John Solomon (4:27)

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

Glenn Beck (4:32)

I'm gonna play a couple pieces of video here. Cut nine, please. This is Erica Kirk and our second lady, Vice President Vance's wife, holding hands, coming off of Air Force Two as they land in Phoenix. She is. See, she's coming out. There's Erica coming out at the top of the stairs, and she's holding Mrs. Vance's hand. You see, Charlie's wife just looks like she's just, you know, like a widow who, you know, like Jackie O. Looked when she arrived back home in Washington, D.C. cut 10. They're loading Charlie's body into a hearse yesterday to bring it home. And you see, one of the pallbearers is J.D. vance. And I, I, again, I find myself saying this all the time. I, this is something I've never seen before in my life. I have never seen. Well, I've never seen an assassination. I've seen an assassination attempt twice in my life, but I've never seen an assassination of anyone in my life in America. And then I Don't remember this from the history books. Having our vice president or our president involved at this level moving the body back home. The Vances are, I think they're remarkable people. I think he's going to be an incredible president. I think he is going to be an incredible president. But we, you know, with the Vance's, usually a society gets what it deserves. I'm not sure we deserve the Vance family at this point. Here is when the plane touched down. Air Force Two, when the plane touched down. Here's the welcome home from the tower. Listen.

John Solomon (7:07)

Welcome home, Charlie. You didn't deserve it. May God bless your family.

Glenn Beck (7:18)

I will not cry. President Trump said later this month the funeral will be held and he is planning on attending. And I'm assuming that that will be in Phoenix where they will lay him to rest. You know, I think we need to stop calling Charlie Kirk an activist or anything else. I don't. A political figure. It is time to, it's time to call him what he really was because of what he died doing. Charlie Kirk is a civil rights icon. Charlie Kirk was a civil rights leader that was martyred standing up for civil rights. And it is time that our side declares that and stands on that and claims that territory. These so called civil rights leaders that have been around for the last 30 years are jokes. They're money hustlers, they're dividers and they have nothing, nothing to do with civil rights. Martin Luther King was a civil rights leader. Martin Luther King was that man. RFK Jr could even be called a civil rights leader. JFK could be called a civil rights leader. They led, they led the way. Everyone else was just playing it for cash and for power. And I'm sick of it. Charlie Kirk died standing up and trying to show people how to exercise your civil right in a civilized manner. And they gunned him down before him because of it. It's time to start calling him Charlie Kirk, the civil rights leader. You have John on. Yeah. John, how are you? Thank you for coming on today.

John Solomon (9:35)

Well, Glenn, I'm well, thank you. I couldn't agree more with what you just said. You're right on the money.

Glenn Beck (9:42)

So John, John Stossel or John Solomon. Sorry, John Solomon from just the news. John, we have apparently the guy in custody. What do we know about this?

John Solomon (9:55)

So we believe he's a man that looks just like the photo. We believe that after the FBI put out the photos and had some other information they were pursuing about friends and affiliates of this shooter that the father and minister apparently played a role in Getting this man to surrender. We don't know much.

Glenn Beck (10:15)

Hold on, hold on just a sec. John, would you do me a favor and would you check? Because everybody's using the word minister, and in Utah, the word would be bishop. If he was an LDS member, it would have been bishop. And I'm interested to know.

John Solomon (10:30)

I don't have that level detail. I've been asking, obviously, because it is Utah and you think that way, but we don't know. It's only been described by law enforcement to me as a. As a minister or a clergy person. So we don't know more than that. Hopefully we'll know more soon. But you're right, the right question as we've been asking it, and they're still interrogating, they're still. They're still doing search warrants and other things, but they feel pretty confident based on the way this came through. And I think the question now becomes, in what circle was this young man working and what ideology was he lured into it? Sounds like he comes from a good family, obviously a family accurate about the father's cooperation, even doing the right thing at a painful moment like this. But in what circle was he walking, and where was he getting radicalized? And what was the ideology driving this? And I think we're going to learn a lot about some entities and groups in Utah that will maybe give us some sense of what was festering right below our noses. This is a problem on social media, particularly in the last five years. We've allowed a lot of different ideologies and groups to fester, and they're picking off our children, even children that come in good homes, and we'll have to just wait and see. But that's the early assessment I've gotten from law enforcement. A lot of parts to be filled in, but they feel very confident they have the man and that the. The danger to the public has diminished, that that doesn't bring much solace to Charlie Kirk's family. But knowing the guys in custody, I think is good for the entire country.

Glenn Beck (12:04)

I have been informed, and without revealing, you know, any specifics, but I have been informed that they are looking into groups that may have been involved. You know, this is kind of like, where was it in Texas, the shooters, where they had people that were helping? It was coordinated. And have you heard anything about a possible coordination? That it wasn't just, you know, duping some kid and brainwashing some kid, but it was. There was actual coordination and possibly foreign coordination.

John Solomon (12:48)

They're looking at some things. I don't Think they've come to an assessment yet? I was familiar yesterday about a look at a couple of groups that they were looking at, and I don't think they've made a full assessment. I think that's why the debriefing and the getting his phone, getting his computer, getting his video gaming connections, anything that. That's the part of the phase that they're in now. There was some leads that they were looking at that pointed to, as I said on TV last couple days, some possible. There was a tip from a foreign country about some operating entities in this area of Utah that might have been involved. It was just a tip. I think they're trying to put those pieces together. We'll find out more in the day or so, but they're open to that possibility. I don't think they've closed down a certain certitude to it yet.

Glenn Beck (13:34)

Yeah, tell me what you know about. What's his name? Sky Valal Velaldez. Is that it? Yeah, he is the, the. The guy who apparently had a SoundCloud account and on August 7th he posted something. Charlie Kirk, dead at 31. And he's had a couple of other things like that that he has posted in the last few months. Do we know anything about this guy?

John Solomon (14:07)

No, I don't yet. I'm aware of the reports. I know that the FBI is aware of the reports. I don't know whether they have found any relevancy to that or whether it's just a provocateur. We just don't know. I've not been able to reach this gentleman. We're trying to do due diligence, but I know of no reason at this moment of a connection other than these, these reports and the SoundCloud. We understand that. I know the FBI was aware of it, but, you know, there are. There's chatter all the day. One of the great challenges in the world we live in today, with so many people wanting to be provocateurs, so many people wanting to express hatred. We've mainstream hatred. We've made it fashionable in certain circles of young people. It's almost shocking to me. But you're sorting through and when you're the FBI and you got a thousand leads, some are provocative. Is that a provocateur? Is that the guy about to commit the next murder? You don't know. And I think that's one of the things. I think the bigger lesson from this is we've allowed a culture of hatred and intolerance to literally boil over to the idea now that people don't have any prohibition talking about wanting to kill someone in an open space. I mean, most murderers are secretive. People are talking about those ambitions. Look at the gentleman that was rolled up in North Carolina a couple days ago talking on it was YouTube. I'm going to kill a bunch of kids in a school. We've allowed this culture to boil into a place where it is very dangerous. Any person could be a stick of dynamite lit. And I think that's what's dangerous. Those who like this culture deserve to be held accountable. We've got to start holding those who are boiling the water accountable.

Glenn Beck (15:37)

And I have to tell you, the biggest group that I have seen, I mean, I have been. I've been, thank God for the ladies at the View. There's been a lot of people that have come out with good statements, et cetera, et cetera, and condemned all of this. But the biggest group of people that seem to be celebrating are teachers. And I find it interesting that the president of UVU is. President Tamunes. Has. Has not made a statement at all. The university did, but the university president didn't make any statement on this. And I think that's an abomination. And I would like to know why. What are her feelings?

John Solomon (16:18)

Yeah, those are important questions. And you're right, academia has been a big part of the radicalization of the generation, the last two generations, Millennial and Gen Z. Gen Z's trending more conservative in general, but there are segments of it that are getting poisoned. And there's this romanticism of righteous revolution, which is basically sanctioning hatred and sanctioning violence and sanctioning that the end justify the means. And I believe in free speech. Even if you're stupid, you're entitled to your free speech. But we have to find that line where we protect people from the exercise of free speech when it targets a vulnerable person who's capable of being turned into a weapon. And we don't know enough about this case to make that assessment yet. But we do know many painful cases before Charlie Kirk's assassination where that is the imperturbable footprint. And I think everyone that's in the business of education, everyone that's in the business of media, those who showed such bad taste on news shows. I never thought in my life I would live through a time to see journalists exhibit some of the behavior I saw on new shows in the immediate aftermath of Charlie's fascination. We all have a responsibility to clean this up if we're going to keep kids from going down the Cliff. And we're not having a serious enough conversation about it. We do it for a day or two and then we move on. But it's still festering. And our enemies, China, Iran, Russia, they're helping boil it. I was watching in real time as we were doing our work on Charlie Kirk and trying to break stories and keep people informed, watching a bot farm, numerous bot farms, foreign bot farms, trying to inflame our dialogue. And so our enemies know we're vulnerable to it. And they're adding, we got it. We got a tough situation. I have a lot of confidence that we're at a moment of clarity. And I think there'll be a lot of responsibility in the next few days. And maybe this suspect's story will shake us all to the ground enough to start coming up with solutions, because we started talking about it with the Virginia Tech and Columbine shootings. We haven't come to grips with what's happening in the social media era, but we'll get there. I have confidence that Americans are gonna get the right thing done.

Glenn Beck (18:28)

So, John, would you just. This a personal request. Cause I trust you and I've watched you, read you and listened to you for a very long time, and I think you are really, truly an honorable American.

John Solomon (18:41)

Thank you.

Glenn Beck (18:41)

I am concerned. The last time we went through something like this, we came up with the Patriot act, and that was a really bad thing. And would you. I would ask that if you see anything brewing like that from either side, their side, our side, anybody's side, that you would alert me and alert America as. As soon as. And early as you see any kind of inklings arising of that. We cannot go too far the other way.

John Solomon (19:12)

No, listen, you know where this is going to start. It's going to start in our homes and our churches and our communities. That's where it's rightfully fixed. It's where we all got. It's where we all got. I mean, Covid kind of woke us up, like, what's going on in our school. I know we have to fix this. We have. Government's not going to fix this. We have to fix it as a people. And hopefully this is a moment of clarity for all of us. But we'll see. It's a. It's terrible that we had to lose Charlie to get to this moment, but I know he'd want us fighting for the solution, so I know he would, too.

Glenn Beck (19:41)

John Solomon, thank you so much. Just the News. CEO and editor in chief of Just the News. If you're not reading Just the news every day. You should be just the news dot com. Let me tell you about relief factor. If you're tired of being bullied by pain, tired of waking up every day wondering what's, what's going to hit you next. Your back, your knees, your neck, your shoulders, whatever it is, if you tiptoe out of bed like it's a minefield, bracing for that first shot, the rest of the day is shot. You're dodging, you're stiffening up, you're compensating. You know, you are trying to live with pain instead of just live your life. Here's what you can do. You can go to relieffactor.com and find relief. Reliefactor.com It's a daily supplement, not a quick fix. It's not a mask, but a real strategy for fighting pain from the inside and out. And it reduces your inflammation, it supports the healthy joints. It, it helps your body free yourself from pain. And millions have tried it and most of them keep using. 70% of them keep using it month after month because it works. Stick with it. Try it for three weeks and if you don't notice any difference, you probably won't. So stop taking it. But in three weeks, if you notice any difference, keep taking it. It makes a difference. It's relieffactor.com call 800, the number 4 relief 800, the number 4 relief relieffactor.com now back to the podcast. This is the best of the Glenn Beck program, my good friend and just a man who has brought so much light to the world. Max Lucado. Hello, Max. How are you?

Max Lucado (21:14)

Glenn? I'm like you. I'm just sad. I feel a heaviness in my heart. We knew the week was going to be somber because of 9 11, but we went to a just a different shadow, a different level of sadness at this assassination of a good man. I'm sorry for you. I know that you have personal connection and I know that you, you treasure the wonderful state of Utah and what a, what a heartbreak for this to happen in that wonderful state. So there's just a variety of emotions that I'm feeling. I stand shoulder to shoulder with you, though, in acknowledging that this is a very, very dark day.

Glenn Beck (22:01)

Max, we were airing the podcast. It's out for BlazeTV subscribers today. Tomorrow it'll go everywhere. And I think, honestly, I've been thinking about it every day since we recorded it, and I think it's one of the more important podcasts that I've ever done. Your words are so, so important and so Clarifying, especially now, but we recorded it before Charlie was killed, and I. I wanted to give you the opportunity to add an addendum to what we talk about.

Max Lucado (22:33)

Can.

Glenn Beck (22:33)

Can you give us any thoughts on how to process all of this and. And what the job is for those of us going forward and. And how we can guard ourselves from going dark?

Max Lucado (22:47)

Yes. Yes. Thank you so much for that, that opportunity. I'll do my best to just offer a few, you know, abbreviated ideas. Let's acknowledge, first of all, this for what it is. It's tragic. It's just tragic. It's the death of a good man. But it. And that's enough. But if there's even more, it's the fear that this fragile treasure that we call free speech is going to be taken away. We treasure this idea of free speech, and we must monitor it, must be good curators of it. And so what we experiencing, what we're experiencing this week, is a sadness and a fear. A sadness that something we treasure is lost. A fear that will never recover. In. In the topic, the. The podcast you and I had, which was a wonderful conversation, we talked about how an untruth tends to lead to a false narrative. That leads to an overreaction. A tease, I call that again. But an untruth. Untruth leads to a false narrative. That always leads to an overreaction. An untruth in this case. In this case could be, you know, the world is going over the edge. Our country is lost. That's an untrue. That's not true. That's not true. We can rise above this. We can be better than this. We can call each other to be better citizens than this. But there is an untruth that's going to surface, that's going to cause somebody to say, it's too late. We've gone too far. That'll lead to a false narrative. They may try to treat this pain inappropriately with violence themselves or violence against themselves, and that leads to an overreaction. An overreaction. It's going to be an angry outburst. It's going to be increased violence. It's going to be isolation. So we've got to stand against that and speak truth. Here's the truth, Glenn. The truth is we have a beautiful country. We are treasure. We are privileged to live in the greatest country in the history of the world. World. That's the truth. And the right narrative is we can rise up above this. I would call upon those in my generation. I'm 70. Speak to your children. Speak to your Grandchildren, tell them that we got through this in the 60s and the 70s. It's tragic, it's horrible, but we're going to be better because of that and let that lead to a good reaction, a reaction in which I personally make a decision. I'm going to be more respectful of those with whom I disagree. I'm going to put the golden rule to practice as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them. I'm going to be a better neighbor so we can be better because of this. And that's my prayer. I think that's the decision. I don't know how this is going to impact the entire nation, but I do know it can impact me. And I'm resolved, and I hope all of our listeners today are resolved to be a better person because of it.

Glenn Beck (25:58)

You know, Max, I've talked about God on the air when it was really uncomfortable. In fact, one of the reasons I left Fox was I was told by Roger Aileen, stop talking about God. And I was in his office and I said, okay, okay. And he called me back a month in after that, and he said, do you know how many times you've said, you remember this conversation we had? And I said, yes. And he said, do you know how many times? And I said, no. And he said, I think you counted. And I think it was like 92 times you mentioned you said the word God 92 times in the last month. And I'm like, yeah, well, I'm. I'm sorry, but that's what I believe. And now when I was doing it back then, I knew how dangerous it was in a way, because people were not willing to share the gospel. They weren't willing to talk about God in public. Charlie, one of the things that he did was he has made this. He and others have made God an open conversation. God is back in a big way for millions of Americans. And I, I really think I've seen. I've seen so many posts on X and Facebook this week. I read one yesterday on the air that just said, I don't know what this is, but I just feel like going to church and giving my life to Jesus. I think there, this, this could be the beginning. Just as though the way I feel the assassinations in the 60s helped lead to that Jesus revival in the 1970s. I. I think there's a revival coming.

Max Lucado (27:33)

Amen. And we're seeing that. You know, we're seeing young the Gen Z lead the way in church attendance. It's up by 27 of young people are Saying they want to attend church. And that is being led by males. Typically, you know, we're always being critical of the guys because they don't go to church. In this case, it's the guys who I know who are leading the way. And so that, that's super encouraging. Charlie Kirk embraced a Christian worldview. That is to say that we were created to live in a perfect relationship with God, with each other, with nature. We're living in a fallen world right now because of sin. Interestingly, the first fruit of that flesh fall of Adam and Eve was an act of violence. The one brother killed the other. When we're distant from God, we get distant from each other. When we're at peace with God, we can be at peace with each other. But Charlie acknowledged that we're in a season in the long eternal history of, of our relationship with God in which many people reject him. And the consequence of that is anger and sin and rebellion and distortion and hurt. But the day is coming in which the, the goodness of God will be made plentiful on the earth and we will reign and rule with him in peace. That's the Christian worldview. And Charlie embraced this. It's essential. I think secularism sucks the soul out of a person, turns them into an empty, self centered person. I believe the Christian faith, rightly accepted, causes us to set our focus on our maker and that's, that's how we were intended to live.

Glenn Beck (29:23)

You're listening to the Best of the Glenn Beck podcast. Hear more of this interview and others with the full show podcast available wherever you get podcasts. Do you know how we change the world? We don't change it through big moments. The world changes because of big moments. But if we want to change the world ourselves, we have to change ourselves first. And we have to be great examples. You know, I am. I've been struck all week because I've been listening to my friends and their podcasts and I've talked to my friends on their podcasts and, and off the air. And I've had so many conversations this week with the people that you listen to all the time and we're all in the same place and we're all saddened, deeply saddened, some are very worried. And we all have done shows and said things on and off the air that I don't know if the left would do. They, they. I've been listening to people on the air and I've taken calls today and nobody is screaming for blood. And I am so proud of us. It gives me such profound Hope. Because the tone would be extraordinarily different if it was happening the other way around, and you know it. But let me take it. Let me take you to an uncomfortable place. Let me tell you a story that we just don't even think of. We have the. We have the shooter in custody now. And by all accounts, he was a good kid and went to college and then just was all screwed up. And I want you to think about that family for a minute. We've been thinking about Charlie's family. We've been thinking about his children, as is right and we must, and we. We have a duty to take care of them. But I want you to think about the family of the one that pulled the trigger. I want you to pause for a second and imagine for a minute a mom, just like you were a mom, you know, holding her baby boy and whispering prayers over the crib, just like you did. A dad who worked long days believing if you just keep food on the table and discipline in the home and you try to do the right thing, your son is going to grow up as strong and he's going to do good. Brothers, sisters, cousins, all of them now watching in horror as the name that they all share is now cursed as their mailbox fills not with condolence, but with hatred. Imagine being that family in a few days, going to the grocery store. How afraid you would be, just not even that somebody would do something, but just going through the gauntlet of stairs, the people that are questioning you. And you imagine how alone you would feel at that moment. You would just want to crawl into a hole. You would be questioning and tearing yourself apart. What did I do wrong as a parent, that my kid did this? What did I do wrong? You'd already have that. And then you'd have no one. No one outside of the family that would be with you. The neighbors across the street that you've known forever and have known you, friends that fall silent. You're no longer a friend. Maybe the church pew that you go to, it's the one next to you sits empty now. Nobody's sitting next to you. What would it mean? What would it do for them to see just one neighbor? Maybe somebody they barely even know. Maybe somebody they don't even know. They're in the grocery store and they're expecting all of these glares, and they pass somebody that offers them not a glare, but just a glance of kindness, not approval, not excuse, but just a small recognition that the tragedy has claimed their family as well. I don't know if I could have done this if I hadn't have raised my children and made so many mistakes that I have made. You know, I. I'm learning some ugly truths about myself this last year and things that I have a lot of work to do. And, you know, when I got into radio when I was 13 years old and this, this is my best friend, this has never rejected me. I can tell it anything. And my kids have noticed that I spend so much time with you when I go out in public. I love talking to you. And I've realized recently, to my shame, that my relationship with you may be the only relationship I'm good at. I don't know how to do other relationships. And I tried to be a good dad. And I've tried to do just like you have. We all have. We all have. But raising a kid is the hardest calling on earth. If you are a parent, you know it, especially today, you don't have any idea what you're doing. You have no idea. Everything has changed. Nothing with our kids is like it was. I can't even relate to it. I feel horrible for the kids of today because I don't know how to help them. And we can pour ourselves out. We can be there. I really have tried to be there for my kids every step of the way. We've tried to teach them the scriptures, we tried to pray without ceasing. You can sacrifice as a parent until there's nothing left to sacrifice, and still you can lose them because the world is waiting. Bad friends, social media, dark influences, the illness of the body or the mind, or frankly, the poisonous philosophies at the schools and universities that now train our young men and women not in the light of God and good and yearn to be better, but in grievance and shadow. And any one of those influences can reach out and grab and snatch one of our children that we have loved beyond measure. We can do everything right and they can still be snatched. And then we're left saying, lord, what did I miss? What did I fail to do? What could I have done different? I urge all of us to see this family of the shooter. We're not seeing monsters. We are not. We are seeing what any one of us could have become. Should fate or frailty just twist the lives of those we love? What sets us apart is the commandment from Christ to love our enemies. You know, character doesn't count when you're not under pressure. It doesn't count. You can be the nicest person in the world, but when you're under Extreme pressure. That true character comes out on who you really are. We are under extreme pressure. So who are we really? Are we like those we stand against? Are we like or do we love our enemies? Do we actually put that into practice? Do we pray for those who persecute and hate us? You know, when Jesus said all this stuff, he wasn't naive. He, more than anybody else, knew the pain of betrayal and the sting of an unjust death. And yet, while they drove nails into his hands and wrists, into his feet, while they pushed a crown of thorns deep into his head, he offered mercy to the thief on the cross, forgiveness to those who were driving nails. Last couple of days, we've done everything we can to honor Charlie's life. And in the coming days, we need to honor Charlie's life again by picking up the torch and picking it up where he left off to defend freedom and civil rights. But more than anything else, the reason why Charlie Kirk was a true civil rights leader is because he was a Christian first. He was a God fearing man first. He could love his enemies. He could speak to his enemies with a civility that is beyond most of us. If we want to honor his memory truly, then that's the torch we should pick up. To be a better disciple of Christ, to be so much better as individuals than the world would expect us to be, because that's what will change everything. When we are so much better than what the world would expect us to be, that it's almost breathtaking. The Amish. The Amish, when they forgave the mother and comforted the mother before they even had all of the bodies out of the school where the shooter had killed their children, they worried about the mother of that shooter and went to comfort her. And they went to her home and surrounded her. She was terrified when she saw out her window that there are all these Amish people. And she knew her son had just killed all their children. You should hear her testimony. She was terrified to open the door. She opened the door and they started to weep. And they said, sister, you're not alone. We lost a child and you lost a child. And they made her promise, you will never move from our community. You are now one of us. You are not an outsider. You are one of us. We grieve together. That's breathtaking. That's hard. Showing rage is so much easier. Being mad is so much easier. But saying kind thoughts, doing, showing compassion is so hard. To lift our gaze above the abyss of vengeance and instead see this one broken family who, like us, only wanted to raise a child to the light. This is what I mean by what I've been saying lately. Think small. Dream big. I want to heal the world. I don't know how to do that. But if I think small, I realize the greatest act of civil courage is not shouted in the streets. It's whispered in each of our hearts, Lord, heal them too. Let me be more compassionate, more empathetic. Let me be more like you.