Allen West prepares to face primary challenge in Flordia
Allen West is facing a primary challenge in Florida tomorrow, and Glenn invited him onto the program to discuss some of the attacks he has come under in recent weeks as well as his views on President Obama and Paul Ryan.
Transcript of interview below:
GLENN: Congressman Allen West is on the phone with us now. He’s in a primary challenge. I don’t know who runs against Allen West in a primary, but somebody is and Allen West is asking for your vote tomorrow. I think this guy is one of the few truth tellers in Washington DC and a guy who will not flinch in the face of real, real trouble, and I appreciate the work that he’s done in Washington. Allen West, welcome to the program. How are you, sir?
WEST: I’m doing very well, Glenn, and I can tell you the type of guy that runs in the primary against me is a liberal who’s running as a Republican. So, that’s typical. I mean, we saw it back in 2010 when we were a candidate and they tried to slip a gentleman in and he, you know – as soon as he lost the primary, we never heard from him again. I don’t think he lives in south that Florida. So, this is the nature of politics now and – to try to get you to waste resources and get you off track, get you off message and we’re not going to allow that to happen.
GLENN: There is a – the NAACP says that they don’t have a problem with an ad showing you punching a white woman. They say that’s not racist at all.
WEST: Well, you’ve just got to understand that, you know, Executive Director Hillary Shelton and really the leadership of the NAACP, they’re nothing more than errand boys for the Democratic party and they’re going to do anything to make sure that they have a voting electorate block that continues to follow along in lockstep like mindless lemons for the liberal progressive policies and to include Barack Obama, even though you have over 14% unemployment in the black community, black teenage employment over 40%. My wife Angela and I only represent 28% in the black community now where children have mother and father in the homes, but — and failing schools, let’s talk about the failing schools in many of these urban environments, but that’s not their issue. They would rather just go lockstep with this march to destruction for the community.
GLENN: Well, but that comes from a racist that would send Chick-fil-A to the black congressional caucus.
WEST: Well, I was there. Okay? And let me tell you, there was not one single sandwich or a piece of chicken or a carousel left. So, obviously they withheld their angst well after their bellies were full six months ago. So, I found it very hilarious.
GLENN: Six months ago ahead and it comes out now.
WEST: Yeah. That’s absolutely asinine, but, you know, when it’s coming the Huffington Post, they don’t have, you know, anything between their ears. So, they’ve got to look for something to write about.
GLENN: You have been very outspoken on everything that has been going on with the Muslim Brotherhood in our government. I am extraordinarily concerned about this. We’re doing another documentary on this at GBTV. It’s really disturbing what’s happening.
WEST: Yeah. You have to be absolutely right and anyone can go back and read the 1991 exploratory memorandum that was uncovered in a basement in a house in northern Virginia after an FBI raid and it lays down the Muslim Brotherhood’s, you know, objective for the United States of America and we have many an umbrella organizations – I mean subsidiary organizations that the Muslim Brotherhood is the umbrella for and you have to really be concerned about what you just saw happen in Egypt here in the last 24 hours, where President Morsi has, you know, fired the two cop generals, replaced the head of the military, and has suspended the Constitutional amendment that the supreme military council put in place before his inauguration. So, again, we see that also happening in Turkey where President Erdogan went after the military and its leadership and Comal added Turkey and put the military in charge of making sure that Turkey stayed a secular state. So, you see this movement all across the Middle East toward radical Islamism and a sad thing that we have it happening right here in the United States of America and we have a President, we have an administration that does not want to admit up to it. As a matter of fact, they’re forcing the FBI and the military to whitewash terrorist training materials and we still have not seen Major Nidal Hasan brought to trial and I think we’re going on close to three years.
GLENN: How much trouble are we in if Barack Obama is reelected?
WEST: I think the country that we know as the United States of America will be on to a decline and I believe that it is the intention of the left to see a decline of the United States global influence and power and just try to manage that decline. When you look at the fact – we have $16 trillion in debt. I think the debt is going to continue to grow. This talk about raising taxes on just the top two tax brackets, you already look across the ocean to France and you see a declared socialist President Hollande who is forcing people to leave and this thing called liberal progressive socialism, we’ve had this discussion before, it’s never worked anywhere in the world and why would anyone think it’s going to work here in the United States of America? So, this is a turning point for our country. It’s a decisive point. The election of November the 6th, and that’s why I’ve got to tell you, I’m really happy that Paul Ryan was picked because it’s substance over style and he will force the debate to be about policy and issues which is something the Obama administration does not want.
GLENN: Well, that’s what I wanted to ask you about, because about – I’ll bet you at least a quarter, maybe half of this audience would have liked to have seen you be the pick.
WEST: Look. I’ve only been in this thing called politics or whatever for, you know, 19 months of my wife.
GLENN: That’s a good thing. But what I want to ask you is: What are your thoughts on Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney and try to – try to be as little of a politician as you possibly can.
WEST: Of course. You know me.
GLENN: Yeah.
WEST: Well, Paul Ryan is, without a doubt, the intellectual epicenter of the GOP right now. There is no one that can debate him about the budget, about economic solutions to get our country on the way as far as lowering our deficit, lowering our debt, and I think that it speaks volumes that Mitt Romney would pick Paul Ryan because he is truly a problem solver. He is going to really get us back to fiscal conservatism which my biggest concern, without a doubt, was, you know, the Republicans had the White House, they had the House, and they had the Senate but we did not act as conservatives. So, I think that Paul Ryan will force that hand with Governor Romney and hopefully now that when the Romney/Ryan team is successful, you will see a cabinet that the team players around those two that will continue to fight for conservatism as far as our economic standing, energy security, also our foreign policy and national security. So, we need to be able to put together that triumphant.
STU: And just real quick, to see how far we’ve moved with the Tea Party, I mean, back when Paul Ryan first proposed this sort of proposal, he got 8 Republicans to go along with him on it. It’s because people like Allen West have come in to Congress since then that this thing has been taken seriously. It was brushed off by the people who had been in Washington for a million years.
GLENN: I think Paul Ryan is a Tea Party success. I think he can be counted at another – would you agree with that?
WEST: Yeah, I would. Absolutely so. I mean, you know, he’s the Budget Committee chairman. So, you know, maybe he has to be a little bit careful about, you know, his leans or associations. I don’t know, but when you look a his principles, he’s clearly in line with fiscal conservatism, fiscal responsibility, limited government, individual sovereignty, and we’re going to get him going on the right track as far as understanding foreign policy and national security. I am a willing and helpful resource to them however I can be, but I think we’re going to do very well and it’s going to be important that we also win the Senate, too.
GLENN: Would you consider a defense department post?
WEST: I’ve got to tell you, Glenn, for me as a 22-year military veteran, that’s the only job worth having in Washington DC for me, to be entrusted with the security of your country, to be entrusted with taking care of the men and women in uniform who many are my friends and still few of my relatives, it would be a – that would be a true honor and it would be something that, you know, I unequivocally I would say ”yes” to.
GLENN: Let me – you would be Donald Rumsfield in a good way. Everything good about Donald Rumsfield, just shooting straight and saying, Shut up and sit down, it would be fantastic, you in a press conference. How much trouble is the United States in – you know, there’s this story going around now that Benjamin Netanyahu made his decision on Iran. If Benjamin Netanyahu moves on Iran, what does that mean for us geopolitically? What does that mean for us for the election?
WEST: Well, it says everything about us as a nation if we don’t give them our full and whole hearted support because it is not about Israel being able to take that action. They can do that. They’re a sovereign nation, but it’s about the day after because you have to consider what happens when the Muslim Brotherhood control Egypt now, Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Iran, and then, of course, everything that’s going on in Syria. They’ll stop killing each other and they’ll focus on Israel. So, all of the sudden Israel will be in a multi-front co-integration. They’ve got to know that they can look back west across the Mediterranean, they can see the gray hulls flying stars and stripes to come to their aid and to their rescue if needed.
GLENN: Which makes me – which makes me wonder why Netanyahu would make a decision to move before the election, because are you convinced –
WEST: I have no idea. I think that, you know, he has to be concerned about the safety and security of Israel, not about the American political scene and the election. So, he knows that there is a clock that is ticking and we cannot afford to play a Sir Neville Chamberlain moment because there is a saying over with your adversaries in that part of the world that Americans have watches but we have the time and so we have to be very leery about each and every day that we give to them. That means they fortify the positions with these underground nuclear facilities because they know the capabilities of our – even our upgraded bunker buster munitions and they have the support of Russia and they have the support of China and now they have a local – hegemonic dominance with Iraq because, let’s face it, Maliki is nothing more than a puppet for Ahmadinejad and the Ayatollahs there. So, time – as time ticks away, that brings us closer to a very decisive point for Prime Minister Netanyahu and Israel and look. Let’s be very honest. The President has gone to speak in Turkey. He has gone to Saudi Arabia. He has gone to speak at University of Cairo. As President, he has never gone to Israel and that is our greatest ally and that’s a true teller of where his allegiances lie.
GLENN: What do you think of Mitt Romney on the Middle East?
WEST: Mitt Romney and Israel?
GLENN: Yeah. And the Middle East.
WEST: Well, I think, you know, first of all, he’s got to probably flesh some more things out as far as his foreign policy stance and I think that’s why it’s going to be so important for him to surround himself with, you know, really savvy people like a Bolton, maybe like a General Jack Keen.
GLENN: Can you imagine if he surrounds himself with John Bolton and you? I mean, that would be a dream come true, but, wow, would the press go after him?
WEST: Well, I mean, who cares what the press thinks?
GLENN: I love you. I love you
WEST: The press, you know, they would like to see our influence diminish whatsoever. Look, Americans don’t like losers. Okay? And we just saw that in the Olympics. We saw, you know, a record number of gold medals. I think we got 104 medals overall. Americans like winners and I think Americans like winners when it comes to geopolitics, when it comes to our economy, when it comes to everything, and I think that, you know, Governor Mitt Romney has a great opportunity to put together a winning team to put American back on the top. Nobody wants to be the bottom of the barrel and that’s what President Obama and the liberal progressives want. I think it really is a reflection of the fact that they don’t like themselves, but if that be the case, just stay at home and not like yourself. Don’t try to make, you know, this country a country full of losers.
GLENN: Well, I — again, I don’t know why anybody in Florida would be thinking about voting for anybody else, but there is a primary challenge tomorrow and, Florida, you’ve got to go in and vote and vote for Allen West. He is a guy – you know a guy is effective when he is under fire as much as Allen West is and this guy doesn’t blink. You want a real fighter and somebody who can actually move things forward and articulate your point of view? It’s Allen West and, Allen, it’s great to have you on the program.
WEST: It’s always a pleasure, Glenn, and thanks for you all you do and I join you, also, and maybe we need to have that national day of prayer and fasting as it says in the 2 Chronicles because we need to make sure we can heal this land.
GLENN: God bless you. Thank you very much.
WEST: Take care.
GLENN: Wow. Obviously somebody is listening to the program. Listen to last hour on that. Allen West, tomorrow, the primary, Florida, make sure you’re there. It’s one of things that you just feel like, oh, Allen will win. He wouldn’t win if you didn’t show up.
STU: Yeah. We can’t lose Allen west.
GLENN: That would be really bad.
STU: I will veto it. I will veto all of your votes, Florida, if you don’t make Allen West win.
GLENN: You know what? We’ll go in and we’ll just — we’ll punch chads but not all of the way through.
STU: No.
GLENN: We’ll make you go through that again.
