Best of the Program | Guest: Danny Burmawi | 9/16/26

Glenn Beck (0:03)

You're gonna understand that whole story and where you should stand, in my opinion, where you should stand, where I stand on this whole thing.

Also, we speak with Danny Burmawi. He is a guy who was a Muslim, converted over to Christianity, and is now speaking out and saying, we need to be proud we're infidels. Wake up. And James Talarico, Talarico, Texas, all on today's podcast.

Stu Burguiere (0:50)

All right.

Glenn Beck (0:51)

Let me start with this audio from AOC. It's cut four, I think.

Stu Burguiere (0:57)

Comes on the radio while you're driving along. Are you changing the channels?

SPEAKER_4 (1:01)

I am. You are? Yeah.

Stu Burguiere (1:03)

Why is that?

SPEAKER_4 (1:04)

I think that what we've seen, especially, it's not just what has happened with the act and not just in removing Macklemore from the lineup, when you see what Robert Kraft did to line up all of the stadiums to censor speech in that one specific way, it's become clear that this is not just about one music artist or two music artists, but this is about how just a handful of stadium owners and the elite can prevent an entire massive issue. In this case, the genocide in Gaza, but it doesn't stop there. It could be speaking out about AI. It could be speaking out about any issue. That you can now just get a handful of stadium owners to ensure that an entire person's career can be jeopardized if they speak out about any issue.

Glenn Beck (2:03)

So it's like cancel culture. Is that what you're saying, AOC? It's cancel culture. Yeah, it sucks, doesn't it? When you can get a handful of groups together and they can put pressure on, let's say, I don't know, advertisers and get people pulled from the air, kind of sucks, doesn't it, AOC? My gosh, I'm going to lose my mind. I'm sorry. Blood might chew through my eyes at any moment.

I can't take the hypocrisy. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I know everybody always says it's the hypocrisy, but it really is the hypocrisy. How they can clearly see it on one side and not the other. So let me tell you what's really going on here.

Ed Sheeran is playing Philadelphia on Saturday. As of right now, he doesn't have an opening act. He was playing at MetLife. His opener, the rapper Macklemore, told the crowd that he joined the tour so he could stand in stadiums all across America and say two words, free Palestine. I don't know. Me, I want to go to a concert. I'm paying to go see a concert, especially not going to pay to see the warmup band. But when I go, I want to forget all of this stuff. Can you leave me alone? I don't want you to talk about Donald Trump and how great he is. I don't want to hear any of it. Play music. But maybe that's just me. Maybe everybody who's going to see Ed Sheeran is like, oh, I gotta hear about Free Palestine. I gotta hear about how wrong the Jews are. Oh my gosh. So then he played his protest song, written for students who took over a building at Columbia. Images of Gaz on the screens, and he did it the next night. Okay.

So now Robert Kraft, who owns the Patriots and Gillette Stadium, it's wholly independent, he owns it. He barred Macklemore from the building. Macklemore says Kraft then rallied other stadium owners behind an ultimatum. He says, you don't play here. Okay.

I know Robert Kraft has a right to do it because he owns it. So it's not a free speech thing. If you own it, I don't have to have you play here. You know, I own this building. I'm not doing drag shows here. I'm sorry. And you can't make me. I own the studios. Sorry. Not going to do it. Is that harming your freedom of speech? No. What you're saying is if a private person owns private property, you don't actually own your private property and I'm sorry, I do. It's my property. I can do what I want to do. Cool. So then the promoters confirm that venues told him exactly that. So Monday, Macklemore off the tour. Kraft said it crossed a line pointing to New Jersey and what he calls a broader history of anti-Semitic rhetoric and imagery. Okay.

I'm being as calm and as nice as I possibly can on this. And I think you might be surprised where I come down on it. But anyway, so on Tuesday, Sheeran speaks out. He says it's the promoters decision, not mine. Okay. He said I spent a week trying to build a bridge and I couldn't. Okay. He said I'm not going to abandon the fans, the crew or the musicians who rely on me to make a living. He said he's appalled by the war, but he's not going to be drawn into a public fight over it. Good. That's his right too. Just like it's Macklemore's right to speak out against the war. Within hours, every remaining supporting act quit. Aaron Rowe, an Irish singer-songwriter who says Ed changed his life. Bioga, an Irish folk band that played in the middle of Ed's set. Lucas Graham from Denmark. And Phineas, Billy Eilish's brother. He was booked for South Africa. Okay, or South America. First of all, Phineas, what do you expect? It's Phineas, of course. The rest of them, I don't even know. Now, you might, but I'm not going to see, what is it, bodega or whatever they are? I'm not going to pay a ticket of like $600 to see bodega. Okay? When they get big, and I'm sure they're going to be big, well, maybe not. The world may never know their greatness now that they've decided to do that, but that were their principles, and that's their right as well. So let's look at this. A dad on X with fewer than a thousand followers did something almost nobody bothers to do, and that is write Ed Sheeran a letter that just says, you know, a tweet that just says, dude, I love you, but this is so offensive. I had to leave the stadium with my kids and then come back when you were on. Really, is this what you want to be? That caught fire. He decides, Kraft decides to start it up with the stadiums, and then we're off to the races.