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Oct. 20, 2024 - Huckabee Today
40:11
What's REALLY at Stake with Your 2024 Vote | FULL EPISODE | Huckabee
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Now, we know that we're just pretty close to an election.
Now, let me tell you something.
When you vote for a president, you aren't just voting for that candidate.
You're also voting for his or her vice president.
That person is one heartbeat away from the presidency.
So it matters who's in the bullpen.
So voting for Donald Trump or Kamala Harris is also voting for either J.D. Vance or Tim Walz.
Hopefully, you've had some opportunities to observe both of these candidates and you get an idea of what they believe, what they've done in their lives, and whether you feel they could and would lead this nation through some tough times if called upon.
Now, I was once the lieutenant governor of Arkansas before I was governor.
It's a lot like being vice president.
The lieutenant governor who served with me during my tenure as governor was Winn Rockefeller, who's a great guy.
And yes, he was from that Rockefeller family.
But he was also a very humble and caring public servant.
I honestly believe he would have followed me as governor, but he was diagnosed with cancer in the middle of his campaign and had to drop out of the race.
Sadly, he died the same year.
It was a great loss for the state and, frankly, for me personally.
But Wynn, I thought, had the best description of the role of Lieutenant Governor, and frankly, it applies to the Vice Presidency.
He would say that being Lieutenant Governor is like being a spare tire.
You're supposed to be out of the way, kept in the dark, but stay all pumped up just in the case of an emergency.
Pretty good description.
John Nance Garner, who was vice president during the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt, famously said that the vice presidency wasn't worth a bucket of warm spit.
Well, actually, he used a different term than spit.
But his original language wasn't appropriate for public consumption back then.
Or for that matter, not appropriate for a family audience today either.
But when you vote for a president, you're voting for far more than just the president and even the vice president.
You're also voting for the 15 cabinet secretaries that the president will appoint to lead the executive branch agencies of the federal government.
From the State Department, Defense Department, Treasury, Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, Agriculture, Education, Energy, Veterans Affairs, Transportation, Labor, as well as the Attorney General who will run the Justice Department.
And beyond that, the president will hire around 7,000 other federal employees who will implement his or her policies.
Oh, and there will be over 200 ambassadors that the president will appoint who will carry out the president's foreign policy as they represent us as the official U.S. representatives to all the nations of the world.
So you're just not electing one person or even two people.
By voting for a president, you're voting on thousands of people that he or she—God help us—you're voting for thousands of people who will be put in place to run the day-to-day operations of the federal government.
In many ways, please know, they will have way more impact on your daily life than the president will.
And this is why you need to think beyond what you like or don't like about the candidate for president.
Because they're going to delegate most of their power to people whose names you will never know, but whose actions you certainly will feel.
So what kind of people will your candidate delegate their power to?
And will they represent the values and policies that you believe will be the best for you and your family?
Because I'm telling you, that will ultimately be way more important than what a candidate says in a speech or in some campaign ad.
I know Donald Trump pretty well.
Frankly, I like him.
And I agree with him on his policies for lower taxes, less government regulation on businesses, strong pro-Israel policies, a secure border, protecting the First and Second Amendments, and exerting a strong presence in the world to cause our adversaries to fear us.
I agree with an America First agenda.
And while I wish he was even stronger on the issue of sanctity of life, I'll tell you he's a hundred times stronger than his opponent and her running mate who believe in no restrictions on abortion, even if it means an abortion up until the moment of birth.
But it's also about who would be appointed and employed and what they would do with the power that would be granted to them.
That makes my vote a whole lot easier to make.
And I hope it helps yours as well.
Andrew Klaben is a man of many talents.
He's a best-selling author.
He's an Edgar Award winner and screenwriter.
He's also a successful podcast host and essayist at The Daily Wire.
He's out with an exciting new thriller novel called A Woman Underground.
ground.
Would you please welcome from The Daily Wire, Andrew Klavan.
If there ever was a Renaissance man, Andrew, I think you might be that guy.
I mean, screenwriter, you've done many films that have been produced that ended up being done by Clint Eastwood, Michael Douglas.
I mean, some pretty big films that you did the screenplay for.
Yeah.
No, I've been very fortunate, and I was successful in Hollywood right up until the minute I opened my mouth on politics, and then the phone stopped ringing instantaneously.
So that really happened to you?
It really did.
It was very quick and disturbing, but I wouldn't do it any other way.
I mean, I felt that we reached a point where they were making movie after movie attacking the wars on terror and showing Americans as the bad guys.
Yeah.
And...
I don't mind what your opinion is.
I disagreed with that.
But you don't make propaganda for the enemy while the soldiers are in harm's way.
What a novel idea.
Well, God bless you for having the guts to do that, because a lot of people would just keep their mouths shut and keep getting the checks.
Yeah, no, I just thought they're actually human beings, my guys, my people being killed, losing a couple of jobs in Hollywood, or all the jobs in Hollywood, didn't mean very much at all, really.
But even despite that, you've found other ways to be influential, obviously through the writing of a series of novels for which you've been winning awards.
This latest one is called A Woman Underground.
There are some women I think probably should be underground, but that's a whole other story.
We won't go there tonight because this one is fiction.
This is fiction, yes.
Okay.
So this is not the historical account of any particular woman who is or should be.
This is...
It's a thriller.
And everyone who's talked about it says it's just one of those riveting stories.
How do you come up with stories?
Because I think sometimes it would be much harder to write fiction than it is to write the story that is...
to figure out how everything happens and how it all unfolds.
But usually it starts with a question of what would happen if, you know, what would happen if the love of you, in this book, the love of your life came back into your life and you realize she was in trouble and you had to get to her before somebody else, a bad guy did.
What would happen if you walked into your baby's room and the baby was gone?
You know, all these questions kind of pop into your head and you sort of think about that and you think, yeah, you know, that's a good story.
If you were writing a story about this election, there are parts of it, depending on how it turns out, I hope it is fiction.
But there could be some interesting aspects of even how politics plays out before our eyes.
AND I THINK IT'S A COUPLE OF THINGS.
Put your real life hat on because I know you do the podcast now and you're dealing with very current issues.
What are the biggest stories that a lot of Americans don't even understand about the impact of this election and where it takes us?
Well, the biggest story of all is the corruption of our news media.
That's the biggest story because it sets the field for everything else.
We're not seeing a candidate when we see Kamala Harris.
We're seeing a creation of basically the entertainment industry if you include the news media in that.
And that's all a function of the creation of the internet which is let more people speak and more voices come out and they want to make that stop.
And so they are basically selling us this kind of You know, plastic image of a candidate.
And so that is one thing.
But the other thing is what you just said is the way this government works.
We now have, you know, they call it, you know, the deep government, the deep state or anything like that.
But we have a bureaucracy that in Donald Trump's term was actually working against the president of the United States.
You talk to people who are in the Trump administration and they'll tell you they had to fight to get what the president wanted done.
So here's the guy that we elected.
And the people he appointed, fighting people who have never been elected to anything.
To anything, yeah.
And are marshaled against him.
And so what we're looking for, I think, is to take the government back.
We're looking to take the government back for the people, which it really has not been, it hasn't been in our hands for quite some time.
It's very, very disturbing to somebody who loves, I love this country so much.
I mean, I lived out of this country for a while.
I lived in England, a lovely place to live.
It's nothing like this.
Let me tell you this country is racist.
This is the least racist country on earth.
When they tell you, you know, that we don't have freedoms, we have these wonderful freedoms.
This is the first time in my life that I've ever seen a government conspiring to silence people.
Ordinary people, you have an opinion, they'll come in.
If you protest abortion, they'll raid your house in the middle of the night.
And so this is a really serious business because Donald Trump, the He has his flaws like all of us, but he actually believes in the country as it stands.
And I think I don't think we're any longer dealing with right and left.
I think we're dealing with pro the founding of America and against the founding of America.
I think that's a great way to put it.
There's a lot more that I want us to get into and that is a perfect place for us to pause.
More of my conversation with Andrew Klavan is coming up and I think you're going to want to stay around because I want to get into exactly what he's talking about.
What he just said is maybe the most important thing that you need to think about between now and the time you vote, whether you vote early Or wait until November the 5th.
So please hang around for that conversation.
But right now, Keith Bilbrey is going to tell you about some of the other great guests that we have lined up for you tonight.
So stay put.
Well, we've got some good ones.
You don't want to miss the inspirational music from Christian artist Ryan Stevenson.
And Jack Williams brings on the last with his friends Foster and Randall.
Coming up next on Huckabee.
Go to MikeHuckabee.com and sign up for his free newsletter.
And follow AdGov Mike Huckabee on X. We are back with Andrew Klavan of The Daily Wire.
This is his book.
It's called A Woman Underground, a phenomenal novel that he has just put out.
Very pronounced screenwriter whose works have been turned into some of the major Hollywood movies.
But we're talking today about what's happening in our country and some of this, I wish it were fiction.
What we just discussed before we went to the break was what's happening in a culture of the government.
Some call it the uniparty, the deep state, but it's all about the bureaucracy.
People whose attitude is, I was here before you came, I'll be here when you leave, and they honestly believe that they are not answerable to the people.
Andrew, here's what maybe is the most disturbing thing of all.
I hear people say, Donald Trump is a threat to democracy.
But Donald Trump believes that if the people elect someone, it is the elected official in whom that power has been given.
He delegates it, and that's what happens.
And if you don't like it, four years later, you can change it.
But you don't have a government, a free government, If people within the bowels of the federal bureaucracy say, you know what?
We don't like what the president proposes.
We're going to do it our way.
That is the enemy of democracy.
It's absolutely true.
And it's amazing.
It's laughable almost.
They can't understand.
Why the people would turn to a guy like Donald Trump who's so blunt and bluff and says tough things and all these things.
For 50 to 60 years, the people of this country have been told by the elites that their religion stinks, their country stinks, they're racist, they're anti-women, they're homophobic, all these things.
And finally, I think it was incredibly civilized of the American people to strike back with Donald Trump instead of showing up with pitchforks and torches outside their offices.
And so this is a genuine, quiet, peaceful revolution of people who have been told so long that the things that they hold dear are no good.
And the thing about it is, it's just like when we watch the debate between Kamala Harris and Trump, the media kept correcting Trump and they were wrong and he was right.
The people are right.
The people are right.
You write about this country.
It is one of the only truly amazing revolutionary political ideas in history.
You know, they keep calling themselves progressives, but the things that they're doing have been done since Pharaoh.
The things that we're doing, this idea that the people rule and that we have this kind of ordered government, it's not quite a democracy, but it kind of has a democratic republic.
That idea is a brilliant idea.
And it worked so well until they started messing with it.
And it can work well again, no question.
And Andrew, the way they've messed with it is what disturbs me.
They deny the reality of our very documents that are the basis of our law.
There is no free speech.
We can tell you when you have to shut up.
If you disagree with us, we shut you down.
And we even tell the social media companies what they can publish and what they can't.
That, to me, is as frightening as anything that's happening in our government, a government that thinks that it has that power, To basically say, you, the people, work for us.
And I'm thinking, gee, when I read the Constitution, every one of the Bill of Rights, all of them, tell the government what it can't do.
It never tells the people what they can't do.
You know, I've worked my whole life in the arts.
I've been in the arts my whole life.
And the arts and culture Affect people's minds and consciousness and they have been using the arts and blacklisting people and keeping people like me out of the arts in order to sort of change people's minds without even knowing that their minds are changed.
The way the culture works is it's like you're standing on the beach in the Ocean comes in, it takes the sand out from underneath.
So we can win every election we want, but we keep losing the culture.
We keep losing the argument because of the culture.
And so that's one of the reasons I work, you know, you say it like I'm a Renaissance man, it's because I'll do anything to get that culture changed.
These people seriously believe.
That America was a mistake.
And if you don't believe me, you know, you should look at Tim Walz, the vice presidential candidate.
He is now re-generating the educational system in Minnesota.
And the guy he has doing that believes that America has written, America should be overthrown.
America should be deconstructed and overthrown.
That's the education he wants to bring into his state as the governor.
These guys really believe that.
And they don't believe it for logic.
They believe it because it's in the movies, it's in the books they read, it's in the culture all around them.
So they just know it's true without thinking it's true.
And I just think we have to change that.
We have to start saying out loud as bluntly as we can, you know, this is our country, not yours.
And if you don't like it...
Go elsewhere.
I hope we say it loud and clear when it comes to Election Day.
If you'd like a link to Andrew's podcast or to purchase his latest book, this one right here, A Woman Underground, head over to Huckabee.tv.
We have a link to his guest page, and we would love to have Andrew back and talk some more.
But right now, Keith is going to tell all of you what great guests we have standing by on deck, and we have some good ones.
Keith?
Well, we sure can.
The hilarious Jack Williams and his friends Foster and Randall are ready to make you laugh.
And later, we'll hear how Stephanie Zanger is empowering the Latino community to live the American dream.
All this and more coming up on Huckabee.
Man, I'm telling you, we almost just had a dance party going on here.
Everybody was listening to BG's Stayin' Alive from the movie Saturday Night Fever, and I thought, it's going to be Saturday Night Fever.
I'm going to have to get up on this stage and give them my best John Travolta.
But then I realized I would probably be viewed as John Revoltus, and so I won't do it.
Speaking of great music, this place has been rocking tonight because we've got the sounds of the best band anywhere you're going to find, not just in Music City, Nashville, anywhere.
Trey Corley and the Music City Connection.
Jack Williams has been performing ever since his father passed down his own childhood ventriloquist dummy to him.
He says that he's got more voices in his head than a conference call.
One of those Zoom calls where there's so many faces on the screen, you have no idea who they are.
His America's Got Talent audition won a standing ovation from both the crowd and the judges.
And he's got over one and a half million followers on TikTok.
Of course, after this show, that's gonna double.
Would you please welcome Jack Williams?
All right.
Thank you, guys.
Thank you, guys.
It is so great to be here.
I have my buddy, the oil baron himself, Randall.
So you're an oil baron?
Yes.
You've been in the industry a long time?
I've been in the oil industry so long, I have an oil stain on my jacket that is over 2,000 years old.
Wow.
Where'd you get this oil stain from?
Ancient Greece?
Randall, do you only produce natural gas?
Yes, every time I eat a quesadilla at Taco Bell.
Jack, you know what you get when you eat beans and onions?
What do you get when you eat beans and onions, Randall?
Tear gas!
All righty, Randall.
Do you have any hobbies?
Yes.
Tying damsels to train tracks.
How's that going?
I'm still single.
Not doing so well with the ladies, huh?
No, Jack.
I had an ex.
You had an ex?
Yes.
Well, what happened with that?
Well, she had an eye, just like me.
She did?
Yes.
Well, what happened with her?
Well, she was seeing someone else on the side.
Oh.
You get it?
On the side because of my eye.
You're on my side.
Yes.
Randall, what's something that you're really good at other than being an oil baron?
Math!
I am the smartest mathematician known to man.
Okay.
Let's see this in action, Randall.
I have a calculator right here on my phone.
In the audience, someone name a big number.
3,207,2132.
I'm just going to say three million, okay?
I'm not going to remember all that.
Another big number, not that big.
Five million!
Five hundred, okay, here we go.
It's kind of easy, but let's see.
Three million times five hundred.
Randall, what is the answer?
That is so easy, Jack.
It is clearly seven.
Randall, that's not the answer.
This is the answer, Randall.
Jack, how did I get that wrong?
You were looking right at it.
Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Randall the Oil Baron.
Let him hear it!
Here we go.
Thank you.
Alrighty, guys.
This next guy I have with me is my best friend in the whole world.
Ladies and gentlemen, big round of applause for Foster.
Let him hear it.
There we go. - They like me, boy, they do.
They like me more than you.
Why do you say that, Foster?
Because, Jack, I am a better ventriloquist than you.
Okay, let's put it to the test then.
Do you think you could say the longest word in the English dictionary without moving your mouth?
What is it?
It's noumena ultramicroscopic silicovolcano coniosis.
You know what that word means?
Uh-uh.
It's a lung disease from inhaling volcanic ash.
Makes it hard to speak.
It seems like if you had that condition, you'd want to have a shorter word.
Instead of, I had this thing and it's called...
Foster?
Foster, say the word.
Say it without moving your mouth.
Okay, okay, here we go, here we go.
Noon-de-da-ultra-microscopic-silico-vorcanoconiosis!
Thank you!
They like me, more than you.
They like me.
Okay, Foster.
You told me you were going to dress up tonight.
What happened with that?
Well, Jack, I was going to dress up.
I was going to wear this jacket that I got for Christmas, but I decided not to because it was way too ugly.
Oh, okay.
Well, what did you do with this ugly jacket?
I re-gifted it.
Okay, well, who did you re-gift it to?
Merry Christmas.
You know what, Foster?
I like this jacket.
You look like Nostaratu.
Okay, um, Foster, I'm gonna do something I said I would never do.
You wouldn't?
I would.
I'm gonna throw your voice.
What?
It's gone.
You don't have a voice.
What are you gonna do about it, huh?
Foster, listen, listen.
I hear your voice coming back.
Just listen.
What?
I...
I have...
your voice.
And that means...
I have your voice.
I don't like how I sound at all.
I know, I sound like I sell insurance.
Okay, um...
Foster, you want your voice back?
Yes, please.
Here.
Oh, that's better.
Foster, are we good?
We're good.
Thank you guys so much.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, Jack.
Thank you.
Thank you, Foster.
If you want to see more of the amazing Jack Williams and his friends, you can book him also and follow him on social media.
But here's what you got to do.
You got to visit Huckabee.tv and we will connect you to Jack Williams.
Right now, Keith is going to throw his voice to all of you and tell you what's coming up next.
So take it away, Keith.
I can do that.
Still to come.
Author Sam Goodwin will have you on the edge of your seat when you hear his story of being wrongfully imprisoned in Syria.
And next, activist Stephanie Zanker with the insight on the all-important Latino vote for Trump.
That's next on Huckabee!
Wow.
Welcome back.
My next guest spent years as a heavy metal drummer, but now she works to empower the Latino community to achieve the American dream and to endear them to the conservative values that will make that possible.
Would you please welcome the strategic director of the Libre Initiative in the state of Georgia, Stephanie Zanker.
Stephanie, welcome.
You know, obviously, we're going to talk about elections, politics in the Hispanic community.
But before we get to that, so you were a drummer in a heavy metal band.
I sure was.
So how cool was that?
It was awesome.
I mean, I learned so much about the world and, you know, so much about America.
And I just, I loved touring.
And 18 years as a heavy metal drummer is a very...
18 years?
It's a very non-traditional background.
Stephanie, you don't look old enough to have done anything for 18 years other than just be alive.
I'm thinking, well, that's, you know...
I think for many of us, the idea of a touring musician would be just so much fun.
You know, I really enjoyed the lifestyle.
I loved getting out into, you know, different parts of America, talking to new people, and that always gave me energy.
And then playing music every night is a dream, you know, and I almost was able to turn that into a career, but I found my way into politics.
So somehow I'm trying to figure out the spectrum from heavy metal drummer to being politically active in Libre Initiative, which is trying to encourage Hispanic and Latino people to go vote.
So that's a big jump.
How'd that happen?
So I was living in the D.C. area, and a serendipitous offer from a friend to work on his colleague's Republican congressional campaign just kind of presented itself to me.
And, you know, she was a candidate who was young.
She was Latina, so he thought that we would really hit it off.
And, you know, he was like, just meet her.
And we did, and we hit it off, and I ended up being the Latino coalition director for that campaign and others.
And was a jack of all trades.
And I just, I really got energized and enthused by the mission.
And I was tired of just talking about all the things that I saw that was wrong with our country.
And I was given an opportunity to actually do something about it.
And here I am.
Well, I'm glad you are.
And there's something that's happening this year that is pretty...
Amazing to a lot of folks who have lived through decades of politics.
There is a big shift going on in the Hispanic community, people moving toward conservatism, republicanism, and specifically voting for Donald Trump.
I mean, the numbers are double digit increases.
Why is that?
Latinos are definitely moving to the right.
I mean, for the last four election cycles, it's been a slow and steady bleed away from the Democrat Party.
And the number one issue for Latinos is the economy, inflation, the high cost of living, and job security.
So they're looking for candidates that are going to push policies that are going to help directly help their pocketbooks.
And not only that, their values are traditionally conservative.
They value faith, family, freedom, community, and hard work.
You know, I've found that the conservative social concerns of people in the Latino community are frankly more pronounced than they are in the Caucasian community.
For example, sanctity of life is a big issue, marriage, the traditional values that we tend to think.
And most people don't realize that those issues somehow have more prominence in the Latino community than they do in what may be the more traditional Caucasian neighborhoods.
Latinos are traditionally a very religious people, especially, you know, Mexican, Central Americans.
I'm half Guatemalan.
I was raised Catholic.
And so, yeah, they value the sanctity of life.
And family is one of the most important issues for Latinos.
So they're going to naturally gravitate toward candidates that are espousing those values, the values that have made and will continue to make America the greatest country on Earth.
But Stephanie, I think some people just assume that all the people who are Latino are going to automatically say, oh, we want to vote for the Democrats because they believe in free, open borders and immigration.
My experience in talking with people, people who came here made great sacrifices to be here and struggled to get their citizenship or the green card.
They're not that happy about just the open border where people broke line.
So explain to us that it may not be working as well for the Democrats as they think.
Absolutely.
Well, I think a lot of people assume that the Latino community is for illegal immigration and for open borders, but that couldn't be farther from the truth because, you know, now we're getting into second, third, fourth generations and, you know, their parents, their grandparents came over here and immigrated the legal way.
So they went through all those hoops and they went through the proper legal channels and they don't want to see the open borders.
They want strong border security and a clear and effective legal pathway to immigration.
Now, you have to promise me that you're still playing music, right?
You didn't just throw your drumsticks away and say...
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
I've got my drum set, I've got a practice space, and I regularly play music.
Well, next time you come, we're going to throw you over there with Trey and the band and let you play a song with me.
I would love that.
And I heard that you play the bass, too.
I do.
Maybe you and I could have a little jam song.
I think, you know, everybody knows that it's the bass player and the drummer that really set the stage.
Exactly.
The rhythm section.
That's right.
Everybody else...
You know, they have some role, but it's not as important as the drummer and the bass.
We'll do that the next time.
So glad to have you.
You can learn more about the wonderful work that the Libre Initiative is doing for the Latino community by going to Stephanie's guest page at Huckabee.tv.
Keith, here's what I understand.
Our next guest has a pretty incredible story to share.
You want to tell us about it?
Well, that's absolutely right.
Sam Goodwin was wrongfully imprisoned in one of Syria's most notorious prisons with no hope for freedom.
Stick around to hear his incredible story next on Huckabee.
Go to Huckabee.tv and get your very own made-in-the-USA Huckabee mugs, t-shirts, hats, and more for all of the Huckabee fans on your shopping list.
*Applaudissements* Welcome back everyone.
My next guest is a former hockey player and tech entrepreneur who had this dream.
He set out to visit all 193 nations on the planet.
His plan got derailed a little bit because he was taken hostage in Syria.
Threatened with beheading, falsely accused of being a spy for the CIA, and put in jail.
The incredible story of how his family got him home is told in this inspiring book, Saving Sam.
Please welcome Sam Goodwin.
Sam, welcome.
Good to have you here.
Thanks for having me.
This is a story, if it doesn't become a major movie, somebody is missing one of the great opportunities because this story is crazy.
You know, I'm thinking about novels.
We had Andrew Klavan on earlier.
If someone had written this as a novel, it would be easier to believe than that it is the truth.
So you decide you're going to go see the world.
What on earth were you thinking going to Syria?
One of the most important things I learned through my travel journey is that places that are negatively perceived or that Western media tells us we're not supposed to like, These were the same places where I often had many of my best experiences and where my perspectives were most meaningfully impacted.
So despite everything that was happening there, I was confident that the same was going to be the case.
And what happened in Syria that didn't turn out so well?
Yeah, it was not the case.
I was wrongfully detained, taken hostage, accused of being an American spy and collaborating with terrorists.
Syria was country 181 of 193 and nothing like this had ever happened anywhere else.
You've gone to 181 countries, everything's smooth.
Some of them, I'm sure, pretty unfriendly places, typically.
But you go to Syria, and what do they just show up at your hotel one day and say, come with us, you're under arrest?
I was walking through a roundabout on the way to meet up with my guide when all of a sudden a Black pickup truck abruptly pulled up next to me.
Two armed men jumped out of the backseat and instructed me to get inside.
And thankfully they weren't violent, but I didn't have a choice.
And I was scared, confused.
I had no information or anyone to help.
I was desperately trying to understand what was happening.
You know, we're so used to in America having the certain rights, right, to an attorney, right, to make a phone call.
Do you have any rights?
They give you any, hey, you want to call your family?
You want to call somebody?
You want to get a lawyer?
Any of that stuff happen for you?
I didn't have any of that stuff.
I was denied a lawyer, denied a translator.
They just continued to characterize me as a spy and a terrorist without providing any meaningful information about what might happen.
The whole process was taking place inside this.
Ideological vacuum and was not going to be impacted by anything I said or did.
So you don't really, at this point, know what they think you've done and they're speaking in a foreign language, not translating it for you?
You must have been terrified.
I was scared.
I was stunned and in disbelief about what had happened.
In just a few short hours, my life had spiraled out of control in the most terrifying of ways.
I frankly, Governor, felt exactly the way they wanted me to.
Hopeless, utterly cut off from any control of my life.
What is amazing about the story is not that you were captured, that's A big part of the story.
But your family decided they're gonna find a way to get you home.
Your family, for heaven's sakes.
I mean, your family lived in St. Louis.
You know, it's not like they're diplomats, not like they have a gazillion dollars to pay off some people.
How on earth did your family have the guts to say, By golly, we're gonna get Sam home.
My father works in civil engineering.
My mother's a registered nurse turned educator.
Both of them are smart people and have had relative success in their respective fields, but they're an average family from middle America.
They had no idea what to do when their son went missing in the Middle East, but thankfully they began to act.
And it turned out that my sister's former college roommate's uncle Whoa, that's a long set of rules there.
Was friends with the head of Lebanon's internal security, and he was able to go to his counterpart in Damascus and mediate my release when so many others were struggling to do anything.
Now, you had some folks...
Yeah.
That's worth some applause.
I feel fortunate.
So...
The State Department, people in the U.S. government, were they helpful at all?
They were very involved, and they were helpful.
They supported my family as best they could.
Ultimately, it's not that our public servants are incapable or ill-intentioned.
It just became...
A situation where they had limited resources given a lack of diplomatic ties between Washington and Damascus.
Yeah, because it's not exactly like we have a very close relationship with the Syrian government right now.
When your family finally was able to go through all these machinations, you were on the path to being beheaded or placed in prison for the rest of your life, never to see your family or America again.
When did you find out that they had arranged for you to be released?
I actually didn't know that until I was reunited with them in Beirut.
So nothing was told to me until we actually were reunited.
And I sometimes say you talk about a movie or a film.
Sometimes I think about that moment when we were reunited.
If this story were to ever be adapted for something on screen, nothing that happened in that moment would need to be dramatized.
It could be played out exactly.
We could just take the CCTV footage from Lebanon's internal security office and just play it on the screen and it would be as dramatic as anything I've ever seen.
And maybe we should do that.
Your story has got to go to Hollywood.
There's no way around this.
It's one of the most powerful stories, and the people that I know in the business, I'm going to say to them, you've got to get this book.
It's just a fascinating story.
Like I say, you can wait until the film comes out, but I don't know when that's going to be.
So go ahead and read the book, and you'll join me in saying, hey, Hollywood, when are you going to produce something like this?
Because this is a story that must be told.
Go to Huckabee.tv.
We will give you links to get the book and learn more about Sam Goodwin.
Or how to have him come to speak to your group and your community and tell his story.
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