Daniel Elliott Rebukes Micah Beckwith as Indiana Republican Rift Deepens Over Religion and Leadership

Yesterday, and by the way, getting our information today from the Indiana Capital Chronicle as well as Indy Politics, there was a group of prominent state leaders from both parties. And most notable among them was Indiana State Treasurer Daniel Elliott. There was also multiple state senators that were there of both parties, and they joined with religious leaders in the Indiana Statehouse yesterday to condemn faith-based discrimination. And this was as a response to Lieutenant Governor Micah Beckwith. And what this goes back to are comments that Beckwith made on a podcast in May in which he declared, quote, I hate Islam. It's a demonic death cult. He went on to say, now I love Muslims because they make great Christians when Jesus gets a hold of them. But I hate Islam and we need to be okay with hating again.

Statehouse Event Highlights Growing Backlash to Beckwith’s Comments About Islam

Now we're about to talk about this, but I want to preface it by saying something. These guys, when they do these things, like these rallies, and I'm doing this segment hopefully as a cautionary tale, they're playing into Beckwith's hands. When these guys, when there's 10 million comments on his Facebook stuff of hate, that's what he wants. When you do these rallies, it's what he wants. He craves attention. The lieutenant governor craves attention. He doesn't care if it's positive. He doesn't care if it's negative. He doesn't care if he's uniting. He doesn't care if he's dividing. He doesn't care. And it's never, if you guys notice, it's never about policies that are about the state of Indiana. He's never getting the negative attention about bringing the smoke on stuff that will help you. And Elliott's a little different because Elliott is a power player and him saying it carries more weight. So it's a little different. I'm going to tell you what Elliott said in a minute, because that's a big deal. But these guys and everybody needs to know, because I know Micah Beckwith, when you comment on his stuff, the hate you bring on him for acting like a moron, you are giving him what he wants because Micah Beckwith has no interest in actually bringing smoke, or going to work or fighting for policies in the state of Indiana, which he was elected to do, that solve real problems you're facing. He has no interest in it. He's not mentally capable of coming up with solutions. He's admitted it to me.

Property Tax Fight Becomes Central Example of Beckwith’s Critics and Former Supporters

Guys, when Micah Beckwith was elected lieutenant governor at that convention, it was primarily because of property taxes. People wanted property taxes fixed. They didn't trust Braun. Braun didn't have a plan at the time. And they said, we're going to elect this guy, and he's going to be the check and balance. He's going to be the voice. He's going to be the smoke. That's what it was about. I talked to a whole bunch of people. Beckwith didn't win by much. I talked to a whole bunch of people on the floor that day, and they told me that. I was there. That was the reason he was elected. People wanted property taxes fixed. Braun didn't even have a plan to them. Remember Braun and I got into it at the convention. It was impromptu. He walked by. I was out in the lobby. I yelled, hey, Mike! And he walked over and people remember, there's a big crowd around us. And we got into it. I mean, it was peaceful, it was fine, but it was pretty spirited. Went on for about five minutes. A bunch of people were there and it was about him not having a plan on property taxes. It was about a plan on him not putting anything forward that was actually going to help people. And then they were all arrogant. They thought that, what's her face, was going to win. And they were doing the thing of, well, we'll have a conversation after the convention. And I was like, yeah, we are. Because I knew Micah was gonna win that convention. I talked to enough people. I knew what was going down. Now, I knew it was gonna be close, but I knew he was gonna win. Micah Beckwith was elected to be the check and balance, to bring the smoke, to fix property taxes. What happened with property taxes? Braun put forward a bad deal. Micah disappeared. Remember that? Remember, Braun announces he's signing the deal. I was in the room when Braun told me he was going to sign the deal. And you know what Micah did? You know, you can't see me on the YouTube, or I mean on the Apple, the Spotify. But if you head over to YouTube, what am I doing right now? I'm nodding my head. This is what he did the whole meeting right here. This. That's where he got the name Bobblehead Beckwith. Not a word to be said. He kept doing this and I kept looking at him. When I'm going at it with Braun in this meeting at state party headquarters. Like, would you like to speak the hell up here and tell him? And then remember, he disappeared. He went days without saying anything. And then he shows up on Hammer and Nigel, and he gives this ridiculous response that appears that he supports the plan. You guys went ballistic on him. Then he announced he didn't support the plan. And finally, on a Saturday, he calls me. I think it was a Monday or Tuesday. Braun announced he was making the deal and I'm like yelling at him about this, like, people voted for you to be a check and balance on this. We knew this guy was going to pull this crap. Where are you? And he admitted to me. He goes, I don't know property tax like you do. Not everybody's you, Rob. I said, what do you mean nobody's, not everybody's me? You were elected on this. And that's when I realized it was all smoke and mirrors. He never, ever was interested in actual public policy. He's interested in himself. He ran on something and he knew nothing about it. Absolutely nothing. And so when you have a guy who doesn't have the mental capacity, which essentially admitted that day to me, to solve issues, which property taxes are hard, you think if somebody runs on them that they would be able to fix it since they said they wanted to fix it? And then when you factor in that Micah is very lazy, which he is, he's very lazy. What does he do all day? He's not going to get attention by trying to solve problems. He's lazy and he's mentally incapable of solving problems, so he can't get the attention he craves by putting forward solutions to issues that help you. He's not going to do that. And look, if you guys want to not believe me, what is the first thing that happened to Micah Beckwith when he was elected lieutenant governor? The legislature and the governor in an agreement with Micah allowed, allowed, they took away all his power. They took away all his power. He didn't fight it. He didn't object to it. He was fine with it. The lieutenant governor under Skillman, under Crouch, had all sorts of authority and power. The legislature and Braun took it from him. And he didn't say a word because he wasn't interested in doing any work for you. He doesn't care. We were yelling. Erin Sheridan, you can ask her. She was yelling at him at the time. Why are you letting them do this? You're losing your ability to help people, to have a voice, to help people. Because he didn't want to work.

Critics Argue Beckwith Chose Public Attention Over Public Policy

And so saying all that, Micah then had a big problem. He can't stand not being the center of attention. He can't stand not being the center of attention. He can't stand not being the star. He cannot stand people not looking at him. He doesn't care if the attention is positive or negative. It would be fascinating for a psychiatrist to evaluate Micah Beckwith. I would be enthralled with that. I've never seen anything like it. He just wants attention. And so now that he can't get attention because everybody in the Statehouse thinks he's a complete joke, and obviously he's giving away all his power. So nobody has to give him attention because they want anything. The only way he can get the attention that he craves is to say things that will get him attention. Inflammatory things that people will talk about, not the inflammatory things like we do here to get better policy for you. Not fight with people over issues like, oh, you know, property taxes, utility bills, the corruption of the IEDC, the tolling, the billions in tolling, giving away billions to megacorp like the Bears, not any of that which you notice. Where is he? Does he fight on any of that? Not a word. Not a word. What does he do? He goes after things that he knows will get him attention. And these guys at the Statehouse, with the exception of Elliott, are giving him what he wants. Elliott's different because Elliott's got some sway. And I'll talk about Elliott in a second and what he said at this event. But these events, the comments on Facebook, all the stuff. It's what he wants. Micah Beckwith wants to be famous. That's it. That's all he wants. He craves attention. I mean, truthfully, he wants to be a reality television star. Micah Beckwith believes he'll be a reality television star. That's why he hired a guy by the name of Jeff Boggs to be his comms director. By the way, Micah has three comms people. He does nothing, but he has three comms people. We did the math on it one day. What was it, like, $272,000 or something like that in just comms people? It's some crazy number. Plus benefits. But Micah Beckwith's communications director is a guy by the name of Jeff Boggs. Jeff Boggs was a writer for Letterman and a reality TV show guy. He has no anything that you would go, this guy would be the perfect dude to be a comms director for a lieutenant governor's office. And of course, Boggs became the comms director after a guy by the name of Jim Kehoe. Good dude, abruptly quit. Maybe someday Jim will talk about that with people. About why he quit that office so quickly. I hope he does someday because he's a good guy. He's a good guy. And he tried to help Micah, and I think his story would be very interesting to people about why he quit and why he got replaced with Jeff Boggs, whose accomplishments were he was a writer for Letterman and a reality TV show producer. Micah wants to be a reality show star. Everything he does is about give me attention because, you know, with reality TV, it don't matter if the attention is good or bad, right? Most of the people on reality TV are complete a-holes. That's what this is all about. He's using the office for his next thing. That's why the controversial statements he makes are about, they're about things with sex or religion, because it will get him attention. Oh, man, what did he say now? I hate that guy. That's what he's doing. You notice it's never controversial statements about policy that helps you. There's nothing about what he said about hating Islam or hating Muslims that's going to help you. There's no policy in front of him or the legislature that's going to help you. Nothing. Now, if he'd have made the statement about, I hate local assessors that are screwing people on property taxes. All right, we got a ball game. Or I hate legislators that keep emboldening utility companies to skyrocket your rates. Okay. Got a game. It's never that, you guys notice that? It's never that. When he made that statement about the 3/5 compromise, the bill that he was talking about had already passed when he made the statement. There was nothing to be gained by you, the taxpayer. It wasn't like, man, the legislature's holding this up. These guys are ridiculous. He didn't need to juice the bill. He didn't need to juice public attention. He already got his way. He sprinted down there and made that comment because he wanted attention. That's why he does what he does. So when you guys have these events, you're playing into his hands. You're giving him what he wants. You're giving him what he wants. One of the other reasons he does this, and it's a shame, Braun's pathetically weak. I mean, IndyStar had an article about how Jim Banks is just stealing the Republican Party from Braun right now. And he's right. The writer was correct. Banks is stealing the Republican Party from Braun. Why? Because Banks knows what Micah knows. Braun's a wimp. He's a disgustingly pathetic, risk averse wimp. And Braun believes that if he angers Micah, he's going to lose the Turning Point people. And they've got Braun convinced that the Turning Point USA people are the golden ticket with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. And so Braun, I mean, look at this quote. He got asked about this. All this guy does, Micah Beckwith, is create headaches for Braun, which I'd be okay with if they were headaches that were policies that helped us, policies that made life more affordable. They're not. Tell me one time Beckwith created a headache for Braun since he's been lieutenant governor on policies that help the taxpayer, I'll wait. They’re always stuff like this. Here was Braun's response. Braun, according to the Capital Chronicle, told reporters earlier this month that Beckwith was, quote, was making a point that he probably regrets making in that fashion because it's taken away from the essence. No, he doesn't. He doesn't regret it at all, Braun. He doesn't care about essence or policy or any of it. He cares about himself. He's lining up his next job. He's wholly unqualified to work a real job. I mean, look at where he preaches. Everyone essentially has left but him. Look at who he works for. The guy who covered up his son being a hyper dangerous child predator, hid it from the church, let him in the church where little kids were present, made all the sex videos of himself. That's Micah's boss. Everyone else, including Nathan's brother-in-law. See you. Including Nathan's brother-in-law. See ya. That's where Micah works, because he's unemployable. So he's using this position as lieutenant governor, our tax money. That's why he has three comms people. It's why he hired Jeff Boggs. You're paying for Micah Beckwith's next endeavor or what he wants to be his next endeavor. And for Braun to say this. Grow a pair, Braun. Everybody knows you hate the guy. Everybody knows you know what he is. Just say it. Braun wanted to say, if there's a religion that is using violence to do things, that doesn't make sense to most religions, saying it in a way that brings up a word like hate. You probably just lost the impact of the point you were trying to make. No he didn't. He wasn't trying to fix anything. He wasn't trying to make anything better. He wasn't trying. It wasn't about. I don't even know what Micah Beckwith actually believes. He's such a con man and a shyster. I'm not even sure when you go to the religion side of it, he believes the stuff. He believes in attention for himself. And look, I share blame in this. I bought the BS. I'm the victim in the American Greed episode. Except instead of taking money, he took my dignity. I wanted property taxes fixed for you guys. It was the charge of my life. It's what I did when I was an elected official. It's what I did great when I was elected official. I so believe that you own your home and the government should stay out of it that I was willing to do whatever. And you guys know, for a year and a half, I did whatever. And this guy came to me and said, I want it, man. I want to get in there. I want to be a fighter. I want to battle. I want to fix this too. And I obviously saw the guy who was going to be the governor had no desire to do it. Remember, Braun never mentioned property taxes until he got out of the primary. Really, until after the convention. The woman he was nominating, he wanted to be his lieutenant governor, wasn't going to do it. I mean, in the end, nothing's really lost here, right? It wouldn't have got any better had the other woman won. But I've been victim to it, guys. I've seen it up front. I've seen it firsthand. He doesn't, he doesn't care about the impact. The only impact he wants is for himself. Now, Micah then did, so the governor says this, right? The governor gives him a lifeline. Braun on dad. I wouldn't have said it that way. He'll have to figure out how to get around it, because that's probably not what he intended to do. No, that's exactly what he intended to do, because everybody's talking about him and he doesn't care if people hate him, because he's not going to be able to win any more public offices. He knows that. The mistake I made was believing Micah wanted to elevate. He would want to elevate himself up the political ladder to do good for people. He doesn't. He doesn't care. He knows there's no path to being the governor. There's no path to him being a senator. There's no path to him being the lieutenant governor. The Republicans are not going to let him win at a convention again. He knows this is it. He's got four years to make his point, and that's what he's doing. And his point is not for us. You would think if you had four years to make a point, you would spend it on stuff for the people who invested in you to get you elected, but it's not. Braun totally gives him a lifeline there and then. What does Micah do? He laughs right in his face and doubles down. Here's Micah's response. I love and support all groups of people who come to our country legally and assimilate to our culture. Sharia law does the exact opposite of that and promotes the destruction of our country, our Constitution, and our way of life. I will never apologize for saying United States of America is now and always should be one nation under God. Who in Indiana is proposing Sharia law? What? Where is this at? Well, hell, you're the lieutenant governor of Indiana. You know where people are getting screwed? Property taxes, 100 referendums across the state, including in Micah's own home city of Noblesville this year. Big one, I can't wait. I hope that thing passes. Double it on his property. He's not out fighting for those people across the state or even in his own home city. He's not challenging the IURC for utility bills. He's not challenging Braun on the plan to raise taxes by $6.5 billion on I-70 or funnel $700 million of tax increases on I-80 to the Bears. He's not challenging Braun about not cleaning up the IEDC. He's on board with it. Beckwith is on board now with giving all the money, all the money, he's on board with it. He literally ran against the IEDC, called it a, I think, a shadow quasi government operation or shadow government operation in the debate. I was like, oh, this is awesome. It's why I've just stepped away from the whole thing. I’ll tell you who I vote for. I don't support and I will not support ever again. I'll tell you who I vote for because I think I want to encourage people to vote. And maybe that encourages participation. No more. I mean, this guy said all the stuff, right? But he's not sorry. He's not sorry. He could be using this time to help us. He was elected to help us. So here's where Daniel Elliott comes into this, because one of Micah's big supporters who has a vested interest in Micah continuing to do well, I'm not going to say his name because this guy also craves negative attention. I'm not even gonna say his name. Posted some very derogatory things about Mormons. Now this person doesn't wipe his own butt without having permission of the internal Beckwith power structure to do it. So it's laughable to think that wouldn't be affiliated in some way with Beckwith R Us. And they were incredibly negative things about Mormons. Now you can say whatever you want about the Muslims. Are the Mormons like, are they proposing Sharia law or the Mormons storming the streets? Are the Mormons enacting violence on the masses or are the Mormons beheading people? Like, is there some issue with the Mormons that I wasn't aware of? Somebody let me know if somebody could point me to some big headline recently about Mormons doing some heinous acts against the communities in which they live. Answers or not, it was spewing of hate for the sake of spewing of hate. Now look, there are serious issues with people in various cities, in our country and across the world with Islamic radicals. Right. That is an issue. But Islamic radicals are not all Muslims. I know Abdul. I've been around Abdul for 15 years. I've never once felt threatened in the presence of Abdul, the same way as not all Christians would cover up finding out that their son is a hyper dangerous child predator and then let him back in the church around little kids. Right. There are issues with people in every religion. We deal with them. We should take Islamic radicalism serious. But there are many fine people who are of the Muslim faith the same way as there are many fine people who are of the Mormon faith. Now look, if you want to think the Mormon religion, the South Park had a great, great Mormon episode. It's fabulous. Right? If you want to think the Mormons are a little wacky, okay, every other religion thinks every other religion is a little wacky. That's fine. But there's no imminent threat from the Mormons, of which Daniel Elliott is a member of the LDS. Daniel Elliott is a fine person. Now, I'm mad at Elliott about him not doing anything about Diego and then having the audacity to come out and go, I demand Diego Morales resign. And I told Elliott that, and Elliott and I have talked about it. We've had a spirited conversation. We talked about that this morning, in fact, offline. And I'm sure he won't mind me sharing that because he's coming in here in the near future for us to talk about it in front of you guys after the convention, and I'm not going to change that. But Daniel Elliott, I've never said he's not a fine guy. He's a fine guy. Now, Elliott speaking out about Beckwith, which that's who he's talking about here, is a little different than the rest of these guys, because Elliott has rock solid conservative bona fides. He is liked in the conservative movement. He's a good dude. He is not a radical leftist. I guess I knew, I did know Daniel Elliott was part of LDS, but I never hear him talk about it. It's not like he's out there professing it to the masses. He's kind of living his life like the way people should. You have your faith. I have mine. You live your life to the best of your. It's what we talked about with Rust the other day and we talked about with the Pride Month stuff. I don't care if you're gay. I don't hold it against you. I don't dislike you because of it. I'll be your friend. Don't throw it in my face. You sleep with who you want to sleep with. You engage in relationships with who you want to engage with. I'll do mine. And points of commonality. We could be buddies. We can hang out. We can. Whatever. And I'm that way with every person, the same way as there's a lot of people I don't want to hear about your Broad Ripple two conquest. Don't care. She wasn't hot. Right? So, Elliott speaking out is different because Elliott hopefully speaks to it. Look, Fatty and those guys, they don't speak to people that can hopefully put a stop to this insanity from the lieutenant governor's office, and no one will do anything about it. No one will do anything about it.

Daniel Elliott Warns Religious Attacks Can Spread Beyond Their Original Target

And so Elliott's comments carry a little bit more weight. He's a little different. Here's what Elliott said yesterday at this event at the Statehouse. Here's what history teaches us. First, we say it's okay to hate Muslims, then Hindus, then the Jew. And then they tell Christians to stay quiet. It isn't about you, he said, according to the Capital Chronicle. But then one day you wake up and you're not the right flavor of Christian, and suddenly it is you. If we start saying it's okay to start hating the Muslim, or the Jew or the Hindu or any other faith, pretty soon we start to say, you're not the right flavor of Christianity, and it's okay to hate you too, right? But out there are radicals in the Islamic religion, the Muslim religion, the Islamic radicals that need to be dealt with. Absolutely. But Micah Beckwith didn't say that because that's what he wants. He said that to get attention. We have to start on our side of the aisle acknowledging when people are idiots. We didn't do it with Diego Morales. Well, some of us did with Diego Morales. And for years, people like me screamed about Diego and what? We were told to sit down and shut up. We were called all the names. And then what happened? We were proven correct. All the people that were Team Diego, right? Oh, he's a good guy. All the shock jocks just looking for clicks. What did they ultimately end up doing? Saying we were exactly right. I believe scandals, plural, was the phrase. Todd Rokita used, I believe liar was the phrase, well, lied to was the phrase Jim Banks used. One of the things about this show is we are where the people are, and none of the politicians have been able to figure it out about why whatever platform we end up on, we make it work. We meet the people where they are and the people, many of them conservative, many of them liberty minded, people who tune into this program every day are sick of both sides. The BS on both sides. They're sick of the glorified dinner show at their expense. They're sick of their tax money being used and abused. They're sick of them being treated like the enemy. They're sick of being belittled, not listened to, and they're sick of their money propping up idiots when bad people behave badly. We should address it even when it's on, quote unquote, our side of the aisle. And we should do it on the other side. We keep letting these people get away with it. And the party keeps tumbling, spiraling further and further away from what it should be, which is a part of this, of low taxes and limited accountable government for the people. This is why I want the Republicans to go down so bad in that Secretary of State's race this fall because that will send the message. That will send the message that you guys are done with it. You're done with Diego. You're done with Micah. You're done with the shenanigans. You're done with the never ending tax increases, the growth of government, the giving of your money away to the uber rich, the uber connected, giving your money away to corporations that bring in the foreign workers. That's what you're sick of. That's what you're done with. And the best way to send that message, the only way to send that message, is this fall in that Secretary of State's race. Just remember that as we go through the next several months. Remember that.