own way. But when you come back to this, I'm with you.

We are -- we are being -- our college campuses, the floor of our own legislative bodies. As if it were another just regular day in paradise of America.

You know, let me -- we want to talk about highway funding and seizing the means of production.

Wait. What?

Meanwhile, the man who says, we should return a tiny sliver of public land. Land that Washington hoards like a miser. While local communities struggle to pay for schools and police.

Why you can't afford a house!

That's an extremist. A radical. A threat. But this guy, I don't see anybody on the right, really standing up against this guy. Where is the big movement against this guy? It's almost as if, that whole federal lands thing, was orchestrated. And so many of our side played right into it!

That man who says, let the states manage their own forests, their own minerals, their own resources.

Just give us 3 percent of our land, so we can actually have a tax base, so we can build some houses there that people can afford. Let's make sure that the land is controlled by the people, who are closest to that land.

Let them be the stewards of it. Not the bureaucrats 2,000 miles away, who have never set foot in a pine thicket, or a desert mesa.

Which one is more in line with the Constitution? Which one is our bigger enemy here? Which one echoes Jefferson's belief in a government closest to the people? Which upholds the vision of the Founders who feared centralized power, more than foreign armies. Which one is calling for the seizing of the -- of the production?

You know, not all ideas are morally equivalent.

We're not dealing here with difference of opinion on tax rates. Or zoning codes.

One wants to give power back to the states.

And, you know what?

People rose up, and said, I don't like that idea.

So that idea has to be closed and forfeited.

Great! But where are the people standing up saying, seizing the means of production?

This guy wants to take control of your factory. Your farm.

Your business, your labor.

One believes in federalism. The other believes in collectivism. One respects the individual as a moral agent of society. And the other sees the individual as a cog in the great machine of the state that's just going to make utopia. Because they always do!

As you just -- you just can't see it. Because you're behind the barbed wire fence!

When somebody shrugs and says, you know, both sides are really pretty extreme. You know, it's time we say, no, no, no, no.

It's that kind of false equivalence that got us into this mess. That's how the frog stays in the pot as the water slowly boils. You know what, they're both really kind of extreme, no, they're not. No, they're not.

If you believe in America, is a place where rights are granted by God, not government.

Where property is yours. It is sacred!

The fruits of your labor belong to you. That we cannot pretend these are equal threats.

Because they're not. Because one man questions how much land the federal government should own.

The other questions whether you should be allowed to own anything at all!

If the government should not own everything!

Which one is dangerous? Which one snuffs out your rights?

It's not about land. This is all about economics. It's about freedom. And history has already told us where these roads lead.

One road leads to liberty. One road leads us to having a discussion and a debate.

Without calling each other names and killing one another.

The other road doesn't allow debate. And if you try to debate, you're disappeared, or you're killed! One leads in liberty, one ends in chains!

What do you say, we -- we have enough enemies. Why do we need to turn on ourselves? And do you think there's a possibility that the communist, the socialist, the anarchist, the Islamist will all band together, to destabilize the Middle East. Europe, come America to destabilize that, to end the Western world. Do you think there's a chance you're being played?

Because I do. And I refuse to be played. I'm not a moron. And neither are you.

See, here's the thing. This is why, when Ben Shapiro says, facts don't care about your feelings. This is why that's so important.

Because they've hit an emotional spot with you. They've hit a spot of, they're going to take my right away to fish or to hunt.

And that's not what he was doing. But that's what it turned out to be. Our sacred public lands.

It's not what he was talking about.

And if it was, he's not talking about it now.

He wants to make it very, very clear. Exactly what he was talking about.

But see, the idea of going hunting and fishing and hiking. And these glorious places.

We all love that.

I mean, I don't like to actually -- I like to hunt. I don't like to fish.

I don't like to be outside, really.

But I love the lands. I love to be in an air-conditioned car, driving through Yellowstone, going, wow. Look at that. And look at that moron, trying to feed the car, to feed the buffalo.

That's going to be fun to watch.

Why are we so emotional, about that? When it's not really what the argument is about. And it's coming from our friends, when we really should have listened more and had a conversation.

And we're not emotional about someone who says, the end goal is to seize production.

Seize the means of production.

That's Karl Marx!

Why is that one not emotional for us?

Why is it we cannot see the actual enemy?

“General Lee” stuntman REVEALS ALL about the fountain jump

A stuntman took the internet by storm when he jumped a "Dukes of Hazzard" General Lee replica over a fountain in Somerset, Kentucky. The driver, Northeast Ohio Dukes founder Raymond Kohn, joins Glenn Beck to reveal what happened behind the scenes, why he did the jump, and where he wants to jump next (hint: it would involve President Trump)!

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: There was something just amazing that happened over the weekend in Somerset, Kentucky. It was like a Dukes of Hazzard Show.

Thirty-five thousand people gathered together, to line the streets of Somerset, as a very brave driver, who you're going to meet here in a second. Raymond Kohn. Raymond Kohn got into a car. Was an old Dodge Charger?

He jumped over the historic fountain, in the center of the town.

Can we play a little bit of this, if you happen to be watching?

GLENN: I mean, that is just crazy. It just makes me proud to be American, in a very strange sort of way. I don't even know why. It's just so satisfying. The world is on fire, and you're like, yes! We still got it. Raymond Kohn is on with us now. He is the founder and lead stuntman from the northeast Ohio dukes. And they -- they do this kind of stuff all the time. Raymond, welcome to the program.

How are you?

RAYMOND: Thank you for having me, Glenn. I am great.

I feel like a million bucks.

GLENN: Do you really?

When I saw you land, I thought, ow, my back. Ow, my back. It didn't hurt coming down?

RAYMOND: Well, you know what, we are thankful that the legendary stuntman who inspired me to do this. Like the late great Al White Jr. Ted Barba. Corrie Uvey. Jumping John Kid. (all phonetic)

These are the guys who risk everything, back in the '80s on the set of the Dukes of Hazzard, to figure out, how we can do this safely without killing ourselves.

GLENN: I've got to say -- I have to say, I saw a video from the -- from in front of you, as you landed.

And you hit a wall. And you're just tearing through this wall.

And there is a photographer, that is in front. Did you see him, and think, get out of the way, dude! Almost killed him.

RAYMOND: Yeah. So Centerville is our producer. His series that follows us in -- like a global episode, of what we do.

And Mike Cullvich (phonetic) is the -- the -- the executive producer, and that was him there.

And they carefully --

GLENN: Oh, my gosh.

RAYMOND: They know the risks. They know the risks.

He had a little -- just in case, if I go to the left or to the right, that he would be able to squeeze through.

And he did!

So all of the spectators. They were safe.

They were at a safe distance.

You know, we can't do the jump, if we're out there risking people's lives.

And with the help of the summer night crews, the city of Somerset, all the police and fire and EMS, everybody worked together with my team.
I have the best crew in the world.

And, yes, I am the driver that does the jump. And, you know what, we had to build that tarp.
We had to build that tarp, and there was a team of us. And my crew was so great.

They said, look at everything -- we'll get everything done.

Relax. They knew I was nervous.

You know, and they know that my team -- you couldn't ask for a better stunt team.

GLENN: I have so many questions for you.

But let me start here. Before we go too much further away from the town.

Who the hell is the mayor of the city council?

I love these guys.

I can't think of another city in America, that would be like, yeah. We got that historic you fountain, right downtown.

Yeah. Go ahead.

RAYMOND: America is back, baby. I'm telling you. You couldn't have been telling -- from the Dukes of Hazzard. Forty-five years. Forty-seven years after the show ended.

GLENN: Oh.

RAYMOND: I'm telling you, people love -- from all walks of life, people love the Dukes of Hazzard, they love the General Lee.

Listen, if there was -- if there was ever a non-racist TV show for all, it was the Dukes of Hazzard. And that's my main goal.

My pain goal is to get this TV show back on television, that way, we have our children. And our grandchildren. Watching a TV show that has family values good.

GLENN: Okay. So let me -- let me -- one more question on this, before I -- what the hell is wrong we?

When did you decide, this is what I want to do with my life?

RAYMOND: Okay. So I was always a fan. I was born in '77. The show came out in '79. And I loved that big orange car. I loved that car.

GLENN: So great. So great.

RAYMOND: So in 2005, I watched legendary stuntman Corey Spence jump over my roscoe cart. By my police car that I have.

They jumped over it, at the very first General Lee jump site, in Oxford College, in -- in Georgia.

And that's when I got bit by, what I called the stunt bug.

And I was like, I've got to do this. I've got to do -- if I on me do it once, I've got to do it.

And this was my 30th General Lee jump.

For our 30th -- Detroit. We jumped the General Lee downtown Detroit. And then for our 30th, we're jumping over the historic fountain in Somerset, Kentucky.

GLENN: I don't know. This is different. You know, downtown Detroit, you crash into buildings. There's nobody around.

Oh, well.

In Somerset, Kentucky, though. It's just a different thing.

Okay. Let me -- let me -- I think this is amazing.

In looking into you, while the jump is phenomenal. And makes you feel good. What you have gone through in the last few years, is even more amazing.

You had a -- a rare brain surgery, right?

A rare hormonal disorder, that you were like, living another classic TV show, the hulk!

You -- it was changing you, right?

Tell me about this!

JASON: Yeah. So in 2015, I started to feel a lot of pain in my knees, and my elbows.

I started noticing my voice was changing.

My face was changing. And then here comes, hey, Ray. You have to give up blood pressure medicine. You're prediabetic.

You're 335 pounds.

You know, I was always around 220 pounds.

And so nobody -- because -- it's over a long, long, long period of time.

The people that are in my life, every day, they couldn't see the changes.

You know, but the people I haven't seen Ray in a year or two years. You look different, Ray.

You know, and so I went to our local dermatologist, because I started getting these creases in my head. It's bad enough. I'm bald. What are these lines in my head now?

So the dermatologist, she said, let me see your hands. Yeah. You have big hands.

Yeah. Every time I shake somebody's hands. It's like shaking hands with a cinder block.

GLENN: Like banana hands.

JASON: Yeah. My feet went from a size ten to 12.

I had to get a 2X helmet. Because my helmet wouldn't fit.

GLENN: Wait. Wait. Wait pick up wait.

Did you think you were ideas just gaining weight. Or did you know it was something more?

You weren't starving yourself, were you?

RAYMOND: Yeah. Because heavy stunt drivers don't make good stunt drivers. You get hurt a lot easier. It's a lot more weight.

GLENN: Of course.

RAYMOND: All of my loved ones and my crew. It's the jumps are tearing you up.

I'm like, no. No. No. No. It's not the jumps. Don't blame the jumps.

So I said, okay.

So went to the doctor. They said, go give this blood work. You may have something serious going on.

The blood work came back. My growth hormone was 900. 900. Now, normally it was 70 to 270. I'm 47 years old, and I'm still a grown boy!

So that opted for me, to get the -- or, the -- yeah, the MRI of my brain. To scan. And say, I had a 9-millimeter tumor on my 10-millimeter pituitary gland.

And we can have it on my body. And the surgeon, up in the Cleveland Clinic said, Raymond, if we don't get this out of you, it's going to kill you.

And my wife is crying. My daughter is crying.

The first thing that came to my lips was, can I still jump the General Lee after the significant other?

And the doctor said, yes, yes. And I'm like, okay. Let's do does this surgery. Let's get the thing out of my head. And then as soon as I was okay, we went up to the radical speech board in Canada. Joe came up there. We did the first international General Lee jump in front of like 30,000 people up there. And it was awesome.

I'm telling you. I'm living the dream, man. I can't believe this is happening to me.

All because of a TV show, called the Dukes of Hazzard.

GLENN: I have to tell you, I have to put an event together, just because I want to invite you to jump the General Lee over something.

We have to do --

JASON: Glenn, we want. We want to build an American patriot be General Lee.

And we want to put like, you know, 47, 45 on the doors. Put a big old American flag on the roof.

And we will call it The Jump for Trump 2045, and we want to jump in front of the White House. That's what we want to do.

GLENN: That's fantastic.

I'll bring it up to him. If there's any president that will do it. It will be him. He told me a story. He will probably do it on the White House grounds.

RAYMOND: Again, that would be awesome. He would want to do that.

GLENN: He told me a story, he said, you know, about the flagpoles. And he said, you know, he was afraid that all of the -- you know, all of the paperwork and, you know, government everything.

And he wanted to build a ballroom, and put the flagpoles up.

And he went to the guy at the White House, who runs everything at the White House. The architect.

And he said, so what is the paperwork like? And he said, you know, Mr. President, the White House belongs to the president while he's there.

So there's no paperwork. You would have to be the one that would sign all of it. And he's like, this is great.

I bet he could build that jump!

I bet he could build that jump, without any permits.

That is so fantastic.

JASON: In a few weeks. My team --

GLENN: That's fantastic.

JASON: We can build a great American -- they'll give us the panels to make the car, red, white, and blue. Big old American flag theme.

GLENN: That's fantastic.

RAYMOND: We'll call it the jump for Trump. We love Trump! The jump for Trump, and we will rock the White House.

GLENN: It is so great. I will bring it up to him. I will make sure he sees it, okay?

That is fantastic.

But listen, if he takes you up. I have to be there. I have -- you have to get me invited.

RAYMOND: Yeah. Glenn, I would be honored to put a passenger side seat in the car, and you can ride with me.

GLENN: No. No, no, no. No, no.

RAYMOND: Come on!

GLENN: I saw you come down, and my back -- I have a really bad back. And all I could really think of was, ow. Ow. That must have hurt.

RAYMOND: No. Last year, I hit the ramp at 72 miles an hour. I slide 200 at 17 feet. That's the longest General Lee jump in front of a large audience. And I landed a flat on all four wheels.

Had it not been for the safety equipment. That the legendary stuff that came up.

I would have either been killed or worse, paralyzed for the rest of my life.

And it's because of that safety equipment.

I'm not even sitting on the -- I'm painting from the ceiling with bungee cords.

GLENN: Unbelievable. Unbelievable.

I've got to meet you. I've got to meet you, Ray? Just --

RAYMOND: Let's jump in the White House. Let's jump in the White House.

GLENN: Thank you. Raymond. Northeast Ohio. Dukes founder and lead stuntman. You can find the website, north -- northeast Ohio.
Dukes.net.

Ray, we'll talk again. Thank you so much, God bless you, man.

RAYMOND: God bless you. God bless, America.

Introducing 'The Torch'

Tough news week. Tough news month. Always, it seems, another five-alarm fire, or the spotting of arsonists that no one will pay attention to.

The people who watch and support this show—you—are extraordinary.

You don’t just consume information; you act. You don’t just care—you sacrifice. And I’ve seen the receipts. In the last decade alone, you’ve given over a quarter of a billion dollars through Mercury One to help people in crisis.

You didn’t just write checks. You showed up.

Over 45,000 of you volunteered—some of you driving across states, organizing your churches, bringing your kids along—to take part in the largest single volunteer effort completed in one weekend.

That’s not normal. That’s rare. That’s powerful.

You launched The Nazarene Fund, rescuing over 260,000 people from persecution. You funded the largest civilian airlift in history to get Americans and our allies out of Afghanistan.

You’ve changed lives.

You’ve shaped history.

So when people ask me, “Glenn, what more can I do?” my answer is always the same:

First, look at what you have already done. Do you realize how far ahead you are of most Americans? Then start where you are. That feeling inside you—that restlessness, that pull to do something more—isn’t random. It’s a calling. But with everything that is happening in the world, it is hard to keep up as well as keep your chin up.

I get it. I’m tired of the bad news, too.

I’ve spent my life digging through it so you wouldn’t have to. But we must know what is happening and what is ahead. And while next year I’m not walking away from the radio or the stories that matter—in fact, I will be doubling down,

I’ve also told you for nearly two years: I feel something shifting. I feel like I’ve been called to something more. I have only felt this twice in my life—after I sobered up and just before I left Fox.

On January 1st, that “something” begins. I’ve named it The Torch. We started the blaze together; now it is time to take that bit of fire and light the way to a brighter future for our kids.

I wish I could tell you every detail today—but the truth is, some things are still being built, beta-tested, and negotiated. And some things I just can’t tell you until later this year. But here’s what I can tell you:

At its core, The Torch is about education, but not the kind that comes from textbooks or bureaucracies. It’s about self-directed learning rooted in history, liberty, faith, philosophy, and personal responsibility. It’s the kind of education that changes lives—and civilizations.

You’ve heard me say it before: If we want better kids, we have to become better adults. If we want stronger communities, we have to first strengthen ourselves. And if we want truth to survive, we have to fight for it—intelligently, faithfully, daily.

That’s what The Torch is:

A daily connection.

A movement.

A mission.

One part of it will be the culmination of almost a decade of hard work. It will include a new kind of museum—physical and digital—preserving the story of America in ways most museums never could.

You’ll learn through original artifacts, original sources, and real stories from real people who are doing real things. Right now, every summer, we hand-pick around 100 young adults from over 1,000 applications to spend two weeks with us in this kind of immersive learning. Now, for the first time, we’re building a way for anyone, anywhere in the world, in any language, to do the same.

We’re partnering with people of faith, business leaders, educators, innovators—people who know the truth and know how to live it. And they’re coming together not to sell you something, but to empower you.

I’m not asking for anything today—not money, not a sign-up, not a download. Just your attention. Stay connected. Watch what’s coming. I promise you: this is worth your time.

If you want to be one of the first to sign on, join the newsletter at glennbeck.com. But only if you’re serious about discovering your purpose—and lighting a fire that doesn’t go out.

Because we don’t just need new tools or new platforms—we need a renewal of the human spirit. That’s what The Torch is. That is my next mission.

And I hope, when the time comes, you’ll carry it with me.

For future updates on this mission, sign up for my newsletter, and read more background here.