Weeks before a controversial interview that ultimately led to Glenn Beck’s suspension from SiriusXM radio, author Brad Thor predicted that left-wing agitators would commit “unprecedented assassination attempts” against Donald Trump, spurred by journalists demonizing him.
Beck’s news website The Blaze reported on Thor’s comments the day after Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee:
Speaking on The Glenn Beck Radio Program, Thor, a prominent Never-Trumper, encouraged listeners to pray for Trump and the U.S. Secret Service.
“I want to right now ask everyone who is listening to pray for the men and women of the Secret Service who are charged with protecting Donald Trump and his family,” he told show host Glenn Beck. “May God protect them and may God protect the Trumps.”
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Additionally, Thor believes the left — with the “abetting” press corps — will “vilify” and “demonize” Trump and the Republican Party, which he says will lead to attempts on the billionaire businessman’s life.
The Blaze linked to this article in a story where Thor denied that he was speculating about a Trump assassination on Beck’s radio program last Wednesday. Thor argues that his initial comments — that if a President Trump suspended the Constitution and Congress did not stop him, there would be no “legal means available” to remove him from office — were in reference to a George Washington archetype.
“If we had to unseat a president without the backing of the Congress,” Thor stated, “we would need a patriot along the lines of George Washington to lead the country from tyranny back to liberty.”
While Thor is unclear on what actions this George Washington type would take, Beck and his radio co-hosts said that anyone who interpreted the comments as a reference to a coup or assassination is crazy and stupid.
Weeks after warning Beck’s listeners about the press demonizing the Republican frontrunner, Thor compared Trump to a “caudillo” — a South American dictator like Hugo Chavez — and predicted, along with Beck, that he would be an “extinction-level event” for the United States, for democracy, and for capitalism.
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.