On Tuesday’s Mark Levin Show, Mark acknowledges the passing of broadcaster Bob Beckel. Beckel was an old-school Scoop Jackson type of Democrat that believed in what was right whether you agreed with him or not and he will be missed. Then, the Putin apologists mock the president of Ukraine for arresting the opposition forces, but Zelensky had them locked up because these ‘separatist’ groups are funded by Putin. President Abraham Lincoln faced a similar issue during the American Civil War and took extraordinary actions to keep the Union together. Later, Marxist Justin Trudeau is Canada’s Putin. All Levinites should to forgo visiting or purchasing from the provinces of Ottawa and Ontario. Also, can we strengthen our own border and support Ukraine’s border? It is possible to support the national sovereignty of the United States and the sovereignty of Ukraine. Finally, former Ambassador Carla Sands joins the show to discuss her candidacy for Pennsylvania’s US Senate seat.
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Right Scoop
BREAKING: Former Fox News co-host Bob Beckel dead at 73
Washington Post
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The Hill
Supreme Court turns away Trump’s appeal in dispute with House Jan. 6 panel
The podcast for this show can be streamed or downloaded from the Audio Rewind page.
Image used with permission of Getty Images / Omer Messinger
Rough transcript of Hour 1
Hour 1 Segment 1
Let me start the program tonight by acknowledging the sad passing of Bob Beckel. Bob Beckel was an extraordinarily close friend with Sean Hannity. And I got to know Bob Beckel through Sean Hannity. One of Sean’s birthday parties weekend, we all got together, we played golf a couple of times, all of us. He was a big supporter of the Freedom Concerts because Beckel was an old time liberal, partisan as hell. Old time Democrat, liberal. Ran Mondale’s campaign, used to mock him about that all the time, since Mondale won one state, Minnesota, by the skin of his teeth against Reagan. He had a tremendous sense of humor. And to get to know him was to like him a lot and. There were times decade or two ago. When the media would try to do these hit pieces on me and they call people like Beckel and Becca would say, no, I like Levin, he’s very smart, blah, blah, blah. We both like dogs very much, that sort of thing. That sort of thing. And he had a number of. Personal issues and demons that he fought. For much of his life, particularly up to the end. He was a man of deep faith, he was a born again Christian. And while you and we may disagree with them on many issues, when it came to issues of faith, there was very little disagreement, frankly. As I said, he was an all time Democrat, like a Scoop Jackson Democrat. Something of that sort. Not an AOC Democrat, nothing of that sort. When Hannity did the show, Hannity and Colmes, I was often paired against him, had a lot of fun and a lot of fun in the green room. I went back and read some of the things they said on the air. 2013, 2014, about the five. Condemning the Republicans on the five for failing to stand up and fight Beckel, who was running circles around them, I said. You had people in the five who were not defending. Ted Cruz, when he was running for office at some point. They were not defending conservatives because they were mostly of the RINO. Bush Cheney world. And some of them were posing as libertarians as opposed to defending. Our principles, you can be both, but they weren’t being both. So I’d get on the air and I was critical. I look, I tell you what I feel. Regardless of whom I work for, where I am. I believe in doing what’s right. I believe others should do it right, what’s right. I believe in following the rules. I believe others should follow the rules. Otherwise, I wash my hands of them. I lose all respect for them. And Bob is the same way, quite frankly. So. He was. He left the five. Over a period of time, they took him on CNN. It wasn’t the same thing. I don’t know anything about the last couple of years. Other than to say, in fact, he will be missed. He. He very much like my ex boss. Ed Meese. I forget the circumstances he met Ed or they spoke at some length and so forth, and he really liked them and he really felt that he was given a bum rap and he was, of course. But again, that’s the way the guy was. And that’s why you’re hearing a lot of conservatives who knew him. He was best friends, were Cal Thomas the Great Countless. And Cal would know more about Bachal than anybody, but I think Cal introduced them or reintroduced them. To the good lord and to faith. And it’s a cold stronghold. So God bless him, he didn’t live that long, 73, God bless his family. A lot of people passing away in these latest times, it’s really something. I want to talk now about Ukraine and Russia. You know, people have written me notes that, boy, you were way ahead of the curve and this I’m not ahead of the curve. What I do on this program is different. I’m a person of history and facts and evidence of knowledge, that’s what I’m about, that’s what I pursue. People ask me, what do you do for a hobby? That’s what I do. That’s what I do, and I spent a lot of time thinking about these things. Honestly, where I don’t want to be bothered by friend or foe, and I’m thinking about these things. Not running around to social events. Not running around a places to be seen. And even when I go to places, I don’t necessarily want to be seen. But I’m not weird about that either this person comes up, I’m nice in return, but that’s not my point. My point is history, facts, evidence, knowledge. And then overlay that with principles. And ethics and morality. That’s how you define me and that’s how you define most Americans. It was interesting, I was watching very carefully last evening after the show. And beyond this morning. Doing more, listening and watching than I normally do. Of this medium and others. The people who’ve been apologists for Putin, the people have been saying, well, we don’t want to go to war with Russia, which of course is true, the people who have made all kinds of absurd arguments that have been made in the past, whether confronting Mao or Hitler, Stalin or what have you. They’re mostly silent or they pretend that they never said what they said. People who are mocking the president of Ukraine, who is a good guy, who was a reformer. I locked up the opposition because the opposition is tied to and funded by Putin. They don’t tell you that. What do you think Abraham Lincoln would do? There’s a great documentary on about him. It’s been on the History Channel, started up against me on Sunday, but. It’s moved on to each night. It’s been a fascinating program, I also like the fact that they explain the contribution of former slaves to the civil war and to the movement, and I think that’s all very, very important as nothing do a critical race theory. I think the commentators have been terrific. The professor is white, black and in between have been outstanding. When Lincoln couldn’t get a Massachusetts regiment through Baltimore to Washington to defend the Capitol after the first bull run. With a union was. Was slaughtered. What was happening in Baltimore is a lot of the people were sympathetic to the cause. Of slavery and segregation. So he couldn’t get these troops down from Massachusetts to protect the Capitol on the Capitol was right on the line. Obviously it was on the line with Virginia. Also separatists and and slave supporters in parts of Maryland. Maryland was really a half and half state a border state, as was Delaware. So he suspends habeas corpus, does Lincoln, and says anybody who interferes with the troops getting down here. To protect the capital. From certain attack and destruction of the entire country, we’re not talking about truckers protesting here, truckers who have no interest in overthrowing their government, they’re interested in protecting their own personal rights, their own personal bodies, you know, their choice. He’d throw them in jail. He knew it was unconstitutional. Lincoln was a genius. He was a lawyer. He knew the Constitution better than most. But he said there’d be no constitution with these breakaway states, they’re already violating the Constitution. And so when you have the head of Ukraine, a reformer, the new president of Ukraine truly is representative of that democracy. The opposition leader, quote unquote, who is funded by and supported by Putin, I bet you didn’t know that. Yes, he threw him in jail. Because they’re under attack now. This is a brave man. He and his cabinet, his foreign ministers, defense secretary, these are brave people because a Putin can hide them from telephone poles. Like Mussolini. Putin is a sick man, he’s a power hungry. Mass murder, 20 years, and when you have people in this country who defend him affirmatively or by their connivance, that is playing with the facts on the ground. Or otherwise sinister. It’s really appalling. There are people in Europe who want to be free. Eastern Europe. They want to be free. Now, I pointed out months ago it’s not being regurgitated by many of my friends. But I understand they want to be out there and I took. But it’s important that they do regurgitate it. That we cut a deal with Ukraine, as did Russia and Britain. That they had to give all their nukes back to Russia back, whatever that means, the old Soviet Union collapsed, but you get my point and in exchange, their sovereignty would be recognized and protected. Somehow, some of the backbenchers heard about this. Because they go onto my website and they look at the transcript and they listen to the show and I can’t say I blame them because again, what’s Mark’s hobby is a golf now. Is it putzing around no. It’s this this is what I love, this is what I do, I want to confer as much information as possible. I’m blessed to be behind this microphone. You’re not blessed to have me, I’m blessed to have you. And a lot of people get that mixed up in this business. In this Bucharest memo. Resulted in Ukraine giving up its nukes, it would be a very different situation if Ukraine never gave up its use of its nukes. And we’ve been pointing that out over and over and over again. But that’s not all. When Putin. Basically sent his military into the most eastern side of. Of Ukraine basically ahead, his troops take off their Russian insignias and then pretend to be sort of indigenous spontaneous citizens of Ukraine. Russians, though, rising up against all this horror. We had the opportunity to arm the Ukrainians to the teeth with our offensive weaponry. They have more than one arm tied behind their backs, they’re willing to fight and die. And if they weren’t willing to fight and die, Putin wouldn’t need to send literally half of his military, half of his army on the border with Ukraine, a nation of 44 million people. I want to expand on this, I’ll be right back.
Hour 1 Segment 2
The other day, I spoke about the land lease program that FDR put in place to try and assist the British against Hitler. Because America was in a very isolationist stage. And people then, as today, would say things like, well. What does this have to do with assets all the way over there? Britain can defend itself. What are we going to do, send American troops as if evil enemies like this are going to say, you know. We’re building all this equipment. They want to advance our cause, we want to be the most powerful nation on the face of the Earth, but don’t bother the United States. That’s not how it works. Remember what I said? History, facts, evidence and knowledge. That will usually lead you to the right place. What else have I been talking about? In fact, we did cut a deal. Now it’s being mentioned on Fox and that’s a good thing. I mentioned myself several weeks ago. In bureaucracy and in 1994. Were the entire Ukrainian arsenal was surrendered. The United States had the biggest nuclear arsenal, Russia had the second biggest arsenal. And you’ll hear this now tomorrow. Ukraine had the third biggest arsenal as part of the old Soviet Union. Well, it voluntarily and peacefully gave it up, give them to Russia. And as I’ve said, and you’ve listened to this program and others. Well, that’s Life, Liberty and Levin lovin TV, but especially here that this was a big mistake. A big mistake. As I said, I spoke about Lend Lease the other day and the. Foreign Minister of Ukraine, Dimitra Kaleeba. He talked about it, too, that the Ukrainians are trying to develop a program with the rest of the world. EU, NATO and so forth. One of the proposals we put forward today said is designing a program similar to the Lend Lease that was implemented during World War Two. To support the British. And to support Eastern Europe, I say, listen to this program, you’re going to hear things regurgitated by people who don’t do the work, but this is very, very important stuff and I happen to agree with him. I’ll be right back.
Hour 1 Segment 3
Why is it assumed that we want war? Well, we haven’t invaded anybody. When we are saying through our idiotic president. What we’re not going to do, rather than keep the. The Russians on their heels wondering what we might do. Why is it assumed that? We’re the war mongers that we want to have a a ground war in Europe and that we want the ground war to be with the Russians. So this is called used to be called propaganda. The manipulation. The facts and arguments used to be called propaganda. And unfortunately, we have the equivalent of our Tokyo roses in this country. In radio, on television, in the written media. That’s who they are. The foreign minister of Ukraine, as I said at a news conference today. Demetri Excuse me, Dmytro Coolabah, Cat 17 Go Ukraine continues the engagement with the United States, EU and NATO in diplomatic efforts to ease tensions. Yet we also stand ready for any possible development. We had a focused discussion today with Secretary Blinken on steps to protect Ukraine and our multidimensional resilience. One of the proposal that we put forward today is designing a program similar to the Lindley’s implemented during the World War Two to support the war efforts of the allies in eastern Ukraine is in in Europe. This program will help to ensure sustainable sustainability and will improve efficiency in the in strengthening the capacity of Ukraine to defend itself. Uh huh. Again, the point we raised the other day, Lend Lease, FDR did it, a population in the United States that was very. Protectionist at the time. Not even protectionist, isolationist at the time. Making people making many of the same demagogic arguments that you hear. Today. Like, somehow we. Are the bad guys, they sound like the radical left, the American Marxist left. Do they not? The neo appeasers in neo sellouts, in my opinion, they do. But the failures of this administration are multifold despite some of the support it’s getting on TV and elsewhere. The things that it did leading up to this, to send signals to Russia that were weak, the budget proposed for our military, that doesn’t even cover inflation. We’ve talked about that for months. Suggesting we’re weak. Obviously, what we’ve done in Afghanistan, where we’ve done with Iran. Showing that we’re weak under this phony commander in chief. All of us have been taken in. And now The Washington Post and other pretend media. Are reporting that China is really. Caught in a Catch 22 situation, since it doesn’t want to completely tick off the West, but on the other hand is. Is somewhat supportive of what Putin is doing, so they’re sending sort of signals to both sides. No, they’re not. The Washington Post, if you want facts and information. Bolstered by history, you’re reading the wrong the wrong news, but that is a rag. So with ideologues and apologists, that is a joke, The Washington Post. And we keep hearing today that Biden from Biden and others, that they’ve now put in some sanctions and some very serious sanctions and depending on what. Putin does. They might heighten those sanctions. What sanctions really what have they done that’s going to stop Putin so far? Anything significant? I mean, lay the gloves on the guy, go for it. Choke off the economic system. Reagan did that and he hadn’t even invaded Ukraine. He wanted to put the world out of the misery, the Soviet Union. Here’s Joe Biden today cut Cutforth go yesterday, Vladimir Putin recognized two regions of Ukraine as independent states and he bizarrely asserted that these regions are no longer part of Ukraine and their sovereign territory. To put it simply, Russia just announced that it is carving out a big chunk of Ukraine. Last night, Putin authorized Russian forces to deploy into the region, these regions. Today, he asserted that these regions are actually extend deeper than the two areas he recognized, claiming large areas currently under the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian government. He’s setting up a rationale to take more territory by force, in my view. And if we listen to his speech last night and many of you did, I know he’s he’s setting up a rationale to go much further. This is the beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, as he indicated. Let’s stop there. Last night, he and his administration wouldn’t use the word invasion. We did hear. In fact, last night, the phony media, the news organizations, they wouldn’t use the word invasion and we did and I pointed out they won’t use the word invasion. I will. This is the beginning of the invasion. What we said here last night, you were here when our government wouldn’t say it, when our media wouldn’t say it, so we’re all supposed to roam around like we’re Helen Keller. Go ahead, permission to be able to do from his domun, so let’s begin to so I’m going to begin to impose sanctions and response far beyond the steps we and our allies and partners implemented in 2014. And if Russia goes further with this invasion, we stand prepared to go further. As with sanctions, who in the Lord’s name does Putin think gives them the right to declare new so-called countries on territory that belong to his neighbors? This is a flagrant violation of international law and demands a firm response from the international community. I don’t see any firm response from the international community. Including our community. He’s got the facts right, but I don’t see any firm response to you folks. And Putin hasn’t exactly been hiding what he plans to do. Separate from some of the propagandists in our own media. Cut five go over the last few months, we’ve coordinated closely with our NATO allies and partners in Europe and around the world to prepare that response. We’ve said all along, and I’ve told Putin to his face a month, more than a month ago, that we would act together and the moment Russia moved against Ukraine, Russia is now undeniably moved against Ukraine by declaring these independent states. So today, I’m announcing the first tranche of sanctions to impose costs on Russia in response to their actions yesterday. These have been closely coordinated with our allies and partners and will continue to escalate sanctions if Russia escalates. We’re implementing full blocking sanctions on two large Russian financial institutions, ECB and their military bank. We’re implementing comprehensive sanctions on Russian sovereign debt. That means we’ve cut off Russia’s government from Western financing. It can no longer raise money from the West and cannot trade in its new debt on our markets or European markets either, starting tomorrow using Russia as an intermediary to negotiate with the Islamic Nazis in Tehran. I’m curious, how are you? Go ahead in the days ahead, we’ll also impose sanctions on Russia’s athletes and their family members. Now, you say you’ve been planning for months. Do it now. Go ahead and the corrupt games of the Kremlin policies and should share the pain as well because of Russia’s actions, we work with Germany to ensure Nord Stream two will not, as I promised, will not move forward. Mm hmm. Prospective, but the pain needs to be felt now. Doesn’t it sound that painful to me? Cut six go as Russia contemplates its next move, we have our next move prepared as well. Russia will pay an even steeper price if it continues its aggression, including additional sanctions. The United States will continue to provide defensive assistance to Ukraine in the meantime. And we’ll continue to reinforce and reassure our NATO allies today in response to Russia’s admission that it will not. Withdraw its forces from Belarus. I have authorized additional movements of U.S. forces and equipment already stationed in Europe to strengthen our Baltic allies Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania. Let me be clear. These are totally defensive moves on our part. We have no. Why would you say that? Are you trying to make sure Putin isn’t upset at you? I mean, I don’t I don’t understand the schizophrenia and I think the backbenchers who were listening to this program or taking notes or to join me in this concern. Well, I don’t understand this this two prong attack on the one hand saying here’s what we’re not doing and on the other hand, but we’re going to have stiff sanctions. But don’t worry, we’re not going on offense. This is purely defense. No, I don’t I don’t comprehend this. I don’t get it. What kind of signal are you trying to send? Go ahead and kind of fighting Russia, we want to send an unmistakable message, though, that the United States, together with our allies, will defend every inch of NATO territory and abide by the commitments we made to NATO. We still believe that Russia is poised to go much further and launching a massive military attack against Ukraine. And I asked that question earlier this week. And in a monologue, I asked this question. On Life, Liberty and live in three Sundays ago. Are we now prepared? To fight Russia, however, we do it directly, indirectly, whatever, economically, militarily, all of the above. Beyond Ukraine. Hungary is on the border on the western NSW. Of Ukraine, Poland is on the western border of Ukraine, the Balkans are right in the neighborhood, too. So the question is, what actually are we prepared to do and if it is the case? That we were to muscle up just in case. Why would you propose a budget to the United States Congress that doesn’t cover inflation? When you’re spending trillions of dollars and throwing money everywhere except. What your job is as commander in chief. I’ll be right back.
Hour 1 Segment 4
All right, Joe Biden, as we work through this together. Where are we, Mr. Producer, six or seven hut seven go? None of us, none of us should be fooled. None of us will be fooled. There is no justification for the Russian assault in Ukraine remains a severe threat in the days ahead. And if Russia proceeds, it is Russia and Russia alone that bears the responsibility as we respond. My administration is using every tool at our disposal. No, you’re not using every tool at your disposal. You said you’ll ratchet up the sanctions. I don’t know what you’re waiting for. These sanctions B should be, you know, pouring all over Putin, his oligarchs and that entire government. Did you ever hear Reagan said we’re going to be ratcheting up sanctions depending on how many countries the communists invade? No. And he defeated the Soviet Union economically, OK, we have to defeat Russia economically, they pulled the trigger. It’s only going to get worse. It’s only going to get harder for them to pull back, stop listening to the neo appeasers and the neo sellouts in our media, regardless of their backgrounds or party. And do what you need to do as commander in chief to protect our allies, to protect NATO, to protect Eastern Europe and ultimately to protect the United States of America from some massive land war in Europe again. Go ahead, American businesses and consumers from rising prices at the pump. Yeah, well, here’s another thing he could do but won’t do. Open up our federal lands, stop with the American Marxism when it comes to economic and environmental issues, encourage our wonderful oil industry. To go back to what they were doing before he was elected and these clowns took over. And become energy independent. That would be a massive blow to the economy, the of the Russians massive go ahead. I said last week defending freedom will have cost for us as well. And here at home, we need to be honest about that. But as we will do. But as we do this, I’m going to take robust action to make sure the pain of our sanctions is targeted to the Russian economy, not ours, that the closing of our sanctions are targeted. That they are the sanctions are targeting. This is so painful. Go ahead, moderate energy supplies for any disruption. Executing the plan in coordination with major oil producers. If we were so energy independent as we were under President Donald J. Trump. We’d be flooding the market with oil and gasoline and propane and everything else we could produce, we’d be flooding the market. As an economic weapon to take down Putin and his regime and at least push them back rather than talking about monitoring the situation and Americans suffering. And I am quite serious about this, and so in the price of fuel goes up and it will go up. Can’t blame this effort by Russia, which is partly true, but it’s partly him. Because of his failure to prepare and his constant stubbornness and obsession. We’re undermining our own domestic energy supply and production. Again, this is a tool that could have been used right now against Putin, not just cutting off their pipeline, their second pipeline, but just pouring fuel into the economies of the world as a way of shutting down his war machine. But he didn’t do that by more when I return.