Glenn Beck: We're Being 'Conned' By Both Polarizing Parties

The conservative radio host and commentator was a vocal critic of Trump during the presidential election. Beck talks to NPR's Scott Simon about his evolving political views and finding common ground

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Glenn Beck, the radio host who's founder of TheBlaze, has been an outspoken critic of Donald Trump's campaign during the election season. Glenn Beck joins us once again.

Mr. Beck, thanks for being back with us.

GLENN BECK: You bet.

SIMON: What's your reaction so far to what you see going on in the transition in Washington, D.C.?

BECK: I've actually been trying not to pay attention to it as much as I can. I am disappointed with the way the press is handling a lot of this, I think, because I think we're headed off to a repeat of '02 and '08 and '12 again. And unless we start a different way, we're going to have the same division all the way through this.

SIMON: What's the press getting wrong in your judgment?

BECK: I - you know, I understand the fear that people are going through. Many people felt that in '08. I really felt it in '12. I really felt Mitt Romney was a - not my candidate. I didn't exactly like his policies, but I thought he was an honest guy. I didn't think that he would engage in corruption. He wasn't involved in some of the things that the administration, I felt, was involved with. You know, I thought Benghazi - and for a lot of people on the right, Benghazi was a game-changing moment.

And when Mitt Romney lost, we looked at ourselves and said, wow. Maybe we're in the minority here. Maybe people don't care about the principles that we held dear. And I think that's somewhat of what the left is feeling now - that maybe I'm alone, and they're not. There are millions of us on the right that feel the same way. And what the media is doing is, again, just going after the Democrats and the Republicans and making it about politics instead of principles.

SIMON: You - to get specific, you've been very critical of the choice of Steve Bannon to be the chief strategist in the White House. Do you know him? What do you find to fear?

BECK: No, I don't know him. I know several people who have worked for him. My biggest problem is that he has made Breitbart a platform for the alt-right. Then, Breitbart defined who the right alt-right was. And one of the guys they described as the center of the voice of the alt-right is Richard Spencer.

Richard Spencer is a terrifying individual that wants to burn down the system as we know it, has called for sterilization of races. He has called for a whites-only, or European-only state. And for anyone in a position that Steve Bannon has been in to bring them in and, best-case scenario, use them for their vote is truly terrifying.

SIMON: You told us a few - couple of months ago that you felt it was time for a new party or maybe more than one new party. There were a couple of other parties, the Green Party and the libertarians, that were on many state ballots this year, and they did very badly.

BECK: Yeah.

SIMON: I wonder how you feel about the prospects for new parties now.

BECK: About the same. I still think that it's time for something that reflects the American people. I think, you know, if the Democrats would have reflected Bernie Sanders - as much as I disagree with Bernie Sanders - at least Bernie Sanders was a man seemingly of principle, a man who actually believed in something, was not surrounding himself with corruption and was moving in the direction that the people are moving.

If the Republicans would have moved for somebody that was constitutional, that's, I believe, where the right lives. What's happening is we're both being conned by these parties that we have to go their way or no way.

SIMON: Glenn Beck, thank you very much for being back with us.

BECK: Thank you.

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