Glenn Beck hosted Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California on “The Glenn Beck Program” Thursday, where the two reached across the aisle to share some friendly disagreement, as well as some areas of common ground.
Khanna is one of few Democrats who refrains from acting as an ideologue and is willing to talk to those he will likely disagree with. Whether it’s DOGE cuts or nuclear energy, Khanna has no problem breaking from his party’s messaging.
“You’ve got a lot of followers, and look, at the end of the day, we’re all Team America,” Khanna told Beck. “We have differences of opinion, but this country has gone down a place of greater and greater division. And I do hope that the next generation, whether that’s JD Vance, Rubio, myself, others, that we find some way of turning that around.”
‘They didn’t talk a lot about my rights. They talked about my responsibilities.’
Khanna’s veneration for our country’s founding makes him stand out within his party. Rather than condemning the roots and the history of our nation like some of his fellow Democrats, Khanna says he was raised to appreciate and value America.
“Our common, defining moment as a nation is the Constitution and the Bill of Rights as interpreted through the Declaration of Independence,” Khanna said. “The biggest blessing I had, as a son of immigrants born in Philadelphia in our bicentenary, is I got to go to a school that taught American history and gave me a reverence for this country.”
“My parents said, ‘Ro, you won the lottery,’” Khanna added. “They didn’t talk a lot about my rights. They talked about my responsibilities.”
Beck and Khanna had their fair share of respectful back-and-forth on subjects such as the 14th Amendment and immigration. One area of agreement Khanna pointed out was about the role of government with respect to asset forfeiture.
“Progressive Democrats like me and libertarians in the Freedom Caucus often align, saying that the government shouldn’t come in and be able to take things from citizens without due process,” Khanna said. “I believe that’s the essence of who we are as a people, that yes, you have inalienable rights endowed by God, and that’s who makes citizens.”
Khanna also departed from his Democratic colleagues on the border, admitting that it was a weak point of their party platform.
“Someone said it’s like a knock-knock joke,” Khanna said. “You say, ‘Knock, knock. Who’s there?’ The American people just want to know who’s there, who’s at the border, just like you would when coming to someone’s house and making sure that people are vetted before they come in. That seems to be a very reasonable a place. We can agree.”
“But I also believe that people here, now that they’re here, if they’re paying taxes, and you and I may disagree with this, if they’re paying taxes, if they’re working hard, and … if they’ve been here that there should be some path to at least legalization,” Khanna added.
Khanna insists that, above party, all people should be skeptical of their politicians. At the same time, Khanna said that the state of our divided politics is not due to a lack of skepticism, but rather to a lack of trust.
“Skepticism is healthy,” Khanna said. “I get concerned if there were town halls and people weren’t asking hard questions, weren’t criticizing their politicians. But I think there’s a difference between skepticism and what’s happened now, which is just the loss of trust, the sense that people aren’t in it for the country, aren’t in it for the public good.”
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