I find myself in a position of coming to the defense of a commentator, Glenn Beck, that I do not even like, because there has been a huge misunderstanding that has led multiple outlets to report that Beck said he would stab Donald Trump.
An audio was published where Glenn Beck was talking about how he would not vote for Donald Trump if he was nominated as the GOP presidential candidate and how he disagreed with the other candidates answers to the question. At the end of the discussion before the quote in question that has caused the Internet to light up, Beck said "I can’t say it that way. If I were on the stage, I would have said, "have you been listening to him tonight? Have you been listening to what I say about him? I believe these things.'"
After the points had been made there was some back and forth between the head writer of The Glenn Beck Program, Stu Burguiere who was in Dallas, while Beck was in DC at the CPAC, with Beck ending with the statement "If I was close enough and had a knife, the stabbing just wouldn’t stop."
The audio which had multiple media outlets reporting that Glenn Beck threatened Trump's life is below..... under that is the video of what actually occurred with a description from Burguiere who as he puts it, has been "stuck in the odd situation of defending my boss for threatening my life."
Description of events by Stu Burguiere, via his Facebook page:
Of course, if you were listening, you know that Glenn actually threatened ME, not Donald Trump. So, I am now stuck in the odd situation of defending my boss for threatening my life.
Basically, Glenn was talking about what candidates should say when asked if they would vote for Donald Trump. He said, "I dont know what I would say if I were sitting in their shoes."
Obviously, he meant if "I were in their shoes" or if "I had to walk a day in their shoes" but he butchered the analogy. So, I made fun of him. As I do, every day.
I asked "why would you be sitting in someones shoes?" But, we were sort of talking over each other. So, Glenn stopped his point to hear what I said, (you can see him pause and listen), and I reiterated "Do they have gigantic shoes? Why would you be sitting in them?"
At that point he said TO ME, not to any of the candidates, but TO ME, "if I were close enough and had a knife, the stabbing would not stop."
As he says this, you can see both Glenn and myself smiling and laughing. The video is here, watch for yourself, but a couple of points:
To be fair to the media, some sites edited the transcript, so getting the wrong idea was somewhat understandable. They also didn't know by just those few seconds of audio that we were in different locations. Glenn was in DC at CPAC, I was in Dallas. That's why he said "if I were close enough."
Additionally, this is how we bust on each other all the time. If you listen **at all** you know that.
To back up his version of events, Stu provide a video of the same segment, where people could see the two, which appears to back up his assertions.
BOTTOM LINE
After listening to just the audio before reading any accounts, especially after just reporting yesterday on threats by Chait and Douthat against Trump, I too had to listen a few times, but it was when I saw the video versus the audio that it became clear that Glenn Beck did not threaten Donald Trump.
FOR THE RECORD
As an interesting side note and proof that in politics, positions and minds change fast, while Beck is an ardent supporter of Ted Cruz for President and has referred to Trump as a "bully" and a "dangerous man"...... before that he was heaping praise on Trump when Beck stated on the O'Reilly Factor that Trump was man he respected, who "gets things done" and who could "economically fix our country."
Shown below:
Hat Tip to The Ralph ReTort for remembering the Beck comments above. (We are attempting to find the entire clip of that Beck appearance, if we come across it we will replace the video above)
