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Obama White House Playing Politics With National Security?

Thursday, December 17, 2009

FNC

This is a rush transcript from "Glenn Beck," December 16, 2009. This
copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GLENN BECK, HOST: No matter what you might read about me or this
program, we try very hard to get our stories right. And we try very,
very hard to make sure that it's accurate and there's no reason to
make
stuff up. I mean, the stuff that is out there is crazy.

This story that I'm about to give to you here in the next few minutes
is
probably the most outrageous story — in fact, it is the story that I
have paused three times and gone back to my producers today and said,
"Are you sure we have enough on this one? Are you sure we have
enough?"

Because this is a story I do not want to believe, but if it is true,
we're in a different world.

We know that this administration practices Chicago hardball politics.
But this goes far beyond any tactic I can imagine any president — no
matter how much I disagree with him, he is still the president of the
United States — and I cannot believe that anyone in the White House
would do this to pass his agenda.

But this morning, there was one source. Today, I'm told there are
three
separate sources. Michael Goldfarb at The Weekly Standard — full
disclosure in case you don't know who he is, he was the
communications
director, right Joe? Communications director of the McCain campaign.
The
Weekly Standard is conservative.

But he confirmed to me today that he had a Senate aide inform him
that
the White House has threatened to put Nebraska's Offut Air Force base
on
the BRAC list — that's the Base Realignment and Closure list — if
Sen.
Ben Nelson doesn't fall in line with health care, they will close
this
base.

Sen. Nelson has denied this story this afternoon. The White House
denies
this story. But Goldfarb and The Weekly Standard are standing by
their
source and now two others.

Sen. Nelson has been against several portions of this bill from the
beginning. He's still holding out for taxpayer money not to be used
to
fund abortions. But the left cannot allow that one to fall through as
well. They need to have that in there for the progressives.
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Thus, the allegation is the White House has stepped up to use now the
U.S. military and the security and defense of the United States of
America as a bargaining tool against Nelson.

The Nebraska base is the headquarters for U.S. Strategic Command. It
is
in Nebraska for a reason. The successor to Strategic Air Command, it
was
the place used by President Bush during the uncertain hours of 9/11.
Do
you remember when we didn't know where he was exactly? He was there.
It's Strategic Command. It's in Nebraska for a reason.

The Obama administration is possibly — and I can't bring myself to
say
these words because it is abhorrent if it is true but it sure fits
the
pattern. They're playing politics with the national security of the
United States. If it is true, that's exactly what they're doing for
health care.

"Does it seem implausible?" was the question that was asked to me
several times by producers. Does it seem possible? Does it seem
implausible to you? A year ago, I would have said yes. Today, I bring
up
the three Navy SEALs that are facing court-martial for giving one of
the
most vile, sought-after terrorists on the planet a fat lip after they
captured him.

Would you believe the president could sit on a recommendation from
his
general that he appointed on the ground in Afghanistan for months,
pleading for more troops? More months, more months, more months —
pleading. We're going to lose this thing. The troops' lives are on
the
line.

Could you believe even six months ago that after the slaughter of 13
U.S. soldiers on a U.S. military base on U.S. soil, when the
president
steps up to inform the country about that tragedy, he would spend two
whole minutes talking about someone else before making the
announcement,
and then sending a shout-out before talking about Fort Hood?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I want to thank my Cabinet members and senior
administration officials who participated today. I hear that Dr. Joe
Medicine Crow was around and I want to give a shout-out to that
Congressional Medal of Honor winner. Good to see you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: Look what happened to Sen. Joe Lieberman. We talked to you
about
it yesterday. To get him to tow the line, Lee Siegel at The Daily
Beast
wrote that he needed to start "acting Jewish" and vote for the bill.

Liberal Democrats were calling for a recall election in Connecticut.
The
goofball Shakespearean want-to-be on the other channel that nobody
watches, hollering, "Mr. Lieberman, just resign already!"

Lieberman's wife was attacked. Liberal bloggers called for her to be
fired from her position as a global ambassador for the Komen Breast
Cancer Foundation because of her husband's views.

We have seen plenty of extortion and the politics of absolute
destruction from this White House. They're also capable of what I
would
believe — I mean, I can't believe it's not called out-and-out
bribery.
Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu — she was bought off with $300
million
carrot for her state:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARY LANDRIEU, D-LA.: I am not going to be defensive about
asking
for help in this situation. And it is not a $100 million fix. It is a
$300 million fix.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: The rabid progressives don't care how they accomplish their
goals.
The ends justify the means. This book — this guy just last week said
about me, "We've got to shut Glenn Beck up by any means necessary."
That's how they do their work.

But this? Using the military and our strategic command as a pawn,
threatening to weaken our national security defenses to fulfill your
utopian social justice agenda? To me, that borders on treason.

No one — no one — no one wants to believe that the president of the
United States or any of his advisors would stoop to these kinds of
tactics. But what are we supposed to believe here?

Senator Ben Nelson who, even if the story is true, would obviously
deny
it to protect his party and the president. Or do we take the story at
face value based on the preponderance of evidence of Chicago thuggery
we
have already seen?

I don't have time to tell you about the story about the other two
guests
that went into the White House and just had breakfast with the
president. This is two couples now and a convicted felon in three
weeks.
What happened? Did everybody in the Secret Service all of a sudden
have
an aneurysm? Or is somebody changing the game on us?

Something is wrong — very wrong. As we get closer to the end of the
year, Obama's poll numbers continue to drop. They seem to be getting
more and more desperate at the White House.

I understand that no one at the G.E.-owned NBC is interested in
anything
but propaganda anymore for health care or green energy. Oh no,
there's
not a conflict of interest there. The New York times is toeing the
line
as they hold out for their bailout money. But someone, somewhere,
must
be interested are in journalism besides this program and The Weekly
Standard.

Is there anyone who would like to report on this, report on this
story,
the possible White House extortion techniques?

Probably not. Well, not unless Tiger Woods is sleeping with one of
the
sexy female air persons at Offut Air Force Base, then they will cover
it.

Oh, by the way, in an update from a story last night, speaking of
people
sleeping with other people, do remember the story of Joe Lieberman I
just told you about again? The woman going after his wife — I told
you
about her yesterday. She dated for two years Andy Stern. Our sources
say
she just left when she met him. And by the end, she was just a
leftist.
By the end, she was a guerilla activist. What a surprise.

Up next, the editor of The Weekly Standard who first reported on this
story and some pushback on it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO 10/26/2009 CLIP)

BECK: Rahm Emanuel, Barack Obama, two lovers sitting in a tree, B-E-A-
T-
I-N-G.

What is it that Barack Obama promised on the campaign trail? Oh,
that's
right, I remember: A new kind of politics. Well, America didn't think
new politics would be even worse than the old politics.

But here is what the new politics is: You don't agree with the
administration? Well, I tell you what, you know what I'm saying? You
want to stand in the way of reform? No longer is it a gentlemen's
disagreement that can be debated. No, no, no, no. You're going to
play
ball or you're going to get a beat down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: This is the most outrageous story, I think, that we have
reported
on and we have reported on outrageous stories. And because this story
has not — the homework on this has not been done on me or my staff.
This
is not our story that we're breaking. This one is from Mike Goldfarb.
He
is the online editor of The Weekly Standard and the former deputy
director of communications for McCain in 2008.

So let's address that first: People will say you're a political hack.
Why should we believe a guy who was a communications director for the
McCain campaign?

MICHAEL GOLDFARB, ONLINE DIRECTOR, THE WEEKLY STANDARD: Well, I've got
a
perfect track record. You know, I have never made up a story before.
I
hope that will be enough.

BECK: OK. Mike, I talked to you this morning. I don't remember when
it
was — 10:00 when I first heard this story. And it fits the M.O. that
we
have been seeing.

But you have changed your story from this morning. You said to me
that
you felt it was — your source said it was Rahm Emanuel. Did I mishear
you? Have you changed the story? Because now, the story is that it's
just the — someone in the White House. Can you tell me what happened?

GOLDFARB: Look, what happened was I got a call yesterday. And a
source
of mine at the Senate told me that Ben Nelson's office had gotten a
call
threatening to put Offut Air Force Base on the BRAC list if he did
not
play ball on this vote.

Subsequently, I put that up quickly. He told me, "Look, this is
obviously a naked play by Rahm Emanuel." And that was the exact quote
I
had in the story. As interest in this story continued, I went back to
my
source and got more details. And the one thing we know for certain is
that the White House put in a call —

BECK: Hang on. Back in a minute. Back in a minute. Hang on.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Back with Mike Goldfarb. He's the online editor of The Weekly
Standard and former deputy director of communications for McCain
2008.
He broke the story today that says that Sen. Ben Nelson is being
threatened by the White House now to either sign on for health care
or
lose Offut Air Force Base which is Strategic Command.

This is not just any Air Force Base, this was Strategic Air Command.
If
you grew up when I did, you know exactly what this base is. It was
put
there strategically for reasons and is the place that George Bush
went
to for 9/11.

OK. So Mike, you were saying that you do know that the White House
made
the call.

GOLDFARB: Yes.

BECK: According to your source?

GOLDFARB: Yes. And look, as my source told me — he said look, this
was
clearly done by somebody who didn't understand the BRAC process. It
is
actually not a very credible threat. The BRAC process won't begin
again
until 2012, 2013.

But clearly, they wanted to exert some pressure. And I think it's
evidence of a couple of things: One, the desperation of the White
House.
Nelson has not signed on to this yet and they are using whatever they
can to push him to do it.

But also, look, it is part of a pattern we've seen where they played
politics with national security most of the year. They delayed the
Afghanistan troop decision because they didn't want to rock the boat
on
health care until finally it was no longer possible. And they wanted
to
have health care done a month ago long before they made that
decision.

They have done the same thing with Gitmo, exactly. And —

BECK: But I think they put Illinois at risk, quite honestly.

GOLDFARB: And they have done it on Iran sanctions, which have been
pushed off into the new year so they can try and resolve this health
care mess.

So they are doing all kinds of things with national security to try
and
get health care.

BECK: But we have also seen the beat downs of the Chamber of
Commerce.
He won't play ball. We saw it with Humana — they went after Humana.
I'm
just trying to look at some of the other things. We have the Chrysler
bondholders — they got a beat down.

I mean, anybody who won't play ball gets a serious —

GOLDFARB: You know they ask citizens to turn in their neighbors and
send
e-mails to, you know, Flag.gov at Whitehouse.com or wherever it is.
They
wanted people to send e-mails reporting, you know, neighbors who are
making suspicious statements about health care.

And obviously, went to war with Fox News which — but you know, the
sort
of the funny thing here is this is not a very credible threat they
have
made to Nelson. They lost the war against Fox News.

(CROSSTALK)

BECK: I'm sorry, Michael. It doesn't matter if it's credible or not
that
they could do it. The fact that they threatened it — it is our
national
security. There comes a point — anyone in the White House — there
comes
a point where you have crossed far too many lines. This is on the
lunatic fringe if this, indeed, happened.