Latest / Normally / Normally Podcast: White House Correspondents’ Dinner Chaos: Trump Security Scare, Secret Service & Political Fallout

Transcript

Normally Podcast: White House Correspondents’ Dinner Chaos: Trump Security Scare, Secret Service & Political Fallout · Normally

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Hey, as I'm back normally show what normal it takes
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: for when the news gets here. This is a special episode.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: I am mark Athenham.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Because the news got weird. I am Carol Markowitz.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: It got real weird.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Here we are in uh makeup on a Sunday, not
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: the way God intended at all. Talking about the fact
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: that yesterday you were at the White House correspondence dinner
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: and a wanna be shooter tried to break the security
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: perimeter and get into the ballroom. Tell us about your experience,
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: Mary Catherine was.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: I was in the ballroom. I did not hear shots fired.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: The program had commenced, so there was you know that
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: they call it the voice of God. There was the
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: PA voice telling us what to do. We had done
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: the anthem and the presentation of the colors, the important
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: VIPs had been brought in and announced and placed at
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: the at the front table, and so that was all
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: ongoing and fairly loud. The thing to know about this ballroom,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: by the was that twenty five hundred people fit in it.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: This is the reason that this event is held at
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: this Hilton because it does fit so many people, and
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: it's basically the only one that can and so it
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: is very crowded in there. It's very loud. Everybody's talking
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: to each other. I didn't hear shots. The girl at
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: the table next to me did, perhaps she was just
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: pointed a different direction or had better hearing. But as
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: soon as that happened, the thing I didn't hear. The
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: doors in the back opened on all sides, and excuse me,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: Secret Service came rushing in in columns, So then I knew, okay,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: something's up. So I had a whole column of Secret
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Service guys coming into the ballroom right next to our table,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: which was not super close but not super far away
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: either from the stage. And when I looked back up
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: after I registered, these officers were coming in. When I
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: looked back up, everyone was gone from the stage. So
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: it happened very quickly. Even though I know there we
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: will talk about celecurity, it their criticism. It happened very
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: quickly that everyone was off that stage and moved, and
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: from there it was very confusing. I was happy to
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: just be behind several chairs peeking up. It seemed like
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: there wasn't an immediate threat. There was one shout on
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: the other side of the room of like USA, and
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: I didn't know if that was like, are we cheering
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: for the president not getting shot or is this another person?
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: There were shouts of gun occasionally, but it was more
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: like gun question mark, like we're sweeping the room kind of.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: Maybe okay, okay, yeah, okay, I get I get that
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: from law enforcement. So people under the table just screaming
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: gun that.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: Is I I think it was them trying to communicate
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: with each other. There were people under tables, and you know,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: we didn't know what was happening. I pake here a table.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: I don't have no illusions that I met one of
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: those people eating my salad.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: I would not be It was interesting to see that
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: there were certain people who just like you know, were
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: standing up trying to figure out what was going on.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: I was happy to be down here a little bit
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: and blocked, and like I said, it was fairly clear,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: medium quickly that we weren't in immediate danger. And I
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: was surrounded by so many Secret Service officers that I
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: felt okay about where I was. And then maybe I
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: don't know, seven to ten minutes later, they were just
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: like came back in. It was clear that everybody, whatever
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: immediate danger had been assessed and everybody was moving out,
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: and then they said, I come on, you guys, file
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: out this way, and they take us back through the
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: bowels of the hillta to whatever exit utility exit that
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: staff use or what have you. And we were ushered
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: out that way, and while we're outside, we're told they're
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: going to go on with the dinner because Trump apparently
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: wanted to go.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah ahead, which is like, I get that, I get
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: that he wanted to go. He doesn't want to cancel
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: for some you know, lunatic I can let me understand that.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you don't want to give him a shooter's veto,
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: which is what that is. And obviously they were like, oh,
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: they're starting again. And I was like, well, there's no
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: way they're letting us p security primary right, just like
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: right back in with no security. That doesn't seem like
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: that's that happen. Yet that's not going to happen, And
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: in fact, if it did, I would object. I don't
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: think you should be letting me in here. So we
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: huddled outside for a little longer, and there was a
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: lot of sirens, there's a lot of helicopters, a lot
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: of everything. But we were free to go at that point.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: And my group. I was with some of the real
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: clear politics folks. Thank you for the invite to this
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: historic occasion. And we walked up the street and I
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: was like, there's a Brazilian restaurant. We should have a
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: kuyperina and some steak fishing. That's what we did because
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: getting an uber at that moment would have been one
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: thousand dollars right as everyone was coming out at the
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: exact same time. So due to capitalism and surge pricing,
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: I decided to wait a little while, which we.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: Do generally, like on the normally podcast.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I just new if I wait longer, I can
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: go home for cheaper. So that's what I did. I
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: was not in fear of my personal safety for very
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: long or very much, but nerve wracking for sure.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, you don't know, you don't know what's
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: going on, right, you don't know, especially people screaming gun
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: and like you know, there might be a shooter, another shooter. Also,
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: like going outside as a giant group, I feel like
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: that would make me really nervous, Like that would make
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: me more nervous than being inside with all the secure
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: Secret Service protection.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: Yes, that's why in the room I felt pretty okay
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: because we were surrounded right by secret service. But once
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: we started, yes, once we started filing out, at that point,
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: things were very calm and people had started to get
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: reports from the outside. This is another wrinkle. None of
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: us have service in there. It's crazy, it is. We
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: are in the basement of the Hilton. There's no regular service.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: I think maybe some people had Wi Fi. I couldn't
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: get on it. I'm trying to get out of WhatsApp
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: or a text just to my husband to tell him,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: like when you hear something, I'm safe and something. It
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: did eventually get out, but it was very hard to
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: get stuff out and he couldn't get stuff to me.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: So eventually a few minutes in we were getting a
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: little bit here and there, and he was able to
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: tell me it happened in the lobby, not even sure
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: it was on your floor. But he's neutralized, and at
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: the time I think people thought he was dead, but
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: he's not. So we had that information and felt that
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: things were under control at that point. That's right.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, from the outside, it didn't look like the security
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: was that good. And I look, it's very hard to
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: gauge because we're all just you know.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: This isn't a movie on a screen.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: But you know, you say it happened super fast. Secret
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: Service moved in, they got everybody off the stage. Watching
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: it from the outside, it seemed super slow. It seemed like, wow,
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: they are moving at a snail's pace getting the President
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: out of there. But then, you know, Trump in the
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: post pressor which we'll talk about later, you know, he
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: made sure to say that Secret Service did a fantastic job.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: And I think that that's probably true, right service. Secret
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: Service probably did do a fantastic job. But again, for
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: those of us watching it from the safety of our homes,
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: it appeared.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: Not the best.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: Like one of the things that people keep talking about
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: is jd Vance, Vice President Jade Vance gets pulled off
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: the stage immediately, and then Trump doesn't. But we can't
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: know what their calculation is. There is a Secret Service
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: agent standing in front of Trump, and then there's several
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: around him, but you know, gauging from home, where like
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: there should be more and maybe they should pull him
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: out first. And again they don't know. Maybe moving him
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: would be more dangerous. And I'm sure they're making all
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: kinds of calculations that we're simply not privy to.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: Well, and certain officers might be in charge of certain people.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: And for Trump's part, look, you always got to give
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: it up. And I do because I was in the
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: room for the men and women who are willing to
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: put their bodies between you and danger. Right, So like
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: there were people actively doing that for me in the moment.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: I got to think many of them on the way out.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: There are people who do that for us every day.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: And it's even more intense if you're the president and
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: the vice presidentor need security. Shout out to the one
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: guy who straight up walked onto the dais and stood
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: square in front of the president, like I'm the guy
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: going down if someone goes.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: Guy, that's the guy I want running the show.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: So I think one thing, Like I said, in the moment,
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: it felt very fast, like I looked over here and
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: then I look back and everybody was gone. I think
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: you're correct. Watching the video, it does not feel that fast.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: You also can really hear the gunshots on the video streams,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: and you could not in the room like that. It
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: did not sound like that. They obviously were dealing with
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: the more present threat upstairs, and then it has to
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: come downstairs. What they need to do and get every
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: everybody mobilized. One thing will say, and is that the
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: way that ballroom is set up and there's so many
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: people inside it, those guys coming in from the doors,
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: they need a better access path because when they came in,
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: they're like jumping over tables and right right, and I'm like,
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: that needs to be these these tables need to be
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: further apart so that that can happen.
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: Right right now, fitting in every single media member and
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: like you know, admin officials.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: It's just it's a lot. Yeah, like maybe cut down
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: the list a little bit. I'm like, I'll sacrifice my
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: seat so you can have a clear right. But I
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: don't go every year, by the way, I go like
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: once every eight years. So this was an interesting one
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: to attend as far as the overall security goes. I
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: have been to these before, and I it's not my
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: personal recollection what happened with security, but I have been
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: doing some research and apparently the hotel itself is not
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: perimeterized right right, or as Dan Bongino explained it really
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: well as a former Secret Service agent himself. He was
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: on Fox this morning and said, and I didn't I
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: don't remember the exact Terminali, but basically they have an
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: access funnel. So there's various areas that have increasing security
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: as you get closer to the place where is going
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: to be the actual event. So I had to show
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: my ticket a block away and they wouldn't let me
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: pass there, and someone had to physically bring me my
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: ticket because they would not let me in there without
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: a physical representation of my being credentialed for this. So
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: there was that, And now that physical ticket isn't a
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: big security. Yeah, it's easy to make yes, So then
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: I go in. I was a little surprised given that
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: the President is attending, and I didn't remember past security
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: situations that I walked straight into the hotel after that, Now,
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: as you funnel into the hotel, as Dan Bongino explained,
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: it like this, all area has been swept before the
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: event started, but it's considered dirty versus when people go
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: through the mags downstairs. So this is the dirty area
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: because we live in a free society and you can't
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: block off every thing at all times. But we didn't
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: mag before we got into the hotel. We went downstairs
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: and magged into the ballroom. So that was where and
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: as Dan pointed out, you want to be careful of
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: how long those cues are and how many you have,
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: because that's creating a vulnerability. That's security thread also, right,
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: And so I think the question, well, the question is
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: what these events look like at all in the future,
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: particularly with Trump who has been targeted several times. But
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: do you make the perimeter the real perimeter outside the
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: hotel or even further back as you do it like
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: an RNC or a DNC And the fact in the
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: past it has not been the case at this event.
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So the current news is that the wanna be shooter,
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: alleged wannabe shooter, was a guest at the hotel. He
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: had made a reservation at the hotel like anybody can do,
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: and was actually staying at the hotel, which is why
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: he didn't have to show a ticket or anything like that.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: That's a crazy quirk.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: And we'll get into the conspiracy theories around this in
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: the last segment. And why you know, the conspiracy theories
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: are really bat shit that Trump, you know, keeps staging
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: his own assassination and that kind of thing. But like
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: we could see where these people are getting it from,
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: because some things just don't make sense. Well again, we'll
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: get into that. I'll also add that Secret Service has
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: been unfunded for more than seventy days now, the you know,
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: Congress just continues to not make a move on funding
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: Secret Service DHS ICE. In a political statement because they
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: want to continue funding ICE, Chuck Schumer said that nobody
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: respects ICE, and that's part of his reasoning for not
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: funding it. I mean, it's really insane, and these people
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: need to be funded. They are frontline of defense for
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: administration officials and they need to be funded. End of story.
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: I'll add that US Senator John Fetterman tweeted. And the
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: other part of this is, of course the administration. Many
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: administration people are saying, this is why we need a ballroom,
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: and of course that's being dismissed because the people just
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: hate Trump and they can't hear information like that. But
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: here's US Senator John Fetterman who tweets, we were there
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: front and center that venue wasn't built to accommodate an
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: event with the line of succession for the US government.
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: After witnessing last night, drop the TDS and build the
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: White House ballroom for events exactly like these.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: I mean, so also, I want to shout out as
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: it Gules and camp Perez, who's the Washington representative who
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: tweeted her first reaction was please stop trying to murder
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: the president. And I just so, I would just love
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: to hear a unified announcement of that sentiment from those
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: who are Trump's political opposition. It would be very helpful
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: to have that over and over again. And yeah, like
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: this again, all of these things come with risks. I
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: thought about the risks before I attend it, because Trump
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: is a target more than any other president in my lifetime.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: It's the Hinckley Hilton. That's the nickname for the Hilton.
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: There is a plaque outside where Hinckley was able to
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: shoot President, and so we gather at the Hinkley Hilton
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: on these occasions and know that this is part of
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: the story. So I thought about it before I went in.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: I appreciate Trump not wanting to be cowed by this,
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: and he's very gracious to the host who's the head
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: of the Washington White House Correspondence Association group, who had
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: the misfortune of him seeing this whole thing and planning it.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: And yeah, I just there's a certain amount of risk
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: in all of this, and I do wonder if this
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: is ever going to happen again as a as an event.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: Oh interesting in that well, in that way with the
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: twenty five hundred people and this particular venue, and you don't.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: Think they're doing it over like in the next month.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: That's what they say, But that is what they say.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: I just Trump is he is a bullet train.
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: He's like, I am going to get things, you know,
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: the way I want them, And this is he wants
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: to do this.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: I don't know. We'll see, and I think it would
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: be a brave statement done responsibly for the for the
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: press and Trump to come together. This is actually a
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: good way for them to come together, not in a
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: sycofantic way at all, just to say we reject that
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: even though we are opposing forces often because we're trying
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: to be a check on the president, we reject that
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: this is the way that you get your way in
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: this country. And we will not back down, and we
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: will have an event, but I just think the way
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: that they do it is going to have to be reconfigured.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: I'm very open to criticisms of the way that Secret
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: Service is setting up an event like this, and they
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: will may reconsider the in the future. But as far
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: as that security perimeter went, he bum rushes Leroy Jinkin
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: is one floor up and they immediately neutralize him. That's
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: what you want in that sense, is because a guy
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: who's suiciding by cop can happen frequently. Yeah, and if
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: they get him very quickly and he doesn't make it downstairs,
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: that's what I want. The part where he's staying in
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: the hotel and planned this for a long time, turning yeah,
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: that's an issue. Absolutely.
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: We're going to take a short break on this very
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: special episode of Normally and come right back with more
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: about what happened at the White House Correspondence dinner, what
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: Trump said at the press conference afterwards. Maybe some men
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: from the administration acting super gallantly.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: Will be right back.
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: We are back on Normally, where Donald Trump gave a
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: press conference following the attempted infiltration by a shooter at
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: the White House Correspondence dinner. There was a Secret Service
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: agent shot by the way, which I feel like is
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: kind of being skipped in the news a little bit
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: because it appears is that the Secret Service agent is fine.
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: But Trump told reporters at this press conference he was
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: shot from a very close distance, with a very powerful gun,
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: and the vest did the job. I just spoke to
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: the officer. He's in great shape, very high spirits. Trump
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: was excellent at this press conference. You know, I have
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: been very positive about him this term, but I acknowledge
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: that he is sometimes maybe doesn't have the best phrasing
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: at times when he needs to, and he says what
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: he thinks, and that's, you know, something that's very unusual.
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: We're not used to that in the political world. People
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: actually saying what they think in their head and not
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: being put through some writer's room that tells them what
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: to say and all of that. And so Trump was
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: just very blunt about he was very far away from
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: where the shots were fired. He was never in danger,
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: he said. It was always shocking that things like this happened.
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: He pointed back to of course Butler and also West
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: Palm Beach, those potential assassination attempts, and it's just crazy
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: that this man stood in a tuxedo and gave this
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: kind of sum up of what happened.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: He said.
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: The Secure Secret Service acted quickly, bravely. He talked about
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: the suspect being in custody. You know, he was asked
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: about the threats to his life. Actually, Peter Doucey asks
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: why does this keep happening to you? And when I
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: first heard it, I was like, who is asking this?
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: But Peter Doucy asking, Actually, you know, intent matters, and
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: Peter Deucey wasn't asking that to be a jerk. But
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: Trump said, you know, I'm doing a lot of stuff,
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: and it's this is why people want me to stop
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: doing the things that I'm doing. I'm not going to stop.
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: He wanted the event to continue and he wanted to
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: be rescheduled asap. So I thought he brought like this
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: message of unity, which I would really love to see
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: from Democrats. And again we'll get into that in the
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: last segment here about what comes next. But it's really
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: important that the President said the right things, behaved in
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: the right manner, you know, indicated that obviously the shooting
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: wasn't going to change anything, that the event would go on,
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: that his policies would stay the same, all of that.
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: Of course, he mentioned that they should have a secure
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: White House ballroom, which I think is absolutely right. He
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: just sounded calm, and I think we needed that.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: No, he is at his absolute responsible chill best in
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: the immediate wake of being shot at. And I am
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: always impressed, and I wish I did not have the
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: opportunity to be as impressed as often as I am
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: in this way. And I wish you would, of course
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: apply this to other areas of policy as well. But
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: when the first I believe the first thing he said
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: when he came out was let's rededicate all of us,
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: rededicate ourselves to the idea that we resolve our differences peacefully.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: And that's important. Between that and the plea to please
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: stop trying to murder the president, I think that's a
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: great message that everyone could come together on.
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: It's the message, right, like stop trying to kill the president,
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: stop using violence. Violence is bad. Like let's just get
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: back to basics. Violence is bad. Hassan Piker was in
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: the news this entire week. He's somebody that openly celebrates violence,
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: and he's become the rock star of the left and
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: Democrats don't know how to handle him. They he has
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: this big audience. What are they going to do? They
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: have to lean into to supporting him and his delusional beliefs.
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: And they could say no, they could take a stand
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: and say no.
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: Well, here's the thing. They didn't even take a stand
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: while he was actively advocating and justifying the murder of
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: a healthcare ceo on a New York Times podcast. That
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: would be the moment like, look, they'll do the thing
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: where like, oh, if he says stuff other places, I
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: don't have to call him on it. Well, that's sometimes true.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: You don't have to call someone on everything they've ever said.
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: If they say it in front of you, you should say,
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: why are we justifying this for the main term social
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: murder that you allege that this healthcare ceo was guilty
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: of and therefore it was fine for him to be
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: shot dead in the streets. That if you think that
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: kind of justification and valorization doesn't have consequences, you're crazy.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: And giving it a spot at the New York Times
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: or the New York Times just kind of giggles long.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: And I think Thegian the Luigi Mangione lionization was a
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: bit of a moment for me. It was pretty black pilling.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: And I think every time we've had an assassination attempt
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: on Trump, the reaction gets bleaker. The first one in Butler,
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: everybody actually did for a moment, go, whoa, this could
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: have been horrific. Let's all agree that this is not
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: how things are done. That's awful. I mean, that's it
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: seems like very small thing to ask for that we
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: would all just be like, that's awful.
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: You'd think, right, Yeah, you know. Lincoln Project co founder
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: Steve Schmidt was at the dinner and immediately said Trump
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: is to blame for poisoning the rhetoric in America. He's
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: a vile and disgusting man. Like things like that are
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: just it's it's inappropriate, like, you know, can't have these
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: people be your heroes and think you're the good person.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: No, And it's it's also a reversing victim and offender. Absolutely,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: you can't tell me that the guy who, by the way,
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: we buried the lead on you, Carol, and we're going
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: to get into that in the second we'll talk about
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: that last. Yeah, you can't tell me that the guy
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: who perpetrates a shooting on Trump officials slash Trump because
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: he wants them dead, is not on the side of
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: the people who are constantly telling me that Trump is
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: a special authoritarian who should probably be dead. Like I think,
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: I think you guys are aligned. Yeah, it's not actually
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: me that caused that problem, and it's not Trump existing
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: but caused that problem.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: Mary L. Trump, who I believe is a Trump cousin, tweeted,
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: so weird Donald didn't stand up, ask for his shoes
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: and defiantly raise his fist and say fight, fight fight.
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: That is pretending that that was all staged at Butler,
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: that Trump did that as part of an act, that
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: getting shot in the ear was pre planned, that a
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: man dying in the crowd was pre planned. I just
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: find it all so vile.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: It's very bad, Yeah, very bad. And yeah, we need
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: a lot more people to go the Gules in Camp
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: Perez wy and the ThunderMan way. Yeah, not the Hassan pikerway.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: Let's talk about who did very well at this dinner.
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: Our friend Bethany Mandel. She had a very popular tweet
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: last night where she said, you can tell a lot
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: about a man about how they instill actively respond when
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: it hits the fan. In this photo, Steven Miller moves
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: on top of his pregnant wife to protect her. Pete
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: Hegseth stands over his wife, serving the scene while leaning
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: over protecting her, and then she had another sweet afterwards.
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: This is the shot we had of Marco Rubio outside
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: the White House. His wife was in a strapless dress
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: and he gave her his jacket.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: Just very nice.
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: And she points out liberals have spent a lot of
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: time trying to convince us that masculinity is toxic. There's
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: some good men in the ADMIN, and it's really good
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: to see it. She also said, RFK, however, ran away
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: and left his wife behind him. You know, you also
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: just don't know what the Secret Service agents are saying
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: to RFK. They're just saying move. He has to assume
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: his wife is coming with him. But those pictures, the
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: picture of Stephen Miller over his wife and Pete Hegseth
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: over his wife, it's beautiful.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: It really is well. And also I hate when these things.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: I hate when strength is twisted by the way, you're
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: damned if you do, damned if you don't, because they're
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: going to go after RFK for one thing, and then
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: they're going to go after heg Seth for looking not
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: scared enough, because that's something I hate it when strength
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: and bravery is turned into a liability. This happened with
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: Erica Kirk as well, where because she performed well, because
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: she was responsible in the way she spoke and very
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: strong in the way she presented herself. After her husband
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: was murdered, people said, well, she doesn't have real feelings,
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: and that's not true. People can go through things and
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: react very responsibly and very strongly in the moment and
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: not have you discount what happened to them as a result.
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: You don't have to trauma farm every event in your
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: life in order to make people believe something happened to you.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: In fact, I would say that that's very unhealthy for
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: you and for the people ingesting your online trauma farming.
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, and Erica Kirk was there last night. She was
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: very upset. She was seen being led out saying I
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: just want to go home. I can imagine that was just,
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: you know, salt on a wound for her.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: I just can't.
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: Imagine what this poor woman is going on through and
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: all the people that attack her.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: And it's just also gross. It really really is. I
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: ran into her earlier in the night before things took
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: a turn at the Fox reception and got to meet
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: her for the first time. I'd never met her before
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: and just told her, like I've been in a different way,
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: but weirdly similar I've been where you are. My children
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: are happy and healthy, You're doing amazing things. You're the
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: way that you're living is going to help them become
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: who they are. And praying for you. And we had
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: like a brief conversation. So I hate that she had
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: to be there for that. Of all the people who
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: could experience some very real trauma in that moment, she's
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: certainly she's certainly the one.
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: One last thing to tie in the Trump press conference
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: and the men acting gallantly. Trump during his press conference
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: said that you know, this secret Service did so great,
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: and they let out JD. Vance and they he said,
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: Marco Rubio and then he says, Pete Hexath didn't want
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: any help. He's just like Pete ex sth he didn't
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: want any help, but they helped him. It just it
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: seems like he has and this is you know, really
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: I think different from his first term. He has a
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: very nice personal relationship with these men. It seemed very
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: warm and I you know, I know, etern over an
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: administrations is very common. I hope you get to keep
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth for some time.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. And by the way, another thing, just post trauma,
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: the idea that people tell jokes after something bad has
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: happened to them does not mean something bad didn't happen
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: to them.
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: In fact, it's a great way to break tension in
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: times of stress and get there are you know, we'll
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: get onto this in the last segment, but there are
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: you know, people taking script and grabs of Pete Hegseth
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: laughing at that comment and turning it into a problem.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: It's not a problem.
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's it. I mean I use humor to
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: cope for sure. All Right, we're going to take a
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: short break and come right back with who was want
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: to be shooter? And the conspiracy theories already all over
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: the place online. Be right back with this very special
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: episode of Normally.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: Okay, we are back on Normally, And you know, we
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: really should have brought this up earlier, Carol, because Carol
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: knows who the shooter is, and she brought that information
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: to a lot of people last night. Tell us about it.
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: We you know, we work very well in tandem when
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: news breaks, Mary Catherine, this is maybe a little bit
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: too close too close. The attempted alleged shooter at the
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: White House Correspondence inner was thirty one year old Cole
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: Thomas Allen from Torrence, California. I think the news that
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: I really broke big, you know, in a bigger way here.
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, having his name and all of that
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: was news breaking, obviously, and it makes me very very nervous.
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: Anybody who doesn't know me, breaking news is exciting and
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: exhilarating and terrifying. I am like chewing on my fingers
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: until that news gets, you know, broken elsewhere. Yeah, confirmed,
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: although it is confirmed. I hate I hate the idea
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: that it's not confirmed, just because it's me. Like I
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: had people being like, this is not confirmed, Like, yeah,
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: I confirmed it, I assure you. But I think the
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: news that I really broke was that he was in
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: custody and alive. Because people believed that he had been
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: killed at the scene. CNN had actually reported that he
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: was killed, so I had the confirmation that he was
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: taken alive, and even people posted the video of him
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: on the ground and saying no, he's definitely dead, and
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: then at the end of the video he turns his head.
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: I'm like, guys, he is definitely not dead.
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: So what's really wild about this?
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: And will Richardella from Fox News points this out the
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: White House correspondence in our alleged Shuator wasn't some nut
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: job lurking on the fringes of society, forgotten by the system.
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: He was well educated, credentialed, employed, and institutionally formed. That's
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: what makes this so disturbing. At first, this doesn't look
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: like the breakdown of the system. It looks like more
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: like a product of it. Academia, media and politics helped
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: build the moral permission structure. Let that sink in. Yeah,
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: I mean, that's the thing. This isn't some rando. This
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: isn't some you know, guy who couldn't get a job
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: and he's really pissed off and all of that. And
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: you know the fact that he went to cal Tech,
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: and which is an incredibly difficult school to get into,
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: the incredibly difficult, difficult school to stay in. A lot
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: of people point out that cal Tech is one of
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: the few schools that really doesn't do great inflation.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: That's something. You're at a school where rigor and merit
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: are real. You graduate with a degree.
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: You know that in engineering, and you're this mechanical engineering
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: degree is supposed to take you places, and it's all
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: of this, and yet here you are at the White
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: House correspondence dinner with your guns on the ground being
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: taken into custody.
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: You're like, I've destroyed for what you know, and very
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: likely could have died. I mean, bum Rushing a secret
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: Service perimeter is a good way to get taken out.
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: I'm sort of surprised he wasn't, but I'm kind of
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: glad that we're going to have more information as a result. Yeah,
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: it's depressing, and truly, I know it's better in real
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: life often than it is than it looks online. But
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: the number of people who are so emotionally tied to
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: every political up and down and are unable to and
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: they even talk about it, they've talk very openly that
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: Trump makes their nervous systems go haywire, and you have
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: to control that for yourself. Like to some you know,
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: we talk about the news being tiring, I get it.
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: If you're in it all the time, sure, you got
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: to be in charge of touching grass. You got to
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: be in charge of regulating yourself. A lot of people,
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: I think when you let personality, when you let politics
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: become your personality, it is a personality disorder and you're
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: going to think the worst of people. You're going to
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: blackpill on everything, and it just gets pretty dark. And
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: there are a bunch of people creating a permission structure
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: right this right, and in fact there's already a rally
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: and allegedly they want to start a gofund me for
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: of course the shooter. Of course, right that was out
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: in Portland organ by the way.
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: So obvious that that was going to happen. Look, you
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: and I are mired in this, and yet we keep
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: our emotions in check. I can't think of too many
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: times where I felt emotional about the news.
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: I mean, it happens.
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: Of course, I definitely have things that you know, hit
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: me harder than other things. But you know, I mean
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: just the fact that today, like you know, I put
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: on minimal makeup for this, but I was like, oh,
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: I have to put a makeup on a Sunday, like
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: I want to go in the pool. Like you have
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: to live your life. You have to be outside doing
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: stuff with your family. You can't be scrolling all day.
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: And if that's you, if you're you know, really deeply
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: into this stuff, go outside, take the weekends off, like,
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: do stuff, do other things with your life. The conspiracy
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: theories are already largely starting. I have seen already so
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: many different you know, influencer types on Facebook and other places. Facebook,
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: by the way, just loves showing me absolute lunatics on
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: you know the left who are saying things like this,
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: you know this didn't happen, This is all fake And
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: I don't know right now. They have some like person
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: ian Thomas Malone that they keep showing me like real lunatic.
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: It's like making fun of Erica Kirk. You'd cry too
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: if they made you go to a shooting without your
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: emotional support. Fireworks, I mean, really gross kind of stuff.
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: And you know this person tweeted yesterday the magic ear
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: is ready to grow back a second time. It's just
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: it's disgusting, and social media is pushing this into our
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: feed is a real problem, and so many people like
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: these comments and are a supportive of them.
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: It's it's gross a couple of things. It's it's also incoherent,
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: coherent because it's all fake. But then the same people
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: will be like, but someone should really do it, right,
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: say yeah, would love to see someone actually do it,
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: but that's a funny when it happens, And also me
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: saying I wish someone do it definitely doesn't encourage anybody
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: to do the fake thing that just happened that was
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: actually real. Guys.
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that's similar. Sorry, I just want to say
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: that's similar to you know, I forgot who said this,
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: but it was like, you know, why is it that
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: the Holocaust deniers are not happy that it didn't happen.
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: It's like, why is it always the people who wish
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: it had had happened?
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: My other let me just cut through the conspiracy theories.
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: Point is, do you think that President Donald J. Trump,
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: when given the opportunity to live troll to their faces
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: twenty five hundred journalists, would give it up for what right,
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: for a news cycle or something. He barely even got
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: a news cycle out of Ryan Ruth down in Paul Page,
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: so like, it's not even for that. This was his
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: dream scenario was to roast all these people. And what
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: we had heard before we went in from well placed
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: sources was that it was going to be an hour
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: and twenty minute speech. Oh you think that man is
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: giving that up? No, No, not to that. And it
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: would have been a captive audience, like they would have
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: a choice, stuck in that ballroom. Yeah, no, there's no way,
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: there's no way. Now there's another conspiracy theory, which is
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: he he staged this to get his ballroom. First of all,
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: he's already building it, right, it's happening, it's in motion.
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: He's picking out marble, like the day that we went
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: after Maduro, he was at a tile store in South Florida,
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: like choosing his marble.
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: Well, and it's like, they're like, why is everybody talking
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: about a ballroom. They've all been instructed it's an op
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: well to talk about a ballroom because he was almost
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: shot in a ball ballroom. Rights, that's the reason. That's
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: what brought it to mind for a lot of people.
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, don't let your brains get into this kind of stuff.
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: I would say that the right spends a lot of
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: time correctly worrying about these insane conspiracy theorists in our
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: midst and how bad it is that some chunk of
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: people believe things that are completely fake. I just don't
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: see that same worry on the left. Thousands of comments
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: already saying it was fake. Trump was trying to get
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: the news off Iran. I would love to see Democrats
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: grow a pair and take on their leftist flank. You again,
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: the idea that oh, this happens on the right too. Yeah,
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: but so many people on the right are fighting back
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: against this. I mean, people like Ted Kruz are constantly
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: calling out conspiracy theorists. Can we see somebody other than
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: the senator from Pennsylvania calling out these people? Could it
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: be a second senator, a third senator or fourth senator?
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: Can there be a ground swell.
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: Of people saying these conspiracy theorists and these violent rhetoric
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: people don't speak for me because I see it on
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: the right and I just don't see it on the left.
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: Hakim Jefferies, by the way, I put out a statement
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: that didn't even mention Trump administration officials or Trump. It
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: was just like, oh, this random violence pointed at who
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: knows who. Maybe Siskind is writing, oh, we don't even
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: know who the target was, and it's like, okay, guys,
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: I do think we can extrapolate and perhaps guess right,
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: the guy who has been subject to several assassination attempts
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: might be the one. Yeah.
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: And then of course the Times headline that you had
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: a great response to, I got a breaking news Washington
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: hotel attack suspect is said to be from California. He
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: just attacked the hotel, just.
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: Attack the hotel. He hates the hotel famously. In the Jerk,
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: he's standing in front of a bunch of cans and
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: they start getting shot. Steve Martin is and he's like
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: he hates these cans, hates these cants. It's the Jerk.
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: But for the hotel, I just think part of the
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: reason that they can't denounce it is because they are
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: medium comfortable with political violence and sometimes openly advocating for it.
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: Like the rioting in twenty twenty was rationalized by many
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: and it was called a legit protest. They have legit.
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: They have on purpose blurred the line between speech and violence,
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: and they think that violence on behalf of their causes
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: is kind of just speech, and like you kind of
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: just deserved it. And I'm not being like harsh on them.
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: They say it openly many many mainstreams social murder, yeah,
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: or like again, it's become more and more mainstream. And
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: I think Hassan Piker, who we talk about a lot,
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: but he's leading them around.
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: Right, He's in the New York Times like four stories
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: in the last two months. Like this isn't a fringe
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: figure this isn't you know, And they try to make
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: our fringe figures mainstream figures for the same reason. It's
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: like they want them to be bigger on our side
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: to it for us.
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: We're not doing it, yes, right.
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: Right, Tucker Carlson being interviewed by the Economist is ridiculous.
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: It's like this conspiracy theory theorist nutt who a lot
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: of people on the right are criticizing, gets headlined space
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: in the Economist.
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: Or the Flint Test glowing profile with the like with
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: the cool pictures taken in black and white for the
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: New York Times, Like, stop doing that for both your
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: guys and our guys who are lefties anyway.
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: Right, they're fully lefties now and that's why they're there.
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: But the one, the one that the thing that really
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: gets me, and Medi Hassan of course was on this immediately,
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: is like someone tries to kill the president. And yes,
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: we don't know everything about sure yet, but I think
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: we can safely assume he doesn't like the president. Easy, cool, Okay,
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: so let's just say that. We'll find out more and
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: then they're just like political violence never happens to you
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: guys in the wake, right, Like this is happening. Yeah.
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: They're like, oh, it's all of you guys coming at us,
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: and it's like you're making things up. Yeah, and I
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: just yeah, it happens. It happened after the Gifford shooting
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: that they did this and turned it back on us
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: about paling. We didn't do anything. They take every lefty shooter.
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: And somehow turn him into a right So I was
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: gonna say so, Mehdi Hassad actually said Melissa Hortman was
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: killed by a Trump supporter, the first person to allegedly
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: take a shot at Trump as a registered Republican. Every
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: study shows more political violence from the right than the left.
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: Of course, those studies, by the way, side note, are
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: done by groups like the one that just got indicted,
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: the Southern Poverty Law Center.
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: They're the ones who do the studies.
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: But our friend Guy Benton points out, Melissa Hortman was
• 40:54
  Speaker 2: killed by a Democratic appointee who thought he was acting
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: on the orders of Governor Tim Wallston vance Walls's career.
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: His murder was condemned by everyone. The first person to
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: quote allegedly take Guy has a question mark take a
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: shot at Trump, donated so a left wing group the
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: day Joe Biden was inaugurated, it's notable that his two
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: counter examples of right wing political violence actually aren't. This
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: is not to say leftists have a monopoly on political violence.
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: They do not, though in recent years they've been far
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: more problematic on this front, especially when it comes to glorifying, celebrating,
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: and justifying political violence. And guy is rarely wrong.
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, and then throw in the congressional baseball shooting.
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: Oh guys, what about that one? Yeah? What about that one?
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: And they'll they'll claim to you still with a straight face.
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: They'll be like, oh no, the FBI classified that is
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: not political. It's the guy had a list in his
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: car and asked Ron DeSantis if they were indeed Republicans
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: before he shot, tried to shoot up an entire team
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: of Republicans. Who could know? Who could really know? You know?
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: One last thing, since we brought up SPLC, the fact
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: that people turn hard into conspiracy theories is one because
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: they're trying to help their partisanside, so like rethink that.
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: Two because places like SPLC, that's why I have planted
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: the seats for this with their bad actions, and it
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: does put us in a really precarious position where we
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: don't know who a reliable narrator is, and we don't
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: know what's real and what's not right, and things I
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: thought were real in the past did not really right.
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: It really breaks you, and I could see why regular
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: people are being broken by this. But if you're listening
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: to Normally, we would like for you to be normal
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: and to really consider what you're saying and not jump
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: to conclusions and not follow bad actors. You know, I'm
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: just Ockham's phrase.
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: Are the idea that like a pretty lib angry part
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: time school teacher got into some mental health issues in
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: a downward spiral and took a train across the country
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: to try to kill the president Like.
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: Sounds like the right call there.
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that could have just been what happened.
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, thank you for joining us on this very
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: special episode of Normally Normally or generally Tuesdays and Thursdays.
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: Subscribe anywhere you get your podcast, and when things get weird,
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: you act normally.