Latest / Curtis Sliwa & Larry Mendte In The Morning / Opening Segment 9/15/26

Transcript

Opening Segment 9/15/26 · Curtis Sliwa & Larry Mendte In The Morning

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I have information about a name would not resonate with
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: most people. Thomas Matthew Crooks. Thomas Matthew Crooks. I always
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: say never trust anybody with three names, but there are
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: a lot of people out there who like to be
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: recognized by three names.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: How about anybody with the last name Crooks?
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Well, slowly I turn step by step back to July
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: 13th of 2020 for one butler. The president, then-citizen Trump,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: is having a huge rally before going on to Milwaukee
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: for the Republican National Convention, where obviously they would officially
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: give him the nomination.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: And then he would go on to run for the presidency.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: But it was Thomas Crooks Butler who had crawled on
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: top of that building, got access, and to within shooting
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: sight of then-citizen Trump, and within the barest of minimal space,
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: could easily have killed the president as he shot multiple times,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: or maybe rendered him incapable of continuing. Thank God he
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: moved his head ever so slightly, and that was avoided.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: But I know both you, Larry, I, and so many
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: citizens out there said, okay, They killed this guy, Thomas
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: Matthew Crooks. Should be able to get a profile on him.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: It turned out he was a young guy. And we
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: were waiting for volumes of information because we know if
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: the government wasn't going to provide it, there would be reporters,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: intrepid reporters. They would be knocking on doors. They would
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: be digging up all information. And all of a sudden, remember,
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Larry was like almost nothing.
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  Speaker 2: It's almost as if....
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  Speaker 1: He didn't exist. We know that Trump was almost killed,
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: but little if anything came.
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  Speaker 2: Out about this guy.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: And then all of a sudden there were different stories
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: about him that conflicted with one another. And we always said, well,
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: why haven't we heard from the father and the mother
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: who raised him in their house along with their daughter?
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: It seemed like nobody had talked to the father or mother.
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  Speaker 1: We just assumed that they wouldn't talk. Well, lo and behold,
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  Speaker 1: Senator Grassley of Iowa had hearings in which they had
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  Speaker 1: access to the father.
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  Speaker 2: His name is Matthew.
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  Speaker 1: And he, it's not like he took the Code of
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: Omerta or the Fifth Amendment.
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  Speaker 2: Oh my God, the father was talking all about.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Him from birth, meaning the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, from
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: birth to his demise. So the father tells the Grassley
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: Committee that You know, I knew it was a little
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: strange because upon birth, he never screamed. You know, when
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: they hit him on his backside, he wasn't yelling. He
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: wasn't screaming. And at a very young age, he was
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: always very quiet, pretty much to himself, very solemn. And
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: at that point, he said it was very difficult to
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: have a father-son relationship as much as I tried because
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: he rarely expressed emotion. He hardly laughed. He was hard
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: to make out. And then in elementary school, he seemed
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: to be bored in school. So I try to engage him.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to figure out what is it that my
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: son might like, you know, that would elicit some kind
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: of emotion.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: And then in junior high school, he took a turn.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: This is the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks. We thought, meaning
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: he and his wife thought he might have ADHD, attention
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: deficit hyperactivity disorder. and he went for some counseling about that.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: He started hanging out with the bad kids. He was
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: starting to become a bad boy, so we did an intervention.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Then in high school, he does a complete turn. He
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: becomes stoic. He's almost like a lone wolf, and he
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: had an issue with some of his teachers because he
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: started talking to himself on occasion, both in the hallways,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: in the classroom, and even at home, and so we said, oh, no,
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: maybe we're going to have to Get him more in-depth counseling.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: So apparently the parents are trying. It's not like, hey, kid,
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: go up in your room, lock yourself in, and we
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: don't know what's going on. But then all of a sudden,
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  Speaker 1: he started to binge. He starts studying. He's taking college
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  Speaker 1: preparatory courses. He was really into it.
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  Speaker 2: He got 1,400 on his SATs. That's the first time.
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  Speaker 2: The second time he got 1,500. 1,500. Larry combined my SATs. Combined.
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  Speaker 2: Weren't even 800. How many times did you take them? Twice.
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  Speaker 1: I had my number two sharpened pencils that my mother
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  Speaker 1: Francesca gave me with my two chocolate bars for energy.
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  Speaker 1: At Midwood High School, they sent you to take it
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  Speaker 1: at a public high school on a Saturday. That's what
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  Speaker 1: I thought SAT meant. Saturday, you know, that's when you
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  Speaker 1: took those tests right next to Brooklyn College.
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  Speaker 2: I had miserable scores. This kid is like, wow.
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  Speaker 1: So the parents are going, wow, he's really making us proud.
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  Speaker 1: Now he's talking about joining the Navy. He wants to
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: work on a nuclear submarine. So I have a father
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  Speaker 1: and son talk with him. Hey, you don't seem to
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: be interested in girls. Ah, but I'm not gay. You know,
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  Speaker 1: I'm just, you know, I'm finding myself dead. And then
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  Speaker 1: he got into shooting guns, which a lot of young
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: guys are into.
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  Speaker 2: Especially that part of the country.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah. They love shooting guns. And the father was a
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: gun owner and the grandfather was a gun owner. So
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: it was in their family. But then all of a
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  Speaker 1: sudden he goes, but I'm not into hunting and fishing
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  Speaker 1: like you and grandpa. By the way, dad, do I
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  Speaker 1: have to get a background check in order to buy
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  Speaker 1: your Glock gun?
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  Speaker 2: So the kid is like into it. He's online.
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  Speaker 1: He's researching gun ownership, asked if he could have his
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: grandpa's guns, which, as you know, in a lot of
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  Speaker 1: Pennsylvania families, especially out there outside of Pittsburgh, western Pennsylvania,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: in the more suburban rural areas, that's a tradition. You know,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: you pass down the guns from granddad to daddy to child.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: And because of the pandemic, the father, Matthew, decides to
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: register him into a gun club. He couldn't hit a
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: paper target if his life depended on him. So for
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: four or five years, he's practicing.
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: He's practicing.
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  Speaker 1: He loves going to the range. Everybody says this kid
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: can't shoot. You know, he couldn't hit the side of
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: a bar.
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  Speaker 2: Suddenly, he becomes a good shooter.
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  Speaker 1: He buys a prism sight, and he starts zeroing in
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  Speaker 1: on his target.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: So the father's proud of him.
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  Speaker 1: Hey, kid, you came a long way. Couldn't hit the
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  Speaker 1: broad side of a bar. Now, man, you hit that
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  Speaker 1: target right.
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  Speaker 2: In the middle.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: And he's going online and he's buying products through who?
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: Jeff Bezos' Amazon because he wants to order parts, tools,
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: and items to increase the capacity of his rifle.
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: Not at all unusual. But because his.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: Dad had had his checking account hacked at Citizens Bank,
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: he becomes a little paranoid because the father, Matthew, is paranoid.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: So he goes, you know, I'm going.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: To use a name, Bob Dole. I mean, who would
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  Speaker 1: the hell use the name of the former U.S. senator
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  Speaker 1: from Kansas, Bob Dole, because he believed that he might
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: get hacked?
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  Speaker 2: But that was also the first hint that he was political. Yes.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: That was the first time people thought, hey, this kid
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: knows politics.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, think about it, Larry. Who would even know
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  Speaker 1: about Bob Dole at his age, right?
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  Speaker 2: Right. Right, exactly. So that is a key point that
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: he used Bob Dole's name because it's a key point
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  Speaker 2: because all of a sudden— He was paying attention to politics.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: Very smart, and all of a sudden his mind's in politics.
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: But he's got this glitch.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: He's paranoid about identity, people finding out identity. So his dad, Matthew,
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: teaches him to use identity-obscuring software, CyberGhost, UPN, and the
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: Bravest Browser. And he uses multiple different privacy-focused encrypted email providers,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: including GMX and MailFence. I have no idea what those
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  Speaker 1: things are.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: I know.
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  Speaker 1: So the kid is already like into that world. The
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  Speaker 1: dad is interacting with him because he's teaching him some
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  Speaker 1: of this. So it's not like he's learning this from
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  Speaker 1: his friends or he's in his room and, you know,
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: he's cyber surfing and learning all these things himself on
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  Speaker 1: the dark web.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: It's almost like a father and his son. A little unusual, but.
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  Speaker 1: You know, but not all that unusual from a lot
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  Speaker 1: of fathers and sons growing up, particularly in that part
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  Speaker 1: of western Pennsylvania.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I read a lot of this, and I was
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  Speaker 2: kind of disappointed that we found out you just gave
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  Speaker 2: a wealth of information about him. We found out all
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: that information about him. Why did he shoot the president?
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  Speaker 1: Why?
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  Speaker 2: Where was that in all of that report? Why did
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: he go out and shoot the president? So my feeling
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: is sometimes with this kind of information that is fascinating,
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: by the way, That gets released, but we still don't
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  Speaker 2: know why he got so many shots off. We still
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: don't know why he got up there. We still don't
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: know why they cremated the body. We still don't know
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: exactly what he was. So I think that many times
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: they drip this kind of stuff out. So we'll talk
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: about it. We talk about it a lot. We feel
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: like they're now disclosing stuff. It's been over two years.
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  Speaker 2: It's been over two years and we still don't know
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: what his motivation was. And we still don't know why
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: they hid so much information. We don't know why they're
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: just letting this stuff out now.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: Well, that's the interesting part is the Grassley's committee obviously
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: did a deep dive. Not that deep. No, but went
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: to talk to the father. The father didn't say, sorry.
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: Do you have a warrant?
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  Speaker 1: You know, I'm not at liberty to discuss anything.
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: But Curtis, the key questions are still out there.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: And but it's been a long time for those key
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: questions to still be out there. Very simple questions. And
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  Speaker 2: nobody talked. Talk to the state police. Talk to the
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: medical examiner in Pennsylvania. They got a lot to say.
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: Talk to all those people. This stuff's fascinating. It's really important.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: But it doesn't get to the core issue.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: You see, the fact that they've released some, it's like anything.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: They released the Epstein files. You want more.
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: You release files.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: Now the CIA are on the involvement of Bush and
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: Clinton and not doing anything about it.
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: Sometimes they don't release the stuff that's top secrets. There's
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: going to be some stuff that's blacked out that we're
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: never going to know. And we should know. We should know.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: So maybe you're right. I'm hoping you're an optimist in this.
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: I hope you're right. I hope you're saying that this
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: is released and there's more to come. My feeling is
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: we're never going to know.
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  Speaker 1: Well, that may well be true, but I would have
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: never thought after all this time, almost 800 days, that
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: we would ever learn anything until both of us were
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: dead and, you know, something was unearthed that we were
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: all not aware of.
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  Speaker 2: But did that tell you anything about why he shot
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: the president?
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  Speaker 1: No, but it also indicated that it wasn't what people
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: were trying to say initially.
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  Speaker 2: We don't know. We don't know when he turned. He
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: obviously turned, and that's not in there.
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  Speaker 1: Well, see, now that the father obviously has been a
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: willing participant, because we thought the family would not participate
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: with anyone, I think it's incumbent— that people try to
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: talk with the family and get in on the public record.
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: You're talking about the media. I'm sure they already know.
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: Many of the questions I'm asking right now, I think
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: they know the answers to. And I think that's not
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: being released. And this is a little bit being released
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: so we can say, look, they're being transparent. They are
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: not being transparent. Go to the iHeartRadio app and leave
• 11:47
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• 12:13
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• 12:16
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