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The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guests: Gov. Greg Abbott & Leland Vittert | 10/13/25
00:50:32
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- [00:00]
Glenn Beck
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Leland Vittert
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Glenn Beck
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Middle East Expert/Analyst
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Glenn Beck
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Middle East Expert/Analyst
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Glenn Beck
Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. Affiliates excludes Massachusetts a historic day. We look into what President Trump's legacy will be after the negotiation of this historic Middle east deal. Also, Governor Greg Abbott talks to us a little bit about what's happening with the National Guard up in Illinois. It's the Texas National Guard and Leland Vitterd. Leland is the host of On Balance for News Nation, but he's also written a book called Born Lucky. He's a Middle east expert. We talked to him about that. But then we get into his life story. He and still does autism and was barely functional, but his father made all the difference in his world and now Leland is a raging success. Born Lucky is the name of the book. The author is Leland Vitterd, and he joins me on today's podcast. Every life begins as a sound, a steady, flickering heartbeat. That sound changes everything because in that moment, a listening mom hears life hears a heartbeat. Preborn exists to make sure more mothers get to hear that sound. They partner with clinics all across the country to provide free ultrasounds and counseling for women who face unplanned pregnancies. You know, there's a reason why people who are on the side of abortion do not want mothers or Planned Parenthood or anybody else to offer an ultrasound. I mean, they fought that and fought that and fought that. No ultrasound. No ultrasound. Reason why? Because then you like that is a baby. Statistics show when a mom sees her baby like that, she is much more likely to choose life. And when she does, preborn is there, offering practical support, baby supplies, classes, passion. Every donation helps another heartbeat to be heard. Another another family given hope. You're not just funding a machine or a program. You are giving a mom a chance to hear her child say mom. This is why the truth really matters now more than ever. Because when a mom hears it, lives are saved. $28 will provide a free ultrasound. And this is your chance to make a difference that will echo through the eternities. Will you answer the call? Go to preborn.com beck that's preborn.com beck. Or dial pound 250 on your phone and say the keyword baby. That pound 250 keyword baby. Do it now because life matters. Sponsored by preborn. 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 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.
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Governor Greg Abbott
You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck Program.
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Glenn Beck
Welcome to the Glenn Beck Program. Quite an incredible day. And you know, I would just like to hear from those people today that have been saying, you know, Donald Trump is going to get us in all kinds of wars and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. No, apparently not. You know, the real problem is, is that people, when, when George W. Bush told me in the Oval office back in 2004, seven or eight, he said, don't worry, Glenn, the next person that gets in here, no matter what party they're from, they're going to realize they're gonna have to do pretty much the same thing because they'll have the same advisors and they'll know that their hands are really tied as president. And that scared the hell outta me. He was trying to make me feel better, but I didn't feel better. Wait a minute. The President really doesn't have any power to do anything. We're gonna continue to go down this road even though it doesn't work. That's why when Obama got in, nothing really changed. He didn't shut anything down or do anything big because he was going for the same advisors. And so all these advisors are like, you know, we've got a hundred years of experience, we've been working on these things, and it's gonna be, Donald Trump came in and said, I don't agree with any of this stuff. We're gonna try something different. And so he got rid of those advisors and he's like, who'd you just marry, honey? Yeah.
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Middle East Expert/Analyst
Okay, bring him over.
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Glenn Beck
Here, we're gonna send him to the Middle East. I mean, he just, he broke all of the rules and he's a negotiator and he's a business guy and he's, he's a builder. So he thinks differently. And look at the difference. I mean, if you, you want to look at the way he has changed the world. He has greatly changed the world. We're not out of the woods by any stretch of the imagination, but he is greatly changing the world. He is breaking everything that the State Department and the years of the guys who have been thinking exactly the same way, what they've been building. He's breaking all of that. And he's like, no, we're going to build it a different way. We're not going to be a global community where everybody is answering to, you know, the United Nations. We're going to be our own states, and that's the way it should be. Now, if you don't like that, if you want to be a global community, that's fine, but that doesn't mean we all go to war with each other, as you're seeing. If you find a way for everybody to work together, if you find a way that, where everybody wants to be successful and have some peace. Now, there are going to be some people like Iran. I don't know what's going to happen with Iran, but I'm hoping that there is some sort of mutual agreement between the Arab states that, you know, if Iran starts something, it's not going to just be, you know, it's not just going to be Israel that has to respond or the United States. It's time for the Middle east, now that they're together, to take that on themselves if there is trouble there, because that one hasn't been solved yet. But he reached out and said, look, Iran, we don't have to be enemies. Now is the time for you to come to the table as well.
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Middle East Expert/Analyst
It's so clear that this is how he actually sees the world. He does see the world. Peace through strength is something that he really believes in. He talked about it quite a bit in the speech about how this didn't happen because he was decided to let everyone have what they want or to be super nice to everyone. This happened because they have really big weapons that are really powerful that hit the targets they want to hit. And many of them shared, as he pointed out, shared with Israel, many of which that they have themselves to use when needed. And he didn't. That is the approach here. This is not a. It's so weird because I think the left and the media see Donald Trump as a guy who is either this maniacal hawk that is going to go just blow up everything all the time. That's one of the worries that they said and we said at the time that none of his history points to this. Nothing.
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Glenn Beck
What are you talking about?
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Middle East Expert/Analyst
That.
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Glenn Beck
I mean, back to when he was 20 years old, he talked about this stuff. He hates war.
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Middle East Expert/Analyst
Yeah. And I think some other establishment criticism comes to him because you look at what Russia did with Ukraine, right. And you say, okay, well, Russia invaded Ukraine. And there's a lot of people, like, on the hawkish, right, who would say, okay, they're in the wrong here. Why are we gonna go and do anything with them and say that he's too weak on these issues. He's constantly trying to give everyone what they want. He's always negotiating. And like, neither of those are really true. There are elements of those. Donald Trump will attack a country he believes is in the wrong if he needs to. You've seen it with Soleimani back in the day. He'll do the things he believes he needs to do, but he's not ideologically committed to doing that all the time. The same thing.
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Glenn Beck
He's also limited in his scope.
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Middle East Expert/Analyst
Yeah, usually limited in his scope. Same thing with. But like, not limited in his scope when it comes to isis.
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Glenn Beck
No.
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Middle East Expert/Analyst
Right. Like he came in and was like, he talked about that in the speech too. He's like, I talked to General Raising Kane and everyone told me it was gonna take four or five years. He told me it would take four weeks, but we'd probably have time left over. And he was right. We went in, he. We did it his way. He found a general who was on the ground who said, look, I don't want to talk ill about my superiors, but here's what I think we could do. And he picked him and he said, we'll do it your way because your way makes sense. And then it was over in a month. Right.
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Glenn Beck
Incredible.
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Middle East Expert/Analyst
That is a totally different way of looking at these things. And because he just doesn't have that, he's not involved in that world where there's just calcification over ideas like. Exactly. We talked about when it comes to George W. Bush, Right. This is kind of where we are. And the same advisors advise the same things. And it doesn't always mean that it works out perfectly. It doesn't always mean he's always right. He is a guy, I think, with that type of stuff, at least when it does go down the wrong road, oftentimes he'll reconsider. I mean, I think that's what happened with Russia. He went down that road with Russia. He really. And again, he talked about this in the speech, believed he could solve that immediately. He said it before the election. He said we could get that done in a couple days. He said, I called over and Witkoff was in there talking, and it was 15 minutes in, and I called him like, what's going? Why is this taking so long? And they're like, he's still in there. And he talked to him for five hours and it didn't happen. And he admitted it didn't happen. And you saw the change that he had there, where he was all of a sudden saying, well, you know what? Maybe Russia isn't serious about this and we should start doing more to put pressure on them in other ways. But, like, that's oftentimes just mocked as failure.
- [10:39]
Glenn Beck
Right.
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Middle East Expert/Analyst
He went in there with this big approach, and it didn't work. Well, he's trying something else. He's trying things that he believes will end these conflicts, and that is consistent with who he's been for a very long time. I mean, you can come up with criticisms for Donald Trump, but this stuff has been pretty successful. The stuff that he's done, particularly in the Middle east, has been incredibly successful.
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Glenn Beck
Name the president that has not moved us closer to war or brought us into war in the last five, where we've had troops on the ground, we're sending troops everywhere. Name the last president that didn't do that.
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Middle East Expert/Analyst
I mean, I guess you could say Joe Biden, who withdrew a bunch of Trump. That didn't work out for him, but it didn't get us just slaughtered, made everything worse. Yeah, no, you're right. I mean, it's not. He has a priority for this not to occur. It's very important to Donald Trump, I think, quite clearly, and he believes he can get it done. And in some circumstances, it's worked. Which, by the way, nothing else we try typically works. Sometimes war will end. The thing you're dealing with at that given moment, we have seen that happen, but oftentimes does turn into something worse in the long term. And to be clear here, one of the problems that if we were going to poke holes in this at all as to what happens so far, there is always a completely ridiculous ratio of how many Palestinians get released compared to how many Israelis, 20 to 2000 to 2000. It's 101 in this case, and it's always 50, 100, 150 to 1. It's always something like this.
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Glenn Beck
And you look at the guys who are coming back from Israel and they're all healthy and well fed, look like they've just been at a resort. And then you look at the hostages coming back from Hamas and they just look horrible.
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Middle East Expert/Analyst
Many, you know, they look either bad to horrible.
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Glenn Beck
Yeah.
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Middle East Expert/Analyst
And the issue here is all of the people that were taken hostage by Hamas will return back to life in Israel, hopefully be able to adjust to a life with their families going to church, living as they were, or at least as close as they can get to that.
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Glenn Beck
It would be weird if the Jews started going to church.
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Middle East Expert/Analyst
Well, whatever. I don't know if they're all Jews. There was people from other countries as well, but they. The opposite will happen, likely with the 2000 Palestinians. Many of these were hardcore terrorists. Many of them were real criminals. Many of them were either involved or suspected to be involved heavily in the October 7 attacks. What do these people do in the future? There's a lot to come here.
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Glenn Beck
So there's a difference, though. They're releasing. Many of them that are being released did not have charges against them. They were scooped up and not charged with something. So, you know, they were holding these to keep combatants off the battlefield, but they were not necessarily charged.
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Middle East Expert/Analyst
They didn't have them. They were the ones on video murdering children. Right. Like, they weren't them, so.
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Glenn Beck
Correct.
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Middle East Expert/Analyst
But again, some of them were suspected. They believed they had planning, you know, possibilities. They were in groups with the people who were doing these things. And there is certainly a risk, as we've seen after 9, 11, that when you take terrorists and you put them in Guantanamo for a few months and then you release them back, they become the heads of isis. Like, this stuff does happen. So there's a long road ahead. This is not a. It's a victory lap for a very small piece of this, but a very important piece of it.
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Glenn Beck
If they can keep the peace between the Arab world. Forget about Hamas. You keep the peace and you hold together a coalition of the Arab world with Israel, that's. That's worth all of it.
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Middle East Expert/Analyst
Massively important.
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Glenn Beck
Massive.
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Middle East Expert/Analyst
And while it might not necessarily solve Hamas or Hezbollah or any of these other groups, if we have a place where Israel and these and many of these Arab nations are in a good place together trading with each other, and maybe some of these countries are actually overseeing Gaza and they are the ones that need to come in and be the bad guys when Hamas does these things, it's a totally different dynamic. There's no way to turn against Israel if that situation is true, if that relationship can maintain and that'll be difficult. There will be times where that's gonna be really difficult to maintain. But again, it's a path. It's like a possibility of success. We were in a situation, I mean, as long as it's on the show together, Glenn, 100% of the time I was convinced this was never going to occur where there would even be a chance where Arab nations and Israel would be buddy, buddy, or at least something close to it.
- [15:37]
Glenn Beck
I would say 99.9% of the time because the Arab accords were so historic. You're like, wait, what just happened? Yeah, the Abraham Accords.
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Middle East Expert/Analyst
Yeah, I agree with that. And of course there's always the possibility of a miracle. That's the only thing really I held out hope for this is this might be it manifesting itself. And that's great.
- [15:54]
Glenn Beck
Here's what Hillary Clinton said. I really commend President Trump and his administration as well as Arab leaders in the region for making the commitment to a 20 point plan and seeing path forward for what's often called the day after. It's going to take a lot of work, it's going to take a lot of coordination, but the US Took advantage of a opening that was available and we were able to be successful. That's great. Good for her. Not what Biden said. No. The Biden administration is like, Donald, what? Who Duck are you? I don't know what you're talking about, but congratulations, Hillary Clinton, for at least being honest, which, you know, who's honest today if you're not saying, wow, good job, Donald Trump. Well, you know, you're not an honest broker of anything. Yeah, I don't really know who loves the idea of buying or selling a home. I really don't. I guess some people do, you know, and then you get into the middle of it and you're like appraisals, inspections, closing costs, you know, mountain of paperwork. It feels like it was designed to test your sanity really. And through it all you start wondering who's actually on my side here. That's why I created real estate agents I trust. It's not a random list. It's a network of hand picked professionals who earn their spot by showing real results and real character. We vet these agents six ways to Sunday and they know their markets inside now. They communicate clearly, they actually listen and they, and they understand that buying or selling a home isn't just a transaction. It is A life move. So when you work with a real estate agent from realestate Agents I trust dot com, this is somebody you can trust. You're not just checking boxes. You're working with one of the, one of the best people who understand that you're taking one of the most important steps in your life. And it's somebody beside you who gets it. So don't guess. Find out the real estate agent that we recommend. This is my company, realestate agentsitrust.com that's realestateagentsitrust.com. now back to the podcast. This is the best of the Glenn Beck program. And don't forget, rate us on iTunes. Governor Abbott, welcome to the program.
- [18:03]
Governor Greg Abbott
Hey, Glenn.
- [18:04]
Glenn Beck
Hey.
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Governor Greg Abbott
How are you, man? I'm doing great. How you doing?
- [18:07]
Glenn Beck
I'm good, I'm good. I just wanted to ask you a couple of questions. First, any thoughts on the peace deal in Israel and the Arab world today?
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Governor Greg Abbott
It's just remarkable. I haven't seen anything like this before. As you know, the Middle east is one of the most complicated areas in the entire world. And to see President Trump be able to go in there, work with other countries across the entire region as well as over in Europe and other places like that to galvanize countries literally across the globe and say, this is what we have to do. We have to have peace there. We have to stop the shootings, stop the killing. We have to release the hostages, all of that. And to do that in such a short period of time and to see the effectuation of it begin overnight is just stunning. And so I would say, so far, so good with the release of the hostages, the test will be tougher when we get to the next stage where Hamas actually has to step down from running Gaza, controlling Gaza, and we have to see them live up to that component of the peace deal if they're able to pull that off, and if international troops will be the ones who will be ensuring the safety of it, ensuring that it's not US international troops, but from other countries that will be stabilizing Gaza as opposed to Hamas, then it may be an extraordinarily valuable deal.
- [19:52]
Glenn Beck
Well, we'll keep our fingers crossed on that. I wanted to talk to you because Pritzker and the courts have just said to the National Guard, to the Texas National Guard, you can't do anything now. Last week, I think they said you couldn't deploy them there. You did because of what the Constitution actually says. But now you've got a hold on them, protecting ice. What's the status on this.
- [20:16]
Governor Greg Abbott
All right, so let's, let's go back to fundamentals here, because what I have found is everybody in the country doesn't understand the fundamentals. I'll rip through it real quick. One is they are obviously be, quote, National Guard. And the President has the authority under the Constitution, under federal statutes, to be able to call up the National Guard and to deploy them under certain circumstances, one of which is to deploy the National Guard to prevent interference with execution of federal law. And that's exactly what the President has done in Illinois, in Oregon, in California and places like that. And as you kind of pointed out, and this is detailed, you got to be kind of a lawyer to figure out what these courts said. But very importantly, the Federal Court of Appeals in California, the Federal Court of Appeals in Illinois, all said that the President is fully authorized to call up these National Guard for purposes that were articulated by the President of why they were needed, what happened. And this actually occurred before the National Guard were even sent to Illinois, because the trial court judge there said the trial court wanted to hear evidence about whether what was actually going on the ground satisfy the criteria of preventing interference with execution of federal laws. And so that's all that's going to happen. You got to prove that that's exactly what they are for. Because if they do that, they will be allowed not only to be discharged there, which they are allowed by the courts to do, but they will also be able to be there to carry out the function of protecting ICE as ICE is trying to perform its duty to enforce federal law. Now, listen, Glenn, we've all seen on TV screens across the entire country the way that people in communities, it could be protesters, it could be assassinators in these communities across country are interfering with ice, performing their jobs. And so this is fundamental. And I know whether it be these federal Court of Appeals or when it gets to the United States Supreme Court, President Trump is going to be judicially authorized to fully enforce Title 10 of the Federal law to make sure that these National Guard troopers are going to be able to be deployed and protect ICE members who are coming under assault in states across the entire country.
- [22:51]
Glenn Beck
He's not allowed to have them do police duties, though, right? I mean, that's the difference, right?
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Governor Greg Abbott
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so. And that's the deal. And that's one of the evidence issues that the trial court wants to hear. So the President doesn't have the authority to call up National Guard to act like police officers there, but that's not what he's doing. He's never even said he's trying to do that. But of course, that's the bogus arguments being made by Pritzker and by people like Gavin Newsom. And you know as well as I do Pritzker and Gavin Newsom, they are sanctuary city governors, and they are more than happy having chaos in their communities. And the last thing they want to do is to push down that chaos and allow some National Guard soldier to come in and make the communities more safe. And it's just disgusting that we have governors in this country who actually promote crime and chaos in their own community. These are governors who are promoting endangering federal officials who are trying to carry out the functions of their office. And I'm telling you, Glenn, if any of these people, any of these ICE agents or any federal employees, if they are injured in any way whatsoever, then Governor Pritzker and Mayor Johnson of Chicago, they are an accomplice in the crime that would injure one of our National Guard or one of the ISA agents trying to carry out the functions of federal law.
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Glenn Beck
Tell me why Donald Trump chose Texas, because I know he always does. Everything he does is for a reason. Why did he choose the Texas National Guard?
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Governor Greg Abbott
President Trump knows that the Texas National Guard is the most elite National Guard that we have in the United States, whether it be serving on our homeland or serving on foreign lands. He knows that they have the expertise of dealing with civil riot control. They have done that on the border in the harshest developments and the toughest of times. They have been deployed around the state of Texas by me to deal with situations like this where we needed the National Guard to have the back of our law enforcement officers during the George Floyd protest, during other protests. And so these are proven and tested National Guard, who we have a very large number of them. And he knew also that if we sent our guard there, we would still have plenty of guard, thousands of them, on the border, as we do right now, as well as plenty of other National Guard to be able to perform whatever other function that I, as governor, would need them to be able to provide. And so this is just easy math for him. And coming from a state that has the kind and quality and training of National Guard that President Trump respects the rules of engagement.
- [25:54]
Glenn Beck
I've always concerned about, you know, the National Guard kind of just being sitting ducks that can't really do anything. What are you going to do? Shoot. What are the rules of engagement?
- [26:04]
Governor Greg Abbott
Yes, it's very simple and great, great question. And. But there are rules of engagement that our Guard have been very well trained on for literally years. And then when they arrived in Illinois, they went back over the rules of engagement. And that is they don't go proactively and shoot somebody or anything like that. Their mandate is to protect the ICE agents. But in protecting ICE agents and other federal employees if they come under assault, they have certain tactics and strategies that they can use to make sure that they're going to maintain safety around them. Some easy examples they would. And I haven't been told exactly what they are down there, but I'm going to tell you generally what they do. They would have tear gas capabilities, flashbang capabilities, pepper ball capabilities, less than lethal force capabilities to make sure that they're going to be able to maintain crowd control in ways that will protect the safety of the federal officials while at the very same time not doing any physical harm to anybody in the community who is threatening them. But also, Glenn, remember this, it was just a few weeks ago where, you know, Guard needed to be there, but they were not there at the time of the shooting in Dallas, Texas, when there was an assassination attempt by a gunman trying to kill, murder the national, I'm sorry, the ICE agents there. And, you know, are you supposed to just stand back and say, yeah, have at it. Take your best shot? Of course not. They would have been in charge of trying to eliminate that shooter before that shooter shot what turned out to be two illegal immigrants who were in detention.
- [28:01]
Glenn Beck
You know, there's, there's, that's the second incident here in Texas. And I know the first one, the first one, I think everybody but one has been arrested. And that was, that's, you know, quite a, quite the accomplishment on that to get, make sure you get everybody involved. Let me, let me switch to the border here real quick. I read a story today about how the drug cartels have, at least in Baja, have declared war on Americans. Are we seeing anything, any upswing in dangerous engagement from the drug cartels on our border?
- [28:44]
Governor Greg Abbott
Well, it depends on where you are because, you know, the border runs from the Gulf of America to the Pacific coast. And you were talking about in the California area and we have not yet seen in Texas anything exactly like that. We are prepared for it in Texas, which is why we still have thousands of National Guard and Texas Department of Public Safety officers on the border. And it's also why we are working in a very close collaboration with the Trump administration to make sure that we are going to be able to push back on anything like this. But I'll tell you about two Things further in response to this one, remember, Trump has publicly stated what is also privately stated, and that is he is looking to take out the heads of the cartels in Mexico, and he has not backed off of that in any way whatsoever. The other thing is that we all know that we need to be prepared in every region of the border about a new form of engagement by the cartels, and that will be active drone warfare. And I know in Texas, we're prepared for it. We're gearing up. The other thing, something that knew that just came out over the weekend, but they'd been working on a couple of weeks. Do you remember back when Biden was president and I was doing everything I could to protect the border and I deployed those big orange buoys into the water, into the Rio Grande that prevented people from being across the border? There was an announcement made by the Trump administration that they are putting down about 80 miles of those big orange buoys, especially in the Eagle Pass area, that would prevent people from being able to cross. And they're looking at other spaces where they would be adding, in the aggregate, more than 100 miles of those buoys. One thing about those buoys, they are fully effective at preventing people from crossing in those areas, but they're about, I don't know, about a tenth of the cost of a border wall. And so it's a very effective tool for the federal government to continue to deny illegal entry. But there's also this. Also, we know the commitment of President Trump to make sure that we're going to have zero people crossing the border during his administration. But what I told President Trump is, listen, we want to work with you for the next three years to make sure that we stop the flow coming across the border. But we need to do it in a way so it's effective for more than just three years. Yes, for the next 30. For the next 30 years is what we need to do. And those buoys on the border, the border wall that he's building, some other things they're doing in the state of Texas is ensuring that what he has done during this term and presidency is going to have a lasting effect to deny illegal entry into the United States of America.
- [31:40]
Glenn Beck
Governor Greg. Greg Abbott, I know you need to run, but I do want to congratulate you on what you've done with Epic City. And, you know, you immediately sprung into action the minute we started hearing about these Muslim Sharia law cities possibly springing up. And I want to thank you for that. And we'll keep our eye on the attorney general to make sure that he enforces those laws. Thank you.
- [32:01]
Governor Greg Abbott
You got it. Got you busy, Glenn?
- [32:03]
Glenn Beck
You bet. Bye. Bye. This is the best of the Glenn Beck Program. Leland, great to have you on. How are you, sir?
- [32:18]
Leland Vittert
Pleasure to be with you, Glenn. I remember when you and I worked together at Fox.
- [32:22]
Glenn Beck
Absolutely, absolutely. You first. I want to start before I get into your story, because your story is so great. Before we get into that, tell me your analysis, because you were foreign correspondent based in Jerusalem forever. What is your take on what's happening right now over in Egypt and also.
- [32:43]
Leland Vittert
In Israel that we don't understand right now? And that's fine in real time, how historic and seismic the shift in the Middle east is right now because Trump turned 50 years of conventional wisdom on its head. Jared Kushner understood and explained to Trump that the root of all the problems in the Middle east is not the Israeli Palestinian conflict, it is Iran. And I think what we saw over the past eight months, and to be fair, over Trump's first term, but it culminated in the past eight months, is the isolation and degradation of both Iran's ability to act militarily on its own and its proxies. And thus has allowed a total sea change in the power dynamic of the Middle east away from Iran and towards the Gulf countries and towards Israel. So that has totally changed everything. And we're seeing, I think, the beginning of it, not the end of how much is going to change in the Middle east for the good?
- [33:50]
Glenn Beck
What is it? What does it mean? What does today mean in 5 years or 10? 10 years?
- [33:56]
Leland Vittert
Look, the one thing I learned about being in the Middle east is if you want to predict the future in the Middle east, okay, you must be a prophet himself. You will be proven a fool. And here's why. Is because things change. If two years ago I had told you after October 7th, Hezbollah and Hamas would be destroyed, Iran's nuclear program would be in ashes. But the real threat, both in Europe and in the United States, would be this wild rise of anti Semitism and radical Islam, terror now calling for the death of Jews and attacks on Jews around the world. You would have called me crazy because everybody would say, oh, you know, everybody's going to rally around Israel. It's the exact opposite of what has happened. So I can't predict the future. But what I can say is that for the first time, I think since the Iranian Revolution, 1979, there is a realization of where the real evil in the Middle east is and a willingness by the United States to confront it honestly, there are people on the. I'm seeing how quickly things are changing.
- [35:00]
Glenn Beck
There are people on the right, Leland, now, that do not recognize Hamas as evil. They are so down this rabbit hole of the Jews controlling the world and Donald Trump and. And you know, all of this stuff that they don't. I don't think they actually see the evil in the Middle East. They see it coming from Israel. It's bizarre. And I'm trying to get my arms around it, to understand it and understand where it's coming from. But have you noticed it in the right. And what is the solution here?
- [35:43]
Leland Vittert
Well, I think the solution, Glenn, is exactly what you're doing, which is calling it out for what it is, which is it's not some new age critical way of thinking. It's rank anti Semitism and Jew hatred.
- [35:58]
Glenn Beck
There's a difference. You would agree with me that you can dislike what Israel, how Israel fought the war. You can say, I don't want to fight their wars, I don't want anything.
- [36:07]
Middle East Expert/Analyst
To do with it.
- [36:07]
Glenn Beck
And I disagree with them. That's different than the message of I'm for Hamas or Israel has to be, you know, destroyed because they're just. They're the source of all the problems in the world.
- [36:23]
Governor Greg Abbott
Yeah.
- [36:24]
Leland Vittert
And I'll go one step further. It's different than saying Hamas is anything other than an evil terror organization. There is good and evil in the world. Yes, there is. There is a difference between the two. And I don't necessarily like the term moral clarity, but I don't have a better one for what is required in these situations. And this sort of Hamas adjacent talking points or agreeing with these talking points. It's no different than Mamdani who sort of. It's like, well, Hamas may be bad, but they have legitimate grievances. No, they don't. And I'm sorry, once you start raping and pillaging and waging war against civilians, I don't care what your grievances are. You must be destroyed. And then we can deal with whatever the other issues are later.
- [37:19]
Glenn Beck
So what do you think happens to this Palestinian movement here in America now that this is over?
- [37:25]
Leland Vittert
I don't know, but it scares me, number one. And I think, number two, what we've seen is it's not really a Palestinian movement. It was an anti Jew movement. It was the sort of graph of BLI of the neo Marxist oppressed oppressor worldview that just grafted on to the pro Palestinian movement. But at their core, they're neo Marxist anti Semites and we know that because now that there is a peace deal in Gaza and ceasefire, and if anything, it's going to help the Gazan people, who they said were starving and so terribly oppressed. Well, they're not anymore. But yet these people are still marching around calling for the death of Jews. Right. You know, when we knew a peace deal was happening, and on October 7th, there were thousands in the streets of New York saying we needed another October 7th, this one even stronger. So that's who we're dealing with. And I appreciate you calling it out from the right, because I think there is an element of the right. But thank God there are people like you, Glenn, who on the right are saying this is crazy and this is wrong and this is despicable. That doesn't happen on the left. Okay, you've got Kathy Hochul endorsing Mamdani in New York City. That's the governor of the second or third largest state in the country endorsing a guy who is Hamas adjacent. That doesn't happen in the Republican Party or on the right, can it, though?
- [38:49]
Glenn Beck
I mean, on the left, can it. I mean, they have let this go for so long that it is really powerful. And. And those are the kinds of people that do kill people. And so it is so empowered. On the left, can the politician expect to live if they go against this?
- [39:11]
Leland Vittert
I think, Glenn, it requires politicians with actual moral courage, and people can take from that what they will. But if you're more concerned, if you're so concerned about your own political future, as so many on the left are, that you are unwilling to name shame, call out whatever you want to use the term as people who are Hamas adjacent and those who endorse people who are Hamas adjacent. That pretty much says everything about who you are and what you care about.
- [39:43]
Glenn Beck
I'm not sure it's just about your career politically, though, anymore. I think we're, you know, we've entered a. You know, this. We've turned a page and the violence is real now. And there are people that are unhinged that will. They'll take you out. They will take you out.
- [40:05]
Leland Vittert
I think that's very true. And I think where we are seeing the most of that language is from the left, but that is a different discussion.
- [40:13]
Glenn Beck
Yeah. Leland has a new book out that is called Born Lucky, and you wouldn't think that when you actually hear his story, and I didn't know this about you, Leland, at all, and you are a. You're an amazing success story.
- [40:31]
Leland Vittert
Well, go ahead. No, I was just going to say thank you. I think what you're talking about is the fact that when I was five years old, I was diagnosed with what we now know to be autism. And Born Lucky is the story of my dad adapting me to the world rather than the world to me. And the reason you know debuted on the New York Times bestseller list at number four, and we sold out three times on Amazon. Back in stock now is not because of me. You know, Glenn, I'm a television anchor, but I'm not that narcissistic to think it's about me. It's about this story. And Born Lucky is proof for every parent of a kid who's having a hard time. Doesn't matter if it's autism, anxiety, adhd, anything. It is proof for every parent of a kid who's having a hard time, how much power they have, how much agency they have, what they can do. And it's not anything that the experts tell you.
- [41:24]
Glenn Beck
So when you were in fourth grade, you did an IQ test for the school, and your spread was 68 points. You were borderline retarded on the low end when it was your verbal test, but nonverbal. You were in the genius category. That's phenomenal.
- [41:41]
Leland Vittert
Well, now, my wife would tell me I'm probably still borderline many things right now, but. So you picked up on this moment in the book where my parents are told they need to get me evaluated, which is what no parent wants to hear. Right. And I was having terrible issues in school. I never got invited to a birthday party, anything like that. But if a kid touched me in line, I would turn around and hit him. You know, kids would make jokes, and I would try to be serious. I would run into kids on the playground. It just. Nothing worked. And had really terrible sensory issues. You know, I had my socks on a way I didn't like, or a jacket or anything like that. I would completely melt down. And then, obviously, what was all these learning disabilities. So the parents take me to this medical office building for all this testing. Linoleum floors, bad magazines, old coffee, whatever. They wait for two hours. They're terrified. I'm their son. Who's that? My sister at the time was one or two years old. So they bring me back from all the testing, and they say to my parents, we really don't understand what's going on inside his head. You know, severe learning disabilities, terrible behavioral problems, awful sensory issues, all the things of what we now know to be autism. And my dad said, what do we do? And the woman said, there's not much. And he said, is there anything we can do? And she said, generally not. And that began my dad's quest to adapt me to the world and to find things that I could have self esteem in and to. To help me earn self esteem rather than given. So wasn't going to be good at school, wasn't going to have friends, wasn't going to be good at athletics. But he started me at, you know, that age a little bit earlier, actually doing 200 push ups a day, five days a week. Hard work, effort equals achievement. It's something you can take pride in. Your character was a huge part of his lessons, something you can take pride in. And that was this process.
- [43:33]
Glenn Beck
And you write in the book about the push ups. It was also. So your dad. Dad knew you were gonna need to protect yourself, right?
- [43:39]
Governor Greg Abbott
Yeah.
- [43:40]
Leland Vittert
No. Look, my sister, who plays a really important role in this book, and I think one of the things that people don't understand, and so many families are suffering silently right now and feel alone with their kid who's having a hard time. Doesn't matter. What the issue is, is how much the siblings are affected. I mean, My sister's a PhD in and professor at MIT and Harvard, and unbelievable in every way. But her first memories of me, and I didn't know this until we interviewed her for Born Lucky is she was in kindergarten, I was in fifth grade. And I would come from my classroom downstairs to her classroom, pick her up, and then we would walk home. It's about a quarter mile, and we would get to the back of the school where the PE fields were, to the woods, which led to our house. And as we walked into the woods, Liberty said, the first memory of my brother ever was every day when he got to the woods, he would start crying. And I would hold his hand as I walked home with him. And you know that. And that was the bullying and the isolation and sort of the crushing.
- [44:42]
Governor Greg Abbott
Issues.
- [44:43]
Leland Vittert
That came not only from the kids, but from the teachers as I grew up. Because my, you know, my dad never told anybody about this diagnosis. No teachers, no counselors, nothing.
- [44:53]
Governor Greg Abbott
Wow.
- [44:54]
Glenn Beck
And so take me through some of the things that your dad did because I'm impressed with you and what you've accomplished. But your father is remarkable. How did he come up with the things that he did? Because you are more than fully functional in today's society. You're a huge success. What did he do to get you there?
- [45:21]
Leland Vittert
Well, it's a great question. I would just tell you and I'll give you a story, a Little later that I still deal with this every day. You know, autism is not something you're ever cured of. This is a daily, almost hourly discipline of seeing the world as others see them, as My dad taught me to interact and understand the social fabric. But one thing he did, he knew I wasn't going to have any friends. So as he said, I thought maybe I could be your friend. So starting at 5 or 6, he and I spent hundreds of hours together every month, thousands of hours together. And he would take me to lunches with his friends.
- [45:56]
Governor Greg Abbott
And I would have loved to have.
- [45:57]
Leland Vittert
Gone to a lunch like with Mr. Beck, right, because I was a mini me to my dad. He talked to me about politics and news and events and on and on. And we would get to lunch and you would be talking about, you know, your family or whatever you were doing that weekend or whatever, and I would interrupt like a thousand questions a minute where, you know, how do you pick your topics? How do you do your monologue? Where do you get your advertisers from? How much do you charge for ads? On and on and on. And my dad then would never say anything publicly to me, but he would tap his watch and that was my cue to stop talking, number one, but number two, to kind of bookmark that, right? And so now we're driving home in the car and he says, okay, Lucky, you know, when Mr. Beck was talking about his weekend plans or his lunch with, you know, whoever, whatever it was, and you interrupted and asked about his commercials, why did you think Mr. Beck wanted to talk about commercials at that moment? Well, gee, Dad, I don't know. I thought it was interesting. Okay, well, what could we have Talked about that Mr. Beck would have found interesting? That was what he was talking about. How do you connect with him? And that was the basis of granularly teaching me the social and emotional connections of everyday life. And born Lucky is that story of how my dad made me understand that he loved me. But that boy, there was so much work I had to do to fit in in the world.
- [47:23]
Glenn Beck
At one point, you know, there was a kid you write in the book, kid in middle school who kept pushing me, both figuratively, literally. Teachers wouldn't do anything. Came home, told my dad was the kids had done, blah, blah, blah. I finally asked, can I hit him yet?
- [47:40]
Governor Greg Abbott
Right.
- [47:41]
Glenn Beck
Tell that story.
- [47:43]
Leland Vittert
So you have to understand that the school situation that I was in, I've been pulled out of two or three schools before I get started in seventh grade. It was a seventh through twelfth grade school. And two weeks into school. The principal calls my parents in. So my parents think they're coming in for like a normal like hey, how's two weeks going into school? And they're sitting there and the principal sits my parents down in the little, you know, office, looks across the desk at them and says, everybody at this school thinks Lucky is really weird. So that's arrow number one through my parents heart. And then she follows up and I do too. So I had no protection, right? There was a great art teacher who didn't think I was going to become Picasso and sat in front of the entire class. Hey Vidar. If my dog was ugly as you, I would shave its bleep and make it walk backwards. So that was the environment I lived in every day. But there was this kid and he kept mouthing off. And my dad had turned me into a pretty hefty little fellow. I was fat and kind of chunky and awkward, but I was pretty strong. And you know, my dad had said, you know, the way you deal with bullies, you eventually just hit him in the nose.
- [48:57]
Governor Greg Abbott
Great.
- [48:59]
Leland Vittert
And I didn't. I slammed his head down on the desk. But it was the beginning of me starting to fight back. And I think Born Lucky will, people will see, but that was fighting back affected things.
- [49:10]
Glenn Beck
That was the last time you had to do that, correct?
- [49:15]
Leland Vittert
It was the last time I was allowed to.
- [49:17]
Glenn Beck
Okay. Born Lucky Book.com bornluckybook.com this is you Will. Love, love, love this book. Bornluckybook.
- [49:28]
Middle East Expert/Analyst
Com Nah, nah, nah, nah.