SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
The RedState gathering has brought conservative leaders to Denver this weekend. Donald Trump is not there. He was disinvited last year by conservative leader Erick Erickson for insulting Megyn Kelly of FOX News. Donald Trump declined their invitation this year. Last night, the keynote speaker was Glenn Beck, and he joins us now from the studios of KUVO in Denver. Thanks very much for being with us, Mr. Beck.
GLENN BECK: You bet. How are you?
SIMON: I'm fine. Thank you, sir. What are your current feelings about Donald Trump?
BECK: Same as they were last time we spoke. He's not a conservative. I don't know exactly what he is except self-absorbed and driven by himself. More importantly, at least to me, is he's not a constitutionalist. And I believe the Constitution is what got us here, and we can all live under the Constitution and all express ourself in radically different ways and not control each other.
SIMON: Some conservative Republicans this week have said despite policy differences they have with Hillary Clinton they'll vote for her in a practical world.
BECK: I've kind of come to a place to where I don't really condemn anyone for what their conscience tells them to do because I'm not happy with my choice that I'm making personally on, you know, not voting for somebody that I think can win. But I don't feel comfortable voting for Hillary. I don't feel comfortable voting for Donald Trump. And no matter what Donald Trump says, he has deep socialist leanings. He's a nationalist and a populist. And throughout history, whenever you combine those three things it never ends well.
SIMON: The Republican Party was founded in Ripon, Wis. in - I did have to look this up - 1854 by ex-Whig Party members and Free Soil Party members. Time for a new party?
BECK: Oh, I think it's been time for a new party. I think it's time for two new parties. If you watch the Democratic convention, that has become a socialist party now. And that's fine. I have no problem if you want to be a socialist. But for those people who are in the middle, you know, I don't know if you're really welcome in the Democratic Party, and I don't even know who the Republican Party is anymore. I have absolutely no idea. I think there's a real great call for a party that believes in the Constitution, in the rule of law and staying out of everybody else's face.
SIMON: Do you think it's important that conservatives make an appeal to, for example, Hispanics and African-American voters?
BECK: I think it's important for us to appeal to everybody. You know, I had a new kind of thought on Black Lives Matter and the All Lives Matter thing. And the best way to explain it is if we're all sitting around at a table having dinner, and everybody gets pie except for you and you say, my pie matters, I don't have pie, and everybody at the table looks at you and says, I know, all pie matters, it shows that the people at the table aren't really listening.
I don't agree with the Black Lives Matter organizers. They are stated as anti-capitalists. And it's much more than just the police to them. It's about changing society entirely. But I can relate to them and understand them on many different fronts. And we need to start listening to each other and getting out of our own little labeled bubbles.
SIMON: Glenn Beck, host of the "Glenn Beck Program," speaking this week at the RedState gathering in Denver. Thanks so much for being with us, Mr. Beck.
BECK: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.