SiriusXM has released a statement as to why Radio Talk Show host Glenn Beck has been suspended after comments made last week by one of Beck's guest, to which Beck stated he agreed with. The guest was fiction write Brad Thor, who the following on Beck's May 25, 2016 show:
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.
Becks response to that statement was "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."
After recieving complaints over the comments, which many believe was advocation for the assassination of Donald Trump , SiriusXM came to the conclusion that those comments "may be reasonably construed by some to have been advocating harm against an individual currently running for office, which we cannot and will not condone."
SiriusXM encourages a diversity of discourse and opinion on our talk programs. However, comments recently made by a guest on the independently produced Glenn Beck Program, in our judgement, may be reasonably construed by some to have been advocating harm against an individual currently running for office, which we cannot and will not condone. For that reason, we have suspended The Glenn Beck Program from our Patriot channel for the coming week and are evaluating its place in our lineup going forward. SiriusXM is committed to a spirited, robust, yet responsible political conversation and believes this action reflects those values.
Of course after Drudge Report highlighted the interview, in an attempt at damage control, on May 27 Breitbart reported "Glenn Beck and his radio co-hosts Stu Burguiere and Pat Gray lit into Matt Drudge for bringing attention to Beck’s interview with author Brad Thor the day before."
In those comments Beck and his sidekick Burguiere, denied that Thor and Beck himself by agreeing with the statement and letting it go unchallenged, were advocating for the assassination of Trump, Beck claimed that what he "heard" when listening to that segment again "was “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” — Jimmy Stewart standing there all alone on the Senate floor, saying, “I’ll just keep talkin’. Somebody’s gotta hear me!” That’s what I heard."
Burguiere took it a step further claiming what he "heard" was "I actually the picture I pictured in my head was the group of Nazis with their hands up raising “Heil Hitler,” and the one guy in the middle not doing it. That was the exact mental picture I had when he was describing that — something that would be you — have to take a stand in a way that would shake the system."
Readers can listen to the segment above and decide for themselves whether they "hear" what Beck and Burguiere did or whether Thor and Beck were advocating violence against Trump.
Another noteworthy comment by Burguiere was his attempt to say that Matt Drudge interpreting the comments as assassination talk, was "medically delusional."
BURGUIERE: Of course, the theory at one moment. He’s now become delusional obviously. I mean, to create something like that out of what Brad Thor was talking about is straight out medically delusional. That is not what we were talking about at all. None of us took that.
Thor has also come out to deny he was calling for the assassination of Trump:
Interestingly, despite Washington Times, Breitbart, Politico and many others all reporting on the Sirius statement where they clearly said "we have suspended The Glenn Beck Program from our Patriot channel for the coming week and are evaluating its place in our lineup going forward," Brad Thor has taken to Twitter to deny the Beck suspension:
Mr. Thor doesn't seem to be all that well informed, is he?
