Linking Social Justice to 'Green' Jobs
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}This is a rush transcript from "Glenn Beck," July 28, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
GLENN BECK, HOST: All right. You know, what we're uncovering here on this program is complex, and it is — it takes a lot of our day just to figure out how to explain it to you. And it's complex by design — you know, it's the vast left-wing conspiracy.
The Apollo Alliance combines environmental policy — the green movement — with labor and social justice. Why is that troubling? Maybe it's the guy behind the curtain making it all happen. He's a former black nationalist and self-professed communist.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Here is Phil Kerpen. He is the director of policy for Americans for Prosperity.
Phil, how are you, sir?
PHIL KERPEN, AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY: I'm good, Glenn. How are you?
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}• Video: Watch Beck's interview
BECK: Good. Tell me about — tell me a little bit about Apollo and these — I have ACORN and the Black Farmers and the Sierra Club and Greenpeace and AFL-CIO and SEIU. Why are these three categories — how are they tied to Apollo?
KERPEN: Well, the Apollo Alliance is designed to bring together the elements of organized labor with the community organizers with the green groups, the environmental groups, and to access all of the big foundation money that's been supportive of those causes in the past.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}So, it's kind of — Van Jones, who you mentioned, the self-described communist who is now green jobs 'czar,' he described the Apollo Alliance mission as sort of a grand unified field theory for progressive left causes; it ties all these things together.
BECK: OK. And Apollo is named Apollo. Do you know why it's named Apollo?
KERPEN: Yes. They really admire the Apollo mission, the moon-shot mission, and they think that we need a similar centrally-planned, organized massive mobilization to reorder society and take control of energy and their various other objectives. They admire that and they want it like a moon shot.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}BECK: Right. And I saw on their Web site, and I can't remember the exact quote, but it's something like "massive and fast." They wanted something like the moon shot that could happen and just be launched quickly.
OK. So, Van Jobs — or Van Jones — he is the self-proclaimed communist. He is — he is one of the founding members of Apollo, right?
KERPEN: That's right. The national Apollo, yes.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}BECK: OK. And then we have Wade Rathke — Wade Rathke, who is the founder of ACORN. He was on the board of directors, if I'm not mistaken, of the institution that is funding and paying for Apollo, right?
KERPEN: Yes. He's on — he was until this year on the board of the Tides Foundation and the Tides Center, which are the parent organizations that host the Apollo Alliance.
BECK: OK. So, Wade Rathke, ACORN, Tides Center, they decide that they're going to fund and create Apollo. One of the founders is the guy who went to jail — this is during the Rodney King thing — he went to jail and he was just a black nationalist. He came out a communist and he also then started looking into the green movement and he is the guy who said, hey, if we tie labor and ACORN and Greenpeace together, we've got a super-powerful group: Apollo.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Is it true Apollo helped design the stimulus package?
KERPEN: They did. They put out a draft stimulus bill last year in 2008. It included almost everything that ended up being in the final stimulus bill. Harry Reid has thanked them for helping design the final stimulus package that was enacted into law. And they brag on their Web site that they helped design this thing and push it through.
BECK: OK. SEIU, this is the — this is the labor group, that they're the ones pushing through health care. This is — this is ACORN/SEIU. Their vice president is on the board of directors of Apollo, correct?
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}KERPEN: Yes. Gerald Hudson, the vice president of SEIU, is on the Apollo board of directors.
BECK: OK. Can you tell me where John Podesta fits in to all of this?
KERPEN: John Podesta is also on the Apollo board. He, of course, is also the president of the Center for American Progress, which sends out the daily marching orders, the talking points for the left side of the blogs and the online activists and those organizers out on the street, the ACORN and SEIU folks, they get their daily talking points from that Center for American Progress e-mail.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}BECK: OK. America, I would like you — I just like to ask you, Barack Obama keeps trying to separate himself from all of these organizations. He's telling us — he's giving speeches and saying, "I'm one of you, guys; I really am one of you." But then these organizations he'll always distance himself over and over and over again from the individuals.
But let me ask you this: John Podesta, Van Jones — who is now his green jobs 'czar,' an avowed communist — we've got the SEIU, who's in his office once a week talking about labor. They're the ones who were negotiating with all of the health care industry. He's in the Obama's office all the time. Wade Rathke, former founder of ACORN. It all ties to the Tides Center.
But who's really at the top of all of this? Who's the one that's trying to stay away from all of it and say I have nothing to do with it? Obama.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}But if you look at what Apollo, social — see, if this sounds familiar, like, maybe, I don't know, the way we're going to transform
America: social justice, the green movement and labor unions.
Maybe it's just me, Phil. Can you talk me out of the crazy tree here and saying that's — this is exactly what Barack Obama stands for, and these are his soldiers?
KERPEN: Well, look, there are a lot of connections here that makes it look like that certainly the case. Of course, we've got John Holdren, the science 'czar', who's also tied up with a lot of these folks. We've got Jason Grumet, who was the chief adviser for energy on the Obama campaign, who's also on the board of John Holdren's group — the National Energy Commission — which is also tied in with these folks.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}I think that if you look at Obama's past, he was an organizer for ACORN; he was actually their chief national trainer. If you look at all the organizations that are actually doing the footwork to push through all the elements of the Obama agenda and it's pretty clear that he's part and parcel of these radical movements. He really can't separate himself from them, in my view.
BECK: I don't know how you can put self-acclaimed communists as a 'czar' and claim you're not part of that. I don't know how you can is surround yourself with radicals and say that you have nothing to do with that. This man is a radical. Please talk me out of the crazy tree, America.
Thank you very much. I appreciate it.
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