WEBVTT - McAfee Part 4: The White House 0:00:00.880 --> 0:00:04.800 In December twenty fifteen, there was a high profile shooting 0:00:04.880 --> 0:00:09.800 in San Bernardino, California, that killed fourteen people and injured 0:00:09.840 --> 0:00:13.320 twenty two others. Tonight, the nation grappling with what officials 0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:15.920 now say may be the deadliest terror attack on our 0:00:15.960 --> 0:00:19.840 homeland since nine eleven. The FBI was brought in to 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:23.800 investigate the shooting as a terrorist attack, and they asked 0:00:23.840 --> 0:00:27.880 Apple to open up the shooter's iPhone. Apple is refusing 0:00:27.920 --> 0:00:30.360 to follow a government order to hat the San Bernardino 0:00:30.440 --> 0:00:34.400 shooters phone. The FBI believes important clues about accomplices and 0:00:34.600 --> 0:00:37.240 more plots could be hidden on that phone, but Apple 0:00:37.280 --> 0:00:40.479 says that complying with the government order could endanger everyone 0:00:40.520 --> 0:00:45.360 with an iPhone. This conflict ignited a heated debate over 0:00:45.479 --> 0:00:49.440 whether it was okay to sacrifice civil liberties for authorities 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:54.840 purporting to fight violent extremism. John McAfee saw an opportunity 0:00:55.160 --> 0:00:59.320 and jumped into the fray. Here he is on Russia today. 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:01.640 The FBI needs to get us to act together and 0:01:01.720 --> 0:01:03.520 tell the two saying, yeah, we need it because we 0:01:03.560 --> 0:01:06.600 want to spy on Americans. Cool, let's talk about that, 0:01:06.959 --> 0:01:09.720 but please don't try to deceive US by pretending we're idiots. 0:01:09.959 --> 0:01:15.720 We aren't. At the time, McAfee had been back in 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:18.880 the US for more than two years after being deported 0:01:18.920 --> 0:01:22.720 from Central America. He was active on Twitter and appearing 0:01:22.760 --> 0:01:26.880 on television talk shows trying to reassert himself as a 0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:32.840 cybersecurity authority. My colleague William Turton was covering the aftermath 0:01:32.920 --> 0:01:36.119 of the San Bernardino shooting for a new site called 0:01:36.240 --> 0:01:40.440 The Daily Dot. He says McAfee was inserting himself into 0:01:40.480 --> 0:01:43.920 the story in a desperate attempt to get attention. He 0:01:44.080 --> 0:01:47.720 lied about the fact that he had a method that 0:01:47.760 --> 0:01:50.480 would allow the FBI access to the phone. So you know, 0:01:50.560 --> 0:01:53.840 he was presenting himself as a savior for this scenario, 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:56.360 saying that, you know, Apple didn't have to comply with 0:01:56.400 --> 0:01:59.520 the FBI and create this new standard, that actually he 0:01:59.560 --> 0:02:04.120 had found a solution to this issue. William was confident 0:02:04.200 --> 0:02:08.320 that McAfee was lying, but McAfee was adamant. He wrote 0:02:08.360 --> 0:02:10.880 an op ed declaring he would eat his shoe on 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:13.880 the television show if he and a team of hackers 0:02:13.919 --> 0:02:17.480 couldn't do it. William decides to call him out on 0:02:17.520 --> 0:02:20.919 this claim, and he gets McAfee on the phone. But 0:02:21.000 --> 0:02:24.400 I'm just curious as to why you did this, because 0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:27.760 because by doing so, I knew that I would get 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:32.040 a shitload of public attention, which I did. That video 0:02:32.400 --> 0:02:34.880 on my YouTube account you can check it has seven 0:02:35.040 --> 0:02:40.679 hundred thousand views. McAfee's reaction surprised even William. It was. 0:02:40.800 --> 0:02:42.440 It was actually kind of refreshing in a way for 0:02:42.520 --> 0:02:47.359 someone to admit to their craven narcissism and not try 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:50.679 and spin it as something else. So my point to 0:02:50.760 --> 0:02:53.000 bring to and listen to me, I'm answering a question. 0:02:53.320 --> 0:02:56.960 My point is to bring to the American public the 0:02:57.160 --> 0:03:02.600 problem that the FBI is trying to write the American public. 0:03:03.240 --> 0:03:05.320 How am I going to do that by this raft 0:03:05.360 --> 0:03:07.000 and saying it? Now, one's gonna listen to that crap, 0:03:07.440 --> 0:03:10.960 So I confis something sensational. Now. What I did not 0:03:11.080 --> 0:03:13.760 lie about was my ability to crack the iPhone. I 0:03:13.800 --> 0:03:16.720 can do it. It's a piece of freaking cake. William 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:21.079 and McAfee go back and forth on the call. Eventually 0:03:21.440 --> 0:03:24.160 he agrees to share with William how he would crack 0:03:24.200 --> 0:03:28.200 the iPhone. McAfee tells William that he should try it 0:03:28.320 --> 0:03:31.919 himself and if it works, that William should write about 0:03:31.960 --> 0:03:35.120 it and give McAfee credit. Check it out if it doesn't. 0:03:35.320 --> 0:03:37.600 If it doesn't play, say McAfee gave me a line 0:03:37.640 --> 0:03:41.360 of gartmage. If it doesn't play, say McAfee told me 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:44.480 how to do it. Sure, but I'm confused as though 0:03:44.520 --> 0:03:47.240 why you told me the whole method now and earlier 0:03:47.280 --> 0:03:49.400 you wouldn't tell me the method. I must say kept 0:03:49.440 --> 0:03:54.360 it off the recollect because I'm assuming that since you 0:03:54.480 --> 0:03:56.280 kept on asking, you are not going to publish it. 0:03:56.920 --> 0:03:59.400 If you know so, probably aren't that you aren't a liar, 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:02.040 not me. Nope, I never said that I wouldn't publish it. 0:04:02.080 --> 0:04:05.960 I explicitly said that, well, our conversation. Our conversation is over, 0:04:06.200 --> 0:04:08.240 and you need to look at yourself. You need to 0:04:08.280 --> 0:04:11.200 look at yourself, all right, Thanks for time, miss McAfee. 0:04:13.360 --> 0:04:18.120 William publishes his story. In the headline, he accuses McAfee 0:04:18.200 --> 0:04:22.280 of lying quote to get a shitload of public attention. 0:04:23.080 --> 0:04:26.400 He writes that McAfee's method isn't much of a secret 0:04:26.480 --> 0:04:29.320 at all, and that there's a good chance it would 0:04:29.400 --> 0:04:33.400 end up destroying the data they're trying to get. William 0:04:33.560 --> 0:04:38.480 also uploads the recording of their entire phone call. McAfee 0:04:38.920 --> 0:04:43.200 is even more furious. After I published this story, John 0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:48.080 went on a week's long campaign to harass me and 0:04:48.560 --> 0:04:52.600 my editors that included hacking my voicemail. I woke up 0:04:52.640 --> 0:04:55.400 one morning and I had twenty missed calls from my 0:04:55.480 --> 0:04:58.760 own cell phone number, and I had one new voicemail 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:05.440 and it was from John, and the voicemail was meant 0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:09.480 to be extremely intimidating. His actually kind of made sense 0:05:09.520 --> 0:05:11.840 because the story that I wrote was damaging to him. 0:05:12.680 --> 0:05:15.680 It's extremely rare that I include the audio of an 0:05:15.720 --> 0:05:18.000 interview in a story, but I did that because I 0:05:18.080 --> 0:05:21.080 anticipated that, if not for that, he would lie about 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:24.240 the contents of the interview. I mean, the story of 0:05:24.320 --> 0:05:27.440 I remember correctly went viral and was actually really damaging 0:05:27.480 --> 0:05:30.320 to his credibility. He was not a fan of mine. 0:05:35.040 --> 0:05:39.360 William felt that McAfee was a charlatan forcing his way 0:05:39.480 --> 0:05:44.280 into the national conversation about a mass shooting. But McAfee 0:05:44.400 --> 0:05:48.000 was right about one thing. At least, this move got 0:05:48.120 --> 0:05:53.240 him a lot of attention. You're listening to Foundering, I'm 0:05:53.279 --> 0:05:58.719 your host, Jamie Tara Bay. In twenty twelve, John McAfee 0:05:58.839 --> 0:06:02.200 left Belize, where he was wanted for questioning in the 0:06:02.360 --> 0:06:05.960 murder of his neighbor, Gregory Fall. He returned to the 0:06:06.120 --> 0:06:09.440 US with a cloud of suspicion hanging over his head, 0:06:10.200 --> 0:06:15.080 but he was free. He was also broke, alone, and 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:21.600 worst of all, potentially irrelevant. McAfee anti virus software had 0:06:21.680 --> 0:06:25.760 been a widely used product for over twenty years, and 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:28.480 even though he didn't have anything to do with the 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:33.480 company anymore, McAfee cashes in any way he can. He 0:06:33.720 --> 0:06:39.280 begins selling his most important asset, his name. Over the 0:06:39.440 --> 0:06:44.000 next few years, McAfee finds the limelight yet again. He 0:06:44.279 --> 0:06:49.680 exhibits his true talent beguiling women, drawing attention to himself, 0:06:50.400 --> 0:06:54.520 and blatantly breaking the law. He also launches a bid 0:06:54.600 --> 0:06:59.080 for the presidency of the United States. The semi serious 0:06:59.200 --> 0:07:03.120 campaign brings him shockingly close to landing on the US ballot, 0:07:03.920 --> 0:07:08.920 and it also introduces him to cryptocurrency, a new fascination 0:07:09.040 --> 0:07:23.920 for McAfee that would ultimately spark his downfall. For a 0:07:24.080 --> 0:07:28.240 time there in jail in Guatemala, John McAfee looked like 0:07:28.360 --> 0:07:32.000 he was in real trouble. He'd entered the country illegally. 0:07:32.720 --> 0:07:36.920 His biggest fear was getting extradited back to Belize, where 0:07:37.000 --> 0:07:39.560 police wanted to talk to him about the murder of 0:07:39.680 --> 0:07:44.960 his neighbor Greg Fall, but ultimately McAfee wasn't charged with 0:07:45.080 --> 0:07:50.040 anything by authorities in Belize or Guatemala. He was deported 0:07:50.120 --> 0:07:55.800 to the US. McAfee landed in Florida on December twelve, 0:07:55.920 --> 0:07:59.520 twenty twelve. He said he had no money and no phone. 0:08:00.320 --> 0:08:05.000 He checks himself into the Beacon Hotel in Miami. Canadian 0:08:05.120 --> 0:08:09.920 filmmaker Francois Garcia arranged to lend McAfee some cash to 0:08:10.080 --> 0:08:14.320 tide him over. Within the hour, John is on the 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:18.120 street and there's journalists waiting for him, and he's flashing 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:21.280 and seeing pictures where he's flashing out of his jacket. 0:08:21.880 --> 0:08:25.200 The words of money and I don't know which publication, 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:27.280 where'd you get that money? Is like, you know, this 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:31.760 mysterious Canadian friend. He made it sound like, you know 0:08:31.920 --> 0:08:35.800 it's a drug deal or drug gartel or drug kingpin 0:08:35.920 --> 0:08:43.840 who just dropped him a bag of money. Why McAfee 0:08:43.960 --> 0:08:46.520 needed to borrow cash is a bit of a mystery. 0:08:47.360 --> 0:08:50.559 At the time. He said his assets were frozen when 0:08:50.679 --> 0:08:54.880 he was fleeing Belize, and he went further to allege 0:08:55.120 --> 0:08:59.559 that the Belizian government had seized his remaining properties and accounts, 0:09:00.480 --> 0:09:04.560 but Francois Garcia says this isn't true. He sent us 0:09:04.679 --> 0:09:09.520 documents showing McAfee transferring three hundred thousand dollars out of 0:09:09.679 --> 0:09:13.360 his bank in Belize. The first of these chancefers is 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:17.640 dated to November seventeen, twenty twelve, less than a week 0:09:17.760 --> 0:09:22.000 after Greg Fall was killed. As for his larger fortune, 0:09:22.520 --> 0:09:26.319 we know he spent recklessly and also gave much of 0:09:26.400 --> 0:09:30.760 it to his ex wife, Judy during their divorce. Whatever 0:09:31.000 --> 0:09:34.319 his access to money was at the time, several people 0:09:34.440 --> 0:09:38.280 told us that McAfee started this new chapter of his 0:09:38.400 --> 0:09:43.719 life completely broke. McAfee was casting about for what he 0:09:43.880 --> 0:09:47.160 was going to do next. The day after he arrived 0:09:47.240 --> 0:09:50.360 in Miami, he was sitting at an outdoor table at 0:09:50.400 --> 0:09:54.040 a cafe on Ocean Drive by himself when a woman 0:09:54.320 --> 0:09:58.280 named Janice Dyson walked past. He looked rough, you know, 0:09:59.520 --> 0:10:02.880 suit was kind of wrinkled and dirty, and oh yeah, 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:04.640 you know, I kind of just kept walking And it 0:10:04.840 --> 0:10:08.559 was actually the security that worked at his hotel who 0:10:08.600 --> 0:10:11.319 actually pointed him out and said, you know, that's John McAfee. 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:15.840 The guard explained that McAfee was the same McAfee who 0:10:15.880 --> 0:10:19.920 invented the anti virus software. Janice was a sex worker 0:10:20.000 --> 0:10:22.880 at the time. She walked back to talk to him 0:10:23.320 --> 0:10:25.719 and he was smoking a cigarette, so I asked him 0:10:25.880 --> 0:10:29.240 for a cigarette, you know, I just asked him. I said, well, 0:10:29.280 --> 0:10:31.280 what's your story? Who are you? Who are you? You know, 0:10:31.360 --> 0:10:34.400 what brings you to Miami? And it's like, like, seriously, 0:10:34.480 --> 0:10:38.520 you don't know who I am. He assumed the whole 0:10:38.640 --> 0:10:41.880 world had been watching his flight from Belize after Greg 0:10:41.960 --> 0:10:45.640 Fall's murder. He says he's been on television for months. 0:10:46.440 --> 0:10:50.280 She says she doesn't watch the news. I just remember thinking, 0:10:50.840 --> 0:10:53.280 who is this guy and how was he able to, 0:10:53.520 --> 0:10:57.400 you know, kind of maneuver himself through this very dangerous situation. 0:10:57.679 --> 0:11:01.280 You know. So we spent hours of four hours just 0:11:01.440 --> 0:11:03.920 talking and okay, and I spent the night with him, 0:11:03.960 --> 0:11:08.319 and we were together every day after that. Janice was 0:11:08.440 --> 0:11:12.440 thirty years old. She said she felt a certain camaraderie 0:11:12.480 --> 0:11:16.080 with John. She's been living in her own hell in Miami. 0:11:16.679 --> 0:11:19.960 She'd given up custody of her three children to her parents. 0:11:21.000 --> 0:11:24.760 She'd been unable to disentangle herself from an abusive and 0:11:24.920 --> 0:11:30.679 exploitative relationship, so McAfee represented a kind of escape. We 0:11:30.800 --> 0:11:34.120 spent a week together in Miami. Then he asked me 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:36.679 to come and meet him in Tennessee and we were 0:11:36.679 --> 0:11:40.120 going to drive from there to Portland. So we're on 0:11:40.240 --> 0:11:42.480 this road trip, which was like three weeks. You know, 0:11:42.600 --> 0:11:45.000 we took our time and really does so we got 0:11:45.080 --> 0:11:47.880 to know each other on that road trip. What did 0:11:47.920 --> 0:11:53.839 you like about him? Oh? Everything, everything. He's just you know, 0:11:53.920 --> 0:11:57.280 he's very smart. Obviously it's intelligence, but also at the 0:11:57.320 --> 0:12:00.400 same time, it's still very down to earth. I feel 0:12:00.440 --> 0:12:04.920 like I could relate to him. The relationship between Janis 0:12:04.920 --> 0:12:09.080 and John McAfee began as a commercial transaction, but over 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:12.640 time it became deeper. She says that by the summer 0:12:12.679 --> 0:12:15.400 of the next year, he asked her to marry him. 0:12:16.360 --> 0:12:20.160 McAfee spent much of twenty thirteen living quietly with Janis 0:12:20.240 --> 0:12:24.199 in Portland, Oregon. She would beat his partner up until 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:28.360 his death in twenty twenty one. During that first year. 0:12:28.880 --> 0:12:32.800 In June twenty thirteen, he released a YouTube video that 0:12:33.000 --> 0:12:43.640 put him back in the spotlight. Fuck send oh, Hello there. 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:47.360 My name is Sean McAfee. I'm the founder of the 0:12:47.640 --> 0:12:51.199 McAfee anti virus software company. Although I've had nothing to 0:12:51.280 --> 0:12:53.600 do with this company for over fifteen years, I still 0:12:53.679 --> 0:12:58.960 get volumes of mail asking how do I uninstall this software? 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:04.760 I had no idea. He's in the robe. He snorts 0:13:04.800 --> 0:13:08.520 white powder through a straw. There's a box labeled bath 0:13:08.640 --> 0:13:11.160 salt on the table in front of him. There are 0:13:11.240 --> 0:13:15.719 women massaging him and undressing him, including Janie. At the 0:13:15.880 --> 0:13:18.640 end of the video, she picks up an automatic rifle 0:13:18.760 --> 0:13:23.079 and walks away with McAfee. He told Business Insider that 0:13:23.200 --> 0:13:26.600 he made the video to parody the allegations about him 0:13:26.679 --> 0:13:29.360 in the media. The greatest thing about that was that 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:34.320 after that video that the headlines about me were vastly reduced. 0:13:34.440 --> 0:13:37.040 Because once you've, once you've accepted the fact that guard 0:13:37.080 --> 0:13:38.959 you's have been living with seven women. Okay, fine, let's 0:13:39.000 --> 0:13:40.599 get seven women in this video and put him in 0:13:40.920 --> 0:13:43.520 the scantily clad clothes, and I would be as decadent 0:13:43.600 --> 0:13:47.520 as possible. Then what mud can you sling? I mean, 0:13:47.559 --> 0:13:51.800 I've already slung in it myself. Now. This video came 0:13:51.840 --> 0:13:56.240 out three years after Intel bought McAfee, the company for 0:13:56.360 --> 0:13:59.600 over seven billion dollars, but it had been more than 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:02.920 a day since John McAfee had anything to do with 0:14:03.040 --> 0:14:07.240 the company except in name. There was money to be 0:14:07.360 --> 0:14:10.840 made off of his famous product, just not by him. 0:14:11.720 --> 0:14:15.439 He wanted to reclaim his name, and he was about 0:14:15.480 --> 0:14:19.680 to do so in a very splashy way. We'll be 0:14:19.840 --> 0:14:34.880 right back. By twenty fifteen, McAfee and Janice had left 0:14:34.960 --> 0:14:39.120 Portland and were living in Lexington, Tennessee. He had some 0:14:39.280 --> 0:14:42.640 new viral fame from the video he made. The next 0:14:42.680 --> 0:14:46.160 step was rebuilding his fortune. It all comes down to 0:14:46.240 --> 0:14:48.960 the idea of milking his name for its value. That's 0:14:49.040 --> 0:14:53.240 my colleague Brody Ford, who reported on McAfee and his 0:14:53.400 --> 0:14:58.040 business dealings during this period. Everybody knows McAfee the innovator. 0:14:58.120 --> 0:15:01.280 Everybody knows the name McAfee, So he's making money off 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:05.200 speaking fees, hacker conferences, that kind of thing. It was 0:15:05.280 --> 0:15:09.200 around this time when McAfee met an entrepreneur named Kyle 0:15:09.360 --> 0:15:13.000 Sandler who was running a business incubator in a small 0:15:13.080 --> 0:15:17.520 town called Opelika in Alabama. John was dirt broke when 0:15:17.560 --> 0:15:19.920 I met him, and I was paying for his hotels 0:15:19.920 --> 0:15:23.320 when he would come to visit. Kyle Sandler and McAfee 0:15:23.400 --> 0:15:28.320 became close. They worked as business partners. Brodie says it 0:15:28.400 --> 0:15:32.760 was a beneficial relationship for McAfee. He needed new customers 0:15:32.840 --> 0:15:34.920 and he needed a place to look more legitimate. And 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:38.000 Kyle had this massive kind of like what we would 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:39.760 think of as a co working space, kind of a 0:15:39.840 --> 0:15:42.960 wee work type thing there. And John was living in 0:15:43.200 --> 0:15:45.320 rural Tennessee at this time, so there's all these accounts 0:15:45.400 --> 0:15:47.120 of him driving down there in the middle of the 0:15:47.240 --> 0:15:49.160 night in an old beat up pickup truck to a 0:15:49.560 --> 0:15:52.680 beat up with clients at Kyle's incubator. So hanging around 0:15:52.760 --> 0:15:56.160 Kyle it lended both of them legitimacy in different ways. 0:15:57.840 --> 0:16:00.920 It would turn out that at the time Kyle was 0:16:01.000 --> 0:16:04.600 actually taking people's money and misleading them about what he 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:08.640 was using it. For a few years after Kyle worked 0:16:08.680 --> 0:16:12.760 with McAfee, he actually went to prison for fraud. We'll 0:16:12.800 --> 0:16:16.360 get into that more later, but for now, let's just 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:20.080 say that that willingness to deceive people was something that 0:16:20.200 --> 0:16:24.560 Kyle and McAfee had in common. To me, Kyle understood 0:16:24.760 --> 0:16:27.360 McAfee in a way that a lot of other people didn't, right, 0:16:27.400 --> 0:16:30.360 I mean, they both were kind of running operations that 0:16:30.800 --> 0:16:34.160 relied on the confidence of others. Right, I mean Kyle 0:16:34.280 --> 0:16:36.560 was a kind man at the time. Right. McAfee and 0:16:36.640 --> 0:16:39.960 Kyle seemed to work well together, and their partnership made 0:16:40.000 --> 0:16:43.960 the papers. USA Today wrote a splashy feature on them 0:16:44.040 --> 0:16:48.280 in February, and shortly after that a group of investors 0:16:48.400 --> 0:16:54.120 from a company called MGT Capital Investments reached out. Brodie says, 0:16:54.640 --> 0:16:58.520 MGT had a pretty broad portfolio. So they had started 0:16:58.640 --> 0:17:02.280 god like twenty years ago as a medical imaging company, 0:17:02.480 --> 0:17:04.840 and then they went into sports betting, They went into 0:17:04.920 --> 0:17:08.280 various kinds of tech. They really never made a whole 0:17:08.359 --> 0:17:11.520 lot of money. They were in trouble because their stock 0:17:11.600 --> 0:17:13.680 price was so low that they might get kicked off 0:17:13.760 --> 0:17:17.520 of the New York Stock Exchange. So MGT said, let's pivot, 0:17:17.680 --> 0:17:20.640 Let's do cybersecurity. What better way to drum up hype 0:17:20.680 --> 0:17:24.280 for cybersecurity than getting the famed innovator John McAfee. So 0:17:24.800 --> 0:17:27.600 they called up Kyle. I'm thinking, you know, this is 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:30.800 all bullshit, just like everything with John. But the next 0:17:30.880 --> 0:17:33.800 day they flew into Auburn. We picked them up from 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:37.560 the Auburn Regional Airport and had lunch with them, and 0:17:37.680 --> 0:17:40.800 they're all talking, you know, forty million, this forty million, 0:17:40.880 --> 0:17:45.960 that the deal from MGT was significantly bigger than anything 0:17:46.080 --> 0:17:49.680 on McAfee's immediate horizon. I think it's safe to say 0:17:49.720 --> 0:17:52.280 it was the biggest deal McAfee I had seen since 0:17:52.320 --> 0:17:56.280 coming back to America. But he walked away because he 0:17:56.400 --> 0:17:58.280 felt like they were asking too much of him. He 0:17:58.400 --> 0:18:01.040 felt like the startups he had in his consulting fees 0:18:01.080 --> 0:18:04.040 would pay off. But he came to kind of regret that, 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:06.359 and I'm thinking, dude, you're stupid. You should have just 0:18:06.400 --> 0:18:12.320 taken the money. And so about six or seven months 0:18:12.440 --> 0:18:17.760 goes by and John is still broke and the startups 0:18:17.800 --> 0:18:20.720 that he has him just shit. So we had decided 0:18:20.800 --> 0:18:23.320 we needed to do something to make some noise. And 0:18:23.760 --> 0:18:26.880 I really just jokingly said, what about if you run 0:18:26.960 --> 0:18:31.359 for president? And he gets back to Tennessee the next 0:18:31.480 --> 0:18:34.360 day and I'm totally not even thinking about this conversation. 0:18:34.520 --> 0:18:35.920 He's like, Kyle, I think I want to do it. 0:18:36.400 --> 0:18:41.520 Do what? John? Run for president? Are you fucking crazy? 0:18:43.200 --> 0:18:46.639 To Kyle, running for president is an insane way to 0:18:46.800 --> 0:18:50.960 resuscitate your career, especially if you're broke and the major 0:18:51.119 --> 0:18:54.639 business deal falls through, but that's what mcavig planned to do. 0:18:55.760 --> 0:18:59.400 This was in the summer of twenty fifteen. Already quite 0:18:59.400 --> 0:19:01.960 a few people had announced their intention to make a 0:19:02.040 --> 0:19:05.399 play for the White House in twenty sixteen, but it 0:19:05.560 --> 0:19:08.520 was months ahead of the first primary vote and no 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:13.040 party had a clear front runner. And in addition that June, 0:19:13.560 --> 0:19:18.840 another controversial businessman without any political experience, had also just 0:19:19.080 --> 0:19:23.280 announced his run and was doing shockingly well in the polls. 0:19:24.040 --> 0:19:30.600 I am offacially running for president of the United States, 0:19:32.040 --> 0:19:36.160 and we are going to make our country grade again. 0:19:39.160 --> 0:19:41.800 In the twenty sixteen primaries, there was a sense in 0:19:41.880 --> 0:19:45.280 the air that people were more willing for non traditional candidates. 0:19:45.359 --> 0:19:49.200 Right you had Bernie Sanders out performing anybody's expectation. You 0:19:49.320 --> 0:19:52.480 had Donald Trump appearing and not fizzling out and actually 0:19:52.560 --> 0:19:55.560 leading the whole thing. And then among Libertarians you had 0:19:55.720 --> 0:19:58.640 John McAfee emerge, and a lot of people thought, well, 0:19:58.680 --> 0:20:00.639 no dust, somebody like John mc if he jumped in. 0:20:00.720 --> 0:20:02.760 I mean, that was just the energy in the air 0:20:02.840 --> 0:20:05.119 at the time. There was a lot of populist, non 0:20:05.200 --> 0:20:09.200 traditional candidates popping up. McAfee had a core fan base 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:13.399 of hackers, and his name could draw a crowd. Kyle 0:20:13.480 --> 0:20:16.240 said they threw one of their first fundraisers at a 0:20:16.320 --> 0:20:20.960 strip club, which seems very on brands from McAfee. Larry 0:20:20.960 --> 0:20:23.359 Flint's Hustler Club is like the one of the biggest 0:20:23.400 --> 0:20:27.400 strip clubs in America. It's like four levels, elevators, girls everywhere. 0:20:27.600 --> 0:20:30.280 We rented the whole freaking thing, and you know, there 0:20:30.359 --> 0:20:33.080 was all kinds of campaign finance laws being broken. That day. 0:20:33.400 --> 0:20:36.800 Took probably about two million dollars in bitcoins and paypals. 0:20:37.320 --> 0:20:40.720 This was twenty fifteen and is twenty twenty two. No, literally, 0:20:40.760 --> 0:20:42.560 I'm trying to make sure that if there's anything that 0:20:42.600 --> 0:20:44.960 I'm about to admit that's crime, that statute of limitations 0:20:45.040 --> 0:20:49.119 is up for real. Okay. So Kyle is alleging that 0:20:49.320 --> 0:20:52.680 from the start the campaign was raking in money and 0:20:52.840 --> 0:20:56.080 breaking the law. We haven't been able to confirm that, 0:20:56.920 --> 0:20:59.680 and there weren't any legal repercautions that we could find. 0:21:01.920 --> 0:21:06.320 The next month, on September ninth, McAfee formally announced he 0:21:06.440 --> 0:21:10.160 was running for president. It was an immediate news story. 0:21:10.640 --> 0:21:13.879 John McAfee has entered the White House race as a libertarian. 0:21:14.160 --> 0:21:16.680 He originally planned to run from the highest office under 0:21:16.720 --> 0:21:19.520 his own cyber party, but he ended up choosing to 0:21:19.640 --> 0:21:23.080 go with the Libertarian Party for a number of reasons. 0:21:23.720 --> 0:21:26.879 After Democrats and Republicans. They are the largest party in 0:21:26.920 --> 0:21:30.560 the US. There's a big difference. They do not come close, 0:21:30.680 --> 0:21:33.280 but they are the next largest. They already have ballot 0:21:33.320 --> 0:21:37.320 access in all fifty states. They have an established media infrastructure. 0:21:37.400 --> 0:21:39.600 McAfee wouldn't have to build his own from the ground up, 0:21:39.720 --> 0:21:42.960 so joining the Libertarians gave him a platform that he 0:21:43.040 --> 0:21:46.680 didn't have to build himself. So anti tax, pro gun, 0:21:47.080 --> 0:21:52.240 pro drug, anti regulation of any kind in so many ways, 0:21:52.680 --> 0:21:56.399 McAfee was the perfect fit for the Libertarians. He's a 0:21:56.480 --> 0:22:01.080 tech entrepreneur who brags about doing drugs not paying taxes. 0:22:01.840 --> 0:22:05.159 He was well suited for a party that valorizes the 0:22:05.320 --> 0:22:09.480 image of frontier masculinity. I mean, that's just his aura. 0:22:09.760 --> 0:22:12.000 He doesn't give a fuck, and most of the Libertarians 0:22:12.040 --> 0:22:15.280 don't give a fuck, so he resonated with them. In 0:22:15.400 --> 0:22:18.760 a matter of months, McAfee learned how to tailor his 0:22:18.960 --> 0:22:23.720 talking points for his new party. Even Darryl Perry, a 0:22:23.880 --> 0:22:27.640 long time Libertarian who ran against McAfee in twenty sixteen, 0:22:28.160 --> 0:22:32.560 was impressed and I was like, oh, okay, it's like, 0:22:33.359 --> 0:22:37.240 you know, just some celebrity guy that jumping into the 0:22:37.400 --> 0:22:41.760 LP race because he realized ballot access as hard. But 0:22:42.160 --> 0:22:49.320 then over like the next six months, he started sounding 0:22:49.440 --> 0:22:53.879 a lot more libertarian. By the way, Darryl Perry is 0:22:54.040 --> 0:22:57.080 best known for this viral clip of a response he 0:22:57.160 --> 0:23:00.800 gave during a presidential debate in twenty sixteen while he 0:23:00.960 --> 0:23:03.639 was on stage with McAfee. Should someone have to have 0:23:03.800 --> 0:23:07.440 a government issued license to drive a car? Hell no, 0:23:08.000 --> 0:23:11.359 what's next requiring a license to make toast in your 0:23:11.400 --> 0:23:18.119 own damn toaster. I hadn't known before we made this 0:23:18.240 --> 0:23:24.440 episode that driver's licenses were controversial among libertarians. Here's McAfee. 0:23:24.960 --> 0:23:27.760 I don't think licenses are required. However, if you are 0:23:28.480 --> 0:23:31.000 under sixteen and your parents so you can drive, and 0:23:31.200 --> 0:23:33.520 you haven't done it before, you should put a flashing 0:23:33.640 --> 0:23:36.040 pink light on your roof, at least so we can 0:23:36.080 --> 0:23:40.200 get out of your way. There was another question John 0:23:40.320 --> 0:23:47.000 had to answer repeatedly. Candidate McAfee. Everyone knows that something 0:23:47.320 --> 0:23:50.639 happened in Belize, but no one seems to have the story. 0:23:51.240 --> 0:23:55.080 What are you accused of? Did you do it? And 0:23:55.240 --> 0:23:58.240 how would this affect your campaign if you are the nominee. 0:23:59.280 --> 0:24:01.200 Let me make this perfectly clear. At number one, I 0:24:01.280 --> 0:24:04.159 had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the murder of 0:24:04.200 --> 0:24:09.080 Gregory Fall. The moderator you hear is magician Pendalet from 0:24:09.119 --> 0:24:13.320 Penn and Teller and one of the best known celebrity libertarians. 0:24:14.200 --> 0:24:18.240 Although McAfee was questioned about the murder of Gregfall, the 0:24:18.400 --> 0:24:22.760 topic was treated casually, incredibly, it didn't seem to hurt 0:24:22.880 --> 0:24:26.000 him in the debates. This is a clip from Fox. 0:24:26.600 --> 0:24:29.959 You went to Belize. Police there accused you of unlicensed 0:24:30.040 --> 0:24:33.159 drug manufacturing. You were a person of interest in the 0:24:33.320 --> 0:24:37.640 murder of a neighbor. You left, police went to Guatemala, 0:24:37.880 --> 0:24:41.520 which suported you to America. You're still technically a fugitive, 0:24:41.600 --> 0:24:47.760 though they don't seem that interested in grabbing you. People 0:24:47.840 --> 0:24:52.920 go wild, they're cheering, they're celebrating, laughing. Gary Johnson, the 0:24:53.000 --> 0:24:55.840 front runner who would later get millions of votes, walks 0:24:55.880 --> 0:24:59.480 over and kisses McAfee on the cheek. You know, libertarians 0:24:59.480 --> 0:25:03.560 were not other by the Greg Fall murder accusations. McAfee's 0:25:03.560 --> 0:25:07.480 past was treated lightly when it wasn't a bizarre point 0:25:07.520 --> 0:25:12.040 of pride. It was the punchline to endless Jokes. Here's 0:25:12.040 --> 0:25:16.040 a clip from Full Frontal with Samantha b Eighteen libertarian 0:25:16.119 --> 0:25:19.880 presidential hopefuls gathered to take on the tyranny of big government. 0:25:20.520 --> 0:25:25.919 They were educators, pro lifers, anarchists, veterans, and a millionaire 0:25:25.960 --> 0:25:28.080 wanted for questioning by authorities in the murder of his 0:25:28.119 --> 0:25:29.960 neighbor and Belize after he fled the country in a 0:25:30.000 --> 0:25:32.480 disguise to Guatemala, faked to heart attack, and was deported 0:25:32.480 --> 0:25:38.000 to the US. Well all you see. Brodie says that 0:25:38.200 --> 0:25:42.359 McAfee's suggestion that these murder allegations were pinned on him 0:25:42.440 --> 0:25:46.880 by a crooked Belizean government gelled with the libertarian ethos. 0:25:47.760 --> 0:25:50.359 Their entire belief system is based on the idea that 0:25:50.520 --> 0:25:54.800 governments are corrupt, they're wrong. The idea that the Belize 0:25:54.840 --> 0:25:57.640 government was corrupt and wrong in accusing him doesn't seem 0:25:57.680 --> 0:26:00.240 far fetched at all, So it really wasn't a problem 0:26:00.320 --> 0:26:04.399