Glenn Beck: Donald Trump shooting remark ‘dangerous’
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David Wright, CNN Newswire
(CNN) — Glenn Beck condemned Donald Trump on Monday morning, calling him “a very dangerous man” after the billionaire businessman said his voters would stand by him even if he shot someone.
The conservative media star framed his recent endorsement of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz against Trump in an interview on “New Day” on CNN, explaining that he valued Cruz’s constitutional principles opposite to what he sees as the potential abuse of executive power by Trump.
“We need a constitutional restraint on the executive branch,” Beck said. “And Donald Trump I really truly believe is a very dangerous man. If you listen to the things he said this weekend.”
Beck continued, quoting Trump, “‘I could go onto Fifth Avenue and shoot people and I wouldn’t lose a vote.’ He has joked about killing reporters — and ‘not’ killing reporters like Putin does.”
Beck also said that while he could understand the anger galvanizing primary voters in 2016, Trump’s remark was a concerning sentiment and the role of the Constitution is to “temper” the mood of the nation.
“We don’t change with the mood of the country. That is the problem with our country right now. The Constitution is to anchor us in principles that help temper the mood of the country.”
He added that he believed Cruz’s background as a lawyer and experience with the Constitution would provide a valuable check on executive power.
“The mood of the country is very angry, but you never make a good decision when you are angry,” Beck argued. “The worst thing we can do is to now start looking at, who is going to get revenge?”
He continued, “One of the things that Donald Trump does, when you have a guy who is angry and then has an enemies list and starts to just take people down over and over and over again — if you disagree with him, he destroys you.”
“If that is the mood of the country, we are in more trouble than I thought.”
Donald Trump responded to Beck’s endorsement of Cruz by mocking the conservative show host.
“Word is that crying @GlennBeck left the GOP and doesn’t have the right to vote in the Republican primary. Dumb as a rock,” Trump tweeted over the weekend.