Glenn Beck linked on his Facebook page to the following statement from the general manager of his radio show, Dom Theodore, about Beck’s suspension from SiriusXM over comments made during an interview with the author Brad Thor that SiriusXM said “may be reasonably construed by some to have been advocating harm against” Donald Trump.
Theodore defends Beck’s comments from “unfortunate fabrications” and affirmed that Beck “has never — and will never — advocate violence.” He claims that they “have been told that Glenn will be back on the Patriot Channel on Monday morning,” but also notes: “We have been preparing for an assault on Glenn’s voice, and others like it, which only reaffirms the importance and value of independent platforms like TheBlaze, platforms governed not only by ratings but also by principles and values.”
Read the full statement below:
Glenn is on vacation so I wanted to respond on his behalf so that the unfortunate fabrications surrounding his interview with Brad Thor don’t spread any further.
As every listener of the show knows, Glenn has never — and will never — advocate violence. It wasn’t long ago that he was criticized by some for advocating peace during the Bundy Ranch saga. Glenn is a firm believer in Martin Luther King’s approach to affecting change, not Malcolm X’s. This past summer, he organized an event in Birmingham, Alabama called Restoring Unity, the purpose of which was to unite different groups to commit to come together.
Again, Glenn has never advocated violence. His interview with Brad Thor speaks for itself. You can listen to it in its entirety here:
Listen to Glenn and his cohosts discuss “fallout” from the interview the day after the interview here:
This viral hatchet job is based on 49 seconds out of a 15-minute interview that gives no context of the hypothetical posited from by Brad Thor, a thriller writer.
Glenn is on the record, repeatedly, expressing concern for all people, especially the President of the United States. With every scandal at the Secret Service, Glenn has implored his audience to pray for the safety of the President and for the restoration of the Secret Service’s judgement and abilities. And to answer the question before it has been asked: No one from any governmental agency, Secret Service, police force, etc., has been in contact with our company about this story in any way, shape, or form.
For the past several months, Glenn has warned his audience, and anyone else willing to listen, that the current political climate is worse than anything he has ever witnessed or studied in American history. We have been preparing for an assault on Glenn’s voice, and others like it, which only reaffirms the importance and value of independent platforms like TheBlaze, platforms governed not only by ratings but also by principles and values.
We are grateful to our partners at Premiere Networks, our many local affiliates, and all of our extended partners who support and celebrate a diversity of opinion. We hope you will reach out to all of them and thank them for having the backbone and integrity to stand-up for all voices, even those with which they may disagree. We look forward to standing with our partners and affiliates to support a vibrant “marketplace of ideas” and will continue to refuse to engage in the manipulative and bullying tactics of progressives.
The Glenn Beck Radio Program is distributed by Premiere Networks. What happens from here is between Premiere and SiriusXM. We have been told that Glenn will be back on the Patriot Channel on Monday morning.
Only time will tell.
At Mercury Radio Arts, we endeavor to take people at their word and will do so here. In the meantime, Glenn will continue to enjoy his vacation. Please tune in Monday at 9AM EST to hear Glenn’s thoughts on these events directly from him.
The Glenn Beck Program is available through your local affiliates, TheBlaze Radio Network (via the iHeart Media app), and, presumably, the Patriot Channel. If you feel so inclined, we invite you to contact SiriusXM to let them know that the voices in support our shared principles and values are louder than those who would attempt to suppress them.
The following passage from Beck’s interview with Thor sparked the controversy:
THOR: 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.
BECK: I would agree with you on that and I don’t think you actually have the voices we’ve been talking about and we’ve been talking about this off-air for a while. I think the voices like ours go away. I don’t think we are allowed – especially if things, and I believe the economy is going to go to crap, even if Jesus was in office. It’s going to naturally reset. It has to.
You can read the full transcript of the exchange here.
You can read the full transcript of Beck and his co-hosts’ subsequent defense of Thor’s comments here.
This is the second controversy to engulf Beck over comments he made on air about Trump, who he has repeatedly compared to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. In March, the Secret Service investigated Beck due to a joke he made with his co-host about “stabbing,” which initial reports claimed were in reference to Trump.