Fiction author Brad Thor changed his story Tuesday about what he meant in an interview that ultimately got Glenn Beck suspended from SiriusXM radio.
Beck has been suspended after SiriusXM reviewed his conversation last week with Thor, who appeared to imagine some “patriot” stepping up and removing Donald Trump Trump from office — which several conservative outlets interpreted as a reference to assassination or a coup.
But Thor made the rounds Tuesday — including Dana Loesch’s radio show — to claim that he was not talking about assassination.
“No. We were discussing if he became a dictator. And, if he did, I’d want him to stand trial,” Thor said on Twitter in response to a critic calling out his comments.
But Thor was obviously not talking about a “trial,” according to his own comments in that controversial interview. In fact, Thor said, “I don’t think there is a legal means available.”
He is a danger to America and I got to ask you a question and this is serious and this could ring down incredible heat on me because I’m about to suggest something very bad. It is a hypothetical I am going to ask as a thriller writer.
With the feckless, spineless Congress we have, who will stand in the way of Donald Trump overstepping his constitutional authority as President? If Congress won’t remove him from office, what patriot will step up and do that if, if, he oversteps his mandate as president, his constitutional-granted authority, I should say, as president.
If he oversteps that, how do we get him out of office? And I don’t think there is a legal means available. I think it will be a terrible, terrible position the American people will be in to get Trump out of office because you won’t be able to do it through Congress.
Thor told an even different story to Beck’s publication The Blaze, saying that he was hoping for some kind of “George Washington” to rise up against Trump to lead some kind of presumably armed revolution. The Blaze reported Tuesday:
In a comment to TheBlaze, Thor, who previously called on people to pray for Trump’s safety, said he was discussing a “hypothetical America under a dictator,” reiterating that he was not referring to an “assassination” in his comments.
“What happens if a president suspends the Constitution and Congress does nothing?” Thor asked. “Safeguarding the Republic against despotism is a topic of conversation that dates back to the Founders.”
Offering additional clarification about his previous comments, Thor said, “If we had to unseat a president without the backing of the Congress, we would need a patriot along the lines of George Washington to lead the country from tyranny back to liberty.”
This is the second controversy to engulf Beck regarding comments he made on air about Trump and violence. In March, the Secret Service investigated the radio host due to comments he made joking with his co-host about “stabbing,” which initial reports claimed were in reference to Trump.