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GLENN BECK PROGRAM
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
GLENN: Oh, that is
right, my friends. We have talent on loan -- I don't even
know who I have talent on loan from today. I don't -- I
mean, it may be a member of the holy family. I'm not sure.
Not God but maybe it was one of the lambs or something there
in the -- I'm just saying. Because I believe that everything
I've been saying for the last few years, that we are in
deep, deep trouble as a country. It's absolutely right
because I find out this morning -- and this is so funny
because last night we were all having dinner here in New
York and we were talking about this conservative list that
has been coming out in dribs and drabs from the U.K.
Telegraph and when I saw that we didn't make the top -- or,
you know, from 100 to 80, I said there's no way we're on the
list, and I didn't even expect to be on the, you know, 100
but, you know, if we're not in the 90s, we're not going to
be on the list. Last night we're joking about it, how just
worthless, you know, we're just, we're a clown show, and I
know that. And then the list comes out and we're named the
18th most influential conservative in America which, I'm a
clown show, America. I mean, this is hysterical. And again I
go back to this country is in deep, deep trouble if I'm
number 18.
STU: You know, you've been telling me, you've had all these,
you know, well researched things.
GLENN: Yeah.
STU: And ideas that you've been presenting. This is the most
-- this is the best evidence you have.
GLENN: This is the best evidence that the world is coming to
an end, isn't it?
STU: I mean, it's over.
GLENN: Do we have Ed Gillespie on the phone?
STU: Yeah.
GLENN: He's number 20 on the list. How humiliating is it for
him? I mean, Ed?
GILLESPIE: I am proud to be number 20 and you may want to
hire a food taster because I'm coming after you. I want to
be number 18.
GLENN: I love this. I love this. I saw you on the list and I
thought, you -- let me ask you. You went to college, didn't
you?
GILLESPIE: I did go to college.
GLENN: Yeah.
GILLESPIE: I didn't do real well but I got out. I got a
degree.
GLENN: Yeah. I didn't. (Laughing.)
GILLESPIE: Well, I will put that in my formal protest to the
newspaper.
GLENN: Are you surprised that you are actually above the
President, President George W. Bush is 21st?
GILLESPIE: Yeah, I'm not going to share that with the
President.
GLENN: You are not going to be the one? "Mr. President, you
are now the 21st most influential conservative"?
GILLESPIE: I'll keep my job.
GLENN: Can we just talk about this just for a second with
you? Rudy Giuliani being the number one most influential
conservative, I saw that, and I don't agree with that. I
mean, I know the list is a joke because I'm the 18th, but
Rudy Giuliani, do you believe he's -- I mean, he's a
Republican. If you said who's the most powerful Republican?
Probably Rudy Giuliani right now.
GILLESPIE: Yeah. He's a good guy and obviously I'm neutral.
I'm a former chairman, I'm not involved in this race, I'm
with the President. I'm so hurt by being number 20, Glenn.
GLENN: I know, I know.
GILLESPIE: I'm bitter and it would affect my comments on the
rest of the list.
GLENN: If you'd like any advice on how to be more
influential, you just call me at any time.
GILLESPIE: I'll talk to you off-line.
GLENN: Okay, good. Let me ask you this because this is not
political. General David Petraeus is number 2. I find this
one amazing because I don't look at him as a conservative or
a liberal or a Republican or a Democrat. I look at him as a
soldier.
GILLESPIE: Yeah, I see camouflage, fatigues and I suspect
that's the way he views himself. He is concerned with
winning in Iraq and watching out for his troops and
obviously when he came back and testified in September, he
was incredibly impressive and knowledgeable and very
effective as a commander in the field and I suspect he
doesn't think himself of any political persuasion. He may
have a viewpoint, but I don't think anybody's ever heard him
express it other than a viewpoint about how we defeat
Al-Qaeda in Iraq and make sure that we're successful there,
our troops are safe.
GLENN: Okay. Let me -- let me kind of piss you off at the
same time I kind of give you a little hug.
GILLESPIE: Where is the hug?
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Ed Gillespie,
Counselor to President Bush |
GLENN: Hang on. The hug's coming. The hug's coming. I know
the White House and I completely disagree on the border
thing.
GILLESPIE: Yeah.
GLENN: And the way it's been handled, and I honestly think
throwing these border guards in jail has been an -- I think
they are political prisoners quite honestly. And one of
them, Hernandez, has actually, he served his time and he
said on my program that he was asked by a Justice Department
official to change his police report to say that he was
intentionally aiming at Mexicans in the back of a van when
it is his testimony that he was aiming for the tire and they
would suspend his sentence if they did that. And I would
really like to have an attorney general that would look into
what's going on in the -- at the border. Tell me a little --
here comes the hug. From what I know about our attorney
general nominee, I like him. That's as good a hug on the
border I can give you today. Tell me about him.
GILLESPIE: Well, Glenn, let me first of all note that we
have made great strides securing the border and the
President is for securing the border and we have met some
milestones in terms of the fence and certainly funding going
out and increasing our, you know, the security along the
border in terms of personnel. This specific allegation I'm
not familiar with but that's, you know, that's a serious
allegation that anybody at the Department of Justice would
direct an official to, you know, to be untruthful in a
report, and Mukasey, Judge Mukasey is the kind of person who
would make sure that those kinds of things -- and I don't
know that his account is accurate obviously. I'm not
rendering an opinion one way or the other of it but he is
the kind of judge that would make sure the Department of
Justice and would be the kind of attorney general who would
make sure they are enforcing the laws and entirely
aboveboard and ethical and I think that's what Democrats and
Republicans alike see in him and that's why he was so widely
hailed and lauded when he was announced as the nominee and
joint support across the political aisle. But as is often
the case in this congress and with this committee in
particular, you know, they seem to be -- they've been slow
walking him and now they are ginning up in issue over a
question that no responsible nominee would ask because they
don't have the basis of information by which to answer it,
which is a question as to whether or not an alleged tactic
that is part of an enhanced program for terrorist
interrogation is legal or not, and it's a legitimate
question but it is illegitimate to ask someone who has not
been briefed on the program and doesn't have the ability to
know the classified information that underlies the entire
program and doesn't even know if the tactic itself or how
it's used, if it's used at all and what are the
circumstances, to render a legal opinion on that. And no
responsible person who could serve as attorney general could
answer that question. That's why the President said
yesterday they are establishing a standard or seem to be
trying to establish a standard that would result in no
confirmed attorney general during a time when we were in a
war on terror.
GLENN: Okay, here's the -- I mean, here's what I'd like the
President to say. And I'm number 18, you're number 20.
GILLESPIE: I've got to listen. So I can move up the chart.
GLENN: I know. Here's what I'd like the President to say on
this. Congress, if you don't think that waterboarding should
be legal, then ban it. Then pass a law. But these weasels in
congress, they did it with the phone tapping. They know
what's needs to be done and they just use it for political
expediency and it's sickening quite frankly.
GILLESPIE: Well, Glenn, actually there was a vote on the
Senate for waterboarding and it failed.
GLENN: I know.
GILLESPIE: By a vote of 53-46 and so these senators are
asking Judge Mukasey to render an opinion and make a
judgment that the United States Senate itself a year ago
refused to do.
GLENN: Right.
GILLESPIE: And then possibly blocking his nomination over
that refusal.
GLENN: It's absolutely unbelievable, and I have to tell you
something else. I think John McCain, how do you feel about
-- well, you don't have to tell me that. John McCain coming
out and saying that this should be taken off the board? I
got news for ya. When did we stop understanding why the
President says, yep, nukes are on the table? We may not ever
consider, seriously consider dropping a nuke on somebody but
we should always let them think we would. If our enemies
know exactly what we do and don't do, that's not a good
thing.
GILLESPIE: Well, and one of the reasons that this government
does not rule in or rule out any of these interrogation
techniques and say what may or may not is because you don't
want a checklist for those who want to kill Americans and
commit terrorist acts here on our soil or -- at Ramstein
airbase or in other places to kill Americans, not say
"Here's what you ought to train for and here's what you
ought not to train for to withstand giving information to
save American lives." This is an interrogation program,
Glenn, that has saved American lives and the idea that
someone should publicly comment on what is in that
classified program is wrong.
Now, Senator McCain has understandably strong views on this
and he has expressed those views I think in a very careful
manner. He did come out yesterday and he supported Judge
Mukasey's confirmation for the very same reason which is to
say he believes that this should be an illegal matter but he
doesn't believe that Judge Mukasey should have to answer
that question without the basis of information that Senator
McCain has. Senator McCain has been briefed on the program
as have many members of the United States Senate including
all the members of the Senate intelligence committee.
GLENN: I appreciate your time and I'll let you go. I know
you're a busy man. I do want to just tell you that I'm
starting some work and going to be exposing the 70
kidnappings of American citizens on the border that I don't
think anybody in the media has been talking about, and it's
an abomination. It is -- everybody who says that a
conservative is racist and they want the border taken care
of because of race problems, all 70 of these are Hispanic
Americans. Two girls were given to drug lords as a gift. It
is an outrageous thing that's going on. The people, the
reporters down at the border are afraid to report this. I've
talked to the families of some of these kidnapped victims
and they're afraid to talk on the radio because they know
that their life will be in danger and they've got other kids
in the family. With what's going on down in the Laredo and
everything else, it is out of control. I know you can say
we've made progress, and we have built more fence, et
cetera, et cetera, but it is bad news down at the border,
and America's not getting the whole story.
GILLESPIE: Well, Glenn, I am one of your viewers. My
schedule doesn't allow me to be a listener, but I watch ya
and we'll be watching with interest on these reports and see
what we can do here to help effect that.
GLENN: Thank you very much.
GILLESPIE: Thank you.
GLENN: Appreciate it. Bye-bye. Ed Gillespie, 20th most
influential conservative.
END TRANSCRIPT |
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