Conservative radio talk show host Glenn Beck says he and his family were harassed at a screening of The 39 Steps in New York City on Monday night.
Beck recounted the incident on his show Tuesday morning, saying he reluctantly agreed to watch the Alfred Hitchcock film at an outdoor screening at Bryant Park with his wife and daughter. But from the moment they set their red-white-and-blue blanket on the lawn, says Beck, they were caught in a “hostile situation.”
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The political pundit told listeners that someone intentionally kicked wine onto his wife Tanya‘s back, soaking her clothes and their blanket. When Tanya and their daughter Hannah went to the bathroom to clean up, someone pointed at them and shouted, “We hate conservatives here.”
The family held hands throughout the film, trying to ignore the people who were taking pictures of them. Beck says, “These people were some of the most hateful people I’ve ever seen. All I wanted to do was watch a movie in the park. I have a right to watch and enjoy a movie in the park.”
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Many in the crowd applauded when the family left at the end of the screening.
Beck chalks up the incident up to liquid courage and a “mob mentality” that would have led to a lynching had he mentioned it, “If I had suggested ‘Does anybody have a rope? Because there’s a tree here. You could just lynch me.’ I think there would’ve been a couple in the crowd that would’ve.”
He addressed his tormenters, “I feel sorry for you, I really feel sorry for you because he you are 25 years old and you are so lost, so arrogant, and so convinced you are 100 percent right and you are helping build a system that is fueled by hate. You’re being used and you don’t even know it.”
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Beck choked up while recalling his daughter’s reaction to the harassment, how she “didn’t think it would be like that” and was “just trying to stay normal.”
Beck, who launches a live streaming video network in Sept., closed his segment about the incident with a plea for love, “Find a way to love because in the end only love remains. The only thing that is true is love. Everything else is a lie. Do not hate, love. That’s the promise of America. That is the shining city on the hill that cannot and will not be hid.”
Beck’s GBTV will feature Beck’s new daily two-hour show and other original and licensed programming.
