Glenn Beck calls Trump's campaign CEO 'dangerous' and a 'destroyer of everything'

(Image credit: Rob Kim/Getty Images)

published 25 August 2016

Had Glenn Beck used his trusty chalkboard Wednesday night during an appearance on The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, it almost certainly would have been filled with arrows, circles, unidentifiable symbols, and scrawls of "Stephen Bannon," "despicable," "Never Trump," and "noooooooooooo!!!!!"

Beck has never been a Trump fan — the conservative commentator, radio host, and founder of TheBlaze supported Texas Sen. Ted Cruz during the Republican primary — and he's also not big on Bannon, the Breitbart News executive chairman turned Trump campaign CEO. O'Donnell said he had never heard of Bannon before his new appointment, and he invited Beck, who previously called Bannon "a horrible, despicable human being," to give him the scoop.

"He describes himself as a Leninist, and I was kind of hoping it was John Lennon, but it's not," Beck said. "He is not a Marxist, he doesn't believe in Marxism or socialism or communism or anything else. What he means by that is he is a destroyer of everything. He believes that Lenin was right the way he went in; he destroyed the system, destroyed the Duma, brought down the parties, then punished his enemies." Beck said he agreed to go on MSNBC because Bannon is "dangerous" and Beck is "truly, gravely concerned about the direction of the country, and it is very important for conservatives or constitutionalists to stand up and let the left know, 'Hey guys, we're not all like that.' We have concerns and there has to be some things we come together on, basic values and principles. Let's not go into a chaos theory; that never goes well."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.