Glenn can’t believe his eyes: The Pentagon has announced a plea deal with the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and two of his accomplices. The deal would spare them from the death penalty if they plead guilty. “If there is anyone who deserves execution,” Glenn says, “I think it’s somebody who killed 3,000 people.” So, did the American soldiers who lost their lives in the 20-year War on Terror die for a PHOTO-OP?! And why wouldn’t the government go through with a real trial? Are they trying to hide something? And if that’s not concerning enough, the Biden administration has also announced a prisoner swap with Russia. While the U.S. will get back 2 people that Glenn wants to see freed — journalist Evan Gershkovich and former marine Paul Whelan — he wonders, who or what did Biden give Russia in exchange?
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: All right. So hello, Stu.
STU: Glenn how are you?
GLENN: Oh. Fantastic.
Now, I say that, with such a fervor. Because we have some good news.
Russia, just announced that they are releasing the Wall Street Journal reporter, Evan Gershkovich. And former US marine Paul Whelan. Now, these were -- this is part of a prisoner swap, that the US and Russia have just made. We don't know who they swapped, for these two. But I'm sure it was a favorable deal for us.
STU: Always is. Always is. I love your optimism, Glenn. That's the right way to do it.
GLENN: Thank you.
STU: We typically in these moments. What the administration wants us to do, is engage in a benefit analysis.
And I -- look, the benefit analysis is really good. I really want these people back. We talked about them a bunch of times. We highlight hostages that are kept in areas. Unlike other networks you might see at the bottom corner of our screen. American hostages, 299 days in Gaza.
We focus on this, everyone else seems to ignore them.
But the benefit analysis here is good. The problem may wind up being, when you do a cost-benefit analysis.
And we don't like to do that with policies. And we don't always like to look at hostages in that same way. It's difficult, of course. To look at it that way. But I am very worried as to what happened here. What did we give up? For these two hostages.
GLENN: Yeah. Yeah. Seeing that those details were not immediately available. I have a feeling it's probably not good.
Now, here's something else. I mean, these geniuses, they had their finger on the pulse of the American people.
And they're making good deals, really good deals. The next story that I've found, just kind of, well, fascinating. US lawmakers, are a little upset with the -- the Biden/Harris administration.
Plea deals have been reached now for the three Islamic terrorists who carried out 9/11. They -- prosecutors have entered into a pretrial agreement. These guys haven't been tried yet?
Pretrial agreement with 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shik Mohammaed (all phonetic) and Wali Mohammed Sali and Mubarak Bin Atash. Oh. And Mustafa Ahmed Adam Elharswi. Okay.
So what they've done is an exchange for the removal of the death penalty as a possible punishment. These three accused have agreed to plead guilty to all of the charge defenses including the murder of 200-0976 people listed in the charge sheet.
Now, if there is anyone that deserves execution, I think it's somebody who killed 3,000 people.
I think it might be somebody who, you know, perpetrated the largest terrorist attack, the world had seen.
But maybe not. You know, maybe we just went over, and we sent our troops over, because we didn't really mean it.
You know, we were just doing a photo op. Maybe all of those soldiers. Those US soldiers died for a photo op. Because I think that's what happened in Afghanistan. Right?
Wasn't that a big photo op. Wasn't that just something we did. And we were like, you know what, I'm kind of tired this. We have enough photos.
And so we just pull out. And it was a beautiful, beautiful exit, that we made.
Now, just to complete the circle, no death penalty for these guys.
So that's good.
STU: Not even the trial.
So if you are a family of someone who lost people, in 9/11. Many of these families are complaining about this.
They don't even get the questioning, they don't get the evidence. And they don't get a trial. A punishment.
They skip all of that, with -- potential inclusion in their closure process. That's all gone. He just gets to say I'm guilty. And that's over.
VOICE: What would be another reason, not to have a trial?
To just -- I mean, sure, saving money. And our government is so frugal.
STU: Uh-huh.
VOICE: Saving time. You know, because they put a lot of research into this.
Almost 25 years of research.
That's a speedy trial for you, don't you think?
And then, on top of that, what else could there be?
Why wouldn't the government want a trial?
STU: Hmm. I mean, I -- we can only venture guesses at such a thing. But some might think that if an entire trial were to go on, we might learn some things about how the government handled this situation.
Who they were dealing with.
GLENN: Oh.
STU: What arrangements were made. For -- for potentially government officials from other countries.
There's maybe something they might not want us to know about.
GLENN: Wow. I didn't even think about that. Wow, what a conspiracy theorist! By the way, speaking of conspiracy theorists.
The New York Times has an op-ed out.
Right-wing lawmakers. Oh, I'm sorry. This is not an op-ed. This is a story.
Right-wing lawmakers and candidates have made baseless suggestions, that the shooting was orchestrated by Democrats, or government actors who targeted former president Donald J. Trump. Representatives -- representative Eli Crane, an Arizona republic. And former Navy SEAL. Says, he's no conspiracy theorist.
But in the weeks, since the attempted assassination of Donald J. Trump. He has made the baseless suggestion that the shooting was part of a coordinated campaign by Democrats or shadowy government actors to try to stop the former president from reclaiming the White House. Not only did they try to bankrupt him. But they tried to put him in prison.
Mr. Crane told Orbitz, a right-wing radio personality in Arizona. When that didn't work, they tried to put him in prison for 750 years.
And many of us said the next step in this escalation is try to kill them, because they can't beat him fair and square.
An appearance on the Glenn Beck Program, Mr. Crane, who traveled to the Pennsylvania rally site where Mr. Trump was shot, to conduct his own investigation. Said, I don't want to be a conspiracy theorist.
But at the same time, I don't want to, you know, rule anything out. Because I don't put it past some of the people in our government to do anything necessary to hold on to power.
That is such a wild, baseless allegation.
That somebody in this vast government, would do something unethical. Or wrong. Or immoral.
To hold on to power. Or to shoot a guy, that they are convinced is Hitler!
How crazy is that!
I mean, that is just tinfoil hat, crazy.
STU: Yeah. How can you possibly blame people for having their minds warned to outlying possibilities. At this point.
I mean, I'm pretty sure I saw footage yesterday. Of the shooter building a Ferris wheel next to the speech grounds. And going to the top of it, to see if he can get a clear shot. And deconstructing it right in front of Secret Service officers. Everything that you could possibly think the guy was -- now he's just running back and forth on the roof in the background. And no one does anything.
I'm not -- I am saying.
GLENN: Hang on just a second. Play that video.
(applauding)
STU: You can see the head in the background in the white circle.
VOICE: The Republican Party.
STU: I mean, it's like. How -- it's inexplicable.
And this comes from a person, who is very skeptical of government competence. Like, I -- really, like, usually unfazed by government doing something pathetically incompetent.
And that does always almost explain everything. But it could be.
GLENN: And it could just be incompetence. It might be.
But to want consider that it might be something else. Is ridiculous.
Especially the way they've been behaving, on hoarding all of the information. And only releasing things when it seems to be good for them.
It is really not good.