An Earnest John King Struggles To Understand Glenn Beck’s Brain

CNN’s John King, like so many in America, is baffled by Glenn Beck. He doesn’t know whether to be outraged, admiring, cautious, trusting, or somehow all of the above. To better understand what he’s facing, he brought a bona fide Glenn Beck expert, the New York Times’ Mark Leibovich, on the program to explain exactly what this “Glenn Beck” is all about.

King seems to come in with a perfectly clean slate to the interview, asking Leibovich, who recently penned an extensive feature on Beck, whether he managed to find the real Beck behind both the more peaceful rally-going leader and the aggressive, chalkboard-wielding TV personality. Leibovich replied he wasn’t sure whether Beck himself know what side he was on, citing dueling impulses to be both a “uniter” and “divider,” but that he was shocked at the extent to which “this is a guy who very badly wants to be liked.” He also noted that “people come up to him and hug him; I don’t see that with a lot of lightening rod commentators on either side,” and that, largely, his followers are “not an angry, unhinged mob.”

As if Beck had heard him (the segment was pre-taped), he seemed to answer his questions on Friday night’s Factor segment. He’s not contradictory, he just speaks his mind, often before his mind is made up.

The segment from yesterday’s John King USA via CNN below:

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