Glenn Beck calls Donald Trump 'a nightmare waiting to happen,' compares him to Black Lives Matter
Earlier this week, Glenn Beck compared Donald Trump to the group Black Lives Matter, and he didn't mean it as a compliment. "He's making a new group of Black Lives Matter," Beck said on his radio show, because his supporters "so distrust and hate the system that they will buy anything — It was a rigged election! The media ought to go to jail!" Bill O'Reilly played the clip as the setup to a conversation with Beck on Wednesday night's O'Reilly Factor.
O'Reilly began by chiding Beck, saying Trump's "rigged election" thing is "really only a minor part of his presentation, is it not? Aren't you nitpicking him?" "No," Beck said. "Did you see who he just picked as the CEO of his campaign? One of the dirtiest, nastiest human beings alive." O'Reilly said he'd just discussed Breitbart News chief Stephen Bannon, Trump's new campaign chief executive, but argued that Trump needs somebody to go up against John Podesta and billionaire George Soros, whom O'Reilly called "a real, real bad hombre."
"Look, we know he's a bad guy," Beck said of Soros. "Donald Trump doesn't seem to know that he's a bad guy. Donald Trump doesn't seem to recognize bad guys." Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort, for example, "may end up in jail" over his ties to Russia and Ukraine, Beck said. O'Reilly shot back that if Beck keeps talking like that, he might end up in jail, and Beck said that proved his point. "Barack Obama I thought was bad," he said. "Donald Trump has people chanting 'Put them in jail! Put them in jail!' about the press. When is someone's opinion on a public figure jail-worthy and not First Amendment protected, Bill? This guy is a nightmare, he is a nightmare waiting to happen." Don't worry — Beck isn't a fan of Hillary Clinton. He urged "constitutional conservatives" to go out and "campaign hard" for like-minded House and Senate candidates, "because I want somebody to be able to stand against whoever is in office, because I don't think either [Trump or Clinton] care about the Constitution one iota." Watch the blows and banter below. Peter Weber
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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
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