Triggered - Donald Trump Jr - A Look Back on 2025 | TRIGGERED Ep.304

00:06:23.000 So, if you follow politics, you know everyone's got an opinion.

00:06:29.000 But on polymarket, you actually get real odds on what's likely to happen.

00:06:34.000 Polymarket is a prediction market where people trade on real events back and forth, elections, debates, policy moves, just about everything.

00:06:43.000 There's a polymarket for just about everything, and it doesn't stop at politics, guys.

00:06:48.000 There are markets on the economy, tech, sports, pop culture, and much more.

00:06:54.000 It's all live, it's transparent, and it gives you real-time indicators on what people think is going to happen.

00:07:02.000 Okay, it's a big deal.

00:07:03.000 I dealt with this in politics where people are doing polling every day, you know, and they ask a question 97 times till they get the answer of whoever's paying them for the answer that they want, rather than actually trying to get to the truth.

00:07:16.000 So, give it a look at polymarket.com, see what's actually happening.

00:07:21.000 I think you'll be really impressed with the accuracy.

00:07:24.000 I think actually it's the difference between the left and the right that is kind of built in there.

00:07:28.000 Because in terms of practical politics, one of the first rules is that when your opponent is making a mistake, you should not interrupt.

00:07:38.000 And that's generally what happens on here.

00:07:40.000 When the radical leftists are spewing total nonsense, you can kind of guide them into their inconsistencies, but really you can just let them speak.

00:07:48.000 They're going to hang their own arguments with their own rhetorical rope.

00:07:52.000 And at the national level, I think that's exactly what's happened in the last five years.

00:07:56.000 Really, you could say that's what's happened for the last 50 years as the left has become so extreme.

00:08:00.000 But especially you think about the last five years, record numbers of illegal aliens crossing the border under Biden, Biden basically welcoming them for that.

00:08:08.000 Obviously, the trans craziness, the social policy, even the foreign policy has just spun so out of control. 1.00

00:08:14.000 The left has just made so many mistakes.

00:08:18.000 They've so exposed themselves that the American people broadly turned on them in November.

00:08:24.000 And it's going to take a lot for the left to unwind that.

00:08:27.000 Frankly, now it seems to me they still haven't really learned any lessons.

00:08:31.000 The one kind of moderate Democrat in the Senate isn't a force anymore, Joe Manchin.

00:08:37.000 So I don't know.

00:08:38.000 They haven't really learned their lesson at all.

00:08:40.000 And I say, great, let them speak, put them on TV, have them say everything they believe.

00:08:44.000 Have them lose their minds when your father and Elon are exposing graft and fraud at USAID.

00:08:51.000 Have them defend that.

00:08:52.000 For goodness sakes, have the left defending plastic straws. 1.00

00:08:55.000 Love it.

00:08:55.000 That's a 90-10 political issue.

00:08:58.000 You guys want to defend the indefensible?

00:08:59.000 Be my guest.

00:09:00.000 Yeah, and we saw so much of that.

00:09:02.000 Margaret Brennan had a couple of great ones.

00:09:05.000 I guess it was with JD when it was like, well, they only took over, radical Venezuelan gangs only took over a couple of buildings in Colorado, JD.

00:09:14.000 And then it was with Marco this week.

00:09:16.000 And I mean, listen, free speech led to the rise of Nazi Germany. 0.74

00:09:20.000 I'm like, I mean, where are they getting these history books?

00:09:23.000 It's wild.

00:09:24.000 And they keep doing it. 1.00

00:09:25.000 So it's not just the, you know, the dumbest of their movement. 0.99

00:09:29.000 These are the people that they think of as like their thought leaders. 0.99

00:09:32.000 And they don't get it.

00:09:33.000 I mean, I love that, to your point, like, let them keep making the mistake.

00:09:36.000 Let them keep talking about it. 0.96

00:09:37.000 But it's actually shocking that they could be that ignorant given where the world is right now and what's going on over the last four years. 0.75

00:09:44.000 Well, this is what makes me think they're going to keep making these mistakes through the midterms, through the next presidential election. 0.81

00:09:51.000 Even you mentioned Margaret Brennan on CBS, and she in particular keeps making these mistakes, trying to defend USAID spending.

00:10:00.000 Didn't work out very well.

00:10:01.000 But Michael, who wouldn't want to send $7 million for trans Elmo cartoons in Guatemala? 0.57

00:10:08.000 I mean, it's great use of taxpayer funds when we have crappy roads, crappy healthcare, crappy education, our country's falling apart, people are getting murdered in the streets.

00:10:17.000 I mean, isn't that still great use of funds, Michael?

00:10:20.000 Come on.

00:10:20.000 Well, the framers spoke so highly of transgender Argentinian Elmo.

00:10:26.000 I think it's literally in the Constitution.

00:10:28.000 Of course.

00:10:28.000 Where?

00:10:29.000 Of course.

00:10:30.000 It's there, I can tell you, Michael.

00:10:32.000 They keep doing it.

00:10:34.000 And you alluded to it just now, but Margaret Brennan suggesting her words, not mine, that the Holocaust was caused by an abundance of free speech.

00:10:46.000 And you think, you know, look, I'm not the greatest scholar of the Second World War, but seems to me in 1933 in particular, you had at least three or four major provisions out of Nazi Germany that severely limited free speech and civil liberties.

00:11:00.000 Ms. Brennan, can you have any example to the contrary?

00:11:03.000 And of course, they can't offer one. 0.89

00:11:05.000 You know, Ronald Reagan famously said, the problem with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant, it's just that they know so much that isn't so. 0.95

00:11:12.000 And they keep going back to that.

00:11:13.000 I mean, I think this is the most tedious aspect for people left, right, and center in America, that for the American left, including the mainstream, every moment is 1930s Germany.

00:11:25.000 Every Republican is Hitler.

00:11:27.000 Every policy is about to bring about the Holocaust. 0.93

00:11:30.000 And people know it's not true.

00:11:32.000 They're completely sick of it. 0.57

00:11:34.000 Believe it or not, other things happened in history beyond the Second World War.

00:11:37.000 And of course, the irony is the people who constantly compare every event to the Second World War don't even know that much about the Second World War.

00:11:45.000 You know, they're just exposing a lack of knowledge and political sophistication that is stunning, but which is really delightful if you're on the right side of things.

00:11:55.000 Yeah, like you don't have to be a World War II scholar to know that, of course, like Hitler started banning guns.

00:12:02.000 He was burning books.

00:12:03.000 They limited free speech.

00:12:05.000 I mean, that was like the beginning of the rise of Nazi Germany.

00:12:08.000 So it's literally the opposite of what she said.

00:12:10.000 And anyone who's taken like, you know, sixth or seventh grade like world history would know that.

00:12:16.000 And yet they conveniently either forget or don't know or don't care.

00:12:20.000 All equally bad.

00:12:22.000 Exactly.

00:12:23.000 And, you know, there is a reason that the left has sought to censor people.

00:12:28.000 You saw this when JD was lecturing Europe.

00:12:32.000 Europe has been even more egregious about this, banning, effectively banning right-wing political parties, prohibiting people from praying 50 meters away from abortion clinics.

00:12:42.000 I mean, really, really crazy stuff.

00:12:43.000 But you saw it here too in the abuses under Biden, the DOJ going after Catholic parishes, arresting pro-lifers in front of their seven kids, calling parents terrorists and domestic extremists.

00:12:55.000 So we've seen it pretty substantially in America too.

00:12:58.000 Why is it?

00:12:59.000 This is where debates like the show that I just went on that's going viral, this is where I think you see why they're censoring it.

00:13:07.000 Because if a debate is able to happen in public for everyone to see, a fair fight where both sides can be heard, be that on a YouTube interview show or be that in a presidential election, if it's a fair fight, then the right side is going to win right now because the left has lost the common sense.

00:13:26.000 And so thankfully, we were able to get a little foothold into social media, which so tried to destroy your father in 2016 and 2020.

00:13:34.000 Once you get just a little bit of that exposure, you are not only going to win over the choir and your core base, you are going to win over, as we saw, the majority of Americans.

00:13:44.000 Yeah, I mean, it's why the left, they were such Elon fanboys until he helped level that playing field.

00:13:49.000 You know, when they had the entire weight and force of social media, I mean, and they still do across the broad spectrum of apps or whatever you want to look at it at.

00:14:01.000 When you have the entire weight and force of mainstream media, and then you have a government backing it up and or subverting truth, whatever it may be, through USAID, funding all sorts of other levels of journalism.

00:14:14.000 I was always shocked that, frankly, that elections are as close as they are.

00:14:17.000 I feel like if I was running the other side with the resources that they had, with the operatives that they had that are all home team, all functioning as the marketing department of the radical left, I'd be like, elections would be like 99.9 to like 0.01.

00:14:31.000 Like it wouldn't even be close.

00:14:33.000 And yet they were still close because the ideas were always absurd.

00:14:37.000 They never made any sense.

00:14:39.000 Once you had a little exposure to that, they freaked out because they realized that they're losing badly.

00:14:43.000 And it's the first time they've lost the cultural wars, even with the handicaps that they were giving themselves for all these years, perhaps in certainly my lifetime.

00:14:53.000 Well, and think about this.

00:14:54.000 Elon Musk put his money where our mouths are, $44 billion, to purchase the smallest major social media platform.

00:15:03.000 We get lost in Twitter and Facebook and Instagram.

00:15:07.000 We all think it's kind of the same.

00:15:09.000 No, Twitter is by far, or at least was before Elon really made it much better, but it was the smallest one by far compared to Facebook and Google.

00:15:17.000 Just getting that tiny foothold into the social media was enough to shift the entire dynamic of the election. 0.73

00:15:26.000 Just cleaning up one agency of the federal government, USAID.

00:15:31.000 The left loves to say now it's less than 1% of the federal budget, which first of all is a lot of money when you're considering the United States federal budget.

00:15:37.000 But in any case, sure, okay, it's just one agency of the federal government.

00:15:41.000 Just one agency with all of that graft, all of that abuse, all of those payoffs to fund not only foreign liberalism, but domestic liberalism.

00:15:51.000 I mean, just to use one example, when you've got the taxpayer dollars, you pay your money to the IRS, the IRS funds the federal government, federal government gives money to USAID, USAID gives money to the Tides Center, the Tides Center funds BLM, BLM goes down, burns down your neighborhood, starts extorting corporate America to further advance leftism, and it's this hideous feedback loop.

00:16:15.000 That's like one tiny little example.

00:16:17.000 The moment you start shedding a little bit of light on this, I think the people, even those of us who were aware that there was serious corruption, are just astounded by the sheer enormity of it.

00:16:29.000 Yeah, I guess all these left-wing narratives really collapse on themselves.

00:16:33.000 Once you reduce the conversation down to basic truths, there's a lot of sort of cognitive dissidents on the left.

00:16:43.000 We're seeing it all play out in very obvious ways.

00:16:46.000 What are some of the other most egregious examples that you've seen play out where you're actually, you can't even believe that you're having the conversation?

00:16:55.000 Well, I can believe that the left has gotten this extreme because their ideas have consequences.

00:17:01.000 And so left unimpeded, they're going to go all the way from, you know, Gloria Steinem in the 70s saying a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle, all the way to a woman really can become a man. 0.94

00:17:12.000 And the reason that that particular ideology has really overtaken public discourse is because it's just so obviously ridiculous.

00:17:21.000 And on certain issues, you can negotiate and meet in the middle.

00:17:24.000 You know, the left wants to steal all of our property.

00:17:26.000 We want to keep our property.

00:17:28.000 All right, we're going to meet in the middle and have a 35% tax rate.

00:17:31.000 Not ideal, but you can, or on gun rights.

00:17:33.000 We want to keep our guns.

00:17:34.000 The left wants to take our guns.

00:17:35.000 They take some of our guns.

00:17:36.000 You can meet in the middle sometimes, unfortunately.

00:17:39.000 On an issue like human nature, there's no meeting in the middle.

00:17:43.000 Either a boy can become a girl or he can't. 1.00

00:17:45.000 It's not like you can suddenly become the opposite sex at age 19 and a half or something.

00:17:50.000 It's either true or it isn't.

00:17:51.000 So that's one reason that I think that issue has really taken off.

00:17:55.000 It's the same reason that the immigration issue has taken off is because as you say, Don, you don't need a PhD in philosophy or history to understand that nations need borders.

00:18:07.000 A border is literally the thing that delineates a nation from all of the other nations. 0.67

00:18:12.000 So when you have the left with their genius experts coming out and saying, well, actually, you know, we don't really have a border. 0.97

00:18:18.000 And actually, the law technically doesn't mean that you can distinguish, you know, you just think, hey, shut up, man.

00:18:22.000 I'm pretty sure we can enforce basic immigration law.

00:18:26.000 And if one's political ideology runs contrary to all of our common sense, the left thinks that means there's a problem with our common sense.

00:18:36.000 In reality, it means there's a problem with that political ideology.

00:18:40.000 And if the voters have the opportunity to vote that out, which was a little unclear because the left wanted to take your father off the ballot in this past election.

00:18:48.000 But because they fail to save democracy, though, Michael, we're going to not let you vote for people to save democracy.

00:18:55.000 And then when the person we do elect stops performing, we're just going to replace them without an election, also to save democracy.

00:19:04.000 Exactly.

00:19:05.000 I mean, you saw this just at the Munich Security Conference that JD caused this big ripple at, is he said, you know, democracies don't have firewalls.

00:19:13.000 And I think a lot of Americans are not familiar with this term.

00:19:16.000 Germany, and therefore Europe, has this so-called firewall to prevent right-wing parties and even ordinary conservatism from rising in Germany, which is the leader of Europe.

00:19:27.000 And JD pointed out, he said, all you guys here, you prattle on and on about democracy, but you're afraid of your voters.

00:19:33.000 You're afraid of your constituents.

00:19:35.000 You won't let them speak online.

00:19:37.000 You arrest them.

00:19:38.000 You have midnight raids because they say something you don't like online.

00:19:42.000 And then you have a political order that actually formally kicks out the right-wing parties through a so-called firewall.

00:19:50.000 You learn about resilience because everybody has to fight through getting beat or everybody has to fight through getting taken down and show real toughness.

00:20:01.000 And you learn about respect because after you spend six minutes beating the tar at each other, you have to stand up and someone gets their hand lifted in the air and you shake hands and walk off the mat.

00:20:11.000 So I think a lot of what's great about America, we see in those high school gyms in Pennsylvania.

00:20:18.000 And that's what the column was about in the Wall Street Journal.

00:20:20.000 And I think it's emblematic of, I think, the community and a set of ideals that your father really hit on the campaign.

00:20:28.000 And one of the reasons I think he has such a great following in Pennsylvania.

00:20:32.000 I mean, you also read an ad during your campaign about how wrestling taught you to make the hard choices.

00:20:37.000 What are those hard choices right now in the U.S. Senate?

00:20:40.000 And what will your benchmark be for success in this Congress?

00:20:45.000 Well, you know, I've got a whiteboard in my office, and on it, I have the top 10 things I promised.

00:20:51.000 A lot of the same things of your dad, some different things that were Pennsylvania specific, but a lot of the same things.

00:20:57.000 And I literally look at that whiteboard when I come in every time and say, okay, what are we doing on that?

00:21:00.000 Okay, fentanyl legislation.

00:21:02.000 We propose that.

00:21:03.000 Okay, term limits.

00:21:04.000 What are we going to do on that?

00:21:06.000 Okay, getting the economy back on track.

00:21:09.000 What are we going to do to have energy dominance?

00:21:13.000 What's the permitting reform agenda?

00:21:15.000 I'm looking at that list to say, hey, that's what I promised.

00:21:18.000 And I want to hold myself accountable to everything I promised.

00:21:23.000 That's the first and foremost, because I was very specific in the campaign.

00:21:27.000 Your dad was incredibly specific.

00:21:29.000 I was too.

00:21:30.000 We got – I think he won and I think I won because people knew what we were going to do.

00:21:35.000 They had known him before, and he had obviously done great things in his first term.

00:21:40.000 For me, I think they were betting on the promise.

00:21:42.000 So I want to deliver on the things I promised.

00:21:45.000 I want to help your dad deliver on his incredible agenda as an important voice in the Senate.

00:21:52.000 And I want to be the guy that when Pennsylvanians think of my name, they say, that guy is everywhere.

00:21:59.000 He's fighting for us.

00:22:00.000 He's working for us.

00:22:02.000 Nobody's working harder.

00:22:03.000 And I want them to know, and this is genuine, Don, that I feel honored and privileged to do it.

00:22:10.000 I genuinely do.

00:22:11.000 I've had a great life.

00:22:12.000 I've been very fortunate.

00:22:14.000 I feel like this is really the honor of a lifetime to have this chance.

00:22:17.000 Well, that's awesome to hear you.

00:22:20.000 So tell us a little bit more just about the book, why you wrote it.

00:22:23.000 Where can everyone go get a copy to check it out?

00:22:25.000 Learn a little bit more about the senator from Pennsylvania who's on our side of the fence.

00:22:30.000 Yeah, thanks.

00:22:30.000 This is a book that we wrote long.

00:22:33.000 This was during COVID, you know, when kids weren't going to school and all that stuff.

00:22:36.000 And we have six daughters, 24 to 18.

00:22:39.000 They were a little bit younger then.

00:22:40.000 And we realized that they were not going to school, coaches, teachers.

00:22:44.000 They didn't have any interaction.

00:22:45.000 And Dean and I started to talk about the fact that whatever success we've had in life was due to a couple of key people.

00:22:52.000 These were the mentors that helped us become who we were.

00:22:55.000 And so we started to think about that.

00:22:58.000 And we started to, and in my case, it was a football coach.

00:23:01.000 Was a junior sophomore in high school, not a particularly good football player.

00:23:05.000 I was sort of the bench warmer.

00:23:07.000 And the coach got fired, and a new coach came in and he watched all the films from the previous games.

00:23:12.000 And I get pulled in, you know, in the last quarter something.

00:23:14.000 And he came to me and said, Listen, you got real potential.

00:23:18.000 You're going to be the starting linebacker, but you got to perform well in the camp.

00:23:23.000 And I worked my butt off in football camp that summer.

00:23:26.000 And at the end of this is my junior year, at the end of my that's camp, he made me the co-captain of the team.

00:23:32.000 When I say this was shocking, this was beyond what I could have imagined.

00:23:36.000 And I went on and I became an all-state linebacker and everything else.

00:23:38.000 And that helped me get into West Point.

00:23:41.000 That guy changed my life.

00:23:43.000 He saw something in me that I didn't see in myself.

00:23:45.000 The same with Dina.

00:23:46.000 So we started to call people, some friends of ours, most of them very successful people.

00:23:51.000 And they all had somebody who had believed in them, who had helped them become who they are.

00:23:58.000 And so the book is about not the famous people.

00:24:02.000 It's about the people that helped make them famous.

00:24:04.000 I love that.

00:24:05.000 Sarah Huckabee's in there.

00:24:07.000 She talks about a certain Donald Trump, your father, who, when she was getting the tar knocked out of her and all these horrible insults, pulled her aside and said, You're beautiful.

00:24:21.000 You have so much to offer.

00:24:23.000 You're so talented.

00:24:24.000 Go out there and don't let him see you sweat.

00:24:26.000 Made a huge difference to her.

00:24:28.000 Saty Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, one of the most prominent CEOs in the world.

00:24:33.000 He talks about this manager at Microsoft that pulled him out of obscurity, saw something special in him.

00:24:40.000 His name was a guy named Doug Bergham.

00:24:42.000 So over and over again, you have people that made all the difference.

00:24:45.000 And so the moral of the story is you don't have to be a famous person to change the world.

00:24:50.000 You can help by helping someone else find their path to greatness.

00:24:54.000 And so that's what Dean and I wrote about.

00:24:56.000 And she had a great career in business and had created a number of big mentoring programs, very successful.

00:25:04.000 So the two of us decided to do it together.

00:25:06.000 By the way, if you could make it through a losing campaign, a winning campaign, and writing a book together and staying married, that's a good sign for the future.

00:25:14.000 Yeah, that's a hard metric.

00:25:16.000 It's hard to, yeah, these are hard things to do, especially.

00:25:18.000 The book is the hardest.

00:25:20.000 The book is absolutely the hardest.

00:25:22.000 So tell us again, what's it called?

00:25:24.000 Where everyone can find it?

00:25:26.000 Yeah.

00:25:26.000 It's Who Believed in You, and it can be found at whobelievedinyou.com.

00:25:32.000 It comes out April 1st.

00:25:33.000 You can pre-order it on Amazon.

00:25:34.000 And we think people are going to help them think about, hopefully, help you and others think about who believed in them.

00:25:41.000 The one theme that jumped out of this, all the people we talked to, we probably interviewed 25 people that are in the book.

00:25:47.000 Many of them said, man, I don't think I told him.

00:25:50.000 I wish I would have told him.

00:25:51.000 Now they're gone.

00:25:52.000 Now I wish I would have told him.

00:25:53.000 So anybody listening to this, if there's somebody who changed your life, now's the time to tell them why you still can.

00:25:58.000 Oh, thank you very much.

00:26:00.000 I think that's great advice.

00:26:00.000 Senator Dave McCormick, thank you so much.

00:26:03.000 Really appreciate it.

00:26:03.000 Great seeing you, buddy.

00:26:04.000 And I'm sure I'll run into you somewhere on the road.

00:26:06.000 Looking forward to it, Don.

00:26:07.000 Thanks so much.

00:26:08.000 Be well.

00:26:10.000 And our dad was a baseball and football coach.

00:26:13.000 So that's what we did.

00:26:14.000 That's what we gravitated to.

00:26:17.000 And so everybody came over.

00:26:19.000 You know, I didn't go to New York.

00:26:20.000 I wasn't invited to New York for the draft.

00:26:23.000 Not that I would have win anyway.

00:26:25.000 And we just had a, you know, a big party.

00:26:28.000 And, you know, later down the road, I never thought that an NFL player, of course, it's Maker Mayfield, would do a, you know, I thought he did a hell of a job of recreating that draft day photo to go through the trouble he went through.

00:26:48.000 It actually, I thought it was pretty cool, not knowing that jorts and the old cordless phone, which our kids have no clue about any of that.

00:27:01.000 Enough, not even a little bit, you know, they're carrying cell phones, and we thought the coolest thing was we got rid of a cordless phone.

00:27:08.000 I mean, you got a cordless phone in the house, but you couldn't walk in the next room and talk because you'd lose them.

00:27:14.000 Yeah, it is basically a corded, cordless phone.

00:27:16.000 But yeah, exactly.

00:27:19.000 So, but you were, I mean, you were actually drafted by the Falcons, right?

00:27:22.000 But you, you ended up in Green Bay.

00:27:24.000 Uh, I guess Packers GM Ron Wolf traded a first-round pick for you.

00:27:29.000 Uh, what sort of confidence uh did that inspire?

00:27:32.000 I mean, that's that's a pretty big deal.

00:27:34.000 And what do you remember about those first few years in Green Bay?

00:27:36.000 Because you were you're there a while, yeah.

00:27:39.000 So, so I'll back up, and I was drafted with a 32nd pick by the Falcons.

00:27:45.000 The pick after was 33rd pick was the New York Jets.

00:27:49.000 First, that was their first pick in the draft.

00:27:51.000 They had traded away their first-round pick.

00:27:53.000 So, their first pick in the draft was right after Atlanta's pick, and they were going to take me.

00:27:59.000 Ron Wolf was assistant GM at the time, I didn't know him.

00:28:03.000 So, Atlanta takes me.

00:28:06.000 I go to Atlanta, and I always tell the story because I think it says a lot about my year in Atlanta.

00:28:12.000 So, I was drafted on a Friday.

00:28:15.000 We had a mini camp the next morning in Atlanta.

00:28:17.000 So, I was living at my mom and dad's house down on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi.

00:28:23.000 And there were two flights out of Gulfport, Mississippi to Atlanta: one in the morning, one in the evening.

00:28:28.000 The morning when I was scheduled to be on, it was delayed a couple hours.

00:28:32.000 I get to Atlanta, the guy picks me up.

00:28:35.000 Uh, one of the scouts, his name was Danny Mock, picks me up.

00:28:39.000 It's just he and I, we got a long drive to Sewanee, Georgia.

00:28:43.000 And I'm saying, uh, Danny, man, this is not good.

00:28:48.000 I'm late.

00:28:48.000 My first practice.

00:28:49.000 He said, Brett, it was out of your control.

00:28:52.000 This is a mini camp.

00:28:54.000 It's no big deal.

00:28:55.000 Coach Glanville will be happy to see you.

00:28:57.000 So I get there, they're out on a practice.

00:28:59.000 I run in, I grab my shorts, a red jersey, my helmet, and I run out.

00:29:03.000 Danny waits for me.

00:29:05.000 When I walk out there, Glanville has got his back to me, and he's got a windbreaker on.

00:29:13.000 I'll never forget.

00:29:14.000 He sure had the old coach's Bermuda shorts on.

00:29:16.000 He had a horn in his back pocket and a cowboy hat.

00:29:19.000 Danny said, Hey, coach, coach.

00:29:22.000 So he turns around.

00:29:23.000 He says, and he's got sunglasses on.

00:29:25.000 And he says, I got your quarterback here.

00:29:27.000 And he says, Mississippi.

00:29:29.000 I said, Yes, sir, coach.

00:29:31.000 He says, What school are you from?

00:29:34.000 And I said, Yeah, I'm thinking to myself, Hell, he just drafted me.

00:29:37.000 Surely he knows what school I'm from.

00:29:39.000 You know, and I say, I'm from Southern Miss, coach. 0.99

00:29:42.000 And he says, Damn it, we drafted the wrong guy. 0.98

00:29:45.000 We wanted a guy from Mississippi State. 0.99

00:29:47.000 And I was like, Am I supposed to laugh at this?

00:29:51.000 Or is this a joke?

00:29:53.000 And it never got better from there.

00:29:55.000 It only got worse.

00:29:56.000 So, needless to say, at the end of that year, I got traded to Green Bay, who had hired or fired their head coach and GM prior to the end of that season.

00:30:09.000 And I didn't know this, but Ron Wolf, we played the Jets that year.

00:30:13.000 I was with Atlanta late in the year in Fulton County Stadium in Atlanta.

00:30:18.000 And Ron Wolf came down in pregame to watch me throw.

00:30:20.000 I had no clue.

00:30:21.000 I didn't know I was on, you know, on alert that someone was potentially looking to trade for me.

00:30:30.000 And he gets the GM job at Green Bay.

00:30:33.000 And he said his first order of business after hiring Mike Holmgren as the head coach was to trade for me.

00:30:39.000 And I was, you know, what's so cool about the whole thing is I'm drafted in the second round.

00:30:44.000 I don't play my rookie year.

00:30:46.000 So I do nothing to earn the right to be traded for a first round pick.

00:30:50.000 So it's really like you're drafted in the second round, you do nothing, you end up getting back in the draft, but this time drafted in the first round is basically what it amounted to.

00:31:02.000 So the best thing about Atlanta was it got me to Green Bay.

00:31:07.000 You know, you just never know.

00:31:09.000 Yeah, no, I mean, stranger things have happened, but yeah, it's a great one.

00:31:14.000 And it may obviously go down as a legend in Green Bay.

00:31:18.000 I know you have some funny stories about learning the nickel defense.

00:31:21.000 What was that process like?

00:31:24.000 How are you able to read defenses so well?

00:31:29.000 I started all four years at Southern Miss.

00:31:31.000 And I don't say that braggingly.

00:31:33.000 I say that because we were not really a throwing team.

00:31:37.000 We threw it some, but I was never taught because our offense was not a complicated system.

00:31:43.000 Most of the time we ran toss suite, option.

00:31:46.000 And if we threw it, it was like a sprint out, you know, something that you didn't have to read.

00:31:51.000 So no one ever taught me the various defenses.

00:31:55.000 You know, I knew what cover two was.

00:31:57.000 I knew what cover three was.

00:31:58.000 I knew what man coverage was.

00:32:01.000 But it really, in the offense at Southern Miss, it didn't really matter because you called a play and you ran it.

00:32:09.000 You didn't check out.

00:32:10.000 Very rarely did you have audibles and things of that nature.

00:32:13.000 So when I got to Green Bay in the West Coast offense, and Mike Honggren, who had coached Joe Montana and Steve Young before coaching me, it was what I considered very complicated.

00:32:25.000 The playbook was like this thick and formations, motions, check with me's, audibles.

00:32:35.000 I mean, it was overwhelming.

00:32:38.000 So I end up getting not really thrust into Don McCowski gets hurt in the second game.

00:32:47.000 They put me in.

00:32:48.000 Am I ready?

00:32:49.000 I would have told you, yeah, but I was far from ready.

00:32:52.000 So, you know, I'm running around, they're blitzing.

00:32:56.000 We had it picked up.

00:32:57.000 I didn't know we had it picked up.

00:32:59.000 You know, I wasn't waiting around.

00:33:00.000 I was just running around like a chicken with his head cut off.

00:33:04.000 And I would always hear him, you know, I was not one to sit in the meeting rooms and coach would be going over stuff.

00:33:10.000 I would say, coach, coach, you talk about, you know, they're doing this and that.

00:33:16.000 I was never one to do that because I was really embarrassed.

00:33:19.000 I'm a starting quarterback.

00:33:20.000 How can I be asking questions about stuff that I don't know? 0.97

00:33:23.000 So I just played dumb and relied on ability.

00:33:28.000 But I would hear him talk about nickel and dime all the time. 0.96

00:33:31.000 And it was like, I hear this all the time.

00:33:34.000 And Ty Debmer, a good friend of mine, you probably hunted with Ty.

00:33:39.000 You know, I felt comfortable asking him questions because he would ridicule me too much.

00:33:44.000 One day I was like, Ty, I need to ask you a question.

00:33:47.000 He's like, yeah, what is it?

00:33:48.000 I said, I keep hearing him talk about nickel and dime.

00:33:51.000 This is like three or four years in.

00:33:54.000 Plenty of time to learn what it is.

00:33:56.000 But Ty's like, are you serious?

00:33:59.000 I'm like, yeah, I hear them talk about nickel.

00:34:01.000 They're bringing nickel in or dimes coming in.

00:34:04.000 And when you see dime coming in, we want to run to that side.

00:34:07.000 And I'm like, I'm just curious.

00:34:09.000 What the hell are they talking about?

00:34:11.000 And he said, well, nickel is basically you take a linebacker out, you put in a DB.

00:34:17.000 And I said, what's dime?

00:34:19.000 He said, you take out two linebackers and you put in two DBs.

00:34:22.000 And I go, that's it.

00:34:24.000 And he goes, that's it. 1.00

00:34:25.000 And I go, who gives a shit? 0.99

00:34:27.000 You know, I post complicated. 0.99

00:34:30.000 That's how that all played out.

00:34:32.000 But I'm proof that you don't have to know all the ins and outs of the game to be successful.

00:34:39.000 By the way, I think that's like anything else, whether it's banking or otherwise.

00:34:42.000 I mean, these guys talk and they talk in the acronyms, you know, ABC.

00:34:46.000 And like, if you just say the words, it's like, oh, I know exactly what you're talking about.

00:34:50.000 But you know, they sort of make you feel foolish by not necessarily articulating what the actual stuff is and just talking in the banking speak.

00:34:57.000 So, yeah, I think that's probably pretty common.

00:35:01.000 And I'll tell you a funny story.

00:35:03.000 My freshman year at Southern Miss, I'm starting.

00:35:06.000 I'll never forget.

00:35:07.000 We're playing Memphis State.

00:35:08.000 This is 1987.

00:35:10.000 Now they're Memphis, but then they were Memphis State.

00:35:13.000 And my quarterback coach was a guy named Jack White, great guy.

00:35:18.000 Now, this kind of tells you what kind of offense, you know, our system.

00:35:22.000 So we're watching the film of Memphis State, and they're blitzing like crazy.

00:35:27.000 And I'm like, I'm 18 years old.

00:35:30.000 You know, I'm bulletproof, but I'm looking at this and I'm thinking, this could, I mean, this is a jailbreak every time they're playing someone.

00:35:38.000 And so I say, Coach White, what do I do if they blitz, if I see blitz?

00:35:43.000 And he said, I'll tell you what you do. 0.99

00:35:45.000 You make some shit happen. 1.00

00:35:48.000 And I was like, now that I can deal with. 0.99

00:35:51.000 That's the kind of coaching points I like.

00:35:53.000 Sweet.

00:35:54.000 Give me some, you need to check this, check that, move this guy around. 0.99

00:35:59.000 You make some shit happen. 0.98

00:36:00.000 And I said, I can do that. 1.00

00:36:02.000 That's amazing.

00:36:03.000 So speaking of interesting coaches, you had mentioned your dad was a coach in high school.

00:36:08.000 What was that like for you?

00:36:09.000 I mean, you know, I can't imagine that always being easy, although it obviously worked out.

00:36:14.000 I mean, you're an NFL legend.

00:36:16.000 How did that shape not just your football view, but perhaps your worldview?

00:36:21.000 Well, it was tough.

00:36:23.000 He was way tougher on me.

00:36:25.000 And I got two brothers, as I said earlier, my older brother and my younger brother both played quarterback for my dad as well.

00:36:32.000 What's kind of funny about the whole thing is he threw the ball with my older brother.

00:36:35.000 He threw the ball with my younger brother, but we threw maybe once or twice a game with me.

00:36:41.000 So I'm like, what am I, a chopped liver?

00:36:43.000 But he was so hard on me.

00:36:46.000 I can't speak for Scott or Jeff because I was not there, but I don't think he, maybe he saw something in me that he didn't in the other two. 0.97

00:36:53.000 And the other two both got scholarships and played in college, but he was a hard ass on me.

00:37:00.000 And the good thing about that was the more he pushed me, you know, some kids will go the opposite direction. 1.00

00:37:08.000 They'll just say, it's shit on it. 0.99

00:37:10.000 You know, it ain't worth it. 1.00

00:37:12.000 I'm tired of you riding my ass. 1.00

00:37:14.000 It drove me to work harder. 1.00

00:37:17.000 And maybe that's what he saw in me.

00:37:19.000 If he said, you know, you can't do this, I'd say, oh, yeah, well, I'll show you.

00:37:23.000 And we butted heads a lot.

00:37:25.000 I have a dad a little bit like that myself.

00:37:29.000 Luckily, he didn't fully break me.

00:37:31.000 So I guess it worked out in the end.

00:37:32.000 But there were times it was probably pretty close to breaking it.

00:37:36.000 Well, there's no doubt your success and my success are due in large part because of our dads.

00:37:41.000 There's no question about it.

00:37:43.000 And like it or not, it's like this younger generation today, and I blame the parents rather than the kids.

00:37:51.000 They're a softer generation.

00:37:53.000 We want everything for our kids, you know, that we didn't have or we always wanted.

00:37:59.000 And you want to protect them from evil.

00:38:04.000 And granted, some of that is good, but you got to kind of learn the ropes, the hard ways.

00:38:10.000 You got to let them fail a little bit.

00:38:11.000 You got to let them fail. 1.00

00:38:12.000 You got to let them get their ass kicked every once in a while. 0.99

00:38:16.000 My dad, if I got in trouble at school, my mom and dad taught at the same, where I went first through 12th was all right there together. 0.99

00:38:23.000 So I go 12 years without missing a day of school. 0.84

00:38:26.000 And everyone's like, holy crap, really?

00:38:29.000 It's kind of hard to skip when your mom and dad are driving you to school every day. 0.84

00:38:32.000 Exactly.

00:38:33.000 But, you know, along with that and the discipline that my dad, you know, I can't tell you many times, Don, I would say, dad, let's throw the ball.

00:38:42.000 And he says, look, you let me worry about running to plays and calling the plays and running this team.

00:38:47.000 You do what the hell I tell you. 0.85

00:38:49.000 Now, I didn't like that, but if he were here today, he would say, damn sure it worked out pretty good. 0.93

00:38:54.000 Yeah, no.

00:38:55.000 Yeah, sometimes they get the last word, even if they're not there to enjoy all of it.

00:38:59.000 But yeah, that's, I, I, yeah, I can, I can relate a lot.

00:39:04.000 Speaking of fathers, my father was at the NCA Wrestling Championships recently in Philadelphia.

00:39:11.000 And so much of the greatness of America, I think, can be found in sports like wrestling or football or these contact aggressive sports.

00:39:23.000 What sort of lessons have you learned from sort of each chapter of your career from high school to then Southern Miss to playing professionally?

00:39:33.000 Yeah, you know, the different phases or times from high school to college is a big leap socially, fitting in.

00:39:48.000 But, you know, I think with football, it really you go onto a team, you walked into the locker room the first time.

00:39:57.000 I'm 17 years old, and you were the big dog where you just left.

00:40:00.000 Yeah.

00:40:00.000 And you're just a guy.

00:40:01.000 You got tape on your helmet that says FARS.

00:40:03.000 They don't even spell it right.

00:40:06.000 Your name's not the easiest one.

00:40:08.000 They just come up with.

00:40:10.000 They still get it wrong.

00:40:13.000 And that's that.

00:40:14.000 I understand that.

00:40:15.000 And I think to your question, the good thing about football in the team aspect of it.

00:40:23.000 So, you know, when I came in to Southern Miss at 17 years old, I'm last on the totem pole. 1.00

00:40:29.000 Guys were busting my balls, giving me shit. 0.99

00:40:34.000 And I didn't particularly like it, but it's part of the process. 1.00

00:40:36.000 But then all of a sudden, I ended up starting the third game as a 17-year-old.

00:40:41.000 And they needed me to perform.

00:40:44.000 And all of a sudden, I was one of the guys.

00:40:46.000 And the same can be said as I went on to the next level.

00:40:51.000 And then to play 20 years, I really had a chance, Don.

00:40:57.000 Most guys, it's over before they want it to be.

00:41:01.000 And they never had a time, really a chance or much time.

00:41:08.000 You know, the latter part of my career, I was actually being a TV timeout.

00:41:12.000 People sometimes would say, Brett, what are y'all talking about in the huddle?

00:41:17.000 You know, when they come back from a commercial break.

00:41:19.000 And I said, you would be surprised.

00:41:21.000 Sometimes it's like, check out that dude over there on the front row. 1.00

00:41:25.000 You know, what a dip shit. 1.00

00:41:27.000 Or it may be. 1.00

00:41:28.000 The cheerleading squad.

00:41:30.000 Yeah.

00:41:31.000 Yeah.

00:41:31.000 Look at the girl that's topless and it's 35 below.

00:41:34.000 You know, they're going to be gone the next day.

00:41:36.000 They're going to fall off.

00:41:37.000 You know, I mean, crazy stuff.

00:41:38.000 But oftentimes I was, especially in the latter part of my career, I would sit there and I'd be just thinking about it.

00:41:44.000 I'm like, this may be the last year that I'm in this stadium.

00:41:50.000 And being able to really just soak in the moment.

00:41:54.000 It never, you know, it wasn't like when it was over, like, why didn't I enjoy it?

00:42:00.000 I had a chance to really, because of those 20 years, you think about grade school, first through 12, how much first grade to senior year?

00:42:10.000 It's dramatically different.

00:42:11.000 Now you go 20 years of National Football League as a first year guy to, you know, all of a sudden, you had kids.

00:42:19.000 I had a grandson at 40.

00:42:21.000 And it looks totally different.

00:42:26.000 But I was able to really soak it in.

00:42:29.000 And when I look back, I don't go, I wish I would have done this, or I wish I would have done that, or I regret this.

00:42:36.000 Fortunately for me, I don't have those regrets because of the longevity.

00:42:42.000 So what helped you with that longevity?

00:42:45.000 I mean, 20 years in the NFL, I mean, that's almost unheard of.

00:42:49.000 I mean, it happens, you know, but I mean, what's the average career span?

00:42:52.000 It's like three, four years, right?

00:42:54.000 I think it's three years.

00:42:56.000 Yeah.

00:42:56.000 I mean, what let you go 5X?

00:42:58.000 Well, I think there's still, I think there's two things.

00:43:02.000 The toughness that my father instilled in.

00:43:05.000 I'll never forget.

00:43:06.000 I was playing Little League Baseball and I slid into second and I got tagged out and I was embarrassed.

00:43:14.000 So I laid there like I was hurt.

00:43:18.000 And my dad was not my coach.

00:43:20.000 He was in the bleachers.

00:43:21.000 And of course, he and my mom didn't come out there. 0.99

00:43:24.000 But after the game, my dad said, if you ever do that again, you'll sit out there until you rot because I will never come out there and get your ass off the field. 0.98

00:43:33.000 Now, if you're really hurt, that's a different thing. 0.93

00:43:37.000 But, you know, and I can't tell you how many times after that, you know, that moment that them tell me that resonates just as if he just told me.

00:43:46.000 And I can't tell you how many times on the field I was, you know, high school, college, bros, where I was, yeah, I was dinged up.

00:43:56.000 And I really, that, that moment would just be right there. 0.99

00:44:01.000 And it's like, get your ass up. 0.98

00:44:02.000 There's a difference between being hurt and injured. 0.99

00:44:05.000 Yeah.

00:44:06.000 And your team is counting on you.

00:44:09.000 The one thing I would say more than anything he instilled in me is the team is way more important than one guy.

00:44:15.000 And that is so true, especially in football.

00:44:18.000 And so I got my job because the guy in front of me hurt his ankle and came out.

00:44:25.000 And I come in and he's probably thinking, I'll screw it up, which would have been a good assessment.

00:44:32.000 But I did.

00:44:33.000 And he never got his job back.

00:44:35.000 Nothing he did or didn't do.

00:44:36.000 He got injured.

00:44:38.000 So I can't tell you how many times I said, if you lay down on this field, you're giving someone else a chance to take your job.

00:44:47.000 And I would say, keep in mind how you got your job.

00:44:50.000 It can happen to you.

00:44:51.000 So I would get up off the turf every single time.

00:44:54.000 That's really, I mean, by the way, it's sort of what happened with another great, like Tom Brady.

00:44:59.000 I mean, I was watching that game when the Patriots were playing when Drew Bledsoe was taken out.

00:45:05.000 And I was watching it with a bunch of guys.

00:45:07.000 We were in like Hunting Camp, and I was watching it with a bunch of guys from Massachusetts who affectionately referred to as mass holes.

00:45:14.000 And for them, it was like the end of the world.

00:45:16.000 I'm like, well, I didn't really watch Patriots football, so it didn't matter.

00:45:19.000 I didn't think of Drew Bledsoe as this thing.

00:45:21.000 And this young kid quarterback comes in, Tom Brady.

00:45:25.000 And who would have known that what was the most devastating things for these like die-hard fans was actually the start of the dynasty?

00:45:35.000 Yeah.

00:45:36.000 Well, you know, Kurt Warner is another one who's a friend of mine.

00:45:39.000 He was with me in Green Bay for a year.

00:45:42.000 Trent Green gets hurt.

00:45:44.000 They said our season's over.

00:45:46.000 He leads them to the Super Bowl exactly like Tom Brady.

00:45:50.000 And there's two lives affected.

00:45:51.000 The one who got hurt and now has to find a job somewhere.

00:45:55.000 And the one who takes that moment, seizes it and runs with it like those two ran with it.

00:46:02.000 And so it's a tale of totally two different stories.

00:46:07.000 Yeah.

00:46:07.000 I mean, that story about your dad is great.

00:46:08.000 Yeah, I've had some similar ones with mine like that, that they just, you know, you don't know why, but it resonates.

00:46:14.000 And it's a driving force that makes you keep going.

00:46:17.000 So that's pretty amazing.

00:46:19.000 You had mentioned sort of, you obviously have such a love for Wisconsin, the fans over at Green Bay.

00:46:27.000 What was so special about playing at Lambeau Field for you?

00:46:32.000 I mean, it's really a sort of a small town with a football team.

00:46:38.000 What is that like in Green Bay?

00:46:39.000 It's not like New York, right?

00:46:40.000 There's other things.

00:46:42.000 That's the epicenter of everything, isn't it?

00:46:44.000 Football.

00:46:44.000 I mean, it was, and I say this all the time: it was if you were there to play football, that was what you really wanted to do, then there's no better place in the world to play football because they started off the evening news with the latest on the Packers.

00:47:03.000 They ended the news with the latest on the Packers.

00:47:07.000 What happened to the Prime Minister?

00:47:10.000 You know, everyone knew who you were.

00:47:13.000 I mean, it's a small town, so if you went out and ate, everyone knew about it, but that was okay.

00:47:17.000 The people, and I think for me, it was a perfect fit because they're blue-collar, I'm blue-collar.

00:47:24.000 And I, you know, I didn't play the game for them necessarily, but I played it like they would have played it had they got a chance to play.

00:47:32.000 And I can't tell you how many times, more so today than any other time in my life, even though I'm 15 years removed from playing.

00:47:41.000 I get this probably more than anything.

00:47:44.000 The game is missing the enthusiasm and the excitement that you brought.

00:47:50.000 You would throw it was like I hear this one often: every touchdown pass you through, and I threw 500 something, every touchdown pass you through seemed like Christmas morning to you.

00:48:02.000 It was the greatest thing, and that's true.

00:48:05.000 Um, you know, when I first heard that, I was like, you know, I never thought about it, but I was just excited about the last one as I was the first one.

00:48:13.000 And there doesn't seem to be that joy and excitement much in the league anymore.

00:48:21.000 But I think fans in general, whether you like me or not, could relate to that, how I played and the enthusiasm.

00:48:30.000 Because I was always, you know, very thankful that I got an opportunity to do what I always wanted to do.

00:48:38.000 And on top of it, make great money.

00:48:40.000 I'm like, can you believe they pay us to do this?

00:48:42.000 I would do this $50.

00:48:45.000 And I played that way.

00:48:46.000 And I think the people of Wisconsin in general are that type of person, blue-collar, hardworking, love their deer hunting, love their football.

00:48:57.000 And, you know, it was a perfect fit.

00:49:01.000 Yeah.

00:49:01.000 Do you think that, you know, sort of the money in the game?

00:49:03.000 Obviously, you did very well for yourself in the game, but it seems like, you know, every five years out, it's like an exponential shift towards more money when you look at some of these contracts being signed.

00:49:16.000 Do you think that has a role in sort of that change in the game to you?

00:49:23.000 Yeah, you know, I do, Don.

00:49:24.000 I really do.

00:49:25.000 To what percentage, I have no idea, but I think and the same can be said for college.

00:49:34.000 NIL, I can't say that I like it.

00:49:36.000 It is what it is.

00:49:37.000 But I think you take out of the equation, the bonding of the team, the transfer portal, the $500 million contracts.

00:49:49.000 There's not a lot to strive for.

00:49:52.000 If you get a guy that has a tremendous contract like they're giving, but plays the game like he's 12 years old, you really found something special.

00:50:04.000 So I do think it's drastically affected the game today.

00:50:08.000 Yeah, my daughter's a great athlete. 1.00

00:50:10.000 She's ranked, I think, in the top 75 in the NIL overall already.

00:50:16.000 So, she's treating it sort of like a business or as a way to monetize that for a future.

00:50:20.000 I love that for her.

00:50:22.000 In a team sport, it does seem like it's problematic, right?

00:50:26.000 You draft a great quarterback, you bring him to a college, he learns the game, someone offers him 10x bit more money, you leave, you break up that entire dichotomy that the team was formed around this one player.

00:50:36.000 And it does feel like it'll create a lot of chaos.

00:50:40.000 I get it.

00:50:40.000 I think the NCA was definitely taking advantage, you know, of the name, image, and likeness of all of these people for a long period of time.

00:50:48.000 But I don't know that what they came up with doesn't create, again, total chaos and the inability to sort of grow someone well, because if they keep flipping out each and every year just for the next best offer, I think it probably does that player a disservice despite the money, but also everyone else that the team is building around them.

00:51:09.000 Absolutely.

00:51:10.000 And I don't know Nick Saban personally, but his retiring press conference, he said it so clearly.

00:51:18.000 It used to be about mentoring and seeing the maturation of a kid as he goes from a freshman to graduation and on to the pros.

00:51:30.000 And he said, you know, I would go into these homes and I would talk about what I would do with your son and how I would build him up over the years.

00:51:40.000 And he said, then it became, how much are you going to pay me, coach?

00:51:44.000 Yeah.

00:51:45.000 It had nothing to do with all the stuff that led him to be a coach.

00:51:50.000 It was all about what am I going to be paid?

00:51:53.000 Not even am I going to start?

00:51:55.000 You know, just what kind of car are you going to give me?

00:51:58.000 And I just don't see any good in that.

00:52:01.000 Well, it also feels like it would, it's going to aggregate, and you've forgotten more about this than I'll ever know, but it's also going to aggregate, you know, the top talent exclusively, you know, to the top, you know, five, 10 schools that can actually pay that.

00:52:14.000 And some of those other schools that could be great football schools just aren't going to even get a shot at that talent to be able to.

00:52:19.000 So you're just going to have this sort of like three dominant teams that have all the best players.

00:52:24.000 And again, maybe it doesn't matter if they're not working as a team.

00:52:28.000 Maybe that overrules that talent per se.

00:52:32.000 But yeah, it feels like it's going to cause a lot of problems there as well for some of these smaller programs that have produced incredible players over the years, but it may not be, you know, it may not be Michigan, you know, it may not be XYZ school.

00:52:45.000 Well, I'll say it in relation to me.

00:52:49.000 I started as a true freshman at Southern Miss.

00:52:52.000 And had the NIL been around, and I got one offer.

00:52:55.000 That one offer was Southern Miss. 1.00

00:52:56.000 So it was an easy choice for me.

00:52:58.000 And I often think about it, I get asked, what do you think you would have done had the NIL been in play then?

00:53:07.000 Let's just assume we're back in 1987 and I end up starting.

00:53:12.000 And at the end of that year, my body of work was good enough that Alabama or LSU or O Miss or Mississippi State, all the regional close teams said, we're going to go for this kid.

00:53:27.000 We're going to offer him 500,000.

00:53:29.000 Now, my mom and dad were school teachers.

00:53:31.000 My mom taught special education in Mississippi for 35 years. 0.70

00:53:34.000 My dad was the driver's head and coach for 35 years.

00:53:39.000 And as you know, Mississippi's bottom tier and teacher salary.

00:53:44.000 So that would have been a hard thing to not take.

00:53:48.000 Correct.

00:53:49.000 But I may not be talking to you today because I may have gone there and just slipped through the cracks, wasted $500,000 like in three years of walling it maybe in a year because that very easily could happen.

00:54:01.000 And then I'm scrambling around trying to find a job somewhere, teaching school and coaching high school football.

00:54:09.000 And what would have been is just a, you know, a former dream.

00:54:13.000 Oh, yeah.

00:54:14.000 Well, there's something to be said about like not letting 19-year-olds have unlimited sums of money because like that I remember when I was 19, it's like, I think the best thing my parents did, and I'm not saying I wasn't blessed, I'm not saying I wasn't spoiled, but like it wasn't like, here's whatever you want, because like kids are going to make really bad decisions more often than not.

00:54:34.000 Yeah, you know, you're absolutely 100% correct.

00:54:40.000 You can't blame the kid.

00:54:41.000 A 19 year old kid just buys a or is given a, you know a Lamborghini.

00:54:47.000 Yeah, you can't blame the kid.

00:54:49.000 But what?

00:54:50.000 What is that teaching him in a positive way?

00:54:53.000 I, I don't, I don't need to regulate.

00:54:59.000 I mean, it's the wild, wild west uh, Ncoua right now, no question.

00:55:05.000 What Brett, you know, what role, if any, does, you know, faith play in all of this for you, when you reflect on your successes and how you're fighting this battle now with Parkinson's and working nonstop for better treatments and a cure?

00:55:19.000 You know, how hard is that?

00:55:21.000 Can you find peace sort of in this new calling?

00:55:24.000 Absolutely.

00:55:25.000 And, you know, growing up, I'm a Catholic kid.

00:55:30.000 My mother and father, we always went to church.

00:55:32.000 And it was, you know, as a young kid, sometimes it doesn't resonate with you.

00:55:36.000 I mean, it was like something we had to do.

00:55:38.000 It was a chore.

00:55:39.000 In addition to doing what's good for our country, it's an important opportunity to sort of reset reality on what these things actually are.

00:55:46.000 Yeah, I'd argue the Biden administration canceled plenty of visas of people that actually could be the next astronaut, the next nuclear physicist, the next, because they probably weren't reliable Democrat voters.

00:55:58.000 But I think more importantly, as you and my father have both made very clear, gangs like Trend de Laragua, part of Maduro's narco-terrorist regime who've influenced violence on American citizens, murder, as well as the Venezuelan people.

00:56:13.000 This isn't just a foreign problem.

00:56:14.000 It's an American one. 0.62

00:56:16.000 And it's right in our backyard.

00:56:19.000 What else do people need to understand about how deep this really goes?

00:56:23.000 Because this isn't just, hey, they got rid of a couple people.

00:56:26.000 I mean, this seems to me like a serious op designed to really undermine and hurt America at the base level.

00:56:34.000 Yeah, no, there's no doubt that it was used as a tool against it.

00:56:36.000 I think mass migration has been weaponized against America. 0.59

00:56:39.000 I think as the years go on, as the months go on, as we learn more about it, there'll be evidence and proof of that out there.

00:56:44.000 There's no doubt there was a concerted effort, among other things.

00:56:46.000 I mean, there was a lot of people already wanting to come for a lot of reasons.

00:56:50.000 On top of that, I think you had a concerted effort to push people towards the United States.

00:56:54.000 It's not unprecedented.

00:56:56.000 You know, in 1980, Fidel Castro opened up his mental institutions.

00:56:59.000 He opened up his jails and he basically flooded the United States with criminals from Cuba. 0.95

00:57:05.000 And we paid an extraordinary price for it.

00:57:07.000 So it's not unprecedented.

00:57:08.000 In the case of Trendadagua, that was a prison gang inside of Venezuela.

00:57:11.000 The Venezuelan regime pushed them out of the country, knowing that many of them, first of all, they destabilized all kinds of countries neighboring in the region, but ultimately wound their way up here to the United States. 0.96

00:57:22.000 And we saw that trend begin probably in January of 2023.

00:57:26.000 We started to see uptick in people arriving.

00:57:28.000 It was actually Venezuelans that were telling me this, people here in the country.

00:57:31.000 They were saying, look, these people that are coming now, they're members of gangs.

00:57:34.000 And at first you kind of think, well, how do you really know?

00:57:37.000 But they were right.

00:57:38.000 They were absolutely right.

00:57:39.000 And we started to see that.

00:57:40.000 And you started to see them in the unlikeliest places.

00:57:42.000 It wasn't like they were all coming to Miami.

00:57:44.000 They actually were going to places like Chicago and New York and Aurora, Colorado.

00:57:48.000 And, you know, it's sprinkled all over the country.

00:57:51.000 And then the crimes began.

00:57:52.000 So there's no doubt that this was a concerted effort by the Maduro regime, not just to drive these gang members out of their country, but to drive them towards the United States and to inflict the price on this country.

00:58:03.000 And it's right out of the Fidel Castro playbook.

00:58:06.000 Yeah, well, Maria Corina Machada won 92% of the vote there in an open primary despite brutal repression, censorship. 1.00

00:58:16.000 I mean, I had her on the show two, three weeks ago. 0.96

00:58:18.000 She was talking about, I mean, if she went to a restaurant, because she couldn't even fly, driving to a campaign stop, they'd shut down the restaurant for even serving her. 0.86

00:58:26.000 I mean, she's clearly the choice of the Venezuelan people.

00:58:29.000 She was banned from the ballot, but even her surrogate, Edmundo Gonzalez, still won the election by 40 points.

00:58:36.000 I mean, That's not like some of these things here where you say, hey, you know, you won by basis points.

00:58:40.000 Where are the games?

00:58:41.000 I mean, that's pretty decisive, even, you know, in that regime.

00:58:44.000 Would you say the Venezuelan opposition today is more unified and credible than perhaps we've seen in the past and that can actually effectuate real change going forward?

00:58:53.000 Well, they're as brave as they've ever been.

00:58:54.000 And she in particular, Maria Carina Machado is an incredibly brave woman.

00:58:57.000 I mean, and I'm not criticizing anybody when I say this, right?

00:59:00.000 But if you look at the Venezuelan opposition, a large percentage of the well-known figures in it are now living abroad.

00:59:06.000 Because there comes a time where your family's life is threatened or they force you out of the country or you leave, you travel overseas to go give a speech and they don't let you back in.

00:59:13.000 She has stayed, but she's in hiding.

00:59:15.000 You know, they're looking, they're hunting her down every day.

00:59:16.000 Like they're trying to get a hold of her.

00:59:18.000 They've tried to arrest her a couple of times.

00:59:20.000 Incredible bravery.

00:59:20.000 One of the bravest people in the world.

00:59:22.000 And I don't think people know enough about her.

00:59:24.000 But people have to understand.

00:59:25.000 I mean, being in the political opposition in Venezuela at this point is a life-threatening circumstance to be in.

00:59:31.000 I mean, they will put you in jail.

00:59:33.000 They've jailed everybody around her.

00:59:35.000 And these are not like normal jails.

00:59:37.000 I mean, these are atrocious conditions that they're in.

00:59:39.000 So it's not a government.

00:59:41.000 The Maduro regime is not a government.

00:59:43.000 They govern territory because they have the guns and they have the security forces.

00:59:48.000 But it basically is a narco-terrorist organization with strong ties to Iran, strong ties to narco-trafficking.

00:59:54.000 And they just happen to control territory.

00:59:57.000 They don't even control all of Venezuela because the border regions with Colombia are controlled, openly controlled by narco-guerrilla terrorists.

01:00:07.000 So, yeah, I mean, you know, if they had a real election in Venezuela, Maduro would lose, like he did, by a lot.

01:00:13.000 But obviously, the way they stay in power is they kill and jail the people who don't agree with them.

01:00:18.000 Well, you know, I know the Biden administration, I mean, these were regimes that were largely on the ropes until we shut down our own energy production, the Keystone Pipeline, and allowed Chevron to make a deal with the Maduro regime, which gave them the cash that I'm sure was siphoned off and or funneled through back to the regime to keep them in power.

01:00:36.000 I mean, I can't think of a more glaring example of basically giving a lifeline to literally a terrorist dictator than what we saw in the past.

01:00:45.000 How do we reconcile that that even happened in America, despite sort of party differences?

01:00:50.000 I mean, it's so flagrant and that the fact that the media won't even talk about that, won't even talk about this.

01:00:56.000 But if we do anything here, they're so vocal about any kind of change in what was ultimately a failed policy that boosted up a dictator.

01:01:04.000 Look, in foreign policy, we want to be mature and realistic about it.

01:01:07.000 You're going to have to deal with some bad people, right?

01:01:09.000 You're going to have to deal with people that you don't like, people that you don't agree with, but for the purposes of foreign policy, peace, and all that kind of thing, you have to deal with them. 1.00

01:01:16.000 The problem is you can't do it in a stupid way. 0.99

01:01:18.000 And that's what the Biden people did. 1.00

01:01:20.000 They went to Maduro and they said, okay, we're going to do a deal.

01:01:23.000 You promise to hold elections, free and fair elections in like nine months or whatever, and we will immediately lift sanctions and allow you to start producing oil and getting paid for it.

01:01:32.000 It was a side deal, by the way, because they only announced that they did this deal with Chevron.

01:01:36.000 What they didn't announce was that Chevron, with a side secret deal, was allowed to pay the Maduro regime royalties.

01:01:42.000 It accounted for over 25% of all the revenue going into that regime from oil.

01:01:47.000 So they did that deal.

01:01:48.000 Well, they didn't have, you talked about the election.

01:01:50.000 The election was fake.

01:01:51.000 They didn't have an election.

01:01:52.000 And after that, after that, they left the deal in place.

01:01:56.000 They left it in place, even though they violated their word on holding free and fair elections.

01:02:00.000 I think the way they were going to do it, and I don't think at this point you can do it, you say, first you have free and fair elections, then we'll lift the sanctions.

01:02:09.000 And even if you do it the way that the Biden people did, at least, you know, if they don't, if they break their word, you know, undo the thing, you know, stop allowing them to get money.

01:02:17.000 But they didn't do any of that. 0.98

01:02:19.000 So I think it's one more example of stupidity in our foreign policy, which other countries look at and say, well, hell, they got away with that. 0.99

01:02:26.000 We could be able to get away with whatever we want as well. 1.00

01:02:28.000 It's really both weakness and stupidity. 0.99

01:02:30.000 Yeah, I mean, I'm not a foreign policy wonk by any stretch, but I know enough about negotiation to say you don't give up all your leverage. 0.99

01:02:38.000 You don't give the other side everything that they want before you get to the table to figure out what it is that you want.

01:02:43.000 You keep maximum pressure on them so you can actually effectuate real policy changes.

01:02:48.000 Yeah, well, if I want to put it in real estate terms, you don't get to say, okay, pay me for the building and I get to keep the building anyways.

01:02:54.000 Exactly.

01:02:54.000 And that's, you know, and that's pretty much the deal they made.

01:02:57.000 It's like, here's all this money for your, we want to buy your hotel or your property.

01:03:01.000 We're going to send you all this money for it.

01:03:03.000 But by the way, you get to keep the hotel and the property.

01:03:05.000 You get the money and the hotel.

01:03:06.000 That's what these guys got.

01:03:07.000 They got to keep their dictatorship and their deal.

01:03:10.000 But obviously, you know, President Trump is a very different kind of president and that's over now.

01:03:16.000 I agree.

01:03:16.000 Mr. Secretary, could you talk about the impact of your successful leadership and what appears to be a broader pivot into the Western hemisphere?

01:03:25.000 We've seen comparisons to the Monroe Doctrine.

01:03:28.000 Can you talk about the opportunities to shake up the foundations of communism in the Western hemisphere and build strong, long-lasting American alliances in our backyard, whether it's with Bukele in El Salvador, Mille in Argentina, Maria Carina Machara in Venezuela, hopefully eventually, and perhaps others.

01:03:47.000 What does all of that look like to you?

01:03:49.000 Yeah.

01:03:49.000 Well, the baseline is the United States wants to be friends with our friends, right?

01:03:53.000 So for a long time, if you were a U.S. or pro-American ally in the region, we kind of ignored you and in some cases actually treated you bad.

01:03:59.000 But if you were an irritant like Nicaragua or Cuba or Venezuela, then we made all these deals with you to make you happy, right?

01:04:05.000 So we made deals with the people that hated us and we either neglected or sometimes were outright hostile towards the countries that were pro-American.

01:04:13.000 So we reversed all of that.

01:04:14.000 And you can, and look, I mean, maybe I'll miss a country here, but you talk about places like Guyana, Argentina, Paraguay, Costa Rica.

01:04:21.000 You know, the president of Panama is very pro-American, meaning, you know, he wants to be our ally and our partner, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic.

01:04:30.000 So we've made a concerted effort to reach out to these countries that have governments and leaders that want to be aligned with the United States, not just on regional issues, but international issues, and figure out a way.

01:04:39.000 We want those democratically elected leaders to go back to their people and say, hey, there's benefits to being friends of America.

01:04:44.000 Here are the benefits.

01:04:45.000 At the same time, it allows us to clearly define the countries that have governments that are enemies of the United States, unfortunately, in Cuba, in Nicaragua, and obviously the regime in Venezuela.

01:04:58.000 So we identify these.

01:05:00.000 And then others, you know, we've got some tough issues to work through, like with Mexico. 1.00

01:05:03.000 On fairness, you know, I think the Mexicans are doing more today against the cartels and against migration than they have ever, ever done ever before.

01:05:10.000 And obviously, the credit goes to President Trump for being very strong about that.

01:05:14.000 But that's an example of how positive engagement has allowed us to get things, has allowed us to reach a level of cooperation with the Mexican government that we never had before under previous presidents.

01:05:26.000 Great friend of the show, investigative reporter John Solomon.

01:05:31.000 John, thanks for being here.

01:05:32.000 Yeah, great to be with you, Don.

01:05:33.000 Big day.

01:05:34.000 Yeah, it sounds like it.

01:05:35.000 And I guess, guys, this is apparently a lot of this.

01:05:37.000 I guess you just got it a few seconds ago, so we may be breaking some serious news today on the show.

01:05:42.000 But John, this is a massive story on the CCP, the Chinese Communist Party's 2020 election fraud plot.

01:05:52.000 Can you give us the big picture and then we'll go through each detail piece by piece?

01:05:56.000 You bet.

01:05:56.000 So the same country that sent those scientists in with the pathogens a few weeks ago that could wipe out our crops, the same scientists that hid the origins of COVID-19 at the Wuhan Institute for Output.

01:06:06.000 And created it.

01:06:07.000 Yeah, and created it.

01:06:08.000 Lab created it.

01:06:09.000 We now know that DIA had concluded in June 2020 that it was created.

01:06:14.000 That same country had a plot to try to hijack the election and steal it from your father and give it to Joe Biden.

01:06:20.000 Why do we know that?

01:06:21.000 That's exactly what the FBI had.

01:06:23.000 The FBI developed a source.

01:06:25.000 It was a new source.

01:06:26.000 They were still vetting them.

01:06:27.000 This source told the FBI in August of 2020 that China was mass-producing fake U.S. driver's licenses, shipping them to Chinese students and residents, both here illegally and legally in America, so that they could go get fake mail-in ballots and hijack the election.

01:06:43.000 And the report specifically stated that the goal was to help Joe Biden defeat Donald Trump in the 2020 election.

01:06:50.000 Now, it goes out for a few days to the intelligence community like a normal intelligence warning would go out, and then it's suddenly recalled, which is such an odd thing.

01:06:58.000 It very rarely happens.

01:06:59.000 And the reason for the recall is we want to just re-interview the source again, and then it never surfaces ever again.

01:07:05.000 It never gets investigated.

01:07:07.000 It's never looked at.

01:07:08.000 We now know, last night for the reporting I did, that about a month after this report came out, the Customs and Border Protection Agency, a separate federal agency, intercepted about 20,000 of those fake Chinese driver's licenses coming in in the mail into the United States.

01:07:23.000 In other words, the source was corroborated.

01:07:26.000 What they had said actually came true.

01:07:28.000 But that didn't stop the deep state from turning a blind eye, not further investigating this.

01:07:34.000 Kash Patel late last night turned these documents over to Senator Charles Grassy, who first heard about this episode from a whistleblower.

01:07:42.000 It is now corroborated.

01:07:44.000 And just a few minutes ago, I got the actual Intel report language.

01:07:47.000 I can read some of you when we get a chance.

01:07:49.000 Okay.

01:07:49.000 Well, yeah, listen, just so we're clear.

01:07:51.000 So they found 20,000 driver's licenses coming in.

01:07:55.000 That doesn't mean they didn't find lots of others.

01:07:57.000 And I think if I look at the margin of error in some of these states, I mean, you know, whether it's 2016, last election, I mean, this last one was a little bit more of a blowout.

01:08:07.000 But in 16 and 20, I mean, entire states were decided on, you know, 8,000 votes, 15,000 votes.

01:08:15.000 So 20 being just one shipment, and presumably they didn't put all their eggs in one basket and just, you know, get unlucky that they were caught.

01:08:23.000 You know, that could have been the entire election was decided on 45,000 votes in 2020.

01:08:28.000 If they got a couple of these shipments in, you know, that could have been the margin of error by itself.

01:08:33.000 You're exactly right.

01:08:34.000 And the fact that we don't know the answer is the crime here.

01:08:36.000 The FBI didn't do its job.

01:08:38.000 Instead of continuing down the path of investigating, corroborating, when they hear from the CPB, reopening it, all right, maybe you pulled it back, reopened it when the CPB finds the licenses.

01:08:48.000 Nope, they swept it under a rug.

01:08:49.000 And then after the election, remember that famous 60-minute story where the guy from the Homeland Security Department said, this was a perfect election.

01:08:56.000 No foreign interferences.

01:08:58.000 He said he looked in the camera and said that.

01:09:00.000 We now know there were two foreign interferences, this China plot and an earlier plot by Iran to hack a database, steal the identities of tens of thousands of American voters and use it to try to influence the election.

01:09:11.000 So we rely on that one.

01:09:14.000 That's a new one.

01:09:14.000 Well, let's see how much time we have.

01:09:16.000 We got to get into that one.

01:09:17.000 But what I want to know is, you know, all these guys that did that, you know, in their pompous, you know, arrogant, self-righteous ways, I mean, Chris Wray was FBI director during this period of time.

01:09:28.000 And if I recall correctly, didn't he testify before Congress that there was no interference?

01:09:33.000 So when he said that, were they already aware of these things, right?

01:09:39.000 Because I mean, now with the newly declassified intelligence reports, we know they were recalled.

01:09:45.000 Did they get recalled?

01:09:48.000 Because at the exact same time, Christopher Wray testified to Congress that there were no known plots from foreign interference.

01:09:53.000 So this looks like a cover-up.

01:09:55.000 Do we know the timing of when his testimony and when the initial discovery was?

01:09:59.000 This gets recalled in early September, and then Chris Wray is testifying in September at an oversight hearing.

01:10:05.000 Now, Chris Ray is not on the communique here.

01:10:08.000 It goes out to agencies.

01:10:09.000 We don't know if Chris Ray knew, but people inside the FBI absolutely knew and would have known that the testimony Chris Ray was giving was inaccurate based on what they had just gotten from his Chinese source.

01:10:20.000 Selena, it's been a little while since I ran into you in Pennsylvania.

01:10:24.000 Yeah, I did run into you in Pennsylvania.

01:10:26.000 You were at a chocolate factory and you are having a really good time.

01:10:30.000 Well, you know, listen, if you're going to be campaigning, you're going to be working that hard.

01:10:34.000 You have to have a little bit of a good time.

01:10:35.000 And I think that usually works well when you're authentic and you're having a good time.

01:10:40.000 People get it also, which is probably somewhat helpful in politics as well.

01:10:43.000 Yeah, absolutely.

01:10:45.000 Well, thank you for joining today.

01:10:46.000 I know you were just feet away from my father back almost a year ago, almost exactly a year ago, when shots broke out in Butler.

01:10:58.000 Take us through that sequence of events and how it really shaped your new book.

01:11:04.000 So that, you know, I think it's important to say people running for president don't go to places like Butler.

01:11:13.000 Yeah.

01:11:14.000 And they go to places like East Palestine.

01:11:17.000 And I had written a story right before he went the day before saying, why does he go to Butler?

01:11:23.000 I understand that.

01:11:25.000 And these are the people, and your father and I have talked about this numerous times that he has a connective tissue to.

01:11:33.000 And he feels as though both parties have left them behind for generations.

01:11:39.000 So that day I was set to interview your dad.

01:11:45.000 When you're a journalist, there's a level of expectation that things are going to change.

01:11:50.000 And things changed several times that day.

01:11:54.000 Chris Lasavita texts me, Zito, you got five minutes with the president.

01:11:59.000 I'm like, okay, well, I know your dad.

01:12:01.000 I know I'd get more time.

01:12:02.000 Yeah, that could turn into an hour really quickly with him once he gets going.

01:12:05.000 It really does.

01:12:08.000 And then I get to the farm, the farm show complex.

01:12:12.000 I should tell people that Butler is very near and dear to my heart.

01:12:16.000 My family first settled there in the 1750s.

01:12:20.000 One of the founding families of Butler, Pennsylvania.

01:12:24.000 So I know this place really, really well.

01:12:27.000 So I get there.

01:12:28.000 It's hot.

01:12:29.000 It's hot as heck.

01:12:30.000 I bring, see, it hits 100 that day.

01:12:33.000 And there's no trees to cover you.

01:12:36.000 There's nothing to go to any shade to get to.

01:12:40.000 And I bring my daughter.

01:12:41.000 She's a photo journalist.

01:12:43.000 She's going to do the photos.

01:12:45.000 And we drag my poor son-in-law, who's like a finance guy, right?

01:12:51.000 But we vainly believed that he was going to hold all the equipment and we would stay nice and, you know, we wouldn't get sweaty.

01:12:59.000 Well, that didn't happen.

01:13:00.000 We were a mess by the end of the day.

01:13:02.000 But once we get there, about two hours in, I get a text from Susie Wiles.

01:13:08.000 She's today, she is the president's chief of staff. 0.72

01:13:11.000 At the time, she was the other co-campaign chair.

01:13:14.000 And she says, Hey, Selena, we're going to have to make some changes.

01:13:19.000 And as a reporter, I'm thinking, well, it's probably going to get canceled.

01:13:23.000 And when you're at a rally, these the internet like breaks down.

01:13:28.000 So you don't.

01:13:29.000 Yeah, the Secret Service, there's all sorts of jamming stuff.

01:13:32.000 You can never, you can never live stream.

01:13:33.000 I always try to do it, you know, just for various social, just to give people that sort of firsthand experience of it.

01:13:38.000 It just usually never works well.

01:13:40.000 Yeah.

01:13:40.000 It never works.

01:13:41.000 So I thought, oh, well, it's not happening.

01:13:43.000 And then the rest of the text comes through.

01:13:45.000 And she goes, How about five minutes after?

01:13:48.000 And I'm like, fine, I'll roll with it.

01:13:51.000 And then like three or four, I mean, I'm there for ever.

01:13:54.000 Now, three or four hours later, your father's plane has landed.

01:13:58.000 He's in the back of the stage area.

01:14:00.000 If people aren't familiar with this, this is called the click area.

01:14:04.000 This is the area where the president will meet with local law enforcement, firemen, paramedics, police, state trooper.

01:14:15.000 But also they pull, I always find this very lovely.

01:14:18.000 I wish more people saw this.

01:14:20.000 They always pull people from the event just to go back and meet the president, shake his hand.

01:14:25.000 He talks with them, he hugs them.

01:14:28.000 It's a very endearing moment.

01:14:30.000 And so he's back there.

01:14:32.000 And I get a text from Susie and she says, so change of plans.

01:14:37.000 And I'm like, there it is.

01:14:39.000 It's canceled.

01:14:40.000 And it wasn't canceled.

01:14:42.000 She said, how would you feel about going to Bedminster and doing the interview on the plane?

01:14:47.000 And I'm like, well, okay.

01:14:50.000 I didn't have that on my bingo card.

01:14:52.000 Come in.

01:14:53.000 That's an upgrade.

01:14:54.000 Yeah.

01:14:54.000 He said, the president really wants to talk to you about Pennsylvania.

01:14:58.000 I said, I'm all in.

01:15:00.000 And so five minutes before he's supposed to come and get myself, my daughter, my son-in-law, Michelle Picard III, and his name is very, very important, comes running back.

01:15:12.000 He is the campaign advance man.

01:15:14.000 So it's go time.

01:15:16.000 I'm like, okay, they changed their mind again.

01:15:18.000 So we race through the crowd.

01:15:21.000 We get behind the stage.

01:15:23.000 We're standing there.

01:15:24.000 We're at the end of the click line.

01:15:26.000 And I look at Picard and I say, where are we doing this interview?

01:15:29.000 And he's like very sheepish.

01:15:31.000 He's like, I actually don't know.

01:15:33.000 So he goes around and he asks the president and he comes back and he says, he just wanted to say hi to you.

01:15:41.000 We're still going to Bedminster.

01:15:44.000 So I'm making my way around the blue curtain and I can hear your dad.

01:15:49.000 I can hear your dad.

01:15:50.000 He always says my name the same way, Salina.

01:15:53.000 He like exaggerates the E.

01:15:56.000 And he gives me the same greeting he always gives me.

01:16:00.000 Look at that hair.

01:16:02.000 Guys, doesn't she have the most beautiful hair in America? 1.00

01:16:05.000 And of course, it's a room filled with state troopers.

01:16:08.000 And I'm so like, I'm so awkward, right?

01:16:11.000 I just want to like crawl inside myself.

01:16:13.000 Listen, I mean, I'd say it's solid bag of hair, though.

01:16:16.000 I mean, it's a, it's a, you know, hey, as a Trump, I don't make fun of hair because, you know, one day I could wake up if those genes ever kick in, it could be a total disaster.

01:16:24.000 So I'm just, you know, I go with it.

01:16:27.000 So, so he's like, he asks, he remembers my grandchildren's names.

01:16:32.000 He asks about them.

01:16:33.000 He asks about my kids.

01:16:35.000 And he said, I'm really looking forward to talking about Pennsylvania.

01:16:37.000 I really am looking forward to this interview.

01:16:39.000 It's going to be great.

01:16:41.000 Now, at that point, as most people know, there's a sort of sequence that happens with music.

01:16:49.000 And I know Lee Greenwood's song is next.

01:16:52.000 And so I'm ushered out of there quite quickly.

01:16:55.000 And Picard doesn't know what to do with me.

01:16:58.000 So he says, you know, you're just going to have to stay in the buffer.

01:17:02.000 The buffer is that well between the president's stage and the people that are attending the rally.

01:17:09.000 And he goes, you just go in through the buffer and make your way over to the other side because you're just going to hop in the motorcade.

01:17:17.000 I'm going to be able, I'm going to need to grab you and Shannon.

01:17:20.000 I said, okay.

01:17:22.000 So your dad comes out.

01:17:24.000 In fact, if you look at the cover of Butler, my daughter took that photo.

01:17:28.000 Oh, wow.

01:17:29.000 And it's very significant why we chose that as the cover because it says so much about what he tells me later.

01:17:38.000 And so we get out there.

01:17:39.000 He goes, if people were following me on Twitter that day, I had video and pictures, people in the stands, your dad, make our way sort of over to the other side because I don't like logistics.

01:17:52.000 I don't want to fail at them.

01:17:54.000 I want to make sure I'm exactly where they told me to be.

01:17:58.000 And your dad does two things that he never does.

01:18:04.000 A chart comes down.

01:18:05.000 Now, if there's ever a chart, the chart is always on the other side of him.

01:18:11.000 And it's always at the end.

01:18:13.000 And it's pretty rare that there's a chart anyways.

01:18:17.000 So this chart comes down.

01:18:19.000 It's a digital chart.

01:18:21.000 And I'm thinking, I said to my daughter at the time, I'm like, what is he, Ross Perot?

01:18:26.000 Like, yeah, he's never, that was the odd thing about that day.

01:18:28.000 I noticed that too.

01:18:29.000 It's like, yeah, I've been to a, let's call it, you know, what, just shy of a billion rallies.

01:18:34.000 I've never seen him use like a PowerPoint presentation.

01:18:36.000 Like, he's never done it.

01:18:37.000 You know what I mean?

01:18:38.000 It's not his style.

01:18:39.000 Yeah, it's not his style.

01:18:40.000 And then he does something else.

01:18:42.000 And I'm sure you know this about your father.

01:18:45.000 The relationship between him and the people that attend is very connective.

01:18:52.000 There's a lot of connective tissue there.

01:18:54.000 It's very transactional.

01:18:56.000 And what do I mean by that?

01:18:57.000 Well, he feeds off of their energy, but they also feed off of his energy, right?

01:19:03.000 It's very mutual.

01:19:05.000 So your dad may turn his whole body to face a different part of the rally, but he never turns his neck.

01:19:12.000 He never turns his neck.

01:19:15.000 The chart goes down.

01:19:17.000 I forget the words that he says.

01:19:18.000 He turns his neck and it's pop, pop, pop, pop.

01:19:22.000 Goes right over my head.

01:19:24.000 Now, when people say that time slows down for them in the midst of something that's traumatic, I will say that was also the case for me.

01:19:38.000 And it almost seemed to have my, I remember just feeling out of body, not out of body, but just almost had a 360 feeling of my place.

01:19:51.000 And I remember seeing the blood go across your face, your dad's face.

01:19:56.000 I remember him, I mean, I'm just a few feet away.

01:20:00.000 And I see him grab his ear.

01:20:03.000 And then I see him take himself down.

01:20:05.000 And I remember making a mental note.

01:20:07.000 He didn't fall.

01:20:09.000 He wasn't knocked off of his feet.

01:20:11.000 He was able to take himself down.

01:20:13.000 That's a good sign.

01:20:15.000 And then he's surrounded at the same time, he's surrounded by a sea of blue suits, right?

01:20:22.000 The Secret Service, his field people, they put a protective stance around him.

01:20:29.000 There's another four shots.

01:20:31.000 Now, I'm still standing.

01:20:34.000 There was a part of me that was saying, God gave you a gift.

01:20:40.000 You are someone who recounts history and you have a purpose in this moment and you need to live up to that.

01:20:49.000 And obviously it was a conversation with myself, right?

01:20:53.000 But I remember thinking that so vividly.

01:20:56.000 So my recorder is still on.

01:20:58.000 I always have my recorder on when your dad has a rally, not because a transcript doesn't come a couple hours later, but I think it is important as a journalist, not just with presidential candidates, but also with people, to catch the nuance when someone says something.

01:21:19.000 Because if you don't do that when you're writing the story, it can come across in a very different way.

01:21:25.000 Yeah.

01:21:26.000 You're interviewing.

01:21:28.000 I've seen that a lot where it's like, you know, if you play the video or the audio of me saying something, it clearly means something, but you put it in print, you change the punctuation a little bit.

01:21:38.000 You know, a question looks like a statement.

01:21:40.000 A statement looks like a question.

01:21:42.000 They can manipulate that very, very easily in print.

01:21:46.000 Yes.

01:21:46.000 And I wouldn't do that to your father.

01:21:48.000 And I wouldn't do it to anybody that I interview.

01:21:50.000 I wouldn't do it to the car service guy.

01:21:52.000 I wouldn't do it to the mechanic, right?

01:21:54.000 That's my obligation as a reporter.

01:21:57.000 So I forget that the recorder is on.

01:22:01.000 It's in my pocket.

01:22:02.000 At that moment, Michelle Picard III, like 28 years old, cancer survivor, just comes flying over and knocks me down. 1.00

01:22:13.000 Like, get down, get down, get down.

01:22:15.000 And he protects me.

01:22:17.000 And I'm thinking, I just met this kid six hours ago.

01:22:20.000 Yeah.

01:22:20.000 Like that's next level, right?

01:22:23.000 In terms, it tells you a lot, you know, about who your father surrounds himself with and who that he makes part of, whether it's his cabinet or his administration or the people that just work for him.

01:22:37.000 And so I can see your dad from the angle I'm at.

01:22:42.000 I can see your dad.

01:22:44.000 I can see, I can hear the conversation.

01:22:47.000 I know the shooter is dead.

01:22:49.000 And then I know that your dad's okay because he's, this was kind of funny.

01:22:54.000 If it wasn't so tragic, it was funny.

01:22:57.000 He's fighting with them about putting his shoes on.

01:23:01.000 When I saw all of it, even when he came back up, I was like, I told him, like, I was like, that was the most badass thing I've ever seen.

01:23:07.000 I'm not sure it's the smartest tactically because who knows if there's another shooter, but like he was not going to not get up there and show that level of resolve, which I think, you know, people now understand.

01:23:17.000 And I think it was a big turning point in an election because they're like, you know what?

01:23:20.000 I want that representing me, not word salad combala.

01:23:25.000 It's important that you point that out because the next morning, your dad calls me at ODAR 30.

01:23:32.000 And the first thing he says is, Selena, this is Donald Trump, President Donald Trump.

01:23:39.000 I'm like, yeah, like I don't know it's you, right?

01:23:42.000 He's got a distinct voice.

01:23:43.000 Yeah.

01:23:43.000 Announces his name.

01:23:45.000 He said, I just want to make sure that you are okay, that Shannon is okay and Michael is okay, meeting my daughter, a son-in-law.

01:23:52.000 And I'm really sorry I didn't get to do that interview with you.

01:23:56.000 I was like, I did something.

01:23:58.000 My parents are going to be so mad at me when they read the book.

01:24:01.000 I said, I swear like a truck driver to the president of the United States.

01:24:05.000 I never swear.

01:24:07.000 And I said, are you bleeping kidding me?

01:24:09.000 I didn't say bleep.

01:24:10.000 I said another word.

01:24:13.000 And I'm like, you have been shot.

01:24:15.000 I'm like, that is so kind of you.

01:24:17.000 And I'm not worried about an interview.

01:24:19.000 And your dad would go on to call me seven times that day.

01:24:25.000 And very powerful conversations.

01:24:29.000 We talked a lot about, you know, I suppose other journalists would have handled it in a different way, but he'd been through a traumatic experience.

01:24:38.000 And I did too, not to the extent that he had, but certainly just being a witness to history, right?

01:24:46.000 Yeah.

01:24:46.000 And so your dad starts talking to me, asking me, but I think he was more asking himself, like, why did I turn my head, Selena?

01:24:55.000 Why did I put that chart down?

01:24:58.000 And then he comes to a conclusion where he says, that had to be God.

01:25:02.000 That was the hand of God, wasn't it?

01:25:04.000 Yeah.

01:25:04.000 And that's why I said, I mean, when you look at all the shortcomings, I'm sure we'll get into that shortly with the failure, this, that.

01:25:10.000 I mean, I don't believe in that much coincidence, but, you know, watching him go to a chart that he never has done before, all of those things happening in that instant.

01:25:19.000 I remember when I was talking to him about it either the next day or whatever.

01:25:23.000 And he was like, well, you know, 130 yards, pretty far shot.

01:25:25.000 I'm like, no, I mean, I came from a competitive, you know, shooting background and everything.

01:25:29.000 I was like, no, that's like missing a, you know, quite literally a 100-yard shot prone from a roof for 10 minutes.

01:25:36.000 It's like, that'd be like missing a, you know, a six-inch putt, you know, on someone's head.

01:25:41.000 And he's like, I was like, yeah, dad, it's not golf where, you know, if you get it within 10 feet of the hole, it's a, you know, it's a great shot from 100 yards.

01:25:48.000 It's a little different in shooting.

01:25:49.000 Like, if I couldn't hit a golf ball every time at 100 yards, I'm doing something really badly wrong.

01:25:53.000 Yeah.

01:25:54.000 He, Don, this is, this was the part that I think is the most important part, not just in terms of his character and understanding the moment, but also redefining American politics and the coalition that has formed around him.

01:26:14.000 Because I said to him, Why did you say fight, fight, fight?

01:26:19.000 Because I could see him.

01:26:21.000 The crowd was saying USA as he's getting up and he says USA a couple of times.

01:26:26.000 I don't even know if he remembers that.

01:26:28.000 But I remember, and he was not saying it out loud, but he was repeating what they were saying.

01:26:33.000 And then he turns around and he says, he's like to the Secret Service, wait, And he says, fight, fight, fight.

01:26:39.000 So I said, why did you say that?

01:26:42.000 And this is a part of him that I think more people should know.

01:26:47.000 He says, in that moment, I wasn't Donald Trump.

01:26:51.000 I was representing the country, the presidency, and all the grit, all the exceptionalism, everything that the country stands for.

01:27:01.000 I had an obligation to show that strength.

01:27:04.000 I had an obligation because the people there would have would have, you know, there could have been chaos.

01:27:10.000 There could have been a stampede.

01:27:12.000 So an obligation for the country is watching this.

01:27:15.000 We are a resilient, strong country.

01:27:17.000 And as that, as that, in that moment, I'm not representing me.

01:27:23.000 I'm representing what America stands for.

01:27:26.000 Yeah, you know, it's interesting you say that because I had two people, because obviously that was right before the RNC.

01:27:33.000 You know, basically that was Saturday, I think Sunday night we went to the RNC or Monday morning, we went to the RNC and we were there for a week.

01:27:41.000 And two separate people came up to me at the RNC and told me this thing that you're sort of saying as well.

01:27:48.000 And I didn't even realize if he was conscious of it or not.

01:27:51.000 But he goes, your dad saved a lot of lives that day.

01:27:54.000 And I go, what are you talking about?

01:27:55.000 What do you mean?

01:27:55.000 Like, he got shot at.

01:27:57.000 But how did he?

01:27:58.000 He goes, when he came back up and he did that fight, fight, fight thing, everyone just calmed down.

01:28:06.000 He goes, you know, I was on the highest level of one of the rafters and like people were trying to stampede.

01:28:12.000 This thing was going to collapse and crush people in the wake.

01:28:16.000 The second he did that, it was just like a calming force across the entire, you know, the entire field.

01:28:22.000 Everyone just sort of stopped and we're in the moment and it allowed things to settle down, which was kind of amazing.

01:28:27.000 I never thought of it.

01:28:28.000 I never thought of it until that, but like two separate people came and said it and you seem to be sort of saying the same thing.

01:28:33.000 Yeah.

01:28:34.000 I talked to him two weeks ago and we went back to that.

01:28:39.000 And he said, yeah, you know, that's why I did it.

01:28:43.000 I thought it was the right thing to do.

01:28:45.000 And to your point about the crowd, it was fascinating to me.

01:28:50.000 And that did happen.

01:28:51.000 The crowd immediately calmed down.

01:28:54.000 People evacuated quietly.

01:28:57.000 There was no screaming.

01:28:58.000 I mean, obviously there's a medic there.

01:29:00.000 The medic is with Corey and Helen and the other two men that have been injured.

01:29:05.000 They were very seriously injured as well.

01:29:07.000 They almost died.

01:29:10.000 But they left quietly.

01:29:12.000 And the Secret Service took me to the back of the stage where the click room was.

01:29:18.000 I think because of that sort of iconic photo of me with that cowboy boots on and Picard on top of me, I think they thought I had been injured and I didn't know that, which is possible.

01:29:29.000 There are people that get hurt and they don't know it because the adrenaline.

01:29:33.000 The adrenaline kicks in.

01:29:34.000 You don't even feel it.

01:29:35.000 Yeah.

01:29:36.000 And so I didn't go out until an hour later.

01:29:39.000 Well, we walk out and we see this farm field.

01:29:43.000 It's so quiet.

01:29:45.000 And there's a wheelchair just sitting in the middle of it. 0.60

01:29:51.000 And the farm field, you know, Pennsylvania really well.

01:29:53.000 We have these, Appalachia, you have these rolling mountains.

01:29:57.000 So the farm field rolls just like the rest of the train.

01:30:01.000 And that's where the parking lot was.

01:30:03.000 Now, there were at least 50,000 people there that day.

01:30:06.000 So that means there's anywhere between 15 to 20,000 cars there.

01:30:11.000 They were all still there.

01:30:13.000 Oh, wow.

01:30:14.000 And people were out of their vehicles.

01:30:16.000 They were hugging.

01:30:17.000 They were singing.

01:30:19.000 I get chills when I think about how people behaved in the moment.

01:30:24.000 I actually have never even heard that.

01:30:25.000 I didn't realize that.

01:30:26.000 And obviously, that's not a story the media is ever going to tell because they want to vilify every Trump supporter and every sort of America first patriot and all that.

01:30:35.000 But that's pretty incredible, actually.

01:30:36.000 I had no idea.

01:30:37.000 They were sharing water.

01:30:39.000 They were sharing food.

01:30:40.000 If someone's phone wasn't working, they were calling loved ones for them to let them know they're okay.

01:30:45.000 And we were down there for another hour.

01:30:47.000 So that was a total of two hours that they were down there.

01:30:49.000 It was the most beautiful thing that I saw. 0.97

01:30:52.000 And I remember thinking, and I wrote this in the book, they disparage these people so much, bitter clingers, Bible holders, you know, clinging to a past life, angry, resentful, deplorable, garbage, right? 0.99

01:31:09.000 Extremist. 0.95

01:31:10.000 And I thought, and I've always thought this, now it's because I'm from Pennsylvania, it's because I've never left Western Pennsylvania.

01:31:17.000 These are the best people in the world.

01:31:19.000 And they showed that in that moment.

01:31:23.000 There's no cameras rolling, right?

01:31:25.000 There's no benefit for them to behave in a certain way.

01:31:29.000 And I really thought that your dad, because he did that, not just in that field, but also in the rafters, but also across the country, could have been incredibly different.

01:31:43.000 That moment changed American politics.

01:31:47.000 There are two moments in the past year and a half that changed American politics that I think people just haven't understood the depth of it.

01:31:55.000 One of it, one of them was when he went to East Palestine with JD.

01:32:02.000 I was on that trip.

01:32:02.000 Yep.

01:32:04.000 I remember.

01:32:05.000 That was an ugly day.

01:32:07.000 Typical Appalachia, right?

01:32:09.000 Like gray sky.

01:32:10.000 It's like sleet, snow.

01:32:12.000 You don't know what's in the air.

01:32:14.000 You don't know what's in the puddles, right?

01:32:17.000 But your dad comes rolling in with bottled water, buys all the law enforcement McDonald's.

01:32:24.000 But most importantly, he walks around town.

01:32:27.000 Now, my family is from East Palestine.

01:32:30.000 Oh, wow.

01:32:31.000 My great-grandfather was a farm boy and a coal miner from East Palestine.

01:32:36.000 He even ran for office as a free silver Democrat, which today would be a Republican.

01:32:42.000 Yeah.

01:32:44.000 Right?

01:32:45.000 And, you know, it's a village of 1800.

01:32:49.000 Nobody else cared.

01:32:51.000 But your dad, that moment changed because in that February of 2023, your dad was probably at the lowest point in terms of polling with DeSantis, right?

01:33:04.000 And he was down, the New Hampshire poll had just come out a couple of days beforehand, and he was down to DeSantis.

01:33:12.000 And I wrote the story that day.

01:33:13.000 I still have, like, it has water stains on it on the paper as I was writing my notes down.

01:33:19.000 I said, if everything changes for him, it happened right here.

01:33:23.000 This is his inflection point.

01:33:25.000 Two weeks later, he's ahead of the polls and he never looks back.

01:33:29.000 Some lunatic called it a threat to try to keep us from going on the stage.

01:33:33.000 Again, we went out there anyway, without fear.

01:33:38.000 Charlie led the way.

01:33:40.000 His message was clear then, and his message is clear now.

01:33:46.000 We won't back down.

01:33:53.000 We won't be intimidated.

01:33:59.000 And one of the most important points yesterday, I think, was made by Erica Kirk, who showed so much courage.

01:34:07.000 That's not easy, guys.

01:34:08.000 It's not easy to do it if you didn't just lose your husband, the father of your two young kids, 11 days ago.

01:34:13.000 No, it was hard no matter what.

01:34:15.000 But she showed a lot of courage, just even being able to get up there.

01:34:19.000 Because after Charlie's assassination, we didn't see violence.

01:34:24.000 We didn't see rioting.

01:34:26.000 We saw revival.

01:34:28.000 We saw people go to church.

01:34:29.000 We saw turning point chapters popping up all over the place.

01:34:32.000 And as I posted on X, that is the biggest fact-check true I've ever seen.

01:34:38.000 Most of all, God's mercy and God's love have been revealed to me these past 10 days.

01:34:45.000 After Charlie's assassination, we didn't see violence.

01:34:50.000 We didn't see rioting.

01:35:05.000 We didn't see revolution.

01:35:09.000 Instead, we saw what my husband always prayed he would see in this country.

01:35:14.000 We saw revival.

01:35:21.000 That sort of all tells you everything you need to know, right?

01:35:24.000 Things aren't being burnt down.

01:35:27.000 We're not destroying property.

01:35:28.000 There's no looting.

01:35:30.000 We're seeing a new American revival happening right before our very eyes.

01:35:35.000 And that's a big deal, guys.

01:35:36.000 That's exactly what we need.

01:35:37.000 People are finally waking up across the board.

01:35:41.000 Because as my father said, Charlie's murder was not just an attack on one man or one movement.

01:35:49.000 It was an attack on our entire nation.

01:35:52.000 I actually believe it.

01:35:53.000 It was an attack on our entire civilization.

01:35:55.000 Check out DJT on Charlie here. 0.95

01:35:57.000 Every single American should take a long, hard look at the twisted soul and dark spirit of anyone who would want to kill a young man as good as Charlie, to kill anybody, but to kill a man like this. 0.82

01:36:11.000 He didn't deserve this. 0.96

01:36:13.000 He didn't deserve this.

01:36:14.000 Our country didn't deserve this.

01:36:15.000 And anyone who would make excuses for it are just out of their mind.

01:36:23.000 Charlie's murder was not just an attack on one man or one movement.

01:36:28.000 It was an attack on our entire nation.

01:36:32.000 That was a horrible attack on the United States of America.

01:36:37.000 It was an assault on our most sacred liberties and God-given rights.

01:36:40.000 The gun was pointed at him, but the bullet was aimed at all of us.

01:36:45.000 That bullet was aimed at every one of us.

01:36:48.000 Indeed, Charlie was killed for expressing the very ideas that virtually everyone in this arena and most other places throughout our country deeply believed in.

01:36:59.000 But the assassin failed in his quest because Charlie's message has not been silenced.

01:37:04.000 It now is bigger and better and stronger than ever before.

01:37:10.000 And it's not even close.

01:37:13.000 This isn't just about singing kumbaya.

01:37:16.000 It's about understanding the moment that we're in and understanding what exactly we are up against because I think we've lost sight of that.

01:37:24.000 That's why I probably got in trouble, probably by some people.

01:37:28.000 I guess some people understood it.

01:37:29.000 But when I said, you know, watch the video of Charlie getting shot.

01:37:33.000 I can't do that.

01:37:34.000 It's terrible.

01:37:35.000 It's like, I don't know.

01:37:36.000 You have to.

01:37:37.000 And it is brutal and it is gruesome.

01:37:39.000 But you have to understand exactly what we are up against because it is not the same as you and I in a disagreement.

01:37:46.000 It's sick. 0.98

01:37:47.000 It's deranged and it's evil. 0.92

01:37:49.000 And actually standing up for this country and the values that make this nation so great, that's a big deal.

01:37:57.000 Stephen Miller did not hold back.

01:37:59.000 He was fire.

01:38:01.000 Sending a message to the extreme left that they have no idea the dragons they have awakened.

01:38:08.000 Check this out.

01:38:11.000 Hello, turning point.

01:38:13.000 Hello, Patriots.

01:38:18.000 Hello to our fearless president, Donald J. Trump.

01:38:26.000 And hello to millions of Americans all across this land who are gathered in sadness and sorrow to mourn Charlie Kirk, but also to dedicate ourselves to finishing his mission and achieving victory in his name.

01:38:58.000 The day that Charlie died, the angels wept, but those tears had been turned into fire in our hearts.

01:39:11.000 And that fire burns with a righteous fury that our enemies cannot comprehend or understand.

01:39:21.000 When I see Erica and her strength and her courage, I'm reminded of a famous expression.

01:39:31.000 The storm whispers to the warrior that you cannot withstand my strength.

01:39:40.000 And the warrior whispers back, I am the storm.

01:39:45.000 Erica is the storm.

01:39:50.000 We are the storm.

01:39:52.000 And our enemies cannot comprehend our strength, our determination, our resolve, our passion.

01:40:02.000 Our lineage and our legacy hails back to Athens, to Rome, to Philadelphia, to Monticello.

01:40:11.000 Our ancestors built the cities.

01:40:14.000 They produced the art and architecture.

01:40:17.000 They built the industry.

01:40:20.000 Erica stands on the shoulders of thousands of years of warriors, of women who raised up families, raised up city, raised up industry, raised up civilization, who pulled us out of the caves and the darkness into the light.

01:40:38.000 The light will defeat the dark.

01:40:41.000 We will prevail over the forces of wickedness and evil.

01:40:46.000 They cannot imagine what they have awakened.

01:40:50.000 They cannot conceive of the army that they have arisen in all of us.

01:40:57.000 Because we stand for what is good, what is virtuous, what is noble.

01:41:02.000 And to those trying to incite violence against us, those trying to foment hatred against us, what do you have?

01:41:11.000 You have nothing.

01:41:12.000 You are nothing. 0.97

01:41:14.000 You are wickedness. 0.89

01:41:15.000 You are jealousy.

01:41:16.000 You are envy.

01:41:18.000 You are hatred. 0.99

01:41:19.000 You are nothing. 0.99

01:41:21.000 You can build nothing.

01:41:22.000 You can produce nothing.

01:41:24.000 You can create nothing.

01:41:27.000 We are the ones who build.

01:41:29.000 We are the ones who create.

01:41:31.000 We are the ones who lift up humanity.

01:41:36.000 You thought you could kill Charlie Kirk.

01:41:39.000 You have made him immortal.

01:41:42.000 You have immortalized Charlie Kirk.

01:41:44.000 And now millions will carry on his legacy.

01:41:49.000 And we will devote the rest of our lives To finishing the causes for which Charlie gave his last measure of devotion.

01:42:01.000 You cannot defeat us.

01:42:02.000 You cannot slow us.

01:42:03.000 You cannot stop us.

01:42:05.000 You cannot deter us.

01:42:07.000 We will carry Charlie and Erica in our heart every single day and fight that much harder because of what you did to us.

01:42:16.000 You have no idea.

01:42:18.000 The dragon you have awakened.

01:42:20.000 You have no idea how determined we will be to save this civilization, to save the West, to save this republic.

01:42:32.000 Because our children are strong, and our grandchildren will be strong, and our children's children's children will be strong.

01:42:39.000 And what will you leave behind?

01:42:42.000 Nothing.

01:42:43.000 Nothing.

01:42:44.000 To our enemies, you have nothing to give.

01:42:46.000 You have nothing to offer.

01:42:47.000 You have nothing to share but bitterness.

01:42:50.000 We have beauty.

01:42:51.000 We have light.

01:42:52.000 We have goodness.

01:42:54.000 We have determination.

01:42:55.000 We have vision.

01:42:56.000 We have strength.

01:42:58.000 We built the world that we inhabit now, generation by generation.

01:43:03.000 And we will defend this world.

01:43:05.000 We will defend goodness.

01:43:06.000 We will defend light.

01:43:08.000 We will defend virtue.

01:43:09.000 You cannot terrify us.

01:43:11.000 You cannot frighten us.

01:43:13.000 You cannot threaten us because we are on the side of goodness.

01:43:18.000 We are on the side of God.

01:43:20.000 And to my friend, Charlie, to my brother Charlie, I know you are looking at us right now.

01:43:28.000 I know you're watching Erica right now.

01:43:30.000 I know you're watching your children right now.

01:43:34.000 And I promise you, my friend, I promise you, my brother, we will prove worthy of your sacrifice.

01:43:42.000 We will prove worthy of your time on earth.

01:43:46.000 We will make you proud.

01:43:49.000 We will finish the job.

01:43:51.000 We will defeat the forces of darkness and evil.

01:43:54.000 And we will stand every day for what is true, what is beautiful, what is good.

01:44:00.000 And we will achieve victory for our children, for our families, for our civilization, and for every patriot who stands with us.

01:44:11.000 God bless you.

01:44:13.000 God bless Turning Point.

01:44:14.000 God bless Erica. 0.99

01:44:16.000 God bless the Kirk family.

01:44:18.000 God bless our heroes.

01:44:20.000 And God bless the United States of America.

01:44:23.000 Thank you.

01:44:27.000 I don't want to hear any BS about both sides.

01:44:31.000 It's not both sides, guys.

01:44:32.000 It's one side.

01:44:34.000 One side wants to save America and the other side wants to apologize for America.

01:44:39.000 One side wants to burn down your street.

01:44:42.000 Our side wants to rebuild it.

01:44:44.000 That's a fundamental difference, guys.

01:44:46.000 We got to make sure we understand that.

01:44:48.000 One side wants to have a debate and dialogue.

01:44:51.000 The other side wants to shut it down with threats of violence.

01:44:55.000 As JD closed out his remarks yesterday, may our Heavenly Father give us the courage to live as Charlie lived.

01:45:03.000 That is what we must do for Charlie.

01:45:06.000 You ran a good race, my friend.

01:45:08.000 We've got it from here.

01:45:10.000 So, guys, we've got it from here. 0.99

01:45:13.000 But that doesn't happen by sitting on your butts. 0.99

01:45:16.000 We have to act. 0.98

01:45:17.000 We have to be out there.

01:45:19.000 We have to stay engaged.

01:45:20.000 We have to understand what's at stake.

01:45:22.000 And we must never, ever, ever give up.

01:45:26.000 We have four top 10 captures on the FBI's most wanted list this year alone.

01:45:31.000 That equals the number of the entirety of the Biden administration.

01:45:34.000 That means four of the worst criminal animals on planet Earth were captured by Donald Trump's FBI in nine months.

01:45:42.000 On top of that, we have seized enough fentanyl, 100 to kill 127 million Americans.

01:45:46.000 That's up 23%.

01:45:48.000 Our work on violent crimes against children is historic. 0.94

01:45:52.000 We have found, identified, and discovered 6,000 children this year alone.

01:45:56.000 That's up 30%.

01:45:58.000 We have dismantled human trafficking organizations looking to enslave our children.

01:46:02.000 That is up 14%.

01:46:04.000 And we have also, this may be one of the most proud stats when it comes to protecting our youth, especially online.

01:46:09.000 Nihilistic violent extremist networks like 764, praying and mutilizing children and causing them to commit suicide online and things like animal crushing.

01:46:18.000 Our arrest in that category is up 590%.

01:46:22.000 These numbers are because the mission of this FBI is simply to get after people who are looking to destroy our way of life, harm our children, and destroy our youth.

01:46:32.000 And the fact that President Trump came in and gave me one mandate, get out there and deliver accountability for the American people and make sure our neighbors are safe.

01:46:39.000 These are just some of the numbers we're talking about.

01:46:41.000 The murder rate, lowest ever in modern history, and the most violent offender arrests by 110%.

01:46:47.000 I mean, people have to take a pause at those numbers.

01:46:49.000 Those statistics don't just happen if we did one case.

01:46:53.000 We are doing tens of thousands of cases across the country and around the world.

01:46:57.000 Our espionage arrests, Don, those from Iran, Russia, China, and elsewhere looking to spy on us, we've arrested 40% more spies in the United States.

01:47:07.000 We're also taking on agro-terrorists who are importing seeds into this country in funguses and pretending to be researchers at places like the University of Michigan and looking to steal our agricultural seed so that they can supplant that and go overseas and take it away from us.

01:47:24.000 We are on a full-scale mission to protect the American public, and we're going to finish this December strong.

01:47:29.000 We've already operated Operation Summer Heat to historic results, safeguarding cities like Memphis, which was an FBI-led effort to get out there and absolutely crush violent crime.

01:47:39.000 And we're never going to stop defending the homeland.

01:47:40.000 So these statistics, Don, while we can rattle them off, that is nine months of putting foot to ass and crushing it for the American public.

01:47:48.000 By the way, it's actually a really big deal.

01:47:50.000 And I sort of do this for a living at this point.

01:47:52.000 And I didn't know half of those things.

01:47:55.000 I think there's definitely things that people want action on, especially the online cadres.

01:48:01.000 And I get that.

01:48:02.000 But I think, just honestly, in hearing that right now, because God knows I'm one of those people for a lot of these things.

01:48:08.000 But in hearing all of those things and not knowing about it, that's actually amazing.

01:48:14.000 I think we all probably have to do a better job of highlighting some of those things because that's ultra critical for Americans.

01:48:20.000 That doesn't mean we stop wanting some of those other things, but I think we can't let some of the noise of all of that essentially discredit that work.

01:48:27.000 Because like I said, I do this every day.

01:48:29.000 I follow it intimately.

01:48:30.000 And I literally only knew of about half of the things you just rattled off.

01:48:33.000 And those are actually really big statistics.

01:48:35.000 So well done.

01:48:37.000 Well, lesson learned.

01:48:38.000 I got to come back on your show and do it more often.

01:48:40.000 Well, I think we just got to get that out there on a lot of the messaging.

01:48:44.000 I mean, listen, there's people, and hey, it's really germane to me.

01:48:48.000 Obviously, the shooting of my father, people want to know information about that.

01:48:52.000 And I think you'll do a great job with that.

01:48:55.000 You have some of the stuff around JSICs.

01:48:58.000 This is the big one, obviously.

01:48:59.000 But those other stats on a day-to-day basis are such a huge deal.

01:49:04.000 And again, I don't know that anyone actually knows about it.

01:49:06.000 So I think we collectively have to highlight those things because it's easy to sort of say, well, I want this, this, and this, but not know that that's actually going on.

01:49:14.000 Again, I do it for a living and I'm shocked that I didn't know it.

01:49:17.000 And so, you know, for those who get frustrated online, I think, you know, I may get it, but like, I think you also have to give credit where credit is due on those other things because those stats, not just the numbers, but the improvement in the percentages relative to your predecessors is a really big deal.

01:49:32.000 No, absolutely.

01:49:33.000 And that doesn't mean we're taking our eye off the ball.

01:49:35.000 Look, you're talking to the guy who was the chief investigator for RussiaGate, the ultimate weaponization of our law enforcement in the United States history.

01:49:42.000 Well, I know a little bit about it.

01:49:44.000 Yeah, and you know a little bit about it.

01:49:46.000 And I do too.

01:49:46.000 And we're talking to the guy.

01:49:47.000 Look, we're the ones that uncovered Arctic Frost.

01:49:49.000 In terms of transparency, this FBI has produced 40,000 pages of documents to Congress in nine to 10 months alone.

01:49:56.000 Let's put that in perspective.

01:49:58.000 My predecessor, Ray, produced 13,000 pages in seven years, and Comey produced 3,000 pages in three and a half years.

01:50:04.000 We're committed to transparency, but we're also committed to these investigations.

01:50:08.000 We have ongoing investigations, as you know, of Russia Gate and Arctic Frost.

01:50:11.000 And yes, we did indict folks like James Comey and Letitia Jane.

01:50:15.000 And I know they're going through the legal challenges, but notice one thing that's not happening in those cases.

01:50:19.000 Nobody in there is challenging the substance of the work.

01:50:22.000 They're trying to throw it out on some procedural error.

01:50:24.000 And I don't believe they're going to be successful.

01:50:26.000 We're not done with those cases.

01:50:27.000 Our partners at the Department of Justice are not standing down and bending the knee.

01:50:31.000 You're going to see, in my opinion, more investigative work continue to lead to more prosecutions because in order to end the weaponization of justice, there has to be full accountability, not just with transparency, but also with people being held to justice in a court of law.

01:50:44.000 And we're going to continue to do that.

01:50:46.000 Look, they built this disease temple over the course of decades.

01:50:50.000 And in 10 months, we've already taken a sledgehammer to it.

01:50:53.000 But that doesn't mean we're done.

01:50:54.000 And that doesn't mean we're not doing the work.

01:50:56.000 It just takes a little bit of time to unravel the deep state that they built here.

01:51:01.000 And we're doing it.

01:51:02.000 And the Jan 6 pipe bomber is a piece of it. 0.71

01:51:04.000 You're right.

01:51:05.000 But it's not all of it.

01:51:06.000 But I want the American public to know we keep speaking in court when we can.

01:51:09.000 We're going to continue to show up to court.

01:51:11.000 And we're going to continue to make people like Comey and Brennan and Clapper and Page and Strzok and so many others answer for what I believe are their acts of criminal conduct because that's exactly what they did when they weaponized law enforcement, went overseas, borrowed information from some hack in England about Russia, infiltrated our FISA court, lied to a federal officer, and illegally surveilled your father during a presidential candidacy.

01:51:36.000 You think I'm going to let that go?

01:51:37.000 Yeah.

01:51:38.000 Well, and senators and congressmen, only Republicans in Arctic Frost.

01:51:42.000 I mean, that's a really big deal.

01:51:43.000 Again, the media is never going to talk about it, but I mean, you know, talk about a threat to democracy.

01:51:49.000 Can you talk generally about the process of conducting investigations?

01:51:52.000 Again, whether it be the pipe bomb or Arctic Frost or any of these others that are, you know, all crazy.

01:51:58.000 You know, all of this does take time, especially when there's documents literally being found in burn bags in random places hidden inside the FBI headquarters.

01:52:07.000 I mean, how shocking is it to know that under Comey Ray, there seemed to be a deliberate effort to hide the truth?

01:52:14.000 I mean, that's clear as day to me.

01:52:18.000 It was an arrogance.

01:52:19.000 These people thought that we would never look or find these materials because they had it set for destruction or they put it away in some vault.

01:52:25.000 Remember, the Arctic Frost case, where they also targeted not just senators, but staffers, including myself, when I was done being a staffer and on the campaign trail for President Trump, they decided, hey, let's go target him.

01:52:37.000 Remember, they put my name in the search warrant, the bogus search warrant for Mar-a-Lago.

01:52:40.000 Nobody else's name, mine in that WhatsApp search warrant that the judge signed literally over WhatsApp to unlawfully raid your father's house in South Florida.

01:52:48.000 We are the ones uncovering those documents.

01:52:50.000 We delivered them to Congress.

01:52:52.000 We want to work with the American people.

01:52:54.000 This is a dual track that no FBI has ever taken.

01:52:56.000 Everybody just said, wait, We could do that and not turn over anything.

01:53:00.000 But we are going to turn over as much as we can without jeopardizing the investigation.

01:53:04.000 That's exactly what we did in the pipe bomber case. 0.95

01:53:07.000 We provided what we could to Congress in a timely fashion.

01:53:10.000 And now look at the moment where we have arrived today, an actual arrest, which is what every American wanted.

01:53:16.000 And that's the balance that I have to strike for this FBI.

01:53:19.000 And I get it.

01:53:19.000 We get some heat for it in the online spaces, and that's okay.

01:53:22.000 But look at the results, not just this result, but the historic results of the first year of the Trump presidency of the FBI.

01:53:28.000 They are literally the best numbers the FBI has ever put up.

01:53:31.000 And that's because we're moving agents out into the field by the thousands.

01:53:34.000 We're giving ourselves a new headquarters building.

01:53:36.000 We're saving the taxpayer $4 billion.

01:53:38.000 We're giving the men and women of the FBI a workforce that they can believe in and restoring public trust.

01:53:44.000 And remember, when I inherited this FBI, their public trust rating was less than 40%.

01:53:48.000 That's like congressional levels.

01:53:50.000 We've got a lot of work to do to restore it.

01:53:52.000 And putting out documents is one way, but putting out these arrest numbers and conviction numbers, in my opinion, is the best way.

01:53:58.000 And we're only nine to 10 months into my tenure and we're going to keep going.

01:54:01.000 I love what I'm doing by building up my own channel and having my own.

01:54:06.000 I can do my own schedule and everything like that.

01:54:08.000 But I think what's cool now is you're seeing my journalism actually create a change in the world.

01:54:13.000 I mean, that's like the whole point of doing journalism is to create change.

01:54:17.000 And so it's kind of funny when you get invited to the White House and then after that, everyone's calling you a Fed.

01:54:21.000 It's like, well, wasn't that the whole purpose of that journalism was to bring enough awareness to create a change?

01:54:29.000 Right.

01:54:30.000 And so like now my journalism is creating change, which is really cool.

01:54:34.000 And I think I'm in my like acquiring knowledge phase in life where I'm just taking in everything, whether it's going into the White House and doing a roundtable and meeting and listening to what the president had to say, or if it's talking to some homeless person on the street about the addictions of fentanyl, is eventually just to use all that knowledge to then be able to form my opinions.

01:54:55.000 And I'm not trying to push my opinions on people right now.

01:54:58.000 And I'm just more show more so just showing them things for what they are.

01:55:02.000 But eventually I'd like to maybe create a change or get into politics because I can't be on the streets forever.

01:55:08.000 You know what I mean?

01:55:09.000 Well, I mean, a couple more hundred million view videos and you're not going to be able to surprise anyone anymore.

01:55:14.000 No, exactly.

01:55:16.000 They don't even protest anymore.

01:55:17.000 It's just like, it's wild.

01:55:21.000 In the time that you've been doing this, how much do you think the media landscape has changed in your mind?

01:55:27.000 You're living this in real time.

01:55:28.000 You're seeing it.

01:55:30.000 You're forcing them, even if they're sort of begrudgingly doing it, you're forcing the mainstream media to talk about this because it's too big a story to totally ignore.

01:55:38.000 They'd lose what's left of their already waning credibility.

01:55:42.000 But how have you noticed the media changing because of sort of independent journalists like yourselves actually being the people that are breaking real stories when it you know it used to be the legacy media that they were supposed to be doing it?

01:55:56.000 Yeah, it's always funny to me like when I go to events and I see somebody with some press badge and they got this huge camera, this massive backpack, and then there's just me with my camera.

01:56:05.000 And I usually either have like my mom filming it or my cousin or my friend.

01:56:09.000 And I end up like doubling them or tripling them in views because it's more authentic and real versus somebody who has to then send that video to somebody, then they send it to somebody, then they approve it and then they post it.

01:56:20.000 And so you're seeing people like we're done with the BS.

01:56:24.000 Like nobody, like nobody wants some twisted narrative on things.

01:56:28.000 I just watched someone 60 minutes go to Sekot, which I did a year ago, first ever American to go inside of Sekot.

01:56:35.000 And then they're using my video and then they're talking about how unjust it is for these prisoners to be inside of solitary confinement.

01:56:45.000 Meanwhile, those people are literally what killed the what killed an innocent life.

01:56:51.000 And it's a white liberal telling people like, oh, this is unjust, unhumane, that they're putting prisoners inside or gangsters inside of a prison who literally killed people.

01:57:00.000 And so people don't care about that anymore.

01:57:02.000 It's like the Cindy Sweeney interview.

01:57:03.000 Like we're all just like, no, like that's not how it is.

01:57:08.000 Yeah.

01:57:08.000 You know, the fake outrage is pretty incredible.

01:57:12.000 And I imagine if those people were living in their houses or in their neighborhoods, they'd probably have a problem with it.

01:57:17.000 But as long as it's not in their backyard, it doesn't really matter.

01:57:20.000 It's just like they're not even in tune with reality.

01:57:23.000 Like they're not in tune that, yeah, maybe small fraud is not a good thing to be happening.

01:57:31.000 Like, oh, that makes sense.

01:57:32.000 Fraud in general is a bad thing.

01:57:33.000 I think we could all probably agree on that.

01:57:35.000 Except for in 2425, because if it's, you know, fraud that, you know, somehow, you know, lets their TDS, their Trump derangement syndrome kick in, then I guess that kind of fraud is good or the usual, like, well, it's not really happening.

01:57:47.000 It's happening, but it's not really bad.

01:57:49.000 It's happening.

01:57:50.000 It's actually really good. 0.98

01:57:52.000 All the way down to like, you're racist. 0.90

01:57:54.000 You know what I mean? 0.95

01:57:54.000 Like, it's amazing. 0.95

01:57:57.000 The chain of progression is always the same.

01:57:59.000 It's amazing what President Trump has done because it's like he's this person who has became so polarizing to the point where even if something makes perfect sense, they won't rationalize it.

01:58:10.000 Like, maybe don't take Tylenol when you're pregnant.

01:58:12.000 Oh, I'm going to start taking Tylenol when I'm pregnant.

01:58:14.000 Like, it's crazy.

01:58:15.000 Like, your dad is such a savage in that aspect of the, that he's literally became a figure to where even if he does say the most common sense thing, people will then not believe it.

01:58:25.000 No, it's, it's not.

01:58:26.000 Nick, we hear the word accountability a lot.

01:58:29.000 Uh, you know, what does accountability for this fraud look like to you?

01:58:33.000 Uh, you know, what should happen next, um, in your opinion?

01:58:38.000 Yeah, what would happen to you if you stole $10 million?

01:58:41.000 I'd be in jail for a long time.

01:58:43.000 You'd be in jail, right?

01:58:44.000 So I think we're all hoping that these people will be like, can you imagine if Tim Waltz gets put in jail, right?

01:58:52.000 Well, I heard there were whistleblowers, at least on the food program fraud, where there were whistleblowers, and he was like, he basically threatened them.

01:59:00.000 They didn't get promotions.

01:59:01.000 They lost accountability for pointing out what was then perhaps the largest fraud scheme in America going back years.

01:59:08.000 I mean, I remember a time when whistleblowers were beyond reproach and they could do anything right as long as they were whistleblowers against Trump. 0.96

01:59:14.000 Now, they turned out to all be liars and hucksters. 0.54

01:59:17.000 We figured that out after years of investigation, they spent $50 million on Russia, Russia, Russia. 0.63

01:59:22.000 It seems like accountability means two different things depending on who's the one that's actually committing the crimes.

01:59:30.000 So I think the accountability we want to see happen with this is we do want to see people actually be held criminally for what they've committed.

01:59:38.000 If you stole $10 million, you'd be in jail.

01:59:40.000 If I stole $10 million, I'd be in jail.

01:59:42.000 So therefore, if Tim Waltz is accountable for, let's just say, even a million dollars of this fraud, whether he has to spend 10 days in a prison cell or however many years a judge finds him guilty for, that's what he should have to do.

01:59:56.000 And same with all the other fraudsters and all the other corrupt politicians who allowed this to happen.

02:00:01.000 Like it's time to take it serious.

02:00:03.000 And this is such a pivotal moment for the current administration to make, to really show like, okay, we're holding people accountable for what they've done.

02:00:12.000 Yeah, like I saw Cash put out a thing on it.

02:00:14.000 They've been looking into this for months.

02:00:16.000 And I guess the thing is this, it's not just the people at the daycare centers or the people taking that check.

02:00:21.000 Where's the money going?

02:00:22.000 Where's the other funding?

02:00:23.000 I mean, this is complicated stuff to track down because you really can't just take out the one daycare center or the 50 or the 100 that are there.

02:00:30.000 You got to see where all this other stuff is going so you can uncover what is probably a much larger corruption case than even what you've discovered, which is, again, billions of dollars in my opinion, probably at least.

02:00:42.000 But it seems like it's going so much further than that.

02:00:45.000 And it all probably ties back to some sort of Democrat fundraising apparatus where these businesses are then making sure that they're electing the people and the Democrats so they can keep perpetuating these fraudulent policies.

02:00:56.000 And it's just a never-ending vicious cycle.

02:00:59.000 Yeah, it is a never-ending vicious cycle.

02:01:02.000 But I think if they do go after the person who's most accountable for this and who has even said that organized crime, he's even admitted to organized crime.

02:01:10.000 And Tim Waltz has before the fraud.

02:01:12.000 So he's known about this fraud for a long time.

02:01:15.000 So if they go after him and then continue to go after everybody else, then you'll see massive change and you'll see real accounting be held.

02:01:24.000 Yeah, no, it's nuts.

02:01:27.000 What are the next ones you're working on?

02:01:28.000 And if can you give us any hints?

02:01:30.000 Yeah, I mean, a lot of people are messaging me to go to California, Ohio.

02:01:35.000 There's a lot of fraud.

02:01:36.000 And now if I show up to some, I'm sure all these people are like, I'm public enemy number one forum.

02:01:44.000 So I'm like, how do I do this?

02:01:46.000 I got some stuff up my sleeve, and I have more videos and ideas and whatnot, but I'll continue on the path where I'm at.

02:01:52.000 And now we've just unlayered a whole new because everyone knew about fraud, but to this level, it's crazy.

02:02:00.000 Yeah.

02:02:01.000 So, Nick, you know, thank you for all that you're doing, man.

02:02:04.000 Where can everyone follow you so they can see all your work, so they can get this message out there so they can make, you know, just make it be known.

02:02:11.000 Let people understand what's actually happening.

02:02:13.000 I mean, the truth shall set you free.

02:02:15.000 Where can they find you?

02:02:15.000 Yeah.

02:02:16.000 Everywhere, it's just Nick Shirley on all platforms.

02:02:20.000 Okay.

02:02:20.000 So, guys, check out Nick.

02:02:23.000 Really incredible work, man.

02:02:24.000 Really impressive for a kid your age that's not a kid, I guess, 23, but when you're old like me, everyone's a kid at this point.

02:02:30.000 Never thought I'd be that way.

02:02:31.000 But, you know, keep up.

02:02:33.000 Keep it up.

02:02:34.000 It's really, it's brave.

02:02:35.000 It's important.

02:02:36.000 And really, really proud of what you're doing, man.

02:02:39.000 Thanks for being on and keep up the great work.

02:02:42.000 Thank you.

02:02:42.000 Appreciate you.

02:02:43.000 Be well, buddy.

02:02:46.000 Well, guys, thanks for tuning in.

02:02:48.000 This is exactly the kind of story we're going to keep covering.

02:02:51.000 The stories the mainstream media won't touch.

02:02:54.000 So just remember to like, to share, to subscribe.

02:02:58.000 Spread this episode around because the American people deserve to know where their money is going.

02:03:02.000 They need to know what's actually happening.

02:03:04.000 You can turn on your mainstream media source, and if they give this a few seconds, I'd be shocked.

02:03:09.000 They'll cover for it.

02:03:10.000 They'll come up with excuses for it.

02:03:11.000 You know what's happening.

02:03:12.000 We've seen this all before.

02:03:15.000 So make sure to share it.

02:03:17.000 Click that like button right now before you leave.

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02:03:22.000 That's how we get out of this vicious cycle of insanity and make sure that people can start seeing what's really happening in their country.

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Triggered - Donald Trump Jr - January 01, 2026

A Look Back on 2025 | TRIGGERED Ep.304

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