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Glenn Beck

John Edwards Admits Affair; Russia-Georgia Conflict: The Real Story

Aired August 11, 2008 - 19:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

GLENN BECK, HOST: Tonight, John Edwards tells the truth and nothing but the truth. But John Edwards cheats on his wife two years ago says it`s over and we know it is. And he`s still showing up at his ex-mistress` hotel at 2:00 o`clock in the morning without his wife knowing it. It doesn`t really sound like he had that "Oh my gosh I`m a dirt bag" moment does it?
I`ll tell you the real story about the Russia-Georgia conflict. The war for oil and why our sovereignty could be at stake.

Plus, the president of Georgia opens up to me about America. A look at what this pro western leader has told me about his admiration for the U.S. and why it`s time for our leaders to step up to the plate. All this and more tonight.

Give me a second here, America. I know John Edwards is a scum bag; I`m just trying to figure out how much of a scum bag this guy is. I mean, let me elaborate in case you didn`t get the memo. The "National Enquirer" ran a story a couple of weeks ago about former Democratic presidential candidate`s affair and the alleged illegitimate child. I`m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, even though my gut was like scum bag. I said at the time we should consider him innocent until proven guilty, that`s the way America works. I have to tell you, getting that story on the air two, three weeks ago; you`ve got to be kidding me, right? All the flak I got from every corner.

Everybody is like, oh, my gosh; you are a scum bag yourself. All I was saying back then was, there`s only one black cat here. It`s either Edwards for cheating on his cancer stricken wife or the "Enquirer" for falsely reporting that he did. Here`s the point tonight. The "Enquirer" got it right. John Edwards is a scum bag. Who saw that one coming? But worst of all, I don`t think this story is over yet. Here`s how I got there. Once John Edwards knew that he was caught, he chose to confess last Friday. You know, while you and everybody else on the planet was watching the Olympics. Yeah, he was confessing. And now that he`s fessed up about the affair, again, the one he had, you know, on his wife while she was struggling with cancer, Edwards is still denying that the woman`s baby is his.

OK, let`s give him the benefit of the doubt. America, here`s what you need to know tonight. Let`s just say that that baby in question isn`t the baby of John Edwards. And it`s the baby of one of his close friends and campaign workers, because he says it is. So as I read that, that means that not only was John Edwards having an affair, but he was sharing his mistress with a friend? And by the way, let`s ask this question, how much campaign money went to this mistress as job payment? And why, as the "Enquirer" reports, is some mystery man paying this woman $15,000 a month? Is it tithing because she`s so spiritual? David Perel is the editor in chief of "The National Enquirer" and joins me now on the phone.

David let me ask you this, this is my premise. I said there`s no way that the "National Enquirer" is so stupid, and you would have been the guy that made this decision, when a reporter walked into your office and said hey, I got all this stuff and it`s only on one of the most powerful trial attorneys in the country, you had to say at that point, you either have to have everything lined up or you`re one dumb s.o.b.

DAVID PEREL, EDITOR IN CHIEF, "THE NATIONAL ENQUIRER (via telephone:" You can be sure of that. Before we published anything about, as you say, one of the most prominent trial attorneys in the country, we made sure that all the t`s were crossed and all the I`s were dotted.

BECK: So is my question here about sharing the mistress, is that legitimate? Because it either has to be his or somehow or another his friend having sex with the mistress at the same time. I don`t see that as being a better option.

PEREL: Actually it`s a little more nefarious than that. Our sources tell us that Rielle Hunter never had a sexual relationship with Andrew Young. He was nearly her caretaker when she was pregnant. They stashed her in a gated community in North Carolina. That`s when we first found her.

BECK: Is Andrew Young the guy that she apparently -- because he said that it was his baby. And then like he had her over with the wife and kids and they had dinner and everybody got along?

PEREL: Exactly. Concocting the story that it was his baby was simply a last-minute ploy to stop us from publishing our original story about the affair.

BECK: So who`s the third friend? I wish I had some friends like this that would pay people $15,000 a month. Who`s the other friend?

PEREL: Fred Barren, the prominent attorney in Dallas and former finance chair of the Edwards` campaign.

BECK: Huh. You know what I find ironic? Just when I thought that Obama couldn`t have worse judgment than he did, I found out this weekend that John Edwards was being considered as an attorney general for the Obama campaign. How long will it be before Obama says that`s not the John Edwards I knew? Where does this story turn next?

PEREL: This story now turns to number one, John Edwards` continuing contact with his mistress, and number two, the cover up and money trail.

BECK: She didn`t -- is it true that Mrs. Edwards didn`t know that John was going to the hotel that night where you guys caught him?

PEREL: That is true. And when John Edwards then tells you that, well, I decided to call my wife the next day and tell her, I think you have to look at that in context of well, of course, because he encountered "National Enquirer" reporters and he knew it was going to be on our Website within a matter of hours.

BECK: Yeah, OK. You`re working on another story for this tomorrow. I would love to see what you guys have on this tomorrow, because I honestly I don`t trust anybody. I don`t trust politicians, I don`t trust the media, and I don`t trust anybody anymore. David thanks for the good work on the story and we will talk to you again.

Now let`s turn to Ramesh Ponnuru he is "Time" columnist, the senior editor for the "National Review." Ramesh, help me out on this one. Do we have the "Nightline" audio please of John Edwards? Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(UNIDENTIFIED MALE): So your assumption is that you would just never be caught?

JOHN EDWARDS: First of all, it was short. It was a huge judgment mistake in judgment. But yeah, I didn`t think anyone would ever know about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: Yeah. Is this about mistakes, is this about an affair, or is this just about colossal arrogance and stupidity?

RAMESH PONNURU, TIME COLUMNIST: I think that it does take a certain amount of arrogance, not only to think that you`re going to get away with it and you are never going to be caught. I`m sure a lot of politicians have affairs and aren`t caught. But to think that you can build a campaign around your strong family life and standing by your sick wife and still not get caught, that is an astonishing level of arrogance. You`re just tempting fate.

BECK: Well, I mean here is the thing. I mean look if he would have come out and said Friday -- to me, this is not a story. Look, we all make mistakes, and whatever. Who are any of us to judge somebody else? It does matter when you want to know if somebody has character, if they have learned from those mistakes. That`s where I think this story comes in.

The guy says, my wife, it was short; we did this, blah, blah, blah. But then he doesn`t tell his wife that he`s going back to meet with this woman in Los Angeles. And there are pictures of him holding the baby. And he says the baby is not his. Why? Because philanders always want to hold the former mistresses new love child?

PONNURU: And also the, oh, I was telling the truth 99 percent of the time. I`m sure a lot of husbands across this country are trying that one out on their wives. Only 99 percent of the time I wasn`t having any kind of affair.

BECK: Well that`s good. I love the, well; she was in remission at the time.

PONNURU: Yeah, what was the other thing he said? Oh, he`s beaten himself up on it so much. We all feel sorry for you now.

BECK: Actually what he said is, no one can beat up on me more than I`ve beaten on myself. I took that as a challenge today on the radio show. There are a lot of people that picked that up. I think they did beat up on him a little more than probably he did. The money that she`s getting, because some of this stuff, for instance the job that she took as a videographer, which I saw a picture of her on the news today where she was filming it and then she looked at the camera and she turned it around like looking at the lens like am I looking at the right side? That`s a $100,000 job at least. There may be more money coming. Is there a possibility this guy goes to jail for using campaign funds?

PONNURU: Well, I think that there are a lot of, if you`ll pardon the phrase, more shoes to drop in this story. I don`t think that -- look, Fred Barren, the guy who is sending this money, the first thing you think of when you think of Fred Barren is not somebody who doesn`t care about money and is happy to throw it away. So you do have to wonder whether this is just a modeless giving without --

BECK: Ramesh I read several times that she`s a very spiritual person. And I think that this is just tithing. He`s like, you know what? $15,000 a month to her.

PONNURU: The spirit moved her.

BECK: Something moved him. Ramesh thank you very much. You know, when we did this story a couple weeks ago, everybody said you`re a dirt bag, even though I gave Edwards the benefit of the doubt. Now that the rest of the media is finally covering this story, you have to ask yourself why did they ignore the story in the first place. Hmmm. We will ask that question coming up.

And a little later on in the show, as John Edwards is fessing up, the rest of us were watching the Olympic opening ceremony. Anybody else think it was a little spooky?

Plus, as our pro western allies in Georgia fight off Russian military offenses, we sit on our hands and we are doing nothing. Why all talk and no action is going to make the west and NATO slaves to Russia. I`ll explain in tonight`s "Real Story."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: America, the evil empire is back. The scary part about the Russia-Georgia conflict is -- the media is just not covering that. That`s the "Real Story." That`s where we come in a little bit later.

But first, back to our lead story tonight, the other one that the media is not covering. The one of the two Americas. The one where you work hard and try to do the right thing. And then there`s the one, you know, the America where you`re a millionaire lawyer and you cheat on your cancer stricken wife and your friends clean up the mess. You heard about Edwards` confession, but you most likely didn`t see it because you were watching the Olympic opening ceremony like 4 billion other people. I think Edwards was trying to sneak it in and hoped that we had all forgotten about it by now. Not so fast, Gomer, that lawyer trick may work in the courtroom, but this city slicker sees right through ya, y`all. Here`s part of Edwards` brilliantly timed confession on ABC`s "Nightlife"

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(UNIDENTIFIED MALE): Did you have an affair with Ms. Hunter?

JOHN EDWARDS: In 2006, two years ago, I made a very serious mistake. A mistake that I am responsible for and no one else. I, in 2006, told Elizabeth about the mistake. I asked her for her forgiveness. Asked god for his forgiveness. And we have kept this within our family since that time. All of my family knows about this. And just to be absolutely clear, none of them are responsible for it.

(UNIDENTIFIED MALE): Is this affair completely over?

EDWARDS: Oh, yes, it`s been over for a long time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: Yeah, yeah. But he didn`t -- notice he didn`t -- they didn`t tell his wife that he was going that night to hold the baby. All right, main stream media finally woken up from its nap on the story. Everybody is talking about it now. You have to ask where was the media. Joined now by Russell Adams of the "Wall Street Journal" and Ken Vogel from the "Politico." Let me start with you, Russell. Where was the media?

RUSSELL ADAMS, "WALL STREET JOURNAL:" Well, I think there`s a couple things at work here. One of them is that, you know, we in the main stream media, we never like to follow anybody on a story. When you add in there`s an enormous amount of ego driven coverage here and nobody likes to follow anybody else on a story.

BECK: You know what, Russell? That makes so much sense to me. Because I barely saw the Anna Nicole Smith story. There was only one outlet that was covering that. It was incredible. Come on, you don`t believe that, do you?

ADAMS: But that`s a backdrop and when you throw in the fact that it was the "Enquirer" and we all have preconceived notions about what the "Enquirer" is. It`s over the top and often tasteless. And we have all of these ideas and we think about all the tabloids, the space aliens and the Elvis sightings. I think that everybody was just doing --

BECK: You`re actually trying to set the main street media apart from all the tasteless -- because we are so classy here. Come on, man! If you`ve got biggens, and there`s sex and a politician and money, we are on it like white on rice.

ADAMS: Right, right.

BECK: Come on!

ADAMS: Look, I wrote a story in today`s paper saying that, you know, basically saying that we dropped the ball on this one. And there are a lot of reasons for it. It`s ego, this certainly fuels the argument --

BECK: Let me -- Ken, let me throw this one to you, OK? Is it possible that maybe the media just - I mean "The New York Times" ran with the story that maybe, possibly McCain looked at a woman one time in the years gone by. "The New York Times" ran with that one. But this one, no. Is it possible that maybe the media is in with the left?

KEN VOGEL, "THE POLITICO:" Well, you got to remember with that "New York Times" story on John McCain; they were really chastised for that. In fact, they did a little bit of self-chastising where their ombudsman admitted like hey we didn`t get that story right. In this case, I agree with half of what Russell said, but disagree with the other half. I agree that the "National Enquirer" is not looked upon as a credible media source.

So therefore, we`re reluctant to run with the story, we the main stream media. However, I disagree that we would have been reluctant to run with it if it had been broken by somebody else, CNN, "Politico" had written that story, I can guarantee you the next day everybody else would have gone with it.

BECK: Russell, don`t get me wrong. I love "The Wall Street Journal" and it`s great. But you know, the problem with "The Wall Street Journal" is, you have to have the little sketches. So you`ve got to have somebody drawing on the front page. Everybody else is a visual medium here.

Hang on just a second. I have learned another thing on this story is that John Edwards is clearly blind. But you can`t tell me that -- for instance, Larry Craig, you guys all covered the Larry Craig thing. Who was the other one that destroyed the Republican Party because oh, ethics and morals, it`s crazy. And us Democrats, we`re not like that. How come those two stories were covered but yet this one went for over a year with nobody following it up?

VOGEL: Let me throw out a couple more names for you, if I might, Glenn. Eliot Spitzer, Jim McGreevey. These were Democratic politicians who were involved in similarly seedy sex scandals that got covered, you know, saturation coverage in all the media outlets, including "The New York Times." So I don`t think it`s necessarily a party thing. I don`t think it`s a liberal media bias. I think it`s an anti-tabloid bias. Even "The New York Times" admitted their ombudsman again said we dropped the ball here. We should have dedicated more resources to track this story down.

BECK: All right. Russell and Ken thanks a lot.

Coming up, anybody else think the Olympic opening ceremony looked like circus a so lay? It was a well financed spectacle. But then again most government propaganda is.

And Russia`s extreme military response to U.S. alias Georgia should be sending a clear message, we need our energy independence right now and I`ll explain in tonight`s "Real Story."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Holy cow, did you see the Olympics this weekend and the opening ceremonies on Friday? Do you remember when $40 billion was a lot of money? Am I the only one that watched the Olympics this weekend and went holy crap? How do you get people to run around in a circle like that? I never saw anything like it. Gordon Chang is author of "The Sudden Collapse of China." Boy that didn`t look like a country that was on the verge of collapse that looked like one spooky message coming our way.

GORDON CHANG, AUTHOR, "THE SUDDEN COLLAPSE OF CHINA:" It certainly was spooky. That opening ceremony was all about state power. Although it looked magnificent on the surface, underneath it was hideous. Because they had all sorts of messages. For instance, they had that character for harmony three times. And for us that means peace. But for them it`s the communist party`s code word for obedience to the state.

BECK: Here is what I want to know. I mean look at this, there wasn`t a director on the field. There wasn`t a space marked on this entire place. They just did it because they had obviously rehearsed it forever and ever. Gordon, what are the odds that -- well, two things. How many bodies are just buried in the walls of that stadium because you ain`t going to stop the rocks moving? And what are the odds that you step out of line we shoot you in the head, I would suggest that you make a perfect circle.

CHANG: Well, I think that it`s probably the latter. As you know, they practiced this for at least a year. They had practices that went on 48 hours straight. So it was really difficult for the soldiers. And most of those guys on the field were soldiers. So they were certainly making a statement to us about their military power.

BECK: You know, here`s what I find so interesting is there suspect really anybody that is offended by this. I saw it as a message from them to the rest of the world, to their own people probably, saying look at us, look how great we are. But also a message to the rest of the world, look out, because we now are a global superpower and we want that position. And everybody wants it.

NBC is billing $1 billion. Coke, Ralph Loren, Ralph, why don`t you just start making the horse`s actual size on the shirts? Everybody is looking at China as a market, so nobody is willing to say anything bad about communist rule.

CHANG: You know, certainly NBC`s commentary was really antidote, they skipped over a lot of things that they could have and really should have said. You know, that ceremony really was meant to say, China has not risen, China is already there. We`ve arrived and as of Friday, we are relegating you, the United States, to second place. That`s what they want to say and that`s what people will believe because that`s sort of the message that business, NBC and all the rest of it. But when China has its first post Olympic crisis, then we`ll probably see a very different world look at China. Then they`re going to start asking the questions we should be asking now.

BECK: I got to tell you, you know these terrorists that are out killing and everything else and the media is barely even covering it? Terrorists, are you out of your mind? You`ll be begging to come to Guantanamo. Don`t mess with China. Gordon thank you very much.

Coming up, I am going to explain why Russia`s attack on Georgia, their latest attempt to regain superpower status. That`s tonight`s "Real Story." Stick around.

Hi, I`m Glenn Beck. I may not be toned, but I`m ring tone. Glenn Beck ring tones now available at CNN.com/glennbeck. That`s not a word.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Coming up, Russia continues to hammer away at Georgia. But unless you count talk as action, Uncle Sam, where did I put any of that action? In just a bit I`ll share some of my interview with Georgia`s president and you`ll see why this is the kind of man that deserves our help.

But first, welcome to the "Real Story." as Russia and Georgia keep moving closer to an all-out war, a war that I think is something akin to the United States invading Martha`s Vineyard, everybody is rushing to tell you what this is really all about. I don`t think that anybody really has a clue, because I barely have a clue.

I mean your dorky friend probably this weekend said this is Putin stomping on a pro-Western president and making noise right in his backyard. And then your other friend the one who smokes a lot a dope is like, no, man, evil empire they`re back dude, and we`re in bed with Dick Cheney, pass the bomb. Ok.

Then you got the experts on TV. And the newspapers and they`re lining up to show you fancy maps and talk about how this is all a battle for control over some breakaway republic that none of us have probably ever heard of before.

I think, that`s just a distraction from what this is really all about, energy, oil, power.

Let me tell you a story that I don`t think anybody else will. It starts back in 1999. Three countries signed off, on the construction of a new BTC oil pipeline; going to send a million barrels a day from the Caspian Sea all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. Now, if you`re as good as geography as good as I am, right now would be a good time for a map.

There we go; low-budget show. We have really crappie maps. But what you could see on that really crappie map is the country right in the middle of that pipeline is Georgia.

Now, you might imagine none of this really sat real well with Putin or Russia. They would really prefer that everybody uses their pipelines and the BTC was going to be a competitor to the Russian monopoly. Don`t forget in Russia, competition not really a good thing. You`d generally break out in some sort of radiological disease.

So when the oil was first set to flow through the pipeline, Russia, working on a way to sabotage it. They reportedly started looking at hiring mercenaries and one of my favorite ecological saboteurs who could attack the pipeline without leaving any fingerprints from Russia on it. But Georgia found out about it and the attacks didn`t happen, until now.

Mostly lost in all of the fighting over the last few days was a report that the Russians tried to use the chaos of war to bomb the BTC pipeline; a pipeline nowhere near those crazy breakaway republics. If true, that would also be a pretty good reason as to why you barely heard of more than a peep coming out of the U.S. through all of this.

We, I swear, you we`re the dumbest smartest people you`ll ever meet. We`re dumb because we`ve done everything we could and we continue to do it, to put ourselves in a place to we`re beholden to everyone and everything, except their own sovereignty. And smart because I think, I hope we`re beginning to realize it.

This is what happened in the last week alone. We sent our president to the Olympics in a country that stands against everything we once said we stood for. Why? Money and debt, power. We need their money. They own our debt. Then the president is sitting there, I don`t know if you saw this on Friday, he`s sitting in the stands, laughing, smiling, Vladimir Putin, you`re just a crazy cat.

Putin, the Prime Minister, who suspiciously seems to be still running Russia, was sitting just a row behind President Bush, authorizing the bombing of innocent American-loving people in Georgia and most of you are having some tea and some laughs.

Why? Oil and gas, energy and power, they own Europe and they`re working on owning the rest of the world. The Communists in Russia, they`ve gone away. Well, not really. They`re the same players. But now they have real power. While the world was distracted, they just traded in their nuclear missiles for the most powerful weapon on earth, energy.

Alan Cowell is the author of the "Terminal Spy" and Michael McFaul is the director of the Center for Democracy Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford University.

Mike let me start with you. I think we have boxed our self in, into a very dangerous place with China and also Russia. China has all the debt, has all of the money and the people. And Russia has all of the energy and we`re about to be neutered. Yes or no?

MICHAEL MCFAUL, CENTER ON DEMOCRACY, STANFORD UNIVERSITY: Well, we`re in a tight spot, I agree with you. And our leverage in terms of getting these two countries, Russia in particular, given the war that`s on, our leverage with them is infinitely smaller than it used to be 10 or 15 years ago. We don`t have a lot of good options in terms of trying to stop the war in Georgia.

BECK: But doesn`t -- isn`t this a pivotal moment for the United States of America? Where NATO and the United States can`t do anything for a democracy-loving republic?

MCFAUL: That`s right, it is. Russia invaded a sovereign country, a Democratic country. Russia`s not a Democratic country. Not only does the Georgian people and the Georgian government consider the United States their closest ally; we have our own military personnel in Georgia training that army as we speak. Hopefully they`re out by now. And we are really quite powerless to stop it as the Russians, from what I understand, they`re marching all the way to Tbilisi today.

BECK: Yes, Allen, let me go to you. I`ve been warning people for a while now that Russia is trying to corner the market. While everybody is saying, oh, they`re just waiting for us to lead the way on global warming. They`re going and they`re buying all of the carbon reserves that they can get their hands on. This is a play for the control of the globe in the long run, don`t you think?

ALAN S. COWELL, AUTHOR, "THE TERMINAL SPY": Well, I`ve been very struck watching the footage of this whole tragedy unfolding. The way former President Putin seems extremely comfortable in the role of a war- time leader. It reminds me a little bit of Chechnya where there was also an oil pipeline interest.

And although the situations are far from analogous, I think that one strand, as you`ve mentioned, is oil and that has been a prime foreign policy aim of Russia for the past eight years to maintain its monopoly where possible on the means of supplying oil and gas to the world`s markets.

So this pipeline you`ve mention from Baku to Tbilisi to Cheyhan and Turkey breaks that monopoly. And of course, therefore becomes an object of serious concern to the Russian strategic aims in the region.

BECK: Mike, John McCain, I think it was John McCain said today, this can`t go unanswered. What is the -- how does the United States -- what do we do? What is a possible way to play this?

MCFAUL: Well, it`s easy to say it can`t go unanswered. It`s hard to fill out the rest of the paragraph.

BECK: Right.

MCFAUL: As to what we would do. We don`t have any military options here, so let`s just be clear about that. I think we need to signal in all international forums to denounce this detest this, put the Russians on notice.

I want a U.N. Security council resolution and I want to force the Russians to have to veto it and I want the Chinese to have to make a say on that, because they`re the country that`s always talking about protecting territorial integrity of states.

Well, this is a gross violation of the territorial integrity of Georgia. So that would I think be useful in terms of the symbolism.

BECK: But that`s all the U.N. is. You know, the U.N. hasn`t saved a single freaking life in its entire history. Tell me when the United Nations has done anything? They put up these, oh, let`s do another resolution. It means nothing.

The world is not going to do anything because of the U.N. They`re standing in the way of helping in Darfur. And China, for the love of Pete, they`re in with killing people in Darfur as well.

MCFAUL: The U.N. is much better before conflict than after. So I agree with you there. And the tragedy here that we`re really not focusing on is that everybody who followed this region, you may not follow it, I`ve been following it for 15 years; everybody knew that this was going to blow some day. And it`s called a frozen conflict, right? And everybody knew at some point there was going to be major military escalation.

The Russians have been waiting for this fight for years. The U.N. and the Bush administration and the rest of the Euro-Atlantic community should have been on this case before the violence and had international peacekeepers, not the Russians, in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

And that`s when the U.N. can be very useful. Because if there were genuine blue hats in both of these places, the probabilities of this would have escalated I think would have gone way down.

BECK: The blue hats. Alan, do you think the blue hats or the blue helmets were the solution to this? I mean, look, before --

Cowell: Here`s Russia.

BECK: I understand that, everybody here`s Russia saying to a separate state, you know, hey, by the way, anybody who wants to be a citizen of Russia, you just sign up to be a citizen for Russia and then they`re claiming that they`re killing our citizens. No, they`re not. They just made people living in Russia their citizens.

It`s a giant game and Putin is very, very good at playing it. Mike any final thoughts here?

MCFAUL: I agree with you that he`s good at playing this game. It`s more than oil. They want to establish hegemony in the whole entire region. They want to be the imperial power that they once were.

BECK: Ok, quickly Allen, any final thoughts?

COWELL: I think there`s a lot of downsides for Russia, they`re taking a lot of risk. They need a huge amount of western investment and they`re jeopardizing the effort to broaden their whole economic base with this war in Georgia. And at some stage, they`re going to come to their senses and have to think about what exactly the stakes out that they`re really playing for.

BECK: Ok, that`s the "Real Story" tonight. Gentlemen thank you very much.

Coming up next, I am going to give you an interview with the president of Georgia. We had one with him. Wait until you hear what he had to say, coming up next.

RICHELLE CAREY, "HEADLINE PRIME NEWSBREAK" CORRESPONDENT: I`m Richelle Carey. This is your "Headline Prime News Break."

Pilots for Delta and Northwest Airlines have approved a joint union contract that will go into effect following approval of the two airlines` planned merger. That`s expected to happen later this year.

A federal judge has just upheld a gun ban in Hartsfield Jackson airport in Atlanta, one of the world`s busiest airports. A gun rights group sued Hartsfield and the city claiming a new state law allows people with concealed weapon permit to carry guns in some parts of the airport. The judge said that would be a safety threat.

And a woman in Florida didn`t just hit this house with her vehicle, she drove her pickup all the way through it, nearly missed the 80-year-old owner. Cops say, she then backed up and tried to get away. She was arrested down the street. The homeowner is dealing with more than $100,000 worth of damage.

That`s the news for now. Keep it here, thanks for watching. I`m Richelle Carey.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: The "Real Story" is this truly is war for oil. What Russia is trying to do is take all of their money and they`re trying to buy up all of the natural resources. Why use a nuclear weapon when you can just shut down somebody`s energy?

Oh, yes, Germany, yes. You really need to go along with this or we`re going to shut down your power. Oh, -- Georgia, you`ve got a problem with that. It`s January. Yes, you hear that? I`m just shutting down the pipeline for you.

They are intent on being the world`s superpower yet again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: Some Americans have heard the press talk about how Georgia is pro-Western and a Democracy. But honestly, not a lot of people know that much about the former Soviet Republic. I started to do my homework on them about a year ago and a few months ago I finally got Georgia`s president on the show.

I wanted tonight to replay a few clips from that interview of that show to show you the values and principles that he was building this fledgling democracy on.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BECK: President Saakashvili is the new president of Georgia. He is desperately trying to usher in a new form of government that rejects the Iron Curtain ways of the Cold War days. And it`s an approach that has put him at odds with the Russian leadership.

And I think anybody who Vladimir Putin doesn`t like is all right with me. Mr. President it is a real pleasure to have you on.

MIKHEIL SAAKASHVILI, PRESIDENT OF GEORGIA: Well, certainly, it`s also a great pleasure for me to be on your program. And Glenn and I mean -- we were one of the most corrupt countries but a no, no exceptions in any ways in our part of the world.

And we needed to -- we were brought to the government, not by special interest, but by popular revolution. And we really basically had to deal with, you know, to do really radical measures.

The first of all, the first thing we did a few years ago when I became president, we fired the entire police force of the country. And that was one of the most corrupt police forces throughout the European continent. We fired more than 40,000 people.

We recruited new people within several months. But hear what the result is; you know the previous police force had only 5 percent of population`s trust and confidence, according to the Gallup polls. Now we have more than 70 percent.

Of course, one of the main things is to develop people`s initiative, to empower people, to give them sense that they are the ones to build their own country. They shouldn`t be looking at the government because in our case the more government intervenes, the worse it is.

One thing that changed in my country is that we told the people, look, you have to work hard but then you have to accept the rule of law. And if those two match together, you can do just perform just miracles.

And Georgia has performed miracles. We moved from being a tail state, of being of the top business destinations in the world, one with the highest degree of economic freedom according to the World Bank, being the world`s number one economic reformer. Doing very well, being number one fighter of corruption worldwide and being top best nation for foreign investments from all over the region despite economic promise worldwide.

That`s quite remarkable. Because and the main thing people started to believe in is institutions, people started to believe in democracy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BECK: We`re trying to get the president on the radio program, but he`s hunkered down right now. But we hope to talk to him again this week. And unfortunately, I think this president may not have realized what America learned the hard way. Democracy only works when you can protect it.

I understand and accept that America is held to a higher standard than the rest of the world. Yet when we fight to free people, to stop the spread of tyranny, all anyone ever wants to talk about is the collateral damage. They`ll show you a crater in a neighborhood or a blackened bicycle and look at it, there`s evil America targeting women and children.

But we know better. America may be a lot of things but killers of innocent people, intentionally killing children`s that is not what we do.

But can you say the same thing for Russia? By most reports they have taken this latest fight far beyond the battlefields and no one is calling them terrorists or baby killers. Take a look at what the Russians have done in just the last few days. Listen to the words of the Georgian people, all of whom seem to have one thing and one thing only on their mind.

First one, why won`t America and NATO help us? This is a farmer. If they want to help us now, why did we help them in Iraq? Another pleaded; the Russians will be here tomorrow. They want to show us and the rest of the world how peaceful they are and powerful they are. Tomorrow it will be Ukraine and nobody in the west is doing anything to stop them. Why were our soldiers in Kosovo and Iraq if we don`t get the help from the west now?

How about this? Many people can`t understand why the west failed to protect us. This is a student. America was seen as an ally and Georgian soldiers have been dying in Iraq in the interest of global security. But the West has shown us that they don`t care about Russia invading other countries.

His friend added, all they did was express concern while bombs were falling on us. They all want to know where is America? Why aren`t we helping them?

I wonder if anybody really has the guts to tell them the truth. Here it is. America`s not coming. We can`t. We`re no longer in a position to scare Russia. And quite frankly, neither is NATO. Blood may be thicker than water, but oil is thicker than both.

Back in a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: It was May afternoon, the clock on the wall said just about 2:30 and three young friends walked together down their school`s main hallway. Suddenly as they were walking the floor began to shake and they steadied themselves. None of them had ever been in an earthquake before.

Then the tremors got worse. Then a rumble approached and it grew louder and louder and without warning it was right on top of them and then so was the school. Heavy support beams and walls crashed around the three friends trapping them each, out of reach of one another. Well, after the collapse their world was dark and eerily quiet. Buried in the rubble, badly injured, the three boys knew that they would all soon die without a miracle.

And then one appeared in one of the most unlikely of places, one of the boys, 9 years-old. He knew that his friends had to be as freaked out as he was. So he started singing to them and got them to sing along.

All the while he was working to free himself. Eventually he succeed and with no rescue workers in sight he climbed back through that rubble until he found both of his friends singing the whole time and pulled away the twisted metal and furniture and he pulled them both out to safety.

That day was May 12th, 2008; magnitude 7.9 earthquake had just devastated their province in western China. Buildings and homes were leveled for miles. The human toll was breathtaking; 70,000 dead, hundreds of thousands injured, millions homeless.

It is often extraordinarily difficult to see God in a tragedy. But God can almost always be found in the way people react to a tragedy. And so it was that day in China.

When someone asked that little 9-year-old boy, why did you do it? He gave an answer, if not said by God directly, was surely inspired by him. He said, because, I was the hall monitor. It was my job to look after my classmates.

That boy, his name is Lin Hao. You might have seen him as he walked proudly hand in hand with his hero Yao Ming during the opening ceremonies of the summer Olympics in Beijing. Some say that putting these two together was symbolic of one national hero leading in the next national hero. But my question is; who was leading whom?

From New York, good night, America.

END