Another Town Hall, Another idiot Congressman
August 10, 2009 - 12:44 ET

"Turn Glenn Beck Off" - Bob Inglis (R-SC)

The media would like folks to believe that only Democrats are hearing it from constituents at town hall meetings this August, but given what happened to Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC) Thursday evening, nothing could be further from the truth.

GLENN: What's this guy's name down in South Carolina, Stu?
STU: Inglis?
GLENN: Inglis? I don't think so.
STU: No?
GLENN: Inglis?
STU: I think give him a little flare, a little flavor.
GLENN: I'm Inglis, Cream Inglis. I like to put it all over a nice souffle, Cream Inglis.

So anyway, he was booed. Do we have the audio? Here he is. Here he is saying to his town hall meeting that when Glenn Beck comes on TV, you need to turn it off.

INGLIS: The suggestion to watch Glenn Beck, here's what I'd suggest. Turn that television off when he comes on.

(Booing).

GLENN: This guy giving this sweet advice is a Republican. Now, he says this because he says I'm just, I'm not positive. He said, you know, he's only listened to me a couple of times and you can certainly get a handle on who I am in a couple of times. He's only listened to me a couple of times, but I never talk about the bright side of America.

STU: No, you never did.
GLENN: Never.
STU: So I decided to do this weekend a two minute investigation.
GLENN: Okay, two minute investigation.
STU: Because this took a long time to put these together.
GLENN: Now, two minutes, two minute investigations Pat, I don't know if you know what these are.
PAT: I don't.

GLENN: But this is when somebody says something or writes something in a blog or makes a statement. I said to Stu, "Stu, you could prove that wrong if you just did two minutes of work." Could you not? And so I allow him only two minutes to investigate and then he has to come back. And what he found in a two minute investigation.

STU: Okay. So we start, as you know, the congressman said, I don't listen often to Glenn Beck. When I have, I've come away so disappointed with the negativity, the "We've just gone to pot as a country and all is lost and there is no hope." So we'll go, we'll start it off with Clip 1, Sarah, stage show help.

GLENN: One of the messages that I brought out in the stage show, and I'm glad, is hope, you know, hope that we're going to make it, we're going to be fine, everything's going to be you know what? I have more faith every time I travel this country.

STU: Okay. So more faith and hope every time you travel this country. But that's one quote.
GLENN: That's one quote. Anybody could have made that, yeah.
STU: One, like only thing of value is next here, Sarah, because anyone can pull up just one quote, right?
GLENN: Sure. What I'm supposed to tell you today, I really believe the only thing I have of value to tell you today is we're going to make it. We're going to make it.

PAT: Who's saying these things?
GLENN: I don't know.
Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is not something given by man. It's something given by God.
STU: Hmmm. Because that doesn't sound like you've thought about that at all before.
GLENN: That's crazy. That's two quotes.
STU: Yeah, it's two quotes; all is lost.
GLENN: Right, yeah.
STU: Next one's Civil War. Here again, civil war, this is something you would talk about.
PAT: City's burning down.
STU: Civil war, here we go.

GLENN: The thing I regret on this program is as I deliver these messages as I say, you know, hey, tough times are coming, all that people hear for some reason is, it's the apocalypse! Jesus is coming! Run for your lives! The entire country's going to burn to the ground! I don't believe any of that. Well, I do believe Jesus is coming and the "Run for your life" part. But I don't believe that the country's going to burn to the ground. I think we're going to have tough times. But I mean, let's look at the toughest times in American history. The Civil War. Yes, did cities burn to the ground? Yep. Did commerce still happen? Did people still have families? Did people still have food and homes? Did they struggle? Yes. Did they die? Yes. But did we survive? Yes.

GLENN: No, no. I'm sure that's been an edit. That's taken out of context.
STU: It's weird because you are even saying it's not just this. You are actually saying that we can survive the Civil War.

GLENN: Right.
STU: But you're such a negative guy.
GLENN: Yeah, but I'm such a negative.
STU: And then we go to people like you which is again our next clip.
GLENN: People like you.
STU: Because again anybody can find three quotes, anybody can find three quotes, people like you.

GLENN: I believe what I am supposed to tell you today and that is we are going to make it. It is going to be ugly. It is going to be brutal, but we are going to make it. And the reason why we're going to make it is because of people like you.

STU: There you are again, Glenn, just putting people down. You are selling fear.
GLENN: I have no faith in people, I know, I'm peddling, I'm a fear monger.
STU: But again anybody can find four clips in two minutes. How about Number the rock, number 5? See, couldn't even find that one. Go ahead.

GLENN: And then you need to be the rock. You need to be the one that looks people in the eye and says we're going to make it because we have each other. We're going to make it because we have each other and we know how to make decisions. And the decisions are not made by some shadowy group in back rooms. It's not made by the people in Washington.

STU: Almost seems like maybe a congressman didn't like your conclusion there of "It's not made by the people in Washington."

GLENN: Could be, but I
STU: It's possible, but again
GLENN: I'm hearing a lot of negativity. Do you notice that I'm always sick in these clips? What's up with that?
STU: You are sick and you are also just telling people they are they might as well just end it for themselves.
GLENN: I know, I know.

STU: That's pretty much what I'm getting. But you've also told them as the congressman pointed out. He was asked if he used the term fear mongering, he said probably, that's what he does, that's what Glenn Beck is all about. I've had the misfortune of listening to those shows a couple of times. The America that Glenn Beck seems to see is a place where we should all be fearful, thinking our best days are behind us. It sure does sell soap, but it sure is a disservice to America. You're a disservice to America, Glenn.

GLENN: I know, but I'm selling soap.
STU: You are selling a lot of soap.
GLENN: So we may smell like the French. We may live like the French but we don't smell like the French.
STU: You'll never, ever make it. Let's start with Clip 1 here, a dark period.
GLENN: I'm sorry to point out we are headed into a dark period. It does frighten me. Turn it off. But I do know we are going to make it.

STU: Why?

GLENN: No. If you would have turned it off when I told you when to turn it off, like he told you to turn it off, you would have been left with that message from me.

STU: Just that it's going to be a dark period?
GLENN: Yes.
STU: But not that we're going to make it?
GLENN: Turn it off.

STU: Edit that part out. Okay. We face our fear would be next because this one, again you've been saying you've been talking about fear all the time.

GLENN: Yes.
STU: That's all you ever talk about.
GLENN: Go ahead.

I have conquered my fear. If you are a soldier, if the you are an airman, if you were in the Navy, you know it to be true. What do they teach you? Name the monster. Name the monster in the dark and you will have no fear. I can be afraid. You can be afraid but we don't succumb to our fear. But we do face it. We do stand.

STU: Jeez, that was
GLENN: Stand for what? Monsters?
PAT: I can't take the negativity, can't take it.
GLENN: This guy has gone insane. Now monsters are coming after us?
PAT: Exactly.
STU: So we'll go to sunshine and lollipops because that's something you don't talk about.
GLENN: I know.
STU: You don't want sunshine. You are a negative Nelly, Glenn.

GLENN: If you are looking for sunshine and lollipops and, gee, everything's going to be great, if you want to bury your head in that sand, that's fine. I will tell you before we start this that we're going to be fine if we know what we're facing, why we're facing it. Then and only then can we assess what the problem was and fix it and pull ourselves back out.

GLENN: I'm beginning to think this guy's making sense.

We have respect for the American people when we face the problem. We're about to be on the mat with our back on the mat and somebody's counting to 7, 8, you better realize what put you on that mat and then we will stand up and we will conquer it.

STU: We will conquer it.
GLENN: I'm beginning to think this guy's making sense. I really am. He's turning me around.
STU: Are you more fearful now? Do you guys feel more fearful?
GLENN: No.
STU: Are you ready to curl up in a ball on the floor?
GLENN: No, I feel more hopeful.
STU: These are just general statements.
GLENN: Yes.

STU: It's not like this congressman would have basically come out with what his specific vision is for America. And say how you never say things like that.

GLENN: Right. Again in our two minute Google search. All right, go ahead.

STU: It is not this is what he said: It is not consistent your view of America Is not consistent with the America that I know. The America that I know was founded by people who took tiny boats across a big ocean and pushed west in tiny wagons and landed... on the moon. So there you go.

PAT: In the wagons?
GLENN: How do they do that? Is that where the moon is, all the way out west? Holy cow.
PAT: I have no idea.

GLENN: I thought we got all our cheese from Wisconsin. Of course, that is west from here. So maybe that's where the moon is.

STU: You had a caller who called up and basically said, hey, Glenn, I've lost all hope.
GLENN: Yeah.
STU: Now, of course, you being a person who's selling fear and selling
GLENN: Yeah. And soap.
STU: And soap.
GLENN: And soap.
STU: At the destruction of America, that's your message. Your core belief.
GLENN: Last thing you do is mention ships or the moon or nothing like that, yes.
STU: And again this is to a caller who's saying this already.
GLENN: Yes.
STU: So you can easily just agree with him and go on your merry way.
GLENN: Right, to sell more soap.
STU: Instead this is how you respond. This is founding of this country.

GLENN: Once we lose hope, then it is over. So we can't lose hope. And what I base my hope is in the founding of the country. These documents changed the world. So the documents will survive in the end. We may have to go through hell and back, but in the end the documents will survive and the people will survive and I don't know what America looks like at the end of the road, but we will survive and we will rebuild because that's what we do.

STU: What a message of despair. And it's not like he based it on the founding fathers or anything.

GLENN: Yeah.
STU: What a jerk you are, Glenn.
PAT: But the thing is, you know, it's all taking it out of context. That's a bunch of sound bites. Sound bites.
GLENN: Seriously.
PAT: Taken out of context.

GLENN: All of those sound bites were me right before those things going, you know what an idiot would say?

STU: You know what's weird, though? We played, what, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, I don't know, nine?

PAT: You played ten different clips.

STU: Right. Now, if he had heard just that segment, he would have heard you now twelve times, but ten of the times you would be hopeful. So now is he convinced that you are 83% hopeful? I assume that he's going, this guy's the most positive guy I've ever heard.

GLENN: He's turned it all off. He's turned it all off.

STU: In all seriousness though, doesn't this make a larger point? This is the same problem we have with these people when they are voting on bills without reading them. This guy's got no idea what he's talking about and he's out there trying to convince the people of something that he admits he's only heard a couple of times.

http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articl ... 198/29172/