After calling for a fast as Indiana headed to the polls, Glenn Beck has finally weighed in on the news that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has canceled his campaign after losing the Indiana primary to Donald Trump.
Beck, an ardent supporter of Cruz, campaigned tirelessly for the Texas senator throughout the primary season, starting first in Iowa and concluding in Indiana yesterday.
He often couched his enthusiasm with a religious zeal for Cruz, who he declared to be “the next George Washington.” Cruz, according to Beck, was “anointed” by God and “raised for these times.” This week, the radio talker even stated that he believes God deliberately prolonged the GOP primary so that every state in the union would be forced to choose between “good or evil.”
Beck was often harshly critical of Evangelical Christian voters for not supporting Cruz, stating at one point that “real Christians” don’t support Donald Trump and that “all throughout the South the Evangelicals are not listening to their God” because Cruz lost the Southern primaries to Trump.
Indeed, the fervor of Beck’s support for Cruz has been matched only by the vehemence of his opposition to Trump. He has called the New York real estate mogul “a pathological narcissistic sociopath” and “a narcissistic psychopath” whose presidency “will lead to civil war or worse.”
He has also repeatedly compared Trump to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, asserting that Trump’s populist policies were “the makings of Adolf Hitler.” During an appearance on ABC News’s This Week, Beck actually held up a German ballot with Hitler’s name on it as a prop to emphasize his comparison of Trump to the Nazi leader. He even speculated at one point about whether Trump, whose daughter converted to Judaism, hates Jews. (He concluded, “I don’t think [Trump] hates Jews.”)
Beck also turned his ire on the New York billionaire’s supporters. After the Nevada caucus, he called Trump supporters “brown shirts” in reference to the infamous Nazi paramilitary group. Last year, he accused Trump’s Tea Party supporters of being racist for opposing President Obama while supporting Trump, who Beck considers to be a leftwing progressive.
At one point Beck even falsely accused the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee of voting for Barack Obama in the 2008 election despite Trump’s public endorsement and fundraising efforts for Senator John McCain.
But as the primary season slowly drew to a close with Trump’s eventual nomination looking all but certain, Beck turned increasingly to divine intervention.
In a Facebook post on Sunday night, Beck encouraged Americans to join him in a fast in the run-up to the Indiana primary. The last time he encouraged a fast was following Cruz’s defeat in South Carolina.
Cruz’s concession tonight comes on the heels of a very difficult past week for Beck, following news of another round of mass layoffs at his troubled media empire. On Friday, after giving an impassioned “farewell address” of sorts to his 40 laid-off employees from his replica Oval Office, the former radio shock jock joined his co-hosts in donning swim goggles and rubbing his face in a bowl of crushed Cheetos to see if they could “look like Donald Trump.”
Beck has promised he has “a ton to say tomorrow” on this topic, but below is the full statement he posted to his website:
Tomorrow is a big day, folks.
For individual citizens, largely nothing changes. We all still have our own personal responsibilities.
Regardless of who ends up being president, we are responsible for holding them accountable to the people — to the Constitution. We still owe each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor. Civilizations and societies go through waves of belief in Individual Liberty versus belief in Government.
So, for now, we’re in the minority.
Weather the storm.
Believe in our nation’s founding principles, believe in our rights, believe in God, and we will ultimately prevail. No matter who is president and no matter how far down the path to Socialism or Fascism our nation goes, each of us must still stand for Liberty. As long as we stand up for our principles and our rights — for each other — we will continue to win.
Each of us must still feed our families, must still defend freedom, must still be honorable.
What is happening in this election is normal. If you think it’s abnormal, you aren’t looking back far enough into history. Civilizations go through this. Societies aren’t a straight line of growth. There are down waves for every up wave.
Tomorrow is just Wednesday.
It’s another day where each of us has an opportunity to be a moral person. To defend Liberty. To protect our neighbor’s rights, and count on him to defend our own.
Follow Rebecca Mansour on Twitter @RAMansour