Speaker 1: Welcome.
Speaker 2: It is Verdict Lock from the Republican National Convention.
Speaker 3: Center.
Speaker 2: Nice to be with you, and it's always fun. We
Speaker 2: come to these events because we get to hang out
Speaker 2: with thrifts.
Speaker 1: It is great to be with you. Half the time
Speaker 1: we're recording Verdict and either I'm at home in my
Speaker 1: bedroom talking into a microphone late at night. Heighty's yelling
Speaker 1: at me because she wants to go to sleep. Yeah,
Speaker 1: or sometimes I'm in a dingy motel talking into a
Speaker 1: microphone and.
Speaker 2: When your power's out, sometimes you're at my house at midnight.
Speaker 1: Okay, that is true. The last podcast we did, you know,
Speaker 1: there was a hurricane that hit Houston. Power went out
Speaker 1: and then my internet went out, so I couldn't get online.
Speaker 1: So what did Ben say, Get your rear out of
Speaker 1: the car and drive to buy house. I've got internet.
Speaker 1: So that was the last podcast I dressed up for
Speaker 1: you full pjs. It was really it was disturbing, actually
Speaker 1: was so he was in a speedo. Let me just
Speaker 1: say it was far too muck ferguson for my ta
Speaker 1: dear this very all right, I'll get you back. I
Speaker 1: won't get you back. I guess today we do. So
Speaker 1: we are live in Milwaukee. At the r n C.
Speaker 1: We have a test a good friend of mine, Dave McCormick. Now,
Speaker 1: who is Dave mc cormick. Dave McCormick is from Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1: He was All state in wrestling. He was All state
Speaker 1: in football. He went to West Point where he was
Speaker 1: the captain of the wrestling team in West Point. By
Speaker 1: the way, Dave was captain of the wrestling team at
Speaker 1: West Point. Ben played varsity tennis at Old Miss. I
Speaker 1: was a debate. But both of these guys would have
Speaker 1: shoved me in a locker and forgotten. Then we agree
Speaker 1: on that. Savin right, I say, would have if I
Speaker 1: have one more joke about about locker. So Dave from
Speaker 1: there went on became an Army ranger, served in Iraq,
Speaker 1: and served in the federal government. Served as a senior
Speaker 1: official in the federal government when Donald He became one
Speaker 1: of the leading businessmen in America. When Donald Trump was president,
Speaker 1: President Trump tried to convince him to leave making bazillions
Speaker 1: of dollars and come be the Deputy Secretary of Defense.
Speaker 1: Dave declined at the time, although his wife, Dina, another
Speaker 1: very good friend, was then the Deputy National Security advisor
Speaker 1: to President Trump. Dave is now running for Senate in
Speaker 1: the state of Pennsylvania. He is going to be the
Speaker 1: next Senator in the state of Pennsylvania. When Dave wins,
Speaker 1: he is going to single handedly give us a majority
Speaker 1: and retire Chuck Schumer as the Jordan Dave has joined
Speaker 1: the podcast once before, but he's here today because we're
Speaker 1: going to start on a bit of a somber note
Speaker 1: and a note that the entire country, in the entire
Speaker 1: world is focused on, which is what happened on Saturday.
Speaker 1: And Dave was standing on stage with President Trump on
Speaker 1: Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania. He was there when the shooting occurred,
Speaker 1: when the attempted assassination happened. And so Dave, I want
Speaker 1: to welcome you here, and I would like to ask
Speaker 1: if we could just start the podcast by telling folks,
Speaker 1: bring us to this day, tell us what happened, Where
Speaker 1: were you standing, and what happened that you saw.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, thank you both for having me.
Speaker 4: It's great great with you and Senator Ted Cruz is
Speaker 4: one of the great leaders in America today, one of
Speaker 4: the great voices. So if I'm fortunate enough to be
Speaker 4: in the Senate this would be a guy I'd want
Speaker 4: to inspire to emulate.
Speaker 3: So thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1: For having me.
Speaker 4: And I was going to trapping up, so you know,
Speaker 4: this was this was one of the moments I'm still
Speaker 4: still digesting. But what happened was I had been with
Speaker 4: President Trump in Philadelphia about ten ten days earlier at
Speaker 4: the rally he did a temple and so when he
Speaker 4: when I heard that he was coming to the Butler County,
Speaker 4: we were in contact with this team and I was
Speaker 4: I went with the idea that i'd see him beforehand,
Speaker 4: which I did, and he came in and I said,
Speaker 4: mister President, I want to thank you for how great
Speaker 4: you were in Philadelphia endorsing me and your support, and
Speaker 4: you can imagine presstime, he said, this is going to
Speaker 4: be ten times better, ten times better.
Speaker 3: He goes, I'm going to have you come up on stage.
Speaker 1: I want you to.
Speaker 4: I want to, I want you to take some time
Speaker 4: and talk about your race. It's very important we win Pennsylvania.
Speaker 4: And so he then went out and sat in the
Speaker 4: audience and the President was looking out. It was an incredible, beautiful,
Speaker 4: hot day, but beautiful fifteen thousand people, just incredible people
Speaker 4: as far as. I a warm, cheerful, patriotic.
Speaker 3: It was a wonderful day.
Speaker 1: And tell us where we are, Like, what part of
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania is this?
Speaker 4: What's the surrounding area western of Pennsylvania? Beautiful rolling farmland.
Speaker 4: This was at the Butler County Farm Show. And you know,
Speaker 4: it was a wide open area for the most part
Speaker 4: that was cordoned off instead of bleachers, big state, an
Speaker 4: enormous flag flying behind him, which you probably all saw.
Speaker 3: And people waited.
Speaker 4: You know, I didn't get there until three o'clock or so,
Speaker 4: but people waited started mid morning and it was close
Speaker 4: to one hundred degrees just waiting, and you know, there's no.
Speaker 3: Shade unfortunately, and it was. But the turnout was incredible and.
Speaker 4: So he so I sat, he was looking out the crowd.
Speaker 3: I sat on his right side in the first row.
Speaker 4: And he got up there and true to form, within
Speaker 4: a minute, a couple of minutes, he started to talk
Speaker 4: about my race, Dave McCormick.
Speaker 3: We want him to win this race. This is important.
Speaker 3: He started to talk about my opponent, Bob Casey, and he.
Speaker 4: Said, why do we have Dave come up here and
Speaker 4: talk about it? And so this was you know, right
Speaker 4: in the beginning. And so I got up and sort
Speaker 4: of went through the security and started to go up
Speaker 4: onto the platform, and he goes, no, no, no, I
Speaker 4: want to talk about the boarder first. He goes, so, Dave,
Speaker 4: I'll have you up in a little bit. So this
Speaker 4: is in front of fifteen thousand people. So I walked
Speaker 4: back down again in my chair.
Speaker 1: That's the way of instruct you're right there.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, I'm due to this political stuff.
Speaker 3: But I got that message.
Speaker 4: And within a minute or two, the bullets started to fire.
Speaker 4: And I was a military guy, as Ted said, so
Speaker 4: I recognized pretty quickly this was rightful fire. I wasn't
Speaker 4: sure whether it was one or two shooters. I wasn't
Speaker 4: sure exactly where it was coming from. And everybody went
Speaker 4: down immediately, and the President I saw, reach for his
Speaker 4: ear and then drop behind the podium, and almost instantaneously,
Speaker 4: the Secret Service jumped on top of him, as you
Speaker 4: all saw. And then there was activity behind me, which
Speaker 4: sadly turned out to be somebody was shot in the
Speaker 4: bleachers behind me and ultimately died probably twenty five feet
Speaker 4: behind me. And I was looking at the President and
Speaker 4: I watched the Secret Service get up around him like
Speaker 4: that FAILANX and I saw this fist come out. I
Speaker 4: couldn't see his face, and then they moved a bit
Speaker 4: and I saw his face was bloody, but that he
Speaker 4: was okay. And I remember having this moment, the idea,
Speaker 4: I mean, a hundred people, one hundred people are behind
Speaker 4: that podium and that shot gets fired. Ninety nine of
Speaker 4: them are in the fetal position, right, And the idea
Speaker 4: that he had the presence of mind, the defiance, the reassurance,
Speaker 4: the courage to stand up there and put out that fist.
Speaker 4: I think it was one of the reasons that there
Speaker 4: wasn't a stampede.
Speaker 1: No, it was extraordinary. It was something we have never
Speaker 1: seen before. Yeah, but it was. It was extraordinary leadership.
Speaker 1: And you know, it was reminiscent. It was reminiscent of
Speaker 1: Reagan after he was shot in eighty one and an eight.
Speaker 1: After Reagan was shot, he said to Nancy, he said, Honey,
Speaker 1: I forgot to doge. And as Reagan was rolling into
Speaker 1: the er, rolling into the operating room in the hospital,
Speaker 1: he looked up at the physicians and he said to
Speaker 1: the doctors, he said, I hope y'all are all Republicans
Speaker 1: and so that was Reagan and it was a great
Speaker 1: historic calm and peace of mind. And then you have
Speaker 1: Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy Roosevelt, not too far away from where
Speaker 1: we are right now, was giving a speech. He's standing
Speaker 1: up there and he shot. Giving a speech. Now, now
Speaker 1: the bullet hits the papers he has in in his coat,
Speaker 1: but it also hits him, and he shot. And Teddy
Speaker 1: Roosevelt finishes the speech and says, it takes more than
Speaker 1: that to kill a bull moose. But I got to
Speaker 1: say President Trump's reaction, I think is very much in
Speaker 1: line with extraordinary and historic leaders to stand up. Then
Speaker 1: the Secret Service trying to get him to go, and look,
Speaker 1: when a security detail is pushing you, they're not shy
Speaker 1: and they're like move, boob, And you can see him
Speaker 1: resisting no, and he's saying to the world that image, right,
Speaker 1: that image of him with the American flag behind him,
Speaker 1: with his fist in the air, with blood coming down
Speaker 1: his face, it shows that that that no matter how evil,
Speaker 1: no matter how how many forces are fighting against us,
Speaker 1: that we can stand and win and turn the country around.
Speaker 3: It's incredible. Yeah, in credit, it was, and that you
Speaker 3: know that at the moment. You didn't.
Speaker 4: You didn't realize, but we now realize. It was an inch,
Speaker 4: you know, an inch less than an inch, and it's
Speaker 4: one of the most calamitous events in American history. And
Speaker 4: h and sadly there were others killed and injured that day.
Speaker 1: So you have so you said, Chief Comparatoria was just
Speaker 1: behind you, behind about twenty five feet right. And I
Speaker 1: guess I don't know if any of y'all have read
Speaker 1: his daughter's face book post in our last podcast. We
Speaker 1: read it in the pod, but his daughter's Facebook post,
Speaker 1: she describes how her father literally blocked through her and
Speaker 1: through her mother on the ground and then blocked their
Speaker 1: bodies with his body. And he literally took a bullet
Speaker 1: to save the life of his wife and daughter. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, that is the very definition of a hero.
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Speaker 2: preborn dot com slash verdict. I want to ask you
Speaker 2: a question. I'm talking about heroes. We've seen the Secret
Speaker 2: Service take a lot of heat, and I think it's
Speaker 2: the bureaucracy.
Speaker 1: Aspect of it and the leadership.
Speaker 2: But what was it like on the ground, because they
Speaker 2: looked like there were a lot of heroes, and I
Speaker 2: think we should separate them from the bureaucracy.
Speaker 4: Inc Yeah, I'd say, you know, two things could be
Speaker 4: true at the same time, and I think they are.
Speaker 4: One is I mean, it was almost instantaneous. I mean,
Speaker 4: the Secret Service were surrounding him, the you know, the
Speaker 4: sort of swat team guys came out and we're looking
Speaker 4: down on the audience. You know, obviously the sniper was
Speaker 4: taken out quickly, and so the response seemed incredibly fast,
Speaker 4: and people were certainly willing to lay in front of
Speaker 4: the bullet for the president at that point. That seems true.
Speaker 4: The other thing that seems true is you couldn't What
Speaker 4: happened was unthinkable. The ease with which, you know, a
Speaker 4: twenty year old kid with a high powered rifle got
Speaker 4: within one hundred and thirty.
Speaker 3: Yards of the president seems unimaginable.
Speaker 4: It's such a it's such a example of incompetence and
Speaker 4: failure that it's almost hard to believe it happened. And
Speaker 4: when everything I hear about it makes me and.
Speaker 3: I know centers much closer.
Speaker 4: This diem makes me think it's even more unbelievable that
Speaker 4: it happened. So we could have heroes on the ground
Speaker 4: and also have one of the biggest leadership failures and
Speaker 4: bureaucratic failures in American history.
Speaker 1: That we need to get to the bottom of.
Speaker 4: Because you know, listen, I'm I'm not always I'm not
Speaker 4: known to my family to be the best shot, but
Speaker 4: a nine out of ten Pennsylvania deer hunters could have
Speaker 4: made that shot ten times out of ten.
Speaker 3: I mean, that was not a hard shot.
Speaker 4: And the fact that the first thing we heard was
Speaker 4: that that roof was not in the envelope, I mean.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so well, And I just got off a couple
Speaker 1: of hours ago with a conference call with the head
Speaker 1: of the Secret Service and ahead of the FBI. So
Speaker 1: I'm I'm going to walk into that and talk talk
Speaker 1: about that in just a minute. Before I do that,
Speaker 1: I want to finish talking through the experience on the ground. Now,
Speaker 1: when it happened, did you hear the gun shot and
Speaker 1: and look, you've been in Iraq, you've seen combat before.
Speaker 1: This is not that those are not the first gun
Speaker 1: shots you've heard. I imagine things are are utterly chaotic.
Speaker 1: Could you perceive what when they took the shooter out?
Speaker 1: Could you tell that was happening? Could you tell where
Speaker 1: the shooter was? How much of that could you tell
Speaker 1: from the ground at at the rally?
Speaker 3: Not much?
Speaker 1: Not much.
Speaker 4: I I honestly thought that there were two shooters for
Speaker 4: a while, I thought there were two shooters. It's very
Speaker 4: hard to tell. And maybe the other reason I thought
Speaker 4: that was because the Secret Service hunt.
Speaker 3: But it felt to.
Speaker 4: Me like there was multiple guns and so everybody was
Speaker 4: hunkered down and it was you couldn't really step up,
Speaker 4: and you know, take.
Speaker 1: People rush out in the panic, they walk out, that
Speaker 1: people react.
Speaker 3: That was the.
Speaker 4: Amazing thing people reacted with obviously concerning confusion, but but
Speaker 4: there was no panic.
Speaker 1: Huh, absolutely no panic. And was that because Donald Trump
Speaker 1: stood up? I really believe that. I mean you saw the.
Speaker 2: Crowd even behind him, their faces where they hunger down, and.
Speaker 1: Then he stood up with a fist and it was
Speaker 1: like jar stood up with him. USA.
Speaker 4: They started to chant USA, Yeah, I think the way
Speaker 4: Trump responded gave people confidence not to panic and uh,
Speaker 4: and there was no panic. And it took you know,
Speaker 4: hours to unwind things in because the Secret Service blocked
Speaker 4: things off.
Speaker 3: And you know, I will walk in.
Speaker 4: You know, I'd been on the screen, so people many
Speaker 4: people knew who I was. Everybody would come up to
Speaker 4: me and say, what happened?
Speaker 1: You know? What? Do you know?
Speaker 3: I didn't know much, to.
Speaker 4: Be honest with you, because that's the way it is
Speaker 4: in a situation like that, you don't know much. But
Speaker 4: it took a while to know that we weren't under
Speaker 4: attack any further. And uh, just to take the story
Speaker 4: one step further, I had a chance to talk to
Speaker 4: the president the next day. I called him and just said,
Speaker 4: miss pres I'm so glad you're okay, and you know what,
Speaker 4: an example of courage.
Speaker 3: And he said two minutes.
Speaker 1: Two more minutes, so you'd have been on that stage
Speaker 1: with me, and he said, Trump said the Trump like, Hey,
Speaker 1: you ought to be glad. I'd like to talk, so
Speaker 1: you ought to be forever.
Speaker 3: It's even better. He said, two more minutes.
Speaker 1: And I thought he was going.
Speaker 4: To say, and you might have been hurt too, Dave,
Speaker 4: and he said, you would have been in prime time.
Speaker 1: He knows his audience. What was it like after he left?
Speaker 1: And then how did it unfold? How long were you there?
Speaker 1: When did they let you leave on your own? Or
Speaker 1: was it orderly? What was it like?
Speaker 4: It was orderly, but you know, because it was the
Speaker 4: way it went down. Cars were blocked and they had
Speaker 4: blocked off a whole part of the way that people
Speaker 4: came in. You know, honestly, when I came in, I
Speaker 4: came in a special entrance. They knew I was coming,
Speaker 4: they knew who I was. I was wanted the security
Speaker 4: seem reasonable. The security lines were for hours to get
Speaker 4: through all the the metal detectors and so forth.
Speaker 3: But they closed off a lot of that, so it
Speaker 3: took a while for people.
Speaker 4: To get out, took hours, and everybody was you know,
Speaker 4: the cell phone coverage was bad, so everybody was trying
Speaker 4: to get connected and make sure that you know, their
Speaker 4: loved ones weren't hurting and things like that, and people
Speaker 4: were just worried that the president was not okay. And
Speaker 4: then when it became clear the president was okay, but
Speaker 4: there were other casualties. It was it was a sad moment.
Speaker 1: Well, look, I will say, and you said this earlier,
Speaker 1: it is utterly infuriated that this occurred. This should have
Speaker 1: been prevented. And this afternoon there was an all senator's
Speaker 1: call with the head of the Secret Servant and the
Speaker 1: head of the FBI, and the call lasted about forty
Speaker 1: five minutes. I will say it was a deeply frustrating call.
Speaker 1: So for the first thirty minutes they talked and they
Speaker 1: basically filibustered, and they got up and they described all
Speaker 1: the security steps they did, They went their days ahead
Speaker 1: of time, they did this, they did this, they did this,
Speaker 1: they did everything else, and they went through excruciating details
Speaker 1: of a timeline of everything they did. And they did
Speaker 1: everything except stop a bloody man with a rifle from
Speaker 1: shooting the presidents correct. And it's kind of like I mean,
Speaker 1: it was maddening. And then on this call they allowed
Speaker 1: a couple of questions. They had a thing where you
Speaker 1: hit a number to dial a question. I immediately hit
Speaker 1: a number to dial question. By the way, Mike Lee
Speaker 1: immediately hit a number dial question. Marshall Blackberny media hit
Speaker 1: a number of dial question. None of us got are questions.
Speaker 1: They did just a handful of questions, and I got
Speaker 1: to tell you, the questions were pretty patty cage. Look
Speaker 1: the questions that I would have asked had I gotten
Speaker 1: the chance, and that I intend to ask. We need
Speaker 1: to have congressional hearings, that we should have them next
Speaker 1: week with the head of the Secret Service and DHS
Speaker 1: and the FBI under op. But listen the obvious questions
Speaker 1: to ask that nobody asked that. Chuck Schumer certainly didn't ask.
Speaker 1: Number one, why were there not more agents aside? Why
Speaker 1: were they not enough agents assigned to protect the president?
Speaker 1: Number two? Why was that rooftop not security? Was one
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty yards away? It was an obvious line
Speaker 1: of sights. Number three? Why was there no aerial support?
Speaker 1: Why were there no drones? Why was there no helicopter?
Speaker 1: Why was there nothing providing aerial coverage? Number four? They
Speaker 1: went through a timeline that this individual, the shooter, and
Speaker 1: I won't say his name. I don't say the names
Speaker 1: of shooters. These bastards deserve to be forgotten by history.
Speaker 1: I will not repeat his name. Yes, but the shooter.
Speaker 1: They spotted him over an hour earlier, walking in with
Speaker 1: a rangefinder to measure the range. They also spotted him
Speaker 1: a half hour earlier, casing the building that he ultimately
Speaker 1: climbed up on top of. And so the questions I
Speaker 1: intended to continue to ask is why didn't you detain
Speaker 1: the guy? And why the hell did you allow the
Speaker 1: president to keep speaking? If you're searching for someone you
Speaker 1: think might be an active sniper. There's a very easy
Speaker 1: thing for the Secret Service to say, which is, hold
Speaker 1: on a second, we're putting a pause on this. We're
Speaker 1: getting the president out of harm's way. Why didn't they
Speaker 1: do any of that? Now, not even get a chance
Speaker 1: to ask any of those questions, because this was I
Speaker 1: think a CYA briefing, and it is frustrating. I will
Speaker 1: tell you they asked the head of the Secret Service,
Speaker 1: how did the guy get to the top of the building?
Speaker 1: She said, why, I don't know. What the hell do
Speaker 1: you mean? You don't know this was four days ago,
Speaker 1: five days ago, and you don't know how he got
Speaker 1: up to the building. Is there a more important question
Speaker 1: that you're dealing with? Well, yes, it's how to cover
Speaker 1: your rear end from political accountability because you don't actually
Speaker 1: want to what. Let me ask you, what does it
Speaker 1: take to get fired by Joe Biden, like, seriously, this
Speaker 1: woman should be fired yesterday. It was the most spectacular failure.
Speaker 1: And let's be clear, it is not difficult to figure
Speaker 1: out it is a risk to a president from a
Speaker 1: rightfleman from a high vantage point. We do have a
Speaker 1: little bit of history to be clear. That was not
Speaker 1: my father.
Speaker 2: They retracted it recently, so we know the nation courses
Speaker 2: it was not there, you go, it.
Speaker 1: Only took him ten years. I did have on the
Speaker 1: flora of the RNC. A reporter asked me about that
Speaker 1: last night, actually on the flora standing right with the Texas.
Speaker 1: That's hard hitting question right there. And I said, let
Speaker 1: me tell you actually a quote from Marco Ruvio to
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen campaign when the allegation came up that my
Speaker 1: father was involved in killing jfk And I said, look,
Speaker 1: Republican senators, we had lunch together every Tuesday, Wednesday and
Speaker 1: Thursday in DC. Marco stood up in front of all
Speaker 1: our colleagues and he said, let me tell you I
Speaker 1: know for an absolute fact's dad did not kill Jfkesh
Speaker 1: And Marco continued, he said, because if a Cuban had
Speaker 1: done that, he would have told everyone very accurate, and
Speaker 1: y'all know my dad, we'll tell me to tell me that.
Speaker 1: You know, it's completely true. This is a known threat
Speaker 1: and it is infuriating that they did not protect against it. Look,
Speaker 1: you're having been on the ground, and you're also having
Speaker 1: been an army ranger in Iraq. Give me your perspective
Speaker 1: on the just maddening failure. And to be clear, I
Speaker 1: want to underscore what Ben said. It's not a failure
Speaker 1: by the individual Secret Service agents. Those men and women
Speaker 1: put themselves in harm's way and acted heroically. It is
Speaker 1: the bureaucratic leadership that is covering their hindquarters and taking
Speaker 1: zero responsibility for their disastrous decisions. Give me your reactions.
Speaker 4: Well, you know, if you sort of listed the the
Speaker 4: ten most obvious ways that the president could be put
Speaker 4: at risk in this circumstance, this rooftop would have been
Speaker 4: in the top three, you know, this would have been
Speaker 4: an obvious place at the president. So I have no answer.
Speaker 4: It seems high. And this is why an investigation is
Speaker 4: so important. Your hearings is so important.
Speaker 3: It kind of.
Speaker 1: Seems by the way, it's not clear we're going to
Speaker 1: have Senate hearings because it takes the Democrats to call them.
Speaker 1: So Dick Durbin is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee,
Speaker 1: we have jurisdiction over this. A number of us have
Speaker 1: called on Dick Derby call a hearing, but we don't
Speaker 1: have a hearing schedule. There's gonna be a house hearing.
Speaker 1: But Senate Democrats, as far as I can tell, are
Speaker 1: not interested in finding out what happened. We certainly haven't
Speaker 1: heard of hearing announced yet. No, it's there has to be.
Speaker 4: And the reason is is it's hard to imagine a
Speaker 4: twenty year old kid. I mean, we have you know,
Speaker 4: all of you are parents here. Imagine you're a twenty
Speaker 4: year old right plotting this thing in isolation, developing a plan,
Speaker 4: knowing enough to be able to piece to get a
Speaker 4: plan that would be so effective in a security environment
Speaker 4: which shouldn't.
Speaker 3: Have been as permissive as it was.
Speaker 1: And by the way, we had news breaking this week
Speaker 1: that the government of Iran has hired hitman to murder
Speaker 1: Donald Trump. So this is we still don't know a
Speaker 1: ton about this shooter, but at least right now it
Speaker 1: appears to be a twenty year old kid who went
Speaker 1: up and did this, Like Holy cow. If they can't
Speaker 1: protect against that, what about a professional hit squad from
Speaker 1: an enemy of this country. I mean, this is incredibly disturbing, right, unexplainable.
Speaker 1: So thank you for what you're doing. And I will
Speaker 1: say there's a danger. There's a danger of this being
Speaker 1: like Afghanistan. Look Afghanistan. You look at the disastrous in
Speaker 1: confidence of the Biden administration in that withdrawal, and it
Speaker 1: encouraged every enemy of America. It encouraged It played a
Speaker 1: major role in why Putin invaded Ukraine. It played a
Speaker 1: major role. I believe in October seventh in Hamas attacking
Speaker 1: Israel that our enemies look to the Biden administration and
Speaker 1: said these people are utterly weak and ineffective. I've got
Speaker 1: to say for any every enemy of America, they look
Speaker 1: at the incompetence of the Secret Service under the Biden administration.
Speaker 1: And I don't even like saying these words, but it's
Speaker 1: important to acknowledge this risk. Our enemies have just been encouraged.
Speaker 1: The danger has gone up because they say, if that
Speaker 1: jackdoodle can do it, yeah, what about if we send
Speaker 1: in real trained professionals.
Speaker 4: They also said, if Donald Trump gets like it, I
Speaker 4: don't want to mess with that guy.
Speaker 1: I hold on this is a point. Reiterate that, because
Speaker 1: that's actually a very important point. You're the enemy of there.
Speaker 4: I think if you're sitting in Tehran, or in Beijing,
Speaker 4: or in Moscow or other places where advocate adversary sit,
Speaker 4: terrorist cells wherever they might be, and you watch that
Speaker 4: videotape and I think you say, if that guy becomes president,
Speaker 4: which I think he's going to become president again, I'm
Speaker 4: not going to mess with him. Yeah, I use other language,
Speaker 4: but weren't on the if we weren't on your podcast,
Speaker 4: but we're not gonna mess We're not gonna mess with
Speaker 4: that guy because he's a mean mbre and he's tough,
Speaker 4: and his instinct is to fight you. And so I
Speaker 4: think almost overnight we've lost to terrence. Under Joe Biden,
Speaker 4: adversaries was like the bully on the playground. They're not
Speaker 4: afraid to punch us in the face. I think the
Speaker 4: day Donald Trump takes office again, deterrence goes back up.
Speaker 1: Right.
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Speaker 1: I want to ask you this.
Speaker 2: You're mentioned the Senate only meeting details. I'm going to
Speaker 2: read this from CBS News. Details are emerging about the
Speaker 2: moments that led to the shooting. Bystandards alerted law enforcement
Speaker 2: to the government on the roof of the of a
Speaker 2: building about four hundred and ten feet away from the
Speaker 2: State Age at least two minutes before the first shot
Speaker 2: was fired at Trump.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: How vulnerable are we and how vulnerable is every president
Speaker 2: past and president? If you've got a two minute warning
Speaker 2: and the job is still not done?
Speaker 1: Did anyone answer that question on the call? Look, we
Speaker 1: need to have Part of the reason we need to
Speaker 1: have a hearing is there a whole series of questions
Speaker 1: about how many threats have there been? How many agents
Speaker 1: did you have assigned? Should there be two x three
Speaker 1: x four x as many agents assigned to the president?
Speaker 1: What resources, what equipment you did you have the threat profile?
Speaker 1: I'm willing to bet that Donald Trump is the single
Speaker 1: most threatened individual on the face of the planet. Now,
Speaker 1: I don't actually have the facts of the threats that
Speaker 1: have come in to prove that is correct, but you
Speaker 1: know what Secret Service do us? And I would like
Speaker 1: us to know what is the comparative threat level between
Speaker 1: Trump and Biden? And my concern is that did politics
Speaker 1: play a role? Was it? Politics? Are incompetence because it's
Speaker 1: clear they screwed up massively. I can tell you in
Speaker 1: this call. So you had one senator who asked were
Speaker 1: their drones yes or no? And the answer from the
Speaker 1: head of the Secret Service was we determined that the
Speaker 1: risk from that rooftop was mitigated by counter snipers, meaning no.
Speaker 1: Number one. She didn't even say the word no, which
Speaker 1: is what someone honestly would say. She didn't say, well,
Speaker 1: obviously we needed drones and we should have had them,
Speaker 1: which is what someone obviously would have said. She didn't
Speaker 1: make the obvious point. Well, the roof was slanted, so
Speaker 1: the counter snipers couldn't see the guy because he was
Speaker 1: on the other end of the slant. And by the way,
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure the roof didn't suddenly slant itself in
Speaker 1: between when they advanced the scene and when it occurred.
Speaker 1: In other words, they could have figured out if your
Speaker 1: quote mitigation is counter snipers and they don't have a
Speaker 1: line of sight to a place a sniper could be,
Speaker 1: then you don't have effective mitigation. She addressed none of that,
Speaker 1: but it was pure bureaucrat ease. That's a good work
Speaker 1: for it. That's why I love having a live studio audience.
Speaker 1: When you look at the room and for the folks
Speaker 1: listening at home, since we are in a studio audience
Speaker 1: and the audience is not miked, I will just say
Speaker 1: you guys were in a cowfield, and they suggested it
Speaker 1: was a substance that was probably there in large, large amounts. Exactly.
Speaker 2: Well, you were there, and after the shooting happened, you
Speaker 2: saw how close it was. Where you shocked because I'm
Speaker 2: sure you saw the commotion on the rooftop. I'm sure
Speaker 2: you knew that's where the shots came out from. Then
Speaker 2: you look at it, is there any I mean former
Speaker 2: military When you look at it, could you believe that
Speaker 2: building was not monitored the way it should have been?
Speaker 4: Well, you know, I was just be honest, I didn't
Speaker 4: know at the on the site, right, you know, you're
Speaker 4: in the middle of people, are you.
Speaker 1: Know, you're trying to get people out.
Speaker 4: So I wasn't sure until I got back and saw
Speaker 4: the TV projections.
Speaker 1: And the aerial photos where it came were You're shocked
Speaker 1: then knowing that you were there and that's how close
Speaker 1: that goes?
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, absolutely, because it's the most obvious place. And
Speaker 4: the idea, just to go back to my earlier point,
Speaker 4: the idea that the sniper, the twenty year old kid
Speaker 4: who has no experience, would have known the place where
Speaker 4: he wouldn't be in the sniper's line of sight.
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, these are questions.
Speaker 4: I don't know what the answer is, but it seems
Speaker 4: highly unlikely that a single person could have pulled this
Speaker 4: off without so much luck and so much incompetence. And
Speaker 4: so that's why the hearings to give us confidence that
Speaker 4: we understand what really happened here are so incredibly important.
Speaker 1: Well, and look, I will say, the FBI was on
Speaker 1: and they're investigating, and at least what they're reporting right
Speaker 1: now is they don't have evidence of anyone else being involved,
Speaker 1: and they're looking at his cell phone and his computers,
Speaker 1: and they're engaged from the forensics, and we will find
Speaker 1: out we have seen with other instances there are times
Speaker 1: where their loan shooters commit horrific attacks, and it's possible
Speaker 1: that this young man who is an alienated loaner that
Speaker 1: unfortunately is a profile we've seen in other instances of
Speaker 1: people who've committed horrific offenses. And so we'll find out
Speaker 1: in time. I will say when the shooting occurs, that
Speaker 1: this is one of the moments I think every one
Speaker 1: of us is going to remember exactly where we were
Speaker 1: when us happened, and whether we were staring in horror
Speaker 1: at a television set, or in my instance, I was
Speaker 1: sitting there having a meal with Heidi and we're staring
Speaker 1: at horror at our phones and hitting refresh. And by
Speaker 1: the way, it says something that nobody was on news sites.
Speaker 1: You're on social media, you're on X because it's the
Speaker 1: fastest thing. You're getting immediate updates of what's happening, one
Speaker 1: after the other after the other. So we talked about,
Speaker 1: for example, our last podcast, we played from what got
Speaker 1: put up on X of like one of the guys
Speaker 1: standing outside the rally that saw this guy climbing on
Speaker 1: the roof yelling the cops, there's a guy with a
Speaker 1: rifle on the roof. We now know a local police
Speaker 1: officer climbed up to that roof. He pointed the rifle
Speaker 1: at the local police officer. And yet, and we haven't
Speaker 1: had these questions yet, what level of communication was there
Speaker 1: between the local police and the Secret Service. The instant
Speaker 1: the local police officer saw a sniper on a roof
Speaker 1: with a gun, he should have been yelling at his
Speaker 1: microphone shooter, shooter, shooter instantaneously. The Secret Service should have
Speaker 1: pulled Trump off of that stage before the shooter could
Speaker 1: aim and they should have taken him out right there.
Speaker 1: That didn't happen, which raises the question was the Secret
Speaker 1: Service did they have communications synchronized with local law enforcement?
Speaker 1: And I will tell you something also, so I right
Speaker 1: before this podcast, I was going to ask you that
Speaker 1: question because people are gonna win. He hear this. You
Speaker 1: just met with President Trump at the convention.
Speaker 2: For people that are listening, you got seenhim this first
Speaker 2: time since this.
Speaker 1: First time I've seen him since he was shot, and
Speaker 1: I've visited with him, spent What do he said? Look,
Speaker 1: number one, he is, he is happy, he is he
Speaker 1: is strong as ear his bandage. I will tell you
Speaker 1: he he he was quiet for a second and he
Speaker 1: spoke with a seriousness that that was unlike anything I've
Speaker 1: heard from Donald Trump before. And he said God saved
Speaker 1: me that day. And listen, I believe that is absolutely right.
Speaker 1: Many of us have seen online, for example, recreations of
Speaker 1: the angle of the bullet, and had his head turned
Speaker 1: even slightly to the right or even slightly to the left,
Speaker 1: he would have been killed. And it is what I
Speaker 1: said at the convention last night. I thank God for
Speaker 1: saving him. I believe God turned his head turned his
Speaker 1: head so that the path of the bullet did not
Speaker 1: kill him anything. And listen, this is horrific. I will say,
Speaker 1: going back to the Reagan analogy, one of the things
Speaker 1: Reagan always said is that when he survived that assassination attempt,
Speaker 1: that it changed, that it gave him a seriousness of purpose.
Speaker 1: That God spared me for a reason. And listen, I
Speaker 1: think what President Trump has done already for the country
Speaker 1: has been extraordinary. But I got to say, just visiting
Speaker 1: with him a few minutes ago, it was powerful in
Speaker 1: a very different way. And this was just him and
Speaker 1: me talking one on one, that it had had a
Speaker 1: real impact. And I also I talked to him about
Speaker 1: this briefing that I had just left, and I expressed
Speaker 1: how deeply frustrating it was. Now, I will say, have
Speaker 1: you noticed trump Secret Service detail here at the convention?
Speaker 2: They look like an offensive lineman, like a whole line.
Speaker 1: The Green Bay Packers. I'm pretty sure the entire Green
Speaker 1: Bay Packers are right now surrounding Donald.
Speaker 2: What is your way and how tall are you? Yes,
Speaker 2: we'll take you today. Yeah, it is different. Final question
Speaker 2: for each of you as we wrap. I believe bringing
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Speaker 1: Final question.
Speaker 2: I believe that Thursday night actually may be the most
Speaker 2: important speech of Donald Trump's life. I think that his
Speaker 2: speech is an opportunity for him to unite.
Speaker 1: The country in a way that he's never been.
Speaker 2: Able to do and bring people into the Republican Party
Speaker 2: that maybe have written it off. I think everyone is
Speaker 2: going to watch to see what he says. How important
Speaker 2: do you think this speech is. I think it's his
Speaker 2: most important speech ever.
Speaker 1: I agree with you.
Speaker 3: I mean, I was.
Speaker 4: I'm not surprised to hear you say that the President
Speaker 4: was quiet. I think he does feel like I'm speculating
Speaker 4: but I haven't spoken with him about this, but that
Speaker 4: he was spared for a reason and that this is
Speaker 4: his opportunity, and I think people want to be united.
Speaker 4: And I think this sent a chill through our nation.
Speaker 4: It didn't just send a chill through Republicans and Trump supporters,
Speaker 4: to send a chill through everybody. That the state of
Speaker 4: our politics, the nastiness, the evil, the violence that's been
Speaker 4: encouraged by some of the nasty rhetoric, has to come
Speaker 4: to an end, and that there's a moment. And I think,
Speaker 4: based on what he said in his statement, I think
Speaker 4: there's an opportunity for him to really unite the country.
Speaker 4: I had someone who called me the other day who
Speaker 4: was a Trump someone who didn't like President Trump at all,
Speaker 4: who's a donor, and he said, listen, the guy I
Speaker 4: saw get off that floor and stand up and put
Speaker 4: his fist in the air.
Speaker 3: I want the guy to be our president. And I
Speaker 3: think this is the moment.
Speaker 4: And I don't think it's an accident that had happened,
Speaker 4: and I think it's all part of a grand plan.
Speaker 4: And so I'm very hopeful and very optimistic, and I
Speaker 4: think it's his moment for, you know, really bringing our
Speaker 4: country together in a way it hasn't been for years.
Speaker 1: Sir, Look, I agree that his speech tomorrow night is
Speaker 1: incredibly important. I also saw the news break today that
Speaker 1: on Friday, President Trump is going to be attending Chief
Speaker 1: Comparatoire's funeral, and I think that is the right thing
Speaker 1: to do. He will go down as an American hero.
Speaker 1: But this is a moment I think for everyone, I
Speaker 1: hope to come together. And I will say as I
Speaker 1: was doing a bunch of media interviews last night with
Speaker 1: reporters and they kept asking, Republicans are so united, but the.
Speaker 2: Odd though there's been a long time, there's been a
Speaker 2: long time, you're probably gonna sit down together.
Speaker 1: And they're enjoy that moment. Their look of like the
Speaker 1: funnelements combined with frustration, like damn it, can't you fight
Speaker 1: with each other? But like, come on, just start yelling
Speaker 1: at each other, please, that's what we want to cover.
Speaker 1: And look, I think that is the one overwhelming word
Speaker 1: out of this convention is unity. And I couldn't help
Speaker 1: but point out to each of the reporters I said,
Speaker 1: I sure hope you're prepared to do a compare and
Speaker 1: contrast to the Democrat conduction because they may not have
Speaker 1: been for another they are utterly divided. I don't know
Speaker 1: how many of y'all saw today. Adam Schiff came out
Speaker 1: and said Joe Biden should drop out, that he can't win.
Speaker 1: Moments before day, I was real at the same time,
Speaker 1: so sore. Where I saw the President was at the
Speaker 1: premiere of a new movie that that Dave Bossi and
Speaker 1: Citizens United is putting out Trump's Mission Rescue, Mission Saving America.
Speaker 1: It's a terrific documentary and and and so I was
Speaker 1: there for it. Trump was there for so he got
Speaker 1: up and spoke and introduced it. It was very funny. He
Speaker 1: did basically a rose to Dave Bossi. He said, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm speaking tomorrow, and everyone says the President before you
Speaker 1: accept the nomination, you're supposed to shut up and not talk.
Speaker 1: But then Bossi made me do this Dan, and so
Speaker 1: I'm here and he sort of did did a Trump
Speaker 1: trademark few minute riff, including pointing out that that that
Speaker 1: that Adam Schiff, whom he promptly calls whom I call
Speaker 1: watermelon head. And I'm sitting next to Jeff Lander, the
Speaker 1: governor of Louisiana, great guy, and I just said, Jeff,
Speaker 1: he really is one of a KI. Tell me someone
Speaker 1: else who would say standing on stage Adam Schiff, whom
Speaker 1: I call watermel ahead. But you know, sometimes clarity is
Speaker 1: helpful and confusion, yes, and communicating, and look, I think
Speaker 1: tomorrow will matter enormously, and I do hope. Look, I
Speaker 1: hope this is a moment when the entire country comes in. Amen.
Speaker 2: Programming note for everybody listening, we will be doing a
Speaker 2: special show tomorrow on Thursday at the convention, so make
Speaker 2: sure you grab that to our audience has been here
Speaker 2: in Milwaukee. You guys are incredible. Thank you so much
Speaker 2: for coming out.
Speaker 4: Thank you, tell me fine, thank you, yes, thank you,
Speaker 4: thank you.
Speaker 1: It's fine. We'll see it out here tomorrow.