The Young Turks - On The Fringe

Episode Date: September 17, 2024

Trump was the subject of an apparent assassination attempt at his Florida golf club, the FBI says. The would-be Trump assassin ID’d as Ryan Routh, 58, of Hawaii. "Appalling and indefensible": Elon Musk incites rage online after claiming no one is "trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala." HOSTS: Ana Kasparian (@anakasparian), Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur) SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE: ☞ https://www.youtube.com/user/theyoungturks FACEBOOK: ☞ https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER: ☞ https://www.twitter.com/theyoungturks INSTAGRAM: ☞ https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK: ☞ https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕 Merch: https://shoptyt.com ❤ Donate: http://www.tyt.com/go 🔗 Website: https://www.tyt.com 📱App: http://www.tyt.com/app 📬 Newsletters: https://www.tyt.com/newsletters/ If you want to watch more videos from TYT, consider subscribing to other channels in our network: The Watchlist https://www.youtube.com/watchlisttyt Indisputable with Dr. Rashad Richey https://www.youtube.com/indisputabletyt The Damage Report ▶ https://www.youtube.com/thedamagereport TYT Sports ▶ https://www.youtube.com/tytsports The Conversation ▶ https://www.youtube.com/tytconversation Rebel HQ ▶ https://www.youtube.com/rebelhq TYT Investigates ▶ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwNJt9PYyN1uyw2XhNIQMMA Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. I'm so upset. Oh my God. Let's see how Earth responds to that. Bega! All right. of the Young Turks, live from the Polymarket Studio in LA, Jake Hugar, Anna Kusparin with you guys.

Do we have amazing news source for you? Of course, is life totally crazy, Avi. Another assassination attempt kind of on Donald Trump. We have all the details for you guys now. And then of course all the lunacy that immediately springs from that. We have that to cover for you all. Is Trump brackets.com the hottest thing on earth right now, I guess. So those are some of the worst things that Donald Trump has done. And if you fill out your brackets, you can win $1,000, jeez and Lord mercy, Trumpbrackets.com. So we'll talk more about that as we go along here. And then, of course, the usual set of crazy stories about right wingers like Elon Musk

spreading lunacy. Okay, all right. So, Casper. All right, well, we begin with the obvious big story of the day. And that has to do with the second assassination attempt on Donald Trump. Over the weekend, the FBI disclosed that a man was taken into custody for what appears to be an attempted assassination of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. This is now the second assassination attempt against Donald Trump in as little as three months.

The last time it took place, of course, in Pennsylvania. this was in July, but as you see, the suspect in the latest assassination attempt has been taken into custody, meaning authorities will be able to ask him some questions, although for now reports indicate that he is not cooperating with authorities. Now, here's what we do know about the attempted assassination. The shooter targeted Trump at his golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida. Trump was luckily unharmed and is safe, and in fact, he said in a statement, quote, There were gunshots in my vicinity, but before rumor starts spiraling out of control,

I want you to hear this first. I am safe and well. Nothing will slow me down. I will never surrender. He also sent an email to campaign staffers, which the Associated Press obtained. And in it, Trump wrote the following. We ask that you remain vigilant in your daily comings and goings. As we enter the last 50 days of President Trump's campaign, we must remember that we will only be

able to save America from those who seek to destroy it by working together as one team. But later on, today in fact, Donald Trump also took some time to place some blame on Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and how he believes their rhetoric is inspiring this type of violence against him. Speaking to Fox News Digital's Brooke Singman, he said the following. He believed the rhetoric of Biden and Harris and he acted on it, meaning the shooter, Okay, or the would be assassin, I should say. The rhetoric is causing me to be shot at when I am the one who is going to save the country and they are the ones that are destroying the country, both from the inside and out.

And then Trump pointed to Biden and Harris's past comments casting Trump as a threat to democracy while telling Americans, they are unity leaders. They are the opposite, Trump said, these are people that want to destroy the country. It is called the enemy from within. they are the real threat. I mean, kind of engaging in the very rhetoric that he's trying to denounce here. But I do want to give you some more details about how this all played out. So real quick, Jank, before I go to you, I just want to give you the basics of what happened yesterday. So according to the Associated Press, U.S. Secret Service agents posted a few

holes up from where Trump was playing and noticed the muzzle of an AK-style rifle sticking through the shrubbery that lines the course, roughly 400 yards away, an agent fired, and the gunman dropped the rifle and fled in an SUV, leaving the firearm behind along with two backpacks, a scope used for aiming and a GoPro camera, Palm Beach County Sheriff Rick Bradshaw said, the man was later taken into custody in the neighboring Martin County. Now, during a press conference today, acting director of the U.S. Secret Service, Ronald Roe provided additional details about the shooter, including, well, well, you're about to hear. Let's watch.

The agent who was visually sweeping the area of the sixth screen saw the subject armed with what he perceived to be a rifle and immediately discharged his firearm. The subject who did not have line of sight to the former president fled the scene. He did not fire or get off any shots at our agent. With reports of gunfire, the former president's close protection detail immediately evacuated the president to a safe location. The protective methodologies of the Secret Service were effective yesterday. So he, according to what you just heard, did not fire his weapon.

We also learned today that the shooter, who is a 58-year-old by the name of Ryan Ralph, was on the scene for hours arriving near the tree line of the Trump. international golf course at 159 a.m. on Sunday and Secret Service had opened fire nearly 12 hours later at 131 p.m. Jank. Yeah, so was he going after Trump? Almost definitely. So you could pretty much drop to almost. But we just, they're looking for one last piece of confirmation from the cops. It was he a giant Democrat all along? No, he voted for Donald Trump. Trump 2016, it's unclear about 2020 because he had supportive and critical things to say. At this point, was he against Trump definitely?

So we'll get into his motivations more and a little bit. Was the Secret Service in on it? Because of course, immediately deep state conspiracy theories, well, he didn't get a shot off. And the Secret Service shot at him before he got any shot off. Or Trump was in the line of sight. So if they're in on it, they're not doing a very good job. So if they're looking to protect Donald Trump, they did an excellent job. Now, to the rhetoric, so as Anna read you, Trump says about Harris and Walls, these are the people

that want to destroy our country. It's called the enemy from within. They are the real threat. Yeah, that's the exact kind of rhetoric that leads to dangerous situations like this. So he always says like, oh, you shouldn't be allowed to criticize me at all. You can't criticize me. That's dangerous rhetoric. That's why I'm getting shot at.

By the way, they're the enemies from within. They're the domestic problem. Is this somebody going to do something? What do you say? They're the real threat. Okay, look, I don't even want to say it out loud, but I would, he's instigating his own supporters to fire back. It's a terrible, terrible, terrible thing that he's doing. If you say, what do you mean, Jake, he just, he's the one who might have been a victim here?

Absolutely. What happened to him in both instances is terrible. I don't want it to happen to anyone. And by the way, guys, if you watch the Young Turks, you'll know that when this phrase comes up, I hate it when either side use it, enemies, foreign or domestic. When you mention domestic, you start getting people to think, well, the enemies are here. We have to fight each other. We have to kill each other.

We have to shoot at each other. No, no, no, no, no. No, foreign, I understand. Domestic, we handle with politics and rhetoric. We don't do it with violence. It is a defeat and saying that I don't know anything. I'm a loser. I can't be sure with my ideas I have to go to violence.

So it's terrible when it happens to Trump and it's also terrible when Trump says things like he just said about Harrison Walls, because I'm afraid of what it's going to lead to next on all sides. Yeah, I mean look, the rhetoric has devolved significantly, especially over the last 10 years. And as we learn more and more about the would-be assassin, you'll hear him kind of regurgitate some of the lines that you have heard, Democrats say. But look, it's tricky, right? Because on one hand, when it comes to Trump attempting to subvert democracy, I mean,

that certainly happened with the fake electors scheme. But I do think that there is a line that gets crossed when you keep repeating over and over again that like Trump is Hitler, Trump is this, Trump is that. Because what would you do if you genuinely think that someone is the next Hitler? Yeah, I understand. So look, guys, it's tough issues. So I can put out some clear red lines on. both sides and then the tricky parts in the middle, right? So when you start talking about

how somebody domestically is the real threat or somebody should do something about a Second Amendment, Second Amendment remedies, rights, etc. That's dangerous. You're talking about actual weaponry. You're talking about taking physical action. It's a terrible idea, right? If I always think shoe on the other foot, right? So if Trump were to say about Harrison Walls, their economic policies are dangerous. No, that doesn't cross any line. What are you talking about economic policies. Of course I'm a lot to criticize the economic policies or foreign policies or any of their policies, right? And unfortunately for Trump, he has done a lot of terrible things. And so including trying to destroy our democracy. That's true. He did a fake

elector plot. Now that doesn't mean he's Hitler. And yeah, I hear what you're saying. And that's where you get into the, oh boy, like how do you frame this in a way that isn't dangerous but is still accurate, right? But if you want me to stop saying that he tried to destroy democracy, you should have talked to Donald Trump four years ago when he was in the middle of trying to destroy democracy. So you can't have it both ways and say, I want to be able to write the rush to capital at any time, cause massive violence, take over the capital by force, and have a fake elector plant, which is essentially a coup against America, and put the wrong guy in office on purpose. But you're not a lot to mention that. Otherwise, it might cause

violence. No, it doesn't work that way. So I think the overwhelming majority of it, Anna, is legitimate both from Harrison Walls and from Trump. Trump has said a thousand incredibly vitriolic things. And by the way, on that stuff, whenever it doesn't hint at violence, I totally defend them. If you notice, I use aggressive rhetoric, okay? And I think the Democrats have been too polite and too civil for 20, 30 years here. But there's a giant difference between aggressive rhetoric and things that lead towards violence and that insinuate that you should do violence. Like, oh, the threat is over there, right?

Oh, they're the real terrorists. Somebody should do something about it. And by the way, that's true. When right when you're saying, but also to Anna's point, if you're on the left and you're constantly saying, he's Hitler, he's Hitler, somebody should do something about it. Okay, now we're in a gray zone that is very uncomfortable. So let's talk a little bit about how law enforcement took the would-be assassin into custody, As I mentioned earlier, he was identified as 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh.

He described himself as self-employed in the affordable housing area, apparently a affordable housing builder in Hawaii, although he spends time in both Hawaii and North Carolina. He also criticized Trump on social media, and we're going to get into the nitty-gritty on those details in a separate story, in a separate video. But for now, here's Martin County Sheriff, Snyder explaining how he took the assassin or how authorities took the assassin into custody. Let's watch. After the attempted assassination of President Trump, we received a ball over being on the lookout from the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.

We had a vehicle description and a tag. We immediately deployed to the interstate. We are the border county to Palm Beach County. And so we put all our resources up on the interstate, helicopter, everything we had. And fortunately, one of my road patrol deputies saw the vehicle, followed it for a couple of miles, waited to tell our, we call him pinch vehicles, big trucks with heavy, heavy front end bumpers. And we forced the vehicle to a stop, 995, conducted a felony stop, brought him out of the vehicle, and safely apprehended me. Now, some interesting elements of his arrest.

So Snyder also told a local news station, WPTV, that the suspect, quote, was not armed when he took him out of the car. But he was also driving an SUV with stolen license plates. And he apparently did not resist at all. He just had a straight face, did not really give any type of expression or any type of indication. that he was confused about the arrest, and that's also according to Snyder. And during today's court appearance, Routh appeared in court to face two state charges, and there's very likely going to be additional federal level charges, but these are just the state charges for now. The two charges include possession of a firearm by a convicted

felon. He does have a lengthy criminal record, although most of it is for misdemeanors. One of the things he ended up getting arrested for was a hours long standoff with police in which he was in possession of what was referred to as a weapon of mass destruction. We'll get into the details of that in a separate clip. But if he is found guilty of these state charges, he faces 20 years in prison. And so that's what we know so far about how everything went down. An investigation is ongoing, and I'm sure we'll learn more details about what happened yesterday. and also more details about the would-be assassin himself, Jank.

Yeah, so I want to answer a couple of questions and read comments of the members because they're relevant to this story. Join button below. So this may be a dumb question, but this guy actually break a law. My understanding is that it's completely fine and normal to go wherever you want with any gun you want in Florida. So you're on to an important issue, but it doesn't apply here. So yes, if he was walking by Trump international golf course with an AK-47, I don't know the local laws, but in some states, that is perfectly legal, okay? But I don't know if it's true in Florida. But in this case, no, no, no, he broke plenty of loss. So he had rubbed out the serial number on the rifle, which is illegal. It doesn't look like he had the right to carry a rifle,

but we'll have to look into more of his criminal record. That is true. Right. Again, one of the charges is possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. The second one is possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. Yeah, so those are clearly violations of the law. And this is not a close call, guys. He was, he's got a book about how, hey, maybe it's not so bad if Trump gets assassinated. He mentions in the book. Right.

Like this, no, he was going to do harm. And by the way, when they got to him and they said, you know, they have all of the authorities surrounding him and stuff, he didn't seem surprised at all. No, he didn't. Right. That's because he knew what was going on. You also, even in states where you have the right to conceal carry or even open carry, you don't have the right to just willy-nilly point the barrel of your weapon at people, right? And so the reason why the Secret Service was able to detect him is because they saw the barrel

of the weapon poking out of shrubbery. Yeah, yeah. And look, that sheriff that we just showed you, he started talking about, hey, he was a conspiracy and other people involved. And I thought, when I saw the headline, I was like, that sounds super kooky. Oh, no, let's not go in this direction. But then I, you know, when I watched it, I thought, okay, there's some legitimate questions. You're not about a conspiracy, but hey, why was he at this particular golf course?

Was Trump's schedule public? Did he know it? He apparently did wait for about 12 hours, so he didn't know it with any kind of detail. So, and great job by the Secret Service. They're tracking the holes that Trump has already played, the ones after him, and before him. And so that's why they were ahead of Trump. And this guy never got him in the line of fire. because the Secret Service was a couple of holes ahead.

So that's terrific. And so I'm glad they did a great job of law enforcement here. Last thing is from one of our members. And by the way, guys, hit the join button below, okay, or t.com slash team. So these guys are all on t.com, the ones I'm reading about here. And you join that through t.com slash team. Okay. So, and the links will be always in the below in the description box.

Concept of a username said Trump's fans attack Pelosi's husband, which Trump later made fun of. an attempt to kidnap a Democratic governor after Trump criticized her. But Biden, Harris, walls have been the instigators of violence. Right. So look, guys, I know that a day after an aborted assassination attempt, a foiled assassination attempt against Trump, we all have to, you know, like, there's this thing of like, oh, you have to take him more seriously. No, you have to take the attempt super seriously, make sure he's okay and that this stuff never happens. You don't have to take his words anymore seriously.

His words are just as ridiculous as always. He's instigated violence and laughed about violence from his own side a hundred times. So when he tells people, oh, no, we should watch out for dangerous setting. He means only about me. I get to say it about everyone else and laugh about how Nancy Pelosi's husband had his head smashed in with a hammer by one of my fans. And ha ha ha, ha, that's so funny. But what it happens to me? Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Watch the dangerous rhetoric. Yeah, that's what I thought. Giant hypocrisy. You should watch it on both sides. All right. Well, when we come back from the break, we'll talk a little more in depth about the would-be assassin himself, what he has said in the past, what his voting habits were, which political party he has donated money to. We've got a lot of details to get into. So stick around. We'll get into that story and more when we come back. All right, back on TYT, Jank and Anna, but I just want to give everybody a warning because Machiavelli Outlaw has joined the Young Turks.

And that sounds badass. He's got Machiavelli and Outlaw on the same handle. So welcome, brother. We appreciate you. He hit that beautiful join button below the video. So do that. as well if you want to support honest programming here. Anna. All right. Let's get to our next story.

Ryan Wesley Ralph was taken into custody following the shooting incident with Secret Service Sunday. He was stopped. You see a picture there. Stopped in the highway in nearby Martin County. But his facial affect was so flat. His demeanor was relaxed. I honestly thought it looked like somebody that just left the church picnic. We now have more details about 58-year-old Ryan Wesley, Ralph, who was named as Trump's second would-be assassin this past weekend. Now, here's what we know about the shooter, and there's more and more information coming out.

The story continues to develop. But for now, as we film this video, here's what we know. The man law enforcement took into custody is the 58-year-old that I speak of, Ryan Routh. he describes himself as self-employed in the affordable housing area. He claims to build affordable housing in Hawaii for a company known as Camp Box Honolulu. Now, he's been a registered independent since 2012, but clearly has been supporting Democrats and has donated money for democratic causes since 2019. In fact, FEC filing show that between September of 2019 and March of 2020, he donated about

$140 to act blue. But he was also randomly a fan of Vivek Ramoswamy and Nikki Haley and encourage them to continue their campaigns writing on Twitter to Ramoswamy, quote, you cannot quit. Why? You must stay on the ballot to the end. You must fight. You must continue giving speeches and push all the way to election day no matter the election results. Do not give in. Join Nikki and keep working, never give up. And I know we forget things very quickly with the rapid news cycle, but Ramoswamy and Nikki Haley despised each other and probably continue to despise each other. But nonetheless, he tweeted to Nikki Haley as well, saying, please join Vivek Ramoswamy as a team of Prez and VP. We must do this now to create a winning ticket now that we all can get behind.

Please do not be selfish and arrogant partner now to change the course of this election, break norms and give us an option. But he also criticized Donald Trump on social media and regurgitated some lines that we have heard, you know, repeated by some Democrats. He said democracy is on the ballot and we cannot lose. We cannot afford to fail. The world is counting on us to show the way. He tweeted to Trump back in June of 2020 while he supported, keep in mind he did support the Republican in 2016. He voted for him in 2016. And in this post, he wrote, I in the world hope that President Trump would be different and better than the candidate, but we all were greatly disappointed and seems you are getting worse and devolving. Are you, then he uses a slur,

I will be glad when you're gone. So I'm going to get into all the Ukraine stuff, including his self-published book, which he published last year in just a moment. But I wanted to pause to get your thoughts so far, Jank. Yeah. So he voted for Trump in 2016, supporting people like Vivek Ramaswamy, who have very similar thoughts to Donald Trump. So does that make him a Republican? And that's why we're pointing it out. Ha, ha, ha, it was actually Trump's work. No, that's not the point, guys.

The point is mentally unbalanced people do mentally unbalanced things and say mentally unbalanced things. So that's why he's like, oh, I love Trump. I hate Trump. Oh, Biden and Harris are great. We should support them. Also, Vivek Ramasami. What?

And Nikki Haley. All right, you would say, Nikki Haley. Joe Biden, maybe there isn't that much of a big difference. Okay, but there's a giant difference with Rebecca Ramoswamy. But the guy doesn't know what the hell he's talking about. He's committed a lot of crimes. He's an unstable dude. We're going to tell you about how he tried to get into the Ukrainian military and fight back.

So I think we spend like when somebody says, hey, I am going to kill people because I want to start a race war as happened in Charleston, right, in the church shooting. or the shooting in Al Paso. I want to go kill Mexicans or the temple shooting, so I want to go kill Jews, et cetera. That is relevant because it helps us understand where is this coming from? Or fundamentalist Muslim doesn't attack. Where is this coming from? How can we prevent it, et cetera? But like parsing out the exact motivations of loons is not overly helpful on either direction.

So if you're going, oh, no, he's just the Trump supporter. No, that's, no, he's mentally unbalanced. Oh, he's just a Democrat who loves Democrats. No, he's mentally unbalanced. Look at it, he's all over the board in politics. Because this stable guys don't try to assassinate presidents. Not that complicated. So the New York Times and the Associated Press found a book that he self-published last year.

The book is titled Ukraine's Unwinnable War. And in it, he expresses his searing hatred for, Vladimir Putin. He has a little bit of a savior complex, especially with the Ukraine stuff. He's obsessed with the Ukraine war, attempted to recruit mercenaries from Afghanistan to help defend Ukraine against Russia. We're going to get to that in just a moment. But just real quick, focusing on his self-published book, many pages include graphic and bloody images of soldiers and civilians from conflicts around the world. He's apparently furious with Joe Biden for withdrawing from Afghanistan.

And he also refers to Trump in the book. I mean, he talks about Trump quite a bit, according to a review of the book from the New York Times. But he refers to Trump as fool, idiot, buffoon. And he's furious that Trump also destroyed the Iran nuclear deal, which of course was a deal negotiated by the Obama administration and other Western allies. and he says about the Iran nuclear deal to Iran. Iran, I apologize, you are free to assassinate Trump. Now, he also tagged President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in separate posts,

encouraging them to visit the injured at the rally during the first assassination attempt. So the individuals who were hurt and also the gentleman who was shot and killed in the first assassination attempt, he felt that Biden and Harris needed to show some empathy and support for the family and the wounded. You and Biden should visit the injured people in the hospital from the Trump rally and attend the funeral of the murdered fired man, fireman. Trump will never do anything for them. He wrote in a post directed at Harris. And then in an April post on X, tagging Biden's presidential account, he wrote Biden's campaign should be called something like K-A-F, keep America Democratic and free. Trump should be M-A-S-A, make Americans slaves again master.

Democracy is on the ballot and we cannot lose. So, yeah, I mean, he seemed to have some pretty grandiose views of himself. He thinks that he's some sort of savior. That was definitely clear in what he would say about Ukraine and his role in helping Ukraine defend itself against Russia. But it is clear that the one constant that you notice in his writings, Jank, is that he absolutely despised Donald Trump. Yeah, lately. Like I said, he voted for him in 2016. The thing that I saw throughout was the guy's nuts. The Ukrainians whose job is to help non-Ukrainians come in to help the Ukrainian military are like, watch out for this guy. He's totally nuts. Don't listen to him. He's lying, et cetera, right? So, And look, guys, whenever it's a fundamentalist doing an assassination attempt, a bombing or shooting, et cetera, you think they're rational?

No, they're all unbalanced. They just started using one thing or another as a trigger. So look, all that stuff about the massive, it is what it is. At this point, he definitely hates Trump and likes Biden and presumably Harris Walls, right? Yeah, but the idea that Democrats shouldn't say democracy is on the ballot because this guy said it, that's not a thing. Hey, be careful about, hey, the domestic enemy is within. Somebody should do something about it. That's dangerous for it.

Saying democracy is on the ballot, well, what do you want me to do? Trump is the one who put it on the ballot by saying, hey, remember the last time when I lost and I tried to burn the place down? And I tried to do a coup against America and try to terminate the Constitution? Yeah, democracy's on the ballot because of Trump. If he didn't do that stuff, nobody would say it. And this whole idea of like, Hitler was a vegetarian, so no one should be a vegetarian. No, that doesn't make any sense at all. So in regard to Ukraine and his support for it, I just want to give you a taste of some of the stuff that he had posted.

He said, I'm willing to fly to Krakow and go to the border of Ukraine to volunteer and fight and die. We didn't add those all caps, you know, parts of that statement that was his doing. Can I be the example? We must win. He said in an ex post in March of 2022. And then he thought of himself as an off the book's leaf. liaison for the Ukrainian government and try to encourage foreigners to fight in the war on behalf of Ukraine. But to Jenks point, I want to be clear, this isn't verified, but these are posts from last June.

And this is an individual who identifies himself on X as a veteran of Ukraine's international legion. He pushed back on Ruth's claims that he's like an off the books liaison for Ukraine and is helping to recruit people for their military. He says warning about Ryan Ralph, he is not and never has been associated with the International Legion or the Ukrainian Armed Forces at all. He is not and never has been a Legion recruiter. He is misrepresenting himself and lying to many people. Ryan Ralph has many, many public Facebook posts about getting soldiers into Ukraine in 2023 and 2024. He has no authority to act on behalf of Ukraine and ignores laws about visas. And I'll just give you one more from this thread.

He writes that Routh is either human trafficking, scamming people, or attempting to break as many country's laws as he can by trying to smuggle people into Ukraine to fight. This is unethical, unprofessional, and unacceptable. Worse, he's doing this by insisting he is helping Ukraine. Again, I want to reiterate, these are posts on X dating back to June of this year. And what's also a little strange is that a lot of big names. mainstream news publications actually interviewed him, right? So the New York Times had previously interviewed him about his views on Ukraine. So did Newsweek, Romania and semaphore. So here's a

clip from Newsweek Romania's interview with the would be assassin. This is about good versus evil. This is a storybook. You know, any movie we've ever watched, this is definitely evil against good. I mean, we're battling a situation here where, you know, the Ukrainians and the rest of the world are caring and kind and generous and unselfish and take care of one another. And it's just a matter of, you know, we need to stand up for that. That is the most important thing in the world is just to show human beings that we're kind and we're caring and that we take care of one another and that the world is united so that we feed each other and make sure that, you know, we all move forward. as one collective whole unit. This whole, I mean, everything is so bizarre about this guy. Like the fact that he didn't appear unhinged enough to avoid using him in interviews about

a serious conflict in Ukraine. Like, I think that's strange. And it wasn't just Newsweek in Romania. Again, it was semaphore. It was New York Times. The whole thing is super bizarre. Yeah, I think I can explain it. I think there's a connecting theme here.

So he's desperately looking for attention. And he wants to make an impact in the world. But he's doing it in all the wrong way. So let me break it down the two component parts here. First of all, in Ukraine, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia could be terrible, but it doesn't mean that you should break a whole bunch of laws trying to fight against it, right? And just because this guy having to break a whole bunch of laws trying to fight against the Russian invasion doesn't make the Russian invasion a good thing.

You see how those two things are totally different than each other, right? So, but he is looking for how do I help? But the thing that he needs, and this fits with what others have said too. So his son says, no, he's a great guy and he's been wonderful to me my whole life, is a great dad, et cetera. Neutral observers say he seems very common, polite, not normally what you see in an unhinged person. And what he has been doing throughout and you see it in that interview too. He is looking for a clear good versus evil because he wants to be impactful and get attention.

So the minute he thinks, aha, okay, I have a clear evil. So he says it about Putin over and over again. Putin is evil. He did this invasion. That is very clear. When it comes to Kim Jong-un, he's like, oh, that was more complicated because he's evil. But on the other hand, he talked to Dennis Rodman, and he was educated in the West, and maybe we can talk him out of it.

So then he comes on to Trump and has now decided that Trump is in the clear evil category. So he's going to go and do something about it. He couldn't join the Ukrainian army. He couldn't fight against Putin. He couldn't do any of these things. And he thinks in his mind, oh, I got it. This is my purpose to do something against evil. But that's the problem with those kind of assumptions.

Because who made you God? Who made you judge, jury, and executioner, literally in this case? who made you the arbiter of evil and are you sure the thing you're not you're doing isn't evil and will it be much greater evils because of the consequences and the reactions to it. So that's why, you know, looking at this, the whole thing, would you go back and kill Hitler is actually a super dangerous hypothetical people shouldn't engage in? Because in the real world, no one knows who Hitler is until he's Hitler, right? So when people go, I think he might be headed in that direction, so why don't I go ahead and kill him?

No, terrible idea. Terrible idea because if democracy is on the ballot and you murder one of the people on the ballot, you're the one who killed democracy. Do you see how ironic that is? Oh, 50% or 40% whatever the number is wants to vote for him? I don't care. I want to take him off the ballot single-handedly. How is that pro-democracy? It isn't. He's an unstable guy looking to be a hero in all the wrong ways and instead becomes the villain. So he also has a criminal record. He had been arrested previously eight separate times, mostly for minor offenses and things like not paying his taxes, traffic violations, things like that. But the most serious arrest happened in December of 2022. So there's a story about it

by news and record in Greensboro, North Carolina, where they write that a man with the same name was arrested after a three-hour standoff with police, he was reportedly charged with carrying a concealed weapon and possessing a weapon of mass destruction. What it was referring to was a fully automatic machine gun. But I just want to go back to the date that this arrest happened. December of 2002, and he was found with a weapon of mass destruction. Like, again, a little bit bizarre, considering, like, what that era was like in America. I mean, it was a little over a year after 9-11 happened,

everyone was on high alert. I mean, you'd have like literal, like elementary school kids who drew a gun like in a doodle getting arrested. Like, it's crazy to me that this guy was caught with a weapon of mass destruction. And it's like, anyway, I guess that's the era we live in right now, right? Well, no, I mean, look, I take that in two different ways. So number one, if you're ever wondering who the suspect might be in an assassination attempt. And one of the guys on the list has hold himself up in a standoff with police with dangerous weapons before. That's the guy. That's the guy. He has a tendency to do that. That's why I believe in red flag laws, et cetera. And but then the right wing goes, no, just because somebody had committed a crime with a dangerous

weapon before doesn't mean they shouldn't have 20 now. No, it does mean that. It does mean that. To be fair, he was not able to legally possess a firearm, right? As a convicted criminal, but he had one anyway. Yeah, so that's a very fair point. And guys, we get it. People will be able to get guns too. And yes, people will be able to still will do some rape when it's illegal. It doesn't mean we should make rape legal, okay?

So I'm glad that it's illegal that he had a weapon, even though he wound up getting it. And by the way, it was easier to arrest them because he had a weapon in an illegal way. Otherwise, if he had it in a legal way, they would have had trouble arrest them. I mean, they would have arrested him, of course, because they thought he was going to take a shot at the president. But then you'd get in the dicey territory. He didn't take the shot. How do you know his intent, et cetera? But at least in this case, because we have the right laws, what he did was illegal, and that allowed us to arrest him. But look, one more thing about why didn't they make a bigger deal out of the weapon of mass destruction back in 2002 and stuff?

Look, there's an uncomfortable answer there. Because he's white? Yeah. Like, honestly, like, just imagine we're talking about a Muslim guy in December of 2002 with what the authorities referred to as a weapon of mass destruction. There's no chance that guy wouldn't get arrested and spend a long time in prison. He'd be in prison right now. Yeah, let alone everything else that would come from it.

But, and this is, but it's, guys, this, now he hates Trump, right? Before you voted for Trump. But we say white, and sometimes we say right winger, and in a situation like this, it's usually kind of meshed together. Why? Because cops, when they see a white guy, especially if it's a right winger, but in this case, again, complicated, they think, oh, that's a good, a Second Amendment believing American, and, you know, he's got a right to that weapon.

He's got a right to that weapon. They see a Muslim guy, a black guy, et cetera, a Latino, Latino with a weapon. And they go, oh, dangerous, I got to investigate that, find out what's going on. And so those are the inherent biases that are built in to a lot of us, to maybe all of us, right? It doesn't mean that, like, you know, we can talk about policy in regard to that. But for the moment being, that's probably the simple answer to why they didn't do much about it back in the day. All right, we got to take a break. But when we come back, unfortunately, after the second assassination attempt against Donald Trump,

all sorts of crazy theories started flowing on social media by big name public figures. So we'll get to that and more when we return. Don't miss it. T. Chankana with you guys. And Gabby Mathis gifted 50 subs on YouTube. Gabby, you're amazing. Thank you. Anna. All right, well, let's talk about the reactions to the second assassination attempt against Donald Trump. It is something that no one can deny. God has spared his life twice now. These things aren't accidents. It's not luck. I believe it's providence. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson states that divine intervention is what we can point to to

to explain how Donald Trump survived a second assassination attempt. And to be quite honest with you, that is the most sane thing you're going to hear throughout this segment because boy oh boy, do people have some interesting theories here. Let's go to Representative Tim Burchett, who's claiming that the Secret Service is compromised, even though the Secret Service save Trump's life? Let's watch. The problem is you've got a secret service, at least in my opinion, and in the public's eye that is compromised and that it lacks in leadership.

And you've got brave agents on the ground, obviously one who took that shot. But why in the world, would anybody be anywhere near the perimeter of this? This line of sight that we talk about is just beyond me. So we've got to get some answers. I don't think we're going to get them during this administration, but hopefully under the Trump administration, we'll clean this rat's nest out. Now, to be fair to Congressman Burchett, it wasn't until a press conference later today, where we learned from the Secret Service that luckily Trump was not in the line of sight

for this would be assassin. But nonetheless, the overarching allegation here remains, he's trying to blame the Secret Service and allege that they're compromised when even Trump himself doesn't think that's the case. In fact, in a truth social post, actually, this is an ex post, he wrote, I would like to thank everyone for your concern and well wishes. And then later he says that most importantly, I want to thank the U.S. Secret Service, Sheriff Rick Bradshaw, and his office of brave and dedicated patriots and all of the law enforcement for the incredible job done today at Trump International in keeping me safe.

So I don't know where Burchett is coming from, but it's not helpful to start engaging in insane conspiracy theories immediately after there's an attempt to assassinate Trump. I think that if things are compromised and there's a deep stay in there looking to kill someone, they usually let the guy take the shot. So if you said it about the first assassination, at least there's some, like, that threat of logic you could hang it on, right? But in the second one, the secret service got there and shot at the guy before the guy even took a shot. They were well ahead of Trump. They couldn't have been more vigilant.

They couldn't have saved his life any more than they did. And again, the assassin never got a shot off, the would-be assassin. So where's the goddamn conspiracy? But they can't help themselves. Like, so Burchett had a bunch of run-ins with Kevin McCarthy, and he's one of the hardliners. And in that battle, I actually agreed with Burchett. So look, I, these are crazy times where people are all over the map on the political spectrum, et cetera. So don't throw any the baby out with the bathwater.

And I'm not saying, oh, I'm never going to listen to Burchett, or that that means Kevin McCarthy is right or et cetera. But the guys on the right wing, especially these elected representatives, you got to bring in all the way to with your lunatic conspiracy theories. Like in the old days, saying a crazy conspiracy theory when you're an elected official was a big giant thing that gets you, you know, sanctioned and maybe removed from office and everybody would go collectively, whether you were a Republican or a Democrat. How dare you? Now the right wingers are just like throwing them out wherever they.

Oh yeah, maybe the Secret Service is trying to murder Donald Trump. That's going to drive so much hatred out of nothing. That's insanity. So stop saying crazy stuff that makes a situation more volatile and more dangerous. on X and then later deleted it following the backlash he got for it. So he tried to play this off as a bad joke, but the since deleted post read as follows. And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden slash Kamala with a thinking emoji. But later he took it down and again tried to play it off as a joke saying, well, one lesson

I've learned is that just because I say something to a group and they laugh doesn't mean it's going to be all that hilarious as a post on X. Good job in realizing that. And I don't think it was ever meant to be a joke. But okay, let me continue. He also writes, turns out the jokes are way less funny if people don't know the context and the delivery is plain text. I just, can we just stop? Like, can we please stop?

Like, things keep devolving. This is now the second assassination attempt against a major, you know, candidate in the presidential election. This is crazy. And even if it was, even if I'm going to take what he's saying at face value and it was a joke, is this a responsible thing to post on social media? Literally the day a second would be assassin tried to assassinate Donald Trump. Yeah. So easy to tell if this is appropriate or not. So if you're MAGA and you think, it's just joking about murdering Biden and Comal Myers. What's the big deal? Now flip it. And imagine if, um, You know, pick your favorite villain, Nancy Pelosi, whoever, said, and no one was able to murder Donald Trump yet?

It's so funny. Would you think that was funny? No, you would think, I were just trying to kill him. Look at this. They're trying to get him killed. Ah, right? Oh, so it's not funny when one side does it, but when your side does it, it's always funny, trolling. Ha ha, he.

Like, the whole trolling thing, it's just the biggest excuse ever for all. awful behavior. Whenever Donald Trump says something disgusting and vile, they're like, he's just trolling, he's just trolling. Oh, so our presidential candidate should be saying disgusting things to troll people, and you think that's normal, even if it were true, he wasn't, Trump is never trolling when he says it. He totally means it. In this case, I believe Elon Musk, which is kind of funny, I believe that he was talking to a bunch of yes men that around him because there isn't anyone else. And he said, no one's trying to kill. Even bother to try to kill Biden or Kamala and all of his yesmen are like, oh, that's so funny, Elon.

Where's my money? Where's my money? It's so funny, Elon. So he thought, oh my God, I'm a cool kid. I'm going to write that on X. What's the punchline? How is this a joke? Because he's, okay, here's my guess.

That no one cares about them enough to try to, oh, wow. They're too boring to assassinate. Okay. Okay. So, all right, look, guys. If you're the richest man in the world and you own one of the biggest platforms on planet earth, and you think it's a good idea to put a joke about how Biden and Kamla, no one's tried to assassinate them yet.

Well, with the thinking, like, makes you think like, hey, that you didn't think that that might be misinterpreted as, hey, they keep taking shots of Trump. Why doesn't one of you do the same for Kamla or Biden? You didn't think that that was a possibility to the millions of people you reach with that post? Come on, brother. I mean, Jesus, does this guy have any common sense at all? Even in the best case scenario, the most positive, like, interpretation in the you could possibly put on it. And it's still a deeply moronic thing to do and very irresponsible.

And the fact that he can't tell is what's concerning. Our politics have completely devolved into anything other than solutions or real substantive, detailed policy proposals to improve the lives of Americans. And it's because of people who aren't really struggling, who are doing real well for themselves already under the current system. And it's people like Elon Musk. So he's happy to engage in the continued behavior that causes our political system and our politics to devolve.

Because he's not looking for solutions. doesn't care about solutions. He's doing real well. So like we already, it's already been an hour. We spent an hour talking about another assassination attempt against a major presidential candidate, Donald Trump. None of this has to, none of this improves anyone's life. All, all the conversation right now is about conspiracy theories, finger pointing, who's responsible, whose rhetoric is worse. And by the way, Elon Musk was outdone by the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire, which posted this, on X and later deleted it. They wrote, anyone who murders Kamala Harris would be an American hero.

And by the way, though, after they deleted it, they pretended they were free speech heroes and that they had to take it down because of evil X that was censoring them. When they were just talking about murdering political opponents, what's the big deal? But look, but Ferris show in America, that account causes nonstop problems. They don't speak for all libertarians or even anywhere near it. It's just run by one wacko who just is desperate for attention. And so it says ludicrous insane things like that over and over. In fact, I did see some libertarians very openly and aggressively denouncing this, including

libertarians out of New Hampshire who want nothing to do with this guy. But I do want to just go to one final element to the story because, you know, it is problematic when you have a sheriff, and this is the sheriff of Portage County, Ohio, essentially encouraging people to target Democratic voters after this second assassination attempt against Donald Trump. So here is what he wrote. This is Bruce Zikowski, who again is the sheriff in Portage County, Ohio. In a Facebook post, he wrote, write down all the addresses of the people who had her signs in their yards, meaning Kamala Harris signs. And then it continues, so when the illegal human locus, which she supports, need places to live,

will already have the addresses of their new families who supported their arrival. So this guy isn't only fired up over the assassination attempt against Donald Trump. Obviously, he is also using this as an excuse to target Democrats over immigration policy. Yeah, of course, if shoes on the other foot, which we ask you guys to do every time you think about how you're going to react to right wingers, because we want you to be fair, if the shoe is on the other foot to this guy and they said, oh, make sure you write down that sheriff's home address so we can go visit him when we need to, right? He would probably arrest me. Because he's like, wait, that's me. No, no, no, not my home address. That's a threat against me. And me, I matter, me. Okay. Oh, yeah, them? Yeah, let's just write down their addresses. and threaten them all day long, because who cares? They're not me, it doesn't count. That's why like Trump does a thousand dangerous rhetoric all the time, including today,

when he then turns around and says Biden and Kamala Harris are domestic enemy, and they're the real threat, right? And then none of it counts, none of it counts. And then somebody does something to Trump, he's like, oh my God, dangerous rhetoric, dangerous, you just notice a dangerous rhetoric? The same kind that you've been using

for the last 10 years and you just noticed it? No, for a lot of conservatives, not all of them, but for a lot of them, They think if it happens to me, that it's super important. If it happens to you, I don't give a damn about it. All right, we're going to take a break. When we come back for the second hour of the show, we're going to switch gears entirely and check in on the presidential election. J.D. Vance had a combative interview with CNN over the weekend.

We'll show you some highlights from that and more. So don't miss it. We'll be right back. Thank you.