Glenn Beck's Jerusalem Rally: GOP Presidential Candidates Not Planning To Attend, Despite Report

Are Republican 2012 presidential candidates Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann, and Newt Gingrich really heading to Jerusalem in August for Glenn Beck's "Restoring Courage" rally? What about Fox News stars Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee?

Ynetnews, an Israeli news site, reported Wednesday that these five prominent Republicans were "expected" to attend Beck's Aug. 24 gathering, news that immediately bounced around Twitter and the blogosphere.

Yet despite the report that Beck's rally is set to draw a 'who's who' among the Republican presidential field, those named don't seem to have plans to attend.

Joe DeSantis, one of the few remaining Gingrich aides, wrote in an email to The Huffington Post that the former speaker "has not said he is coming."

Andrea Saul, a spokesperson for Romney, said that "he is not planning to attend."

Huckabee, in a tweet, said he was "not headed to Israel" for the rally but would "be there in February" for a separate group trip.

And a spokesperson for the rally told The Huffington Post that those candidates aren't locked in for a simple reason: They haven't been asked.

"There have been some inaccuracies about the event," the spokesperson said. "No one on the list below has been contacted or asked to appear. Senator Lieberman said he supports the event and if his schedule allows will be a guest at the event."

Last week, Beck told his Fox News audience that he hoped Sen. Lieberman (I-Conn.) would lead a delegation from the U.S. for the event.

"I think the idea of the 'Restoring Courage' gathering in Jerusalem is an important idea and a very constructive one at a very important time for Israel, at a time that also could be destructive for Israel and for us, for the United States of America," Lieberman said on Beck's television show.

Lieberman added that the Beck rally is "not against anybody or any group" but is an opportunity "to stand with Israel at a time when a lot of the rest of the world is attempting to delegitimize Israel."

Still, there could be at least one 2012 contender at the Jerusalem rally. Herman Cain, the former chief executive of Godfather's Pizza who is now running for president, said last week that he plans to attend.

A request for comment from Bachmann's office was not immediately returned.

 

 

Comments

[Charlotte Hendershot]

07:17 PM on 06/20/2011

I'm soooooooooooo happy that you are all sane and that Beck isn't. Hmmmmm.

[SaburoHakaida]

09:44 PM on 06/19/2011

Quick. Someone hire Gilbert Gottfried to poke fun at Glenn Beck

[Nel Pineda]

03:29 PM on 06/19/2011

Is he going to mention that Israel have a UNIVERSAL Heath system and their own SOCIAL Security program?

[Barbara DeZan]

12:32 PM on 06/17/2011

The Israelis could us a laugh.

This "event" should do it.

Then, they can turn their backs and walk away.

Beck's ego is so huge he cannot recognize his complete failure...as a tv host, a radio jock, a man, a christian, as an American and a patriot.

He needs to get out more.

[edrice222]

01:45 PM on 06/17/2011

"He needs to get out more".
Personally I think he needs to hide under a rock for the rest of his days. :-)

[Leroy Whitney]

12:00 PM on 06/17/2011

Beck's biggest boast in connection with his Jerusalem flash mob event is that we're 121 days away from EVERYTHING CHANGING!!! (Less than that by now...) It will BLOW YOUR MIND!!!

Like Glenn Beck, I'm also working on something really really BIGGGG! The blogosphere is going to RESET!!! after you read my analysis of GLENN BECK!!!. Seriously though, have a read, you won't get a better expose of the Glenn Beck phenomenon, because it's coming from an "insider." http://lrwhitney.wordpress.com/

There is nothing new in Glenn Beck’s bag of tricks. Glenn Beck is what Utah Talk Radio was in the late 1970’s and 1980’s, when I was living in Provo. Beck may not even know that, being originally from the Pacific Northwest as I am. He was also too drunk to notice anyway at the time.I don’t think Glenn Beck has ever been exposed to the full spectrum of Mormon survivalist, quasi-prophetic lunacy. He doesn’t seem to have been exposed to it long enough to grow jaded, disappointed, and then finally painfully bored with its writhing, evolutionary paranoia that cuts and pastes Holy Writ into regional Mormon folklore, repeatedly trumping up a frenzied narrative pointing to the “Next Big Thing,” that only ever comes up bust. Last week’s collage of random prophecies are shredded and re-pasted into a new roadmap of the Apocalypse, and the process begins again with a new script and a new prophetic leader.

Enter Glenn Beck...

[stacknef]

10:11 AM on 06/17/2011

Beck is also assuming that Isreali customs officers will even let him off the plane. They may have a problem with an American rabble rouser speaking in Jerusalem..wouldn't that be a sweet sight...telling him to get back on the plane?.

[Rich Bronson]

11:45 AM on 06/17/2011

LOL, That would be so incredibly hilarious.

[stacknef]

10:06 AM on 06/17/2011

We Jews are getting pretty tired of Republicans using us as backdrops for their political positions. From Sarah Palin wearing a Star of David like a fashion accessory to Michele Bachmann who believes that THE END IS NEAR and it has to take place (in Israel, of course!) to the others who have "jewish friends"......from Glenn Beck using the capital of Israel as a stage prop to the Christians who claim to know what being a Jew is .....

Please, all of you...stick with what you know best...speaking in tongues, decimating the lower and middle classes and ignoring the New Testament when it comes to "compassionate conservatism"...

[edrice222]

01:48 PM on 06/17/2011

(((((APPLAUSE))))))
Fanned.

[ShinjiIkari]

08:50 AM on 06/17/2011

One of the oldest PR tricks: you "expect" something will happen. Pastor Camping "expected" the world to end last month, and of course it did. The GOP "expected" supply-side economics to cure all our ills, and of course it did.

And I expect to win the lottery.

[ShinjiIkari]

08:51 AM on 06/17/2011

"VAGUELY anti-semitic"??? Like the Chicago Fire was "vaguely" warm.

[CSKAP]

09:16 AM on 06/17/2011

When I see diatribes like this I always wonder, do you even know what a socialist is? Or is it just the latest “bad thing’ you have heard.
The Bank of England is gone? Gee I missed that.
If you have specific issues that you disagree with fine, enumerate them and have an actual intellectual conversation (if that’s not too Elitist) .

[Charlotte Hendershot]

07:37 AM on 06/17/2011

Seems to me your comments are anti-Semetic. I am not Jewish but I know what has been written and I'm not a bible-thumper. Don't think most of you even care what happens to Israel because your anointed one doesn't really give a hoot.

[CTDFalconer]

11:16 AM on 06/17/2011

Hey, great example! This is one of Beck's favorite tactics. Anyone who says anything about Palestinians' desire for for their own country or anything about how Israel might at any point have done something wrong can be automatically labeled anti-semitic!

What this view ignores is that it is in fact possible for one person to actually care about what happens to both the Palestinian people and the Israeli people at the same time. Tough concept, I know, but it makes sense if you think about it.

[Charlotte Hendershot]

06:41 AM on 06/19/2011

It's not that I don't care about the Palestinians. If you've read the Old Testament, God told Jacob that his name was to be Israel and his 12 sons, the 12 tribes of Israel. That was in Genesis. In Numbers God gave Jacob (Israel) the land and it was described....the east border I recall as being on the Great Sea....the north, south and west is also mentioned. It has the old names. As I mentioned, I'm not a bible-thumper as some are called, but I wanted to know how the name Israel came to be.

[tj101]

11:31 AM on 06/17/2011

What has been written? LOL....in 1 book of ancient superstitions written over 2,000 years ago!

Give me a break.

[Charlotte Hendershot]

06:33 AM on 06/19/2011

Remember....there are no atheists in foxholes.

[Rickst75]

05:41 AM on 06/17/2011

Why is it the worst of us always go to foreign countries and attempt to represent all of us. Glenn Beck Going to Israel is no different than the Jersey Shore going to Italy. Each is a shameful representation of the people they claim to speak for.

[babyspittle]

03:15 AM on 06/17/2011

somehow, I just cannot imagine too many of his bagger listeners making this trip, no matter how anti-reality they are.

[ZenGardner]

11:40 AM on 06/17/2011

Cause T-baggers aren't really religious... They're just greedy.

[docmark]

12:25 AM on 06/17/2011

I would think anyone who wants to be taken seriously as a Presidential candidate, would stay as far away from Beck as possible. When someone becomes too radical for Fox News, there aren't that many options. Who's going to hire Beck? The dude has no choice. His only option is starting-up his own online network (and possibly financing his own late-night infomercials). We all know Beck is unpredictable. One never knows which Glenn Beck is going to show up on any given day. If Beck makes some really outrageous, megalomaniacal revelation (well, at least more outrageous than his previous revelations), it could be very embarrassing for any candidate accompanying Beck to Israel. On the plus side, it would make great fodder for comedians.

[Social Construct]

11:36 PM on 06/16/2011

Beck, knowing only what I've seen and heard from his media persona, seems, to me, bent on an egoistic self-fulfilled prophetic delusion of Armageddon. Maybe he'll score some hash on his trip and mellow out a little.

[mpk1028]

09:34 PM on 06/16/2011

I just heard another ridiculous rumor. I heard that Rush Limbaugh has sunk to a new low by selling his own brand of iced tea on his radio show. What? That is actually true? What's next? Bill O'Reilly bath oils?

[fudgewicke]

10:07 PM on 06/16/2011

Rush's secret ingredient...smegma

[love5pets]

02:54 PM on 06/25/2011

Thanks! Pushed away my home-baked brownie!