āThe shooter had helpāļ¼ Former JTF 2 sniper analyzes failed Trump assassination attempt
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Summary
Dallas Alexander is a former Tier 1 Special Forces Sniper in the Canadian military who has protected VIPs, including the Canadian Prime Minister, as a sniper detail. In 2017, Alexander and his four-man sniper team set the world record for the longest confirmed kill in history at over 3.5 kilometers when they took out an ISIS fighter in Iraq. Along with that, Dallas is also a country musician. So there s perhaps no better subject matter expert to walk us through the shocking events that we saw on the weekend at the Trump rally in Pennsylvania than Dallas.
Transcript
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We are now joined by Dallas Alexander, a former Tier 1 Special Forces sniper in the Canadian
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military who has protected VIPs, including the Canadian Prime Minister, as a sniper detail.
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In 2017, Alexander and his four-man sniper team set the world record for the longest
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confirmed kill in history at over 3.5 kilometers when they took out an ISIS fighter in Iraq.
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Along with that, Dallas is also a country musician.
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So there's perhaps no better subject matter expert to walk us through the shocking events
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that we saw on the weekend at the Trump rally in Pennsylvania than you, Dallas.
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So thank you so much for joining us on the show.
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So before we get into it, I want to play a short clip for the audience of your social media post
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yesterday, breaking down your reaction to the shooting at the Trump rally.
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Just if you don't know me or are new to this page, I spent just about 17 years in the military,
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14 of which, just about 14 of which were at a Tier 1 Special Operations unit called JTF-2.
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Our sniper team has the world record for the longest confirmed sniper kill.
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And a huge part of our job while I was there, and while I was a sniper, was doing close protection for VIPs
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up to and including the Prime Minister when he would go to, you know, dangerous countries like Iraq or Afghanistan.
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So I'm very familiar with the layout of these types of things and what the jobs should be.
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And yesterday, what happened, I have no doubts in my mind that the shooter had help from somewhere
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within an agency, an organization, or the government.
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The second I saw that aerial photo of what they were saying happened, it immediately made no sense to me.
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You cannot, in broad daylight, get onto a rooftop within, it looked like, maybe a couple hundred yards.
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If that, you can't get into that position with a gun when there's a president speaking.
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So, Dallas, in that clip, you mentioned that you believe the shooter must have had help from inside,
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some inside help, before he was able to take the shot.
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So this exact scenario is essentially, you know, was a big part of my job for a long time.
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And I got to work at the, kind of the top level of it.
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So, to me, I immediately, when that aerial, so I was out at a restaurant, I just saw it come up on a TV that that was the aerial picture of the rally site.
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And as soon as they said that the shooter was on a rooftop 130 yards from Donald Trump,
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my immediate thought and reaction was, then he had help to get there.
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It's just, it's just, it's the most obvious place.
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It didn't even have to be a sniper on the roof there.
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You know, just someone at the base of the building.
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So random people couldn't climb on a ladder and get a vantage point over top of Donald Trump.
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I think that the events after the shots fired, there's, you know, there's a lot of talk about confusion.
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And one of the snipers had someone in their sights and couldn't get permission to shoot and all the chaos.
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You know, some of that stuff, if you're telling me it's incompetency, I'm like, yeah, I could see that.
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Like, I've just been, when things get crazy, communications get crazy.
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But I don't buy incompetence where they just totally forgot to have someone securing that one building or, you know, the route to get to the backside of that building that sloped away so he had a covered approach.
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So take us through what would be going through your mind and your team's mind if you were in that position.
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Let's say you were involved in the sniper detail and there's a video, it appears, of a Secret Service sniper.
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Noticing the shooter before he's able to engage the shooter.
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What is the process from when somebody sees a threat like that before and what's the process from when they see the threat to when they can execute the threat and take care of that threat?
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Yeah, so in like a physical sense of what you're doing, you know, you're on your site and you're making sure you have the right elevation on.
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You're double checking that, your ballistics, you're making sure the wing call that you made is still the wing call that's holding.
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And you're making sure your position's good to go because that is when, you know, all your senses are firing.
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That's where all the training's for is when you see another sniper stalking into a position to try and get a shooting vantage point.
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So as soon as you can clearly identify there's a rifle, you take the shot.
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So like now that is sniping in a context of ROEs and for me that's overseas.
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So in this particular case, the ROE, like the rules of engagement for Secret Service, I don't know what they are.
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I've spoken to people who have told me that Secret Service has ROE that says if there's a sniper, you're allowed to shoot him, which makes perfect sense.
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But I mean, I'm just kind of speculating on the rules of engagement side because I don't know if he was allowed or if he had to wait for permission or if he's just checking in.
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In your experience, when you've done protective detail for VIPs, how wide of a perimeter do you lock down and what and what does what did the procedures look like in the lead up to securing an area where someone like a prime minister would be speaking?
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Yeah, so mine were more on the move in different countries when they're visiting because our unit doesn't do protection for the prime minister while he's in Canada.
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If he's stopping to be in a place like that, the one building where the shooter was would be the first thing we go to.
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And we would have eyes locked on it, guns on it the whole time if we didn't have somebody on it also.
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I mean, the water tower that was in that photo would also be an area of concern.
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But like you just you start close and you go far.
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And based on resources, he goes far as you can or makes sense, you know.
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When you're planning something like that, and especially something, you know, in one spot, it's not a big moving thing.
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I don't know what their SOP is again, but it's days before you're making sure like.
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Because when there's a figure that's that important, you know, you have to make sure that like the buildings aren't rigged to blow up, for instance.
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Like there's just so many things to think about.
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But there's security sweeps that start and have to happen.
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And for the most immediate threat to not be taken care of, it doesn't make any sense.
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And when you look at that aerial photo, as someone who is in was in that business, is there anything else that you think would be catching the eye of snipers on detail?
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Is there any other structure in that area that you think would be more important for them than the one place where the shooter was?
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Because as you said, from my own common sense tells me, that location is the only location to be watching for.
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Like I did see a water tower in the back and there's a cliche sniper sniper in the tower.
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But the primary one is the one that's 130 yards away.
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Like you can just zero your rifle at that rate.
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You don't even have to make a complicated shot.
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Children who play Call of Duty would tell you that.
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And that aerial was covered in tactical professionals.
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But still tactical professionals that have done courses and training and security.
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So it's about 130, 150 yards if I'm not mistaken.
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You know, what's the likelihood of a total amateur making that shot with a scope?
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Yeah, see, I don't know the optic that the shooter had on his gun.
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Now, if you have a scope, you don't need much gun training to make a shot at 130 yards.
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I mean, provided you know how to put the bullets in the gun.
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But again, I haven't seen what scope is on that gun.
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And let's just say, you know, if you were involved in a security detail operation overseas, guarding
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a VIP, and something like this happened, what would then happen to your unit?
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What would the consequences be for what appears to be a failure of epic proportions here?
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Well, the people would be fired and it would be investigated.
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Under the current Canadian government, I don't know what would happen.
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But the way it should happen is people should be held accountable.
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But I actually think more important than that, I think this needs a big investigation.
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Like, I don't know how all those systems work in the U.S. because I'm Canadian.
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But I think Donald Trump needs to beef up his security for the next six months.
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And when he's in, he would deep dive and tear apart everyone that was involved in that
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They might have seen your viral episode on The Sean Ryan Show explaining not just the record
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shot that you made in Iraq, but also your time in the military and your exit from the
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But for those that don't know the story, I just want to have you explain to our audience
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how exactly it could be that someone your age, at your skill and caliber, could be allowed
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to leave the military during the pandemic and why they let you leave.
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I, to be honest, and I talked about this with Sean, is the unit, because of the government,
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was starting to change in a way that I didn't like anyway.
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I always told myself I don't need to do that job as much as I love doing it because the
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So it's just becoming a place that was making me question after, you know, it's 13 years
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or whatever that I'm like, maybe it's not for me anymore.
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It's I'm not the right type of person that they're looking for anymore.
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And when the, you know, the COVID mandates came in for the shots, I went to try and get
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I said, okay, have you, you know, they, are there anything?
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Is there information on how it interacts with someone that's had a bunch of concussions?
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Let's say like I have, or like, you know, whatever health issues, how does it like, oh, we don't
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know, but it's safe for everyone, for everyone.
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And again, none of it was, I didn't have some political stance.
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I'm just like, well, you can't give me any information on this thing, but you're telling
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I'm not in the demographic, according to everything that's coming out.
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If it's really harmed by even getting COVID, um, which I had, so it just didn't really
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Um, and then, uh, the masking as well, I didn't, I wasn't going to play that game on our camp
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anyway, because, you know, if you're going into someone's store and it's older people
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But like at camp, it was just a weird virtue signal.
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We'd be doing jujitsu, go to the shooting range.
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And then if one person from the chain of command that liked masking was coming, they wanted
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Um, and I was just like, I am not playing that game at all.
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Um, it's the last day I'd ever gone there because I wouldn't put a mask on in a meeting.
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And, and I, I, when I, when I listened to it on the Sean Ryan show, I just was left
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with the, with the thought that why, why would we do this to the most elite troops in our
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military when we have an attrition crisis, when we have a recruiting crisis and what appears
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to be a serious crisis in leadership at the military level right now.
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I know you're out of the game in terms of the military, but what do you think as someone
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who has been right to the very top of the special forces system, what do you think the military
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should do to be stronger at recruiting young Canadians to join the military?
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If a poor leader is in play in place or in charge of, um, a really good unit for a small
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You can normally be okay when there's terrible leadership over a long enough period of time,
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it all trickles down the whole, it just keeps getting passed down the longer and longer you
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Um, and that's what we're dealing with right now.
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You mentioned that your unit JTF two was going in a direction before you left.
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But you didn't like, was that B was that do make most, mostly to the pandemic with, was,
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or was that, was that more so on, uh, you know, unit leadership and, um, inside the military?
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Uh, I think it was inside the military, but directed from the government of Canada.
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You have to fight and shoot and do all kinds of training every single day.
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In different terrain and different vehicles and jumping out of planes and swimming in the water,
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Uh, and then you deploy for large, long periods of time.
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And they, the government started implementing a bunch of different.
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They're just like a course on some type of sensitivity or a course on something else.
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You have to go on this other computer system and take five hours to do this thing.
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Um, and to me, none of it was relevant to my job, which is counter-terrorism.
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And that was sort of the start of like, um, you know, I started getting in a little bit
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of administrative trouble because I'm like, I'm not doing this.
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I'm going to be at the shooting range, you know?
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Um, and that was just, it was a, it was a trickle down, you know, all units will do this.
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And it, uh, that's kind of, it started me, uh, uh, getting that feeling that it wasn't for me.
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And we, we've also seen a series of, of departures at a senior level in the military, whether that
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be, uh, for allegations that have now or since been dropped, some, not the case, but it seemed
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as though for at least a few years, top leaders in the military were being taken out of their
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And that to me signaled that there was a serious crisis of leadership at that top brass level.
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You, you were in the military when some of the, when some of those began, I believe, what
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was the atmosphere like when people started to be taken out of their jobs and, and those
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that, that apparently were very well respected inside the military when they were pushed aside
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And if, if the government didn't like what, uh, that person was or stood for, or sadly the
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way they looked, um, then they were looking to replace them versus the, uh,
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I want to go back to just some of the security questions regarding, uh, what, what, what it
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might look like for a prime minister now to go overseas in, in a, in the wake of something
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like this, when a prime minister now goes overseas, is there going to be any change in security or,
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or are things usually so high or is the security level so high already that there won't be much
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Do you anticipate there to be some big changes going forward in, in Canadian politics?
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I think like, this is so clearly a terrible example of security.
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Like no one uses the model that was used the other day.
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Like don't, don't cover the most threatening building and let a sniper walk up a ladder
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Like that's, it's not even such a terrible plan.
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Um, so no, I don't think too much is going to change.
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Like we have close protection, pretty dialed in.
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When you did the interview with, uh, Sean Ryan, you also released, I believe it was the first
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time that that footage of your, your famous shot was released and the media fallout in
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Obviously the legacy media began, uh, parroting a lot of what the federal government was, was
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writing about it because quite a bit of a stir there.
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Did you anticipate that the government would respond the way they did when that footage of
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Well, the funny part is that wasn't footage of the shot.
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So whoever was complaining from the military, I guess, didn't watch the video, which the
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So I just kind of giggled because all of these news articles are coming out about it.
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And I'm like, that's not the video of the shot.
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So, uh, I don't know the response I sort of expected, cause I was talking about the COVID
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stuff, uh, I met with a ton of operators from our unit before I went on Sean Ryan's podcast
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to talk through operational security, what I was going to talk about.
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And just the one warning was from a higher up officer.
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He's like, if you tell the COVID story, there's probably going to be backlash.
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That's what I, at least how I interpreted that whole series of events that really, they
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were, they were more upset about what was going on behind the scenes, what was being
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said behind, uh, to the public about how the military responded about, you know, during
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And, uh, it seems like it, it really caused a stir because clearly that, that, that was
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a major issue for a lot of, a lot of members, not just yourself.
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How many, how many members were let go because of the mandates?
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I just know that guys found their way out of the military and some of them very quickly,
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When I went on the Sean Ryan show, it's just, it was absurd.
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They were like grasping at anything they could think.
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Like I, I actually even asked them a whole bunch of times before I left the unit.
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I said, is there someone, and I didn't exactly leave on good terms, but I'm like, is there
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And I was saying this over and over months and months to me getting out someone that I
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can talk to, a public affairs officer, someone, cause I'm going to go on podcasts.
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I'm going to tell any story of my life that I want.
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Um, I will protect operational security for the people that still work overseas.
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And like the secrets that we have with other countries, I'm obviously not telling that,
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but I'm like, is there someone I can talk to where I say, look, I'm going to post this
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Would you like something written a little differently?
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And it was just, uh, it was ignored over and over and over and over.
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And then I came out and all they did is complain and harass me, do investigations and all this
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Before I let you go, Dallas, I want to give you the chance to talk about your music career,
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And if you have any shows coming up in Canada that, uh, Canadians can go watch.
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Yeah, I've got, uh, my website, dallasalexander.ca.
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I've got vinyl and CD albums available for sale.
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And, uh, I'm putting all those songs out onto Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, all of the
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Uh, I think there's four of the eight are out right now or five of the eight.
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So if you look up Dallas Alexander, I'm just always putting out music.
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We've got some shows coming up playing in London, Ontario on the 20th of this month, July.
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And then, uh, out in Alberta for big Valley Jamboree, a songwriter thing.
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We're going to do a run of shows with an artist named Brian Martin, kind of opening a bunch
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of places from Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario.
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You know, what made you want to, uh, what made you want to get into music?
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Uh, I actually started using songwriting, more as therapy.
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Um, and it, it was, it was just such a, it was helping so much.
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Um, and as I started learning to play guitar a little bit more, I was like, just changed
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And all of the, the crazy focus I had at the unit for shooting and fighting and all
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the different things that just switched to like guitar playing and singing and songwriting.
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Well, I appreciate you speaking to us, telling us some of your story and some of what happened
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and also getting into the details of the, the shooting at the Trump rally, because I
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think unlike many people who have been talking about it and speculating on what really went
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on, you have more experience in, uh, in that line of work.
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So Dallas Alexander, I really appreciate you joining us in the Faulkner show today.