WEBVTT - 4/27/26: WHCD Shooting Conspiracies, Joe Kent On Secret Service Failures & Iran 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:01.599 Hey, guys, Saga and Crystal here. 0:00:01.680 --> 0:00:05.200 Independent media just played a truly massive role in this election, 0:00:05.360 --> 0:00:07.840 and we are so excited about what that means for 0:00:07.880 --> 0:00:08.720 the future of the show. 0:00:08.880 --> 0:00:10.760 This is the only place where you can find honest 0:00:10.760 --> 0:00:13.239 perspectives from the left and the right that simply does 0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:14.680 not exist anywhere else. 0:00:14.760 --> 0:00:17.080 So if that is something that's important to you, please 0:00:17.120 --> 0:00:19.599 go to Breakingpoints dot com. Become a member today and 0:00:19.640 --> 0:00:22.800 you'll get access to our full shows, unedited, ad free, 0:00:22.800 --> 0:00:25.600 and all put together for you every morning in your inbox. 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:27.560 We need your help to build the future of independent 0:00:27.560 --> 0:00:29.920 news media, and we hope to see you at Breakingpoints 0:00:29.960 --> 0:00:33.440 dot com. 0:00:33.960 --> 0:00:36.199 So Sager did a good job breaking down all of 0:00:36.240 --> 0:00:40.080 the details we know about the shooting that occurred at 0:00:40.120 --> 0:00:43.120 the White House correspondent center of the attempted assassination attempt. 0:00:43.120 --> 0:00:45.120 We can all say that with some confidence because we 0:00:45.200 --> 0:00:48.239 do have a manifesto from Cole Allen. We're going to 0:00:48.240 --> 0:00:51.320 talk to Joe Kent more about that and the failures 0:00:51.360 --> 0:00:54.520 that led there, what he's seen from inside the administration, 0:00:54.560 --> 0:00:58.680 about the investigation or lack of curiosity about previous assassination attempts. 0:00:59.120 --> 0:01:02.360 Let's go ahead and start here with Trump being asked 0:01:02.360 --> 0:01:05.600 on sixty minutes about his experience of what went down. 0:01:05.640 --> 0:01:07.480 And interestingly, I'm sure you guys all have seen the 0:01:07.760 --> 0:01:10.080 video probably one hundred times by this point. There's a 0:01:10.120 --> 0:01:12.760 moment when he appears to fall down, but he will 0:01:12.800 --> 0:01:15.160 assure you that, no, he did not fall down. It's 0:01:15.240 --> 0:01:17.600 just the Secret Service told him to get to the ground, 0:01:17.640 --> 0:01:19.440 and so that's what he did. Let's go and take 0:01:19.440 --> 0:01:20.000 a listen to that. 0:01:20.600 --> 0:01:25.200 You see the security moving quickly within seconds, grabbing the 0:01:25.280 --> 0:01:29.559 Vice president by his coat, lifting him up, bringing him out. 0:01:29.840 --> 0:01:33.800 Then the counter assault comes in. Took ten seconds for 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:37.080 them to flank you, mister president, and then twenty seconds 0:01:37.160 --> 0:01:40.240 to get you out. It looked chaotic. At one point 0:01:40.319 --> 0:01:41.720 you were down. What was happening? 0:01:42.240 --> 0:01:45.240 Well, what happened is it was a little bit of me. 0:01:45.280 --> 0:01:48.040 I wanted to see what was happening, and I wasn't 0:01:48.080 --> 0:01:51.360 making it that easy for him. I wanted to see. 0:01:51.600 --> 0:01:52.440 What was going on. 0:01:53.560 --> 0:01:56.000 And by that time we started to realize maybe it 0:01:56.120 --> 0:01:59.680 was a bad problem, different kind of a problem, bad 0:01:59.720 --> 0:02:03.240 one and different than what would be normal noise. 0:02:02.960 --> 0:02:04.800 From a ballroom, which you hear all the time. 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:09.400 And I was surrounded by great people, and I probably 0:02:10.320 --> 0:02:12.639 made them act a little bit more slowly. They said, 0:02:12.639 --> 0:02:14.880 wait a minute, Wait a minute, let me see wait 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:16.639 a minute. So you know, I'm telling just. 0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:18.560 At that moment where it looks like you go sort 0:02:18.560 --> 0:02:20.320 of down with the sort of wait. 0:02:20.360 --> 0:02:22.520 Well, I know what happened is then I started walking 0:02:22.720 --> 0:02:25.440 with them. I turned, I started walking, and then said 0:02:25.520 --> 0:02:28.720 please go down, Please go down on the floor. So 0:02:28.800 --> 0:02:32.000 I went down, and the first lady went down also. 0:02:32.120 --> 0:02:35.519 But we were asked to go down by the agents 0:02:35.840 --> 0:02:36.560 as I was walking. 0:02:36.600 --> 0:02:38.320 In other words, I wanted you almost to crawl. 0:02:38.360 --> 0:02:39.960 Were standing up pretty much. 0:02:40.160 --> 0:02:44.440 I was standing up and then turn around the opposite 0:02:44.480 --> 0:02:49.120 direction and started pretty much walking out, pretty tall, a 0:02:49.120 --> 0:02:52.640 little bent over because they you know, I'm not looking 0:02:52.680 --> 0:02:53.880 to be standing too tall. 0:02:54.800 --> 0:02:56.519 And but I was walking out. 0:02:56.720 --> 0:02:59.240 It was pretty about halfway there, and they said, please 0:02:59.280 --> 0:03:01.240 go down to the floor, Please go down to the floor. 0:03:01.280 --> 0:03:03.880 So I dropped to the floor Soda the first lady. 0:03:03.919 --> 0:03:07.400 You can see the gunman running through the metal detectors 0:03:08.000 --> 0:03:09.240 and he fired. 0:03:08.919 --> 0:03:10.480 Off one or two rounds. 0:03:10.480 --> 0:03:13.800 The speed was rather incredible, actually, it was like a blur. 0:03:14.680 --> 0:03:15.800 How did he get that close? 0:03:15.840 --> 0:03:18.080 With the place swarming with security. 0:03:17.880 --> 0:03:19.200 I will say. 0:03:19.280 --> 0:03:22.080 I say it because I'm a big fan of the 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:26.400 people of law enforcement, and you know, some of these 0:03:26.440 --> 0:03:28.760 people they may be crazy, but they're not stupid and 0:03:28.800 --> 0:03:33.200 they figure things out. He ran forty five yards, they say, 0:03:33.760 --> 0:03:36.280 and he just went to it and then boom, he 0:03:36.360 --> 0:03:39.200 popped through it. I mean he ran like I think 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:42.560 the NFL should sign him up. He was fast when 0:03:42.560 --> 0:03:45.160 you look at it, and it's almost like a blur, right. 0:03:45.640 --> 0:03:48.960 But it was amazing because as soon as they saw that, 0:03:49.360 --> 0:03:51.160 you could see them drawing their guns. They were so 0:03:51.280 --> 0:03:54.760 professional aim their guns, and then they took them down immediately. 0:03:55.360 --> 0:03:58.880 So the president there impressed, apparently with the shooters athletic prowess. 0:03:59.720 --> 0:04:02.480 In case you know what appears to have happened, we'll 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:04.440 talk to Joe Ken about this a bit more. Is 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:08.000 that there was basically no security to get into the 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:12.400 hotel lobby. Cole Allen had booked a hotel room there. 0:04:12.720 --> 0:04:16.440 He took up, he took the stairs down to the 0:04:16.480 --> 0:04:19.000 mezzanine level where he's able to exit at a point 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:22.120 that was close to the magnetometers there, and then he 0:04:22.240 --> 0:04:24.320 just tried to make a mad dash for it through 0:04:24.400 --> 0:04:27.120 the metal detectors and that's when Secret Service is able 0:04:27.160 --> 0:04:30.320 to detain him. But you know, Saga, I feel like 0:04:30.600 --> 0:04:32.920 back in the old days with these shootings, everybody would 0:04:32.960 --> 0:04:34.880 be waiting with bated breath for like, what's the name 0:04:34.920 --> 0:04:38.640 of the shooter? What sort of ethnic or political affiliation 0:04:39.240 --> 0:04:41.720 can we find here so we can make it either 0:04:41.720 --> 0:04:43.640 the fold of one side or the other. There's still 0:04:43.640 --> 0:04:45.240 a lot of that go that goes on. You know, 0:04:45.400 --> 0:04:46.640 is the Muslim is ze black? 0:04:46.640 --> 0:04:47.279 Is the white? 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:50.120 What's the what's the overarching framework we can have here? 0:04:50.360 --> 0:04:52.440 But more of what people do now is to figure 0:04:52.440 --> 0:04:55.840 out what's going to be the conspiracy theory to run with. 0:04:56.160 --> 0:04:58.760 And I do have to say they have some things 0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:01.280 to work with here. Definitely has some things to work 0:05:01.320 --> 0:05:03.160 with here, some weird details. 0:05:03.520 --> 0:05:06.600 So before we get started, I just want to guys, 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:09.479 I get it. I get where we're all coming from. 0:05:09.720 --> 0:05:10.279 I really do. 0:05:10.360 --> 0:05:13.200 I'm a UFO guy, which is probably the biggest. 0:05:12.920 --> 0:05:13.919 Conspiracy in the world. 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:17.359 I believe in the JFK assassination theory, not theory, I 0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:20.279 mean at this point in fact, fat yeah, that's just 0:05:20.600 --> 0:05:24.839 established fact. I think Vegas still a lot of questions 0:05:24.880 --> 0:05:27.240 about that. I've talked about it here, I do not 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:29.480 believe the official story on the Vegas shooting on Steven 0:05:29.520 --> 0:05:30.800 Paddock whatsoever. 0:05:30.880 --> 0:05:32.560 I'm with you, okay. 0:05:32.680 --> 0:05:34.800 We were one of the first people to call out 0:05:34.839 --> 0:05:37.679 You've all day, all right. I think our credentials here 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:41.640 are well established. Whenever it comes to conspiracy theory, to 0:05:41.680 --> 0:05:45.160 giving them like seven years ago covering Epstein, Okay, right, 0:05:45.240 --> 0:05:48.800 whenever it was allegedly a conspiracy, the idea that they 0:05:48.800 --> 0:05:52.200 would stage a shooting to construct a ballroom which was 0:05:52.320 --> 0:05:55.160 already being built, it is ridiculous. 0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:59.440 I'm sorry. Look, I truly I love everybody. 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:04.559 I understand that this is a societal reflection of where 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:06.640 we are. I talked to you guys on the phone, Crystal, 0:06:06.680 --> 0:06:08.479 to our team. I said, this is very much like 0:06:08.520 --> 0:06:11.320 the nineteen seventies. There's been all these attempts on Trump's 0:06:11.360 --> 0:06:14.719 life about political violence, about the rising tides. Very much 0:06:14.760 --> 0:06:17.159 like the nineteen sixty eight to nineteen seventy five period 0:06:17.240 --> 0:06:20.799 with the weather underground and political consternation and deep levels 0:06:20.839 --> 0:06:23.400 of distrust and conspiracy theories explode. 0:06:23.440 --> 0:06:26.280 So I understand it as societal level, but. 0:06:26.320 --> 0:06:30.200 The knee jerk idea that they would stage a shooting, 0:06:30.320 --> 0:06:32.760 which again it's not like Trump came out looking good 0:06:32.760 --> 0:06:35.719 from this. You know, the idea behind Butler is that 0:06:35.720 --> 0:06:37.919 he had helped, you know, help his what was it, 0:06:37.920 --> 0:06:40.960 his help his re election campaign and fight fight fight, 0:06:41.279 --> 0:06:43.360 Like he either fell or was pushed. 0:06:43.080 --> 0:06:44.920 Down on the ground. It didn't look that good. 0:06:45.080 --> 0:06:47.360 They also took the vice president out first. I'm sure 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:50.640 he's seething about that. It didn't make the Secret Service 0:06:50.680 --> 0:06:53.840 look good really at all. So I just I don't 0:06:53.839 --> 0:06:56.200 see it, Like you got to ask the quibono, like 0:06:56.279 --> 0:06:57.240 who benefits here? 0:06:57.360 --> 0:06:58.520 We'll show you all the stuff. 0:06:58.600 --> 0:07:00.320 I just want to put that out there because I'm like, 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:03.000 I don't see it all right. I mean I can 0:07:03.120 --> 0:07:06.960 usually get there in terms of the path, but yeah, 0:07:07.000 --> 0:07:10.440 I mean Caltech grad, high IQ guy who went Schitzo 0:07:10.640 --> 0:07:13.760 just seems a lot more of a reasonable explanation. 0:07:14.360 --> 0:07:16.360 I just want to put that out there. Yeah. 0:07:16.400 --> 0:07:19.200 Well, I mean, you say, the staging some sort of 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:22.240 false flag to push for a ballroom is ridiculous, But 0:07:22.280 --> 0:07:24.920 people look at this administration like these are ridiculous people. 0:07:25.000 --> 0:07:28.000 I know, even. 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:31.040 With I mean, you know, I'm with you. I agree, 0:07:31.080 --> 0:07:33.160 Like I don't see enough evidence to be like, you know, 0:07:33.280 --> 0:07:35.520 this is a false flager to buy into any of 0:07:35.560 --> 0:07:38.600 the particular conspiracies that are floating around. There's a variety 0:07:38.640 --> 0:07:41.160 of them. This also ties in we'll get to all 0:07:41.200 --> 0:07:44.560 of this, but also ties into the like the scientists 0:07:44.640 --> 0:07:49.240 dying and disappearing thing as well. So you've got sort 0:07:49.240 --> 0:07:53.520 of unified spectrum of conspiracies coming together in this one. 0:07:53.560 --> 0:07:56.840 But one of the craziest things that happened here is 0:07:57.160 --> 0:07:59.880 prior to the event, there was all this leaking to 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:02.960 the process. Oh, Trump's really going to go after the media, 0:08:03.080 --> 0:08:07.280 and so Caroline Levitt got asked about this before the event, 0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:11.600 and she said, yes, there will be quote shots fired. 0:08:11.800 --> 0:08:13.000 Let's go ahead and take a listen to that. 0:08:13.640 --> 0:08:16.560 It'll be funny, it'll be entertaining. There will be some 0:08:16.600 --> 0:08:20.360 shots fired tonight on the road. Wow, everyone should tune in. 0:08:20.400 --> 0:08:22.280 It's going to be really great. I'm looking forward to 0:08:22.320 --> 0:08:22.760 hearing it. 0:08:23.960 --> 0:08:27.560 So very unfortunate in retrospect wording choice there that I'm 0:08:27.600 --> 0:08:31.040 sure she probably strongly regrets. But there was another weird 0:08:31.080 --> 0:08:36.520 moment involving Caroline Levitt's actually husband, where right after this happens, 0:08:36.720 --> 0:08:38.720 you know, Fox News, all the networks are trying to 0:08:38.720 --> 0:08:41.200 get somebody on the phone. The reception in this ballroom, 0:08:41.200 --> 0:08:43.280 which I remember from back, you know, years ago when 0:08:43.280 --> 0:08:45.360 I went to this thing. The reception in the ballroom 0:08:45.440 --> 0:08:47.160 is complete. Tried very hard to get any sort of 0:08:47.160 --> 0:08:50.240 a cell signal in any case. Fox News was talking 0:08:50.280 --> 0:08:54.120 to a reporter that they had there and she was 0:08:54.120 --> 0:08:58.080 telling the story about how Caroline left. It's husband was 0:08:58.160 --> 0:09:01.160 warning her that she needed to be really careful tonight. 0:09:01.440 --> 0:09:04.199 And in the middle of telling this story, the line 0:09:04.240 --> 0:09:06.720 cuts and she's unable to finish her thought there, let's 0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:07.400 take a listen to that. 0:09:07.880 --> 0:09:09.720 I want to just quickly tell you. I was sitting 0:09:09.760 --> 0:09:14.400 next to Caroline Lovitt, the press secretary's husband. He was 0:09:14.760 --> 0:09:16.599 one of our guests. He was seeded right next to me, 0:09:16.840 --> 0:09:20.800 and you know, right as the dinner was starting, you know, 0:09:20.920 --> 0:09:24.040 the national anthem happened, and then he kind of leaned 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:26.160 over and said, you know, I watched you on TV. 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:28.480 You do a great job. You need to be very safe. 0:09:28.760 --> 0:09:31.200 And he was very serious when he said that to me, 0:09:31.520 --> 0:09:33.319 and he kind of looked around the room and he said, 0:09:33.600 --> 0:09:34.600 you know, there are. 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:42.160 Some sounds like we lost Aisha's phone there. And this happens, 0:09:42.200 --> 0:09:44.720 by the way, especially when you have so many people 0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:48.400 attempting to utilize the same cell service at the same time. 0:09:49.400 --> 0:09:52.520 So after Caroline Lovett saying there will be shots fire, 0:09:52.559 --> 0:09:55.000 and then her husband was apparently is showing some sort 0:09:55.000 --> 0:09:57.240 of dire warning to this woman that gets cut off 0:09:57.320 --> 0:10:00.000 midstream Zagera while she's trying to explain this to Fox News. 0:10:00.200 --> 0:10:01.720 Look, I'm enjoying a segment, all right. 0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:03.280 I mean I get I could see it if I 0:10:03.360 --> 0:10:06.360 was sitting at home and you know, and I was 0:10:06.400 --> 0:10:09.880 just checking in and I'd already was predisposed to distrust. 0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:13.120 I totally get it, and you know, in this in 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:15.760 that way, I mean, what's the innocent explanation? It's weird, Okay, 0:10:15.920 --> 0:10:17.560 let's at the same time, Yeah, that's weird. 0:10:17.559 --> 0:10:17.719 Thing. 0:10:17.800 --> 0:10:19.680 Why is he telling her to be careful? What like 0:10:19.760 --> 0:10:22.360 careful with what in Washington, d C? Because a crime? 0:10:22.600 --> 0:10:26.200 And then the phone cuts out. That's nuts. Shots fired? 0:10:26.320 --> 0:10:29.320 Shots fired is actually one where I could see that's 0:10:29.520 --> 0:10:32.360 much more of a like, you know, a turn of phrase. 0:10:32.760 --> 0:10:36.319 Very obviously they would say the maga or sorry, the 0:10:37.120 --> 0:10:41.440 Caroline husband one is much stranger. We also have which 0:10:41.480 --> 0:10:43.280 what we're pointing to D four. Let's put this up 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:47.360 there on the screen about how immediately afterwards, all of 0:10:47.440 --> 0:10:50.320 the biggest MAGA accounts on Twitter, we're saying, now you 0:10:50.440 --> 0:10:52.960 know why the left is suing to block Trump's privately 0:10:52.960 --> 0:10:53.720 funded ballroom. 0:10:54.040 --> 0:10:55.080 We need a ballroom. 0:10:55.160 --> 0:10:58.400 I don't want to hear any more criticism of Trump's ballroom. 0:10:58.880 --> 0:11:01.480 Let me again, though, just go into this a little bit, 0:11:01.520 --> 0:11:04.880 both to defense straight the MAGA retards that are pushing 0:11:04.920 --> 0:11:07.040 this and the people who think they're doing this to 0:11:07.080 --> 0:11:10.320 push the ballroom guys, is the idea that the president 0:11:10.360 --> 0:11:12.560 would just never speak at any event that's not in 0:11:12.600 --> 0:11:15.400 a ballroom or at the White House ballroom. This is 0:11:15.520 --> 0:11:18.600 not a White House event. It is a White House 0:11:18.640 --> 0:11:23.439 Correspondence dinner. So would the White House Correspondence Association pay 0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:27.679 rental space to the government because the president. 0:11:27.320 --> 0:11:27.960 Is going to come? 0:11:28.240 --> 0:11:30.560 And then what about all these other events which the 0:11:30.600 --> 0:11:32.440 president is going to come speak to? Is that the 0:11:32.520 --> 0:11:35.160 idea is the idea that every private organization in the 0:11:35.240 --> 0:11:38.280 nation can only host events with the president at the 0:11:38.320 --> 0:11:40.720 White House ballroom. Because, by the way, if so, that's 0:11:40.720 --> 0:11:44.200 a real argument against the ballroom, that the president has 0:11:44.280 --> 0:11:48.040 absolute veto power and hosting authority over any future event. 0:11:48.320 --> 0:11:49.320 Just so everybody knows. 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:52.360 This is the first White House Correspondent Sinner Trump has 0:11:52.400 --> 0:11:55.800 ever attended while in office ever, so that the whole 0:11:55.840 --> 0:11:58.520 first four years I was there, he never attended any 0:11:58.520 --> 0:12:00.520 of them. So if he's not going to a does 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:03.000 that mean the White House correspond Center can happen? I mean, 0:12:03.080 --> 0:12:05.600 people who cover the White House, it's already a grotesque event, 0:12:05.760 --> 0:12:08.079 right do you agree with that? Like the whole nerd 0:12:08.120 --> 0:12:10.760 prom and all of that, like taking selfies with the 0:12:10.760 --> 0:12:11.440 people you cover. 0:12:11.640 --> 0:12:13.640 It's gross, all right, And that's. 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:15.800 Already like baseline, we all know what happens, and then 0:12:15.800 --> 0:12:18.240 they do it out in the open. But then it's 0:12:18.280 --> 0:12:21.280 a whole other thing to actually host the event all 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:25.280 in the White House grounds, Like that's nuts. So yeah, Like, 0:12:25.720 --> 0:12:28.440 and I don't actually think no matter what who is 0:12:28.440 --> 0:12:31.160 in office, and I think very little of the White 0:12:31.160 --> 0:12:35.160 House Corresponds Association I was a member, is even any 0:12:35.280 --> 0:12:38.520 somewhat self respective for like, you cannot hold events, all 0:12:38.520 --> 0:12:41.880 events at the White House co or the White House Ballroom. 0:12:42.000 --> 0:12:45.040 So that's just the one thing. And also the ballroom 0:12:45.160 --> 0:12:49.000 is going to cost four hundred million dollars. How much 0:12:49.040 --> 0:12:52.800 would it have cost to just have a competent barricade 0:12:53.120 --> 0:12:57.600 put up by the US Secret Service, probably what twenty 0:12:57.640 --> 0:13:01.320 grand a barricade with a couple of age, maybe thirty. 0:13:01.679 --> 0:13:03.560 I mean, it's a lot cheaper to just have a 0:13:03.559 --> 0:13:04.520 good secret service. 0:13:04.720 --> 0:13:06.400 And honestly, that's the part I want to talk about 0:13:06.440 --> 0:13:08.920 to Joe Kent the most that I just don't get. 0:13:09.400 --> 0:13:13.280 Why is the administration so united and how great the 0:13:13.320 --> 0:13:16.480 secret service of a job here is done? I don't 0:13:16.520 --> 0:13:20.360 get it. It's bizarre. If anything, that is the conspiracy. 0:13:23.400 --> 0:13:28.000 Let me go ahead and indulge the conspiratorial thinking. Okay, 0:13:28.080 --> 0:13:30.400 so you just said something that's important. Trump has never 0:13:30.440 --> 0:13:32.840 been to one of these before, and he decides to 0:13:32.880 --> 0:13:38.280 go this year. And this is just crazy. The number 0:13:38.280 --> 0:13:41.959 of cabinet officials that were there. We were looking through it. Okay, 0:13:42.040 --> 0:13:44.560 not only is Trump there, JD. Vance is there. After 0:13:44.600 --> 0:13:47.480 he gets pulled from Islamabad, Mike Johnson, who would be 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:50.920 next in the line of succession, is there. If the 0:13:50.960 --> 0:13:52.880 worst of the word, you know, worst thing, imagine what 0:13:52.880 --> 0:13:54.839 happens and like the whole place goes up and smoke 0:13:54.880 --> 0:13:57.720 and everybody that's there is taken out, which given that 0:13:57.800 --> 0:14:01.360 the hotel lobby was apparently you know, totally open and available. 0:14:01.440 --> 0:14:03.880 Is not like that crazy to imagine something like that 0:14:03.960 --> 0:14:06.680 having happened at this event. We would have ended up 0:14:07.200 --> 0:14:11.760 with Chuck Grassley as president. He was the next in 0:14:11.840 --> 0:14:14.840 the line of succession who was not there at the dinner. 0:14:15.000 --> 0:14:18.439 He's like one hundred and eighty years old. It is 0:14:18.480 --> 0:14:22.160 so ridiculous to imagine that that was like a real possibility. 0:14:22.200 --> 0:14:23.680 But anyway to go back to sort of like the 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:27.440 conspiracy brain. Okay, so Trump has never gone to this thing. 0:14:28.040 --> 0:14:30.120 He decides to go to this one. Not only that, 0:14:30.160 --> 0:14:31.800 I don't know if you guys can pull E three 0:14:32.160 --> 0:14:35.760 from the next block E three. So they decided to 0:14:36.000 --> 0:14:39.080 use like this came from the White House. They decided 0:14:39.120 --> 0:14:43.600 to use the lower level of security in spite of 0:14:43.640 --> 0:14:46.520 the fact that the entire cabinet was there. I mean, 0:14:46.760 --> 0:14:49.720 Rubio was there, Cash, Mattel was there, heg Seth was there, 0:14:49.880 --> 0:14:53.920 like they were all whole basically advanced and the president 0:14:53.960 --> 0:14:57.920 obviously they were all there, and yet they opted to 0:14:58.000 --> 0:15:01.440 have this lower level of security. Okay, So here's then 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:05.120 immediately afterwards, immediately afterwards, everybody's on the same page of 0:15:05.200 --> 0:15:08.000 like this is why we need a ballroom. Okay, then 0:15:08.640 --> 0:15:11.960 put D five up on the screen. So a judge 0:15:12.000 --> 0:15:16.080 had just recently said that, you know, had temporarily blocked 0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:19.200 the construction of the ballroom, and one of the things 0:15:19.240 --> 0:15:21.400 they said is basically like, you know, to not get 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:23.880 authorization from Congress, there would have to be some national 0:15:23.920 --> 0:15:28.600 security rationale. Well, the DOJ has already sent a letter 0:15:29.400 --> 0:15:33.600 now using this attack at the White House, corresponds or 0:15:33.640 --> 0:15:38.480 to further push the ballroom. So you're like, what is 0:15:38.520 --> 0:15:41.360 going on here? Why are we like using this whole 0:15:41.360 --> 0:15:45.480 thing to try to push forward a ballroom that had 0:15:45.520 --> 0:15:49.720 been at least temporarily blocked by some judge. So that's 0:15:49.800 --> 0:15:52.640 kind of the that's the ballroom direction of like this 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:54.720 was a false flag to create a ballroomhich. I agree 0:15:54.720 --> 0:15:56.920 with you. Sounds ridiculous, but I guess I don't know. 0:15:57.280 --> 0:16:00.000 I think to your point earlier about like the seven 0:16:00.600 --> 0:16:03.720 people just don't believe anything anymore, and I don't blame them. 0:16:03.760 --> 0:16:06.000 I don't believe anything anymore. You know, at the time 0:16:06.040 --> 0:16:09.400 of the Butler assassination attempt, you and I were both like, 0:16:09.800 --> 0:16:12.440 you know, I don't see any indications that there's more 0:16:12.480 --> 0:16:14.840 here than some deranged loser who climbed up on a 0:16:14.920 --> 0:16:18.000 roof and the Secret Service was incompetent. That appears to 0:16:18.040 --> 0:16:21.200 be the thing. I am no longer so confident that 0:16:21.440 --> 0:16:23.560 it is as cut and dry as I thought it 0:16:23.600 --> 0:16:26.240 was at the time, simply because of the weird way 0:16:26.520 --> 0:16:29.000 that the government has acted afterwards, and the fact that 0:16:29.000 --> 0:16:31.600 we know so little about this shooter, that Trump talks 0:16:31.640 --> 0:16:33.880 so little about it, and there are some things about 0:16:33.880 --> 0:16:35.840 that that I'm like, I don't know, maybe people were 0:16:35.880 --> 0:16:38.560 onto more than I really thaw it at the time. 0:16:38.720 --> 0:16:40.960 So anyway, with all of that as backdrop, and with 0:16:41.000 --> 0:16:43.760 the Epstein files and just a total collapse of trust, 0:16:44.120 --> 0:16:46.680 I don't blame people for looking at these events and 0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:49.720 going whatever the official story is. I don't think that's 0:16:49.720 --> 0:16:52.160 all that's going on here. There must be something else 0:16:52.200 --> 0:16:54.320 going on here, And I'm going to dig into this 0:16:54.400 --> 0:16:56.480 to try to figure out what that thing is hundred percent. 0:16:56.560 --> 0:16:58.640 And I think, if anything, that's my takeaway. The fact 0:16:58.800 --> 0:17:01.320 is is that the vast majority of people, let's say, 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:04.360 who are online and in politics my age, they're all like, oh, 0:17:04.400 --> 0:17:07.120 it's fag, And I was like, well, I mean, here's 0:17:07.119 --> 0:17:09.359 the thing. Can you blame people for not being trustful 0:17:09.480 --> 0:17:12.800 of official information. It is very nineteen seventies. People like 0:17:12.840 --> 0:17:15.600 my book Rerecks. I've recommended it many times over the years. 0:17:15.640 --> 0:17:18.520 Days of Rage. I highly recommend people go and read 0:17:18.640 --> 0:17:23.280 about the entire like underground violence movement that was a 0:17:23.440 --> 0:17:28.320 huge part of, you know, like the anti institutional rage 0:17:28.520 --> 0:17:28.880 of the. 0:17:28.880 --> 0:17:31.840 Post like new Left era era. 0:17:32.240 --> 0:17:35.600 At the very same time that conspiracy theories and everything 0:17:35.640 --> 0:17:39.080 exploded across the nation. And it was all happening in 0:17:39.119 --> 0:17:43.159 a post Watergate, post Nixon, post LBJ. 0:17:43.040 --> 0:17:46.479 Vietnam War environment. Oh and yes, humans were going through 0:17:46.480 --> 0:17:48.040 the moon. There's always a you know. 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:51.520 Like a NASA connection, Like there is an eerie rhyming 0:17:51.680 --> 0:17:54.720 I think that happens with this. Were tons of assassination attempts, 0:17:54.800 --> 0:17:58.199 bombing's riots even remember and so look, not everything is 0:17:58.200 --> 0:18:01.200 the same, but the same forces are very similar, except 0:18:01.200 --> 0:18:03.800 this time around we have algorithms and we also have 0:18:03.840 --> 0:18:07.760 something unique. What do we actually know about Cole Allen? 0:18:08.200 --> 0:18:11.119 The hard fact that we know about this guy is 0:18:11.160 --> 0:18:13.960 that he went to cal Tech University. He was also 0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:17.560 an intern at JPL. In fact, there's a connection to that. 0:18:17.600 --> 0:18:19.560 Can we put D six up here on the screen. 0:18:19.640 --> 0:18:22.960 This is actually crazy this is very stornge. Yet, according 0:18:22.960 --> 0:18:25.320 to his LinkedIn, he interned at NASA in twenty fourteen, 0:18:25.400 --> 0:18:27.480 and in twenty fourteen they published a paper and the 0:18:27.560 --> 0:18:31.200 quote Henry Martinez was an author an ex user named 0:18:31.200 --> 0:18:34.440 Henry Martinez made in twenty twenty three, made only a 0:18:34.480 --> 0:18:37.280 single post on December twenty first, twenty twenty three, and 0:18:37.320 --> 0:18:41.639 the post simply said, Cole Allen, So yeah, that's weird. 0:18:41.720 --> 0:18:43.399 All right, I'm not going to say it's not weird. 0:18:43.720 --> 0:18:46.199 Maybe he's a you know, Patsy name, and all of 0:18:46.240 --> 0:18:48.800 that we could get to. Here's what's the more likely story. 0:18:48.880 --> 0:18:51.080 Let's take a look at two our most high profile 0:18:51.320 --> 0:18:54.800 assassins or attempted assassins that we have in the what 0:18:54.840 --> 0:18:58.439 the last couple of years. We have Luigi Mangioni and 0:18:58.480 --> 0:19:01.640 we have here Cole Allen. What do these two gentlemen 0:19:01.840 --> 0:19:06.280 have in common. They are reasonably well educated. They come 0:19:06.320 --> 0:19:10.680 from either a rich or a privileged or middle class background. 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:15.040 They went to you know, decent enough schools and a university. 0:19:15.119 --> 0:19:19.280 Everything seemed to be normal, and then something happened, right, 0:19:19.600 --> 0:19:22.120 and that seems very clear in this guy's story. He's 0:19:22.160 --> 0:19:25.200 basically been not up to the snuff of the employment 0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:28.240 status that a normal Cayletech graduate he is working as 0:19:28.280 --> 0:19:32.439 a tutor didn't seem to be really like ascending to 0:19:32.520 --> 0:19:36.560 some great heights. It's pretty obvious usually in that case 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:40.920 that something happened in the personal life increasingly went down 0:19:41.200 --> 0:19:42.800 an algorithmic rabbit hole. 0:19:43.200 --> 0:19:44.919 There's been a lot of jokes going on. This is 0:19:44.960 --> 0:19:47.040 our first like Blue Sky terrorist. 0:19:47.480 --> 0:19:51.040 You can see his like many of his re tweets 0:19:51.080 --> 0:19:53.480 and other things on the platform over at Blue Sky, 0:19:53.600 --> 0:19:56.399 Like he was a through and through shit lib. And 0:19:56.440 --> 0:19:58.800 I know people think I overuse that term. I think 0:19:58.840 --> 0:20:01.320 even you would agree with that, Like he hated Hassan 0:20:01.359 --> 0:20:04.040 Piker because he thought he was too radical, and he's 0:20:04.080 --> 0:20:06.480 the guy who literally went out and tried to shoot 0:20:06.520 --> 0:20:09.080 a bunch of people, which is a whole other side 0:20:09.080 --> 0:20:10.200 story in this year. 0:20:10.880 --> 0:20:12.359 I mean, I do want to just pause on that 0:20:12.400 --> 0:20:14.680 for a moment, because I think it's worth thinking about 0:20:14.760 --> 0:20:17.520 the ideological content to the extent we know, right, and 0:20:17.520 --> 0:20:19.320 all of this is very you know, we're trying to 0:20:19.359 --> 0:20:23.800 figure out something that really is unknowable, right, But it 0:20:23.880 --> 0:20:26.640 does look like he was a kind of dining the woole, 0:20:26.760 --> 0:20:32.320 like Blue Sky liberal, and I saw Jermentum making this 0:20:32.359 --> 0:20:34.160 point on Twitter. I think it's a good one, which 0:20:34.200 --> 0:20:37.400 is that you know, if you are a standard issue 0:20:37.840 --> 0:20:40.560 liberal and that's kind of your worldview. So you have 0:20:40.640 --> 0:20:45.880 this very like individualistic worldview and you're steeped in all 0:20:45.880 --> 0:20:49.560 this very very radical rhetoric, but you don't have a 0:20:49.600 --> 0:20:53.040 broader like for example, class base lends, any broader political 0:20:53.080 --> 0:20:56.199 project that you feel like can change the situation, and 0:20:56.240 --> 0:20:59.399 you have it more personalized that it's these individual evil 0:20:59.440 --> 0:21:02.640 actors who are the source of all the problems. Then 0:21:02.840 --> 0:21:05.960 you can see how someone who you know has this 0:21:06.080 --> 0:21:09.480 mentality would see themselves and you get this from his manifesto, 0:21:09.800 --> 0:21:13.240 see themselves as doing something genuinely like noble and good 0:21:13.680 --> 0:21:17.280 to try to conduct this these assassinations. And so I 0:21:17.359 --> 0:21:20.359 do think that there it does kind of make sense 0:21:20.400 --> 0:21:22.919 to me that he would have come out of like 0:21:23.080 --> 0:21:28.359 a blue sky radical centrism versus a sort of like 0:21:28.480 --> 0:21:32.520 Marxist analysis. It does have a logic, and again I 0:21:32.520 --> 0:21:35.440 don't want to read too much into his posting history 0:21:35.520 --> 0:21:37.679 and you know what his mentality is, because again some 0:21:37.720 --> 0:21:40.239 of these things are ultimately unknowable. Though Ken Klippenstein had 0:21:40.240 --> 0:21:42.880 a good piece about him, and he talked to people 0:21:42.920 --> 0:21:44.639 who knew him. He looked at his resume. He's like, 0:21:44.800 --> 0:21:46.919 on the surface, there were no warning signs here. You know, 0:21:46.960 --> 0:21:49.879 he wasn't known to the FBI, he wasn't on their radar. 0:21:50.440 --> 0:21:53.119 He was just, you know, this very intelligent guy going 0:21:53.160 --> 0:21:54.639 about his life. People said he was nice, and he 0:21:54.680 --> 0:21:56.840 was gentle, and he's very thoughtful. He was actually very Christian, 0:21:56.880 --> 0:22:00.000 involved in Christian life and his own church and other capacity. 0:22:00.480 --> 0:22:03.919 But in any case, to get back to the conspiracies here, 0:22:03.960 --> 0:22:06.120 because we got to tie in the you know, Jet 0:22:06.160 --> 0:22:09.040 Propulsion Lab and the missing scientists and all of this. 0:22:09.480 --> 0:22:11.040 So if you could go back to the element that 0:22:11.080 --> 0:22:13.760 we just had up, which includes that this part, it 0:22:13.800 --> 0:22:16.119 really is really weird. I mean, this is just really weird. 0:22:16.359 --> 0:22:19.080 So he has this connection to NASA, he has this 0:22:19.119 --> 0:22:22.159 connection to the Jet Propulsion Lab, which a number of 0:22:22.200 --> 0:22:24.560 the other scientists who either you know, died or ended 0:22:24.600 --> 0:22:27.320 up missing or whatever also had connects there. Okay, so 0:22:27.400 --> 0:22:29.600 you've got that tie in, and then you've got this 0:22:29.680 --> 0:22:34.920 account that has one post created December twenty twenty three, 0:22:35.119 --> 0:22:38.200 and on that day, December twenty first, twenty twenty three, 0:22:38.720 --> 0:22:42.520 he tweets out Cole Allen. Okay, not only that, but 0:22:42.680 --> 0:22:46.240 you see it's a it's the avatar for this account 0:22:46.320 --> 0:22:49.120 is the Pepe meme. But it's not just any Pepe. 0:22:49.440 --> 0:22:53.040 It's Pepe in the tucks holding the wine glass. Well, 0:22:53.080 --> 0:22:56.400 were people wearing at the White House correspondence dinner when this, 0:22:56.880 --> 0:22:59.520 you know, attempted assassination occurred. They were wearing texes, they 0:22:59.520 --> 0:23:02.800 were holding glasses, et cetera. Okay, then we go the 0:23:02.840 --> 0:23:06.160 Henry Martinez thing you already laid down. Henry Martinez also 0:23:06.240 --> 0:23:08.679 was at NASA same time, overlinking with the time that 0:23:08.680 --> 0:23:12.359 Cole Allen was interning there. Okay, that's really weird. Okay, 0:23:12.520 --> 0:23:15.600 Then now we're really going down the rabbit hole here. Okay, 0:23:15.680 --> 0:23:19.119 you see this background with like the like lines and 0:23:19.160 --> 0:23:23.080 all the colors and stuff. If you look at this 0:23:23.520 --> 0:23:27.520 and you super impose over it one of the most 0:23:27.520 --> 0:23:30.680 famous pictures of modern history, which is the Trump fight 0:23:30.720 --> 0:23:34.480 Fight fight after the original assassination attempt. Okay, you say 0:23:34.520 --> 0:23:35.439 you don't see it soccer, but. 0:23:35.640 --> 0:23:36.719 I thank you. 0:23:36.960 --> 0:23:42.160 I think, look, i've it there. There, It is not 0:23:42.160 --> 0:23:43.320 nothing there. You can see. 0:23:43.600 --> 0:23:45.280 Do it again and run it again. 0:23:45.520 --> 0:23:47.800 You can see Trump's face, you can see the hand 0:23:48.359 --> 0:23:52.920 like there, there is a resemblance here, and this image 0:23:52.960 --> 0:23:55.840 comes from something called like the time Machine project or 0:23:55.840 --> 0:23:58.399 something crazy like this. So anyway, now we're getting like 0:23:58.480 --> 0:24:01.600 totally down the rabbit hole in terms of like this 0:24:01.640 --> 0:24:04.480 will make you insane if you take it seriously and 0:24:04.520 --> 0:24:07.359 think about it too long. But it is really the 0:24:07.400 --> 0:24:11.560 tweet is I can't I have no reasonable explanation for 0:24:11.640 --> 0:24:15.480 how this person with this NASA connect tweeted out this 0:24:15.720 --> 0:24:18.439 name with this particular picture and the Pepe meme and 0:24:18.480 --> 0:24:22.520 what it is. I have no reasonable rational explanation. I 0:24:22.600 --> 0:24:24.560 just I don't know. It feels like a total sci 0:24:24.600 --> 0:24:26.480 fi black mirror episode. That aspect of it. 0:24:26.520 --> 0:24:28.120 We've got our guest standing by. I can't go too 0:24:28.200 --> 0:24:29.919 deep into it. I think you could see anything you 0:24:29.960 --> 0:24:31.960 want to see whenever it comes to the image. It's 0:24:31.960 --> 0:24:34.760 also you know, in terms of that slide, I'm like, 0:24:35.040 --> 0:24:37.400 you know, I don't know. I just think I've seen 0:24:37.480 --> 0:24:39.760 enough of this over the years. The Pepe talks thing, 0:24:39.880 --> 0:24:42.640 that's a meme. It's been around for ten years. The 0:24:42.640 --> 0:24:45.680 only weird thing is Henry Martinez tweeting out Cole Allen 0:24:45.760 --> 0:24:48.800 that one you're like, okay, I mean, yeah, there's something. 0:24:48.880 --> 0:24:50.840 Look if you want to get big brained with it 0:24:50.880 --> 0:24:52.640 and you want to go back all the way back 0:24:52.680 --> 0:24:55.800 in the day Caltech, Hi, I Q grad who when 0:24:55.840 --> 0:25:02.119 semi schizo is textbook Ted Kaczinski right, ultra for these others. 0:25:02.160 --> 0:25:06.479 So maybe he's a failed experiment like a Charlie Manson 0:25:06.560 --> 0:25:10.600 or any of that. I think blue Sky lib who 0:25:10.880 --> 0:25:14.679 semi schizo who you know clearly look, he did it 0:25:15.119 --> 0:25:18.040 more of a planning job than most very similar I think, 0:25:18.320 --> 0:25:20.679 you know, to allegedly what Thomas Matthew Crooks are these 0:25:20.680 --> 0:25:24.360 people type did and he did, you know, eventually evade 0:25:24.400 --> 0:25:26.800 the security barrier and all that and in fact bragged 0:25:27.040 --> 0:25:29.399 about it. So I don't know, maybe there is something 0:25:29.400 --> 0:25:31.240 more there, and we have a good guest to speak 0:25:31.280 --> 0:25:35.280 to that. Joe Kent, the former National counter Terrorism Director who's. 0:25:35.040 --> 0:25:38.600 Standing by, let's get to him. 0:25:38.800 --> 0:25:40.840 Joining us now is Joe Kent, the former National counter 0:25:40.920 --> 0:25:44.240 Terrorism Director who has long sounded alarms about the presence 0:25:44.520 --> 0:25:47.200 security barriers and is asking a lot of questions about 0:25:47.200 --> 0:25:49.000 the shooting. Joe, thank you so much for joining us. 0:25:49.000 --> 0:25:49.800 We appreciate your time. 0:25:50.320 --> 0:25:51.280 Fithisleaks for me. 0:25:51.720 --> 0:25:54.919 So let's start off with this. This was perhaps the 0:25:54.920 --> 0:25:57.679 most noteworthy part of the manifesto. Let's put it up 0:25:57.720 --> 0:26:00.320 here on the screen, which was released by Cole Allen 0:26:00.400 --> 0:26:04.520 allegedly sent to his family, he says, Okay, now all 0:26:04.560 --> 0:26:06.919 that sappy stuff is done. What the hell is the 0:26:07.000 --> 0:26:10.200 Secret Service doing? Sorry, gonna rant a bit here and 0:26:10.280 --> 0:26:13.960 drop the formal tone. I expected security cameras at every bend, 0:26:14.280 --> 0:26:18.080 hubuged hotel rooms, armed agents every ten feet, metal detectors 0:26:18.119 --> 0:26:21.400 out the wazoo. What I got, who knows, maybe they're 0:26:21.440 --> 0:26:25.080 pranking me, is nothing. No damn security, not in transport, 0:26:25.200 --> 0:26:27.040 not in the hotel, not in the event. 0:26:27.160 --> 0:26:28.640 He even muses. 0:26:28.320 --> 0:26:31.159 At one point that he could have been an Iranian 0:26:31.640 --> 0:26:36.280 trying to attack Trump with some full on weapon. This 0:26:36.400 --> 0:26:39.520 highlights a breach of the president's security perimeter, something that 0:26:39.600 --> 0:26:42.000 you highlighted after you left the administration. 0:26:42.400 --> 0:26:44.920 How are you assessing this news right now, Joe? 0:26:45.760 --> 0:26:48.600 You know this is just obviously a third breach that 0:26:48.640 --> 0:26:51.080 we've had since President Trump was back on the campaign trail, 0:26:51.240 --> 0:26:55.040 where an assailant got within the president's perimeter with a 0:26:55.440 --> 0:26:57.480 long gun. So he got in there with a shotgun. 0:26:58.480 --> 0:27:00.480 I think you're right. The most interesting part of that 0:27:00.840 --> 0:27:04.120 manifesto is when he even comments himself, which I guess 0:27:04.119 --> 0:27:07.800 he was updating somewhat before the event, almost in real time, 0:27:07.840 --> 0:27:10.720 where he is even amazed that he made it that far. 0:27:11.080 --> 0:27:13.800 We had obvious breaches that led up to Butler West 0:27:13.800 --> 0:27:17.360 Palm Beach, and these issues haven't been addressed. And then 0:27:17.400 --> 0:27:21.440 since then, we had multiple breaches of President Trump's perimeter 0:27:21.560 --> 0:27:23.960 at the UN We had the incident at the restaurant 0:27:23.960 --> 0:27:26.920 in Washington, d C. The incident where the police officer 0:27:27.080 --> 0:27:29.960 armed came up and shook the President's hand. So these 0:27:29.960 --> 0:27:32.080 have been noted. While I was in the administration, we 0:27:32.119 --> 0:27:34.600 had members of the Secret Service that had mentioned that 0:27:34.760 --> 0:27:38.560 they had very big concerns about the president's security. The 0:27:38.640 --> 0:27:42.280 DHS inspector General who was looking into Butler, he has 0:27:42.359 --> 0:27:45.560 been blocked by the top leadership in DHS and potentially 0:27:45.600 --> 0:27:48.679 even higher. So this just speaks to the fact that 0:27:48.720 --> 0:27:52.160 we have a clear problem here that is not being addressed. 0:27:52.160 --> 0:27:54.080 I mean, they can go and say that the guys 0:27:54.119 --> 0:27:57.040 on the inside perimeter near the president did a good job. 0:27:57.040 --> 0:27:59.439 It appears that they did, but these issues have not 0:27:59.440 --> 0:28:01.760 been addressed. Now for several years, and the fact that 0:28:01.760 --> 0:28:04.680 they haven't been addressed leads to more and more questions. 0:28:05.200 --> 0:28:08.000 Yeah, well, let's put this Real Claire Politics article up 0:28:08.040 --> 0:28:09.880 on the screen because this is getting a lot more 0:28:09.880 --> 0:28:13.120 attention now in the wake of this latest attempt at assassination. 0:28:13.280 --> 0:28:15.440 So the headline here is exclusive is from Susan cap 0:28:15.520 --> 0:28:19.320 Crabtree Gunman mir White House eluded Secret Service two weeks 0:28:19.320 --> 0:28:22.560 before the dinner shooting. For two weeks before an intruder 0:28:22.600 --> 0:28:25.280 broke through security at the White House Correspondence Association dinner 0:28:25.320 --> 0:28:29.080 in DC. The Secret Service had been investigating a mystery 0:28:29.160 --> 0:28:32.440 shooting near the White House but had come up empty handed, 0:28:32.680 --> 0:28:36.280 to the frustration of both President Trump and top DHS officials. 0:28:36.520 --> 0:28:39.640 Multiple Secret Service sources told Real Clear Politics. Just after 0:28:39.720 --> 0:28:42.720 midnight early in the morning after Easter Sunday, Secret Service 0:28:42.800 --> 0:28:45.800 Uniform Division officers responded to a shooting near the White 0:28:45.840 --> 0:28:48.200 House in DC's Lafayette Park, which is right there by 0:28:48.200 --> 0:28:49.960 the White House for people who don't know, But the 0:28:50.000 --> 0:28:52.920 Secret Service could not pinpoint exactly where the shot landed. 0:28:53.120 --> 0:28:56.440 They investigated and found rifle shell casings at Sixteenth and 0:28:56.600 --> 0:29:00.000 I Streets. A video located the shooter's vehicle, but nomage 0:29:00.440 --> 0:29:03.560 of the gunmen. So you know, what does this incident 0:29:03.640 --> 0:29:07.280 also tell you? And you know, obviously every president faces 0:29:07.400 --> 0:29:08.960 significant threats on their life. 0:29:09.560 --> 0:29:09.720 You know. 0:29:09.760 --> 0:29:11.600 Between the three of us in the segment, I think 0:29:11.640 --> 0:29:13.480 we all have variety of views about President Trump. I 0:29:13.520 --> 0:29:16.120 think we would all agree that he's a fairly divisive figure. 0:29:16.280 --> 0:29:18.760 So I guess, unfortunately it's not a surprise that there 0:29:18.800 --> 0:29:21.640 would be, you know, attempts of violence against him. But 0:29:21.760 --> 0:29:26.520 have we seen these types of failures in previous administrations. 0:29:26.520 --> 0:29:29.280 Not that I know of, And like you said, there's 0:29:29.320 --> 0:29:32.479 been more threats against President Trump. He he is a divisive figure. 0:29:32.800 --> 0:29:35.840 And had we had Butler, we had West Palm Beach, 0:29:35.840 --> 0:29:38.280 we had people getting shots off at the president. He's alive, 0:29:38.360 --> 0:29:41.080 you know, just by the grace of God. And so 0:29:41.160 --> 0:29:44.040 for there to continue to be these issues again, that 0:29:44.320 --> 0:29:47.000 screams that we have a systemic failure here, and why 0:29:47.120 --> 0:29:49.640 is the failure being tolerated? I think that that's one 0:29:49.680 --> 0:29:51.880 of the questions that the American people deserve the answers to, 0:29:51.960 --> 0:29:55.080 and President Trump, Franklin deserves those answers as well, and 0:29:55.120 --> 0:29:58.200 so does his family. I just have a hard time 0:29:58.240 --> 0:30:00.800 believing that we continue to have these breaches in a 0:30:00.840 --> 0:30:03.680 security perimeter. The incident that you just pointed out, that's 0:30:03.680 --> 0:30:07.200 a very heavily surveilled area of Washington, d C. Any 0:30:07.280 --> 0:30:09.400 one of these incidents, like in isolation, you could say 0:30:09.440 --> 0:30:12.640 general incompetence. You know, circumstances just led to this event 0:30:12.720 --> 0:30:15.760 unfolding this way. But this continues to happen, and if 0:30:15.760 --> 0:30:18.160 we don't step in and take drastic action right now, 0:30:18.560 --> 0:30:21.480 I'm afraid a tragedy will streng But Joe. 0:30:21.400 --> 0:30:22.760 It's to connect it bigger. This is why I want 0:30:22.840 --> 0:30:23.480 to talk to you. 0:30:23.480 --> 0:30:27.400 You have long connected the breaches in Trump's security to 0:30:27.520 --> 0:30:30.200 the decision to go to war with Iran. And you know, 0:30:30.440 --> 0:30:32.360 I know that you speak and you choose your words 0:30:32.440 --> 0:30:34.440 very carefully, but you got to lay that out for 0:30:34.480 --> 0:30:38.280 people because the app in thet now in the aftermath 0:30:38.320 --> 0:30:41.800 of this and this more recent attack, does that more 0:30:41.880 --> 0:30:44.480 confirm what you're trying to say and make very specific 0:30:44.600 --> 0:30:47.280 like what you're alleging whenever it comes to those breaches 0:30:47.320 --> 0:30:48.920 in a security I really. 0:30:48.720 --> 0:30:50.800 Don't want to come to this conclusion. However, if you 0:30:50.840 --> 0:30:53.280 look at the breaches in the security, the attempts on 0:30:53.320 --> 0:30:55.320 President Trump's life, and you put that on the timeline 0:30:55.320 --> 0:30:58.600 of how we've made key decisions, you can't help but 0:30:58.640 --> 0:31:00.880 ignore it. I'm not saying it's one hundre percent driving 0:31:00.880 --> 0:31:03.720 all the decisions that are being made. But President Trump 0:31:03.760 --> 0:31:05.920 is facing very critical choices right now in the war 0:31:05.960 --> 0:31:09.760 in Iran, and you have an incident like this something 0:31:09.760 --> 0:31:12.880 else that really I think can't be overlooked. There is 0:31:12.960 --> 0:31:15.200 a lot of radical political violence right now. There is 0:31:15.240 --> 0:31:17.920 a pool of very radicalized folks on the left who 0:31:17.920 --> 0:31:20.160 have been told for years that President Trump is a Nazi. 0:31:20.680 --> 0:31:24.480 That rhetoric cranks things up and it radicalizes individuals, but 0:31:24.560 --> 0:31:28.480 that also gives intelligence agencies or other organizations a very 0:31:28.840 --> 0:31:32.800 ripe pool from which to recruit from. So I just 0:31:32.800 --> 0:31:34.880 think we have a combination of factors right now that 0:31:35.240 --> 0:31:38.320 can't be overlooked, and it's time for someone to step in. 0:31:38.400 --> 0:31:41.720 I think the DHSIG and others within the government would 0:31:41.760 --> 0:31:44.000 be a good place to start and just to take 0:31:44.000 --> 0:31:46.880 a look at everything that's taking place right now and 0:31:47.000 --> 0:31:49.480 why these failures continue to happen. But again, for those 0:31:49.480 --> 0:31:51.520 of us that are trying to assess why President Trump's 0:31:51.560 --> 0:31:53.960 making the decisions that he's making. I think it would 0:31:54.000 --> 0:31:55.960 be foolish for us to not take a look at 0:31:56.000 --> 0:31:59.880 everything that's taking place that could be providing some leverage 0:32:00.040 --> 0:32:01.520 on him driving his decisions. 0:32:02.000 --> 0:32:06.000 Okay, so another thing that is odd to me is 0:32:06.040 --> 0:32:08.360 that we can put this Washington Post piece up on 0:32:08.400 --> 0:32:11.000 the screen. So first of all, just the number of 0:32:11.040 --> 0:32:13.800 cabinet officials that were at this dinner was pretty wild. 0:32:14.800 --> 0:32:18.040 I said earlier, if you know, somebody had bombed the 0:32:18.080 --> 0:32:20.560 whole thing and everybody there. You know, if you if 0:32:20.560 --> 0:32:23.800 you had the worst situation, you can imagine everybody there dies. 0:32:24.000 --> 0:32:26.080 You would have had Chuck Grassley as President of the 0:32:26.160 --> 0:32:29.680 United States. And yet it says in this article that 0:32:29.720 --> 0:32:33.480 the Trump administration provided a lower level of security for 0:32:33.520 --> 0:32:35.600 the White House Correspondents dinner than it has for other 0:32:35.640 --> 0:32:38.080 gatherings of high ranking officials, even though the President and 0:32:38.120 --> 0:32:41.960 many cabinet members were in attendance. They go on to say, 0:32:42.000 --> 0:32:44.680 you know that Trump and Vance were both evacuated quickly 0:32:44.760 --> 0:32:48.360 to safety when a gunman charged the security perimeter. But 0:32:48.520 --> 0:32:50.800 it seems like the decision is just very stranger. And 0:32:50.800 --> 0:32:53.160 then you add to that the thing that I've always 0:32:53.280 --> 0:32:58.720 you know, found I was very persuaded that the official 0:32:58.760 --> 0:33:01.280 story that we got about the Butler assassination attempt was 0:33:01.320 --> 0:33:04.080 more or less correct. I didn't see any other indications otherwise. 0:33:04.160 --> 0:33:05.800 And to be honest with you, some of the things 0:33:05.800 --> 0:33:09.040 that you've said have given me pause there just because 0:33:09.320 --> 0:33:12.480 it seems like you would want to really investigate know 0:33:12.480 --> 0:33:14.880 who this guy was, no, what motivated him, see if 0:33:14.880 --> 0:33:17.600 there's any you know, other people who he was connected 0:33:17.600 --> 0:33:19.480 to that we need to have our eye on, et cetera. 0:33:19.960 --> 0:33:22.600 And according to what you've said, that just there just 0:33:22.840 --> 0:33:25.480 wasn't that level of interest, And in fact, further investigation 0:33:25.560 --> 0:33:26.320 there was blocked. 0:33:27.040 --> 0:33:29.960 Exactly when we looked into to Butler from the intelligence 0:33:30.000 --> 0:33:33.160 community perspective, we came across some things in terms of 0:33:33.240 --> 0:33:37.120 the confidential human source, the origin of the intelligence that rose, 0:33:37.160 --> 0:33:40.080 other that gave us other questions that came to mind 0:33:40.320 --> 0:33:42.280 that we raised and were blocked by the FBI from 0:33:42.280 --> 0:33:45.120 looking into further. And then the DHSIG who was not 0:33:45.240 --> 0:33:47.880 working with us, who was not coordinating with us, working 0:33:47.920 --> 0:33:49.800 a separate track to look at what took place on 0:33:49.840 --> 0:33:53.240 the ground in Butler, specifically, like asking the most obvious question, 0:33:53.360 --> 0:33:55.720 how did crooks you know breach the security perimeter and 0:33:55.720 --> 0:33:58.120 get up on the roof. He was blocked from that 0:33:58.320 --> 0:34:01.200 very aggressively by internally by the DHS and didn't get 0:34:01.200 --> 0:34:03.520 anything back from the FBI. We were told by the 0:34:03.560 --> 0:34:06.760 FBI that there was nothing in Thomas Crooks's digital devices, 0:34:06.800 --> 0:34:09.880 on his cell phone, computer, etc. And then Tucker Carlson's 0:34:09.880 --> 0:34:13.759 investigative journalists actually dug up Thomas Crooks's online profile. So 0:34:13.760 --> 0:34:15.600 there was obviously a lot more work that needed to 0:34:15.600 --> 0:34:18.520 be done in terms of Butler. Those questions still haven't 0:34:18.560 --> 0:34:22.040 been answered. The issues with the security perimeters still haven't 0:34:22.080 --> 0:34:24.839 been addressed, obviously because West Palm Beach happened right after that, 0:34:25.120 --> 0:34:27.160 and then we had the other breaches of President Trump's 0:34:27.160 --> 0:34:30.560 security to include this one. So there's obviously a systemic issue, 0:34:30.840 --> 0:34:34.120 and these questions just simply aren't being answered. And again, 0:34:34.360 --> 0:34:36.600 if we don't look into this quickly, and if there 0:34:36.640 --> 0:34:38.480 isn't someone who steps in and says, why were these 0:34:38.480 --> 0:34:40.960 decisions being made? You rose a great point that I 0:34:41.000 --> 0:34:42.920 think most people were asking when they saw the you know, 0:34:42.960 --> 0:34:45.200 even the Vice president the president in the same spot 0:34:45.280 --> 0:34:49.200 basically on the same stage, was who authorized all the 0:34:49.239 --> 0:34:52.040 cabinet essentially for the most part to me in this 0:34:52.200 --> 0:34:54.840 one location. And I don't think that was a conscientious 0:34:54.880 --> 0:34:57.320 decision made by President Trump or by the Vice president. 0:34:57.480 --> 0:35:00.360 I think it just happened that way. But we should 0:35:00.360 --> 0:35:02.080 have people that are in charge that are looking at 0:35:02.080 --> 0:35:04.839 the security situation and the posture to make sure something 0:35:04.880 --> 0:35:05.760 like this doesn't happen. 0:35:06.040 --> 0:35:07.360 Yeah, Joe, I was talking about it. 0:35:07.840 --> 0:35:09.680 You know, you and I, we've all all three of 0:35:09.760 --> 0:35:13.640 us have been to multiple high level VIP style events 0:35:13.680 --> 0:35:16.960 where you have lots of members of the line of succession. 0:35:17.320 --> 0:35:19.680 You don't get several thousand yards in front of that 0:35:19.719 --> 0:35:22.840 building without different magnet you know, you go through the 0:35:23.480 --> 0:35:27.319 you go through the metal detectors, there's multiple barricades, there's 0:35:27.320 --> 0:35:29.120 already layers of security. And if you're going to a 0:35:29.200 --> 0:35:31.240 DNC or R and C, you're walking a mile without 0:35:31.239 --> 0:35:33.719 even being able to drive up. And yet I'm looking 0:35:33.760 --> 0:35:36.480 at stories about people being able to take pictures of 0:35:36.520 --> 0:35:38.560 the Beast. Again, the only time I've seeing the Beast 0:35:38.600 --> 0:35:39.920 is when I was in the motor gate as a 0:35:39.920 --> 0:35:42.239 member of the press. I've never been able to take 0:35:42.239 --> 0:35:44.799 a picture of the Beast just casually, even whenever I 0:35:44.920 --> 0:35:47.600 was cleared by secret Service on the White House grounds 0:35:47.680 --> 0:35:49.279 or whenever it was parked, let's say, at one of 0:35:49.320 --> 0:35:53.439 Trump's properties, which he was accompanying on the shakedown. Here, 0:35:53.719 --> 0:35:55.600 in terms of the level of security is not even 0:35:55.600 --> 0:35:58.200 for a normal potas style event. And yet you have 0:35:58.560 --> 0:36:01.200 eighty percent of the line of succession. So this is 0:36:01.200 --> 0:36:03.800 obvious to you. It's obvious to me. Probably more important 0:36:03.840 --> 0:36:06.399 for you, you're the former National Counterism Director. But help 0:36:06.480 --> 0:36:09.640 us square this. Trump is out here on sixty minutes 0:36:09.760 --> 0:36:13.200 saying that Secret Service did a great job. He doesn't 0:36:13.200 --> 0:36:16.280 seem to be shaken. I'm going to take that genuinely. 0:36:16.320 --> 0:36:20.400 In terms of his public messaging. The Deputy Attorney General, 0:36:20.520 --> 0:36:23.400 the Acting Attorney General, Todd Blanche said this was not 0:36:23.440 --> 0:36:26.760 a security failure, it was a security success story. 0:36:27.200 --> 0:36:28.120 Why is it. 0:36:28.280 --> 0:36:31.960 Top to bottom every member of the admin is consistently 0:36:32.040 --> 0:36:34.959 defending the Secret Service when people like you and many 0:36:35.000 --> 0:36:37.799 others are like, hey, there are serious problems here. 0:36:38.320 --> 0:36:40.400 I wish I knew the exact answer, But what I 0:36:40.400 --> 0:36:42.759 can point at it from being in the administration is 0:36:42.800 --> 0:36:48.080 a culture that's almost zero fail or. This constant quest 0:36:48.160 --> 0:36:52.319 for good vibes and good news stories. There's not a 0:36:52.320 --> 0:36:55.600 lot of tolerance right now in the administration for saying, hey, 0:36:55.600 --> 0:36:57.800 we're on the wrong course, Hey there was a screw 0:36:57.880 --> 0:37:00.200 up here, we need to correct it, which I think 0:37:00.239 --> 0:37:02.640 is part of any healthy organization. We do after action 0:37:02.719 --> 0:37:06.080 reviews in the military. It's almost a religious requirement in 0:37:06.120 --> 0:37:08.839 the military to do an after action review. And then 0:37:08.880 --> 0:37:11.440 in after action reviews, we're usually very critical and very 0:37:11.480 --> 0:37:14.399 hard on ourselves. That is not the culture coming from 0:37:14.400 --> 0:37:17.279 the White House, and that is a leadership issue. And 0:37:17.320 --> 0:37:20.360 I think that folks below President Trump, the chief of Staff, 0:37:20.400 --> 0:37:23.040 deputy chiefs of staff, those levels, they could be looking 0:37:23.120 --> 0:37:26.040 much more critically at this. And look, the American people aren'tdumb. 0:37:26.080 --> 0:37:29.080 You don't need to be a security expert or have 0:37:29.120 --> 0:37:32.480 done protective details before to understand that things went very 0:37:32.520 --> 0:37:36.040 wrong two nights ago and that have gone wrong in 0:37:36.080 --> 0:37:38.239 the past Butler and all the other assassination attempts that 0:37:38.480 --> 0:37:39.960 we talked about. So I think just being honest with 0:37:40.000 --> 0:37:42.960 the American people would help in terms of credibility. But 0:37:43.000 --> 0:37:45.280 then they've got to break this culture within the White 0:37:45.280 --> 0:37:48.200 House of we can't ever bring bad news to the boss, 0:37:48.200 --> 0:37:50.840 we can't ever bring any friction. President Trump is a 0:37:50.840 --> 0:37:53.319 pretty forward facing individual. I have no doubt that he 0:37:53.360 --> 0:37:56.000 wants to get out there all the time, but I 0:37:56.040 --> 0:37:58.239 do think he needs someone to say, hey, sir, we're 0:37:58.280 --> 0:38:00.520 not going to do that. You cannot do that today. 0:38:00.520 --> 0:38:03.000 You can't have this massive event, or if you're going 0:38:03.080 --> 0:38:04.680 to have it, we're going to have to scale back. 0:38:04.719 --> 0:38:07.400 We're going to have to put in more security restrictions. Unfortunately, 0:38:07.400 --> 0:38:09.120 that's just not the culture that's been created in the 0:38:09.120 --> 0:38:09.640 White House. 0:38:12.600 --> 0:38:15.719 That's a good pivot, actually to the Ron warwoll we 0:38:15.719 --> 0:38:17.560 have you a figure. We could ask you a few 0:38:17.600 --> 0:38:21.240 things about where you believe this conflict is right now. 0:38:21.600 --> 0:38:24.120 You've been floating the idea that perhaps the US could 0:38:24.200 --> 0:38:26.000 just kind of walk away. I mean, we are in 0:38:26.040 --> 0:38:29.040 this kind of limbo state right now. I'm concerned. We 0:38:29.080 --> 0:38:30.759 had Robert Pape on the show as well, who is 0:38:30.800 --> 0:38:34.920 also concerned that that wouldn't be a stable outcome. That 0:38:35.080 --> 0:38:39.800 it's almost very difficult to avoid the idea that because 0:38:39.880 --> 0:38:43.000 the economic damage would persist so long as the straight 0:38:43.000 --> 0:38:45.880 of hormones remains closed, so long as you have Israel 0:38:46.080 --> 0:38:48.200 very much eager to get back into a hot war, 0:38:48.280 --> 0:38:50.200 that it would be a very unstable outcome. But how 0:38:50.200 --> 0:38:51.640 are you assessing where we are right now? 0:38:52.320 --> 0:38:52.600 Yeah. 0:38:52.840 --> 0:38:54.560 I still think the best thing that President Trump can 0:38:54.600 --> 0:38:56.759 do right now is look at what Ronald Reagan did 0:38:56.840 --> 0:39:00.200 in nineteen eighty four. Ronald Reagan was smart enough to say, hey, 0:39:00.520 --> 0:39:03.040 I got into this, I didn't calculate all the risks. 0:39:03.160 --> 0:39:06.200 Something came, it hit us, and now this simply is 0:39:06.239 --> 0:39:10.000 not worth the continued risk. And he made the political calculation, 0:39:10.320 --> 0:39:12.759 and I think the morally right calculation. He pulled our 0:39:12.760 --> 0:39:15.320 troops out to save more lives. But then politically he 0:39:15.400 --> 0:39:17.640 knew that he could take some slings and some arrows 0:39:17.880 --> 0:39:20.719 and through the strength of his personality that politically he 0:39:20.760 --> 0:39:22.359 could get through it, and he did. And I think 0:39:22.400 --> 0:39:24.880 President Trump can do the exact same thing. If President 0:39:24.920 --> 0:39:27.040 Trump were to basically just do kind of what he 0:39:27.080 --> 0:39:29.839 does in most of his press conferences and interviews about 0:39:29.840 --> 0:39:32.719 the Iran War, if he just listed off all of 0:39:32.760 --> 0:39:34.440 the leaders that we've killed, all of the things that 0:39:34.480 --> 0:39:37.120 we've bombed in Iran, and just say we won, and 0:39:37.160 --> 0:39:40.440 then just bring our guys home, pull the vast majority 0:39:40.440 --> 0:39:43.440 of our forces out of that region, because our bases 0:39:43.520 --> 0:39:45.480 and our continued presence in that region has proven to 0:39:45.480 --> 0:39:48.000 be more of a strategical liability than an asset. If 0:39:48.000 --> 0:39:50.319 he pulls them out and says that we've won, that 0:39:50.360 --> 0:39:54.040 buys us time. Now, Ultimately, I can't disagree with professor. 0:39:54.080 --> 0:39:56.440 With what the Professor laid out. I think he has 0:39:56.760 --> 0:39:59.920 a very good view of how things have strategically changed. However, 0:40:00.320 --> 0:40:03.800 we will avoid the most catastrophic outcome, which would be 0:40:03.920 --> 0:40:07.120 us getting sucked into a further escalation cycle because if 0:40:07.160 --> 0:40:09.560 we double down militarily, the Iranians are going to hit 0:40:09.640 --> 0:40:11.600 us back. Then we're going to take losses and we're 0:40:11.640 --> 0:40:13.799 going to be in this cycle that takes you know, 0:40:13.840 --> 0:40:15.839 around twenty years for us to be able to break 0:40:15.880 --> 0:40:17.759 if we just look at recent history. So I think 0:40:17.760 --> 0:40:20.400 the most pragmatic thing he can do is just declare victory, 0:40:20.400 --> 0:40:23.359 declare it loud in a very Trumpian style, and pull 0:40:23.400 --> 0:40:24.080 everybody out. 0:40:24.800 --> 0:40:27.320 But the problem, Joe is right now at literally today, 0:40:27.360 --> 0:40:28.799 This is part of why I wanted to have you on. 0:40:28.920 --> 0:40:31.720 You had this shooting and now Monday the situation room meeting, 0:40:31.920 --> 0:40:34.240 literally that's going to happen where they're going to discuss 0:40:34.239 --> 0:40:37.840 whether they should resume bombing or not. By basically leaving 0:40:37.920 --> 0:40:41.760 us in this quasi you know, like semi cease fire, 0:40:41.840 --> 0:40:44.400 but with the blockade and yet the still closure of 0:40:44.400 --> 0:40:48.040 the streets of our moves, we have this impending energy crisis. 0:40:48.120 --> 0:40:51.440 Considering where and how you've seen a president act, and 0:40:51.480 --> 0:40:54.479 considering your own experience, you literally resigned tried to plead, 0:40:54.800 --> 0:40:57.080 you know, basically elevate the profile enough to try and 0:40:57.120 --> 0:40:59.920 change decision making. Where do you think, and I'm sure 0:41:00.080 --> 0:41:02.120 talk to a lot of people still who are around 0:41:02.400 --> 0:41:05.759 where is Trump's head at and are people willing to 0:41:05.760 --> 0:41:07.120 speak a little bit more truth to power? 0:41:07.200 --> 0:41:07.319 Now? 0:41:07.360 --> 0:41:09.319 The war has gone so poorly, how do you think 0:41:09.360 --> 0:41:11.360 things are going to go in that situation we're meeting today. 0:41:12.160 --> 0:41:14.879 I'm concerned that he is just going to have people 0:41:14.920 --> 0:41:16.480 around him that are going to tell him that the 0:41:16.520 --> 0:41:20.279 blockade is working and that this idea that we can 0:41:20.320 --> 0:41:22.920 somehow get a backlog in Iranian oil, and that's going 0:41:22.960 --> 0:41:26.439 to make the Iranians basically tap and say that they'll 0:41:26.440 --> 0:41:28.759 they'll do whatever we want and they'll give up, you know, 0:41:28.800 --> 0:41:33.200 their nuclear enrichment redline, they'll give up their proxies, et cetera. 0:41:33.239 --> 0:41:35.600 They'll give all the blistic missile capabilities. I just don't 0:41:35.600 --> 0:41:38.040 see that as happening. The Iranians have shown over the 0:41:38.080 --> 0:41:41.000 course of you know, forty seven years, that economic pressure 0:41:41.080 --> 0:41:43.640 really doesn't move the needle very much with them. And again, 0:41:43.719 --> 0:41:45.920 we've killed a lot of the moderates there, so our 0:41:46.000 --> 0:41:48.560 trade space for negotiations is limited. This is why I'm 0:41:48.600 --> 0:41:51.840 also more skeptical of us getting a deal with the 0:41:51.840 --> 0:41:54.920 Iranians than I was just three four weeks ago, or 0:41:54.960 --> 0:41:57.000 even at the beginning of the conflict, because we've continued 0:41:57.040 --> 0:41:59.120 to kill the moderates. Every time there's a ceasefire, the 0:41:59.160 --> 0:42:02.000 Israelis do everything they can to break the ceasefire, and 0:42:02.320 --> 0:42:05.520 the Iranians are squeezing international energy and they know that 0:42:05.600 --> 0:42:09.640 gives them leverage. So I think the President is going 0:42:09.680 --> 0:42:12.120 to be told, hey, sir, the blockade is working, just 0:42:12.160 --> 0:42:14.400 give it more time. The problem there is that the 0:42:14.440 --> 0:42:17.880 Iranians can endure much more pain than we can. They 0:42:18.000 --> 0:42:21.360 then risk there's a major risk then of the Iranians 0:42:21.360 --> 0:42:23.200 taking a shot at one of our ships in the region, 0:42:23.239 --> 0:42:25.200 which again starts that cycle all over again. The hard 0:42:25.280 --> 0:42:28.520 lighters in Iran, the IRGC, I think that they almost 0:42:28.560 --> 0:42:31.120 prefer that outcome because the more that we fight, the 0:42:31.120 --> 0:42:35.879 more emboldened they are, the more the population rallies around them. 0:42:35.960 --> 0:42:38.520 So us staying there in that region, I think is 0:42:38.600 --> 0:42:42.200 just a massive mistake. I truly hope that the President 0:42:42.239 --> 0:42:44.600 also understands that if he wants the blockade to work, 0:42:44.640 --> 0:42:47.040 even if even the status quo is to work, he's 0:42:47.080 --> 0:42:49.520 got to do more to restrain the Israelis. The Israelis 0:42:49.520 --> 0:42:52.000 are doing everything they can to light Lebanon back on fire, 0:42:52.320 --> 0:42:54.080 which you know, the Iranians didn't have a lot of 0:42:54.080 --> 0:42:56.640 control over before this war, but now they do and 0:42:56.640 --> 0:42:59.040 they're playing that card. So this is the situation that 0:42:59.080 --> 0:43:02.040 we've created. But now we have to restrain Israel, and 0:43:02.080 --> 0:43:03.880 it's got to be more than just like we put 0:43:04.160 --> 0:43:06.800 a truth social post. We actually have to take away 0:43:07.000 --> 0:43:09.879 features of their the military aid that we give them, 0:43:10.160 --> 0:43:12.080 so they know that we are serious and we're not 0:43:12.120 --> 0:43:15.280 going to let them dictate terms or drive the direction 0:43:15.320 --> 0:43:16.280 that our country is taking. 0:43:16.840 --> 0:43:21.440 Yeah, let's say, Joe that Trump pursues your advice or 0:43:21.480 --> 0:43:23.239 goes in that direction. We stay in this kind of 0:43:23.239 --> 0:43:25.279 limbo state where we are right now. We all know 0:43:25.320 --> 0:43:27.960 Trump can spin a victory narrative and that there's a 0:43:28.000 --> 0:43:30.239 significant chunk of the country that will be like, yes, 0:43:30.440 --> 0:43:34.240 you're right, this was great. How would you though, looking 0:43:34.280 --> 0:43:37.360 at this independently at this point, how would you assess 0:43:37.400 --> 0:43:39.920 even if we were able to walk away and extricate 0:43:39.920 --> 0:43:44.440 ourselves now, how would you assess the long term impact 0:43:44.440 --> 0:43:46.000 and cost of this war? 0:43:46.680 --> 0:43:48.239 And clearly it hasn't been worth it. I mean, we've 0:43:48.280 --> 0:43:50.960 lost thirteen American service members. They did not need to 0:43:51.000 --> 0:43:54.279 die for this. But also just in terms of our 0:43:54.320 --> 0:43:57.279 alliances in the Golf, there has been this illusion for 0:43:57.480 --> 0:44:01.880 decades now that the Gulf State can be our partners 0:44:01.880 --> 0:44:03.520 and partner with us and they don't need to have 0:44:03.600 --> 0:44:06.520 much of a defense system because we will be there. 0:44:06.680 --> 0:44:09.360 Their security guarantees will provide all their defenses. That that 0:44:09.400 --> 0:44:11.319 has been shattered. The Arinians have shown that they can 0:44:11.360 --> 0:44:13.840 reach in and they can they can penetrate all the 0:44:13.840 --> 0:44:17.200 defenses that we in theory had the idea of us 0:44:17.239 --> 0:44:19.719 having a basing a basing presence in the region. Again 0:44:19.760 --> 0:44:21.480 that that those are basis have proven to be more 0:44:21.480 --> 0:44:24.239 of a liability than an asset. So we're going to 0:44:24.320 --> 0:44:28.120 have to relook at our security arrangements. I'm also concerned 0:44:28.200 --> 0:44:30.600 that a lot of these Gulf states, they're they're not 0:44:30.680 --> 0:44:33.000 going to come out and you know, completely reject us. 0:44:33.239 --> 0:44:35.000 They're going to want to keep us as their friends, 0:44:35.280 --> 0:44:37.600 but they're going to start moving away from the petro dollar. 0:44:37.680 --> 0:44:40.239 That's going to harm our economy, that's going to harm 0:44:40.280 --> 0:44:43.680 our status as the world's reserve currency holder. But then 0:44:43.719 --> 0:44:45.560 also I think a reality that we're just going to 0:44:45.560 --> 0:44:47.560 have to deal with is if we if we do 0:44:47.600 --> 0:44:50.040 pull our troops out and we do look to have 0:44:50.239 --> 0:44:52.240 have a more pragmatic solution to get in the straits 0:44:52.239 --> 0:44:54.680 of horror, moves open back up again, We're going to 0:44:54.760 --> 0:44:57.399 have to just deal with the Iranians as they are. 0:44:57.480 --> 0:45:00.759 There's no military solution there. So at some point, whether 0:45:00.800 --> 0:45:03.560 it's after we fight a bloody twenty year war or 0:45:03.600 --> 0:45:06.040 it's relatively soon, we're gonna have to just deal with 0:45:06.080 --> 0:45:07.799 the Iranians. And I think the as soon that we 0:45:07.840 --> 0:45:11.680 can get over that and realize that Iran is not 0:45:11.719 --> 0:45:14.240 going to be exactly as we want it to be. However, 0:45:14.280 --> 0:45:17.120 Iran has proven to be pragmatic. They are not the 0:45:17.160 --> 0:45:21.279 insane Jihadis, they're not the new Isis, the Persian version 0:45:21.320 --> 0:45:24.080 of Isis. They can be dealt with. So I think 0:45:24.080 --> 0:45:26.600 the sooner that we realize that and just realize if 0:45:26.600 --> 0:45:28.759 we're going to maintain any standing in the region, any 0:45:28.800 --> 0:45:31.560 kind of relationships, the faster that we can start having 0:45:31.640 --> 0:45:34.839 realistic diplomacy with them, the better off will be. And again, 0:45:35.239 --> 0:45:38.480 I think if President Trump starts thinking bigger picture, this 0:45:38.560 --> 0:45:42.000 is something he's uniquely postured to do. He's a strong leader. 0:45:42.080 --> 0:45:44.359 The Iranians still, even though they don't trust him, they 0:45:44.440 --> 0:45:46.920 view him as a strong leader. I think he has 0:45:46.920 --> 0:45:50.719 a potential of resetting our relationship with Iran. Even in 0:45:50.719 --> 0:45:52.000 the wake of all this. I think you need to 0:45:52.040 --> 0:45:54.040 take the tensions down first. That's why I'm recommending for 0:45:54.160 --> 0:45:55.839 us to get out of there. But I do think 0:45:55.880 --> 0:45:59.080 there's a potential for us saying, hey, a strong Persian government. 0:45:59.080 --> 0:46:01.520 I mean, right now we're dealing with the former leader 0:46:01.520 --> 0:46:03.880 of al Qaeda in Syria. It's not a far cry 0:46:03.920 --> 0:46:07.600 for us to deal with an Iranian leader, a group 0:46:07.640 --> 0:46:09.560 of Iranian leaders that maybe we don't like, but we're 0:46:09.560 --> 0:46:11.919 going to deal with because they are an energy superpower. 0:46:12.120 --> 0:46:15.440 Geographically there's a superpower. It's much better to be friends 0:46:15.440 --> 0:46:17.759 with them than having them shut down the straits of 0:46:17.760 --> 0:46:19.879 her moves. Every time we get into a dispute with them. 0:46:19.920 --> 0:46:21.719 So I think if we just recognize the world as 0:46:21.760 --> 0:46:25.040 it is and move past our own pride, I think 0:46:25.080 --> 0:46:26.400 will be in a much better spot. 0:46:26.719 --> 0:46:28.799 Totally agree, Joe. Thank you so much for your time. 0:46:28.840 --> 0:46:30.000 We appreciate your analysis, sir. 0:46:30.320 --> 0:46:30.520 Thank you. 0:46:30.560 --> 0:46:31.520 Guys really appreciate it.