Who sabotaged the Nord Stream pipeline? And what does this mean for the world moving forward? Representative Chris Stewart joins Glenn to dissect it all. He explains why signs suggest Russia may have been responsible for the pipeline attack, and why this event shows Putin’s war is just beginning: ‘And if Russia did this…it shows you that there's a lot of things that they [still] have available to them that are going to make them really difficult for us, through the next six months.’
TranscriptBelow is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: Welcome to the Glenn Beck Program. We're glad you're here. We're being joined by Chris Stewart. A congressman.
He was an Air Force officer, distinguished graduate, top of his class. Officer of the training school. Undergraduate pilot training. Fourteen years as a pilot. Flying both rescue helicopters. Oh, I don't want to get hurt. Oh, my gosh.
And B1, B1 bomber.
He holds the world's speed records, including the world's record for the fastest non-stop flight around the world.
He's written 17 books, national best-sellers, six different languages.
And he's also on some of those super-secret, you know, intelligence committees. So I wanted to get here, and see what we could get from him. Usually nothing. But I thought we would just pump him for information, about what happened with the -- the Nord Stream pipelines. Hello, Chris. How are you?
CHRIS: Hey, Glenn. Good morning within that's the nicest introduction I've had in a long time.
GLENN: Yeah. Well, you're a conservative. So they won't give you nice introductions.
CHRIS: That's true.
GLENN: So, Chris, tell me what you can about -- there's a lot of people -- a lot of people, that their first thought with the Nord Stream pipeline was, oh, my gosh. Did we do this?
CHRIS: Yeah. Yeah. And I think a lot of people had seen the Tucker Carlson piece and some other writings, that had indicated that. And let me tell you, Glenn. First, we genuinely don't know.
Sometimes, when I come on your program, you're kind of saying, you're hungry for information, and I don't tell you anything. Sometimes I know, but can't say. But in this case, we really don't know yet.
GLENN: Right. Okay. Wait. Wait.
So we don't know, who did it. But are we including, we don't know if we did it.
CHRIS: No. I don't think there's any reason to believe that we didn't do it. And, in fact, I can say with a high degree of confidence, as much as you can, in a world that's gone crazy.
And there's times in the past, when I would say, hey, I don't think that's true. And it turns out not to be true, later on. So I don't think we did it. I don't think there's any reason for us to do it.
If we had done that, I think we would know. We would be aware of it. There would be some evidence of it. And I don't believe that's the case.
The biggest thing, Glenn, I mean, you look at this. I feel like the Grinch, if you will. I puzzled and puzzled, until my puzzler is short. It just doesn't make any sense.
If you look at every nation, it's really hard to create a very plausible explanation for why that nation would do it.
It's certainly the case, if you're trying to argue the U.S. did it.
And, by the way, some of the reporting on this is misleading. In the sense, that they take the statement from Victoria Midland, for example. The state Department official. She's clearly talking about Nord Stream 2, and then they're going to try to pressure Germany not to approve opening that pipeline.
And I think some people misread that. And say, oh, see. They're threatening to blow that up. Ukraine simply doesn't have the capability. And I don't think Ukraine would do it. Because it would stress the capability with the allies so much. Russia, on the other hand. I think you could make the argument, for one thing, they just want to create chaos. That's very, very clear.
And this could be a tool for them. The EU is looking at a deadly winter. I mean, literally, a deadly winter. There's potential for thousands of people. Maybe tens of thousands of people to freeze to death.
GLENN: Oh, my gosh.
CHRIS: Think about this, Glenn. The average EU home, it will cost more than $3,000 a month, to keep their home, over this next winter. And I think that Russia would have been under enormous pressure, to open up that pipeline.
And this just eliminates that for they believe. They don't have to deal with that international pressure now. But I think more than that, they love the chaos. And my biggest fear, is that this doesn't show, we're not in the wind down phase of this war. We're really in the opening stages of it still. And if Russia did this, and my personal belief is that they probably did.
It shows you that there's a lot of things. A lot of things that they are still -- still have available to them. That are going to make them really difficult for us, through the next six months.
GLENN: And if we don't really know, they can claim, we did it, or anybody else did it. And escalate.
Because they immediately said, well, this -- gloves come off now, if you can do this. Forget about nukes, which they did mention, that justifies nukes.
But forget about that. That means, if they claim we did it. They could hit our energy infrastructure.
CHRIS: Yes, absolutely. And that's one of the largest conclusions is that they would claim that we did it. It's going to open the door for them to retaliate. If you take that with what happened yesterday, and their supposed researched uncle on the floor. For essentially -- essentially state, in eastern Ukraine.
Where, I mean, these -- these numbers sound -- you know, 99 percent of the people who are voted to join with Russia, 92 percent of the people and another region voted to join with Russia again. Those are the kind of numbers that Stalin would win by.
And it's beyond belief, of course. But if you combine these two events of the last few days, you -- you can see that Vladimir Putin is positioning himself.
Again, he's not looking to wind things down. Excuse me.
He's looking to exert more pressure, not less.
GLENN: So I talked to Chad Robichaux, who was in Ukraine, just recently. And he actually walked the mass graves. He told me last night, because I said, before I put you on the air.
In saying this, I have seen the video. But I want to make sure you didn't just see a patch of dirt, or you saw things the Ukrainian government is saying, that this is what it was. That you actually saw these things. And he said, Glenn, I saw women and children with their hands tied behind their back, and bullets in their head, that they tried to bury quickly, because they were leaving. This is crimes against humanity.
CHRIS: Yeah. I don't think there's any question about that. It shows a couple of things. It shows the desperation of Vladimir Putin's leadership. It shows the inhumanity of leadership, which doesn't surprise, I think anyone.
It also shows the result of a hastily assembled and untrained army. This is now not a professional army any longer. Many of them are -- are conscripts that have been in the Army for at least in some cases, a matter of a few weeks. With very little training, if any. And included in that, the laws of war. The disciplines of a professional soldier, that we don't expect from them any longer. Which brings me to one point, that I hope I can make. And I think stepping back from that. Okay. Where are we in the US? And what are we doing there?
I just finished an editorial, that asked this question. Look, in the early days of the war, I supported it. I thought we had to help Ukraine and the Ukraine military. They have shown enormous encourage. They have demonstrated that courage on the battlefield can change a battlefield in ways sometimes weapons can't. But the president of the United States has to tell the American people now, this is our goal in Ukraine.
Because if President Biden agrees with President Zelinsky, that now our objective is to expel every Russian from Eastern Ukraine, including Crimea, then I promise you, we will be at war with Russia.
If that is our goal, Vladimir Putin is not going to live Crimea. I mean, it was part of Russia until 1958. When cruel and unusual he have said, oh, now you're part of Ukraine now.
And the people there genuinely are ethnically Russian.
They speak Russian. They want to be with Russia, and if Putin is not going to surrender Crimea. And if President Biden agreed to Zelinsky, he needs to embrace the American people for a long, long, and potentially deadly war.
If on the other hand, our goal is just to say, go back to the pre-February invasion lines, then he should state that that's our goal, so that Zelinsky knows, he won't support him going beyond that.
I think we're at this point now, where we have to define why we are there. And at what cost, is it going to be to achieve the goals, of that to be there?
And this president hasn't done that at all. And the result of that, Glenn, is 20 years later, we may be in there, just like we were in Iraq or Afghanistan.
GLENN: The Senate just passed a bill last night, to fund the government, which includes another $12 billion, for Ukraine. Chris, this has got to stop. It's got to stop.
CHRIS: Well, and one other thing that a lot of people don't realize, we're not just funding their military efforts. We're funding their entire military operation, including their pension plans. We're funding Ukrainian pension plans.
GLENN: What!
CHRIS: And, look, I want to help them. I am -- I believe the United States needs to help in this situation.
But we have to define the limits of our help. We owe the American people an explanation for how much money we're willing to spend, and how long we're willing to be there, and the goals we're trying to achieve.
GLENN: All right. Chris, Chris. Would you do me a favor?
Would you put me in touch with whomever has all of the information of where this money is going, including the pension plans.
I would love to have you come on the air, and explain it to the American people. Somebody has got to expose all this.
I think, you know, honestly, my first thought when I saw the Nord Stream was, I don't think that we did this, you know, we didn't send our Navy SEALs in to do this. There's no way.
However, I'm not convinced that some rogue party -- somebody -- and it could be for a million different reasons.
I'm not convince that had some of our money, that has been over there, without any accounting, didn't give somebody half a billion dollars. And say go blow these things up.
And we didn't do it. But it was maybe possibly our money.
There's no accountability for any of this.
And now, that would be, what? 75 trillion -- billion dollars that we have sent over there. $5 billion, can change the world.
CHRIS: Yeah. Well, that's one of the things I also point out, in this latest editorial, Glenn. Is that there's no IG. There's no accounting. We just send the money, and hope it ends up with where we say it does.
And, by the way, keep in mind, Ukraine is one of the most corrupt nations in the world. And they have been for generations.
GLENN: I know. I know. They lost $7 billion during the Biden debacle, when he was vice president.
7 billion, just kind of disappeared. And nobody ever said anything about it here.
CHRIS: Yeah. Well, that's because 7 billion is not that much money, Glenn.
GLENN: Yeah. I know. I know. I spend that on groceries lately.
Okay. So, Chris, can I have Ricky, my executive producer reach out to you, and see if you can help us put some of this stuff together.
Because I did not know that about their pensions. That's insanity. That's insanity.
CHRIS: Well, and, again, it's one of those things that the American people need to know.
And I think most Americans want to help Ukraine. Again, they've shown enormous courage. We don't want Vladimir Putin to control that nation, but we have to do it in a thoughtful way.
If we don't look back in the last 20 years. And, again, I'm a former airports guy.
But you have to look back on the last 20 years in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Libya, and a number of other places, and say, okay.
What lessons have we learned? How can we do this better?
And we need to apply those lessons to Ukraine. And this is the time to do that. I would be happy to get that information. If you want to know where that money is going, good luck. I don't know who knows that.
But what I can help you do, is what specifically the language allows for.
For example, pension funds in Ukraine. We can help you find that out for sure.
GLENN: Jeez. That's incredible. All right. Chris Stewart, thank you so much. I appreciate everything you do in Congress. Keep strong, buddy. You bet. Buh-bye.
I may disagree with, you know, some of the things that any of these guys in Washington do. But this guy is straight as an arrow. And we may disagree on, you know, this issue or that issue, but I'm glad he's in Washington.
He knows what he's talking about, when it comes to defense. And we need him in those rooms, to speak some sanity.
I'll tell you, if you're going to Washington, if you're thinking about becoming a congressman or senator, do not get on to the Intel community.