Beck and crew attack Native American student for singing a song honoring troops at Reid rally

Written by Karen Famighetti

Published

Glenn Beck and his radio sidekicks attacked a Nevada student for singing a Native American song that she dedicated to American troops during a recent rally for Sen. Harry Reid. Her offense? Not singing “The Star Spangled Banner.”

Picking up on a story first reported by radio host Barbara Simpson and carried on Gateway Pundit, The Blaze, and Fox Nation, Beck asked, “When somebody says, 'Please rise for the national anthem,' what song are you expecting?” He then ridiculed Christina Thomas for not singing the national anthem at a recent Reid rally.

But audio makes clear, however, that Thomas told the audience that she was not singing the national anthem as the event's emcee announced, but rather a tribal flag song. Thomas told the audience, “I sing this in honor of all our veterans” and “those who are still fighting for our freedoms overseas.”

After talking over Thomas' explanation that she was not going to be singing the national anthem and that she was dedicating another song to “all our veterans” and “those who are still fighting for our freedoms overseas, Beck said, ”Ladies and gentlemen, the national anthem." While playing audio of Thomas singing, Beck said, “not really our national anthem, maybe her national anthem.”

From the November 1 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Glenn Beck Program:

Earlier this year, Nevada's senators Reid and John Ensign welcomed Thomas to Washington, D.C., as an American Indian ambassador.

After attacking Thomas for insufficient patriotism, Beck tied her song choice to an incident at Denver's “State of the City” ceremony in 2008, when Rene Marie was introduced to sing the national anthem and then instead sang “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” a song often called the black national anthem. Beck said that this was “the same thing ... with the Democrats in Denver.”

According to the Rocky Mountain News, Denver Democratic officials were caught off guard by the singer's decision to sing “Lift Every Voice and Sing” instead.

Beck rounded out the segment by saying, “Ladies and gentlemen, please rise for our national anthem,” and playing a parody of the Soviet national anthem with the lyrics, “All hail the messiah, Obama.”

He dedicated it to “our savior, Barack Obama.”