Glenn Beck satirizes plastic straws as a global threat before defending CNN's Caitlin Collins against White House access denial and analyzing a temporary U.S.-EU trade truce. He interviews Dan Abrams regarding Lincoln's 1859 trial and defends Elon Musk against fraud allegations, citing Tesla's success and SpaceX achievements despite $4.9 billion in subsidies. The episode concludes by honoring Major Eric King through Operation Finally Home while speculating that the Toronto mass shooting involved white Christian extremists rather than terrorism. [Automatically generated summary]
I mean, what is the number one threat to America and the world?
Come on.
Say with me, plastic straw.
Plast, right?
Plastic straws.
I knew you knew it.
The plastic straws.
It's a catastrophe.
Especially the extendable bendy kind of straws.
I mean, love them as a kid, sure, but then you find out how evil they are.
They are the worst because, yes, they're fun and make people want to use a straw, even if one is technically not necessary.
Now, I didn't get the specs on when a straw is necessary and when it isn't, but those bendy straws, they're the best.
Now, we use plastic straws one at a time and then we throw them away.
We just toss them out.
When I was a kid, sometimes we would take more than one and we would use more than one, but we'd still throw them away.
And every single discarded straw in America ends up in the ocean.
Now, I believe it's part of the Republican Party platform to ensure that all straws are dumped directly into the ocean.
You know, along with plastic bags and those plastic six-pack ring thingies.
I don't know what those are called.
I think I'm, that's technically it.
Ring thingies?
Ring thingies.
Yeah, okay.
Because Republicans hate nature and everyone knows this.
So the plastic straws end up forming giant straw masses the size of icebergs that float around just looking for another ship like the Titanic to sink and menacing small islands, boating enthusiasts, and even nuclear submarines.
Oh yes, don't laugh.
Straw islands.
They can be taken down by them.
Now don't ask me how, but trust me, it happens.
These plastic straw icebergs are large enough to be seen from space.
In fact, astronauts report that they have made the mistake of spotting a floating straw iceberg and thought it was Hawaii.
It wasn't.
Straws.
Now don't forget the aquatic life, and that's really much more important than anything else we've talked about here.
The aquatic life that is going extinct because of plastic straws.
It's straw Mageddon.
It really is.
Dolphins are being decimated by the straws clogging up their blowholes and octopuses, which I always thought it was octopi, but it is technically octopuses.
Octopuses can't squirt ink now because the ink squirter is all blocked by straws.
It's horrific.
Discovery Channel is even talking now about canceling Shark Week because sharks all have tummy aches because, yes, they've been eating plastic straws, you know, because there's no more fish to eat and they're all dying from straws and everybody knows it.
But the evil Republicans won't do a damn thing about it.
Now, since Americans use 500 million plastic straws every day, 500 million plastic straws every day, just in this country.
I think Republicans actually use more than that themselves, but it is clear just looking at that number that we're all about to die.
500 million straws per day just in America?
That's a huge number.
And virtually every major media outlet has cited that stat as a fact.
And so we know it is until it's not.
Because NPR, of all sources, did some digging.
Turns out that 500 million straws that America uses every day, that number just came from a young environmentalist named Milo Kress.
Now, when I say young, well, he was younger when he was, you know, when it was seven years ago.
That's when he first cited this stat.
And, you know, how old were you?
How old were you seven years ago?
You know, what were you doing?
You know, Milo was in the fourth grade.
So when he found that stat, well, he didn't actually find that stat.
He couldn't find any stats on how many straws were used each day in the U.S.
So he just called straw manufacturers around the country and said, hey, how many straws do you think America uses?
And they said, oh, a billion.
Some said 100 million.
And he decided that 500 million, they're in the fourth grade.
Sounded right.
So now major companies like Starbucks routinely make million-dollar decisions, like their decision to ban plastic straws, based on research data from fourth graders, which is, you know, which is really great.
And Starbucks has banned the plastic straw, which is also really good, except don't pat yourself on the back just yet, Starbucks, because the lid that you made to replace the evil straw is twice as bad, you know, in the amount of Moby Dick Tummy Killer's plastic.
It's got twice the amount of plastic as a straw.
So bucks lids.
America just discards directly into the eye of an octopus.
It's coming soon.
And believe me, the press will accept it.
It's Thursday, July 26th.
You're listening to the Glenn Beck program.
I mean, isn't that just like them?
So typical.
Twice as bad as straws.
And everybody's petting themselves.
Oh, we got rid of the straws.
You made a lid that is twice as bad.
It's unbelievable.
It's not surprising at all.
So I guess maybe it's not unbelievable.
Yeah.
But it is incredible.
I like to, I've heard now, I don't know if this is true, but a second grader called me a little while ago and said that a lot of those lids are ending up right in the tear ducts of zebras.
Really?
Yeah.
Oh my gosh.
Let's report that as fact.
Well, we already have.
It's on the radio now.
And if I put it on the internet, then you'll have second source material for that.
Right.
So that's right.
So that'll be good.
Danny And Annie Found Love00:10:21
Now we have a lot to talk about.
We have this stuff that's going on with CNN and the White House, and now Brett Baer is being, you know, just killed online.
Oh, Brett Baer is sold out.
Brett Baer has sold out?
Come on.
Now, there's this kickup of dust with the White House.
And quite honestly, the best way to explain what's happening with the First Amendment is to explain to you what's happening with the Second Amendment.
And we'll get to that here in just a second.
But I wanted to start with something different today.
I wanted to start with something, I don't know, a little more personal.
I heard something from StoryCorps.
And I don't know if you listen to that podcast at all, but probably not because it's from NPR.
And so it's a serious, it says NPR, and you're like, no, no.
But I listen to Storycore because I think these guys are, I think they're really good at what they do.
And what they do is they go and they record people having conversations, honest conversations.
They put up these booths and people come in and they say, I just want to record my thoughts about whatever's going on.
And they have a gigantic library now of all of these voices.
And they will someday in history be really important.
And one of the things that they did in, I think, 2006, and they've done several of them, was this story between Danny and Annie.
It's this old couple.
And they went in to record their story one day, and everybody fell in love with them.
And so Danny kept calling, and he wanted to do more Storycore.
And so he would come in from time to time.
And then there was one last episode of Danny and Annie.
And it was about their love for one another on over the weekend.
You know, I've just got I've got all these weird things that are just I don't know.
But I could barely use my hands over the weekend.
And I've had to pack my hands in ice for the last few days and sleep with ice bags around my hands.
And it's been really weird.
And you know what?
I think my wife is looking at me now going, I think I made the right choice.
I think when there was the whole selection of men to marry, I think I made the right choice.
And I couldn't do it without my wife.
I would be totally lost without Tonya.
So yesterday I'm coming in and I'm listening to this story of StoryCorps and Danny and Annie.
And at the same time I'm listening to this, I look up at the TV and there's a picture that had gone viral of these two people and they were in their 80s and they were on a subway in New York.
And the old man who looked like an old man and the old woman who looked like an old woman, they're sitting next to each other on the subway and they're practically in the same seat.
And they're holding hands and he has his head down and his eyes closed.
And she is sitting right next to him and she has pressed her forehead next to the side of his forehead.
And I thought, I want to live long enough to have that experience with Tanya.
I want to be old and gray and I want her to be old and gray.
And I want to be the couple that is still in love with each other.
Like kids in love.
With that in mind, let me share a bit of the story of Danny and Annie from Storycorp.
Being married is like having a colour television site.
You never want to go back to black and white.
Oh, what a voice.
Danny and Annie came back to Storycore many times.
Then in 2006, he was diagnosed with cancer.
He wanted to record one last interview, so StoryCorps went to their home in Brooklyn.
The illness is not hard on me.
It's just, you know, the finality of it.
And him, he goes along like a trooper.
She said it was her call.
She wants to walk out behind the casket alone.
I guess that's the way to do it because when we were married, you know how your brother takes it down, your father takes you down?
She said, well, I don't know which of my brothers to walk in with.
I don't want to offend anybody.
I said, I got a solution.
I said, you walk in with me, you walk out with me.
And the other day, I said, who's going to walk down the aisle with you behind the casket?
You know, the supporter.
And she said, nobody.
I walked in with you alone.
I'm walking out with you alone.
I always said the only thing I have to give you is a poor gift, and it's myself.
And I always gave it.
And if there's a way to come back and give it, I'll do that too.
You have the Valentine's Day letter there.
Yeah.
My dearest wife, this is a very special day.
It is a day on which we share our love, which still grows after all these years.
Now that love is being used by us to sustain us through these hard times.
All my love, all my days, and more.
Happy Valentine's Day.
I could write on and on about her.
She lights up the room in the morning when she tells me to put both hands on her shoulders so she can support me.
She lights up my life when she says to me at night, wouldn't you like a little ice cream?
Or would you please drink more water?
I mean, those aren't very romantic things to say, but they stir my heart.
In my mind, in my heart, there has never been, there is not now, and never will be another end.
There is nothing like marriage.
When you find the right person, don't let them go.
My daughter, when she was in college, she fell in love with her husband now, Tim.
And we were driving into the city, and she was sitting in the back seat, and I was driving, and I said, Do you love him?
She said, Dad, I love him so much.
He's the one.
And I said, Then why aren't you?
Why haven't you married him?
She said, because dad, you know, I mean, you know what society thinks, and you know, I'm young and I'm in college and, you know, you're not supposed to do that.
And I didn't say anything for a while.
And I said, I can't believe my daughter cares about what the rest of the world thinks.
If you've found the right one, there is nothing better than marriage.
My father told me once, he said, son, make a list.
Make a list of everything that you're looking for in a spouse.
Write it down.
Put it in front of you.
The mind is like a beacon, and you will attract those things that you are looking for, whether you know you're looking for them or not.
So be very careful of your thoughts.
I was about to ask Tanya to marry me.
And she said no the first time.
But I found that list.
It was about three years old.
And I found that list.
And if I had any doubts, which I didn't, she was everything that I had written down.
If you are, if you have forgotten what it was like when you first fell in love with the person that is by your side and you are rolling over in bed at night and you kind of kiss each other off to the side and you turn off your light.
Bump Stocks And Second Amendment Rights00:14:50
Spend some time today just trying to remember what it was that first captivated you, because there is nothing like last night when my wife came to bed.
Our backs were to each other.
And she just reached over and grabbed my hand.
And we fell back to sleep, holding hands.
There is nothing more important than that.
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I'm so glad you've joined us today.
Thank you so much.
I've got this thing that I've wanted to talk to you about on Elon Musk for, I don't know, almost a whole week now.
We've got to get to that today.
I also want to talk to you about Iran and Russia, but we have to talk about the CNN scandal with the Trump administration and the First Amendment.
Also, power in California versus Texas.
Huh.
Why is it cheaper here in Texas than it is in California?
Lessons to be learned.
Coming up.
This is the Glenn Beck program.
All right.
So a press release came out yesterday from CNN.
CNN White House correspondent Caitlin Collins was denied access to cover an open press event at the White House.
After posing questions to President Trump earlier in the day as the network pool reporter, Collins was told by White House Press Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications Bill Schein and the press secretary Sarah Sanders that her questions were inappropriate.
They were not.
Just because the White House wasn't comfortable with a question regarding the news of the day doesn't mean the question isn't relevant and shouldn't be asked.
That decision to bar the member of press is retaliatory in nature and not indicative of an open and free press.
We demand better.
Okay.
So what was this all about?
Well, here is the raw tape.
The president is meeting with the head of the EU and they're in the Oval Office.
And the press is allowed to come in and view it and take some notes.
And if the president wants to allow people to take questions, he can allow them to take questions.
If he doesn't want to take questions, he doesn't.
It's his office.
He does it a lot, by the way.
He takes questions a lot in these scenarios, more than I think any other president.
He doesn't do a lot of formal press conferences, but like he'll just let people come in and they just start peppering him with questions quite often.
Now, if you watch the tape, you have to remember, this is the president's office, and you know what it's like.
If you've ever done anything, I don't know how to relate this.
If you've ever done anything, you're a manager and you have to let somebody go.
You bring them into your office, but you want to have a way so everybody gets up at the end and walks out.
You don't want to be trapped someplace.
You know what I mean?
You have to have the plan of how do we get out.
The president is trapped in his office now.
That's why he will walk to the Rose Garden to do this so he can walk away.
That's important.
Because if you're staying in that room, it requires somebody to say, okay, everybody, let's go.
Let's go.
And if they don't want to go, then you have ugliness.
The president is doing what?
Sitting there the whole time?
So here is the actual raw tape of this correspondent, Caitlin Collins from CNN.
Ask yourself if you think she's out of line by asking these questions as the press conference is breaking up and they are being escorted out.
Did Michael Cohen betray you, Mr. President?
Thank you, Brother.
Thank you, everybody.
Mr. President, did Michael Cohen betray you?
Thank you very much.
Thank you, everybody.
Mr. President, are you worried about what Michael Cohen is going to say to prosecutors?
Let's keep going.
Are you worried about what is on the other tapes, Mr. President?
Let's keep going.
Okay, so start.
Thank you very much.
So that's it.
That's it.
She's asking in a normal voice.
There are people in the room screaming at the president.
Yeah, she's one of many people.
It's almost like, did they get the wrong person?
Right, I know.
So she's asking, did Michael Cohen betray you by releasing these tapes?
Are you concerned about anything else that might be on those tapes?
Okay, those are legitimate questions.
President may not want to answer them, but those are legitimate questions.
And she's not screaming or being inappropriate, and she's not the only one.
Now, nobody is leaving the room.
That's a real problem.
People are like, okay, come on, move on, move on.
So on the first point, with the, you know, did she do anything inappropriate?
No, all of them did.
Leave.
It's over.
Leave.
But they always ask questions.
Correct.
And many times he responds.
Correct, correct.
Correct.
But none of them were even moving.
Yeah, there didn't seem to be, I mean, we're watching the video here.
There doesn't seem to be a lot of movement from the press corporation.
No, you can't actually see the door.
So I don't know.
Maybe the first people were starting to strike, you know, it seems to be on the other side of the room.
Yeah, it is.
So it's like a giant horseshoe.
So they have to go all the way around the room.
So it might have taken some time.
But it wasn't bad that they did.
I mean, that's what happens.
Normally.
That's what happens.
It's normal.
Get out.
Let's go.
Come on.
Get out.
It's normal.
Now, were her questions inappropriate?
No.
That's news of the day.
She's asking normal questions that we would have asked if it was Barack Obama.
That's normal.
So I'm actually interested in the answers to those too, because it will indicate kind of where the story goes.
Correct.
Right.
Like, is Trump going to try to say, no, no, he's a good guy.
And who knows what kind of pressure he's feeling, which would indicate a much more, a bigger possibility of the rift being healed.
Or is it like, look, he's, you know, I don't know what kind of crazy attorney tapes his client.
Is he still in that mode?
Right.
Because if he's still in that mode, the rift is still quite wide.
Correct.
And quite honestly, I think the other person that wants that answer more than the American people is Cohen.
He wants to know from the president, what Donald Trump am I dealing with here?
My friend and my protector or my enemy?
Which one?
Okay, so not appropriate.
Okay.
Not inappropriate.
Not inappropriate.
So next, well, she's with CNN.
She's just a liberal hack.
Well, no, she's not.
Yeah, Caitlin Collins came to CNN from the Daily Caller.
So, I mean, that doesn't mean that she's an ideological conservative, but certainly not.
She's not.
You're not a nut job liberal if you're taking a job at the Daily Caller.
No.
It's a very, people are trying to make this out because she currently works at CNN that she's this like ideological liberal just out for the president.
But I mean, you know, she's a well-respected reporter, but came from a conservative outlet.
Okay, so now have you ever noticed, have you ever noticed that when the press has any violation at all of the First Amendment, freedom of press, that they freak out.
And it's like this.
They're all against terrorism until one of theirs is kidnapped by a terrorist.
And then it's the biggest story of all time.
Right?
Yeah, and when it affects your world, you're going to be more fired up about it.
Correct.
Say that again, Stu.
When it affects your world, you're going to be a lot more fired up about it.
So that's normal.
Pretty normal, yeah.
Can you think of another amendment that maybe the press doesn't understand when it is violated in the least?
Let me think.
The Second Amendment?
Second Amendment.
Second Amendment.
And what happens when the Second Amendment is violated?
Well, even like bump stocks.
Do you care really about bump stocks?
I'm never going to own a bump stock.
Nope.
No.
Me neither.
So don't really care.
However.
However.
However, don't.
No, wait a minute.
Hang on just a second.
I don't think you can take bump stocks.
Shall not be infringed.
Okay.
So I don't really care about them.
I'm never going to own them.
I don't know who would own them.
And they really don't do anything that you can't do yourself with a belt loop.
I mean, watch go on YouTube.
You can find dozens of people doing the exact same thing a bump stock does with their belt loop.
Yeah.
I mean, so it's just ridiculous.
So why does the right get all freaked out when you come after something like bump stocks?
Because when you give them an inch, they look for a mile.
They look to take a mile.
And it's the same way the press is feeling today when there's an inch taken.
Yes, one reporter not allowed at one press.
What's the big deal?
It's not a big deal.
But they're looking at the long term there and they're worried their rights are going to be taken away.
Huh.
The right associated to a constitutionally guaranteed amendment that says there shall not be any infringement on your, in this case, free speech.
In our case, Second Amendment.
And that's why what's so frustrating when the press covers the Second Amendment.
They say, well, what do you need?
This is common sense legislation.
What do you need bump stocks for?
You don't need bump stocks.
You don't need high capacity magazines.
What do you need those for?
Well, we could say the same thing.
There's dozens of other reporters.
What do you need your reporter there for?
What do you need your reporter there?
There's tons of cameras there.
What do you need your camera there?
And it's no big deal.
It's just one reporter and the president is upset and blah, We make all kinds of excuses, but we don't.
We don't.
And anybody who is mad at Brett Baer today from Fox when he came out and said, we stand firmly with CNN, don't be mad at Brett Baer.
If you want to be mad at anybody, be mad at the Constitution and be mad at James Madison and Thomas Jefferson and all the great thinkers that gave us these rights.
We are to protect these rights.
And when anybody starts to violate those rights in the least amount, we must stand up for those that even those, maybe more importantly, those we do not agree with.
Last night I tweeted, I stand fully behind a free and unfettered press.
I fully support the First Amendment right of the press.
As much as it kills me to say this, I stand even though I disagree with the way CNN has handled the president and treats the president, they have this right.
And no government official should be able to ban somebody from an open press event.
No one.
No one.
Period.
However, CNN, we will follow the Constitution.
And you have a problem right now with the First Amendment violation because you say the president is making you into the enemy of the country.
So when I stand firmly for the First Amendment and your right to be an idiot, in my opinion, not in this particular case, but in others, I don't, you don't, you don't even say thank you.
You don't even recognize it.
Okay.
You don't even recognize half of the country will stand up.
They despise you and they will stand up and say, I stand with them today.
But you don't even notice that.
And then every time we stand up for a right that is just as airtight and guaranteed as yours, you look at us and say, we're dangerous.
We're crazy.
We're the enemy of the people.
I don't understand.
You say that you are so offended because the president is calling a free press, in your mind, the free press, an enemy, an enemy of the people, an enemy of the West.
You have a problem with that.
And yet when we stand up for our Second Amendment right, you say that about us.
CNN Calls Conservatives The Enemy00:02:03
That we are the enemy of freedom.
We are the enemy of security.
We are the enemy of common sense and common decency.
Now, I don't try to shut you down from saying that.
You have a right to say that.
But I would like to say, CNN, I stand firmly by your right.
I will go as far as George Hay did when he was writing the defense of freedom of press after the Sedition Act.
Even if your intent is to lie, the government has no place, no place to say, well, that one's a lie and that one's not.
No place.
No place because sometimes it is a matter of opinion and the government should not be regulating that at all.
So I'll stand for your full right, even though you don't stand for mine.
But I would like to ask CNN, would you take a minute and think about that right and what responsibilities you hold to at least listen and recognize that we too are not your enemy.
We too are not the enemy of freedom and the people.
The American people, you said yesterday, CNN, that you demand better.
Well, the American people have demanded better from you for a very long time.
I stand with your right.
Even though I don't want to, as an American, I have to.
So I stand with you shoulder to shoulder to defend you today.
Surprise Us With Better Journalism00:02:01
I would just like to ask, once in a while, surprise us.
Surprise us.
Use that right and try to serve all Americans.
All right.
Welcome to the program.
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Okay, let's go to James.
Hello, James, here on the Glenn Beck program.
James, are you there?
Yes, sir.
How are you?
Good.
Go ahead.
You want to make a comment on CNN and Caitlin Collins?
Trade War Threatens Global Stability00:04:34
Yeah, you know, I mean, I just think there's a time and fix for everything.
I understand First Amendment.
I agree with you 100% on that.
She's talking, asking questions in a normal voice.
She's not yelling like the other people in the room.
But if you notice, she's the only one asking about something other than the tariffs and this meeting that they just had.
I mean, James, I understand that, but since when does that happen?
That is the way everyone deals with the president.
No matter who the president is, you have a chance to ask a question.
You ask it.
I mean, they're not shouting helicopter questions as he's walking to the helicopter.
Glenn back.
Mercury.
Glenn back.
When the Germans invaded the Soviet Union and the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, the Axis powers learned a pretty big lesson.
It should have been obvious, but it wasn't.
If you're going to go to war, it might not be a good idea to start another one with the entire world.
Three against the rest of the planet should have been easy numbers for the Axis statisticians to break down.
Not good.
Now think about those odds and how ludicrous it sounds to win a fight like that.
Now think about how many countries we are currently threatening with a trade war.
China, all the countries within the EU, Mexico, Canada.
The list goes on and on and on.
You're not going to win a war that you are fighting on all fronts.
The U.S. economy is not invincible.
Something has to give.
And we might be beginning to see the end of this trade war.
Yesterday, President Trump and the joint head of the EU made a statement yesterday from the White House announcing a pause in the escalating trade war with the Europeans.
Now, this has been going on ever since the Trump administration hit the EU with these steel and aluminum tariffs.
Europe then retaliated by imposing over $3 billion in tariffs on U.S. goods.
The president then, in turn, threatened an imminent response targeting European cars.
Okay, it's got to stop.
And yesterday, it kind of did.
We're not entirely sure how long this ceasefire is going to take place, and we're definitely not out of the woods yet.
But we do know that President Trump agreed not to follow through with the European car tariffs and to, quote, reassess the steel and aluminum tariffs while negotiations are taking place.
In return, Europe will boost purchases of U.S. soybeans and import more of our natural gas.
So if I have this straight, I think I do, all we have to do is not do something we hadn't done yet, the car tariff, and just reassess something we've already done.
And in return, Europe will start buying more of our stuff.
I don't know about you, but I'm pretty good with that.
It sounds like a win.
Let's go.
Tariff again still looms.
This is a temporary agreement that still has a long way to go.
And the president tweeted that the eventual goal is the elimination of all tariffs.
That would be great.
If that's the case, that would be great.
But there is a long way to go.
The president is not wrong about EU having greater tariffs on U.S. goods.
That's a fact.
How many U.S.-built cars do you see in Paris?
Probably not very many.
The EU tax a 10% tariff on all of our cars.
But that's low, considering how European tariffs are slapped on the U.S. agriculture imports.
17% on apples, 20% on grapes.
So yeah, there is a long way to go.
But let's just hope we're moving forward because if it breaks down, as it does with China and Mexico and Canada and the 110th billion other countries we are threatening trade war with, we will lose.
It's Thursday, July 26th.
Lincoln Museum Preserves History00:15:49
You're listening to the Glenn Beck program.
Dan Abrams, he is a professor.
He's a lawyer, and he's an author of the latest book, Lincoln's Last Trial, the murder case that propelled him to the presidency.
He's a co-author with David Fisher, who is just a great man.
And welcome to the program.
Dan, how are you?
Good, Glenn.
Good to be with you.
So I'm reading this.
I'm fascinated by history, and in particular, Abraham Lincoln.
The Lincoln Museum right now is about a year away from losing some of the most remarkable things that were personally owned and used by Abraham Lincoln.
His hat and his bloodstained gloves from that night, you know, Mary's fan that she was fanning herself that has blood splatters all over.
They've never been in public before, and they were just purchased at auction.
And now the Lincoln Museum has to meet a note, and they're about $9 million away from making that.
And they've only got a year.
So I'm really kind of fascinated by him right now for many reasons.
But this is a new discovery of the last case that Abraham Lincoln tried.
And it was a murder trial, right?
Right before he went into the office.
That's right.
So we're talking about September of 1859.
He gets the Republican nomination in June of 1860.
And this is the only case that Lincoln ever argued that was transcribed.
Literally, every word of the witnesses' questioning, of the lawyers' questions, et cetera, transcribed in a new thing called transcription.
Wow.
We never had that before?
Yeah.
No, most trials and most things weren't transcribed.
I mean, what made Lincoln think of this for this case was that the person who transcribed this, and he's the person that we look at this story through the eyes of the transcriber, Robert Hitt, he was the guy who transcribed the Lincoln-Douglas debates for Lincoln to the point where there was one of the debates, I think it was the second one, where Hitt wasn't in his seat in the front,
and Lincoln would not start the debate until Robert Hitt was sitting there ready to transcribe for Lincoln the debates.
And so he recommended to the family of the defendant in this high-profile murder case that in the event your son, your child, is convicted, you'll want a record of what was said in court.
And so they hired Robert Hitt, who also was able to distribute his transcriptions to the media at the time of what was happening.
This was a high-profile case, and not really because Lincoln was arguing it.
It was a high-profile case because it was a long-standing feud between two neighbors, both of whom were known as good young men with promising futures.
And they have this ongoing fight, and a fight ensues, and one stabs the other, then claiming self-defense.
And there's a celebrity witness in the case in the form of a preacher who was much better known than Lincoln was at the time.
One of the most famous people in America at the time, Peter Cartwright.
And he was not a fan of Lincoln.
Correct.
He had had a long-standing, he was a long-standing political rival of Lincoln's.
He'd actually beaten Lincoln in an election in the 1830s.
This is not, and someone who really had harsh words to say about Lincoln over the years.
He'd called him an infidel.
Exactly.
Right.
So Peter Cartwright was no friend of Lincoln's, and he was the key to the case for the defense.
And the reason was because he had gone and counseled the victim before he died.
He had gone, he had sat on his, and people didn't know if he was going to survive or not.
But in the context of that, the victim allegedly said, I brought this upon myself.
And I forgive Peachy, the defendant.
And those are incredibly powerful words when you're talking about a self-defense case.
And so he became a critical witness.
And there was one point where there was an argument over whether this should be permitted into evidence.
Is it hearsay?
Is there an exception to the hearsay rule here, etc.
And Lincoln initially lost the argument.
And we describe in the book how furious he became.
And we have quotes from people who were in court when this happened, saying they'd never seen him ever like this.
As furious as they'd ever seen him.
And it's another side to Lincoln that we don't see and we don't hear about is not just Lincoln the advocate, but Lincoln becoming enraged at losing what he thought was a critical and he believed he had the right to introduce this evidence.
Can you describe his Lincoln rage?
So the fury that they describe is over initially losing this legal ruling and saying to the effect that they felt like he was about to climb onto the bench of the court.
And really just to the point where all we can do is use the contemporaneous responses from the people who were there.
But both the court crier and his law partner both described later just the depth of his fury and how they had never seen him anything like that.
He had done like 25 murder cases and thousands of other cases.
But this is the last one.
The murder case that he tried before I think the guy was hung, he lost.
And the one before that, he had won, right?
Well, so, you know, his most famous case was called the Almanac Trial, right?
I mean, this was the case where this was in 1857.
So this was two years before this case, where Lincoln, a guy had been convicted for killing another guy with effectively a rock.
And there were two people involved.
And the key eyewitness said he saw it clear as day because it was a full moon.
And he said he was about 150 feet away.
And he described everything that happened with these two guys.
They were tried separately.
The one guy got convicted, and the second guy was on trial, and he hired Lincoln.
And everyone presumed he would be convicted as well.
And when this guy gets up on the stand, he starts telling his whole story about the moon, and he remembers seeing exactly what he saw, the two of these guys hitting this guy.
And Lincoln pulls out an almanac from that day, turns to that page, says, read to me what the moon was that day.
It's only a quarter moon, not a full moon.
Guy couldn't have possibly seen what he says he saw with no lights out there.
And he was acquitted.
And it really, that case really put Lincoln on the map.
Once I stay on the map, he was already well known, but this one elevated him.
So was he concerned at all about what this might mean to a presidential bid if he lost?
Well, you would think he should have been, right?
I mean, obviously any candidate today wouldn't take a high-profile, controversial murder case before.
But I think, you know, back then, look, A, he wasn't a serious candidate.
When I say serious candidate, he wasn't a favorite in September of 1859.
Did he have his eye on it?
Sure.
But he had just lost the Senate election in Illinois.
He was still well regarded by the party.
This was only, as you know, the second time the Republicans were having a convention in 1860.
So, you know, I don't think he thought seriously that he had to think about the presidency.
And his job was being an attorney.
Now, keep in mind, he also had a relationship with the family of the defendant.
He had known them for a long time.
He was also asked to do it by his former law partner.
He always had enormous respect for Stephen Logan.
And so, and I think he believed in the case.
That mattered to Lincoln.
The defendant, but he also had a relationship with the, what was it, the victim, the mother of the victim, right?
No, not just the victim himself, Greek Krafton.
Reid Crafton had interned in his office.
So the victim had actually interned in Lincoln's office.
Wow.
So there was a lot of personal connection.
Look, and trials back then were just, you know, were different.
Meaning, we're in Springfield, Illinois.
The only people who can serve on a jury are white men of a certain age who own land.
And so you've got a limited pool of jurors.
You've got a limited, everyone kind of knows everybody.
And...
And I think that's part of the reason that the community was so invested in this case.
But I also think much like today, when there's a good story, that leads to a trial becoming more well-watched.
And I think that that's why this became a national case.
How come these transcripts were not known for so long?
They were in a chewed-up box with a yellow bow around it, found in the garage of the great-grandson of the defendant after he died.
And it was discovered there in 1989.
And my co-author, who brought me this project, he came to me and he said, you know, it's a transcript out there.
It just came, just discovered in 1989.
The only transcript that exists of a Lincoln trial.
And it's a really compelling murder case.
And no one's really written about it.
I said, come on.
He says, Lincoln.
What do you mean no one's really written about the last major trial that Lincoln did?
It's the only transcript that exists.
I said, come on, David.
We looked at it.
I investigated.
We investigated this together.
He was absolutely right.
There was one New York Times article from 1989 of the discovery.
And then the American Bar Association did a sort of legal review of it a few years later.
And essentially became a footnote to history.
And yet, our position is that this case was very important to him because, you know, his stock wasn't as high.
Meaning, Lincoln Douglas, he was very high, 1858.
We're now 1859.
He's not really considered a serious candidate for president.
He's trying to figure out, you know, his next step.
And this was a high-profile case being widely covered.
And so Lincoln had everything to lose by taking it.
And I think in the end, helped him quite a bit.
A number of the people who worked on this case ended up working on his 1860 campaign, for example.
So this was a weird thing.
What's the one thing, Dan?
And we've got about 60 seconds.
What's the one thing about Lincoln that you learned?
I know you've been fascinated by him and have consumed his life throughout yours.
What did you learn new?
I think for me, this is a book about Lincoln the lawyer.
This is a book about this case.
We don't try and be the biographers of Lincoln.
So what I learned was that Lincoln really was a smart attorney.
And what I mean by smart is he knew how to relate to people.
He knew when to stop, not just how to ask questions, but he knew how not to bore the jury.
He knew how not to get bogged down in details and that he would be able to close those things up later.
And I think that for me, learning all of this about Lincoln the lawyer and then seeing how he mastered it in this case was probably the thing I learned most about him.
Dan, thank you very much.
The name of the book is Lincoln's Last Trial, the murder case that propelled him to the presidency.
It's written by Dan Abrams and his co-author is David Fisher, who has written like 20 New York Times number one bestsellers.
He is a fantastic writer and researcher.
And I'll tell you, there is nothing like reading a David Fisher book when it comes to digging up the facts on history.
Dan Abrams, David Fisher, Lincoln's Last Trial, available everywhere now.
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Dan Abrams, he's a great storyteller, isn't he?
And by the way, the story of Lincoln, we're doing something with the Lincoln Museum down here at the Mercury Studios in February.
We're going to do Black History Month, and we'll be telling you more about that coming up.
But the Lincoln Museum is just remarkable.
And his story has to be told.
And so many people are starting to lose touch with our past and our heritage.
Abraham Lincoln.
You lose Abraham Lincoln.
It's like losing Washington.
We've already lost Washington.
You lose Lincoln, you lose it all.
And we're trying to help them raise money.
They have a $9 million bill that they have to pay.
Otherwise, this huge collection of really important stuff that has never been seen in public since his death.
His hat and his bloodstained gloves, all the stuff that he had with him, including a lot of the letters and everything else, those were all in private hands.
And if it goes for auction, it's going to go back to private hands.
It just will.
And it's important that the Lincoln Museum has these so you can see them.
And so we're trying to help them raise the money.
And we would love to ask you if you would, if you're a history fan, five for Lincoln.
Could you just do $5 a month for Abraham Lincoln?
And it will help preserve his legacy at the Lincoln Museum.
So five for Lincoln, just go to fiveforlincoln.com.
Tesla Success Amidst Media Criticism00:13:41
You can spell it any way you want.
Five, the number five, number four, Lincoln, or just five, F-O-R, Lincoln, whatever.
Fiveforlincol.com.
Go there now and pledge $5 a month to help them out.
All right.
In defense of Elon Musk.
I cannot believe what we as a society are doing about or to Elon Musk.
He's not a perfect guy.
He's not a guy I always agree with.
He's not a guy who's always successful.
But the guy is a genius.
Now listen to what the New York Post just wrote about Elon Musk.
So far, Elon Musk has only been successful at tricking people into thinking he's a success.
One disastrous tweet has finally revealed Elon Musk for what he is, a fraud.
Enraged at a British cave diver called his idea to rescue the Thai soccer team for what it was, a PR stunt, with absolutely no chance of working, Musk took to Twitter and called him a pedo.
That was a stupid idea.
Just like that, Tesla's market value plummeted by 2 billion.
Musk has been in business since 2002.
His stated goal is nothing short of transforming humanity through his products, his electric cars, space travel, and an underground high-speed Hyperloop system.
Yet he has yet to succeed at anything, but somehow spins every failure into proof of imminent success.
His only accomplishment has been this decade-long Jedi mine trick.
Tesla, best known for blowing deadlines and constantly falling short on production, the company has burned through $500,000 per hour.
It's an epic talent drain.
That's to say nothing of the human toll that Tesla has caused.
In March, a Tesla driver was killed while test driving an autopiloted Model X.
Then in May, they announced an investigation after two teenagers were killed in a Tesla Model S after a battery caught fire.
A similar accident claimed the life of a driver two months prior.
California's Division of Occupational Safety.
Okay, so did we get that?
That's four people that have died in a Tesla.
Four with a car that drives itself.
Four.
Anyway, California's Division of Occupational Safety and Health opened its third investigation into workplace safety at Tesla in July after an employee complained.
Two investigations have been ongoing since April, yet Musk took to Twitter to boast that Tesla was now building cars in a tent.
Not sure we even need a building, he tweeted.
This is a genius, says the New York Post.
Tesla was founded in 2003.
World's largest automakers quickly surpassed Musk's vision for electric vehicles.
Oh, you mean like the Volt that was catching on fire all the time?
Tesla will never catch up.
Shareholders are finally catching on.
Musk isn't sorry, and nothing is ever his fault.
So should the government, which reportedly gifts Musk's companies with an estimated $4.9 billion in subsidies.
SpaceX, which Musk touts is replacing NASA and colonizing Mars, has been a literal failure to launch.
Okay, okay, okay, okay.
Let me just go through this here.
Elon Musk, failure to succeed at anything.
Really?
Stu, name one of the hottest cars on the road.
I would assume you're saying Tesla.
Okay, I think so.
Name the fastest car in the world.
Certainly at the price point, Tesla.
Name the car every single person that you know wants or drools over when you see them.
Especially if they've ever driven one.
Yes.
Tesla, they will drool over that car.
Right.
Name the only car that right now basically drives itself.
Tesla's the most advanced probably on that, right?
So who made that possible?
Probably the author of that article that you were streaming.
No, strangely, Elon Musk, who didn't succeed at anything.
Hey, Maureen, let me ask you this.
Ever heard of PayPal?
Ever used it?
How about eBay?
Ever bought anything on eBay?
Well, if you have, you can thank Elon, you know, the guy who has never succeeded at anything.
Name any other person, any other company, any other government, any other country that has ever put a payload into orbit and then landed three rockets so perfectly it looked like CGI footage.
Can you do that?
On water!
On water!
The land he was moving.
That's a failure.
That's a fraud.
If it weren't for Elon Musk, this country would barely have a space program.
And there'd be a lot of hungry astronauts.
She continues.
So the government giving gifts to the companies, $4.9 billion in subsidies?
Yeah, that's the one thing I don't like about him.
He takes the subsidies, but he has also said, why would I not take them and let my competitors take them?
It would put me at a disadvantage.
So it sounds like he's being responsible to his shareholders.
Yeah, I mean, there's a huge problem with this as a country, but I mean, you know, look, if you're him, every business that has, including oil and gas companies and all sorts of things.
And here's the thing.
I'm against the subsidies, but the press, people like you, beat the hell out of everybody in this country to make sure that we have those subsidies.
You would think that maybe this writer would be appreciative on making the very green lifestyle that idiotic progressives are incapable of creating themselves is being created by Elon Musk.
SpaceX.
Musk touts is replacing NASA, colonizing Mars.
Failure to launch.
Really?
Who has a sports car circling Mars choreographed perfectly with a David Bowie soundtrack?
Is it you, Maureen?
Do you have that?
No, no, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
Who goes to space on a regular, reusable basis?
Not NASA.
Well, he made a blooper reel.
Why would he do that?
Because he has a sense of humor.
Because he's one of the only people that actually has a sense of humor.
He doesn't hide the difficulty of the challenges that he's trying to tackle.
As for the hyperloop, most experts say it's impossible and unnecessary.
It gives me pause to think that otherwise intelligent people are buying into this kind of utopian vision.
Uh-huh.
Uh-huh.
They're up against the airlines, and airlines don't need to install hundreds of miles of track.
Okay, you know what?
We should probably do lose.
We should probably come back to this one in 20 years.
I don't know if this will work, but I think I remember reading stuff from these experts that said, oh, air travel, that will never.
That's not.
Going to the moon, that's crazy.
Going into space, that's crazy.
People only need one television, and even that, I don't know if that's even possible.
Really?
Really?
That one's really silly to criticize.
I mean, I tend to agree with the, I don't think that's a real solution to our problems.
But like, wouldn't their history has not been written on that one yet?
Yeah, yeah.
And can I ask you, Stu, which one burns up, you know, millions of gallons of jet fuel and which one's clean?
Right.
And do you think the left would love these?
You would think.
And of course, obviously that's one of his motivations.
Right.
Right.
So she harps on about how, you know, the Thai rescue, blah, blah, blah.
He, first of all, he apologized for his disgusting accusations against the hero diver.
He did.
He did.
The diver said that, you know, this is just a PR stunt.
Imagine, imagine just for a second that Elon Musk was actually trying to do the right thing.
And he actually, I mean, we have the email exchanges from the Thai government that the sub was built to specifications from the dive team leader.
Well, wait a minute.
Who is the dive team leader there?
Who was it?
Now, I'm sorry that it didn't work.
I'm sorry he wasn't able to invent a submarine capable of fitting through a cupboard door in time to be used, but the Thai military is keeping it and said it will be used for rescues in the future.
He sent 10 engineers from SpaceX, Tesla, and the Boring Company to help.
Maureen, what did you do?
What did you do?
All right.
The real reason why I want to bring this up is because I think we are looking at a guy.
We're living at a time right now where we have Edison and Tesla and Armstrong and some of the greatest inventors of all time.
And they're doing miraculous things and we don't seem to even notice.
These people are changing the world and they're going to fail over and over and over again because there's no model for this because it's brand new.
Here's a real point.
Why suddenly is Elon Musk being attacked?
He's been the hero for so long.
He's been praised almost universally for years and years.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Especially by the media and the left.
Yes, yes.
And it's funny because they seem to have found out that in this current cycle, he gave seven times more money to the right than he did to the left.
Now, normally he gives equally to the left and the right, but in this current election cycle, he has given more money to the GOP than to the DNC by seven.
I wonder.
I wonder if that's not what drives Maureen and others crazy.
I'm just wondering if maybe, perhaps, how dare you step out of line, Elon Musk?
How dare you support these monsters?
In today's world, I don't know which is true.
I mean, people could be so short-sighted and so blind that they don't see that somebody like Elon Musk is once in a generation.
And so they'll just torch him because they are small-minded.
And they don't know how real science and they don't know how real innovations are actually done.
You're going to fail over and over.
You're going to fail much more than you succeed.
But is the one who keeps picking himself up and brushes the dirt off of his face and the sweat off of his brow that says, okay, let's go again.
It's those people that made America great.
Those people.
And I know Elon Musk isn't originally from America, but he sure has the American spirit.
He is the embodiment of what made us great in many ways.
He's not without his flaws, but I'm not sure which it is.
It's either just myoptic little people.
Or it's worse.
It's people that will destroy anybody who has a different political opinion than theirs.
Which do you think it must do?
I don't know.
I'm conflicted.
It's very tight.
You have to admire the ability, though, to go through all these supposed failures.
And he's had some failures and many question marks, right?
We don't know how these things are going to turn out.
But like, how did he do all those things?
Like, how does he have the money to start all these businesses?
Shouldn't you point out that he obviously did succeed and make billions of dollars to give it the opportunity to fail at whatever you think he's failing?
He succeeded.
eBay, PayPal.
Those were things that were not easy slam dunks.
Those were crazy.
He graduated from that kind of crazy to, hey, let's go to Mars.
And he's obviously had a lot of amazing technological success there.
But think about how difficult PayPal was at that time.
Prepare For Crisis With Patriot Supplies00:02:40
You remember that era?
Yes.
didn't want to use their ATM card to deposit money.
Yes.
They didn't want to put their credit card into a computer because they were worried it would get stolen.
And you tell me, you tell me of any man besides Ben Franklin who has been in his position with inventions, who has said, I'm going to make all of my research, all of my plans on batteries.
It's all open to the public.
I hope somebody will take it and build off of this because it's important for humanity.
Only Ben Franklin that I know of has done that.
Oh, and Elon Musk.
All right.
I want to talk to you a little bit about preparing yourself.
You know, when there is a problem, a hurricane, a fire in California, a mudslide, an earthquake.
Do you hear about all the earthquakes in California?
Jeez, man, California.
Run.
Get out.
Get out.
Anyway, they're now worried that this, the big one is coming.
I don't know.
Anyway, how much food do you have?
How much food can you grab and go?
You know, you think about these people who are like in Houston that, you know, they had to leave their house and they had to go stay in some hotel.
Well, you also had to feed your family.
I mean, think about how fast that would put you in the poorhouse.
Staying in a hotel, feeding your family, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, let alone just trying to go and fix your house and get your house back in order.
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Helping Disabled Veterans Own Homes00:15:10
Glenn, back.
When is the Falcon Heavy launching?
Do you know?
November.
If you've never taken your kids to a missile launch, you should take them.
Yeah, rocket launch, not a missile launch.
Hey, come on, North Korea, everybody.
You got to go to a rocket launch.
They are amazing.
I saw the second to the last space shuttle launch with my kids.
And it's a wonder of the world.
It's a wonder of the world.
And while you can't watch that, you can see now in November, you can see the Falcon Heavy launch.
That's the SpaceX rocket launching.
Don't miss it if you're anywhere around.
Take your family.
Back.
Mercury.
Glenn back.
It's Thursday, July 26th.
You're listening to the Glenn Beck program.
U.S. Army Major Eric King is finally home.
He thought he was going to meet a guy called Ronnie Lyles, project manager of Operation Finally Home for coffee.
This is a week ago Monday.
When he got out of his truck, he looked a little shocked and a little humbled.
He was greeted by a gathering of journalists and friends, a bunch of Texas flags.
It happened here in Dallas.
King is a veteran.
He served in our Army for 13 years, two tours of duty in Iraq, one in Afghanistan.
He was wounded by an IED explosion in combat.
Now, the guy who was surprising him, Ronnie Lyles, said this.
We'll never know what he has gone through.
We never know what he's going through and what he will continue to go through the rest of his life.
You know, we're able to remove the burden of a mortgage for he and his family, but he's still going to have these mental, emotional, and physical injuries and scars that he's going to deal with on a daily basis for the rest of his life.
So we're doing this so that we can just be a small part of helping him to heal and to start a new chapter in his life.
Since the founding in 2005, Operation Finally Home has donated over 150 houses to veterans all across the country.
Major King said this.
I want to say thanks to the soldiers who served beside me, who are the true heroes, or who are no longer here with me today.
I think about them every day.
And I think, and I thank the American people who I serve for this country.
There is no greater place I want to be.
There is no greater country I would rather serve than the great U.S. of A.
So I thank all of you on today for being here.
I thank all of you for your love and support.
And I am glad to now be a citizen of urban Texas.
King and his family then took the shovels and broke ground where their house is going to be built.
Behind them, two giant American flags and a rendering of the future four-bedroom house where Major Eric King and his family will finally call home.
Major King, how are you?
I'm great this morning.
How are you?
I'm great.
I'm glad to have you here.
Thank you.
We also have Ronnie Lyles here.
Ronnie, how are you?
Good.
Good morning, sir.
Good to see you.
Thank you, sir.
So, first of all, you thought you were just going to go for coffee with Ronnie?
Yes.
You had no idea.
Well, it was another man by the name of David Royals.
I was told to meet with him at Joe's coffee shop, and we were going to meet with the builder to interview with him to see if I can be a candidate to receive a mortgage-free home from Operation Finally Home.
And once I got there, I was told, well, we have to go and meet with the builder because there seemed to be an issue over at the site.
What did your stomach tell you?
I said, okay, if I suppose that met with the builder here at the coffee shop and he's not here, then maybe they've already interviewed the other candidate and they want to go with that candidate.
So they pretty much just want to now cut my interview time down and meet with me and my family for a couple of minutes and send us on our way.
And so you pulled up and you saw everybody there.
Yes.
Yes.
Surprised, shocked, blown away.
And I'm like, okay, for the interview, now these people, what's going on?
And then when I was told, well, hey, you've already been selected at that point, I just became very emotional and just shocked and surprised.
So you and you pulled up, you didn't know it was for you.
As we were pulling up, and I'm like, hey, what's going on?
Well, at first, when the police escort pulled out, I'm like, okay, we just got into something that's going on up ahead of us as a convoy.
We've just gotten involved in a lot of people.
You just thought you were like, you're accidentally in the middle of a funeral procession or something.
Something's going on because you had a police escort.
Yes.
And you pulled out of where?
Oh, we were just driving down the street and they just pulled out of a parking lot and just got in front of us, the lights on.
So, yeah.
Ronnie, tell me what a mortgage-free house means.
I mean, I know what it means, but do you have to pay for anything?
Do you have to help build it?
What is this?
Well, back when we started in 2005, Glenn, our mission was to provide custom-built mortgage-free homes to America's wounded, ill, and injured veterans, as well as the Widows of the Fallen, just to honor their courage and sacrifice.
And so, what we do with every project is start with a builder.
And when a builder confirms that he wants to do a project, then we reach out to his trade partners, his suppliers, vendors, and we get them to donate as much as they can.
So at the end of the day, Operation Finally Home picks up the gap funding, but we are presenting a truly deserving veteran such as Major King with a 100% mortgage-free home that's going to change their lives forever.
Yeah.
How did you select him?
Our selection process is very thorough.
Applicants can apply.
They go through a very thorough vetting process.
They must be honorably discharged.
Our primary focus is 70% or more disabled.
They have to pass a criminal and a financial background check.
They have to be able to show that they could take on home ownership as a responsibility.
And so when we present our candidate to the builder and the builder community, we want them to know that we've done our due diligence.
So in this case, with Major King, I think we've hit a home run.
He, as well as his family, are just great folks, and they are excited to be getting a mortgage-free home and starting a new step in their lives in Irving.
Are you from Texas?
No, I'm not.
When I retired in June 28th of 2016, I came here to Dallas.
Prior to getting out, I wanted to see what state and city had the best veteran facility for the VA that would be able to provide me all the assistance and medical care and treatment that I needed.
And I found that Dallas was the best VA for me.
Tell me about your wound.
Tell me about what happened to you with the IED.
Well, it was my very first mission, actually, when I went out, my first IED encounter that came about with the traumatic brain injury and all the other elements or disability that came behind it.
But I was an infantryman, rifle platoon leader, and we was out on a mission and just out of nowhere, IED explosion, and just things just went from there.
How is the VA?
The VA, if it wasn't for the VA, I'd probably be worse off than what I am.
The VA here in Dallas has provided me with the utmost care and treatment in meeting the needs for me to make sure that I can be in a position to help reclaim my life, both mentally and physically.
What are you going to do now?
What are you doing?
Right now, I'm 100% permanent in total, disabled.
So I'm unable to work due to my disabilities.
But currently right now, I have kids that I am home for that I can help now raise because I missed so many years of their lives coming up due to multiple deployments and training.
Tell me about your kids.
How old are they?
I have an 18-year-old.
You do not look old enough to have it.
You know, I thought you were going to say like five.
Yeah.
18.
How old are you?
I'm 39 years old.
Shut up.
Yeah.
No, get out of my office.
Get out of here.
You look like you're 22.
Yeah, 39 years old.
I came into the military fairly young.
Actually served 16 years in the military.
So that was a type of 13, but 16 years I served in the military.
So, yeah.
Tell me about your wife.
Well, hopefully my wife and I will be able to restore our marriage.
We don't have a marriage anymore.
And I would say to a lot of veterans who have served in the military, who have encountered physical and mental things from being deployed, coming back from deployments, coming out of the hospital, being medically retired out of the military as a transition that we go through.
And a lot of times, things that we have endured and encountered, it kind of falls back into our homes with our families.
I bet it does.
And there was a period where I was going through a lot.
I was going through a lot before I finally started getting the actual help that I needed mentally.
And that brought a wedge in between myself and my family.
So I would say to all veterans out there, get the help that you need, not tomorrow, but today, because it can totally change your life in a way where your loved ones are forced to feel like they're walking on eggshells.
They feel like they can't be there because we are going through some things that's pushing our families away from us.
I have to tell you, you know, everybody I know that is in the military, you're just different.
You're just all different.
I mean, you know, just you have brothers and that was your life, you know, and you're doing things that nobody does.
Nobody does.
And everyone that I know that has been wounded, especially if they're fully disabled, they're not fully disabled up here.
Correct.
You know, and it has to be, I mean, I don't want to get too personal, but I can imagine that it's a challenge to you as a man to come home to lose all that and then not be able to, you know, do what society or what you've always thought you were supposed to do.
And it's got to be rough on a marriage.
It's very tough.
I can speak for me being back home, being told you can no longer serve, coming into the military.
In my mind, I want to serve 30 plus years.
I want to go as far as I can possibly go beyond Major Lieutenant Colonel Kerner and above.
But being told you can no longer serve, you are being forced to medically retire out, and you feel like that there's still unfinished business overseas because it's like, okay, this happened to me.
I need to go back.
So being back at home with your family, every day you're thinking about the soldiers' lives that were lost, the soldiers that was injured, things that felt like for me under my command and the positions I served.
And I've started saying to myself, what could I have done differently on that mission?
So it's like you don't ever get to, you know, it's like when you fall off a horse, you get back on.
You don't get a chance to get back on.
No.
Nah.
No.
Is it hard to come back to a society that seems so frivolous?
Operation Finally Home has helped since last Monday me to say, you know what, the American people in public, they still care.
Because once you come back and you've gotten out of the military, for me, I was no longer Major King.
I was Eric King.
And I felt like I lost that power base.
I felt like I lost, you know, taking care of soldiers, making decisions.
And now I'm here and it's like, well, nobody care about me.
You know, I go to the VA, I get my treatment, get my medications, physical therapy, you know, behavior health and all that.
I'm like, I just feel like I'm a nobody now.
So it really made me, you know, say that the American people, they still care about us.
They still care about us.
And I felt like at one point I was lost.
I didn't know what to do.
I was just a nobody now who was fighting to reclaim my life.
Millions of people care.
Deeply, deeply care.
We just don't always know what to do.
We don't always know what to say.
And I'm glad you're here.
Yeah.
How can people get involved, Ronnie?
We love to let the community get involved in each project.
So I would encourage everyone to go to our website, operationfinallyhome.org, operationfinallyhome.org.
They can follow every project that we've got going throughout the country.
They can also look at the bios and visit and find out more about our heroes that we've been able to honor and projects that are currently underway.
And they can also donate to Operation Finally Home or to a specific project.
So if you're a builder, you want to get involved.
If you make things that are used for home building or for home supplies, you can donate, but you can also, as a regular person, just donate cash.
Goldline Offers Legal Tender Bars00:02:42
Absolutely.
Okay.
It's remarkable what you do.
And I thank you for that and all of the people that you work with.
I don't know if you ever feel like this, but in a man's life, you can feel like, do I make a difference at all?
Like what you were saying.
And if you ever feel that way, you listen to what he just said.
It's remarkable.
Good for you.
Operation Finally Home.
Join them, Major.
Thank you.
Welcome home.
Thank you.
Thank you, sir.
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Bitcoin Investment Soars To Millions00:03:22
What a sincere guy.
That was an amazing story.
He just said to me off air, he said, this is one of the first times I've gone back out.
And I said, what do you mean?
We were talking about his wife.
And he said, you know, it's taken me a while to realize it was me.
It really was me.
Wow.
Yeah.
And I said, you know, good luck.
And he said, I just have to, I just have to show her that I understand that it was me, not her.
And he said, you know, but it was the night terrors and the, and the on guard all the time.
And he said, and not wanting to go anywhere, not going out.
He said, I, refused to go out anywhere.
I didn't want to go outside.
And this is the first time he got back home 2015.
2015.
Yeah.
I mean, we've had so many, you know, veterans come through here with similar stories.
Yeah.
I mean, it's so common to have to go through that.
And, you know, it's just like, as you said, you know, the people in the military that we see all the time, they're just different.
I always think of them as just better, just better people.
They're like, how are they the same species?
I know me.
I know.
Just that adult who's just sitting there eating Cheetos every day.
I know.
But part of that, I think, is what makes it so difficult.
It's easy for me to transition to a life where I don't leave the house because, first of all, no one wants to see me.
And secondly, I'm slovenly.
But for someone who has gone through all of that achievement and all those important tasks and all those life-threatening situations to adjust to a life like that is incredibly taxing on you mentally.
I feel, because I think of the veterans all the time, all the time.
I see these guys who, you know, are veterans and they lost, you know, two arms, a leg, one eye, both ears, you know, and the top of their head.
And here they are skiing down a mountain.
And you're like, what the hell?
You know what I mean?
It's just like driving up a mountain.
No, wow.
How are you just not watching somebody?
I watch Cliffhanger.
That's what I would be doing.
I'd be home.
I'd watch.
Oh, I'd be through the house.
I'd watch the Netflix series.
I'd be through every.
I'd be through everything.
I mean, and anything that you got going on, you get a hangnail and you're like, I don't think I can go out.
I mean, my finger really hurts.
The amount of torture I think I'm in when I have a canker sore is like, it's basically end of time.
It's again, they are a different breed of people.
And we salute you.
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Faisal Hussein And Gun Violence00:10:40
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This is the Glenback Program.
Detectives in Canada are still seeking a motive for a mass shooter that left three dead, including the gunman, and injured more than a dozen others.
As residents of Toronto grapple with the latest in a string of violence incidents to hit Canada's biggest city in recent months, federal officials said on Tuesday that there was no terror link in Sunday's attack in which the lone gunman opened fire along a bustling avenue in the city.
At this time, there's no national security nexus to the investigation, spokespeople said.
The attack killed two people, recent high school graduate Rhys Fallon and 10-year-old Juliana Kosas.
13 injured, including six women and girls and seven men.
Authorities have not publicly speculated on the motive of the gunman, Faisal Hussein, or explained how he obtained the handgun used for the attack.
Okay.
So what they're saying here is this is a guy who went through depression.
They're not blaming it on the gun.
You know, they have pretty tough gun laws up in Canada.
So it's certainly not the gun, although he strangely found a way to a gun.
But they can't figure out, quote, I can't put two and two together, said Amir Shakira.
I just can't believe it's him.
He lived with his parents, Hussein parents.
He did, carried out boxes of possible evidence with the equivalent of the FBI up in Canada.
But he was found dead on Sunday after he exchanged gunfire with police and then fled.
Can't figure out what he did.
Why would he do that?
Can't figure it out.
Right.
ISIS claimed responsibility, said he was one of theirs.
They still can't figure it out.
I don't know what the deal is.
Well, it's good.
I mean, pretty confusing.
It is when you think about it.
I mean, what could it be?
Did you have any idea?
Are there any theories about Faisal Hussein and why he shot people?
Yeah, does anyone have it?
Was it an issue with he's living in Canada and that can be a little oppressive?
And people probably might have been mean to him.
Did Trump set him off?
That's the only thing I can think of.
Well, that could be Trump's fault.
Trump's fault.
That's good.
Can I throw one out there?
Barack Hussein Obama, our former president, Faisal Hussein, right?
Is it possible that this guy is just an incredible mean Christian?
A mean Christian, because our president, as you remember, former president, a hardcore Christian, was at church for 40 years, and I didn't really catch anything that happened in the sermons.
Well, he slept through a lot of the sermons.
A lot of sermons, but I mean, you know, he's a hardcore Christian guy.
Yeah, so hardcore Christian guy.
Could it be an extremist Christian attack?
That's probably right.
Okay.
That's probably right.
Okay, good.
It probably is.
So is there any evidence of anything else, Pat?
Any evidence of anything else?
No.
I mean, we can't, other than what we've just outlined here, we can't figure it out.
Again, ISIS tried to shed some light on this, but I still don't.
So what did ISIS say?
What did ISIS say?
Well, they claimed credit.
They claimed he was an ISIS fighter.
Well, you can't trust a radical Islamist.
You can't.
You can't trust them.
They don't, you know, they'll say anything.
Right.
Yeah, they usually tell you what they're doing kind of in advance, and then afterwards, they'll also tell you what they've done.
So I think we need to look into his mental health again.
Gun laws.
You should look at the gun laws.
Oh, that's a great gun laws.
You should look at the gun laws.
Because there's no gun laws in Canada.
It's basically the wild west out there.
Other than some of the toughest in the world.
Yeah, well, other than that.
Other than that, we all know that.
It is the wild west other than the toughest gun laws in the world.
Right.
And there is a 59% increase in gun violence over the same period from last year.
Wait a minute.
So.
No, wait.
What?
Is that the damn Americans coming over with our guns?
The NRA is looking for a root in good times.
It has to be that.
It has to be.
Yeah.
Well, they've run out of people to shoot here, so they're going up to Canada now.
Really?
Yeah.
They've killed everybody they possibly can.
So now they're looking for fresh killing territory in Canada.
White men.
Bastards.
Americans?
Yeah.
Christians?
Yeah, Christians.
That wasn't by Trump.
He was Arab.
Faisal Hussein?
Yeah.
Well, can I guess?
There's no clue as to his heritage.
No, I've got a guess.
You do.
Well, I believe that Faisal Hussein was colluding with Donald Trump in Russia.
Okay.
That's what I think happened.
Okay, well, I'm not sure if I could go take you on that leap.
Can I ask, was he an immigrant?
Was he born in Canada?
I don't know.
All right.
I don't know.
Was he was he a Muslim?
Well, with a name like Hussein sharing the same name as our former president, you would say no.
I'd say no.
I would say no, he was not.
But have you seen any reporting on whether he was zero reporting on that?
Yeah.
This is perplexing.
It's a conundrum.
It is.
It is perplexing.
I wonder what's happening.
I think our best guess as it's formed right now is Donald Trump colluded with the Russians to place this person here.
An extreme extremist Christian as he shares the name with our former president.
And it was because the NRA gave him the guns to cross the border.
And then he shot a bunch of people.
I think that's where we are.
That's exactly where we are.
Now, that's not to say there might be some information at some time that may make us believe something else.
But one thing we can rule that is Islamic extremism.
We can't believe that.
We rule that out.
We rule that out.
There's no immediately.
There would be no evidence.
No evidence.
None.
None.
Zero.
Now, we may come to find out that perhaps a Tea Party extremist was involved.
We're not sure.
We're not sure.
It could be the Tea Party extremist.
It could be a member of the Freedom Caucus.
There are several possibilities of who this guy could be.
But we know they're all white.
We know they're white.
And we know they're Christian.
We know they're Christian.
And we know that they're conservative.
Well, let me just say it.
Alt-right.
I mean, let's just stop using the cover story of conservative.
You know what?
Being around the bush.
Let's just stop.
Let's forget the alt-right.
It's Nazis.
It's white, small government Nazis that are Christians.
It had to be said.
It had to be said.
You know what?
I wouldn't be surprised to find out that Faisal Hussein wasn't even there.
That he wasn't there?
He wasn't even there.
That's a great point.
He wasn't even there.
He was probably, it's a false flag.
Probably tied up by some white Christian held, and they're only using him because he's a minority.
Would you be surprised?
To find out that this story we're hearing about this Faisal Hussein was just a cover up for the person who really did it, Brett Kavanaugh.
I would not be surprised.
I would not be surprised.
That is the thing.
That makes belief right.
You know, sometimes like a glove.
When sometimes people say something, you know how it just like connects with you and it rings true.
Right.
Now, it probably didn't happen, but what high impact if it did, low probability, high impact.
Yeah, I mean, I'm learning that from MSNBC.
It may not have happened, but we should seriously consider that Kavanaugh, Trump, white supremacists, Christians, Nazis tied this guy to a chair, wound him up.
Okay.
And then he still, no matter how crazed they made him, he still wouldn't do it.
Wouldn't do it.
So Kavanaugh himself came and was the trigger man for the massacre up in Toronto.
That makes sense.
It does.
It does make sense.
That was basically like an entire like law and order or 48 hours episode right in front of your eyes.
You just heard it.
The problem is solved.
When am I ever going to get a client that will tell me the truth?
When will I ever get a guy like Kavanaugh to come into my office and say, look, I killed him?
I mean, I can't help these clients if they don't tell me the truth.
That's the way it works.
It always wraps up so nicely on those programs.
We never get the truth, though.
We never really find out what happened.
And we'll probably never know, Pat.
We won't.
But I do know this.
There's no evidence of Muslim extremism here.
Why are you even bringing it out?
Why are you wanting to make sure that everybody knew?
I don't want any hate to happen as a result.
Cut the knees off of those speculators.
Right.
And I mean literally, literally.
Cut the knees off of them.
Yes.
Because there's no place for that kind of speculation.
Not in our society.
Not in our society at all.
Not in our society at all.
Okay.
now there is there has been a case that has been solved um uh there was a uh there was a there was a a guy named kelton griffin who uh asked a woman um whose name shall remain uh uh nameless here um uh she she she she she Griffin approached her and said, hey, I really, I think we have a lot in common.
iTunes Helps Discover This Podcast00:06:35
And I think we should go out.
And she said, well, that wasn't really elegant the way you stated that, but okay.
So he said, look, can I come over to your house?
And can we take your car?
And she said, okay, you're starting to sound like a loser, but okay, sure.
So he rang the doorbell and he said, I tell you what, you know, let's, you know what?
Let's stop for some gas for the car.
And she's like, well, you know, we're just going around the corner.
He said, yeah, but let's stop for some gas.
So he gets out in chivalrous that he is.
And he was driving, I believe.
Yeah, he was driving.
Yeah.
Her car.
Yeah, her car.
Right.
That's, I mean, what part of this didn't you understand?
Yeah.
So he takes her car and they're stopping to get gas and he says, hey, let me pump the gas.
You go in and pay for the gas.
And why don't you get us a couple of cigars?
That's nice.
Okay.
All right.
That's, again, a little weird, but okay.
So she's in, you know, and she's in the 7-Eleven, you know, walk-in humidor, I'm imagining, and saying, what do you suggest?
And he's like, oh, I've got a Monte Cristo over here that's great.
Anyway, so she's buying the cigars.
And when she finishes buying the cigar, she walks outside and the car is gone.
And her phone is in the car.
Okay.
And so she's calling him.
She's calling her.
And she's like, where's the car?
And he's not answering.
And so she calls the police.
And they said, the car has been stolen.
I know who did it.
And so the police are like, okay, well, we'll look around.
But we're police.
And so we usually beat minorities.
Is that what they said?
Well, I'm pretty sure that's probably.
These were the honest cops.
And they said, we're usually at this time just beating minorities.
So I don't know if we're going to be able to squeeze this in.
She said, well, I happen to know my sister knows his relative.
So I'll call my sister.
She'll call the relative and maybe the relative will call him and find out where the car is.
And so she did.
And she found out that he was at a drive-in movie theater because he had made a date with somebody that he really liked a lot.
And he didn't have a car.
And so he needed to borrow somebody else's car.
And so he left the cigar and gas store and drove to another girl's house and said, hey, I'm here for the date.
And what do you think of the car, huh?
We've all been there.
Right?
How many times has that happened to you?
Three times last week alone.
Really?
Wow.
Three times the last weekend.
It was a lot.
Seems coincidental, but it seems like if you're going to target this sort of maneuver where you're going to go out on a date with another woman, perhaps you don't go to a date that requires the car, right?
Like you could have gone to a normal movie theater and met them there and not needed to steal a car, but instead you went to a drive-in movie theater, which is, was there 20 of them in the country?
Yeah, I mean, you know, could you call me?
And how many people were probably there?
I mean, I don't think it was a, you know, a big stakeout.
There were probably like four cars there.
So, like, you know, it's like Barney Fife just waiting, going, yeah, get out of the car.
What's interesting is the guy had no car and no money.
So, so both dates had to pay for the gas, had to pay for the cigars, had to pay for the food that they picked up at the gas station humidor store.
Right.
And then had to pay for the drive-in movie, the new date.
Yeah, but it's not like he doesn't love them.
I mean, no, he went to the trouble of stealing a car for her.
Thanks, Pat.
Pat Grandleashed on the Blaze Radio and TV Networks.
Also on The News and Why It Matters, which comes up after your program on the Blaze, Glenn.
I don't know if you knew that.
I keep saying it as if you don't know it, but you're on both shows.
So we definitely have to do that.
I'm on that show too.
Yeah, you should show up because it's actually, yeah, your face is on the pictures and stuff.
But you can follow that on iTunes.
Follow the podcast.
The podcast was up above Rachel Maddow yesterday.
Really excited about that.
So the top 10, I think, now podcast news and information.
And you can find that on iTunes.
And please subscribe so you can follow us and then also rate and review us.
It helps people discover this podcast.
Have you listened to it yet?
I mean, I'm on the show, so I hear it every day.
Oh, I haven't been listening, but I hear it's good.
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They're going to get pre-approval fast, so you'll know exactly how much home you'll qualify for.
And you can expect faster loan processing thanks to in-house underwriting and decision making.
American Financing.
They have employees that are salary-based mortgage consultants.
So they don't work for a commission.
They don't work for the bank.
They work for you.
That's what gives them the A-plus rating with the BBB and over 1,800 Google reviews that speak for themselves.
They offer the convenience of e-sign so you can complete the documents, the comfort of your home.
There's no upfront fees.
They have every kind of loan in the industry.
They'll customize the loan program that suits your financial needs.
And they're licensed in all 50 states.
So if you need a mortgage, call American Financing at 800-906-2440.
800-906-2440.
1-800-906-2040-2440 or AmericanFinancing.net.
American Financing Corporation, NMLS 1-82334, www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org.