Best of the Program | Guests: Brad Meltzer & Carol Roth | 1/16/26

Summary

The Glenn Beck Program – Best of the Program | Guests: Brad Meltzer & Carol Roth | January 16, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this thought-provoking episode, Glenn Beck delivers his signature blend of commentary on American culture and politics, diving deep into the constitutional debate over the potential use of the Insurrection Act in Minnesota. He’s joined by bestselling author Brad Meltzer, who shares behind-the-scenes details of his new thriller, and financial expert Carol Roth, who examines key economic and political trends impacting America’s future. The episode weaves together history, personal insight, and breaking news with spirited debates and fascinating storytelling.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Constitutional Debate: Insurrection Act in Minnesota

Beck Delivers Dual Arguments:

• Glenn begins with a deep dive on whether the Insurrection Act should be invoked, emphasizing an apolitical, constitutional perspective.
• Presents both sides—pro and con—laying out a “Dream Team Trump” versus “Team Democrat” view and insisting on careful, unemotional analysis.

What’s Happening in Minnesota?

• Violent protests and clashes between federal agents (ICE) and local opposition.
• State leaders openly resist federal immigration enforcement; local officials appear to tacitly encourage resistance.

Beck's Perspective (21:48):

• "Once there is violent attacks on any federal agents, once the federal government cannot carry out its federal duty because the court system or the system of the police or the governor is thwarting them and actually obstructing them, then you have insurrection."

  • [21:48 Glenn Beck]

• Draws parallels to historical events like Shays’ Rebellion and the Whiskey Rebellion.

• Warns that hastily applying the Act could set a dangerous precedent (“once you normalize this use, you don’t get to decide who uses it next or for what purpose”).

Counter-Argument—Where’s the Line? (29:15):

• Beck questions whether the violence is true insurrection or criminal acts within functioning civil society.
• Urges making calm, sober distinctions—military intervention is only warranted when civil authority collapses.

Poll Results:

• At one point, 62% of his audience supported invoking the Act; 38% were opposed, many out of fear of further social upheaval.
  • [49:44 Carol Roth]

Audience Engagement Advice:

• Beck coaches listeners on discussing these issues civilly with others: “Listen to them first... When you can repeat their argument back, that’s when you can start making your comment.” [38:00 Glenn Beck]

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2. Economic Update and Policy Implications (with Carol Roth)

Economic Good & Bad News (03:31):

• Falling unemployment and mortgage rates—"Unemployment claims unexpectedly have fallen to 198,000 ... mortgage rates have fallen to a three year low ... 6% mortgage rate, which is really good."

  • [03:31 Glenn Beck]

• Bankruptcy filings are up; generational shifts in home buying.

Job Market Shifts:

• New top jobs are in healthcare (nurses, therapists), not doctors or tech—a swing against AI-dominated roles because “the one thing that I cannot do is show personal compassion.”
  • [03:31 Glenn Beck]

Tariff Turbulence and Supreme Court:

• Tariffs at risk depending on an upcoming Supreme Court ruling; retroactive refunds could cause “mass, mass chaos.”

  • [05:27 Carol Roth]

• Glenn sees global chaos if Presidential tariff powers are stripped; Carol proposes a possible hybrid ruling, noting there are alternative avenues for implementing tariffs.

"From a foreign policy standpoint, I understand that trade has been a lever, but the strength ... is the suite of tools [Trump] has ... from helping to free hostages in Gaza to the surgical strike in Iran. I don't think a ruling on tariffs is going to undo the absolute strength that we have shown ..."
[06:57 Carol Roth]

Federal Reserve Shifts:

• Jerome Powell’s tenure ending, political skirmishing, speculation about next Chair—Kevin Warsh, with deep Wall Street ties, emerges as a potential Trump pick.

“The market Likes that.”
[13:20 Carol Roth]

Wealth Tax Fallout:

• Concerns about California’s wealth tax proposal driving out tech capital and innovation; warning that such policies spread nationally and often trickle down to the middle class.

“This is a Trojan horse ... if we have a disruption in innovation, if we have a disruption in the stock market ... these are things that don’t just impact the billionaires, it rolls out to the rest of us and hurts the country overall.”
[14:13 Carol Roth]

• Example: Ken Griffin’s exit from Chicago—city loses not just tax, but philanthropy.

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3. Minnesota’s Crisis and the Insurrection Act Debate

Real-Time Tensions:

• State and local officials in Minnesota at odds with federal operations.
• Glenn spotlights rhetoric escalating towards confrontation between National Guard and federal authorities, referencing recent violence against ICE officers.

Critical Quote:

“Once you start actively engaging, that’s out the window … the federal government cannot carry out its federal duty because … the governor is thwarting them … then you have insurrection.”
[21:48-23:00 Glenn Beck]

Historical Context (Shays’ Rebellion, Whiskey Rebellion):

• Founders' writings indicate they would deploy troops only as a last resort, but not shy away from it if collapse of civil authority loomed.
• Founders feared “lawlessness dressed up as liberty” as much as tyranny.

AI & the Founders—‘George AI’ Segment:

• Beck’s custom “George AI” (pulling from authentic founding documents) concludes that the Founders’ standard was—if courts are shut down and civil government collapses, intervene; but only then. Highlights Washington’s reluctance but eventual lead in the Whiskey Rebellion.

“Their biggest fear was not a king ... it was lawlessness dressed up as liberty. And that's exactly what we’re getting today, now.”
[43:55 Glenn Beck]

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4. Brad Meltzer Interview – Secrets, Disappearance, and The Viper

On The Viper:

• The third book in Meltzer’s Escape Artist series—centers on hiding secrets and disappearing in today’s world.
• The opening premise is a man with a terminal disease hides something in his funeral suit. When he’s killed before dying naturally, what’s hidden inside becomes a central mystery.

"If you secretly sew something into the lining of your suit and you hand that suit over to your local mortician, you have an ultimate untraceable hiding spot."
[50:48 Brad Meltzer]

Buried Secrets from 9/11:

• True story: Meltzer interview reveals that a 9/11 victim, before a plane crash, quickly wrote a note, swallowed it—so it would survive in their stomach for investigators to recover post-mortem.
• The note was discovered by morticians at Dover Air Force Base and delivered to authorities, but its contents remain secret.

"If you're on an airplane and the plane is about to go down and you write a quick note and then you eat that note ... the liquids in your stomach will actually preserve the note upon the crash. ... That's not an idea. It really happens. On 9/11…"
[53:33 Brad Meltzer]

On Disappearing Today:

• Witness protection and the challenges of disappearing in a digital age—hard, but possible if you forgo technology and sever personal ties entirely.
• Even with the best support, the emotional call home ruins many vanishings.

“No one—the Marshals service has never lost anyone in witness protection as long as they followed all of our rules. ... But the hardest part ... is that there is a call of home, there is a call from your past… ”
[58:48 Brad Meltzer]

Marvel & Superman/Spiderman Cross-Over:

• Meltzer announces he will be writing the next Superman/Spiderman comic for Marvel and DC’s 50th anniversary crossover, fulfilling a lifelong dream.
• Relates it back to ordinary heroism: “The most important part of the story is not Superman. The most important part of the story is Clark Kent … because we’re all Clark Kent.”
  • [61:22 Brad Meltzer]

Life Lessons & Kindness:

• Shares the story of thanking janitors in airport restrooms: “Life is like a boomerang. Sometimes you throw it out there, and then boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, it comes back to you.”
  • [64:29 Brad Meltzer]

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Notable Quotes

On the Insurrection Act Debate:

• "It’s not a conservative principle. It is not a limited government principle. That is not an American first principle, that executive power is unmoored from restraint."
  • [32:24 Glenn Beck]

On Tariffs and Economic Fallout:

• “There is so much strength from this administration in other areas and other options that it won’t be as bad. Yes, it’ll be chaotic. It won’t be a good thing.”
  • [07:47 Carol Roth]

On the Dangers of Normalizing Emergency Powers:

• "Once you normalize this use, you don’t get to decide who uses it next or for what purpose."
  • [25:22 Glenn Beck]

On Civil Discourse and the Need for Respectful Debate:

• “Listen to them first. When you can repeat their argument back, that's when you can start making your comment..."
  • [38:00 Glenn Beck]

On American Innovation and Exodus from High-Tax States:

• “If this is something that is adopted … you talked about capital control … that’s because there are other states to go to. If Democrats get behind this nationally, this means this could be enacted not only nationally, but we know … it rolls down to the middle class. So this is a Trojan horse…”
  • [14:13 Carol Roth]

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Timestamps of Important Segments

• 03:31 – Economic Updates & Job Trends
• 05:27 – Tariffs, Supreme Court, and Global Market Impacts
• 06:29 – Foreign Policy Implications of Supreme Court Rulings
• 10:11 – Federal Reserve: Powell’s Exit & Warsh Speculation
• 14:13 – California Wealth Tax and Broader Economic Risks
• 21:48 – Minnesota’s Protest Crisis: Is It Insurrection?
• 25:22 – Dangers of the Insurrection Act Precedent
• 37:10 – Audience Insider Poll on Insurrection Act
• 43:55 – What the Founders Would Do: George AI Segment
• 50:48 – Brad Meltzer: The Viper and Hidden Secrets
• 53:33 – The 9/11 Hidden Note: True Story Confirmed
• 56:44 – How Hard Is It to Disappear Today?
• 61:22 – Brad Writing Superman/Spiderman Comic—Ordinary Heroism
• 64:29 – The Kindness Boomerang Story

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Conclusion

This episode features a masterclass in analyzing constitutional crisis, economic volatility, and the American character—balancing historical precedent and contemporary realities. Glenn Beck’s insistent pursuit of both sides of issues and his guests' unique insights make this an essential listen for anyone following American politics, history, and cultural debate. Brad Meltzer’s segment brings warmth, storytelling magic, and a reminder of everyday heroism—leaving listeners both informed and inspired.

Transcript

[Glenn Beck]

On the podcast today, just a great one you don't want to miss. I spend the first hour of the program on the Insurrection act. Should it be used to maintain order, you know, gain order or not? This is a constitutional imperative that we answer this without a Dream Team Trump or a Team Democrat hat on. So I take both cases. Not a straw man argument. I take both, give you the best argument for both sides, then we discuss it. We take the poll from you@glenn beck.com and we went to our founders library with George AI what did the founders believe about this? And I think you'll be surprised. Then we have Brad Meltzer on who has written a new book the Viper. He is one of my favorite interviews. He talks about a secret that I've never heard and nobody knows what it said. But a guy who was on one of the planes on 911 that actually wrote a very important note needed it to be to survive the plane crash so he ate it. Doctors found it in the autopsy and they will not say what it was but they delivered it to the authorities. That's an amazing story he has. And good and bad news with Carol Roth on the economy. What is coming? What are the jobs you need to look for? What does the tariff mess mean? And and also we get into the Fed Ron Paul for head of the Fed. I'm just saying. I'm just saying that and so much more on today's podcast. As a gun owner I understand the importance of being prepar but it is crucial to recognize that according to Law enforcement statistics 99% of all altercations do not require lethal force. That's why I endorse Burna. I believe in the power of the gun but a less than lethal self defense tool is Burna and it is great. My children have it. They're all over 18. I have takes away all of the worry about the legal ramifications of what would happen and it puts the power back into your hands that you're willing to use legal in all 50 states. No background checks, no per, no waiting periods. You'd have one shipped straight to your door providing peace of mind where and when you need it most. I own Burna Launchers and you should too. Berna Launchers hand assembled in Fort Wayne, Indiana by proud American company the people at Berna believe in our right to defend ourselves and providing options that align with responsible and effective stopping power. Burna by r n a.com byrna.com Glenn hello America. You know we've been fighting every single day. We push back against the lies, the censorship, the nonsense of the mainstream media that they're trying to feed you. We work tirelessly to bring you the unfiltered truth because you deserve it. But to keep this fight going, we need you right now. Would you take a moment and rate and review the Glenn Beck podcast? Give us five stars and leave a comment. Because every single review helps us break through Big Tech's algorithm to reach more Americans who need to hear the truth. This isn't a podcast. This is a movement and you're part of it, a big part of it. So if you believe in what we're doing, you want more people to wake up, help us push this podcast to the top rate, review, share. Together we'll make a difference. And thanks for standing with us. Now, let's get to work.

[Brad Meltzer]

You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck Program.

[Glenn Beck]

So I have some good news on the, you know, on the economic front, unemployment claims unexpectedly have fallen to 198,000. Like to know more about that. Mortgage rates have fallen to a three year low. It's we're now at a 6% mortgage rate, which is really good. Bad news. Americans are filing for more bankruptcy, but there is a story behind that. The, the baby boomer is not the one that is the median American homebuyer. So some of that is not right. And there was a list that came out today. It's in our show prep about the jobs that you should be training for if you're young. And it is amazing to me because when everybody was saying learn to code, get into AI and everything else, I was saying don't do that. The one thing that's all going to be covered, the one thing that I cannot do is show personal compassion. You can't look AI in the eyes. And doctors are going to be really replace a lot of what they do with AI because when you need somebody to make a judgment on what's going on, really it can process more information. But you can't have your nurses or your physical therapists, therapists being AI. You're going to want a person when there's pain involved. And those are I think the top 10 jobs that they're now recommending. It's all medicine, not doctors. Below that. Let me bring, let me bring in Carol Roth. She is the author of you will own Nothing. She's also was helped me put together the capital controls program. She's one of the people in the documentary. Carol, I just was talking about tariffs and what the Supreme Court is going to decide one way or Another. But if they decide to say the president doesn't have a right or ability to do any of these things, this is massive chaos. Am I right or wrong?

[Carol Roth]

So I think that you're, you're absolutely right that this is massive chaos, particularly if they say that the administration has to do refunds. Because from an administrative standpoint, both at the federal level, but then also trickling down to all of the businesses who may have passed tariffs onto their customers, in some cases transparently, the undoing of that is going to be, yeah, just mass, mass chaos. Which is why I think we could very well be in for a hybrid ruling, one where they say, okay, you don't have the emergency powers, but we're going to not make this retroactive. This is going to be a go forward. We're putting the stake in the, in the ground right now. And so you, you know, from that standpoint, I don't think it's as much chaos as you do, Glenn. And if I, I'm not usually the one that, that's talking you off the ledge. I'm usually the one pushing you off.

[Glenn Beck]

Well, but you're, you're talking about economic. I'm talking about global chaos. I'm talking about. Because all these tariffs, they're all levers to change the world into our direction. So all of these agreements that he's got now, everybody's going to look like President doesn't, President can't do what he says he wants to do, so he loses that. And all of these things that have pushed rare minerals our way, it's all up for grabs again. And it's going to make China look stable.

[Carol Roth]

Let me potentially talk you off the legend and throw some good possibilities out there, which again, is a little, a little reversal of rules. From a foreign policy standpoint, I understand that trade has been a lever, but the strength of Trump and the military and, you know, sort of his unpredictability and his suite of tools has been absolutely unparalleled. From, you know, helping to free the hostages in Gaza to the surgical strike in Iran to the capturing of Maduro. I mean, everybody is on notice. And I don't think a ruling on tariffs is going to undo the absolute strength that we have shown on the world stage.

[Brad Meltzer]

From that standpoint, I hope you're right.

[Carol Roth]

Furthermore, and obviously, you know, I am not a legal expert, but in my research, you have folks who do these things, research these things, like Cato, believe that there are other tariff options that are not emergency tariff options. So if it is struck down, there is no doubt in my mind that the administration has already decided whether it's the Trade Expansion act for, you know, national security reasons, whether it's the, you know, balance of payment issues. There are multiple sections of trade acts where they can pivot. So, yes, it's a setback and one that, in my opinion is an unforced error. But I think that there is so much strength from this administration in other areas and other options that it won't be as bad. Yes, it'll be chaotic. It won't be a good thing.

[Brad Meltzer]

But I hope you're right.

[Glenn Beck]

I hope you're right. You know, I talked to the President, you know, weeks ago when this was being argued, and I said, what happens if that. That goes away? And he said, oh, there are other ways we can, we can deal with this. I'm not that concerned. I think they are concerned, but they were prepared for this going either way. And I do think that the reason why the, the, the court decision hasn't come out this week, which they talked about maybe coming out this week, I think one of the reasons why they're delaying is they're trying to. To split the cat, if you will, and make sure they don't do complete, you know, just devastation to everything. Trying to find a way that kind of keeps the Constitution. The Constitution gives the President powers that he might need and more importantly, give everybody a chance to find a way out.

[Carol Roth]

Yes, yes. In time to prepare. The longer it goes on.

[Glenn Beck]

Yes.

[Carol Roth]

The more it's creating signals to the administration and the more that they're able to prepare for the.

[Glenn Beck]

I agree. Okay, so we got a couple of things we just got to race through, because I've only got about six minutes left with you. The. Let's start with Powell. The President has gone after Powell. He's threatening a lawsuit against Powell. But Powell, his. His term expires in what, March? May. May expires in May. Right. And so he's going to be replaced anyway. Is this about lowering the interest rates in that time period? What is this really all about?

[Carol Roth]

Yeah, it's interesting because, you know, if you listen to the Trump administration and the AGs, they're saying, we have no idea what Powell is talking about. You know, we never said it was indictment. We're just trying to get some information from him. And so the fact that you have Powell coming out, in an unprecedented move, I mean, the Fed does not make statements outside normal, scheduled business hours and scheduled statements. And by the way, if you watch the statement, it's like a hostage video he's like, gulping. It's really uncomfortable.

[Glenn Beck]

You know what? It reminded me of himself. The only other time I've seen the Fed make a Sunday night announcement was tarp. And it felt like the same thing.

[Carol Roth]

Yes.

[Glenn Beck]

Oh, yeah, Covid. Yeah. But really, really. Yeah. Uncomfortable.

[Carol Roth]

It's weird. It's like an emergency thing.

[Glenn Beck]

Yes.

[Carol Roth]

But it does come off political if, if that is actually what's happening, which is sort of unclear that that's actually what. What is happening. But I think if you're going to go after the Fed for anything, the, you know, you know, cavalier nature of the fact that they have hurt affordability for Americans, they've made housing unaffordable, they've helped enable our tremendous debt. There are so many things that we can go after the Fed for that. You know, the cost on a renovation that's not being funded by taxpayers directly seems strange. Unless, again, very, very, you know, 4D chess here. Maybe it's a way to open up an audit. Maybe it's a way to actually get something else coming in through this route.

[Glenn Beck]

If anybody could do it, he is the guy to, if he wanted to, to get that done. Tell me about Warsh, the guy who looks like the President may select.

[Carol Roth]

Okay, so this is huge breaking news. Per cnbc, the President made comments today, and the front runner for the position was Trump's top economic adviser, a different Kevin, Kevin Hassett, that we all know had the director of the National Economic Council. Now Trump is saying, well, you know, Kevin, I really like to keep you in this place. Which made everyone go, oh, Kevin, Neal Hassett's not the top pick. It's Kevin Warsh. And the concern with Hassett is that he's too tied into the administration that he would be, you know, sort of a wonky economist that's doing Trump's bidding. Kevin Warsh is somebody who is a former Wall street guy, former M and A banker that went into politics. He was appointed to the board of governors of the Fed by George W. Bush. And so he has that experience, but he also is sort of a liaison. So when during the Great Recession, financial crisis, he was the one who was liaising between the Fed and the banks and the White House and creating that. So he's seen, even though he's somebody who wants to lower interest rates and, and he's aligned with a lot of the President's policies, he's somebody who's considered more credible, you know, in that type of position.

[Brad Meltzer]

I don't whether that's good or bad.

[Carol Roth]

But the market Likes that.

[Glenn Beck]

Yeah, I know the market will like that. That's not the kind of guy I want. I want somebody in there who's like, you know what I'd really like to do is set fire to this whole thing.

[Carol Roth]

You want Ron Paul in there?

[Glenn Beck]

Yeah, I would love Ron Paul in there. I would. I would. So let me talk to you about, quickly. I just want to run through a whole bunch of topics. The wealth tax in, in California. If this thing passes, I mean, this is how stupid these people are. They have built Silicon Valley. They are leading the AI revolution, all of that, then they attack that very revolution at the time when that revolution is going to make or break your area. They get rid of all of your electricity. Then they start going after those billionaires that have set all of those things up and get them to move all of their assets out of California. What the hell is California going to have left in the end? Who are they going to tax?

[Carol Roth]

Well, I'm less concerned about California as I am about the rest of the country, because this is something that is going to have reverberations throughout the country. We know every bad economic proposal this country has incubated in California and then it ends up spreading. So if this is something that is adopted, and you talked about capital control, let's try to trap wealth here in the state. You know, if it's January 1st and you're not out of here yet, we're going to make this retroactive. You have to keep it in the state. Well, that's because there are other states to go to. If Democrats get behind this nationally, this means this could be enacted not only nationally, but we know no policies that come out for the wealthy ever stay with the wealthy. They roll down to the middle class. So this is a Trojan horse, but also something that you've talked about that's so critically important is we are in a race for our lives, with tech, for the future of this country in terms of the economy and growth and national security. Silicon Valley is important to that. And if we have a disruption in innovation, if we have a disruption in the stock market, which all of a sudden impacts all of us and all of our wealth, these are things that don't just impact the billionaires, it rolls out to the rest of us and hurts the country overall. So we can't just pooh, pooh it and say, oh, it's California. You get what you vote for, because this has real consequences for everybody.

[Glenn Beck]

I will tell you that that's why a new stock market is being built here. In Dallas, Texas, why Elon moved to Texas, while they are building power plants and everything else that they can to invite that money here. I think the. The capital of innovation and money just may end up being Texas in the end. And by the way, you know, you were. We were talking about California, and you said this will spread. I think on that list of absolute spreading to trapping money in states, New York, California, Washington State, Illinois. I mean, it's just going to happen, right?

[Carol Roth]

You nailed. You nailed it in order. Yep, absolutely.

[Brad Meltzer]

Yep. It is.

[Carol Roth]

It is going to happen. And we've seen it here in Chicago just from bad policies we had. You know, our biggest billionaire, Ken Griffin, who left, not only did he take his tax revenue, he took his philanthropy with it. And now the middle class is having to pay crazy increases in property tax and energy and the like because we no longer have that tax revenue, and they have shrunk the pie, and nobody is economically illiterate.

[Glenn Beck]

All of those.

[Carol Roth]

Economically.

[Glenn Beck]

All those charities are now like, what. What happened? How are we going to raise this money? You know, why isn't he still giving to the charities he's always believed in Illinois? Because he's not in Illinois anymore. You chased him out of Illinois. Of course he's going to. He's going to build up the area he's around. It's not city.

[Carol Roth]

He. He made personal investments in the city. This gorgeous bike and walking path that goes right along Lake Michigan that was funded because he wanted to do that. I know now he's not doing that anymore because he doesn't live here. And people don't seem to understand why he wouldn't want to invest in Illinois anymore when you pushed him out and.

[Brad Meltzer]

Sent him to Florida.

[Glenn Beck]

Yeah, it's. It's. The world is upside down. But I'm. I'm actually more positive, Carol, than I've been in a long time. And that usually means trouble. How. How are you?

[Carol Roth]

Are you well? You have to understand, Glenn, my Chicago Bears beat the Green Bay packers last week in the NFL wild card, which.

[Brad Meltzer]

Is like our Super Bowl.

[Carol Roth]

We haven't won the Super bowl in 40 years. We're playing with house money, and we have a young team. So, yes, of course I'm optimistic.

[Glenn Beck]

I know that's. I think that's one of the signs that Jesus is coming, but just might be me.

[Carol Roth]

We do have the Pope. The Pope is from Chicago.

[Glenn Beck]

I know, I know, I know. Things couldn't get stranger. All right. Thank you so much, Carol. I appreciate it. We are in the middle of one of the worst Flu seasons we've seen in decades. And I don't think most people really understand. Understand that yet. You know, but this isn't the kind of year where a couple of people, you know, get sick and everybody moves on. This is. This one is different. 45 states are reporting abnormally high flu activity. Millions of people have already caught it, and it hasn't even peaked yet. Now, think about how fast a normal flu can turn serious when you're stuck, you know, waiting, waiting to get to a doctor's office, waiting in a packed pharmacy, or waiting to find out too late that the medication you need is on backorder. That's why I believe in Jace Medical. The Jace case is about being ready before you need it, having real prescriptions, medications on hand so you can act fast if somebody in your family gets sick. It's simple. A licensed doctor prescribes it and it shows up at your door. And this is about taking responsibility of your family's health, nothing else. So go to jace.com Enter the promo code BECK. Jace.com, promo code BECK. Get a discount on your order now. Promo code BECK. J-A S E.com now back to the podcast. This is the best of the Glenn Beck program. And don't forget, rate us on itunes. Tombs. So the last time that the Minnesotans had a peaceful protest, they burned their own city down. And everybody in the press is saying, oh, it's just peaceful protest, Mostly peaceful. No, it wasn't mostly peaceful. It wasn't. And anybody who cares to recognize the truth knows that wasn't a mostly peaceful protest. Okay? This is direct confrontation. Confrontation now between federal law enforcement carrying out legally authorized operations and organized resistance on the ground that repeatedly turns violent. That is not theoretical. That's what we're seeing documented in real time. And we're hearing the leaders say the same kind of thing. Let me take you back to Tim Walsh, I think was at the beginning of the week where he was talking about how he wanted to use the national Guard because we were headed towards civil war. Listen to this.

[Brad Meltzer]

Our history. When things looked really bleak, it was Minnesota's first that held that line for.

[Glenn Beck]

The nation on that July 3, 1863. And I think now we may be in that moment that the nation's looking.

[Brad Meltzer]

To us to hold the line on democracy, to hold the line on decency.

[Glenn Beck]

To hold the line on accountability, and.

[Brad Meltzer]

More than that, to rise up as.

[Glenn Beck]

Neighbors and simply say, we can look out for one another. All of that is really good. All of that is really good. We can look out for one another. But he went on to talk about how the. He is training the National Guard to be able to stand up against the federal officers. And they couch it two ways. You got to get involved. You got to get out in those streets knowing that that is ratcheting up problems. Because they're saying he's Hitler. This is fascistic. These guys are not doing their d. Why are they masked? All of these things that make people think this is. These are the Nazis. I've got to stop the Nazis. Okay? They're also covering for themselves. Part of the reason why the feds are in Minnesota is because of this massive fraud scream screen and scheme that he helped put together. Okay? The other thing is the governor. I mean, Mayor Fry of Minnesota, he is. He was speaking, I think it was yesterday. And he has the chief of police behind him. And if you are watching@glenn beck.com, you need to. You need to see the face of the police chief when he says it.

[Brad Meltzer]

But.

[Glenn Beck]

But listen to what he says. Go ahead. Mayor Fry, do you have it? And we're in a position right now where we have residents that are asking the very limited number of police officers that we have to fight. ICE agents on the street to stand by their neighbors. We cannot be at a place right now in America where we have two governmental entities that are literally fighting one another. Amen. Why are we put in this position? We're put in this position because we have approximately 600. You. We doesn't matter who's put you in this position. You don't do it. You don't do it. And at least he was saying. But you'll notice that he was couching this with, hey, they want. People in Minnesota want the police to join in and fight. But we, We. We understand why you feel that way. We understand, but we can't. And you can see it in the face of the police chief thinking like, you are outta your mind. What are you doing? Okay. The Federal Immigration Enforcement ice. The operation in Minnesota. An ICE agent was attacked two days ago with a shovel and a broom handle by multiple suspects. He was carrying out an arrest. He responded in defense of his life, shot one of the guys in the leg. The men have since been identified as illegal immigrants. What a surprise. From Venezuela. The first one was from Venezuela. The second one was from Venezuela, but the third one was from Venezuela. And they were beating the ICE officer. Now, who arrested them? Did the police come and arrest? Because that's the police job. That is the police should have been there and said, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. We have this under control. You're under arrest. Taken them in, and then by law, according to the Insurrection Act. It wouldn't have been a problem if they would have said, we're not cooperating with ice. We're not going to turn them over to ice. Might be a problem for you and me, et cetera, et cetera. But my understanding from reading the Constitution, they cannot participate, but they can't actively thwart, okay, they can't get involved and thwart and work against the United States government. And once there is violent attacks on any federal agents, once the federal government cannot carry out its federal duty because the court system or the system of the police or the governor is thwarting them and actually obstructing them, then you have insurrection. Okay? Imagine if you are standing in the middle of a crowd and you're chanting, block the feds. Stop them at all costs. That's what's happening on the streets. Except it's going beyond speech. It's not a peaceful protest. Real people are physically interfering with federal agents conducting sanctioned enforcement actions. Freedom of speech and freedom of assembly and freedom of petition means peaceful. Once you start actively engaging, that's out the window. Then you layer on top of that the actions of the state leadership from the governor and everybody else. It seems like they're encouraging all of this stuff, not condemning any of this stuff. You've got a real problem. So the. The perspective of the President and his advisors, there comes a point when the rule of law is under threat. When you have federal agents being attacked while attempting apprehensions, crowds that have repeatedly thrown objects at officers, causing internal injuries, other kinds of injuries as well, local officials unwilling or unable to assert state authority against that behavior, Then you can argue that ordinary law enforcement and all of its mechanisms no longer are sufficient to preserve order and protect the federal officers doing their duty. That is precisely when many constitutional lawyers say the Insurrection act, it. That's what it was designed for, designed to be invoked not because people don't have a right to protest. They do. Not because they don't have a right to disagree with policy. You absolutely do, and I will fight shoulder to shoulder with you for that. But because the machinery of law enforcement is being repeatedly obstructed and federal officers are being targeted in the performance of their duty. That's what the Insurrection act is for. So the president, in a statement, framed this not as a vendetta, but as a defense of legitimate authority. We have people that need to be rounded up. We have people that are here they're dangerous, they're illegal. They need to be taken out of the country. That is the federal government's job to do that. And the. The state is thwarting it. They're also thwarting it because they're trying to get away with massive fraud. So if the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don't obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionist from attacking the patriots of ice. This is what he said yesterday, who are only trying to do their job, then we, yes, will institute the Insurrection Act. The framing matters because it shifts the question from can the people protest? To who upholds the law when that law is being resisted. And before you say this is a peaceful protest, it is not a peaceful protest. There are documented cases, lots of them, of assaults. Watch the news. Well, depending on who you're watching, look for the tape. It's everywhere. Okay? And if that isn't the threshold to bring in the Insurrection act, if that's not the way we pull it in. Well, if that's not what they had in mind, and I don't know what to do. I mean, they gave the President extraordinary power to preserve civil authority. The same constitutional logic that says a governor cannot lawfully encourage or tolerate organized opposition to a federal enforcement. Just as the President cannot stand idly by when federal officers are attacked. That tension between order and chaos, between lawful protest and violent obstruction, is exactly the kind of crisis the interact the Insurrection act written to address. And in the face of escalating violence and political obstruction, some would argue it has to be considered, if only to protect the rule of law. Who protects the law? Who protects the Constitution? Look, it was an insurrection. That's what they keep calling it on January 5th or 6th or whenever it was, you know, up at Capitol Hill. Would they have let that go on for days and days and said that was just. That was. That was nothing but a peaceful protest? Of course not. And I wouldn't have either. It wasn't. It wasn't. When you have people beating cops, when you have people breaking windows, you have to stop it immediately. The President was the one who said, where's the National Guard? But the left didn't want the National Guard there because they wanted that act of insurrection. You wouldn't have done it for January 6th and you shouldn't do it now. That's my opinion. That's the President's opinion. But let me make a strong case for the other side. Same situation here. Let's go through before we cross a line that we. We can't Uncross. Let's slow down. Not politically, not emotionally. Now, let's look at things constitutionally, okay? Because the Insurrection act is not just a tool in the toolbox. It is one of the most extreme domestic powers a president can wield short of martial law. And once you normalize this use, you don't get to decide who uses it next or for what purpose. This is what my fear is. It's going to be used against us, okay? When they get in power, they'll use everything. They don't have these conversations, okay? I respect the Constitution. You do too. So we have to be very, very careful. Federal agents have been assaulted, and that is real. That's serious. And those responsible should be arrested, charged, and prosecuted to the full, full extent of the law. But here's the question that matters. Is this an insurrection? I won't. I'm just going to give you the opposite side here. Or is it just criminal violence within a functioning civil order? Because they're not the same thing. An insurrection is not defined by anger. It's not defined by even shocking violence. It is defined by the collapse of civil authority. When the courts in the state can no longer function, when the police will not enforce the law, and when the state itself has ceased to govern, that's what has to happen. You know, the. The Shays rebellion, this is around the turn of, you know, the beginning of our country. It was because, I think was Massachusetts, the court system was being attacked. Nobody would let the courts make any of the decisions. And so the federal government had to come in and put that down. Is this Minnesota today? Because the courts are open, the police are operating and arrests have been made. State institutions, however flawed, however political, still exist and are still functioning. So that matters, because the Insurrection act was designed for moments like the Civil War, when states are. And here's. Here you go again. Here's your really thin line. When states openly defy federal court orders during. They did it during desegregation and moments when the law itself had failed, what you're seeing now, is it the absence of law, Is it conflict within the law? A governor can oppose federal policy. A state can sue the federal government, believe people can protest, even loudly, even angrily, as long as it doesn't become a rebellion. The Constitution doesn't require obedience to federal policy. It requires obedience to federal law. And disagreement must be settled in court, not by force. Now, here's the really dangerous part. If we redefine insurrection to meet violent resistance by individuals combined with political opposition by state leaders, then we're seeing A standard that will be used again by somebody else or for something else. Because once the threshold becomes the President believes the state leadership is encouraging a resistance, then federal troops can be sent in for gun rights protest, environmental riots, labor strikes, you know, campus unrest, election related demonstrations, all justified by the same argument. Local leaders are not doing enough. We are facing some of the toughest decisions that we will face in our American life as civilians. We are going to have to make really tough, principled constitutional decisions. This is not a conservative principle. It is not a limited government principle. That is not an American first principle, that executive power is unmourned, unmoored from restraint. Yes, the attackers are illegal immigrants. Yes, they're committed to violent crimes. Yes, ICE agents must be protected. But criminal violence, even organized criminal violence, violence has always been handled by law enforcement, not the military. So if the answer to violent crime becomes federal troops in American cities, then we have quietly accepted something the founders feared above all else. A standing army enforcing domestic order at the discretion of a President. And once that door opens, it doesn't close neatly. The President I think is right about the danger and he might be even right about the negligence. He may be right about the politics. But the Constitution does not ask whether he is right. It he, it asks whether civil authority has collapsed. And if we evoke the Insurrection act before the collapse has occurred, then the greatest casualty will not be order, it will be precedent. I want you to think about this now. I have the answer from George AI, which is from all of the founding documents. And, and I think you might be amazed at what they said, what, what it predicted they may have done based on their writings in the 1700s and early 1800s. This is the best of the Glenn Beck program. We are four days away from the fundamental transformation on how I treat the whole Pam Bondi situation. Four days away on the 20th of January, which is the one year anniversary of the President coming in, I said I give everybody a year. I wanted to see some real serious prosecutions. If it doesn't happen within the first year, I'm going to have some real serious questions. And I've got real serious questions. And we're four days away from some of those serious questions. You don't want to miss that show. Four days away. All right, let me look. Do you have any results from the poll yet? We've asked, we've asked the insiders to chime in. Maybe Jason can run in here real quick and get us what the insiders are saying and we'll look at the poll @glenn beck.com. we just ask it real quickly. But I laid out the two, laid out the two sides Insurrection act. And I, you know, Jonathan Turley just wrote last night that he believes that the President does have the authority. I believe the president has the authority. But I want to be really careful and not emotional about this. I don't want to do it out of anger or anything else. I want to make sure that we are very, very careful on all of these things. But I think if you look at, I mean, the country is, it's under attack. It is under attack. This is a color revolution that is going on and is well documented and all of these people are involved in it. And this is just their way of furthering a color revolution. And part of that is to claim is to create such chaos. So you can claim, because you have control of the media and the educational system and everything else that you can claim. See, this is a fascistic dictator. There he's got to go. That's the whole end of a color revolution. Create enough chaos. So the government must make moves that appear to be fascist. This is not a fascistic move. This is a constitutional move to protect. So tell me what the insiders are saying on this.

[Podcast Insider/Caller]

It's fairly. There's a good conversation going on right [e-mail] they're going back and forth. I want to highlight Rodney 3124. He said there isn't a perfect answer to if we should invoke the Insurrection Act. He has absolutely justified the president in doing so with the obstruction of justice by public officials. Unfortunately, he will likely have to do so in order to prevent open rebellion.

[Glenn Beck]

Yes. If he doesn't, it's only gonna, it'll go to New York, it'll go to California. This is gonna happen everywhere.

[Podcast Insider/Caller]

I just highlighted this comment in, in the insider feed, but there was one really, really good question from Gid. Gid's kind of my boy. He's always got good comments. Gid said, how do I explain these, these, you know, this situation to my friends and family? Because a lot of times it just gets very emotional and if I'm trying to make this point, point, and then everyone ends up getting annoyed.

[Glenn Beck]

Number one. Number one, listen to them. Listen to them first. When you can repeat their argument back, that's when you can start making your comment. When you can say, tell me what you're feeling. Tell me what is happening. Listen to them. Don't interrupt. You can even take notes. And then when they're done, you say, okay, I want to make sure this is what I heard from you. Is this what you mean? This is. Is this accurate? They're going to stop and go. Yeah, well, there's some other things. Good. Tell me that right now so I have it. Let me repeat everything I've heard. Okay, now it's my turn to talk. Let me answer some of those things. Let me show you the evidence that you're wrong about this, this, or this. Or perhaps you should look at it differently because of this, this and this. I listened to you, I understood your argument. I would ask that you, as my family or my friend, would give me the same opportunity. Listen to what I say, take notes, and then repeat back unemotionally everything you heard me say in a fair and balanced way. Don't, don't. When you're repeating them back, don't put vitriol into it. Express it the way they're expressing it. Then demand that same respect. If you don't get that same respect back, you're not going to make a difference. But if, and you should just stop. But if you can get with people who will give you the same respect back, that means you have a citizen that wants to fix the problem and understand we are not going to fix this. Look, you know, I just did the both sides monologue, you know, made the case for and against, and I chose that. That's not going to make me more popular in a. In a world gone mad. Everybody wants me to pick a side side. And I have a side. And I'll tell you what my side is. I already have told you, but I am trying to make the argument for the other side as well. So you at least hear both sides. You've got to hear both sides. And especially unconstitutional, unconstitutional matters. These are this and the trade. I'm going to get into trade later. These two things are massive right now. They could mean the end of the Republic.

[Podcast Insider/Caller]

I want to get to Gail because Gail's perspective on this is exactly what I've seen from a lot of people, including people like Joe Rogan. But listen to this. Gail says there has to be a way to get the Minnesota authorities to heal and support federal law without using the Insurrection Act. Using it will just fuel the Hitler narrative about Trump. And I have conservative friends who are buying into that narrative.

[Glenn Beck]

I do, too. And that's why he has to be extraordinarily careful. But he is. I believe he is justified. Because what are you going to do to get Tim Walsh again? I go back to the color revolution. You have people that are trying to pull off a color revolution. I don't know if Tim Walsh is part of that or not. I do know Tim Walsh is involved in massive corruption. So that gives him a reason to discredit and thwart and cause all kinds of chaos. So those feds never come walking into his house and knocking on his door. That's the motivation here for the left on, on that color revolution and, and also corruption with Tim Walls on his side. So we asked George AI, and George AI is the collection. I don't know how many documents we have in there, but tens if not hundreds of thousands of documents in there now. And it's getting bigger every day. Of all founding documents. It's the Federalist Papers. It's all of their letters back and forth. We are, we are growing this thing exponentially every day and it does not know anything about the present day situation. Okay. If we have to come up with hypothetical situations and we don't want to put anything in and it's all roped off. It has to memorize all of their words so it's, it can't hallucinate and it cannot pull from outside of their document. So it's not like ChatGPT that can give an opinion or pull from something else. It is only based on their writings. Okay. So we asked George AI, and this is going to be the Georgia that's released later on Glenn Beck dot com. So we asked George AI, what do you make of a situation like this? And we explained the situation as best we could without picking sides, without using names. What should the federal government. What would the founders have done? Let me just give you this. The ink on the constitution wasn't even dry. The new republic was fragile, barely tested, and already it was catching fire. Western Massachusetts was bowling boil boiling over. Daniel Shays and a mob of dissatisfied veterans and farmers are closing in on courthouses, armed and angry. The state government is outmatched. What do they do? The Shays rebellion was. I mean, you want to talk about having the sympathy of people. These were soldiers who fought in the revolution and were not being paid and they were going broke and they were struggling and they were going to lose everything and they needed their pay from the government. They fought in the revolution. We're veterans. Where's the money you promised us? So you want to talk about sympathy being on their side? Sympathy was on their side, but they were going and they were obstructing the courts. They were causing all kinds of problems and some of it was violent. So what did we do? The founders sent in the militia not cheering, not stomping. It was just a desperate. A desperate move to avoid collapse. And it was very controversial at the time because people said, look at, they're just becoming king George. They're just sending in everybody else. Okay? The laws of Massachusetts were being ignored. The judiciary was being threatened, and the entire government of the people, by the people, was, you know, was under. Under threat. So they sent the troops in. Let me repaint the scene. But this time, instead of going back, let me paint the scene. Now. Federal laws get passed, but a bunch of state governments raise their hands and say, no, not here, not in our town, not in our state, not in our courts. Then they go further. They tell their police departments not to cooperate. The governor speak publicly, even approvingly of people mobilizing in the streets, dismissing the violence, saying it's a mostly peaceful protest. And it's not just a protest. It's to actively block and confront federal officers and it turns violent. All of that is true. So we asked George, what would the founders do? And here was the response. George Washington or Madison or Hamilton or even Jefferson, see the Res Insurrection Act, Would they see it as the right tool in a mess like this? Not would they support authoritarianism because that's lazy thinking. Would they see this kind of national fracture as justifying federal boots on the ground? Let's use Washington because he was the one who hated. He and Jefferson hated it the most. Okay, not trigger happy. But he was also not naive. So he becomes president in his first terms. In his first term. And the Whiskey Rebellion is there, there again, it's all about taxation. And we're starting to tax whiskey. And the whiskey people are like, what are you doing taxing you Just become the king again. And so there's this rebellion. What did he do? He not only sent in the troops, he led the troops in to put that rebellion down. He actually wrote in himself as the head of the militia. And he wasn't doing it to intimidate the population. He was not doing it because he loved federal power. He hated this act. He went back and forth, what do I do? What do I do? What do I do? But he saw. He knew what happens when the center loses authority. If the center starts to crumble and fall apart, the republic would be over. So they hated tyranny, but they hated disunion just as much, if not more. Their biggest fear was not a king. Listen to this. Their biggest fear was not a king. It was lawlessness dressed up as liberty. And that's exactly what we're Getting today, now. He would not be sending them in quickly. He would not be doing it lightly. He would not be beating his chest. He would not be doing it for vengeance. Our founders wouldn't have done any of that. It would have done it to restore the system of government that we have all voted on. This is the way it works. These are criminals that they are rounding up. They're criminals. And we haven't even gotten just to the people who are here because they wanted a better life. We're still at the really nasty criminals, the three that they. That just beat that ICE officer within an inch of his life just two days ago. They were part of a nasty, nasty gang, all three of them from Venezuela. They're criminals. How are you making this about, you know, little Jose who just wants to go to school and wants some, you know, some Cheerios in the morning because he couldn't get anything back home in Guatemala. That's not what this is about. Out. We're not even there yet. This is not, I don't think this is resistance. This is rebellion. And I will tell you, I do not. I was not for the use of insurrection in an easy, lazy way. January 6th, the media and the. And the left immediately came out and called January 6th an insurrection. And I told you they were doing it for a reason. It was the most dangerous thing since the Civil War, that insurrection of January 6th. It lasted one day and it came under control. Okay, President spoke out. It came under control, lasted a day. This is lasting weeks. This is only getting worse. They define insurrection on January 6th. I don't think that was insurrection, but okay, they defined it. This is much more of insurrection than that ever was. But I don't want to become like them. I won't look at their standard. I'll look at the constitutional standard. And I believe the president is justified to calmly, rationally make the case in a very serious way. Hold a conference in the Oval Office. Don't call anybody names, just state the facts as the Constitution lays it out. Show exactly. Have. Have somebody of credibility to make sure you're there making the case. Have them step up, make the federal constitutional case in a reasoned way and put down this insurrection. You have poll results from the audience.

[Carol Roth]

So we asked Insiders only about 20 minutes ago.

[Glenn Beck]

Yeah.

[Carol Roth]

Should President Trump invoke the insurrection act in Minnesota? We already have a ton of results. 62% say that he should. 38% believe that he should not. And you can find that poll now at Glenn Beckler.

[Glenn Beck]

Com and take that poll. I'd like to see it. I will bet you the 38%, because this is our audience. I'll bet you the 38% are saying, I really would like him to, but I'm afraid the way they'll react will cause civil war. They're always in a win, win situation. You're listening to the Best of Glenn Beck. Need a little more? Check out the full show podcasts anywhere you download podcasts. One of my favorite guests we ever have on is Brad Meltzer, and usually we schedule an hour, but there's so much going on in the world that I can only get a few minutes with him today. But he's got a new book out in the Escape Artist series. It's book number three, but you don't have to read one and two. You can, you know, you can get right to it. Can you give us a synopsis of the. Of the Viper here without giving away the whole plot?

[Brad Meltzer]

Of course, my friend. A man walks into a funeral home carrying his favorite blue suit because he's got a terminal disease. And this is the suit that he wants to be buried in. But here's the thing, Glenn. You know, if you open up in your local bank, a safety deposit box, then paperwork gets filed. The government can track it. Same thing if you go to the UPS store and open up a P.O. box. But if you secretly sew something into the lining of your suit and you hand that suit over to your local mortician, you have an ultimate untraceable hiding spot. So the man leaves the suit in the funeral home, goes back to his hotel, where there's a man with a gun waiting for him, says, where is it? Our guy says, I don't know what you're talking about. The man with the gun shoots him dead. That suit's still in the funeral home. You won't believe what's hidden inside it or who's about to find it. And that is chapter one of the Viper.

[Glenn Beck]

So good. So good. I just. I love the way you think, and I love the way you put real stuff in. So this idea of hiding it in the suit, that's all real, right? I mean, it could be done. I mean, you're making it up, but.

[Brad Meltzer]

It could be done.

[Glenn Beck]

Yeah.

[Brad Meltzer]

Yeah, I went to a funeral home and saw it.

[Glenn Beck]

Wait, wait, why?

[Brad Meltzer]

I went to a funeral home, and I'm going through the funeral home, researching, and I see this door, and it's got a big padlock on it. I say, it's the funeral director. What's in there? Does he show me around and he says, oh you're gonna love this. He opens up the door and there's all these old suits and like, you know, like what your grandmother would wear to a wedding, like a sequin gown. And he says if you're, if you're old and you don't have a lot of family, you pick out what you're gonna wear to your funeral. But it's also got like a Jets jersey in there. There's a cowboy hat that someone says, my ex wife hated this hat. Make sure I'm wearing it in my coffin. Like people are wild.

[Glenn Beck]

Oh my gosh.

[Brad Meltzer]

And I said that's the best hiding spot I've ever seen.

[Glenn Beck]

Okay, so this, this whole book is about hiding and disappearing. But. And I want to get into some of the disappearances part of this. But can we go back? We had a conversation maybe two years ago. Ricky, would you book him for a long term podcast? We had a conversation about the mortuary at Dover Air Force Base. The best mortuary in the, in the world because of what they do to take care of our soldiers, et cetera, et cetera. But you did not tell me something that played a role in this book. And you actually thinking this way is on 911 somebody hid a secret. They were on the plane on 911 and they hid a secret and the secret was found. We don't know what it was. But you've confirmed it. Can you. This is an amazing story. Listen to this.

[Brad Meltzer]

This is one of the most incredible stories I've ever been a part of. When I was researching my book, I went to the morticians and I said, have you ever seen like could someone hide a secret message on their body, maybe in a tattoo? And they said to me, if you're on an airplane and the plane is about to go down and you write a quick note and then you eat that note that the liquids in your stomach will actually preserve the note upon the crash. And I said, oh that's a really good idea. And they said to me, that's not an idea. It really happens on 9 11. One of the morticians who I was talking to was one of the people, you know, all the Dover's where not just our fallen soldiers go, but where the 911 victims went. And they were working on one of the bodies there and they found a note that someone ate on 9 11. They would not tell me what was in it, but that's what I used in the book. And it was one of the most chilling, incredible stories from the firsthand person who did it and found it. It.

[Glenn Beck]

So it. We don't know what it said, but I would imagine. I mean, you'd have to be military or a spook or, I don't know, a mortician that would know eat the note and it'd be protected, don't you think?

[Brad Meltzer]

I mean, of course. Of course. This is someone who's smart, right? This is someone who knows what they're doing. And the thing that was amazing is on that day, gave me other. Gave me other details as well that said, you know, one point, they were working on someone and the FBI came racing in and was crowded around them and. And they were going, why are they. Why do they want this person that I'm working on at this point, there's a different body. And they realized quickly that the body they were working on was actually one of the pilots of the plane. It was one of the terrorists. Because what came in were pieces of people, you know, things. And they were trying to put truly things back together, to piece together what was happening. And I was blown away. Like, as you said, someone who has the wherewithal to do that on a plane and know to do that, we forget that, yes, fallen soldiers go to Dover, but when the space shuttle exploded, those bodies went to Dover, too. And even in Venezuela right now, all the CIA people that helped us with this operation, all our CIA people around the world, if something goes sideways, their bodies go to Dover as well. And Dover is where, truly, it's America's most secretive funeral home. And that's where I set the Viper in all my books. Because the morticians there will spend 12 hours rewiring someone's jaw, smoothing it over with clay, because the family wants to see their fallen soldier's son one last time. Rebuilding someone's hand because someone says, I want to hold my son's hand one last time. These are the best of the best of us, working on the best of the best of us and obviously became the best setting for a book for me just to honor these people and show the dignity and respect they show our fallen troops.

[Glenn Beck]

So you do. I mean, obviously, we just been saying you do amazing research on all of your books, and this one centers around. I mean, it's the Escape Artist series, and it's. This one centers around kind of the, you know, just disappearing. Is it possible to disappear in today's world?

[Brad Meltzer]

Well, Glenn, you know, I've taken my readers into the secret tunnels below the White House, into the labyrinth below the Capitol. For the Viper. I wanted to do witness protection to see can you disappear. And I was obsessed with it. It's one of the hardest things I've ever had to research. For obvious reasons, they're not going to tell you. You know how witness protection works. And of witness protection, what do you think of? You think of the mob. You think of Tony Soprano or the Goodfellas, and, you know, a mobster testifies against another mobster, and you try and put them away. And that's why witness protection was built. It was built to take down the mob. And it worked. It actually worked. But it's not like crime went away. So what happened was, is witness protection, instead of having mobsters in it, suddenly started having gang members in it, because gangs started thriving when the mob disappeared. And then 911 hit, and guess what happened? We started chasing terrorists. So terrorists became the biggest group in witness protection. You want to know one of the number one groups in witness protection right now is actually accountants, because data is king right now.

[Glenn Beck]

Yeah.

[Brad Meltzer]

And the thing that I love, just to directly answer your question, is figuring out how you hide when this protection the marshals service have nothing but respect for. And it's funny, I'll tell you this one thing is the other day at a book signing, a U.S. marshal came up to me and said, I work for the marshal service. I love your book the Viper, and I want to tell you where the secret safe house is. And I said, what are you telling me for? I could have used that two years ago. I already wrote the book. But the best part was is I wanted to know how you do disappear. And they said to me, and this is true, that no one. The Marshals service has never lost anyone in witness protection as long as they followed all of our rules. That's the caveat. And here's the thing is it used to be if someone moved to your neighborhood, you could look at them and say, I want to meet them or I don't want to meet them. And that was as far as you got. And then if they moved in and they were in one instruction, you didn't know. But now if someone moves to your neighborhood, what do we do? We immediately go on Zillow and we Google how much they paid for their house. We check their Facebook page. If they don't have a Facebook page, well, now that's even more suspicious. So now we still got to check even more. We look up to see whether they have a criminal record. We see if they're on a pedophile list. And witness protection itself has had to adapt to that. You can't just make a fake driver's license and call it a day. You have to build entire things. And the hardest part of disappearing is this. And this is the secret is that when you, when you disappear and they, and they try to make you have your new identity, their big rule is you can't contact anyone. So you have to leave your family behind. Sometimes you leave your sister behind, your brother behind. One of the biggest things you leave behind for the most part is your dog. A lot of people know your dog and that's one of the ones that people you know. It's hard to leave your dog. You may want it, may leave your mother in law, okay, but it's hard to leave your dog.

[Glenn Beck]

So wait.

[Brad Meltzer]

And the thing is after six months you say, I want to just see how he or she is. And that's when messes people up. That's why it's so hard to disappear.

[Glenn Beck]

But can the average person do it? You know, the government can do it because they can get in and do all of this stuff. But how do you get around facial recognition and can the average person? If you were going to make me disappear and it wasn't the federal government that was behind it, could it happen?

[Brad Meltzer]

The way it happens is you have to say goodbye to technology. That's the number one way, as you said. And facial recognition, there are ways to beat it. It's getting harder and harder because obviously, obviously it's now not just your face anymore, it's your eyes. And you know, I know how to be. You can beat handprints, we can do that. But as it gets more and more high tech, but again, you have to leave all that technology behind. And everyone says, well, I can leave technology behind, but the hardest thing to leave behind is your life. What they said to me is that there is a call of home, there is a call from your past. And when you want to check up on that family member, when you want to check up on your old dog, when you want to check up on someone you love, that you love, Miss you go. People say, you know what? I'm just going to make one phone call and I won't make another one. And that's where the mistakes come. That's the thing that messes everyone up. But it's possible. You can do it.

[Glenn Beck]

One thing I have to congratulate you on, you are going to be, and this is a dream come true for you. You're going to be writing a Superman Spider man comic book with Marvel. How.

[Brad Meltzer]

Oh my God.

[Glenn Beck]

Cool. Is that, I mean I mean, the first time. Was it the first time that we met? We started saving the Superman house in Ohio.

[Brad Meltzer]

We did. I'm in Cleveland. This is what I love about you. I'm in Cleveland, Ohio, right now. Where we go, oh, my gosh. You helped me raise money to save that house. My final event in the book tour right now, it ends in Cleveland, the birthplace of Superman. And I've been keeping this secret for six months, Glenn, but everyone knows that DC is Superman and Batman and Marvel is spider man and iron man and the other ones we see in the movie movies. And every 10 to 25 years, they have a crossover. It's only happened, like, I think three times. The first one was from this year is 50 years ago. This is the year that celebrates the 50 year anniversary of their first meeting of spider man and Superman. And I got a call from six months ago from Marvel comics, and they said, we're going to celebrate the 50th anniversary. Superman and spider man are going to team up at one book. And Brad Meltzer, do you want to write it? And that. That sound you heard was me fainting right there in the moment. But it's a dream come true because, you know, our love of Superman comes from the same exact thing. And it's that the most important part of the story is not Superman. The most important part of the story is Clark Kent. And why? Because we're all Clark Kent. And we all know what it's like to be boring and ordinary and wish we do something beyond ourselves. It's the same reason why I love those soldiers who go and wind up at Dover air force base or the morticians who work on them as these regular, ordinary people who are making such a difference for those who give their life to this country. It's not the superhero part. It's the Clark Kent part. And to be able to be a part of that is one of the greatest gifts I've ever been given.

[Glenn Beck]

When's it come out?

[Brad Meltzer]

It comes out on tax day, April 15th. It'll be out. And you know what I take away from all this, Glenn? I'll say this is a few years ago, I was in an airport restroom, not the most glamorous place, right? And I'm washing my hands. And next to me is another guy who's washing his hands. He's about five seconds ahead of me in the process. And he walks out of the restroom, and I'm about five steps behind him. And he looks over at the janitor and he says, thanks for keeping it clean. And it just strikes me, that moment of kindness, that Clark Kent moment of kindness. And I start saying now every time I go into any restroom in a fancy restaurant or in an airport bathroom, thank you for keeping it clean. I mean, I never looked twice at the janitor much. I've spoken to him. But what I love about that story, Glenn, is that that guy who set it all in motion, I have no idea who he is. He has no idea who I am or that I've been doing it. But for 20 years now, I've been saying thank you for keeping it clean because of this one kind person. What I love even more is my son started saying it because. Not because I asked him, he's just heard me do it, and now he does it. And I love the fact that you and I can have this moment about Superman or you can have this story about these soldiers, you know, that. That we hear about. And it's like. Life is like a boomerang. Sometimes. You throw it out there, and then boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. It comes back to you.

[Glenn Beck]

Yeah.

[Brad Meltzer]

And so, you know, I love the fact that that's how the world works. And that this thing that you and I work to build and save and. And the Superman house that all these years later, I now get to write it.

[Glenn Beck]

I mean, I think you have the best life of anybody I know. I really do. You have just the greatest. Just. You have the greatest job of all time. The name of the book is the Viper. Came out last week. You can get it wherever books are sold. Anything that Brad Meltzer writes is so good because he's such a good storyteller. But then on top of it, he adds all of this historic fact in it. It's just fabulous. The name of it is the Viper. Get it? Read it now, Brad, we'll talk to you again. Thanks.

[Brad Meltzer]

Thank you, my friend.