Speaker 1: Well, if you're expecting a slow weekend over the Fourth
Speaker 1: of July celebration with very little news, you are very
Speaker 1: disappointed because there was so much going on. We're going
Speaker 1: to cover it today. I'm certainly not Sean. I am
Speaker 1: Peter Schweitzer, four time number one New York Times bestselling
Speaker 1: author investigative journalists, and I'm covering today for Sean along
Speaker 1: with my co host and podcast partner Eric Eggers. Eric,
Speaker 1: how are you?
Speaker 2: I'm excellent. And it's an honor to be talking to
Speaker 2: Sean Handy's radio audience. You know, they played the best
Speaker 2: of Sean Handy Show on Thursday and Friday for the
Speaker 2: holiday weekend. And I like to imagine a world in
Speaker 2: which there are people in the audience who only get
Speaker 2: their news from Sean Handy's radio show, so they have
Speaker 2: no idea what happened since Sewn signed off on Wednesday afternoon.
Speaker 2: And if you're one of those people, you've missed a lot,
Speaker 2: and we're here to help you understand just how much
Speaker 2: has changed in the six days since you've heard a
Speaker 2: live radio program.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, we've got tragedy in Texas, this horrific story
Speaker 1: where a river rose twenty six feet and forty five minutes.
Speaker 1: It's at least one hundred people dead. We're going to
Speaker 1: cover that, and we're going to look at the heroics
Speaker 1: that have taken place in Texas. The Big Beautiful Bill
Speaker 1: was signed. This legislation, which passed the House by only
Speaker 1: two votes and pasted the Senate with the help of JD. Vance,
Speaker 1: was signed by President Trump on July fourth, as he promised,
Speaker 1: as he said he would, we have the Epstein files
Speaker 1: bombshell released on Sunday night. Talk about a slow news time,
Speaker 1: the FBIDOJ concluding there was no suicide, there was no
Speaker 1: client list, and there was no extortion. We're going to
Speaker 1: cover those and lots of other stories that are taking
Speaker 1: place right now.
Speaker 2: No, it's absolutely I mean, the Epstein news is massive
Speaker 2: and a lot of people are reacting to it. It
Speaker 2: doesn't impact the audience's life, right like the weather or not.
Speaker 2: There will be additional charges brought in the case of
Speaker 2: Jeffrey Epstein. Won't fundamentally change your life. It won't fundamentally
Speaker 2: change in my life, but it does represent a major
Speaker 2: downbeat on what was I think a very positive era
Speaker 2: for President Trump. Because a lot of people voted for
Speaker 2: Donald Trump because they were tired of being lied to
Speaker 2: by the previous administration. Right, they were lied to left
Speaker 2: and right by Joe Biden and his media allies. And
Speaker 2: you know Jake Tappers now lying to us about how
Speaker 2: much other people were lying to us in that book.
Speaker 2: And so what we now know is that we were told, hey,
Speaker 2: we have somebody who they want to hold people accountable
Speaker 2: and they want to do the right thing. And when
Speaker 2: the Department of Justice releases a memo that says this
Speaker 2: systematic review we've conducted revealed no incriminating client list, no
Speaker 2: credible evidence that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals, and also no
Speaker 2: evidence that predit could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties,
Speaker 2: it leads a lot of people to conclude that the
Speaker 2: opposite's happening, that there are in fact other things being
Speaker 2: covered up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's exactly right. We're gonna have a guest at
Speaker 1: the bottom of the hour to talk about the situation
Speaker 1: in Texas, the chief spokesman for the Coastguard, and we
Speaker 1: have Jeffrey Epstein's lawyer once he was incarcerated, is going
Speaker 1: to be joining us in the next hour to talk
Speaker 1: about the crisis there. But here's the thing that I
Speaker 1: think is sort of misleading or confusing about the Jeffrey
Speaker 1: Epstein claims by DOJNFBI, and what they're saying could very
Speaker 1: well and probably is technically true that there is no
Speaker 1: client list. There's no file that they have that says
Speaker 1: client list. But the problem is, we know a couple
Speaker 1: of things. Number One, we know that Jeffrey Epstein was
Speaker 1: involved in human trafficking. Why did we know this? Well,
Speaker 1: he killed himself in twenty nineteen, at least that's what
Speaker 1: is said, whether he was killed by somebody else's opener debate.
Speaker 1: JP Morgan notified the Treasury Department that more than one
Speaker 1: billion with a B in transactions related to quote human
Speaker 1: trafficking by Epstein had gone through their accounts over the
Speaker 1: past sixteen years. JP Morgan agreed in July of twenty
Speaker 1: nineteen to pay two hundred and ninety million dollars two
Speaker 1: victims of Epstein to settle that lawsuit. So here's the question.
Speaker 1: There's not a client list according to the DOJ and FBI,
Speaker 1: but there are clients. There have to be clients. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's no way that Jeffrey Epstein himself is responsible for,
Speaker 1: you know, the human trafficking. He is a singular person.
Speaker 2: Jeffrey Epstein did fund a nonprofit, but the billion dollars
Speaker 2: for sex trafficking was not it. So there were other
Speaker 2: people involved in this enterprise. And what you just said
Speaker 2: is really important. I think we have to put that
Speaker 2: in the larger context. So, by the way, today is
Speaker 2: July seventh. Jeffrey Epstein was arrested six years ago yesterday
Speaker 2: on July the sixth, and managed to survive for a
Speaker 2: little over a month until August tenth to twenty nineteen,
Speaker 2: which cases life ended. But I think the key thing
Speaker 2: there is so he gets arrested, and then after he
Speaker 2: is arrested JP Morgan, with whom he did much business,
Speaker 2: like a billion dollars worth of business, they go to
Speaker 2: and they're being suon, but different people. They go to
Speaker 2: the United States government and they have flagged these transactions
Speaker 2: and they said, hey, we believe these transactions may be
Speaker 2: connected to criminal activity, specifically related to sex trafficking, and
Speaker 2: they turn them over. So when people say we have
Speaker 2: no evidence of a client list, we know that as
Speaker 2: six years ago they were given financial transactions presumably on
Speaker 2: behalf of clients, right, And so I think that's one
Speaker 2: of the things that people find difficult to swallow with
Speaker 2: this story, not the least of which is and we're
Speaker 2: going to hear sound from Caroline Levit, who was asked
Speaker 2: about this by Steve Doocy later on. But what what
Speaker 2: we were told is, you know, for years, we're told
Speaker 2: by Dan Bongino, Cash, Mattel, Pam Bondi. We have seen
Speaker 2: the files. They're sitting on our desk, and so for
Speaker 2: now us to be told the opposite seems awry.
Speaker 1: It does. And also there's a pattern here. I mean,
Speaker 1: you did some very interesting research you were sharing with
Speaker 1: me earlier. I mean, the thing that is so appalling
Speaker 1: about Epstein is not only the fact of no, we
Speaker 1: know what he did and what he did to these
Speaker 1: young women and other people. We know that he has
Speaker 1: had kick gloves in terms of the way that law
Speaker 1: enforcement has dealt with him going back more than twenty years.
Speaker 1: It seems that this guy is untouchable. We don't know why.
Speaker 1: It could just be he's a rich guy and he
Speaker 1: has friends in right places, but this goes back twenty
Speaker 1: years in the state of Florida.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I sort of hate this story because I tried
Speaker 2: to stay away from this door. I tried to stay
Speaker 2: away from the P Diddy tribe because I want to
Speaker 2: think I have better things to do with my life
Speaker 2: and do, and no I don't. Apparently I don't because
Speaker 2: now on national radio we're discussing this, and unfortunately there's
Speaker 2: a P Didty connection to this, which is unbelievable, involving
Speaker 2: James Comey's daughter. But basically, in two thousand and five,
Speaker 2: the Palm Beach Police Department did a thirteen month uninvested
Speaker 2: undercover investigation in which that led to a fifty three
Speaker 2: page indictment by the FBI in two thousand and seven.
Speaker 2: So they had the goods, but those goods were not
Speaker 2: good enough to get him a real prison sentence. Alexander Acosta,
Speaker 2: who is then the US Attorney for the Southern District
Speaker 2: of Florida, agrees to a plea deal which essentially grants
Speaker 2: immunity from all federal criminal charges to Epstein and also
Speaker 2: gets him only eighteen months in jail, which he only
Speaker 2: served thirteen months, which six days a week, was on
Speaker 2: work release for sixteen hours a day, so like he's
Speaker 2: like a hotel. The easiest gig you could get yeah, okay,
Speaker 2: And it.
Speaker 1: Was a fifty three page indictmond, multiple counts of relationships
Speaker 1: with underage women, human trap, all that kind of stuff,
Speaker 1: and they slap him on the wrist.
Speaker 2: Slap him on the wrist. So then he gets out,
Speaker 2: he goes to New York, and then in New York,
Speaker 2: because of his conviction or the plea deal, he does
Speaker 2: have to register as a sex offender. But the Manhattan DA,
Speaker 2: despite what we now know is graphic and detailed evidence,
Speaker 2: argues for him to be registered as a low risk
Speaker 2: sex offender in twenty eleven. So once again he's getting
Speaker 2: the easiest possible treatment. And so, you know, so I
Speaker 2: think that's the context. So then he gets arrested. And
Speaker 2: after he's arrested, Marine Comy, who was the daughter of
Speaker 2: fired FBI director James Comy, was one of the prosecutors.
Speaker 2: And then she was just involved in the Panitty case.
Speaker 2: That's the connection there, and so and because of when
Speaker 2: he's arrested, everyone's like, oh man, this guy's really bad.
Speaker 2: So the labor secretary who alex Acosta, who had given
Speaker 2: him the plea deal in Florida, is now a labor
Speaker 2: secretary under Donal Trump, he has to resign in disgrace because,
Speaker 2: oh man, you were one of the people who took
Speaker 2: it easy on him. So fast forward to today, and
Speaker 2: we're now being told none of the third parties are
Speaker 2: going to see any additional action on behalf of justice
Speaker 2: or accountability. And it's impossible not to put it in
Speaker 2: this context. And it does seem like, for whatever reason,
Speaker 2: when we're being told there's nothing to see here, we've
Speaker 2: been told that consistently and it just seems wrong.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it does. I mean, we have a history here
Speaker 1: where authorities seem to go soft on Epstein for no
Speaker 1: particular reason. And then you have this larger issue of
Speaker 1: what the information is and what basically we're getting right
Speaker 1: now from from Pan Bondi and Cash Mattel and Dan
Speaker 1: Bongino is just take our word for it, which is
Speaker 1: the problem. That is what we were told by previous administrations.
Speaker 1: There's no real clarity here in the statement that they
Speaker 1: released or in the memo where they said that that
Speaker 1: you know, there is no cover up, there is no problem.
Speaker 1: They acknowledged that there were one thousand victims, one thousand
Speaker 1: victims by Jeffrey Epstein, And what do we know at
Speaker 1: this point, we know that the only person that's actually
Speaker 1: been prosecuted and gone to jail is Gisel Maxwell. She's
Speaker 1: the only one that was prosecuted and went to jail.
Speaker 1: And all the other questions that swirl around what was
Speaker 1: his relationship with all these other powerful people? We know that,
Speaker 1: you know, Bill Gates and his ex wife, she cited
Speaker 1: his relationship with Epstein is one of the reasons she
Speaker 1: wanted to separate and ultimately divorce from Bill Gates. But
Speaker 1: there's no clarity there, and based on the history, it's
Speaker 1: fair to ask the question, why is there not greater
Speaker 1: transparency here? And just tell us take our word for it.
Speaker 1: We've looked at it. You can trust us. People are
Speaker 1: so suspicious they're not prepared to do that anymore.
Speaker 2: Does I mean you mentioned a powerful name, Bill Gates. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, he's very influential in many different aspects of society.
Speaker 2: Do you feel like that there's a relationship between I mean,
Speaker 2: do you feel like he's breathing a sigh of relief today?
Speaker 2: People like him who have been let's call it Epstein adjacent, right,
Speaker 2: and that we are now told no one that is
Speaker 2: Epstein adjacent is going to face additional charges because we
Speaker 2: don't have evidence of that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we obviously do not know what Bill Gates's relationship
Speaker 1: was with Epstein anything related to the island. What we
Speaker 1: do know is that his wife now ex wife, was
Speaker 1: extremely bothered by it, you know. And this is the
Speaker 1: same question you have with mister Wexler, you know, the
Speaker 1: the fashion guy who also did deals with Epstein. The
Speaker 1: question is why do these really super rich guys have
Speaker 1: to deal with a guy like Epstein. Epstein, sure he could,
Speaker 1: he could make some money doing a few things, but
Speaker 1: if you're Bill Gates, you can get investment help with
Speaker 1: anybody in the world. And what we also know about
Speaker 1: Bill Gates is that at least the allegation was made
Speaker 1: that Epstein did try to blackmail Bill Gates. Reportedly Bill
Speaker 1: Gates was having a relationship with I think it's a
Speaker 1: bridge player, some kind of card player and those areas.
Speaker 1: And what we know is that at least the allegation
Speaker 1: is is that Epstein threatened to Gates that he was
Speaker 1: going to expose it if Gates did not invest in
Speaker 1: a fund that he was setting up in JP Morgan.
Speaker 1: So there's evidence on these things. We don't know the relationship.
Speaker 1: We don't know if any of these people was involved.
Speaker 1: But again it's the lack of transparency. It's the lack
Speaker 1: of releasing sort of any of the material. Nobody wants
Speaker 1: to see the nasty videos. But you know, just in
Speaker 1: terms of these financial transactions, eight billion dollars in transactions
Speaker 1: that are that are deemed to be by JP Morgan
Speaker 1: and by federal law enforcement related to human trafficking, who
Speaker 1: are those transactions with? Were they certain flights of airplanes
Speaker 1: that he was paying for? Who was on those planes?
Speaker 1: None of those questions seem to be asked by anybody
Speaker 1: in Washington.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the lack of curiosity does appear to be troubling.
Speaker 2: That's one thing we'll continue to follow. We will speak
Speaker 2: to former Epstein attorney and former Donald Trump attorney David
Speaker 2: Showan at the top of the four o'clock hour about this.
Speaker 2: We've got a lot more questions. We'll hear reaction from
Speaker 2: the White House, but we've got a lot more to cover.
Speaker 2: It's a massive weekend.
Speaker 3: You heard.
Speaker 2: We were grateful to talk to you a spokesporus from
Speaker 2: the Coast Guard to get an update on the recovery
Speaker 2: efforts in Texas. We're going to talk to Wisconsin Senator
Speaker 2: Ron Johnson to find out what all went on in
Speaker 2: the negotiations that led to the passage of the Big
Speaker 2: Beautiful Bill. And we'll also hear coming up next from
Speaker 2: somebody who tries to conflate the two. He's Peter Schweizer.
Speaker 2: I'm Eric Eggers. We are filling in for Sean Handy.
Speaker 2: It's our pleasure to be with you today on a
Speaker 2: very busy and a very newsy Monday. We right back
Speaker 2: after this.
Speaker 1: Hi, It's Peter Schweizer. I'm here with Eric Eggers. We
Speaker 1: are filling in for Sean. Joined the conversation one eight
Speaker 1: hundred and ninety four to one, Sean win eight one
Speaker 1: hundred and nine to four one Sean. So a lot
Speaker 1: going on in the news over the weekend. We're going
Speaker 1: to dissect a lot of it. You would think that
Speaker 1: these stories don't really have a lot in common, but
Speaker 1: in fact, according to at least Larry Summers, the former
Speaker 1: president of Harvard University, they do. Listen to what he
Speaker 1: said about the tragedy in Texas and the Big Beautiful
Speaker 1: Bill that was signed into law by Donald Trump on
Speaker 1: July the fourth.
Speaker 4: George, just to start with what your people have been
Speaker 4: describing is the biggest cut in the American safety net
Speaker 4: in history. The Yale Budget Lab estimates that it will
Speaker 4: kill over ten years, one hundred thousand people.
Speaker 5: That is two thousand days of death like we've seen
Speaker 5: in Texas this weekend. In my seventy years, I've never
Speaker 5: been as embarrassed for my country on July fourth.
Speaker 1: Oh boy, And he said this before, right in twenty seventeen,
Speaker 1: he made similar statements involving the tax cut that Donald
Speaker 1: Trump passed at that time. So he has a record
Speaker 1: of being wrong, but also politicizing this tragedy in such
Speaker 1: a way is just terrible.
Speaker 2: As it's terrible, it's irresponsible, and you know, shame on
Speaker 2: George Stephanopolis and ABC News for you know, it's not
Speaker 2: the first time they've aired irresponsible information. But I would say,
Speaker 2: you know, look, it's what's happened in Texas the tragedy.
Speaker 2: Eighty one people are dead so far included I think
Speaker 2: it's twenty seven children from this camp. And we're going
Speaker 2: to get an update on what's going on here on
Speaker 2: the other side of this break. But you know, I
Speaker 2: remember last year we had unexpected flooding in North Carolina.
Speaker 2: Over one hundred people died there. I believe the death
Speaker 2: tolls now up to ninety four people in Texas now.
Speaker 2: But still, the point is, these are acts of God,
Speaker 2: these are tragedies. They happen. No one blamed Joe Biden
Speaker 2: when they happened last year in terms of a lack
Speaker 2: of funding for it, right, And so for Larry Summers
Speaker 2: to suggest that the sign of one bill is going
Speaker 2: to lead to more tragedy, I think is horrendous.
Speaker 1: Well, and all these people have terrible track records. Let's
Speaker 1: look back in twenty seventeen, when the Trump administration also
Speaker 1: instituted reforms in this area. The Congression Budget Office claimed
Speaker 1: that the changes would get rid of healthcare coverage for
Speaker 1: sixteen million people. That was the claim. Two years later
Speaker 1: they said, well, no, it's actually going to be only
Speaker 1: eight million. By twenty twenty, the New York Times was
Speaker 1: reporting that actually it had no effect whatsoever. So don't
Speaker 1: believe the scare, don't believe the hype. This is the
Speaker 1: way they operate.
Speaker 2: It is the way they operate. And that's one of
Speaker 2: the reasons why programs like this and our podcast, The
Speaker 2: Drill Down are so important. Because we want to give you,
Speaker 2: the American people, the truth you deserve at every turn.
Speaker 2: You can find our podcast at the drill Down dot
Speaker 2: com and you can hear more Sean Handy show. Right
Speaker 2: on the outside of this break, he's Peter Schweizer. I
Speaker 2: Americ Eggers. We're back with a spokesperson from the Coastguard
Speaker 2: right after this.
Speaker 1: Hey, it's Peter Schweizer. That' seric Eggers. We're filling it for.
Speaker 1: Sean joined the conversation one eight hundred nine to four
Speaker 1: to one Sean one eight hundred ninety four one Sean
Speaker 1: tragedy in Texas. They're now saying that the death toll
Speaker 1: is going to surpass one hundred. Brings out the worst
Speaker 1: sometimes in people, it also brings out the best in people,
Speaker 1: the heroism. In particular. You've got this Coastguard Petty Officer
Speaker 1: Scott Ruskin, who rescued I mean, this is eye popping
Speaker 1: to me, one hundred and sixty five people from the
Speaker 1: floodwaters of Texas. He may add to that before it's over,
Speaker 1: but we want to play this clip about the interview
Speaker 1: that he gave describing what he's done, and then we're
Speaker 1: going to have a conversation with Lieutenant Commander Steve Roth,
Speaker 1: who's the chief of Media Relations for the Coastguard, to
Speaker 1: give us an update on what's going on in Texas
Speaker 1: and a little bit more about this fine man from
Speaker 1: New Jersey who has saved so many lives. But listen
Speaker 1: to this interview that he gave.
Speaker 6: The Coastguard launched us and decided to send a rescue
Speaker 6: crew from Airstation Corpus Christie at about six thirty seven
Speaker 6: am on Friday, the fourth of July. I just happen
Speaker 6: to be on the d crew with Ian Hopper, Blair
Speaker 6: ruche wor Seth Reeves, some of our crew members in
Speaker 6: the Coast Guard, and yeah, they sent us out. We
Speaker 6: kind of encountered some pretty serious weather, some of the
Speaker 6: worst flying we've ever dealt with.
Speaker 2: Personally.
Speaker 6: It took us, you know, which should have been an
Speaker 6: hour flight, probably took us about seven or eight just
Speaker 6: to get into the landing zone. Once made about four
Speaker 6: different approaches trying to get in. We were able to
Speaker 6: get on get them boots on the ground with the
Speaker 6: Air National Guard, Department of Public Safety for Texas Game Wardens,
Speaker 6: and we decided to leave me on scene at Camp
Speaker 6: mystic that was kind of our main triage site we
Speaker 6: were trying to help out with, and we decide, hey,
Speaker 6: if we leave the rescue summer on scene, we'll have
Speaker 6: more space in our dolphin MH sixty five. So based
Speaker 6: on that I got on scene boots on the ground,
Speaker 6: can't mystic kind of discovered I was the only person
Speaker 6: there as far as like first responders go. So yeah,
Speaker 6: I had about two hundred kids, mostly all scared, terrified, cold,
Speaker 6: having probably the worst day of their life, and I
Speaker 6: just kind of need to triage them, get them to
Speaker 6: a higher level care and get them, get them off
Speaker 6: the flood zone with a lot of the US sixty
Speaker 6: Army helicopters.
Speaker 2: So this guy, Scott Ruskin is correctly being hailed as
Speaker 2: an American hero. But I, as soon as I heard
Speaker 2: this interview, became incredibly curious, like, how is it that
Speaker 2: one Coastguard rescue swimmer swims and these details later an
Speaker 2: interview up to ten kids and maybe one adult with
Speaker 2: them at a time as a swimmer, and so I mean,
Speaker 2: how do you get these people to safety? And so
Speaker 2: we wanted to reach out to the Coast Guard and
Speaker 2: we're excited to have Lieutenant Commander Steve Roth join us now,
Speaker 2: Lieutenant Commander Roth, how does that work? Like, just walk
Speaker 2: our audience through how the mechanics of how someone as
Speaker 2: a swimmer takes multiple people with them. Do they have
Speaker 2: stuff connected to them? What kind of flotation devices they
Speaker 2: connected to?
Speaker 1: How does that work?
Speaker 4: Sure?
Speaker 3: Yeah, thanks thanks for having me on the show. And
Speaker 3: I just want to say the entire Coast Guard our
Speaker 3: hearts and our prayers to actually go out to all
Speaker 3: the victims of this absolutely terrible tragedy. So in this
Speaker 3: particular instance, I think it highlights the really incredible train
Speaker 3: our rescue summers get is. He might have mentioned this
Speaker 3: is his first case out of rescue swimmer school. And
Speaker 3: the interesting thing about this is he wasn't swimming. This
Speaker 3: is inland search and rescue. This is urban search and rescue.
Speaker 3: When he got there to Camp Mystic, and you know,
Speaker 3: these these little girls, these adults have been this is
Speaker 3: the first first responder they've seen in eight hours since
Speaker 3: it's terrible then in the middle of the night, and
Speaker 3: so he was there to really sort of triage them
Speaker 3: and make sure that they were getting to two other
Speaker 3: landing sites that he set up. I think one on
Speaker 3: an archery field and one on a soccer field, so
Speaker 3: that the other state and several partners, the Air National Guard,
Speaker 3: Texas GPS could get these kids out. So it's actually
Speaker 3: not just people think of our rescue swimmers as jumping
Speaker 3: in the water, and that's that's not always the case.
Speaker 3: We do quite a bit of urban search and rescue,
Speaker 3: inland search and rescue, and this is this is a
Speaker 3: really incredible example of that work.
Speaker 1: Lieutenant Commander Roth, Are there ongoing operations right now in
Speaker 1: volume the Coast Guard? Are you hopeful to maybe find
Speaker 1: more people? We're going on now several days, but there
Speaker 1: is still always the hope that more people would be found.
Speaker 1: What is the Coast Guard doing right now in South Texas?
Speaker 3: Certainly so the Coast Guards continuing to respond to any
Speaker 3: tasking from the State of Texas, who's the lead agency.
Speaker 3: So we do still have a helicopter there if we
Speaker 3: are requested to assist.
Speaker 2: So what have you heard in terms of the conditions
Speaker 2: on the ground and would you how would you compare
Speaker 2: the conditions on the ground in terms of the flash footing? Now,
Speaker 2: how long do the waters stay at these levels? And
Speaker 2: you know, what can people expect moving forward.
Speaker 3: So I can't speak to the specifics of that. I
Speaker 3: think that's probably a better question for the state of Texas.
Speaker 3: What I can say is that the conditions that our
Speaker 3: air crew encountered were incredibly dynamic, incredibly dangerous. Like like
Speaker 3: id said, it takes them seven eight hours to make
Speaker 3: what should have been a one hour flight, and we've
Speaker 3: seen throughout this week an increased and sustained risk of
Speaker 3: flash flooding in the area. So he put himself in
Speaker 3: a really dynamic situation based on weather and the chance
Speaker 3: of increased flooding. Unfortunately, I can't speak to what the
Speaker 3: current risk is now.
Speaker 1: Well, Luke Tenant, Commander, you guys train of course for
Speaker 1: all kinds of different scenarios. I'm still stunned at the
Speaker 1: basic fact that apparently, in the middle of the night,
Speaker 1: this river rose twenty six feet in forty five minutes.
Speaker 1: That's astonishing to me. And I know you're not in
Speaker 1: the business of fixing those types of problems, but this
Speaker 1: is the kind of scenario that the Coastguard dealt with.
Speaker 1: Here you're dealing with other dynamic situations. I understand that
Speaker 1: recruiting is up, by the way, there's kind of an
Speaker 1: excitement in the last six months about joining the Coast Guard.
Speaker 1: So where is a coast Guard in terms of future operations?
Speaker 1: Planning for disasters we live in Florida, course, hurricanes or
Speaker 1: always something you worry about. What is the Coast Guard doing?
Speaker 1: Looking forward?
Speaker 3: So looking forward, you know, we're going to continue to
Speaker 3: be extremely proud of the fact that we are America's
Speaker 3: first responders for hurricanes, maritime disasters, really any crisis. You know,
Speaker 3: here we are in central Texas, not pretty pretty far
Speaker 3: from where you traditionally think the Coastguard would operate. We're
Speaker 3: going to continue to give you know, people that enlist
Speaker 3: and recruit, that train so that if it's their first
Speaker 3: case and they need to rescue one hundred and sixty
Speaker 3: five people in Central Texas, that they're they're prepared to
Speaker 3: do that. Scott will say, you know, I think he
Speaker 3: just said, I'm just the dude that was trained to
Speaker 3: do this, and I rose raise my right hand. Looking forward,
Speaker 3: we're certainly excited about the support and the recognition we've
Speaker 3: gotten from the Administration, the Secretary Congress. We're going to
Speaker 3: be doing a lot of recapitalization to making sure that
Speaker 3: we maintain our agility, our capability, and to be you know,
Speaker 3: our motto was literally always ready to be, always ready
Speaker 3: to serve the American public in these communities because we
Speaker 3: are extremely capable, as I think we've proven in this case,
Speaker 3: the ability to fly in these conditions. We've got these
Speaker 3: highly trained rescue swimmers. We're gonna we're going to make
Speaker 3: sure that we continue to be, you know, some of
Speaker 3: the finest first responders in the nation so that we
Speaker 3: can we can get down there and continue to do
Speaker 3: this stuff.
Speaker 2: So in an urban search and rescue environment, which is
Speaker 2: what Scott Ruskin was involved in, he's going, I guess
Speaker 2: kind of take us through. So he gets onto the
Speaker 2: ground and you knew where the camp was. I heard
Speaker 2: him say that they identified Camp Mystic. So everyone that
Speaker 2: he encountered were they can you tell us like what
Speaker 2: was were they in? Like where were they physically? Were
Speaker 2: they in their normal rooms? Had they congregated in an area?
Speaker 2: And I guess, like walk us through what that process
Speaker 2: is like and how quickly this person had to make
Speaker 2: these decisions when literally every second counts.
Speaker 3: You've got to make these decisions instantly. I don't have
Speaker 3: the details on exactly where and can't mystic. They dropped
Speaker 3: him off. But in a couple of interviews he's mentioned,
Speaker 3: you know, all of a sudden, he's got two hundred cold, scared,
Speaker 3: exhausted children. This is a group of predominantly little children.
Speaker 3: I'm the father of a six year old girl, and
Speaker 3: it's like unfathomable to meet with my daughter in the situation.
Speaker 3: So just to just to manage that chaos in that situation,
Speaker 3: and then not even that, but then to start medically
Speaker 3: triaging these people to very very quickly get them to
Speaker 3: a waiting helicopter so that they can get to a
Speaker 3: higher level of care. But that's that's one thing that
Speaker 3: our rescue swimmers and really every member of the Coast
Speaker 3: Guard is trained to do. We encounter all kinds of
Speaker 3: non traditional situations and you've got to be calm and
Speaker 3: cool and confident and ready to make those those life
Speaker 3: or death decisions. And that's what's really I think unique
Speaker 3: about being a member of the Coast Guard.
Speaker 1: Well, the Channe Commander, Steve Roth, we thank you for
Speaker 1: joining us. We appreciate all the good work you were
Speaker 1: doing in the Coast Guard is doing as well. People
Speaker 1: when they think of people in service, they sometimes forget
Speaker 1: about the Coast Guards or don't pay them the attention
Speaker 1: that they should. They certainly will. Now we thank you
Speaker 1: and appreciate all that the Coast Guard is doing down
Speaker 1: in Texas for us in rescuing people, especially these young children.
Speaker 3: Yeah, thanks so much for the opportunity to come on
Speaker 3: the show. Appreciate it.
Speaker 2: That's Lieutenant Commander Steve Roth of the United States Coast Guard.
Speaker 2: It's a great it's a crazy story. It's a tragedy.
Speaker 2: And you know, you and I are both fathers. We
Speaker 2: are fathers of daughters. And it's the fact that I
Speaker 2: think it's twenty plus children have died, unfortunately, and this
Speaker 2: tragedy is horrific, and obviously the death toll continues to mount,
Speaker 2: and there's been unfortunately, as you heard from Larry Summers
Speaker 2: in the last segment of The New York Times, come
Speaker 2: out with stories about oh, they've ignored these warning symbols
Speaker 2: and they could have done more, but buried in that
Speaker 2: article they talked about the fact that text messages were sent.
Speaker 2: But as you noted, it was three in the morning
Speaker 2: when the conditions worsened, and they say text messages were ignored, Well,
Speaker 2: I mean, how many other alarm systems. Do you want
Speaker 2: sometimes strgies happen?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean the thing to me that was
Speaker 1: particularly outrageous by the New York Times story is they
Speaker 1: alleged that cutbacks by the Trump administration, or the fact
Speaker 1: that there are certain positions that have been filled with
Speaker 1: the National Weather Service somehow led to an increased death
Speaker 1: when the realities are what we said, in forty five minutes,
Speaker 1: this river rose twenty six feet. It was in the
Speaker 1: middle of the night. I don't know about you. I
Speaker 1: mean I basically had my ringer off at night. If
Speaker 1: I had been there, I would have been totally caught
Speaker 1: off guards. I don't know how you can create a
Speaker 1: warning system and there will be opportunities for them to
Speaker 1: evaluate come up with greater efficiencies. I think one of
Speaker 1: the things that the Trump administration has proposed is more
Speaker 1: local control because remember what happened in North Carolina when
Speaker 1: the hurricane came through the disaster there was the fact
Speaker 1: that it took so long once the tragedy had happened
Speaker 1: to actually get support to help the people that were impacted.
Speaker 1: In North Carolina. I think we had what one hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty died as a result of that. In this
Speaker 1: particular case, you had the heroic response from the Coast Guard,
Speaker 1: But I'm not sure you can develop a system unless
Speaker 1: people are prepared to be wired in twenty four hours
Speaker 1: a day. You can develop a weather system for a
Speaker 1: scenario that happens like this in the middle of the
Speaker 1: night over a course of forty five minutes.
Speaker 6: No.
Speaker 2: In fact, you and I were speaking with someone who
Speaker 2: lives in western North Carolina not long ago, and he
Speaker 2: was recounting what it was like last year when that happened.
Speaker 2: And I think what you heard him say is we
Speaker 2: went weeks without hearing from anyone. And in the western
Speaker 2: North Carolina mountains, it's a very tight knit community. These
Speaker 2: people very self reliant, as they are in Texas. Yes,
Speaker 2: but the point is is that there is an appropriate
Speaker 2: role for the government to play in search and rescue operations,
Speaker 2: which obviously the Coastguard did very well here as well
Speaker 2: as the conditions would warrant. And then there is the
Speaker 2: ongoing support and that is where the ball was dropped
Speaker 2: under the Biden administration's FEMA. And she did a podcast
Speaker 2: on our Drill Down podcast about how they sort of
Speaker 2: shifted their gaze and started focusing on lots of other
Speaker 2: priorities and less about disaster responses. Has happened quite often,
Speaker 2: unfortunately under the Biden administration with a number of agencies.
Speaker 2: But it is a true story of heroism with Petty
Speaker 2: Officer Scott Ruskin. I appreciate I know you do too.
Speaker 2: The fact that he's being celebrated and the fact and
Speaker 2: the fact that Coast Guard enrollments is up actually speaks
Speaker 2: to a larger positive uptick in terms of what's happening
Speaker 2: with our national defense systems under the Trump administration.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's right. You're seeing recruitment goals being
Speaker 1: met and exceeded in multiple branches. And I think the
Speaker 1: fact is somebody that goes into the Coastguard wants to
Speaker 1: help people. They want to be involved in real work.
Speaker 1: They don't want to be involved in some of the
Speaker 1: phony work and the DEI stuff that is so dominating things.
Speaker 1: And I think that a lot of the reforms they're
Speaker 1: talking about in terms of search and rescue are good.
Speaker 1: Local officials know the situation better than anybody, and to
Speaker 1: have the FEDS kind of show up and kind of
Speaker 1: throw their weight around when they don't have local knowledge
Speaker 1: kind of Remember what happened to Katrina. Remember back in
Speaker 1: two thousand and five, you have the same issue. You
Speaker 1: have the same issue under Joe Biden. So I think
Speaker 1: Trump is saying, let's return this to local control. The
Speaker 1: federal government can give them the resources, we can give
Speaker 1: them the helicopters, we can give them the supplies, we
Speaker 1: can give them the equipment. But local authorities should be
Speaker 1: in charge, and that is certainly what should be done.
Speaker 1: I think going.
Speaker 2: Forward absolutely well. You heard from an update in terms
Speaker 2: of what the Coast Guard's perspective is. Will continue to
Speaker 2: monitor this story. Unfortunately, that's not the only tragedy that's
Speaker 2: happening in the country right now. We have breaking news
Speaker 2: about another tragedy situation. We'll give you more information on
Speaker 2: that right on the other side of this break. He's
Speaker 2: Peter Schweizer. I'm Eric Egers. This is the Sean Handy
Speaker 2: Radio Show. We'll have more information from you coming up next.
Speaker 1: Hi, it's Peter Schweizer. He is Eric Eggers. We have
Speaker 1: the Drill Down p podcast. We would appreciate you subscribing
Speaker 1: to that. You can join the conversation here on SEWN
Speaker 1: Show one eight hundred and nine four one Shawn one
Speaker 1: hundred nine four one Shawn talking about the heroics of
Speaker 1: the Coast Guard down in Texas. It's not the only
Speaker 1: herowzone that's taking place, although the threat is different. It's
Speaker 1: whether in Texas you have a situation now where there
Speaker 1: have been multiple ICE shootings shootings at ICE officials report
Speaker 1: this morning an active shooter armed with tactical gear and
Speaker 1: a rifle opened fire on Border Patrol agencies. They arrived
Speaker 1: at the Border Patrol Annex facility in McAllen, Texas. Apparently
Speaker 1: one federal agent was hit. They did kill the shooter.
Speaker 1: It's an ongoing investigation by the FBI. This comes on
Speaker 1: the heels of another incident in Texas where a Texas
Speaker 1: Police officer was shot Friday near the US Immigration and
Speaker 1: Customs Enforcement Prairie Land Detention facility. So they are clearly
Speaker 1: being targeted by activists on the left.
Speaker 2: It also comes on the heels, unfortunately, of an Axio
Speaker 2: store headlining Democrats told to quote get shot for the
Speaker 2: anti Trump resistance. Some have suggested the story says we
Speaker 2: need to be willing to do is go get shot
Speaker 2: when visiting ICE facilities or federal agencies, saying civilitiesn't working.
Speaker 2: Prepare for violence. That's again from Axios Today. This is
Speaker 2: a Sean Handy radio show. He's Peter Schweizer. I'm Marik Eggers.
Speaker 2: We talked to former Epstein attorney David Showen next