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Glenn Beck
Tony Snow Weighs in on Iraq; Does Left Run Democratic Party?; Author Discusses Terror Threat
Aired September 13, 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, President Bush makes a crucial speech on Iraq. Will he listen to the advice of his top commander, or will politics get in the way of victory yet again?
Plus, Hillary Clinton and the funny money man. Senator Clinton now says she won`t mind having that $870,000 after all. Why the loss of values is hurting the Democrats just as it hurts the Republicans.
And we`ll continue our weeklong series, "Exposed: The Perfect Day". We`ll bring you practical tips for keeping your kids safe in school.
All this and more tonight.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BECK: Well, hello, America. I`m so glad you`ve tuned in tonight.
It`s been a long week, hasn`t it? After days of hearings and countless questions, oh, now, we have to ask what President Bush and the rest have learned from our time with General David Petraeus. If you pay attention to history, I kind of think there are things we already knew.
So here`s the point tonight. War is not pretty. But the right thing to do and the easy thing to do are rarely the same thing. Here`s how I got there.
No matter what MoveOn.org or the extreme left would have you believe, General Petraeus is a respected soldier and a man of honor. As the leader of the multi-national forces in Iraq, his analysis of the situation and his recommendations for the future are, sorry to say, gang, the best we have, period.
So here`s what he told us this week. We`re making progress and the surge is working. Not only have the eight of the last 12 weeks in Iraq seen a marked reduction in violence, but we`re beginning to kick al Qaeda`s ass. That is, unfortunately, for them, a humiliation. And humiliation is not something that sits well in the Middle East, unfortunately for us. Now is the time that we cannot afford to flinch.
Remember, insurgents and terrorists love it when we argue at each other and we`re tearing each other apart. They feed off of our indecision, and they see our bleeding hearts as our greatest weakness and their greatest weapon.
And then there are the costly lessons of Vietnam. I know this is a different war and a vastly different enemy. But the central issue really is the same. Once we go to war, we must commit to win.
Let`s leave war to the warriors and keep the politicians and the special interest groups out of it, please. Re-election is meaningless when the lives of American women -- men and women are at stake.
So, America, tonight, here`s what you need to know. When it comes to fighting and winning the war in Iraq, we need to stop listening to the guys in pinstripes and start listening to the men in uniform. Actually, when it comes to listening to people in pinstripes, I think I`d rather listen to a New York Yankee than a politician.
With everything he said this week, I feel the words that -- from General Petraeus, that he said earlier, these words say it all.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEN. DAVID PETRAEUS, U.S. COMMANDER IN IRAQ: Noting that the situation in Iraq remains complex, difficult and sometimes downright frustrating. I also believe that it is possible for us to achieve our objectives in Iraq over time, though doing so will be neither quick nor easy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BECK: President Bush and members of Congress, please, please listen to him.
One man who knows as well as anybody what`s at stake in the Middle East is White House press secretary Tony Snow. Sadly, tomorrow is his last day on the job. And Tony, you will sincerely be missed. You are really one of the good guys in Washington.
Looking at the benchmarks, 18 were set. Eleven are said to have failed completely, but most of them are dealing with the Iraqis providing their own kind of security. What kills me is why do people in Washington think that another government would be able to get things done and work together for the good of the country?
TONY SNOW, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Glenn, I`m not sure anybody is really thinking through that sort of thing. What you see are a lot of gestures that are designed to say, well, we`re going to get tough on the Iraqis. I think the Iraqis are trying to get their government work.
But maybe the most important thing that`s been going on in Iraq, is the people have said, we`re not going to wait for the government. We`re going to go after al Qaeda and go after the Shia militias. And the other thing is, we`re going to start behaving like grown-ups. We`ll go ahead and distribute the oil revenues. We`ll go ahead and let Ba`athists back into the government.
The fact is that there has been an explosion, I think, of common sense at the grassroots level. Still haven`t caught up to the political classes in Iraq.
And you`re absolutely right, the idea that somehow, we destabilize the country in order to send a signal. That sends the wrong signal. It`s not a signal we want to send.
BECK: It is really amazing to me that -- I mean, we said that we`re not -- we don`t want to have, you know, an American-style democracy. And yet, the first three words of our Constitution seem to be in play here with the Iraqi people, and that is "We, the people." Forget about the government. It`s "We, the people" that are fixing this.
SNOW: That is the most stirring result of the surge, which is I think the Iraqi people certainly have confidence that the Americans have their back. We`re not going to leave. We`re not going to bail out.
They said, "OK, well, now that we have the Americans here, we can stand up and we can take the lead role."
There was an assassination today in al Anbar province, and one of the sheikhs has been working with us. The result is that the Anbarians themselves are standing up, saying, "We`re not going to take this."
What it`s going to do is to redouble their determination to kill off al Qaeda. And you`ve started to see at the grassroots level, again, throughout Iraq, they`re started to bubble up. And it`s kind of an amazing thing.
All of a sudden people are seeing success in Anbar, saying we can do that ourselves. I mean, we can take out the insurgents. We can take out al Qaeda. We can take out the Shia militias. That`s great. Let`s go.
BECK: Tony, you know, I have given the benefit of the doubt for, I think, long enough, maybe too long on people saying, "I support the troops. I just don`t support their mission."
I believe in the heartland of America, there are Democrats that believe that. They don`t -- they don`t want to be there, et cetera, et cetera.
But that`s different from the politics that we`re seeing now in Washington from the special interest groups from the extreme left. They`re calling General Petraeus "General Betray Us" now.
Hollywood is coming out with movie after movie where one of them is painting our soldiers as rapists. It`s a true story, but they`re trying to get the story out there so it looks like this is what`s really happening there.
Would you say that we`ve crossed the line this week where maybe the left knows that there`s real trouble? And we`re not going to pull out. And so now they have to try to paint our troops as baby killers and rapists and, God forbid, whatever else they come up with.
SNOW: Well, if you take a look what Move On has done, here you`ve got General Petraeus elected 81 to nothing or approved 81-0 in the U.S. Senate. He`s a guy who believes -- who has written a handbook literally on counterinsurgency. He goes in and succeeds.
This ought to be -- we ought to be having parades in the streets for the guy. But instead, MoveOn.org, hating the fact that there`s good news, decides to trash it.
BECK: But you know what? It`s the -- the Democratic presidential candidates, not one of the Democratic presidential candidates have come out and distanced themselves from MoveOn.org, which leads me to the question, how do you expect to lead the military when you won`t distance yourself from the extreme left that is -- that holds the military in contempt?
SNOW: Well, I think that`s going to be one of the key questions that American voters are going to have to answer come next November.
What the president has been trying to do -- the president is arguing this one. This is interesting. Democrats have got what they`ve been asking for. There are troop reductions. But at the same time, there`s a change in mission in Iraq, and that`s all the result of success.
It`s -- I think for some Democrats, the only change in mission they want is to get out. Get out, regardless of the circumstances, create a vacuum. Let there be bloodshed. And I`m not saying this is true of all Democrats, but there are some on the far left who just don`t care. They think that the only think we ought to have is a retreat strategy and that the only thing we should acknowledge is defeat.
Well, guess what? We have success. We ought to celebrate success and build on it. The president is going to invite all Americans tonight to go ahead and join in that success, to celebrate the success and realize that, as we build on it as a nation, we make ourselves more secure.
And once again, we say to the rest of the world, who`s the champion of liberty? We are. Who are the champions of the little guys? We are. Who are the people you can count on when the going gets tough? We are.
This is a time to celebrate American virtues and celebrate American success, rather than trashing one of the guys who`s responsible for those successes.
BECK: Tony, you have one of the world`s toughest jobs. It is nonstop. And now you are -- you`re fighting cancer at the same time. What has that been like? How -- how taxing on you as a person has it been to do what you do and to be fighting your own body?
SNOW: Well, first, you got to understand, I love the job. So the job is -- I mean, I get up every day. I love it. It`s an energizing job.
The second thing is, I went through a four-month session of chemo, and toward the end of that four-month session, the chemo started to wear me out. It beat me up pretty good.
But I`m now done with that. I`m doing what they call maintenance chemo, a user-friendly chemo agent. And I`m getting my weight back. I`m getting my hair back. I`ve got my energy back. So I feel great.
So it`s really like anybody else. I get up in the morning, brush my teeth, head off to the office and, you know, work a full day, and go back and do it again. Tomorrow`s the last day I`ll be able to do that here at the White House, but I`ll be doing plenty of stuff on the other side.
BECK: In my book, sir, you are Mr. Smith that went to Washington, and I`m sorry to see you go home.
SNOW: Well, that`s OK. I`ll be out, and I`ll be speaking my mind, Glenn.
BECK: Thanks a lot, Tony.
Coming up, remember that MoveOn.org ad in "The New York Times" this week? The one that called General Petraeus a traitor? Well, it seems like they got quite of a discount from "The New York Times". I`ll explain.
Plus, we`ll wrap up our series, "Exposed: The Perfect Day". Tonight, a look at what you can do to make sure terrorists cannot get to your schools or your children.
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BECK: I don`t even think we`re in talk radio. We`re still doing Godzilla (ph). Hey, that`s Britney Spears. Good morning, quack, quack.
When digital enhancement of photographs first came out -- remember this conversation? At some point, they`re going to be able to alter pictures so well and so easily, even in a video, that you`re not going to be able to believe your eyes. You`re not going to know what the truth is anymore.
What happens to a society when you don`t know what the truth is? When you know you cannot trust your eyes? What do you could trust? The answer is, nothing.
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BECK: In just a few minutes, we have a final installment of our series, "Exposed: The Perfect Day". I`ve been telling you now for the last week that the "perfect day" for Islamist terrorists is a term they use to define a series of coordinated attacks resulting in death and destruction on a massive scale.
Tonight, we wrap up with what I think are some practical solutions so you know what you can do to be proactive about the safety of your kids, your school and our country.
Now, let`s shift gears here. Talk is cheap, but not nearly as cheap as a full-page ad in "The New York Times" if you`re MoveOn.org. For the rest of us, that`s kind of expensive.
Remember that big ad that they ran on Monday, the one that took the cheap shots at General Petraeus? According to the "New York Post", a full- page ad like that should have cost $167,000. Funny thing is, MoveOn.org only had to pay $65,000.
Now I just want to issue this warning to "The New York Times". I mean, be careful. I mean, it would be terrible if you got a reputation of being part of that vast left-wing liberal media thing.
Here with more is Laura Ingraham, conservative commentator and author of the new book, "Power to the People".
Laura, welcome to the program.
LAURA INGRAHAM, AUTHOR, "POWER TO THE PEOPLE": It`s great to be here. I feel like I`m on the set of "Friends". This is so fancy.
BECK: Yes, I know.
INGRAHAM: A Danish (ph) and a coffee.
BECK: We`re out on the patio now. I know.
INGRAHAM: Hi, folks.
BECK: I was reading your book this -- this weekend. And I wanted to get you on to this. Because you talk about how people -- the premise of the book is grabbing the power back.
INGRAHAM: Take it back.
BECK: Yes. And that is really the solution, especially when you see a couple of things that are going on. First of all, "The New York Times". How do you get that? Is that a family discount?
INGRAHAM: Actually, if you come out and praise General Petraeus, it costs double.
BECK: Really?
INGRAHAM: So it`s two times.
BECK: OK.
INGRAHAM: Anything good about Bush, it`s three times as expensive.
BECK: The other thing is -- is the way that the -- I had Orrin Hatch on my radio program today, he said he`s never seen anything like it. He said the Democrats are afraid of the left. They control the Democratic Party now. That`s terrifying.
INGRAHAM: Well, here`s what`s going on. We have an entire segment of the society, Glenn, that is so disconnected from politics. They don`t want any part of these people up on Capitol Hill, right or left. They don`t want a part of them.
BECK: I`ve got to tell you, that`s me.
INGRAHAM: Twenty-three percent on Capitol Hill approval rating, lowest in the history of poll-taking, on Congress. President Bush still low in the polls. And whom do they trust, the Rasmussen, CBS -- "The New York Times" poll I think it was. Military leaders way up in the trust category, compared to all these other people.
And you throw the culture in there. You throw what`s coming out of Hollywood. You saw the VMA Awards. I`m sure you`ve talked about it and talked about it on your radio show.
Not one mention during this brat -- spoiled brat talentless fest in Las Vegas, not one mention of the troops, not one mention of thanks to these men and women who are sacrificing.
So my point here is, we have to do better. We`re here for this very short period of time. We don`t like to talk about our own mortality. It makes us uncomfortable. But we`re all going to die in the course of human history really soon.
So what are we going to leave behind? And my whole point is we have to do better than that. It`s got to get better leadership. We`ve got to have a culture that we`re proud of. And that means all of us engaged. We`re not engaged with this culture.
And so I have a bunch of practical ways that we can do that. You did it with immigration. You led the immigration fight. That was power to the people.
BECK: You know, I have to tell you, I think that -- I`ve been saying now for a while, and it`s funny, power to the people, because what I`ve been saying is I was walking down the street in New York. And I was -- this has been a tough year for me, because I`ve seen how the news -- I`ve seen it before it`s processed. And then I`ve seen it through the sausage machine.
So I know, it`s just not -- it`s not what you`re seeing, you know what I mean? It`s just -- it`s a game. The whole thing is a game.
INGRAHAM: Well, I think you have the experience on the inside here at CNN and so many talented people. But it`s -- it`s entertainment for a lot of people.
I mean, the tabloids. The Lindsay Lohan, the Britney Spears: is she wearing underwear today? Is she going to shave her head? Is she going to have her dog with the diamond-encrusted dollar? Who cares?
We have people, as you exposed in your great Islamic jihad special, which again, that`s power of the people. You`re getting people informed on that. We have that stuff happening, people`s heads getting cut off. And we`re watching the bump and grind action, women with women, men with men, three men with three men? What is this?
BECK: But here`s the problem, though. The reason why -- because I`m one of those guys. I don`t want to engage. I don`t believe in any of them.
INGRAHAM: Yes.
BECK: I don`t believe in any of them.
INGRAHAM: Right.
BECK: It is because I believe in "we, the people." I don`t believe in Washington. And it`s because of things like Hillary Clinton. She`s taking the $800,000 and saying, "I`m sending it back." And now she says, "Well, if everybody promises it`s their money, then I`ll send it back." And she has no shame. She doesn`t care.
They say that they lost -- the Republicans lost the election last time because of ethics. Dear God in heaven, where are the ethics here?
INGRAHAM: Well, I think people are tired of the hypocrisy without a doubt.
And you look at the goodness of America, and it`s all around us. I mean, you -- when you go across the country and you talk to listeners and your viewers, that`s America. Imagine if the unity that we felt in this country after 9/11, in the moments of sacrificial concern that we all experience in our lives, especially when we go through dark times. You`ve been through tough times.
BECK: Yes.
INGRAHAM: I certainly have been, as well. Those are the moments that represent the good in us.
We have to broadcast those ideals to the rest of the world. Not the garbage and -- whether it`s a wide stance, or a narrow stance, whether it`s cash in the freezer, or a fugitive from justice on the lam who gave hundreds of thousands to Hillary.
Something`s got to give here. This whole thing is going to come tumbling down. And that means we, the people, have to say we`re not taking it any more.
BECK: Laura Ingraham and I are actually competitors on the radio.
INGRAHAM: But I don`t feel like it.
BECK: I don`t feel like it either.
INGRAHAM: No.
BECK: You`re going to be on my radio program tomorrow.
INGRAHAM: And you`re on mine in November. Please.
BECK: I want to talk to you more about your book, "Power to the People" tomorrow.
I also want to talk to you. Tony Snow`s last day -- or last -- you know, last day on the show here is today. Tomorrow is his last day in the White House. And you went through cancer. He`s going through cancer. I want to talk to you a little bit about that.
INGRAHAM: Yes. I would love to share that. It`s a strange gift, believe it or not, through a lot of it. Thank you.
BECK: Great way to put it. We`ll talk to you on the radio tomorrow.
INGRAHAM: Fantastic.
BECK: Coming up -- a quick programming note first. NASCAR, America`s most popular sport. Two of its most popular drivers joining me tomorrow for the full hour, make sure you join in with NASCAR Friday with Jeff Burton and Matt Kenseth.
Also coming up, terrifying and unthinkable: one day, a terrorist may target our schools. Tonight, we focus on what you can do to make sure that doesn`t happen. Stay tuned as we continue our special series, "Exposed: The Perfect Day".
And Mary Winkler, she served only seven months for the murder of her husband. A tad short. You`ll never guess who believes that it is a tad short, as well. Her. Stick around, coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BECK: You`ve been watching the radio show or listening to the TV show all week, you`ve seen our special "The Perfect Day", and we`re going to get to our last segment on that here in just a second.
But you know this gentleman, Brad Thor, he has been working with me and leading the team on trying to piece all these puzzles together.
And how this happened with our "Exposed: The Perfect Day" is Brad brought me a copy of his book. And I had him on the radio talking about this. And I read it. And we were talking about the premise. It is called "The First Commandment. And the first commandment is?
BRAD THOR, AUTHOR, "THE FIRST COMMANDMENT": On the war in terror, thou shall not negotiate with terrorists.
BECK: Got it. Except you found when you were -- when you were preparing for the -- to write this book, you found there is one exception.
THOR: There is one exception, and that`s when it deals with children. That is the one time we will break our rule that we don`t negotiate with terrorists.
BECK: OK. When you started doing the investigation. Because this is -- again, this is what was the germ, because I recognize some of the things in here. And I went, wait a minute, hang on, I`ve read all of these things.
THOR: Right.
BECK: You know, I know this stuff is actually happening. When you do your research, because I know the book is fiction, but when you do your research, you`ve got to be right. It`s like Clancy used to be. They used to think he was a CIA operative over in Russia.
THOR: Exactly.
BECK: Was there a point where you went, "Good God in heaven, America has no clue"?
THOR: There -- there was. What ended up happening is -- this is my - - this is my sixth thriller. And I developed a lot of contacts in the intelligence communities, in law enforcement.
And as I started digging, I had people coming out of the woodwork saying to me, "Brad, we know you`re doing a thriller. We know this is fiction, but we know it`s based on reality. And we have to tell you some things that you`ll never believe."
I found out about a mosque in Mexico that moves every few weeks so that it can`t be detected. I found out about terrorists doing surveillance on school buses. I found out about all of this stuff that was found in Iraq and Afghanistan, pointing to attacks on our schools here in America.
And so everybody I talked to who`s engaged in the war on terror said you have really hit the nail on the head with this book.
BECK: You know, I tell you. There is -- there is a hunger for this information in America. I mean, here you are, a "New York Times" best- selling book with this. I read Daniel Silva`s book, which is tremendous.
THOR: Secret Service.
BECK: It`s tremendous. And I`m reading it, and because I do what I do I`m reading it. I`m like, oh, my gosh. There`s a hunger for this kind of information. And nobody`s giving to you, except now fiction authors, and really, you`re doing the job that Hollywood used to do in World War II.
THOR: I agree. I agree. My goal here is to give people an edge of your seat, white-knuckle thrill ride. That`s my job as a thriller author.
As an American, I want people to be familiar with these issues, and I want to put them across in a way that people can say, "Now, I get it. When I hear this on the news, now I understand why. And now I see how these things come together."
BECK: Could I ask you, and I want to ask every fiction writer who writes this kind of stuff, would you please start footnoting stuff?
Did you read Crichton`s book on global warming? It as footnoted. It made it so much better, because you -- you read it and you`re like, "Oh, my gosh, this part is true."
And -- because again, I do what I do. I know what part of your book is true.
Now you`re working on something that is absolutely not fiction for us, and it will be ready next week?
THOR: Correct. I have done a wrap-up for the e-mail newsletter for everything we`ve talked about this week, and that`s not fiction. Everything from why the terrorists want us to react the way they want us to react to the attacks. What the attacks might look like. And what we can do to secure our schools, our school buses and our children against terrorist attack.
BECK: Brad will be back here in just a second with our final installment of our weeklong series "Exposed: The Perfect Day". It is next. Don`t go anywhere.
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BECK: Welcome to the final installment of our series focusing on the threat of terrorist attacks on our nation`s schools. Tonight, it is all about practical advice. If you`ve been watching all week, you probably have seen the guests on the programs scare the living bat snot out of you, wondering, "OK, Glenn, I get it, I get it, I get it. Now, what do I do with the news?" Your kids may be dead, news at 11:00. That kind of stuff is not helpful.
Tonight, we`re lucky enough to have Kenneth Trump. He is one of the nation`s foremost experts on school safety and school security. Here to back us up, he is also joined again with Brad Thor, author of the "First Commandment," and the former member of the Department of Homeland Security`s Analytic Red Cell Program.
Brad, let me start with you. Tell me the four Ds.
BRAD THOR, AUTHOR: OK, Glenn, the four Ds were developed by Colonel Dave Grossman. And he`s one of the premiere law enforcement trainers in the country. And they are deter, detect, delay and destroy. Deter, you want an armed presence at your school. Unarmed security guards are no good. They give a false sense of security to parents, teachers and students. Even if your school can`t afford a police officer to be on site at all times, invite the police from your local law enforcement agencies to do their paperwork at your school, come by for coffee. Even random police stopping by will help terrorists say, "You know what? I don`t want anything to do with this school. I`m going to move on." That`s the deter.
Now, the detect is, parents, teachers, school authorities, they need to be watching for terrorists who are surveilling schools. We`ve talked about how they`re like sharks and they`ll come in and gather their intelligence. These might not be guys that look like Muhammad Atta. These could be blond-haired, blue-eyed people trying to figure out where the school is weak. Those are the first two.
And then the delay. If there is a terrorist attack at your children`s school, there needs to be a plan in place that helps get those students to safety. This lock and drop and stay inside the classroom might not be the best thing, because that might just hold them until the terrorists come and round them up and take them into the gym like Beslan, like we saw there.
And finally, destroy. This is one of the biggest lessons that was learned in the Israeli school massacre in Ma`alot and in Beslan. For every second we wait to send law enforcement in, children are going to die.
BECK: Ken, this is totally different than anything that we have ever dealt with before. I mean, it is -- my understanding, the typical thing with a hostage would be delay, delay, delay. Let`s keep these guys on the phone. Let`s not piss them off, et cetera. But these people have no intention of anything other than killing everybody inside.
KENNETH S. TRUMP, NATIONAL SCHOOL SAFETY AND SECURITY SERVICES: Absolutely. They`re going in with the idea that they are not coming out and neither is anybody who`s already there. And we have to recognize it`s a totally different situation, and it`s a totally different situation that law enforcement officials and school officials really haven`t prepared for tactically, but more importantly mentally.
BECK: OK, how do you know -- when Brad said a second ago that you need to detect, and they may just look like me or whatever, how do you detect them? I don`t know what I`m doing. What am I looking for?
TRUMP: Well, one thing we stress, Glenn, with school officials in our training is that they know their school and what is normal better than anybody, even better than me as a security consultant coming from the outside. They know what`s normal. They have to be able to recognize and most of all act on what`s abnormal.
And we don`t train our teachers to do that. We have situations in schools where they`ve been user-friendly, they`ve been open for so long historically that people actually talk themselves out of going with their gut feeling. And the first thing, as we all know, is to go with your gut feeling. If you think something`s wrong, act upon it. Do something. Pick up the phone. Stop somebody. Challenge somebody or at least call for help.
BECK: I have to tell you, one of the best books I`ve ever read is "The Gift of Fear." I don`t know if you guys are familiar with it.
(CROSSTALK)
BECK: Yes, but it talks about that, that dogs don`t have a special sense. They`re reacting on you, but you`re dismissing it. You know, you see something in your school, most likely, if you do see something that doesn`t look right, I mean, unless it`s so obviously not right, you`re like, "Ah, well, I`ll dismiss it. That can`t be what I think it is."
THOR: And you don`t want to do that, Glenn. You`ve got to trust your gut. Now, you need to work with your police department. I like to say your police department, not the police department, because they are your partners in protecting the schools.
And we`ve talked about this a little bit on camera, off camera, that the police departments, the sheriff departments, they`re the ones that are eager to get these things implemented in the schools. Parents need to work on the schools. Law enforcement is ready to come on board and help, but the schools need to be convinced that parents want this and they want law enforcement brought on.
BECK: Ken, this is probably not the forum to ask this because I`m on national TV, but I`ve already done it on national radio. And I don`t know if this is even right. I talked to my ex-wife, and one of my children is in public school. And I said, "I`m going to call you or if you see something, if something happens, and I don`t care if it`s in Kansas, if you see a school taken or if I see one, I`m going to call you. I don`t care if you`re in a job interview. You say, `Excuse me,` you go directly to the school, say, `My child has a dentist appointment,` and get them out of school." Right or wrong?
TRUMP: I think that`s actually a natural parental instinct. One of the things when we`re working on school emergency plans is, how do school officials plan on dealing with parents who come flocking to the schools? We`ve seen it in school shootings, from Columbine to other incidences. And it`s going to be a normal reaction. I think we have to recognize for school officials and for safety officials, sometimes the best place is for the kids to be secured in the building. It`s going to be situational.
BECK: No, well, what I`m saying is, if I see it in another city.
THOR: Right. And we`ve talked about this. If you see it in another city, if everybody across America does this, it could create chaos and play into the terrorists` hands. Now, if we hear about a school siege scenario in, let`s say, Long Beach, California, schools across the country should seriously consider locking their schools down at that point, if it`s a terrorist attack.
BECK: I mean, but, guys, this is exactly what we`re talking about, though. They lock the school down themselves. You`re only making them sitting ducks. Is there any kind of talk of any kind of safe room or some place where the kids are actually protected? I mean, it`s almost like the duck and cover thing.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: We`re actually buying some time here, and when we practice from lockdowns from active shooter situations, we`re buying time. The flip side of the coin, when just releasing kids to send them home, that then you`ve got them out in the streets. You have no parents at home, and the kids are supervising themselves. So that`s a concern, as well.
BECK: OK, Ken, so I`m an average parent. And I was talking to Bernie Kerik on the radio today. And he said, you know, Glenn, you`ve got to call your schools and find out, you know, what their safety procedures are. And I`m like, "Bernie, that`s good for you. You`re a former commissioner of a police department in New York City. I don`t know what it`s supposed to look like." They could tell me, "We`re going to have Jell-O class," and I`d be pretty OK with it. I don`t know. Is that right or wrong?
Specifically, if I say I want to call my school, I want to make sure they have safety procedures in that are right, what are the things that I should be looking for or encouraging them to do?
TRUMP: Here`s the thing that you need to make sure that you ask as a parent. Not only do you have safety plans and do you have crisis teams, but more specifically, who`s on that team? When have they met? When`s the last time that you actually sat down and trained with law enforcement? What type of exercises have you done with your plan? Have you done table- top exercises? Do you actually practice lockdown drills and evacuations? And if so, when? When were the last three times that you did it? When were the last three times that your crisis teams met?
Because what we know from doing evaluations across the country in schools is that most schools have plans and teams on paper, but they`re not practicing. The teachers haven`t been trained. And the plans haven`t been tested and exercised. And they haven`t been working closely with law enforcement on the details of those plans. So the parents are not necessarily looking for every nuts and bolts step, but you want to find out, is it an active, living plan or is it collecting dust upon a shelf?
BECK: Do either of you know what the percentages are where there is active -- I mean, we do fire drills. I don`t remember doing the...
(CROSSTALK)
THOR: And this is what`s interesting is, in the last 25 years, we haven`t had a student die in America in a fire. Yet we do fire drills all the time. And now, because of Columbine and Virginia Tech, we have these active shooter scenarios. But very few places in this country, Orange County would be one of the leaders, Orange County, California, where they actually are doing terrorist-siege scenarios.
So we train for fire drills all the time, but we`re not looking at things like Beslan, when Al Qaeda has said, "What we visited on Russia, we will visit here 100 percent." You and I have talked about it looks like 9/9 or September 10, 2001. We`ve got all these dots pointing at our children. Al Qaeda said they`re going to target our children. We need to be focusing on the schools. And what I hear from my sources is less than 30 percent of the school safety plans are even developed with first responders like law enforcement.
TRUMP: Absolutely. That`s right no target. And they`re not practiced. They`re sitting on a shelf collecting dust. From coast to coast, we`re finding exactly that, that schools aren`t even practicing lockdown drills, much less more sophisticated drills.
THOR: And as the terrorists change their tactics, the school plans need to be changed. There are living documents that should be forbidden to sit on shelves.
BECK: OK, Ken, tell me, because there`s something going on with buses, but we don`t know what. They could be just being filled with explosives and blow up football games. They could be pulled up in the line with everything else. They might be driven into a school. We don`t know, but there`s a lot of dots on these buses.
Tell me the things that would help a parent when they look at a bus, what should they look for? I said on the radio today, I think you`ve got to know who your bus driver is.
TRUMP: You have to know who your bus driver is and, most importantly, you need to know what type of training your school bus drivers have had. School districts do a great job of training drivers how to drive the bus, very poor job at training them on security procedures, recognizing and reporting strangers, what to do in an emergency situation, how you would get a hold of the police, what to do when the police show up, what to do if you have somebody pull a gun on a bus, what to do if you have a stranger or parent or irate parent or an unusual person, a terrorist, approach a bus, even just simple things.
THOR: You know what, Glenn? At the end of the day, what I tell people is demand nothing shot of absolute devotion to the school safety plan you`re your schools. You`re a taxpayer. You pay those schools. If they say, "We can`t share this with you, it`s sensitive information," say, "Fine, then I want somebody who I trust from the PTA on this. I want to form a committee, and I want them to report back to me, a parent," who says I can`t give you the details, but, yes, it works or, no, it doesn`t work. And get your local law enforcement agencies involved.
BECK: OK, thank you very much, Brad, always a pleasure. Thank you very much.
All week, we`ve been telling you about the special from the "Perfect Day" reports that are appearing in the free e-mail newsletter. Please, if you haven`t signed up yet at glennbeck.com, the time to do it is right now. Ken Trump has written a must-read guide, it`s just full of tips and advice to prepare you and your children for any kind of crisis at the school.
Also, I`ve been promising to you all week, an exclusive video clip showing terrorist training for a school takeover and barking out commands in English. That video will be in the newsletter tomorrow. Don`t miss it. Go to glennbeck.com and sign up right now. It is completely free. Back in a minute.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BECK: I want to talk to you about the story of Mary Winkler. Do you remember her? She was the minister`s wife that took a shotgun and killed her husband, and we didn`t really know why.
I have to tell you, one thing that I`m extraordinarily passionate about is spousal abuse, whether that be physical abuse or mental abuse. It always drives me crazy that people separate those two. Abuse is abuse, and nobody should live under it.
Now, Mary alleges she suffered years of abuse at the hands of her husband. She feared for her safety of her children, yet she never called the police. She never reported any of this abuse to anybody. She decided to end the abuse with a shotgun. She was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter, served seven months behind bars. Now she`s wondering, kind of that`s the way it`s being spun today, if that was long enough. She was on "Oprah" yesterday, and here`s what she had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARY WINKLER, SHOT HUSBAND: There`s no amount of time I think you (INAUDIBLE) with something like this. No, I just was ready for them to lock the door, throw away the key.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BECK: OK, did the punishment fit the crime? Let`s go to Lisa Bloom now. Hi, Lisa, you were actually -- you were with Oprah during this episode. First of all, punishment fit the crime?
LISA BLOOM, COURT TV ANCHOR: No, I don`t think so. Well, I thought this was premeditated murder from the beginning. She made a choice to wait for her husband to fall asleep. She made a choice to get the shotgun out of the closet. She made a choice to point it at him, to pull the trigger, to unplug the phone, so when it took him 20 minutes to die, he couldn`t call 911, take the kids, run off, unplug the phone in the hotel so they couldn`t call 911. She wanted him dead. She got what she wanted.
BECK: Can you tell me at all about the abuse? I mean, one of the things that I read was that she said that her husband was making her dress up in sexy clothing for sex that she didn`t want to have or something like that.
BLOOM: Sure.
BECK: Can you go into any kind of detail on any of this without being graphic?
BLOOM: OK, she alleged physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse. She had these stripper shoes on the witness stand with her, these very, very high-heeled shoes, and a wig that she says he made her wear during sex. I won`t be too graphic, but she said that he made her engage in sex acts that she didn`t want to engage in. The problem is, what has made her mean? We don`t hear his side of the story because he was shot and killed. Does it mean he suggested it? Does it mean he insisted? Does it mean he threatened her with violence? We will never know the answer to that.
BECK: OK, but did anybody know about the abuse? Did they know about the physical abuse? The kids didn`t even know.
BLOOM: Her father came forward later and said he saw bruises on her face during the marriage that she covered with heavy make-up, all right? That`s the only corroboration I know of. Her 9-year-old daughter testify at trial for the state that she never saw or heard anything. This is a working-class family in a small home.
BECK: But in the Oprah show, didn`t she change what she said on the witness stand or what was said in trial and what she said Oprah?
BLOOM: She changed the story a lot. She said that she wanted to talk to him, and that`s why she got the shotgun out of the closet. And it was in the course of talking to him that somehow the shotgun just went off. Well, we know from the trial that he shot in the back while he was sleeping. I mean, that`s a pretty significant deviation from her original story. And, again, we`ll never hear his side. We`ll never know if he denies the abuse or if he says she was exaggerating. We will never hear his side. I mean, that`s something that`s very disturbing that we have to keep in mind.
BECK: No, here`s what`s really weird. And maybe I could be wrong here. Maybe the spin on this one is, I think if this were a man, doing this to his wife, it would -- he would be in jail. Second of all, do you think it`s also playing a role that this was a minister, and so it goes right back to the, "Oh, look at the conservative, look at the Christian who is living this secret life that nobody knows about"?
BLOOM: You know, maybe. All I know, Glenn, is this town rallied around her from the beginning. People said, before the trial, if she shot him, she must have had a good reason. People wanted to believe in Mary. And, ultimately, these 10 women on the jury out of 12, they really did not want to find her guilty of murder.
BECK: Court TV`s Lisa Bloom, thank you very much.
BLOOM: Thanks, Glenn.
BECK: Time now for today`s "CNN Hero."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MOHAMMED MAMDANI, CNN HERO: Many young Muslims feel that they are leading double lives because they have to behave in a particular way within the Muslim community, and there`s a conflict between trying to be old (INAUDIBLE) as well as being old Muslim at the same time.
At the age of 17, I became more aware of the fact that so many of my Muslim peers were experiencing issues related to drugs, relationship problems with their families, mental health issues. These are common social problems. Yet for a Muslim community, they are very much no-go areas. I felt I had to take responsibility for the situation, and there began the story of Muslim Youth Help Line.
My father installed a telephone line in my bedroom. It would ring at all times of the day, sometimes in the middle of the night. Muslim Youth Help Line, honestly, became my life.
Six years on, we take thousands of calls related to depression, self- harm, suicidal feelings.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We`re sensitive to their faith and their culture. At the same time, we`re nonjudgmental. So it helps just having a Muslim on the other end of the phone that can understand and relate to these issues.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yesterday, the people of London suffered a terrible heartbreak together.
MAMDANI: After the London bombings, I decided to set up a new project which aimed to deal with young people face-to-face. Ansar Youth Project is like a youth organization. It`s a very friendly environment. It`s a very brotherly environment. It teaches them the skills to reconnect with their Muslim identity, while it`s also learning to integrate better into British society.
I wouldn`t say the work that I do is necessarily heroic. It`s just something that`s needed in society. My aim is to help young Muslims just be themselves.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BECK: Ah, Japan, the land of the rising sun, the country of the Corolla, and, until now, the nation that had the world`s market cornered on creepy robot research. I don`t know about you, does it seem like every few months you read a story about some weird Japanese robot that can sand your floors, repair your cars, and be the nag-free, nonjudgmental, sexually aggressive girlfriend that geeks have always been striving to create?
For example, let me give you exhibit number -- well, I believe this one`s 14,000,004. You know, I`m not sure if she`s going to shoot lasers out of her eyes or try to make it with the nearest waffle iron, but luckily America will not be outdone on the robot creepiness factor. Meet Zeno, the artificial boy.
He is made by Hanson Robotics from Texas. There he is. And he`s one of the most advanced robots in the world. His skin is made of a skin like material called Frubber. He can follow you with its eyes as you walk across the room. It can make realistic facial expressions and eventually will hold full conversations with you. It`s great. We don`t need human contact anymore.
It connects wirelessly through computers running on the same type of software that they use for the "Lord of the Rings." Apparently, these will eventually be on sale for you to be creeped out in your own home by it. But will they be in high demand? Have you seen our birth rates lately? We don`t want anything to do with real kids anymore, let alone fake ones, although scientists have made some major improvements on kids. For example no whining, no crying, no pooping. You can turn them off.
And on that note, I want to send a quick word out to Kevin, who has been our floor director since the pilot of this program. He`s been responsible for most of the crap that has been on this show. He is, honestly, the most competent, most easy-going, absolute professional I`ve ever met. And the thing I love about Kevin is that he never likes to be seen on television. Never likes to be seen on national television. So here it is. And I got you a cake. It`s a "Beat it, Quitter," cake. You`re actually going over to the real network down the hall. It has been a pleasure, Kevin.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My pleasure.
BECK: We`re going to miss you sincerely.
Don`t forget. If you want details and video that we couldn`t show you on our special this week, "Exposed: The Perfect Day," it is not too late to sign up for the free e-mail newsletter at glennbeck.com. From New York, good night, America. And thank you, Kevin. Beat it, quitter!
END
