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Glenn Beck

Senator Backtracks on Guilty Plea for Sex Charges; Ted Nugent Makes Controversial Statements about Candidates; Documentary Looks at Anti- Americanism in Europe

Aired August 28, 2007 - 19:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GLENN BECK, HOST (voice-over): Tonight, a politician busted for lewd conduct. What a surprise! We`ll have the latest reports on Senator Larry Craig`s bathroom misadventures.

Plus, a new documentary looks at the double standard of European anti- Americanism.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: America is a depressed nation (ph), come from barbarians. It`s skipped the civilized bit (ph).

BECK: They claim to hate our politics, but they sure seem to love our culture.

And gun toting guitar god Ted Nugent fires a few rounds at the Democrats.

TED NUGENT, MUSICIAN: Hey, Obama, you might want to (expletive deleted) on one of these, you punk.

BECK: I`m not sure I agree with him. I`ll ask Ted to clarify.

All this and more tonight.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BECK: Well, hello, America.

Good news. Be glad you`re not in Washington or a bathroom in Minneapolis, because things are starting to get a little weird. Today, we were treated to an update on the Senator Larry Craig`s bathroom hijinks.

So here`s the point tonight. I believe Washington -- Washington is Hollywood for ugly people. And here`s how I got there.

Take a look at the senator`s "explanation" from this afternoon`s press conference.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LARRY CRAIG (R), IDAHO: I did nothing wrong at the Minneapolis airport. I did nothing wrong, and I regret the decision to plead guilty and the sadness that decision has brought on my wife, my family, friends, staff and fellow Idahoans. And, for that, I apologize.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: He did nothing wrong. Is it just me? Why would you plead guilty?

How can I put this gently? I don`t believe you, Senator. Why should I? D.C. has -- has become no better than L.A. Hollywood is a decadent cesspool filled with egomaniacs and self-absorbed low-lives that feel just because they have an agent and a headshot, you know, they`re above the law.

Washington is basically the same thing, only they wear Brooks Brothers instead of Prada. They TpTheThehey butcher laws instead of movies. You`re in bed with lobbyists and not Paris Hilton. But most politicians seem to feel that the rules apply to you and me but not to them.

Take today`s story about Idaho Senator Larry Craig. When you have a U.S. senator, a men`s restroom, public restroom, and an arrest, it`s not going to end well.

After this afternoon`s press conference, methinks the senator doth protest too much. Larry, you say you`re not gay. Great. Why do you keep telling us? "I`m definitely not gay."

Back in June, Senator Craig was busted in an airport bathroom when he entered a stall next to an undercover officer conducting a sting operation. They played little eye games for a while. And apparently, the senator then did some fancy footwork once inside the stall. And this, I guess, is an accepted signal that he was interested in some man-on-man action. That`s what the police report says.

Today, the senator is singing a different song, saying his actions were "misconstrued."

Look, I have been in my fair share of men`s rooms. And I`m not really tapping my foot or, you know, looking to discuss the latest George Michael CD. I want to get in, get out as quickly as possible. So when I hear about a guy who`s spending a little too much time in the men`s room, touching strange men`s shoes or hands, I think it`s fair to assume that there`s something more than just "misconstruing" going on.

So tonight here is what you need to know about this story. Senator Craig, when it comes to the benefit of the doubt for you or any of your congressional cronies, sorry, afraid, yep, I`m all out.

You pleaded guilty to these charges and didn`t seek the advice of a lawyer, because you wanted to handle it yourself. Maybe that`s the whole problem, that you wanted to handle it yourself a little too much? You know what I`m saying? Now it`s time to face the music. And if this goes to court, please, wash your hands before they swear you in.

Steven Dennis has been covering this story for "Roll Call", the Capitol Hill newspaper that broke the story.

I`ve got to tell you, Steven, this story just doesn`t smell right to me. I don`t know this senator at all. I do know the good people of Idaho. And they`ve got a good gut on them.

Tell me, it doesn`t make sense to me. Why would someone plead guilty to something like this, if it was completely innocent?

STEVEN DENNIS, "ROLL CALL": Well, you know, he`ll have to answer that question. But there is -- you have to -- what`s interesting here is two -- almost two months go by from the time he was arrested in June to the sentencing in August. Almost two complete months, where nobody knew about it.

BECK: I can get -- I can get Lindsay Lohan`s blood pressure right now. How did that happen?

DENNIS: Well, that`s the amazing thing about this case. The United States senator is charged with a crime of this nature in a bathroom. It doesn`t get out there. Maybe he got some sort of sense of comfort that, if he just pled guilty, paid a fine, nobody would find out about it.

And now, incredibly today in this press conference, he is apologizing for pleading guilty, not for anything else, and made it sound like he hadn`t told his family, hadn`t told his staff, hadn`t told anybody, hadn`t even told a lawyer, that he just wanted to keep this covered up.

BECK: I don`t -- I don`t buy it. I mean, you know, you`re not a senator for this long and think that you`re going to get away with this. I don`t believe that you`re -- you`re a guy in his position, and you -- and you just freak out because some newspaper is out to get you. And when they`re -- when they`re questioning you, you say, "OK, I`ll take the lesser charge."

When he said that in the press conference, I said, "Well, wait a minute. If lewd conduct was the lesser charge, what was the greater charge that they were going to charge him with?"

DENNIS: Well, he was -- he pled guilty to disorderly conduct. He would have had a greater charge that was dropped in return for his guilty plea of invasion of privacy, which is involving with the peeping.

You know, part of the allegation in the police report was that, for a couple of minutes before the senator got in the stall, he was looking in the crack and made eye contact with the officer to the point where the officer could tell that it was a blue eye.

BECK: OK. He said in his press conference today, "The Idaho Statesman" has been after him and they played a testimony for him -- or a recording of a guy who said he had oral sex with the senator for him and his wife. They never published any of that. And that`s what he was referring to. I was just trying to avoid all of that stuff. But this is not...

DENNIS: That makes a certain amount of sense. Because the Idaho paper now -- he`s arguing that the Idaho paper was out to get him, but they didn`t publish it.

BECK: Right.

DENNIS: They interviewed him in May.

BECK: There`s a difference between a guy who won`t go on record and a police officer, though.

All right. Thanks, Steven.

Senator Larry Craig may be the latest in Washington to get -- you know, to get caught with his pants down, literally, but he`s certainly not the first. How exactly did he get caught? Who does this job? How many tax dollars are going to fund potty-raids in airport bathrooms?

Vito Colucci Jr. is now a private eye who did -- please, tell me, Vito, you didn`t do undercover bathroom work, did you?

VITO COLUCCI JR., PRIVATE EYE: Well, we were told, Glenn, to make periodic checks.

BECK: Right.

COLUCCI: But what I want to know is who did this cop tick off that he had to sit on a toilet bowl in a stall for ten hours at a time?

BECK: I`ve got to tell you...

COLUCCI: Wow!

BECK: I think -- I think this senator, if this, indeed, is true, his -- his retirement package should go to the cop. I mean, this cop needs...

COLUCCI: A dirty bathroom in an airport. I mean, that`s why I wore my basic brown today. That`s a whole other story.

BECK: So what exactly -- Vito, how does a job like this work? What do you look for?

COLUCCI: Well, what happened, like when I was doing it, Glenn, we had complaints. We had complaints that people were frequenting the bathroom. They were bothering the businessmen and people getting off the trains, things like that.

Obviously, they had complaints. So they put an officer undercover into these places, OK. Now, he`s sitting in a stall. This guy comes. The senator said he just had a wide stance with his foot. I mean, Alex Rodriguez, when he`s at bat, doesn`t have that wide of a stance.

BECK: Look, Vito, have you ever -- have you ever, ever touched another man`s foot in the bathroom?

COLUCCI: No. They`re playing footsies, and then the senator puts his hand underneath the stall into the cop`s side, rubbing his hand back and forth. He`s trying to give signals to get a reaction to see if the other person is on the same wavelength as him.

BECK: And he`s there -- and he`s a good looking man, by the way, you can just see there. Is there -- are there signals and stuff? I had a truck driver call in today and he said, "My gosh, Glenn, I`ve gone into truck stops."

I said, "Don`t wreck the image of truck stop bathrooms for me."

He said, "I`ve had this happen to me before. I didn`t know what it meant, but people moving their foot in next to mine and going underneath."

Is there a signal?

COLUCCI: Well, yes. It starts with eye contact a lot of times as soon as a person goes into a men`s room, just to see if there`s a nod of a head, a hello, or something like that. When I was doing it, the guys would stand at the urinals and face each other. That`s a whole other story.

But you know, this guy, the senator, peeked through the crack to actually look at this undercover guy inside there, and he did it several times, got into the stall next to him, played footsies, put his hand under there and then said he dropped a piece of paper, of which there was none found there at all.

BECK: If somebody looks through the crack at me, I`d be like, "Hey, freak boy, what are you doing?"

COLUCCI: That`s it. That`s it.

BECK: You know? I mean, do you believe him at all? He says he didn`t do it.

COLUCCI: No. I mean, don`t forget, the guy pleaded guilty. He paid...

BECK: He said it was because -- in possibly the worst choice of words, he said he pleaded guilty because he was just trying to handle it himself.

COLUCCI: Yes. Well, that`s another whole story. But you know, he thought it would never come out. And it took a while to come out. Now all of a sudden, he`s saying, `No, the cop lied. It`s not what it is."

Well, I`m not going to plead guilty to anything of that nature, that`s for darn sure, if I didn`t do it.

BECK: Do you think he was trying to get caught? Why do guys do this?

COLUCCI: Well, I don`t think so, not with his position. Don`t forget now, in May, before this stuff even happened, there was a lot of accusations about him being gay.

BECK: Yes.

COLUCCI: This really confirms it and the whole bit. I think he`s done, Glenn. I think he`s really done.

BECK: All right. Vito, thanks a lot.

COLUCCI: Thank you.

BECK: Coming up, the Motor City madman lives up to his name. Ted Nugent, a gun, a crowd and the names of presidential candidates. It doesn`t get uglier than that.

Plus, is there a new al Qaeda threat? The head of the National Counterterrorism Center says the terrorists have a real plan in America, and it is real. We have the details in tonight`s "Real Story".

And country music star Travis Tritt, he`s in town, and he joins me in the studio. Don`t go anywhere.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Coming up, it is not a question of "if." It is a question of when. Al Qaeda is steadfast on attacking the U.S. again. And they might have a plan to do it. More on this in just a few minutes.

But first, two ideas in the Bill of Rights I love the most are freedom of speech and the right to bear arms. The thing is, neither of those rights are absolute; they are conditional with an undeniable degree of responsibility that comes along with them.

So what happens when a rock legend decides to exercise his free speech and use assault rifles to help make a point? Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NUGENT: Obama, he`s a piece of (expletive deleted, and I told him to suck on my machine gun! Let`s hear it for them. I was in New York and I said -- I said -- hey, humor me -- "Hey Hillary, you might want to ride one of these into the sunset, you worthless (expletive deleted)." Freedom!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: All right. Look, I am no stranger to getting criticized when my words have been taken out of context and also being criticized when I deserve it because I stink sometimes. But that clip from the Nuge just seems a little hard to understand. You know?

You know, I`m not necessarily clear on his intent here. I know what he said. But why did he say it?

Joining me now is musician and activist Ted Nugent.

Hello, Ted. You`re still mad at me from this morning, aren`t you, Ted?

NUGENT: Bottom line is, I think your representation on the radio this morning -- which, by the way, I`m not mad at you at all. I love you madly. You just don`t seem to grasp what literally tens of millions of Americans do grasp, in that good rock `n` roll, the best rock `n` roll, especially Ted Nugent rock `n` roll, is over the top! It`s intense. It`s scary! It`s uninhibited; it`s even irreverent.

And I`m not going to try to get a list from anybody of what they authorize me to say, because I draw the line at law. I`m not going to break the law. I`m not going to incite any illegal activities and I`m not going to hurt anybody. Other than that, nothing is sacred.

BECK: Look, Ted, Ted, Ted, listen to me.

NUGENT: Glenn, yes.

BECK: I`m not saying you don`t have a right to say it. I`m not saying you did anything illegal. What I`m saying to you is the same thing that I would say to -- I hate to compare you to this, but a porn producer.

NUGENT: Ahh!

BECK: You have a right to make -- you have a right to make any kind of porn you want. You have a responsibility not to.

My problem is, if you had held a gun up and said, "Hey, Michael Bloomberg, freedom!" If you would have done that, you wouldn`t have had a problem.

But you`re combining the gun with saying, "Hillary Clinton, suck on this." If Barbara Streisand would have done that at her concert, which, I mean, I wouldn`t know, she might have already done that. I don`t know anybody that goes to Barbara Streisand concerts. If she would have done it, I would have taken a hard stand against her and say you don`t say that about the president, or whatever, no matter how much you dislike them.

It`s the imagery, and it`s the responsibility not to.

NUGENT: God -- God bless you, Glenn. But I`m not going to write down the Glenn Beck authorized rock `n` roll rants.

BECK: I`m not saying that.

NUGENT: I know. But you`re giving me a recommendation, and to compare my show to porn is irresponsible and grossly inaccurate.

BECK: Did I not say that I wasn`t comparing? I just said I`m not comparing.

NUGENT: That reference was off the charts, my friend.

BECK: You know, I have to tell you, I -- my listeners wrote, and they called in after your appearance on my radio program today. And you can get the newsletter today if you want to get the full transcript. You can read it or hear it.

They were split. Half praise for, thank you for saying what you mean and meaning what you say and just doing it and forgetting about all the PC crap. And the other side saying, "You know what? I don`t want a crazy Rosie O`Donnell on our side."

You`re so good at making a decent point on guns, you don`t need to have this footage out there of somebody looking like they`re -- they`re threatening a candidate with an assault rifle. It`s irresponsible, Ted.

NUGENT: And I -- I understand that line drawn in the sand, but I`ve got to tell you, Glenn, it`s a stream of consciousness when I`m rockin` and rollin`.

BECK: That`s bull crap.

NUGENT: It is irreverent. And you`re -- you`re missing the point. Why don`t you admit it, Glenn. It`s too intense for you. But I meant no harm, no harm occurred. No one got hurt.

BECK: Look...

NUGENT: No threats were made. And everybody there had a great time!

BECK: I`m not saying that.

NUGENT: It`s funny.

BECK: I`m not saying that, Ted. Look. I would be irresponsible, and I would be less consistent. I would take on the left if they did something like this to George Bush, et cetera. And I`m going to take you on, because I feel the same way. It`s right and wrong, not left and right.

The second thing is, you know, the idea that you can say that this is just ad lib, you told me today, you`re still doing this piece, and you`ve turned it up at the end of every show all the way through this weekend.

NUGENT: Because the tour gets more intense as it rolls on, and the audience`s response is intoxicating. The people get a great laugh out of it. The laughter is universal, Glenn.

You`re right. Half of my e-mailers at TedNugent.com said that Glenn doesn`t get it. The other half said, "God bless Glenn Beck for at least facilitating a dialogue." And I send you a salute for that myself.

BECK: You are just amazing. Let me ask you...

NUGENT: Glenn, may I -- may I have the final word?

BECK: All right, go ahead.

NUGENT: I just wanted to say that I do appreciate the opportunity, but you made a gross miscalculation after the radio show -- someone e- mailed me your words -- that you thought I was putting on a front. You know, I love you, but you`re not worth me putting on a front. I put on a front for nobody. This is Ted Nugent. I`m not grandstanding. I`m not...

BECK: I never said...

NUGENT: I`m not showboating.

BECK: You -- you took that out of context. You took it out of context.

NUGENT: Whoa!

BECK: You said to me -- you said to me that you do things on stage that are just crazy that you wouldn`t do elsewhere. That`s the difference.

NUGENT: Yes.

BECK: That`s the difference.

Ted, thanks a lot.

NUGENT: In the show, but not here with you. God bless you.

BECK: All right. God bless you.

On tomorrow`s program, I`m going to have an update on President Bush`s new tough talk on Iran`s oppressive regime. George W. finally saying that Ahmadinejad and his nuclear program cast the Middle East "under a shadow of nuclear holocaust."

I couldn`t agree more, and other major world leaders, major world leaders, now beginning to say what we`ve been telling you on this program for over a year. Full details tomorrow.

Now coming up on tonight`s show, Americans joke about hating the French. Who`s joking, huh? But over in Europe, no laughing matter. A new PBS documentary reveals some of the hypocrisy in Europe when it comes to anti-Americanism.

Plus, a Somali woman is raped in the middle of a hallway here in the U.S. as bystanders do nothing. Why a failure to assimilate to American culture kept these people from taking action. That`s tonight`s "Real Story".

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Well, if you watch this program, you know I love public television. And, according to a new PBS documentary called "Anti- American", Europeans really don`t like us.

Now, not liking our politicians or popular culture is one thing, but any nation that has produced the McGriddle and Jessica Alba deserves some love. Come on, France. Give it to me.

The new documentary takes a special look at the hate/love relationship the French, the Polish and the British have toward Americans. Here`s what some French school children had to say about us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (speaking French)

GRAPHIC: Here`s an American who doesn`t really know his alphabet. About 60 percent of Americans are like that. And here`s a picture of the war. There`s an American with a pistol, a knife and a machine gun that he`s killing someone with.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (speaking French)

GRAPHIC: This is an oil well. And that`s Bush, who`s collecting the oil and massacring the planet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: Joining me now are filmmakers behind the "Anti-Americans", Andrew Kolker and Louis Alvarez.

Guys, what was the most surprising thing you found in this documentary?

LOUIS ALVAREZ, "AMERICA AT A CROSSFIRE: ANTI-AMERICANS": Well, we were a little bit surprised that the hatred was as widespread as it was, even in a place like Poland. They were all pretty annoyed at our foreign policy these days.

BECK: But you also found that they love us. I mean, you call it a hate/love relationship. They also -- I mean, like in Poland, didn`t you find that they are big-time into the hip-hop scene?

ANDREW KOLKER, "AMERICA AT A CROSSFIRE: ANTI-AMERICANS": It tends to be loved quite a lot. I mean, that`s just one of the things you find when you go over there. And it`s quite surprising, actually.

BECK: Let me ask you this, because they don`t understand our flag waving. They hate that about us, right?

KOLKER: Yes.

ALVAREZ: Yes.

BECK: OK. And what else do they hate about us?

ALVAREZ: Well, they don`t understand why we`re so religious. They don`t understand why we want to work all the time and not kind of kick back and, what they call, enjoying themselves.

BECK: Well, that`s because you end up building what`s called a Fiat or a Peugeot if you`re kicking back all the time.

The religion thing, did you guys get into it at all about how -- I mean, over -- especially over in the Netherlands, there are state-funded churches. And so they become this political correct nonsense. I wouldn`t be religious either. Do they even understand what our religion is like over here?

ALVAREZ: They really -- they really don`t understand it, Glenn. Because they sort of went through the religious phase 500 years ago, and they all killed each other.

BECK: Right.

ALVAREZ: So they think they`ve moved beyond that.

BECK: Right.

ALVAREZ: And they never understood that America has, like, 87 million different religions and we all get along pretty well.

BECK: Right. And -- and we`re free to -- it`s not like it is over in Europe. I mean, honestly, if I lived in Europe, I don`t think I`d go to church either if I had the state pouring their money into it and then telling the church exactly what would be acceptable and what wouldn`t be.

I mean, that`s -- I mean, that`s the reason we came over here, was for religious freedom. And they`ve never experienced that.

So how much of -- how much did you learn where you -- where you looked at it and said, well, they don`t really get it? They don`t -- they don`t understand the essence of who we are.

KOLKER: Well, they don`t get it if you`re talking about religion. The idea that we -- in America, we tend to sort of proclaim our religion. It`s not -- it`s not a big deal. It`s a part of who we are.

Over there, they tend to sort of stay back. And they don`t understand that kind of public display. You know, that`s a very different kind of thing for them.

BECK: Is this a -- is this we blew all of our credibility over there with Bush? Or has this been going on a long time?

ALVAREZ: It`s been going on a long time. I mean, you know, the Democrats come in, they`re going to -- they`re going to think that suddenly America has come to its senses, but they`re going to realize after a while that America behaves the way it is because it`s a superpower. It`s been like that a while.

You can go back 200 years, and you can find snooty Brits and snooty French looking down their noses.

BECK: Right, OK. You said it, not me. Andrew, Louis, thank you very much.

Coming up in a little bit on the program, a sit-down with country superstar Travis Tritt. Don`t go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK (voice over): Coming up, he has sold 25 million albums. He`s one of country music`s biggest stars and Travis Tritt, for some reason or another, is stopping by here to talk to me. I don`t know. The new album, is "The Storm". He`ll be up in just a second.

First, welcome to "The Real Story." If you witnessed a violent crime in progress would you call the police? I hope most of us would. But apparently that`s not always cut and dried. Last Thursday night, in the Afton (ph) View Apartments, this is St. Paul, Minnesota, a man allegedly beat and raped a woman right in a hallway as residents did nothing. Surveillance tapes show that at least 10 witnesses completely ignored the woman`s screams and cries for help for over an hour, including a man who`s door the woman was knocking on, begging for him to call police. He did nothing.

In what has to be one of the worst excuses of all, the suspect, who claims the whole thing was just a big, misunderstanding, defended himself by saying that if he wanted to assault the woman, he would have done it in the apartment, not the hallway.

Well, some people say that no one called the police because of the bystander effect. I said bull crap. The real story is that this is about cultural assimilation. Let me give you a couple of other facts that have been left out of a lot of the stories.

The suspect is Radgea Ibrahim (ph). Twenty-six year old Somali man. The apartment building where all of this happened dominated by Somali tenants. Why does it matter? Because according to the director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center, quote, "The only system they know is a military, totalitarian government that tortures and executes, and people have no rights. They are used to keeping quiet and not saying anything."

Well, welcome to America, gang. Use your vocal cords. I get it. Here is the problem. We don`t go -- we don`t start going down the road of allowing cultural differences among our immigrant groups. It`s not an excuse to break our laws. I`m completely sympathetic to what many Somalians have gone through. After all, they`re here for freedom and safety, right?

But where do we draw the line? On the people that are blaming their behavior on the culture they escaped from. We don`t let someone who has molested -- or been molested their whole life go out there and molest others. And if the country you came from stones women to death for adultery, do we let them pick up rocks? I don`t think so.

What I`m really afraid of is that this melting pot of ours has stopped melting. Instead of an expectation of assimilation, we`ve reached a point where people just will group together based on their race, or religion or ethnicity and form their own enclave that`s run with their own rules and traditions.

Once that happens, we`re no longer a country. We`re just a collection of individuals on a continent.

Tom Walsh is the public information officer of St. Paul Police Department and Zuhdi Jasser is from the American-Islamic Forum for Democracy.

Gentlemen, both of you -- let me start with you, Tom. Do you believe this was the culture of Somali that was there, or maybe even some sort of Sharia law where women just don`t count? Was this the bystander effect? I mean we had it happen in New York with, I think, 12 people in 1968 watched a woman be murdered. Or is this just a really scummy flop house? Which is it?

TOM WALSH, PIO, ST. PAUL POLICE DEPT.: Glenn, I don`t think that that`s a fair analogy. I think that there are some differences here. I think that, for example, some of the people involved don`t speak English and didn`t have the language skills to report the crime. And there was one attempt to intervene. A gentleman was actually chased down the hallway by the suspect. And at the same time, there are some cultural differences that we fully expect.

BECK: Nothing explains to me how 10 or 12 people, I don`t care what language you speak -- 10 or 12 people walking by for over an hour, while a woman is assaulted. It has nothing to do with your race. It has nothing to do with where you`re from. It has nothing to do with your religion.

WALSH: Oh, I concur.

BECK: It has having to do with decency.

WALSH: But there are some things that I think that are -- that are exacerbating, at least to some degree.

BECK: I`ve got to tell you --

WALSH: We have assimilated a lot of cultures here over time, we fully expect this is going to be resolved.

BECK: Tom, you`ve got a city right now where you`ve got the five imams were from. You`ve got cab drivers who won`t pick up dogs, supermarket clerks who don`t want to check out or scan pork. You`re on the verge here in Minneapolis-St. Paul, of losing control of your city.

WALSH: Oh, I would argue that that`s not true.

BECK: I mean, this is a misdemeanor in St. Paul. It`s a misdemeanor. Why don`t you go after them? I`ve got to go to Zuhdi.

Why wouldn`t you go after people like this, Zuhdi?

M. ZUHDI JASSER, AMERICAN ISLAMIC FORUM FOR DEMOCRACY: I think that as you say, they need to realize that there`s a problem when you start having enclaves, they become incubators of this society. Now this is -- we need to be careful not to generalize on the Somali population or any immigrant population. But the bottom line, any enclave in society that`s allowed to incubate itself and not be accountable to the moral construct of the rest of society -- we saw a German judge a couple of months ago that allowed a Medieval man to abuse his wife in the name of Islam when, in fact, no Muslims wanted to be accountable to that. The bottom line is that that decision was changed.

BECK: I have to tell you, I am not upset at the Somali community as much as I am with some of these organizations that try to make excuses. And beyond that, Tom, they`re telling people to not talk to you, to not talk to the FBI. Some of these organizations in your community are creating fear of the cops. Well, these people come from a nation where they should be afraid of the cops. They`re not helping you.

WALSH: We talk with the Somali community on a regular basis. In fact, while I`m here, the chief and some of the other administrators from my department are talking with the elders of that community. If you would let me make the point --

BECK: Sure.

WALSH: Some 20 years ago, a large number of Southeast Asians came to this country. We had similar problems. If you were to drive down University Avenue today, what you would see is a large business area that has been revitalized by the energy of that community.

BECK: Tom, I have to tell you, I am not blaming --

WALSH: I expect that that`s the same thing that`s going to happen.

BECK: I`m not blaming the cops. I`m frustrated because people are in bed with political correctness, and these groups that have vast different agenda than the Somali immigrants do, or the cops do.

Last word to Zuhdi. This is the kind of stuff we`re seeing in Europe. This is the beginning of what happened to England. Am I wrong, Zuhdi?

JASSER: No, you`re not. It`s a slippery slope we`re entering into. Which is accommodation is sort of the creeping influence of sectarian wishes and demands. You see it now with CARE. CARE just opened up, reopened their chapter in Minneapolis. Why? Because they see the political expediency of demanding rights on behalf of the minority, which, actually if they`re allowed to assimilate, if they`re allowed to be accountable as a community -- I would ask Mr. Walsh to be careful.

Don`t take the leaders as they dish out to you. Talk to the grassroots of the community and get them involved, because they may have been hijacked --

WALSH: As I suggested that`s what we are doing.

JASSER: -- by a community that wants to exploit political Islam and, quote, unquote, "lead their community" when, in fact, they have another political agenda and it`s called political Islam.

BECK: Zuhdi, thank you very much. Tom, thank you very much.

It is -- to switch gears here -- it is incredible to think how many different government agencies are involved with gathering intelligence to protect us. You have the FBI, you have the CIA, you have the DHS, DOD, NSA, OIA, the INR, NRO, NGA, AIA, TSA, CBP, CIS, and ICE. But the real story is that there`s another agency I`ve also never heard of before that apparently we need to start including on that list.

The NCTC, or the National Counter Terrorism Center. While most people have been pretty quiet about the threats facing the U.S., the head of the NTCT has not. This guy takes all the intelligence. He`s above some of these other intelligence agencies.

In a recent interview with "Newsweek" magazine, Vice Admiral John Scott Redd said we are facing a threat that, quote, "In some ways is not unlike the UK aviation threat last year." I hadn`t heard that one before.

Then when he was asked if the threat subsided, Redd replied, quote, "It is still there. It is still very serious and we`re watching it. We`re learning more all the time. But it`s still a very serious threat."

He went on to say something that sounds sensational, but it shouldn`t. Quote, "We are going to get hit again." That is not something that most of us want to hear, especially if you`re dumb enough to live or work in New York City.

Yeah. Hi, mom and dad.

But it is something we need to hear. I`m glad somebody in a high position of authority isn`t frightened of the truth just because the truth may be frightening. That`s the "Real Story" tonight.

Up next, country music star Travis Tritt has a brand new album. He`s here to tell us all about it. Don`t go anywhere.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: I don`t change who I am. I might turn up who I am on radio or television. There was an article out about me recently that said I`m a lot more quiet and thoughtful off air.

MALE SINGER: You`re addicted to love --

BECK: Can you imagine being like this all the time? Can you imagine in real life being -- ahh! Hello, comrades. It is I!

I cannot imagine me like that. Do I feel like that? Yes. Do I stand in my office and do that? Of course not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: Well, most of the times.

In case you`re a first time watcher, maybe you`re just waiting for "Nancy Grace" to start. She`ll be here in a couple of minutes, or you lost the remote. A lot of people watch this show because they lost the remote. We`ve had our fair share of country music stars on this show. That`s because I have a special love for them, for the incredible talent that they have, and the fact that most of their songs are about America, I can relate to.

Just released, brand new album called "The Storm." The artist is Travis Tritt.

Welcome to the program, sir. How are you?

TRAVIS TRITT, SINGER/MUSICIAN: Great. Good to be here.

BECK: Let me ask you this. How come everybody who is a legitimate country music star has hair?

TRITT: I don`t know. I worry about the ones -- it`s not the ones that turn gray. It`s the ones that turn loose that I worry about.

BECK: Yeah. yeah. I mean, everybody has hair.

TRITT: I don`t know about that. A lot of us hide it under --

BECK: Name a bald country music star.

TRITT: No, I can`t name anybody.

BECK: See.

TRITT: You need to check under some hats.

BECK: Oh.

TRITT: There you go. Check under some hats.

BECK: I`ll try to find some who wears a hat.

We had a great conversation on the radio today.

TRITT: We sure did.

BECK: I spent about 40 minutes with you. You said something on the radio show. We didn`t come back to it and I wanted to. You said something along the lines of you and I can relate to our past or I`ve had troubled past or dark past, something like that.

TRITT: Oh, yeah.

BECK: What did you mean by that?

TRITT: I went through a period of time where -- look, I was married at a very young age. I got married as a teenager, really. Just basically to get out of the house.

BECK: When at 14 or 18?

TRITT: No, 18, right out of high school. Marriage lasted about two years. Jumped right out of that one right into another one, and all this before the music thing really started taking off for me. Bottom line is I found myself as a 26-year-old married and divorced twice, and now single with a recording contract and all of this, quote, unquote, stuff just laid out in front of me.

BECK: You are in trouble now.

TRITT: Yeah. Well, there was all kinds of things. There was drugs. There was alcohol. There was women.

BECK: Did you have a pivot point where it turned?

TRITT: Absolutely. I realized at the very, very beginning, thank goodness. I mean I went through a period of about -- I don`t know, maybe about a year and a half, two years of just really -- I mean, it was a party every single night. And I took full advantage of everything that that had to offer. However, there reached a point, about -- maybe a year and a half, two years into the -- uh, the --

BECK: Debacle?

TRITT: Yeah. Just having these things -- and everything was going great. The career wasn`t slacking. Matter of fact, gold and platinum albums just kept coming. Things were happening really, really big. But I started to realize that everything that I had worked for my entire life was on the verge of being destroyed by the constant partying, the drugs, the constant string of, you know, the women that came through.

And just the whole thing. And I was one of those people. I had worked so hard and I had spent so much time playing all the clubs, the bars, the honkie tonks for so many years, to develop who I was, to find out who I was as a singer, a songwriter, an entertainer. I did not want to lose that. I really did not want to lose that. I basically went cold turkey at that particular point.

BECK: Did you have a moment of redemption? Did you feel crushing -- gosh, how do I live with this?

TRITT: I absolutely felt I was at a point where I literally physically and mentally exhausted by having to deal with all of the pressure. Because when I first came to town, I think there`s a shot right now, of me, I had hair down to about here, you know. A lot of people in Nashville, Tennessee, could never get past the hair and the leather to get to the voice, and the talent and the songwriting ability. They just never could get past that. I was having to fight that as well as fight, you know, all the demons and things I had been dealing with for so many years.

And it just came to a point where it was just absolutely -- it was almost like an epiphany, a revelation. Look, if you keep this up -- how you`re going to keep this up much longer, first of all, is beyond me. And, second of all, if you are able to keep this up for very much longer, you are absolutely going to destroy everything that you have spent your whole life working for.

BECK: I have to tell you, I spent 40 minutes with you today, and now just a couple of minutes here. I wish we had another hour. Would you come back and do an hour with us?

TRITT: I would love to do an hour.

BECK: Love to have you. You`re fantastic. The name of the CD is "The Storm." it obviously comes from some place deep within. Thank you very much, Travis Tritt.

Time to make a huge left turn and meet a man who is making the daily lives of newly injured American troops just a little bit better. He`s using lessons from his own struggle to help them begin their new lives. His name is Bob Kunkel is today`s "CNN Hero".

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How did this start?

BOB KUNKEL, COMMUNITY CRUSADER: The newly injured had no idea how dramatic their lives have been impacted. And I have experience in that area. And I knew I had to do something.

I was with the 9th Infantry Division. My knee joint was blown out. So they took the bottom part and welded it to the top. I did not cope well. You name the self-destructive behavior, I did it, times 10. Now I view all that experiences as training for what I`m doing now.

My name is Bob Kunkel. I have the privilege and honor of being allowed to interact with the new injured at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. I function as a friend. I teach jujitsu, so that an injured person can become empowered in protecting themselves.

He went that way, so you step here.

There`s a connection. They`ve been in combat, I`ve been in combat.

You`re laughing, they know.

My purpose is to steer someone to make better choices in life.

If you`re injured, you`re still the same person.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For me, I feel fortunate to have met somebody like bob. You know, someone that can kind of understand the disability, but that can also teach me a skill that I can pass on to other people.

KUNKEL: I`ve taken soldiers out for coffee, out for a drive, and dinner.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How are you?

KUNKEL: And you can just see how people relaxing. It`s my way of showing my true appreciation for their sacrifice.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Well, Kaitlyn Upton`s answer about the U.S. American education system now been seen more than 5 million times online. It has spun countless responses and parodies. And by countless I just mean we were too lazy to count them. The only place that it has been seen more, than on the Internet, is on cable news. Shows we`ve got nothing else to do. It`s August. Let`s add to the total, shall we? Here`s Kaitlyn Upton one more time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAITLYN UPTON, MISS TEEN SOUTH CAROLINA: I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because that some people out there in our nation don`t have maps, and that I believe that our education, like -- such as in South Africa and Iraq, everywhere like -- such as, and I believe that they should -- our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S. -- or should help South Africa and should help Iraq and the Asian countries so that we will be able to build up our future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: Oh, too bad her time was all out, huh? Remember, she finished ahead of 47 other contestants. This morning she was on "The Today Show" where she said she had only seen the video once. God bless her for that. Matt Lauer then asked her this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATT LAUER, ANCHOR, "THE TODAY SHOW": At what point during the answer did you start to think to yourself, is this making any sense?

UPTON: Right when the question was asked to me, I was in complete shock. And I was just overwhelmed. I seriously think I only heard one or two words of the actual question itself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: You should asked -- you know, to re-ask the question. She was also given a chance to re-answer the question.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UPTON: Personally, my friends and I, we know exactly where the United States is on our map. I don`t know anyone else who doesn`t, and if the statistics are correct, I believe there should be more emphasis on geography in our education so that people will learn how to read maps better.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah! That`s the perfect answer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: That was, perfect for a beauty show contestant. Wasn`t it? By the way, I don`t believe the premise of the question. No way 20 percent of Americans can`t point out the U.S. on a world map. In fact, latest National Geographic report on geographic literacy say only 6 percent answer that question incorrectly. So, I urge the news department at Miss Teen USA to issue a correction.

That`s the kind of expose we do here on this program. To get more in- depth journalism, you probably shouldn`t sign up for my newsletter at glennbeck.com. But if you want my opinions, glennbeck.com is the place to be.

From New York, good night, Americans.

(NEWSBREAK)

END