Conservative entrepenuer and denim jeans designer Glenn Beck confronted one of his long-term bogeymen on Thursday, fellow conservative Grover Norquist, accusing the influential anti-tax conservative of “taking checks” from “terrorists.”
“You’re the most unlucky person I’ve ever met in my life,” Beck said in the interview, streamed live on The Blaze. “Only Barack Obama is this unlucky with a string of friends who become radicals.”
Beck’s allegations centered on a man named Abdul Rahman al-Amoudi, a Muslim-American who worked with Norquist for a time before he was charged with supporting a Libyan conspiracy to assassinate a Saudi prince.
Beck, founder of The Blaze, had recently threatened to tear up his membership in the National Rifle Association if it refused to ditch Norquist, famous in Washington as the dean of the anti-tax movement and president of Americans for Tax Reform.
Beck nodded for minutes at a time as Norquist explained his involvement in founding the Islamic Free Market Institute, an organization dedicated to preaching the gospel of small government to believing Muslims abroad.
Norquist insisted that al-Amoudi was in good standing with government and Jewish groups for the entire time he was part of the Institute, which broke with him after his support for certain Islamic groups emerged.
Still, Beck grilled Norquist on a transaction, in which al-Amoudi dropped off two checks to one of Norquist’s offices at one point during their relationship.
“I don’t have my friends who run things for me take checks from terrorists, and I don’t have other terrorists come stopping by my offices to drop by literature,” he said.
“It doesn’t happen to most people, but I’m not you!” Beck said.
Conservatives crusading against Islamic “infiltration” of the U.S. government have long viewed Norquist with suspicion, most notably anti-Muslim activist Frank Gaffney, who along with Allen West and Andy McCarthy, circulated a petition trying to ban Norquist from CPAC this year.
A flavor of this stance toward Norquist can be found in one post at the Center for Security Policy published earlier this month:
The evidence suggests that Norquist’s passion was triggered by a personal conversion to Islam. His wife, Samah, is a devout Muslim. In 2008, they adopted a Palestinian baby from Bethlehem. When asked by author Paul Sperry if he converted, Norquist dodged the question by saying it is “personal.”
Watch a highlight reel of the Beck interview, assembled by The Blaze:
