It Could Happen Here - The Truth Behind the Alleged Terror Plot at the White House UFC Fight

Episode Date: June 22, 2026

Garrison talks with Bailey Newposter about how a group of military LARPers from TikTok planned to spark a second American revolution by attacking UFC Freedom 250 at the White House. Sources: https://t...ime.com/article/2026/06/15/ufc-fight-white-house-hokit-obama/ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/14/white-house-ufc-fighters-crypto https://www.tmz.com/2026/05/18/white-house-fight-ticket-breakdown/https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/five-men-arrested-and-charged-plot-attack-and-kill-government-officials-and-others-attending https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1446021/dl?inline https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1446011/dl?inline https://cnycentral.com/resources/pdf/99a48b49-11dc-4b9c-a158-6487087ab779-Propercomplaint.pdf https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rSE1tw7lI0https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5927733-ufc-white-house-attack-plot/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCLN9psHjxY https://www.dhs.gov/news/2026/06/18/alleged-ringleader-ufc-terrorist-plot-mexican-illegal-alien See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Joy is essential and it's also elusive. But now, there's a new and exciting way to start your journey toward a more joyful existence. Joy 101. It's a new podcast hosted by me, Hoda Kot me. If you're craving inspiration to maximize your joy, tune into these candid, uplifting, and moving on-air chats. Listen to Joy 101 on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.
Starting point is 00:00:30 Joy 101 with Hoda Kotby is presented by CVS. June is Black Music Month, and on the Drink Chams podcast, we're speaking with the hottest names in the culture, like Sway Lee. Do you realize how legendary you are? I appreciate that. I'd be seeing it, but I'm like, man, I still got, like, so much more to do. Like, Prince, he dropped, like, 30 albums. We dropped, like, five right now.
Starting point is 00:00:51 That's the rate we got to be going. Yep, that's a good attitude. No matter the era, Drink Chams brings you the biggest names and the most unfiltered conversation. Listen to Drink Chams from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Here's something that should not be as complicated as it is, getting a racist statue removed. And here's something that should be a whole lot easier than it is, getting a new one put up in its place. I'm Akela Hughes, and Rebel Spirit, Season 2 is about both of those things.
Starting point is 00:01:23 As I was watching these statues come down, I was thinking about what it meant that I grew up in a majority black city, in which there were more homages to enslavers than there were to enslave people. Listen to Rebel Spirit Season 2 on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Can superstars even exist the way they used to? 2016 was sort of that last era of monoculture, where we still consume things in community. Everybody wanted to be Beyonce at that point. I don't think we'll ever see another beyond. What does it mean to be black and eat in America?
Starting point is 00:01:56 You will never make me feel bad for being a black girl, for being a black American girl, ever. From music to food to the conversations shaping black culture right now, therapy for black girls is bringing it all to the mic. Listen to therapy for black girls on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. All Zone Media. Welcome to It Could Happen here on Garrison Davis. This show originally focused on the potentiality of a second American Civil War and the conditions or events that might set one in front.
Starting point is 00:02:31 to motion. And we will return to that topic later this episode. But first, let me introduce my guest, friend of the pod artist, and noted live streamer, Bailey New Poster. I don't like that that's what we're attributing to me nowadays, but that's, you know, that's fine. That's fair. Hello, everybody. Thank you for coming back on the show. Let's start our main topic. Last summer, President Trump announced a UFC championship fight at the White House in 26 as a part of the festivities for America's 250th birthday. The event was initially planned to take place on July 4th, but last October, Trump announced it was rescheduled to take place on Flag Day, June 14th, which coincides
Starting point is 00:03:22 with his 80th birthday. Come Memorial Day, a giant claw-like canopy was being erected on the south lawn right in front of the White House, the event officially titled UFC Freedom 250, had a lower capacity than originally envisioned, just 4,000 attendees, far from the 25,000 spectators on the White House grounds that Trump pitched last summer. The 4,000 seats in the miniature stadium arena were invite only. Most tickets went to members of the military, while Trump had a thousand tickets to give out at his discretion. Though there were 85,000 free tickets to watch the fights on big screens from the Ellipse Park near the Washington Monument. UFC Free M-250 was streamed on Paramount Plus and began with Trump and UFC CEO Dana White walking together from the Oval Office to
Starting point is 00:04:15 the Octagon. Zach Brown sang the national anthem featuring a military flyover. This was a $60 million production with fireworks, dirtbikes, dirt bike, tricks and music by the U.S. Marine Band, which played Trump's favorite song YMCA. Billionaires like David Ellison and Mark Zuckerberg were in attendance, along with members of Trump's cabinet and politicians. Before the first fight, UFC announcer Bruce Buffer kicked things off in a way that really encapsulated the entire event. And I'll show you this clip here, and I'll have the audience listen to the audio. of the White House in Washington, D.C.
Starting point is 00:05:03 For U.S.C. Freedom 250. Presented by Ram trucks. Nothing stops RAM. And by Crypto.com, the world's leading cryptocurrency platform. Yes. Sponsorships on the White House lawn. Let's go, dude. Crypto shoutouts, literally within 30 seconds of, like, the actual, like,
Starting point is 00:05:23 event like starting. Like after after the anthem, like when the fight starts, within 30 seconds, we get cryptocurrency ads. And I mean, the stage was covered in logos for red, white, and blue monster energy, meta, rumble, the far right video streaming platform, crypto.com, as mentioned, steak gambling, and of course, polymarket. UFC fighters were actually paid in the form of a crypto coin called USD1, issued by the Trump family's own crypto company, World Liberty Financial. Awesome. Crypto all the way in this event. But UFC Freedom 250 went off largely without a hitch, save for a stunt pulled by UFC heel, Josh Hokit, after winning his heavyweight match,
Starting point is 00:06:14 where he called Michelle Obama a man while being interviewed by Joe Rogan. Oh, that's probably one of my favorite conspiracy theories, the Michelle Obama as a man stuff. It's pretty old. People have been writing that for like over a decade. That's a classic. I like the ones that mix it with Michelle Obama is a man and Obama used to be a woman. Those are the ones that I really respect. A solid straight, T for T relationship there. Yeah. Joe Rogen never addressed this comment for the rest of the night and the UFC cut out this
Starting point is 00:06:52 comment from Hokit from the YouTube upload and has been issuing take-down requests across social media. UFC CEO Dan & White told Time magazine that he's, quote, completely against saying nasty and false things about people's families. Everyone knows my position on free speech, but I hate that kind of nonsense, unquote. But according to the FBI, this event could have gone very differently. On the morning of Tuesday, June 16th, the DOJ announced that the FBI and law enforcement had prevented a mass casualty attack attempting to kill government officials with five arrests in multiple states over that weekend. Early reports framed the alleged plot as a sophisticated multi-step plan
Starting point is 00:07:36 involving explosives, drones, and snipers. Vice President J.D. Vance addressed the alleged terror plot on Fox and Friends Tuesday morning, saying, quote, so much of the far-left rhetoric is driving itself towards violence. Let's take a listen. This is a very, very dark stuff. This is what happens when people turn the rhetoric up so loud that disagreeing with somebody is a cause for violence. That's the place that we've come to, unfortunately. I think a lot of my Democratic colleagues in Washington have got to look themselves in the mirror and say, why is so much of this political violence coming from our side of the spectrum?
Starting point is 00:08:12 Maybe they can do something different. His eyes are getting deeper set. Like, he looks waxier and waxier as the days go on. Maybe he just doesn't get thicker eye later. or maybe he's moved to eye shadow. That's possible. Which is the sensible move. You start off with eyeliner, it doesn't look good.
Starting point is 00:08:31 Then you realize what I should really be doing is eye shadow. Imagine tears streaking down his face and his eye shadow. Midwest emo. Oh. Midwest emo, JD fans. A shiver ran up my spine. So according to the vice president, this alleged terror plot was coming from the Democrat side of politics. And simply the result of them turning.
Starting point is 00:08:52 up political rhetoric. Fox News reported that upwards of 23 people were involved in this plot, five of whom are currently in custody, with the details of the plan being uncovered on the encrypted messaging app signal. Fox News claimed the thwarted attack was targeting capitalism, billionaires, and APAC. J.D. Vance also mentioned how the administration is going after the terrorist funding networks facilitating this kind of violence. We're trying to look at the networks that drive towards this violence. 23 people do not get to the point where they're going to commit a mass terror incident in Washington, D.C., without some serious funding, without some serious coordination.
Starting point is 00:09:34 And we've actually been trying to go with those networks of coordination because this is a terrorist plot. That's not a few guys doing crazy stuff. That is a coordinated planned terrorist plot. Thank God we thwarted it, but we've got to do more of that stuff. According to the charges announced by the DOJ, Tyson Proper, 19 years old of Ohio, Brian Rowe, 24 of California, Michael Thomas, 32 of California, Daniel Eskridge, 32 of Missouri, and Abraham Alvarez, 31 of Nebraska, all conspired to plan and execute a mass casualty
Starting point is 00:10:10 events targeting politicians and other quote-unquote high-value targets at the UFC Freedom 250 event. the co-conspirators allegedly plan to use drones to drop unspecified explosives on the north side of the UFC arena, forcing event attendees to evacuate south, where other co-conspirators would be set up with sniper rifles to fire on the fleeing crowd. It's sort of a real shame that the Iowa Interactive guys aren't making another hitman game for a minute. A lot of this is like very hitman, very hitman, very, very. Very, yeah, very Agent 47's type stuff. And as we get more into the plan, it's going to get increasingly video gamey. Yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:10:56 Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said, quote, the FBI, our law enforcement partners, and our U.S. attorneys did what they do every day to make America safe through quick response and vigilance in investigating, disrupting, and dismantling this alleged plan before it could be carried out. FBI director Kattau Patel said, quote, thanks to the rapid action. of this FBI, our partners, and the DOJ in a multi-state operation, multiple individuals are now in custody, and allegedly planned attacks were stopped cold. While the results represented the best of investigative work, it was also nothing under the ordinary for this law enforcement team. We are built to detect, respond to, and bring to justice those who threaten the lives
Starting point is 00:11:36 of American citizens, unquote. And he said all that without blinking those big wet eyes of his. I think this was mostly in the form of a tweet. So it sounds like the FBI did. a darn fine job preventing this terrorist attack. Except what happened here was not the result of the FBI's excellent investigative prowess. They did not just stumble across this attack because of their, you know, diligent efforts to disrupt terrorist planning. Law enforcement only learned about this potential attack because on June 10th, the mother of one of the co-conspirators called local law enforcement in Ohio, concerned about her son's recent firearm practices and contact with individuals online. Officers went to their family home and spoke with 19-year-old Tyson
Starting point is 00:12:26 Proper and his family. According to the criminal complaint, a family member told officers that proper had, quote, recently met random people online and quit his job in preparation to conduct, quote, unquote missions and quote unquote recons with these individuals as soon as that upcoming weekend. Proper allegedly spent about $3,000 of his graduation money to buy, quote, camping gear, food, ballistic plates, a new shotgun, a rifle, lots of ammunition, extra magazines, and plate carriers, unquote. The family turned all this equipment over to the police voluntarily. After local law enforcement interviewed Proper and his family, Tyson, proper was transported to Dublin Springs Mental Health Center. I think this is quite notable,
Starting point is 00:13:16 is that they did not take him into custody, but was transferred to a mental hospital. In the DOJ announcement, they refer to this as a medical facility, but in court documents, they specify it's a mental health facility, and the criminal complaint says, quote, law enforcement submitted an application for an emergency admission based on his homicidal ideations, detailing that proper had been thinking about joining the military or police force with the goal of being able to kill people, unquote. I like that it's always like these guys, no matter what political ideology they have,
Starting point is 00:13:51 at one point they're like, maybe I should just fucking join the military, maybe I should just join the police. I just really want to fucking shoot people. It's like I want a cause. I want like a duty. Yeah, that sort of kind of more like floaty mindset, I think is more of a fact.
Starting point is 00:14:07 here than like any specific political ideology in a sense. And we'll get into that once we once we talk about the way that this group envisioned itself, like the role that it had on starting a second American revolution. But there's very little like defined ideology happening with these individuals. And for someone like proper, there's a large degree of delusional thinking at play here. Yeah, it's guys who want to do missions. Yeah, exactly. That's it. Like they want to do missions and recon. It's very, it's, it's, it's, like, aesthetically based on, like, the military and this, like, idea of, like, tactics. And, and we'll get into this sort of, like, you know, military fetishism later on as well. But, but, yeah, it's, it's very much, like, very, very, very
Starting point is 00:14:49 video gamey, very much, like, I want to, I want to plan, like, a mission to do in real life, like what we play in video games. That is, that's the, that's the sort of feeling across reading about their plan, because their plan is relatively complicated. And there's no way that they could have pulled a plan like this off. Like this, this type of plan would be hard for a nation's state to be able to do successfully.
Starting point is 00:15:14 There's, there's no way that, like, five guys from, like, across the United States with, like, a, you know, nerdy focus on, like, tactical kit
Starting point is 00:15:21 would be able to, like, do this. About, like, halfway through planning, they would have given up and all gone gay, probably. What would have been gone gay?
Starting point is 00:15:30 Well, they would have, when it turned into it, I was just thinking, like, you know, really quitting your job, this guy quits his job to meet his online friends, you know, go hang out with them in the woods.
Starting point is 00:15:40 That's the more positive outcome, yes. 50-50, like, they either try to plan a mass terror attack or they like all end up like kissing and stuff, you know? I mean, yeah, having a gay camp out in the woods is the more positive path for people like this? Yes. Because that's really all they need. It's just a group of friends to go camping with. Well, I do, I do like how Vance and them are talking about it. They're like, we've got these guys who were definitely going to try and shoot up our UFC event. And they were going to successfully do it if we didn't stop them. And it's like, if you look at the kid, it's like a mentally ill teenager. Yes.
Starting point is 00:16:18 And as we will also get into, you know, far from this like left-wing anti-capitalist motivation, which JD Vans and Fox News are promoting, that is not at all what was going on here. So the day after Tyson Proper was admitted to the mental health facility, the sheriff's office contacted the FBI. After searching Propper's phone, investigators found signal chats detailing a planned attack with maps highlighting potential sniper locations and drone launch points. According to the criminal complaint, Tyson Proper's family saw him researching and mapping locations around Washington, D.C., and when asked what he was doing, he said that he intended to conduct, quote, recon and quote-unquote hit-and-run missions.
Starting point is 00:17:03 Hit-and-run missions. Awesome, dude. That's fantastic. I'm going to do GTA-5 online, like, heist, like, prerequisite missions before we go blow up this UFC event. So on June 11th, the FBI searched Proper's home and found a journal that the criminal complaint says contained a list of approximately 46 names, including celebrities and politicians, as well as pages, quote, in which proper wrote that the government sought to control
Starting point is 00:17:36 people and to sacrifice children and others to a demonic figure, unquote. Awesome. We're going. It's getting better. It's getting better. So yes, this is obviously evidence of like delusional thinking. Like this is not, this is not someone who's doing well. And this is also not your typical rhetoric from a democratic politician considering the claims made by J.D. Vance. This is not, this is not regular democratic politician rhetoric. The Proper's family told the FBI that he recently began to interact with a group of people online who, quote, represented themselves as ex-military and that may share some Christian-based ideology, unquote. The family believed that these people online were using religion to
Starting point is 00:18:23 manipulate proper, and that they, quote, expressed ultra-religious and anti-government sentiments, specifically citing grievances about government corruption, the handling of the Epstein files, data centers taking up all the water in communities, and other government actions, unquote. So rather than a sort of general like left-wing anti-capitalist or rhetoric from Democratic politicians motivating this attack, this is very general, kind of libertarian-esque anti-government sentiments. And this, as we will discuss, this group did not consider itself on the right or the left, but saw themselves as American patriots more than anything else. And they were upset about government corruption and had this anti-establishment kind of leaning that was pushing them to plan very complicated and far-fetched attacks against the establishment and corrupt politicians.
Starting point is 00:19:17 This is very average guy who sells cars ideology. Yes. Oftentimes when people read through these sorts of core documents, they'll be like they had an incoherent. ideology. And you're like, it's not really incoherent, right? They're responding to real things in the world. Like, everyone knows we're all being fucked over. Government did mishandle the Epstein files. There is a lot of corruption, right? And it does exist on both
Starting point is 00:19:40 sides of the political spectrum. So, like, they are responding to real things, but there's not an avenue that it's being channeled in a helpful or useful direction. So it gets dispersed through these very larpy, like, idealistic, violent avenues where you get a group of people who don't really know what to do, but are seeing these problems in the world.
Starting point is 00:19:58 and then what they end up doing is larping themselves into federal custody by typing on signal about their dreams to shoot politicians. Spending their college money on guns. Yeah. Now, the criminal complaint in Ohio for Tyson Proper also specifies that family members highlighted concerning statements he'd made in recent months on social media, quote, such as making sympathetic comments about Adolf Hitler and posting anti-Semitic comments on Facebook, unquote. Wow. Left wing. Well, they are national socialists after all.
Starting point is 00:20:36 True, true. We will return to discuss Tyson Proper and the alleged attack on UFC 200 after this at break. Okay, we are back. On June 11th, the FBI interviewed proper at the mental hospital, where he admitted to planning an attack on the Freedom 250 event at the White House. The FBI their own search of Propor's phone, and on the encrypted messaging app SimpleX, found messages identifying possible targets. The criminal complaint alleges that in mid-May, Proper identified a senator from Tennessee and wrote, quote, she's taken money from the pro-Israel lobby and supports them, unquote. A few weeks later, Proper sent pictures of four members of Congress, apparently taken from the track APAC website, writing, quote, these are the people we're going to
Starting point is 00:21:36 focus on. Proper allegedly told police that members of this group that were planning the attack were primarily recruited through TikTok, where members shared photos and videos of tactical kits and physical training via TikTok direct messages. Once a recruit had proven himself on TikTok, they were then let into a quote-unquote vetted signal chat. So glad this isn't happening on my video app of choice Instagram Reels. I really really, I really don't want to start restricting that. The TikTok aspect is super interesting because there's elements of this that's similar to the accelerationist Nazi terrorism of, you know, 2016 to 2020.
Starting point is 00:22:21 These people are not explicitly Nazis, even if there's an aspect of anti-Semitism, kind of directing this violence. But this is anti-Semitism that is largely focused on the role that Israel has in influence in the U.S. government and the Israel lobby and the, politicians taking money from Israel. That's where most of the anti-Semitic aspect comes from. And then in proper case, he is posting about Hitler on Facebook. But this is not driven by like neo-Nazi style anti-Semitic ideology. Like these guys aren't posting about Saan and Rads or Germany or race science. At least that's not what's outlined in the court documents.
Starting point is 00:23:00 So some of this does feel downstream from the, the accelerations Nazis like the base and Adam Woffen and their target selection that. we'll get into in a sec kind of also is similar to this. But they're not primarily organizing this on like telegram, right? This is, this is guys posting like shooting videos and tactical kit on TikTok. And that's how they meet each other. Is is through TikTok sharing videos of their, you know, plate carrier and doing shooting drills. And then they start, you know, talking and they start planning these sorts of operations, as they call them. And then they move to signal to plan these things more in depth.
Starting point is 00:23:36 Propper's phone contained a large signal chat with approximately 19 individuals, along with smaller chats consisting of four to five people that were divided based on role assignments and locations. In these chats, the group discussed exit, escape, and evasion resources for the Freedom 250 attack, including the location of potential safe houses. One of the signal chats was titled Hunters, which the complaint says, quote, contained detailed instructions for carrying out the attack and plans to safely escape. Proper showed the FBI the TikTok profiles of other co-conspirators. And based on this,
Starting point is 00:24:15 investigators were able to identify someone in California and someone in Missouri. The guy in Missouri, Daniel Eskridge, had the username Fulcrum Resist on TikTok. And they were able to identify him because he followed himself from another account with his legal name. And the account with his legal name, Largius reposted the tactical videos from at Folkrum Resist. Like, reposting your own videos and being like, I don't know, this guy looks pretty sick. This guy looks like a badass. This guy looks pretty dope. Have you guys seen this guy shooting?
Starting point is 00:24:53 Oh, my God. I bet he's going to do something crazy one day. This guy has a wife and five kids. Oh, my God. He's like, I think it's like 32 years old. He lives on a rural property about an hour north of Kansas City. And he's kind of the most interesting guy in this whole deal for me. The FBI was also able to identify co-conspirators based on information in the Simple X messages given to them by proper.
Starting point is 00:25:19 Now, one of these Simple X group chats was called Vanguard of the Old Republic. God! Yes! This was the main. main name that this group used to refer to themselves was Vanguard of the Old Republic. There was another simple X chat that was called Vanguard of the Old
Starting point is 00:25:37 Republic, parenthesis ops stage one. Which was there, which was like a, which was like an, you know, an op planning chat. Awesome. That's so dope. I'm going to read some messages from fulcrum.
Starting point is 00:25:53 That is Daniel Eskridge of Missouri. He wrote that the Vanguard of the older public should intend to, quote, recruit operators into this group and start making teams to complete tasks and objectives to push our lines forward. So good. Quote, the definition of a vanguard is the leading group in an advancing army or the foremost pioneers in any field, movement, or industry. That is what we strive to be. This chat here will be insulated for the most part from each team's detailed plan. So we won't post exact details in this chat. This will be the main
Starting point is 00:26:32 chat for everyone as we grow and we will have specific ops chats. Our goal is in a general sense to, quote, restore the old republic. Our constitutional republic has been stolen by corporations, politicians, and foreign actors. They have usurped power from the people and concentrated it at the top to the point that we now live in late stage, quote unquote, democracy. When I say restore the old republic, I'm not talking about all the flaws that we had in the past times, but merely talking about the fact that in a constitutional republic, the people truly hold the power, and that's what we intend to restore. To get there, this country needs more fuel on the fire to show our fellow Americans at the time has come to stand up and reclaim that power.
Starting point is 00:27:17 May 22nd, 2026. Oh my God. People who are on like the Star Wars Wiki Forum like way too much. I'm on the, what is it, Wukipedia? Wookie-Pedia? Yeah, Wookie-Pedia mod. Another co-conspirator named Michael Thomas of California wrote, quote, To be clear, I intend to escalate this group,
Starting point is 00:27:43 and I don't want to take six business years to do it, unquote. Six business years. He's making it sound more professional. That's good. So much of this is like Larpie, right? They're using all these, like, you know, the sort of like tier one operator terms, which we'll get into it in a sec and like, you know, missions.
Starting point is 00:27:59 They wanted to sound professional, six business years. A business year is the same as a regular year. It's not, it's... But Thomas also wrote that everyone in the group should, quote, consider yourselves an enemy of the state and discussed imagining executions. Another co-conspirator named Brian Rao of California wrote about the need for, quote-unquote,
Starting point is 00:28:19 guerrilla-style warfare and quote-unquote raid attacks with, quote, skilled operators to work like ghosts to conduct infiltration missions, unquote. Yes. Very hitman, very ancient 47, right? These are, frankly, just like totally, totally delusional. The criminal complaint says that Thomas and Rao met at least once in the last month in Southern California to, quote,
Starting point is 00:28:43 practice marksmanship and tactics. Michael Thomas of California described different tiers of operators within the vanguard of the old republic. And this is largely taking from like military terms. Quote, tier one operators may be asked to put themselves in harm's way, break the law, and potentially go into hiding. Tier two would consist of getaway drivers, drone operators, and direct support, may still be asked to seriously break the law.
Starting point is 00:29:11 Tier three may be a runner or part of the underground railroad. Indirect support, recruitment, supply, logistics, tech, still actually contributing, but most likely, safe from legal issues. Tier 4, social media influencers, protesters, funders, press, followers. Nobody is being asked too much or taking any risks. Tier 1 status is not something to take lightly. You'll be sacrificing for your country and carrying a brunt of the weight. We will try to break them out of jail if we need to, unquote. Oh my God, dude. Oh, God. This is kind of them. their larpeist is like when they're talking about like four different tiers of operators and it's like you and like at
Starting point is 00:29:58 you know at the most like 19 of your internet buddies yeah and kind of at the least kind of you and your five closest friends talking about how you want to like wage insurgent warfare against the government they're structuring their discord server yes yes yes that is that's what's happening just not on discord but on simple x and signal but like a lot of people like know guys like this right these are guys in their 20s or 30s who played a lot of like tactical military video games who have this sort of like military tactical fetishism and they're looking for like an outlet for this combined with this like anti-establishment sentiment that is based on very real things happening out in the world but it has nowhere to be directed so they just do this larp and eventually wind up in federal custody and get charged with conspiracy
Starting point is 00:30:42 to commit murder on the white house grounds fulcrum daniel escrow of missouri wrote quote So right now, in the historical timeline, I believe we are at the trigger event point, meaning to set this off, we need an event or events that cause people to realize the revolution has officially begun, unquote. So this is what the group intended to do. They intended to execute attacks that served as trigger events to cause this sort of mass like upswell of support for a second American revolution. They didn't call it a civil war.
Starting point is 00:31:19 called a Second American Revolution. And that is how they envision themselves, as being the operators that will do trigger events to put this all into motion. It's kind of similar to like the boo-galu boy type stuff from, you know, five, six years ago. This group allegedly talked about attacking power grids with a fleet of drones to hit specific transformers and discussed assassinating several U.S. senators, House representatives, and prominent business executives. So this sort of target selection, very similar to like the base in Adam Woffin and like, you know, neo-Nazi accelerationist terrorism from around like the, you know, 2016 to 2022 type era.
Starting point is 00:31:59 The group did debate how they should choose assassination targets with fulcrum writing, quote, we need to make sure it's someone that can't be easily turned into a right versus left thing. We want someone both sides would celebrate, would cheer and support us for taking out. Both sides would celebrate us shooting up this one guy, like this one guy's weird America birthday event. Like, what did... I mean, I think what they're pulling on from here is stuff like the Luigi Mangione incident. Yeah, yeah. They're trying to identify, like, and I find this part to be very interesting because a lot of these guys do have this sort of like Christian nationalist or like Christian libertarian. It's kind of unclear.
Starting point is 00:32:42 But they definitely have this like Christian element to their motivation. They see them as themselves as patriots. But they do not explicitly associate themselves with like the right or the left, right? They see themselves as kind of like outside politics. But I find this aspect to be rather interesting. When they're trying to specifically find targets that will allow for both people on the right and left to like cheer them on or like join in on like a second American revolution. This does push them towards a talking a lot about like APEC backed politicians and unnamed prominent business executives. their names are redacted in their criminal complaint.
Starting point is 00:33:19 But I'm sure that's, you know, it's... It's Black Rock. It's like... Well, it could be people like Jeff Bezos, like Elon Musk. It doesn't... It's not totally clear, but I'm assuming that's the sort of range in which they're discussing. Fulcrum texted, quote, So the goal here is to get at least three trigger event ops,
Starting point is 00:33:38 fully planned and manned, and to the best of our ability to have them executed on the same day or in rapid succession, so that our message is undeniably clear to our illegitimate government and our fellow Americans that we are waging war. We don't need to wait for resistance infrastructure, supply lines, and all these other things. That's what every other group in this movement is working on, and I'm sure one of them will be able to get it right. But they can't do that without mass support,
Starting point is 00:34:05 and they won't get mass support as long as people think all anyone is doing is holding signs and chanting. All we need is three small groups of fully committed operators, with a fully fleshed out and perfectly formulated plan, and all real world on the ground intel they will need for each op to be successful. Once we've decided on what three events would provide the most impact and bring in the most support, we will create special chats for those ops specifically
Starting point is 00:34:30 so that only the people on those ops know the details, unquote. All of this planning just for one 19-year-old, I got to invite my mentally ill 19-year-old buddy. into this group chat so he can, his mom can get really worried. That's how a lot of this stuff goes. And like, I don't want to, I don't want to diminish the possible harm that a group like this could cause. I think something that Robert pointed out last week
Starting point is 00:35:00 when discussing this on executive disorder, is like, this group could have easily spawned like one or two, like, mass shooters, right? Or they could have acted on a plan that was way too difficult to pull off that caused a lot of collateral damage, right? This group could have done something very bad. This group could have set a plan into motion that ended up killing or wounding a bunch of people or driven people towards other sorts of violent acts, right? Because they're encouraging each other to buy weapons, buy kit, you know, do all these things, right?
Starting point is 00:35:28 So there was a potential for real harm here. Was the UFC Freedom 250 event ever in serious harm from these people? Absolutely not. There was no way they were able to pull off their plan, as we will soon discuss. But first, let's go on another ad break. Okay, we are back. I have one more encrypted message from Folkrum or Daniel Eskrich of Missouri. Exciting.
Starting point is 00:36:05 Quote, I can't speak for everyone in saying we're tired of not making shit happen and tired of being ruled over by treasonous, pedophilic criminal politicians and foreign agents, unquote. The Folkrum wrote that what they're doing is not only our birthrights, but also our duty as Americans. It's about time the elites in the government are reminded of why they should fear the people, especially the American people, unquote. So Eskridge wrote that
Starting point is 00:36:35 the American people is the largest standing army in the world with 107 million gun owners. He also believed that half of the military would join their cause and not follow quote unquote unlawful orders after the Second American Revolution kicks off, and that following a successful trigger event operation, potentially 3% of the U.S. population would stand with their group,
Starting point is 00:37:03 writing that, just like America's forefathers, quote, what we do here will reverberate around the world and echo throughout history, long live the Republic, unquote. Oh, God. So that's the most we know about the group formation and the sort of drivers that they themselves are discussing. Let's close by getting back into the UFC Freedom 250 attack plan. Because the more that I learned about this plan, the more it became clear that this would just simply never happen.
Starting point is 00:37:32 This is not a feasible operation. It would be hard for a special ops military team to pull this off at this location, let alone five of your TikTok friends to pull this off. And like the plan to target Freedom 250 really only kicked off a week before the... event was scheduled to take place. Well, there's your issue, guys. If you had a little, maybe a month's heads up, you know, maybe you could have gotten something going. On June 7th, Fulcrum messaged the Vanguard of the Old Republic about using the White House
Starting point is 00:38:09 UFC event to take out, quote-unquote, high-value targets. In his message, he mentioned communication with, quote-unquote, other groups and said that the UFC attack would require cooperation from everyone and that they would need to, quote, put a hold on the other ops that were currently being planned. Quote, we need five teams of three, each team consisting of one sniper, one tier one operator as support slash lookout, and one drone operator, unquote. As a part of the planning, they needed to pick five locations ideal for, quote, precise sniper shots and for the drone pilot to operate from.
Starting point is 00:38:48 Folkram wrote, quote, once each team is mission ready, the green light will be given and the drone rigged with explosives will fly and they will initiate the attack, unquote. So after the explosives detonate, the attention will be, quote, on the skies and not the rooftop snipers. Who will then eliminate, quote, unquote, high value targets? Oh, also, I feel like the skies and rooftop targets are remarkably close to each other. Sort of, yeah, same bracket. I'm feeling if you're looking up, you might see on the roof. I don't know. No, even the idea that you can get a sniper on a rooftop anywhere close to the White House without getting your head blown off is like insane, right?
Starting point is 00:39:37 There's just no way that's going to happen. You're not going to be able to get a sniper on a roof within a sight line of the White House. Following the attempted assassination on Donald Trump in Butler, I can see why people might think it's easier to set up a sniper location than one might expect. The White House is like the most defended place in the country. Like, especially at an event like this where there's even more security, I just don't see how this is in any way feasible. Now, the group believed that there would be a protest outside of the event
Starting point is 00:40:07 and that this would help allow quote-unquote extraction teams to evacuate the quote-unquote operators to a location out of state after successful completion of mission objectives. Fulcrum wrote, quote, if we're successful, this could be the first battle
Starting point is 00:40:24 of the Second American Revolution. Who is willing to be able to drop everything and be one of these 10 operators and who is confident and capable of flying drones? June 7th, 10.28 p.m. 19-year-old, raise your hand. Babe, please come to bed.
Starting point is 00:40:39 No, no, honey. I've been activated. I've got to go. You know those friends have been hanging out in the woods with? I got to go. They need me. So even if this group got enough, quote-unquote, operators to pull off this mission, which is highly questionable, if not impossible,
Starting point is 00:40:57 they simply did not have the funds, the materials, or the resources to carry out an attack like this, let alone the skill or logistical capacity. Folkram texted the group, quote, We also need to come up with $1,300, ASAP. We need to come up with. with $1,300. You can't just pull it. This guy has three kids and a wife and he can't pull five kids and he can't pull like.
Starting point is 00:41:23 Kids are expensive. We have. Oh, true, true. Yeah, but you're going to die. Like, he's going to, he knows he's going to die. He's larping like he's going to get out, but he knows he's going to die and he can't be like, I will go and I'll sell some bullshit and I'll get like $1,300. We got a fund.
Starting point is 00:41:41 Do you have like a credit card? Yeah. Anyone have a credit card? Quote, $1,300 gets us the drones and the charges. We should all pitch in and we need it to ASAP. What kind of drones
Starting point is 00:41:54 are they getting? Like, is this Amazon like you look up drone on there? I'm just picturing like the drones that you see getting flown around like at the park by a family that just bought it. Just carrying a grenade. Exactly. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:42:09 Thomas of California replied, quote, I'm flat broke. I can pay in manpower, though. I bet you could come up with $100 in a week somehow. Maybe just hold a sign by the freeway saying, quote, fund the freedom fighters. Oh, God. That's awesome, dude. So unable to pay for bombs.
Starting point is 00:42:39 The group talked about trying to build drones and discussed breaking into military facilities to steal the explosives needed for their attack plan. Does anybody, does any of us know how to build this? Oh, shit. I, we might have to redo the whole, or, or we can break into some of the most protected facilities in America. I think that might be the, that might be the better choice. To be fair, some of those military facilities are not as protected than what you might think. That's fair.
Starting point is 00:43:08 The criminal complaints reads, quote, a member of the group stated he knew how to build drones, connected via fiber optic cable, and capable of carrying explosive charges, but did not have access to the materials needed for explosive charges. That number suggested that they, quote, may need to hit a military industrial complex facility for the things we need, unquote.
Starting point is 00:43:32 Fulcrum, or Eskridge, responded, 10-4, I'm liking the sound of this. Awesome. What? You're texting people. 10-4. What are you doing? What are we doing? The complaint alleges that the group continued to discuss the, quote, benefits and the detriments of obtaining a quote-unquote cook for explosive charges versus stealing military ordinance from a manufacturing plant, unquote. They were looking at a few locations in Kansas and zeroed in on the Kansas Army ammunition plant, though they never actually. stole explosives from this plant. But they sure did talk about it. And their conversations are in the charging documents.
Starting point is 00:44:16 Awesome. So again, this is all happening days before this attack is supposed to kick off. And a part of the plan is for a day or two, before UFC Freedom 250, the group was to meet up in Fredericksburg, Virginia, to go over plans again in person and, like, practice and prepare. So they needed to get guys in Fredericksburg around the 12th or the 3rd,000. One of the members who was interviewed by the FBI confirmed that the group was communicating online
Starting point is 00:44:45 about attacking the event, but claimed that the attack plan was canceled on June 12th. And of course, Tyson Proper was placed in the mental health facility on June 10th. So somewhere between June 10th and June 12th, the group called off their plans. It is notable, however, that at least one of the co-conspirators did attempt to drive to Washington, D.C. When Brian Rao was interviewed by the FBI, he admitted that he tried to drive to Washington, D.C., to protest UFC Freedom 250, but denied any involvement in this conspiracy.
Starting point is 00:45:25 And he told the FBI that his vehicle malfunctioned and had to return home. One of the most interesting parts in the criminal complaint is this FBI agent writing about how, when he was interviewing Rao, Rao discussed how someone could hypothetically use drones armed with explosives to bomb buildings near the White House, which would cause a mass panic with limited deaths at UFC Freedom 250, and mentioned this as an example of how to use drones to enact political change in a more targeted way rather than indiscriminate killing. The FBI agent wrote,
Starting point is 00:46:00 quote, based on this exchange, I believe Rao was privy to the operational details of the plan, unquote. So Brian Raab just like talked about the plan, just like as a hypothetical to an FBI agent while the FBI was searching his vehicle after admitting he tried to drive to D.C. to protest the event but was not involved in any criminal conspiracy. That's like being, you know, you just got caught. Your spouse has found all of your your secret messages or whatever to your grinder lover. And while they're going through your phone, you're like, I mean, what if somebody was hypothetically going to do that? Like, you know, it wouldn't be that bad because it's with a, it's with a man and not a woman. So it's like, we love each other completely different ways. I'm not, but that's just like me, you know, that's not real. That's not like, it's not, it wouldn't be anything real.
Starting point is 00:46:48 Just like hypothetically, you'd be cool with that, right? You'd be cool with that? The FBI was not cool with that. Especially considering that when executing a federal search warrant of Rouse vehicle and home, they seized an AR-15 style rifle, a Glock 19 handgun. a tactical belt, an ammo can full of bullets, a two-way radio, an infrared laser target pointer, and a rifle magazine. Brian Rao's family members told law enforcement that Rao had alluded to traveling to D.C.,
Starting point is 00:47:18 and according to the California criminal complaint, Rao told his family that, quote, one day they would wake up and he would be gone, and that he intended to travel to Washington, D.C., where, quote, unquote, something big would happen. similar to proper's family Brian Rowe's family suspected that he may be intending to commit an act of violence based on a quote increased time spent shooting weapons
Starting point is 00:47:43 and a noticeable change in behavior including increased anxiety irritation and seclusion unquote Dad spending a lot of time in the shed with a gun in his mouth family also told law enforcement that Rau had been spending a lot of time online with a new group of friends with his family also telling law enforcement that they considered reporting him to the police after he left on his way to D.C., but did not because he returned home so quickly. Rao told the FBI he had vehicle trouble.
Starting point is 00:48:19 On June 13th, law enforcement officials executed a federal search warrant of Daniel Eskridge or Fulcrum's residence, and agents seized rifles, a shotgun, a pistol, and other tactics. gear that matched photos, Eskridge posted online. That same day, FBI searched the home of Michael Thomas in California, where they seized a hunting rifle, an Air 15 style rifle, 30-round extended magazines, with approximately 180 rounds of ammunition, as well as a pistol. While Michael Thomas was being interviewed, to quote the criminal complaint, quote, he stated that he saw himself as the planner and advisor for the group, and while he was not willing to take action himself, wanted to guide and instruct to others on how to carry out attacks. Thomas expressed frustration that some members
Starting point is 00:49:05 of the group seemed non-committal and his excuses as to why they could not take action. Thomas said that the aim of this and subsequent attacks was to create enough chaos to bring about the overthrow of the U.S. government, which he believed was being, quote, run by an elite group of individuals who sacrifice and consume infants, who are also deeply involved with Jeffrey Epstein and are now protected by President Donald Trump. Thomas places some of the responsibility of this corruption, of the U.S. government with Jewish people and blames them and Israel for the current war with Iran,
Starting point is 00:49:37 unquote. So yeah, that is what did not happen at UFC Freedom 250. Nothing will ever happen. J.D. Vance did go back on Fox News Tuesday night, on Fox News as the 5, and said, quote, it turns out
Starting point is 00:49:54 the plot was like, not that advanced. They weren't in town. They had not really done that much planning, unquote. So slightly backtracking his previous assertions. We've got to find who's funding these guys. These guys who can't pull out 1,300
Starting point is 00:50:12 bucks from like between the couch questions. Like what is going on? Like no, wasn't it like 19 or something in the signal chat? In the biggest signal chat related to the group, there was 19 people. So far only five have been arrested.
Starting point is 00:50:28 More have been interviewed, right? Because the FBI I mentioned interviewing someone in West Virginia who said that the attack plan was canceled. As of recording, this guy's not been arrested in charge. We don't know his name. So they definitely are talking with other people related to this network. Well, they know he was a tier four
Starting point is 00:50:44 operator. He wasn't... The law can't touch him. No. Yeah. Famously how conspiracy charges were. Yeah, yeah. The last thing I want to mention is the fifth guy that was arrested, right? Because there was five people arrested initially. And that is Abraham Alvarez.
Starting point is 00:50:59 He was known as, quote-unquote, shepherd online. Call of duty, of course, classic. And the DOJ claims that he was responsible for planning, organizing, and directing the planned attack. Alvarez allegedly picked out the drone launch points and sniper locations and claimed to have one drone and was trying to get others. He also selected a safe zone meetup location in Nebraska for after the attack. Alvarez also claimed to be, quote, cooking explosives. But court documents never specify that drones or explosives were seized during any of the searches. So we don't know if he actually had a drone or actually had explosives.
Starting point is 00:51:40 It seems unlikely because of the whole plan of needing to steal explosives from this military facility in Kansas. But he may have been trying to make explosives. But at this point, it's kind of unclear. Now, before any of the details of any of the alleged attackers was released, a Fox News contributor said that, considering President Biden led in, quote, unquote, millions of unvetted people into the country, quote, it would be a very dangerous delusion to believe that these terrorist organizations and countries did not use that open border to bring people inside, unquote. And as we've already discussed, this was not the operation of a foreign terrorist organization
Starting point is 00:52:19 or people that were brought into the country. These are Americans. These are American patriots. Self-ascribed. But on Thursday, June 18th, the DHS announced, quote, alleged ringleader of UFC terrorist plot is a Mexican illegal alien, unquote. With acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Biss writing, This illegal alien from Mexico should have never been allowed in our country. He was the ringleader of a failed terror attack targeting UFC Freedom 250 at the White House. The current legal status of Abraham Alvarez is kind of unclear,
Starting point is 00:52:55 but he was not brought into the country under Biden's open borders. He entered the country as a child on a B2 visitor visa that expired in December of 2021. He's been in this country nearly his whole life, and under Obama, he was granted deferred action for childhood arrivals or DACA in 2014, suspending possible deportation. So while it looks like he currently may not have legal status, this was not an illegal alien who snuck across the border from Mexico, this guy was brought to the United States as a child and has lived here for over 25 years, over 27 years.
Starting point is 00:53:35 So I do think that is worth noting, but I'm sure going forward, the Trump administration will be running with this idea that this illegal alien from Mexico planned the UFC Freedom 250 terrorist attack and the actual context of how Alvarez entered the country is important, not that it will matter to Fox News or the Trump administration,
Starting point is 00:53:57 but I do think it is worth specifying. And of course, there was upwards of 19 other people involved in this, and the four others that I've spent most of the episode talking about are all U.S.-born citizens. Anyway, yeah, that's what did not happen at UFC Freedom 250. And let things, I suppose, continue to...
Starting point is 00:54:16 Continue not happening. It could not happen here. It will continue not happening. So, Bailey New Post, Where can people find you online? Oh, God. I'm on Blue Sky as New Poster 2. Very smart pick.
Starting point is 00:54:32 Yes. I'm also on the other app, X, as new poster 2, but I, you know, not very well. Not very woke of you. I'm also on Instagram as Post-Lytical Bling because that account has not been suspended three different times. And then on Twitch as, I think on Twitch as New Post or 2 as well. Excellent. There's four little options for you. Yes.
Starting point is 00:54:57 Good luck in your streaming endeavors. Oh, God. All right, that does it for us here that could happen here. See you on the other side. Bye-bye. It Could Happen Here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, visit our website, coolzonemedia.com,
Starting point is 00:55:15 or check us out on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can now find sources for It Could Happen here listed directly in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening. Joy is a. essential and it's also elusive. But now, there's a new and exciting way to start your journey toward a more joyful existence, Joy 101. It's a new podcast hosted by me, Hoda Kotby. If you're
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Starting point is 00:56:45 Yep, that's a good attitude. No matter the era, Drink Chams brings you the biggest names and the most unfiltered conversations. Listen to Drink Chams from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Can superstars even exist the way they used to? 2016 was sort of that last era of monoculture, where we still consumed things in community.
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