Did Glenn Beck Let Trump Destroy His Career?

For eight years, conservative commentator Glenn Beck managed to control himself. Despite living under a president who has done more to weaken the integrity of the Constitution than any of his predecessors, Beck managed to keep his passions in check. He was an adamant critic of Obama, to be sure, but he wasn’t so worked up that he trashed his career over it.

But Donald Trump…well, that’s another story. Beck has been among Trump’s most vitriolic critics, warning his listeners that the New Yorker was a con artist, a possible fascist, a fake conservative, and a menace to the country. He made it clear that he wasn’t just against Trump being the Republican nominee; he was dramatically (hysterically, one might say) against Trump being the president.

This week, SiriusXM announced they were suspending the Glenn Beck Program for at least a week due to a conversation the host had with author Brad Thor on the show last Wednesday.

“He is a danger to America,” said Thor, “and I got to ask you a question and this is serious and this could bring down incredible heat on me, because I’m about to suggest something very bad. It’s a hypothetical I am going to ask as a thriller writer.”

Having set the stage in a way that should have probably set off a red flag in his own mind, Thor pressed on. “With the feckless, spineless Congress we have, who will stand in the way of Donald Trump overstepping his constitutional authority as president?” he asked. “If Congress won’t remove him from office, what patriot will step up and do that if – if – he oversteps his mandate as president, his constitutionally-granted authority, I should say, as president?”

Beck didn’t particularly encourage the obvious implications of what Thor was suggesting, but the exchange was enough for the station to take action. And while Beck may simply return to the digital airwaves next week and move beyond this incident, talk show hosts have been ruined by less.

You can decide for yourself if Beck deserves to be taken off the air for this incident, but the fact remains that he and his guest should have known better. You don’t exactly need a degree in mass communications to understand that speculating about killing the president is an unwise use of your program. That Beck forgot this rather obvious truth is a sign of just how insane Trump has made him.

Just let it go, Glenn. Everything’s gonna be okay.