After a few days off-air, Glenn Beck didn't take too long to return to one of his oldest habits -- engaging in violent rhetoric.
Today's outburst came in the middle of a hypothetical scenario Beck developed, one in which the government would consider taking his children because he refused to have them receive a mandatory flu vaccine. Beck explained to the audience that his response to such a claim would be to “meet Mr. Smith and Mr. Wesson,” a reference to the gun manufacturer.
After the recent revelations about how Beck apparently influenced would-be assassin Byron Williams, it seems there hasn't yet been a decision by Beck to avoid the type of language that could incite people.
This also isn't the first time Beck has fearmongered over the flu vaccine. He previously said the vaccine could be “deadly” and that people should ignore Homeland Security recommendations to take it, while warning that someone could be “quarantined” or “put on a bus” by the government if they ignored a mandate to take the vaccine.
From the October 15 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' Glenn Beck Program:
BECK: Let me ask you this. Don Imus, Deirdre, very, very bright. Let's say -- what's his kid's name, Wyatt? -- let's say Wyatt gets cancer. You're gonna take the kid away, because they believe broccoli enemas are the thing?
GRAY: I don't think that would happen to Imus. Do you? It would be too, I mean --
BECK: No because he would get on and say, “Get the hell away from my kids.”
GRAY: Yep. And they'd have to.
BECK: And he would muster -- he would be able to make the case. Look --
GRAY: And again that's not equal justice, that's social justice.
BECK: Exactly right.
GRAY: This keeps happening.
BECK: Here's a child that is going to lose an eye. And the state thinks it's better for them to lose the parents.
GRAY: Yeah.
BECK: Than an eye. I'm sorry, I don't.
BURGUIERE: I don't know, I mean it's just one of these things that when you have things that are treatable and obvious, I think that you have to, you have to -- you're putting these kids in danger. It's just like a child abuse situation.
BECK: No.
BURGUIERE: It really is. When you're talking about if you have -- if you stuck something in their eye intentionally for them to go blind --
BECK: Then it's child abuse.
BURGUIERE: Right, but when you let them just go blind out of the disease that could be cured, that's not? I mean, it's certainly at least kind of close to it.
BECK: Don't they have the right -- the state has a bigger right to the child? Look, look, again, we're not talking about total blindness, and we're not talking about life and death here.
BURGUIERE: It's not degrees of blindness is not the argument here.
BECK: Yes there is. One eye. One eye.
BURGUIERE: So if it's one eye, we can let him go blind in the one eye, but --
BECK: You are talking about taking a child away and the state rearing a child and making decisions. If they're nuts, then -- but if they are sane? They just happen to believe in God and faith-healing, then I think you've got to let them rule. The family is sacred.
GRAY: Where do you draw that line? So you'd draw that line at something that is maybe life-threatening?
BECK: I don't know where the line is.
GRAY: It's really hard.
[CROSSTALK]
BECK: But here's why it has to be drawn. Because, vaccinations. You don't give your kid vaccination -- how many people do you know that ten years ago people said, “Oh, vaccinations, please stop with the vaccination thing.” How many people do you know who are really smart, who have really done their homework, who have children with autism, and say, “Don't do the vaccinations thing”? A lot.
BURGUIERE: There's a lot of people who believe that.
GRAY: I've got very close friends who, and they swear by it. Vaccination thing. Swear by it.
BECK: My children? We're not getting the flu vaccine. No. The state comes and says my kids have to have the flu -- go to hell. Go to hell. Get off my porch. You want to take my kids because of that? Meet Mr. Smith and Mr. Wesson. Get off my land. Period.
GRAY: And do you know there are doctors who won't treat kids who haven't been vaccinated?
BURGUIERE: Well, that's their choice, though.
BECK: That's their choice.
GRAY: That's their choice.
BECK: That's their choice.
GRAY: But I'm just saying, the pressure right now is almost unbearable. Can't go to school without it. You can't get treated by doctors without it.
BECK: You know what? To me, all of those things, as long as those are individual choices -- if somebody in a school district says, you know, the school district, the local school district, says, you know what, we don't want to have vaccinations, then I will take my children, because it will be more important than my job, my house, my car, and I'll live under a bridge if I have to, I will live in a cardboard box, and my children and I will be fine. We will make it, but I will go find a community that believes in the things that I believe.