Glenn Beck: How Do You Judge Candidates' Character?

This is a rush transcript from "Glenn Beck," October 26, 2010. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GLENN BECK, HOST: Hello, America.

Kind of a continuation — for the next few days, I want to continue what we started yesterday about getting up and actually voting. It stems from a conversation I told you about where I was having dinner with friends of mine and they said they weren't sure if they were actually going to vote because they didn't know who to vote for. I looked around and I went — are there cameras? Am I being punked?

I couldn't believe that friends of mine were telling me that — and these are people that know what's going on. They know the stakes. But they didn't know if they were going to vote.

I thought, if we don't have 50 percent turnout in this country under these conditions, Ben Franklin's words come to mind when he was — when they finished with the Constitution, he was walking down the street, the story goes, and a woman came to him and said, "What have you given us, Mr. Franklin?" And he said, "A republic, ma'am, if you can keep it."

If people aren't awake now, what would it take to wake them up? And how much more trouble needs to happen in this country before people say, I have got to choose sides, I have to figure this out on my own and pick up my responsibility and not just my rights.

So, tonight, I thought I'd get a few people on that I trust and have a conversation, and we have invited a studio audience in, we've had a couple of minutes to converse beforehand, and I think they all kind of feel probably like you do and I do: You don't really trust anybody in Washington. You don't know who to trust. And so, you are looking at all of the candidates and like, I don't know, is this the right guy? Is this the right woman?

It was two years ago that Americans flooded the polls to vote for change and we were promised hope — and instead, we were given despair.

We knew that jobs was the number one issue. We asked for jobs —, and Americans were given unemployment.

We wanted to rid the nation of politics of the past — and instead, we are given a country now that I can't even recognize.

You want to talk about the politics of the past? Boy, it's almost like we have put it on a rocket ship to the moon. It is — the politics of the past, as you will see during this hour, have just been energized to unbelievable and unrecognizable points.

So, now, we are two years into a fundamental transformation of our republic.

We have now Obamacare, which is one-sixth of our economy.

We have president who has added $3 trillion of debt on his watch.

There are record numbers of families on food stamps.

Our freedoms are being stripped away, from buying sugary soda to being able to dig in the sand in the beach in Florida.

The government is encroaching on to freedoms and fundamentally transforming — nudging — our way of life.

We are being detached from the Constitution. People are called crazy if they actually want to even read the Constitution. We have people in Washington that say, read the Constitution, find it in the Constitution — no, I'll let somebody else do that.

We are being separated from religion.

We are being nudged away farther and farther from our Founding Fathers.

It has been two years and will people stand yet? From — one week from today, the time will be to get off your couch or to go early. And before you go to work and start your day, go to the voting booth.

Will we see record numbers? Will we see — I think midterm elections have been, since the '60s in the 30 percent and 40 percent turnout rate. Can we — can we get it above 50 percent? So, really, only about 40 percent of this country at this point that cares?

Part of the problem with my program is that, occasionally, I will say things where I generalize and I have been a "throw the bums out." There's — you know, all the people in Washington, the Republicans and the Democrats are the problem. I believe that to be true — the parties are the problem. George Washington's words are being lived out right now.

But that doesn't mean there aren't good people in Washington. There are good representatives in Washington that are standing there in a lion's den every day. We need to arm them with the best people we can.

When it comes to voting, who do we send? What do they need? What are we looking for? How do we get our country back on course?

America is awake now. Now, maybe we need just a little bit more focus.

I wanted to show you some of the good guys that need your help.

From Minnesota: Congresswoman Michele Bachmann — these are three people that I trust. There is the Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz. Jason first came to mind or came to my attention when — there was a story printed in a local newspaper that he was embarrassing his daughter when he went to, I think it was a Wal-Mart.

Jason, was it a Wal-Mart?

REP. JASON CHAFFETZ, R-UTAH: A little grocery store, not Wal-Mart. But a little grocery store.

BECK: OK. So, a little grocery store and you were trying out — you were trying out a cot that you were going to put up in your office in Washington, D.C. and you put it down on the ground there in the grocery store and your daughter said, "Dad, don't embarrass me," and I thought I like you. Because there's nothing better than embarrassing your children from time to time. I do it every day usually around this time.

(LAUGHTER)

BECK: Also, from South Carolina is Senator Jim DeMint.

So, guys, what I wanted to do — first of all, welcome to the four of you. What I wanted to do is really talk to you — and Jim, I want to start with you.

I remember saying to you years ago the Republicans don't have any idea what they are creating. They are lying to their constituents. They say they are for small government, et cetera, et cetera, the Americans are going to catch on to this and you are going to destroy yourself. And you were there from the very beginning and you've been there from the very beginning saying, send me help.

So, let's start here. What kind of help do you need? What should we as citizens be looking for in a candidate? Let's just start there.

SEN. JIM DEMINT, R-S.C.: Glenn, I think we will get a lot of help this November.

When Nancy Pelosi first took over as speaker, we had $8 trillion in debt. Since then, we've added $5 trillion and she said when she was inaugurated as speaker that we would have no new deficit spending.

So, the first thing we need to think about this November is anyone who is seeing what the Democrats really stand for and still go out and vote for Democrats are just not the thinking. They don't understand what made America great and prosperous.

What we need now in Washington, Glenn, more than anything else is people who will keep their oath of office. The first thing we do as congressmen and senators is take an oath to defend and protect the Constitution. Yet, most people in Congress think it's their job to take home the bacon.

We're — we've got a food fight of over 500 congressmen and senators who are competing to take home as much from the federal government as they can. We've got to stop this parochial self-serving spending, and the way to do it is to stop this whole culture of earmarks.

So, I need people who are going to vote against any more earmarks, anymore bills with earmarks in them, vote to balance our budget and vote to repeal Obamacare so that we won't destroy medicine and bankrupt our country.

BECK: Michele Bachman, if you don't mind, if I share a conversation that you and I had. I don't even know when it was, six, months ago. I don't even remember what city it was in. I think it was in St. Louis, you were speaking and I was speaking. And you sat in a green room with me, you with your husband.

You said to me, you know, that you were concerned because you were the number one target on Nancy Pelosi's list.

REP. MICHELE BACHMANN, R-MINN.: Yes.

BECK: And I said, it doesn't matter, Michele, if you lose, you lose, just don't sell your — don't sell your soul. Up until that moment, because of your response and the look in your husband's eyes when — I mean, I could just tell your husband was a guardian behind you of, no, there is no soul-selling here. I didn't know for sure. I didn't — I hadn't had a personal one-on-one with you where I could look you in the eye and judge you as a person of character, so I didn't really know.

That's the problem now. We have people who are going out and voting. I have to vote in Connecticut. I don't know how to judge people's character. You can hear people say, politicians all sound the same — no matter what you're saying. I mean, I don't know — you know, you get up for breakfast, what would you have — what would you like? Well, I'll tell you, I'll tell you — this president doesn't want us to have bacon. And you're just like, what are you — just tell me what you want.

How do people judge a candidate and their character? Do you have any help on that?

BACHMANN: Well, our Founders grave us a good clue a good clue in the Federalist Papers, when they told us the first requirement for any one for public service is their character — first and foremost. That's why George, Washington is probably the best president we've ever had because of his character. He — our nation literally was built on the foundation of this great man's character.

You know, it is interesting. Recently, president — former President Bill Clinton was here in Minnesota campaigning for my opponent. I had them all. I've had the current president of the United States, the current vice president of the United States, the speaker of the House, the former president of the United States twice came in, the head of the DCCC, the congressional organization, the head of the DNC, the former head of the DNC — they've all been here, Glenn, to come for one reason, to defeat me because President Clinton said that the Tea Party movement is the most dangerous movement in America today. And he self-identified me — he said, Michele Bachmann I see as the epicenter of the Tea Party movement and that's why you need to defeat Michele Bachmann.

My opinion is, Glenn, all we're seeing from the American people and what you've been able to rally the country to do is to recapture that spirit of 1776. That's what we need. To have people take that spirit to the polls and it will mean people need to go to the Facebook page. I invite your listeners: go to my Facebook page, Michele Bachmann. You will learn about my character in that page, Jim DeMint's character, Jason Chaffetz's character —

BECK: But, you know, — I will tell you, Michele, with all due respect — I mean, you know what the political machinery is like. You know me. You go to — you go to Twitter and read about me. The things that are said about me and are out there are absolutely untrue — absolutely untrue.

But you don't know. There are some people without any character whatsoever, they'll say anything to get elected.

Let me go to Jason Chaffetz.

Jason, how do you judge a man of character? How do we know the person that we are sending is not more trouble?

CHAFFETZ: Well, regardless of party, here are a few things I think you should look for: First of all, do they do what they say they are going to do? I mean, that's ultimately what we are all looking for, right?

Are they put — do they put principle above party? And if they say they do, then show me an example where you've actually done that. Show me something where you've actually stood up to your party and said: No, party, you're wrong, this is what we should be doing.

And another little thing that you can look for is: Who actually speaks for themselves? You know, the people of Utah didn't elect me to go hire a spokesperson to do the speaking for me, and oftentimes, you'll see a candidate hide behind a spokesperson because they think, well, if they get it right then I'll take credit for it. If they don't get it right, well then I could say they misspoke.

So, see if they actually do the speaking themselves. Now, it will give you a good clue whether or not they're a stand up person and they really believe in their heart what they're actually saying.

BECK: All right. So, when we come back — I want to come back, I guess we start where we did at the beginning with Senator DeMint. What is the tool that you need the most? What if you had one thing that we should find in a candidate, what is the tool?

This is Trent Lott on what he said about these Tea Party candidates: "We don't need a lot of Jim DeMint disciples. As soon as they get here, we need to co-opt them."

That is one of the most incredible statements I've ever seen. And that shows you — the Democrats have already been gobbled by this progressive machine. Now, I warned the Democrats — I said, you know, look, my family, they were all Democrats growing up and they — what you're in bed with now, the Michael Moores and extreme left of the world, that's not Democrat. That is socialist, progressive, Marxist, communist. That's what that is. And you think the Democrats thought that they were using those people as fuel. And I said, you're going to be sadly mistaken when you're eaten by them. And that's exactly what happened.

So, the Democratic Party is lost as we know it.

Now, the challenge is to make sure that there is a party that isn't eaten by the progressives and that's the real battle. And so, we'll talk about what kind of people to send there and what kind of armor they need according to the people who are inside Washington now.

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