AMES, Iowa -- As the state's caucuses near, conservative host Glenn Beck, with a mix of humor and doom and holding a couple historical artifacts, urged Iowans Saturday to support Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R).
“The Constitution is hanging by a thread," Beck told an overflowing crowd at the Gateway Hotel. "We don’t even know our Constitution any more. Our founders are skipped over in school. We are facing economic trouble. We are facing enemies foreign and domestic. There are people who want us dead."
He warned the crowd that “we’re looking at catastrophic consequences in the next four to eight years -- if we make it.”
Beck announced last week that he was supporting Cruz, marking the first time the prominent conservative media figure and author has backed a candidate. Beck, who contributed to National Review's "Against Trump" issue, wrote in his endorsement that "we need a new George Washington” and suggested Cruz fit the mold of the first president.
On Saturday, Beck buttressed his argument for Cruz by showing off a couple items he claimed were owned by Washington himself.
Beck -- who introduced Cruz after speeches from Family Leader president Bob Vander Plaats, Iowa Congressman Steve King and Cruz's wife Heidi -- pulled out Washington's compass to make the argument that Americans need to chart a new course with the "exactness" of a surveyor.
“A compass is used for exactness," Beck said. "I’m here to support Ted Cruz because he is exact in everything he does. His word is his bond. He believes, as George Washington did: Deeds not words."
Beck also described how Washington picked up a copy of Don Quixote on the day he signed the Constitution, before holding up what he claimed was Washington's own copy. Beck joked that today, the action would be as extraordinary as signing the Constitution before taking a trip to Barnes & Noble.
“Here’s the most amazing thing anybody had ever done," Beck said. "But he had such confidence in it. He knew the brighter day for all mankind -- not just America, all mankind -- were just on the horizon. He had done his job and he could sleep at night."
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