Glenn Beck honors Afghanistan Gold Star families to kick off Utah Trump fundraiser

Gold Star family members including Paula Knauss, mother of deceased Staff Sgt. Ryan Knuass; Cheryl Juels and Christy Shamblin, respectively aunt and mother-in-law to deceased Sgt. Nicole Gee; Darin Hoover and Kelly Barnett, parents to deceased Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover; Herman and Alicia Lopez, parents to deceased Marine Cpl. Hunter Lopez, Jim, Roice, and Cheyanne McCollum; father and sisters of Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum, and Coral Briseño, mother of Cpl. Humberto Sanchez.

Leading up to Trump’s speech and to kick off the event, Beck spoke of the bravery of the 13 service members who lost their lives during the Abbey Gate bombing. He used examples of different presidents in history as well as the bravery to honor the families’ children.

Alluding to the assassination attempt on Trump’s life, he told the story of the famous assassination attempt on Teddy Roosevelt’s life, where the bullet was not able to fatally wound him, as he had packed his paper speech in his chest pocket. Beck said of Abraham Lincoln that just before John Wilkes Booth assassinated him, that Lincoln’s words to his wife were that he wanted to go walk where Jesus did in Jerusalem.

For his last snippet of history, Beck brought up the history of George Washington, and how the Purple Heart badge of today is similar to what was the Merit Badge, only to be given out by Washington. Beck told the families present, “Every single one of you, every single one of your children would have received a Merit Badge.”

The Merit Badge, per Mt. Vernon, was given to soldiers "whenever any singularly meritorious action is performed,” Washington recorded of the badge. “The author of it shall be permitted to wear on his facings over the left breast, the figure of a heart in purple cloth, or silk, edged with narrow lace or binding,” the first US president had explained.

Beck ended, adding that his staff and him created certificates for the families recognizing their children as deserving of the Merit Badge and that their children was the “example that George Washington was looking for.”