Will Cain Country - What the FBI Didn’t Tell You About Thomas Crooks (ft. Miranda Devine and Rep. Mark Harris)

Episode Date: November 18, 2025

Story 1: The official story was that President Donald Trump’s would-be assassin, Thomas Crooks, had no online presence. But new revelations suggest that this narrative wasn’t just false, it was the opposite of the truth. Host of ‘Pod Force One’ and New York Post Columnist Miranda Devine helps Will unpack Crooks’ previously hidden online history, revealing a man who was anything but an ‘online ghost.’Story 2: Will brings in The Crew to react to Thomas Crooks’ bizarre online history, taking a closer look at his increasingly volatile political views, his strange obsession with furries, and connections to a designated Norwegian Neo-Nazi group.Story 3: Congressman Mark Harris (R-NC) breaks down the recent immigration raids in Charlotte, which may have been responsible for over 20,000 absences from school on Monday, after reacting to the recent revelations regarding Thomas Crooks. Subscribe to ‘Will Cain Country’ on YouTube here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Watch Will Cain Country!⁠⁠Follow ‘Will Cain Country’ on X (⁠⁠@willcainshow⁠⁠), Instagram (⁠⁠@willcainshow⁠⁠), TikTok (⁠⁠@willcainshow⁠⁠), and Facebook (⁠⁠@willcainnews⁠⁠)Follow Will on X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@WillCain Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

One. Thomas Crooks. No online presence. That's what we were told by the FBI about the would-be Trump assassin, new reporting, and an internal source, tell Miranda Devon. And in fact, Crooks had an extensive online presence. YouTube, Discord, multiple platforms, including communicating with the neo-Nazi in Norway. What do we now know about Thomas Crooks? Two, Williscia, jump in. We dive deep on the question no one's been able to answer whatever happened to the guy that tried to kill Donald Trump. Three, Congressman Mark Harris on. The ice crack down in Charlotte, North Carolina, the day that ice cracks down, 15% of students don't show up to school.

Follow us on Apple or on Spotify. Stunning new reporting by New York Post and host of Pod Force One, Miranda Devine, about Thomas Crook, the would-be assassin of President Donald Trump. After more than a year of questions left with no answer, with one of the major events of our lifetime, fading into the background, with casual observers of the news, cycle, remembering and asking, whatever happened to the guy that tried to kill Donald Trump? We, for the first time, have a little more information, which raises just a few more questions about Thomas Crook. Let's get into that now with story number one. Miranda Devine is the host of Pod Force One, the author of The Bid Guy and The Laptop from Hell. She's also a columnist of The New York Post, and she has brand new reporting on Thomas.

Crook. Miranda, great to have you on the program. We're going to spend the next 30 minutes together talking about what you have learned, the latest. And it's fascinating. We should start out to say, we know very little about Thomas Crook, suspiciously little. It's faded into the background. It's been a story that has disappeared. The tempted assassination of a president of the United States running once again for president. And yet here we are today, and you're reporting some of the first information we've had in 13 months. So tell us, The overview of what you have learned about Thomas Crook. It's actually 16 months, Will. It's really a long time. And a year after the Butler assassination attempt in July, Senator Ron Johnson was so fed up by the fact that he'd received no material from all his requests to the FBI. He wants security camera footage.

He wants various documents. He wants forensic. reports, etc. And you know, Clay Higgins is another congressman who's been asking for questions. Why was the body cremated so quickly? Why was the roof a hose down? None of those answers have been forthcoming. And, you know, we would have thought that when Donald Trump came in and he installed his own FBI director that things would change, but it's still been stonewalling. That's the word that Senator Ron Johnson has used. He was very upset. that he had to subpoena Kash Patel to try and get this information.

So I do not understand why the Trump FBI is just as closed off as the Biden one. And when I got this new tranche of information from a source, which had the basically digital footprint that was available of Thomas Crooks, this 20-year-old would-be assassin, I went to the FBI and asked them various questions, including, I think, the most important one, which is, did you have a file on Thomas Crooks before Butler? Had you interviewed him, had anyone from the FBI been, had any interaction with him, did you get any complaints about him, et cetera?

And all I got back was two words, no comment. And I just don't think that's really good enough. I mean, it's one thing to blow off a journalist, but blowing off a senator who has the authority to do oversight of the FBI, which gets billions of dollars of taxpayer money and which has, frankly, a very bad track record if you just look just recently at Russiagate, the FBI involvement in that, and something I was intimately involved in, the cover-up of Biden family influence peddling. come back to stonewalling in a minute. Let's start at the beginning with lies. The first thing that we were told, what we were told very early on about Thomas Crooks, is that he had virtually no online footprint, no social media presence, that we can't find any motivation on Thomas Crook, we can't find any political ideology, because he left no digital footprint behind. Your reporting, your source suggests that is entirely untrue. That is a lie. Thomas Crooks was all over the

internet. Tell us what you learned. Well, to be fair, the FBI, Christopher Ray and his deputy, a guy called Paul Abate, both testified to Congress within the first two weeks after the Butler event. And what Abate said was not exactly a lie. It was more misleading by omission. He did say they had found social media information. He said over 700 comments. I'm assuming that's from the YouTube, which has something like 700 comments. And but what Paula Bate did that was misleading was he described Thomas Crooks

and his sort of violent rhetoric and, you know, sort of ideological rhetoric in the period when he was very, rapidly pro-Trump. But something changed with Thomas Crooks in January of 2020 when he became rabidly anti-Trump. It was in a very short period that he was posting like slavishly pro-Trump comments to really antagonistic comments, which then escalated by August of 2020 and this anti-Trump jag that he was on to making or, you know, talking about terrorist attack, and this is the only way to stop the government and assassinating political leaders and military leaders. So after that, after his most violent rhetoric in August of 2020, he just went dark.

My source said there's no imprint on him on any of the 17 different platforms that Thomas Crooks had been very active on previously. And remember, he's 20 in 2024. So he's like 16, the whole period that we're looking at, he's like 15, 16 years old and 17, I think. And so something's happened in those intervening years between 20 and 2024, when between August 2020 and July, 24, almost exactly four years. Why did he suddenly go dark? That's very unusual. And why did he flip 180 degrees from being. anti-Trump and, sorry, pro-Trump and anti-democrats.

I mean, there's even, you know, phrases like murder the Democrats, and he hated Ilan Omar and the squad, and loved Trump, thought he was the absolute epitome of patriotism. And then he just does this rapid 180 flip in January of 2020, and he starts calling Trump racist and, you know, said that he's done everything wrong on the pandemic and in escalating to, you know, broad-based violence. So my question is, why did Paula Bait by just omitting the backflip

and omitting the second part of the online utterances of this kook, this teenager? Why did he leave that out? He gave a misleading impression to the American public. I know I got a misleading impression from that. let's walk through this together Miranda i want to break it into chunks i want to first deal with the 15 16 17 year old thomas crooks this is roughly the thomas crooks from 2016 through 2020 before january of 2020 february of 2020 this thomas crook which you had pointed out the fbi had hinted at before i hadn't actually seen some of the direct

communications that you're now reporting some of the things that he said in this period things like Donald Trump is the definition of a patriot, murder Democrats, hating on Ilan Omar. This Thomas Crook, you mentioned, was on 17 different social media platforms. Give me some indication. I know he's very active on YouTube. What else was he on? And it's my understanding, he was using his name, right? It was actually his name on all but one platform, which was PayPal.

Exactly. So, you know, there was everything from Google Play. He was a gamer like Tyler Robinson, Charlie Kirk's alleged assassin. So Google Play, Discord. There's an interesting site called, which I'd never heard of, called Deviant Art. And that apparently is a big hub, online hub for the so-called furry community, which is some sort of a sexual fetish. Often it's a sexual fetish dressing up as animals, doing cartoons of animals,

having sex and sort of humanised animals. And this was also, there's only a tiny amount of activity that's been discovered of Thomas Crooks on this deviant art site. But I think it's significant because Tyler Robinson, again, the alleged killer of Charlie Kirk was involved in that furry business as well. He had a live-in lover who was a literal furry dressed up as an animal. animal and, you know, it's also tied up with trans. And Thomas Crooks was also used on the Deviant Art platform,

the pronouns they, them. And then there's an image that he posted, which wasn't an animal. It was more like a Sylvester Stallone type, very muscle-bound body, kind of male body, with a female head on top of it. And a very puny little guy kind of looked like Thomas Crooks sort of in a supine position with this, this big, you know, whatever human, weird looking human. So he was into sort of weird stuff. And then Deviant Art, then we have PayPal. And that is, as you said, the only one of these 17 different platforms

where Thomas Crooks doesn't use his own name. And he used the name of a Well, he used the name Rod Swanson, and that is the name of a detective, sorry, former FBI, very high-ranking FBI agent who was operating in Vegas, and he left the FBI in about, I think it was like 2015, and he went to work for the Nevada state government as the head of their criminal investigations, and he was in that role when the Las Vegas shooting happened. and the mass shooting that's never been explained, no motive, no social media presence, kind of echoes of Thomas Crooks, except this was like a man in his 60s. And that's still a mystery. And so, and Thomas Crooks, we know, was very interested in... On the PayPal. Yeah.

On the PayPal and the not anonymous, but dummy account using another name, other than Thomas Crooks, when I first read your report on that, I guess my first mind went to, I believe, and I'm not, I didn't watch this show, but, but I, I, it made me think of Parks and Rec. I thought wasn't there a character named Ron Swanson, played by Nick Offman, but I did, right. I didn't watch that show, but that's where my head went, and my thought was maybe he was playing, hold on real quick, my mind was like, well, maybe he was playing off of that, but you discovered this other actual individual. Rod Swanson, who was with the FBI now retired and involved in the investigation of the Las Vegas shooting. And you reached out, in fact, to Rod Swanson. Yeah. And look, my source originally assumed that Thomas Crooks was making, you know, this name from Parks and Rec. But it's not the same name. I mean, it's very similar, obviously, only one letter difference. But I just figured I'd go, it could be that, maybe he just made a mistake, but I just went with what I thought was interesting being an FBI link, because, you know, the FBI uses contractors to do a lot of

work. I know that, you know, interview suspects and so on, I know that with Gall Luft, one of the Hunter Biden whistleblowers, they used the most senior person in his interview was a contractor. So that's quite common. So I thought maybe Ron Swanson was. a contractor who'd been reached out to by the FBI to go and visit Thomas Crooks. But that's not the case. He seems like a really legitimate good guy. And he was genuinely flabbergasted when I contacted him, said, didn't know anything about Thomas Crooks had nothing to do with it, doesn't have a PayPal account, doesn't even know how to open a PayPal account. And then he went on, tell me some other interesting things. Just from his great experience as an FBI agent, senior supervisory agent,

he was also like involved peripherally with the Las Vegas shooting investigation. He said there is no way with a digital footprint like I've described of Thomas Crooks that the FBI would not have been aware of him. And he said someone would have knocked on his door and somebody in a senior role would have made a decision about what to do then. Do you, you know, he didn't talk about this. Real quick, Miranda. Yeah. That's a little surprising to me, but I hear you repeating this from an FBI investigator.

So what would have triggered a knock on the door from the FBI, typing murder Democrats into YouTube, talking negatively about Ilan Omar. I guess the reason that I asked that is it seems like to me, you and I are both on X, we're on multiple social media platforms. that type of language, while extreme, isn't extremely rare. So the FBI is knocking on the doors of everyone that talks the way that – I do think that Thomas Crook's made himself stand out in that time frame. But again, he's still like a 16 or 17-year-old boy, maybe an 18-year-old boy, and he's talking like this. And we are to presume the FBI is knocking on the door of everyone that talks like that on the Internet.

Well, there are several replies, or at least two that I'm come to mind that my source showed me, where people online have been so kind of horrified by his violent threats that they have said, they've mentioned and tagged the FBI and said, oh, good thing that you're out in the open. So it makes it easier for the authorities to see you. And, you know, they do, and they use AI now, but they do. monitor online chats just for these kinds of, you know, it's like it wasn't, he wasn't just being like nasty and aggressive and like we see on X. This was specific threats, naming people, murder the Democrats, talking about AR-15, talking about assassination. Anyway, I mean,

the FBI, this guy Ron Swanson, Rob, sorry, Rod Swanson, and, uh, and, uh, and other FBI serving agents and former have also said that it's just this guy would have been on the FBI radar. Now, someone else have said to me, well, Secret Service has said that in 2020, August 2020, when Thomas Crooks' most violent rhetoric occurred, John Trump was president. So it's a secret service would be the first port of their president. then get passed on to the FBI and they would work jointly together or the FBI would take on the investigation. And there's something else which is that the FBI has, you know, been looking at domestic terrorism for a long time. And you people have told me that the demand outstrips supply. So they're

always looking for characters like this. Apparently teenage boys during COVID, there was sort of an upsurge of them spouting off online and it came to the FBI attention. And so I think it's hard to believe that the FBI wasn't aware. And the other element of this is that he, in 2020, Thomas Crooks was talking to a guy, a Norwegian neo-Nazi who used the name Willie Teppers, which I don't believe is his real name. But that's how he communicated with Thomas Crooks. And he was also very used violent. Rhetoric talked about the only way to achieve change is through the barrel of a gun

and that he was encouraging Thomas Crooks in his violence. And Thomas Crooks took up some of his phraseology like, you know, the Maoist term barrel of the gun. So now, Willie Teppers, that his, the group that he belonged to, has been designated by the State Department as a terrorist organization. Now that didn't happen until June 2024 a month before the Butler assassination attempt. Willie Teppes, my source has also found some more recent comments by Willie Teppers online from October of this year. He's still active and he claimed Willie Teppas that he had been contacted by both Russian and US

intelligence. So whatever is the case with this guy, it's also inconceivable. I've been told by people in the know that the CIA wasn't aware of this neo-Nazi Norwegian group that has been designated as a terrorist organization and should have passed on to the FBI any interactions between TEPA and an American citizen being Thomas Crooks. So it all points So let me just catalogue Yeah Let me just catalogue where we are

Okay so from 16 to 17 16 to 20 The years of 16 to 20 The roughly Is that roughly the same ages Crooks is like No he's roughly during that time He's 20 and 2024

He's 20 and 2024 So he's 16 Really honestly when he's 14 15 Yeah so he's like 14 15 16 years old He's doing a lot of this on the internet He's deviant art. He's furry stuff. He's hating Democrats.

He's commenting on YouTube. He's talking positively about President Trump. And then negatively. Roughly February. Yeah. And then February of 2020. January of 2020. January, he switches.

And all of a sudden now, he's super negative towards Donald Trump. He's negative towards the way he handles COVID. He seems to be negative, I think, on immigration, you said as well. He's negative on Trump supporters, calling them stupid. and brainwashed and sheep. So something happens. And I believe it's only a two-month gap or a one-month gap. Like in December of 19, he's posting very negatively about Democrats.

In January, he starts switched to Republicans. Now, one could argue maybe he was radicalized by January 6th. We have to put that in there. That was an event in that time frame. Maybe that switched his, go ahead. That happened in 21, January 6th. Am I off? Am I off?

Is that 21? I'm off. Yeah. And so January. You're right. So January of 2020 is when COVID starts circulating, but nothing gets shut down until March of 2020. So I'm not sure that he's, you know, initially when I was talking to my source, we were surmising that he was radicalized by the lockdown. But that didn't happen until March.

So he's already radicalized in January. Let's continue the deep dive. Don't go anywhere. I want to continue this conversation with the New York Post Miranda Devine on Will Kane, Country. country. Okay. And then, and then so now I'm going to keep the timeline moving forward. And I'm cognizant of your time. You're doing a lot of media today on this story. By August of 2020, now he's made contact with Willie Tellis, this guy you just told us about, Norwegian, connected, I believe, to neo-Nazi groups, right, in Europe, which are designated by the CIA

later as a terrorist group, a foreign terrorist group. And what is the extent of his communication with Tellis? So Crooks is just chatting to Teppas about, I've got your stuff. It's sort of just, you know, kind of rhetoric like, you know, change is only possible through the barrel of a gun, quoting Mao, that sort of thing, you know, just, I don't know, generic revolutionary talk. I don't have to look it up, but, you know, I put some of it in the column. But it's sort of like that kind of violent rhetoric about being a revolutionary, changing society with violence.

And Crook seems to echo that. We only have like a few interactions between TEPA's and that we've seen between Tepas and Crooks. but it just coincided with that period when he really escalated his violent rhetoric and, you know, absent any other information. And your point is at some point he would have been on the FBI's radar, and this only enhances that probability that he would have been on somebody's radar, crooks, at this point. And then, boom, he goes dark, completely dark. Which is super odd, by the way, for he would have been, now how old is he? 17, something like that? Yeah, like 17, 18, 19, yeah.

So that's really odd, right? Miranda, in and of itself, that a 17, 18-year-old goes odd on social media, especially after being active in his earlier teenage years. And then all these communications lead up. And it all, that happens at the same time, the probabilities that he would have been on the radar of federal authorities. It's just all super odd. And then we have this dark period until he attempts to assassinate President Trump and we're told afterwards basically, no, he's not been on the radar or you're getting no comment.

And that leads us to where we are today. It just doesn't add up. And I think the big question is kind of where you started, and I want to go to it at the end. If we were dealing with a Biden DOJ and a Biden FBI, the answers would be much easier. You would say, well, they don't want people to know that he switched to the left. They don't want people to know that he had these new motivations, whatever it may be, because it looks bad for Democrats, right? But that's not what we're dealing with. We're now dealing with a Trump DOJ and a Trump FBI, and we're now dealing with Cash Patel.

And from what I hear from you, you're getting similar stonewalling and similar no comments that spans essentially two administrations. Yes, and that is, it's not just me. it's also Senator Ron Johnson who is frustrated and, you know, Tucker Carlson has had the same stonewalling. He has the same source as I do. He's public done an episode last week on this. And

you know, frankly, Christopher Ray testified a week after Butler that they had no record of crooks on their system. He'd done a search of the files. No name comes up. so claiming they had no contact with him before Butler. Now, he was very careful in that wording. A search didn't turn up his name.

Well, I remember a similar kind of wording from the FBI about all the Biden contacts and all the tips that they had, including from a US attorney who gave them a tip that he'd got from Ukraine. And all that information about the Bidens, that derogatory information about the Bidens was put into like a basket in their files that was inaccessible unless you knew where to look.

You know, you had the right, I don't know. And you'd think that the FBI director would know. But I'm just wondering, I just feel that that was such careful wording of his. He's a lawyer. Why would he say a search of the system has found nothing? Why wouldn't you just say, no, absolutely categorically, we never had any interaction with him before. And now with the Trump FBI, they're saying no comment. And, you know, I have to also say that I've had negative interactions with the FBI deputy

director Dan Bongino in the past over other things. They're very hostile and inaccessible, at least to me. And I don't really understand it, other than I've gone to back. for FBI whistleblowers who were not treated well. So I'm just not, I'm not sure what's going on. I know Megan Kelly said yesterday that I got a tip off on this story from the FBI. Nothing could be further from the truth. I've been got absolutely nothing from them.

So this is coming from a source and this source has done incredible work. But, you know, they're just, it's just, they don't have the tools. They have no tools that are lawy, enforcement uses. So it is impossible to understand, especially when the president is not satisfied with what's come out yet. Eric Trump also told me he's not satisfied. So I don't understand why Cash Patel doesn't do a comprehensive search of their holdings and come out and explain to the American people what's going on and why they're being so secretive. such a great question you know it's such a great question concerning to very concerning to hear

the way that your questions have have been received okay miranda thanks for the 30 minutes you've given us here this is a lot of information to process and digest and it's a developing story that we need to stay on top of and you've been great about being on top of it so thank you for your time today miranda thanks so much will okay and you check out more of what miranda has reported she's written it up it's at the new york post right now and she's covering it pod force one. But we're not done with this. We're going to continue talking about it. You've got to digest that. I have some thoughts. It is inexplicable why we don't know more about Thomas Crooks. I actually can conceive. I'm not justifying why the government would

hide information from us, but I can conceive of reasons on a lot of topics, including Jeffrey Epstein, including what's going on right now in Venezuela. I am having trouble coming up with legitimate reasons on why this information would be deprived of the American people. Let's talk about that with you, the Wollisha, coming up on Wilcane Country. Why? Why are we not getting the truth on Thomas Crooks? It is Wilcane Country streaming live at the Wilcane Country YouTube channel. The Fox News Facebook page, you should follow us at Spotify or on Apple. I want to share with you some of the direct reporting from Miranda Devine, some of what we just went over just now.

Let's talk about Thomas Crooks' Political 180. Divine writes, Crook's trajectory. I got it. I got it. Yeah, it's hard back to back. Crooks trajectory. Try it, say fast. Crook's trajectory.

From pro to anti-Trump is evident. referred to Trump as the literal definition of patriotism at 117 a.m. on July 20th of 2019. He also issued several targeted threats against Democratic congressional representatives in the squad. Quote, I hope a quick and painful death to all the deplorable immigrants and anti-Trump Congresswoman who don't deserve anything this country has given them. He wrote that at 8.18 a.m. on July 20th of 2019. I'm just thinking he didn't get a lot of sleep that night. He went to bed angry and got up angry.

Went to bed after 1.17 a.m. and got up by 8.18 and went right back to posting anger on the internet. He wrote, murder the Democrats on December 12th of 2019. Now, I don't know if that gets you flagged by the FBI, all of that, but Miranda Devine makes the argument that other FBI agents have said, looking at the stuff he has posted, he for sure would have got a door knock by the FBI. He would have been on their radar. But like a month later, Miranda writes, in early 2020, Crook's online behavior flipped 180 degrees and he became very critical of Trump.

Fox News and Republican complaints. Oh, he's critical of Trump, Fox News, and Republican complaints about mail-in voting. She had reported he talked about Republican voters being sheep and too dumb. to recognize that they are in a cult. At this time, he is a teenager, right? Divine writes, he described himself with the pronouns they, them. This is after he switched, I think, on Deviant Art, which is one of the biggest online hubs for furry art

and a furry community. Everybody know what a furry is? You don't know what a furry is, Ed? I think Ed's playing stupid. I think he knows what a furry is. A furry is someone who has an interest in anthropomorphized animal characters sexually fetished. You know when you and your buddies get together and you dress up in your rabbit costumes and you have those parties? That's what furry is.

You just didn't know you were a furry. Yeah, I am number one, Ed. I am number one. It's called the Saturday. Are wolves a big thing? Really? I thought it would be. I guess would have been rabbits.

Dogs. Not a lot of rabbits. Yeah. Oh, really? Well, there's some movie. What was that movie where he dressed up as a rabbit and his buddy dropped him off and he ran into the house? And you could see him inside. What was it?

That's a different movie. I don't know. All right. She writes, two accounts linked to Crooks' primary email were found at Deviant Art, under their username's Epic Microwave and V-Pick Microwave. The account suggests he had an obsession with scantily clad cartoon characters sporting muscle-bound male bodies and female heads. All right. It's like a brony.

Look, he's into some weird stuff. But, I mean, but also another example of violent they, them, that's what we're dealing with here. Another example of that. But then this flip in his politics, right? Super odd Okay He starts posting By the way

Here's a picture If anybody's watching This is him with a gun In his room I don't know if this is from a screenshot From a video I have the BROD He's got a video

Let's see what he's doing Yeah He's No son Nice work then This is from the New York Post Oh this is New York Post Yeah

Well it's all blurred out Why do we blur things out? What do they blur out? It's triggered. No, I'm super curious. Oh, it's the gun. It's the gun. You can't see the gun?

Yeah. You've got a Marvel poster in the background. And he's taken a shooting stance with his gun. You can see in the image here, unblurred. Yeah, unblurred there. And then there's this, which is the weirdest part, okay? So she talked about it. This is under the heading, Pals with Neo-Nazis.

So this is after he switches and he starts, I think, yeah, timeline, he starts doing the I hate Trump stuff now. He goes the other way. And one of the people Crooks interacted with online is a man named Willie Teppes or under the name Willie Teppes. He's a member of a Norwegian neo-Nazi group, the Nordic Resistance Movement, which has been designated a terrorist organization by the State Department. Teppes encouraged violence and crooks extremism using a Maoist phrase, political power comes. from the barrel of a gun, which crooks then repeated several times. Then he goes dark, dark for years, until he attempts to assassinate President Trump. Okay, okay, here's what I want to say about this.

You know, there's a lot of things, I'm sure, and I'm not at the heights of power in government, nor have I ever been, that the American public will be deprived of the truth, deprived of information on. You know that. I know that. History is replete with it. And I'm not here to tell you it's right or wrong, but I can understand reasoning on some of it. I'm going to give you an example. Yesterday on the Will Kane show, I covered what's going on in Venezuela. So narco boats are being blown up out of Venezuela. Do I think there is narco and narco terrorism coming out of Venezuela? Yeah, I do. Do I think that's a threat to the United States importing fentanyl? Yeah, I do. Do I think that Venezuela even makes the sea list of drug cartels and importers of drugs into America? No, I do. I think that Venezuela. I don't. I think that if you're really going after the drug cartels, and that's your motivation, you go to Mexico. It's like saying I'm going to deal with baseball players, and I'm going to start at single A baseball. You know, the major leagues are in Mexico. They're in Colombia. That's where drugs are primarily flowing through. I still think those are narco boats. I think we're taking out narco boats. But the question is, is why? Why do we have an aircraft carrier posted off

the coast of Venezuela. And I have trouble believing that has anything to do with narco boats. An aircraft carrier? Look at the resources we're deploying to the Caribbean outside of Venezuela. Now, so do I think you're getting the 100% legitimate reason on what we're doing? No, I don't think it's just about narco stuff. So what is the reason? Well, I'm sure the government doesn't feel free to share the reason, but here's what I think it is. Maduro is a threat to the United States of America by their definition. It's up to you, the American people decide if you think he is. Or to what extent he is. China has a big foothold in Venezuela. Iran has a foothold in Venezuela. Russia has a foothold in Venezuela. There's reporting a decade-long

old that Hezbollah is doing training on islands off of Venezuela, that Hezbollah is at high levels of the Venezuelan government. China owns commerce and ports and everything in Venezuela. The Monroe doctrine back in the day was like, we're not going to let our enemies have a presence in the Western Hemisphere. Is this, the Trump administration, saying, this is a new Monroe doctrine. We're not letting this happen in the western hemisphere. Well, and the argument goes, if you take out Venezuela, a lot of these communist regimes like Cuba fall. And Cuba's been thorned in the side of America for half a century.

So, you know, is that the reason? Well, I don't know. I don't know if that's the reason. I've told you about Epstein. Like, I think there are reasons that this Epstein thing, we're not getting the truth on it, that far go beyond simply implicating high levels of people in untoward and illegal behavior. I think there are national security implications. And regardless of administration, that's why you're not getting the full picture on Jeffrey Epstein. And I understand the reasons.

Like, you could say, we don't want to implicate any of our allies when it comes to Epstein. We don't want to compromise really important relationships. on the world stage. We don't want the, we don't want to tip off China that we're actually doing these things in Venezuela, whatever it may be. There are reasons. It doesn't make it right or wrong to deprive the American people of the information, but you can see at least the reasons that it would be done. I cannot see a reason on crooks, spanning two administrations, two different political parties. Why would you not be getting the information on crooks? And you're definitely not getting the information. You know, you're just definitely not. And so,

The question is why? Now, I don't have a reason. I can't come up with all I see what the government's position may be on why. Is it because he was contacted by the FBI? It was a massive failure. They don't want to show their failures. Is it something more? Was he developed?

Was he developed by somebody into something that was supposed to be a tool that didn't work out in the right way or did? I don't know the answer to these things. That's the point. I can't come up with a legitimate good reason. Why we're not getting this information? We asked you out there watching, what do you think? Why would the FBI cover up parts of the Thomas Matthew Crook's story? And the answers, the multiple choice put out there, were to protect political interests.

30% said yes. To control the narrative, 33% said that. To hide security failures, the number one response, 36%. But I would think that a new FBI would be fine talking about the failures of the past FBI. I don't know. Right. I can't come up with a good reason. Like, how does it cross administrations? That's what blows my mind. That's what an FBI account said last week.

This FBI, or our FBI, didn't say this. So it's like, they see themselves as a different FBI. And Cash came in as the, I'm going to blow stuff up and, you know, kind of show the truth. And it's interesting. I don't know. It is interesting. And I think when you hear from Patel and others, like, well, we're working on it. We're working on getting you the truth. We want to have it complete. Same thing. You hear that with Epstein, that kind of thing. All right, well, you know, that can get strung out over a long period of time. It's been a while. It's been a while on crooks. All right. Coming up, Congressman Mark Harris, a Republican from North Carolina, get this stat. Okay. The new ICE, it's actually Border Patrol operations in Charlotte, North Carolina to go after illegal immigrants, illegal immigrants, criminals.

resulted in the first day of operations, 15% of kids did not show up to school. What does that tell you about illegal immigrant populations in the United States? Coming up with Congressman Mark Harris on Wilcane Country. Charlotte Mecklenburg students absent from school on Monday. The first day of operations of Border Patrol in Charlotte, North Carolina. It is Will Cain Country, streaming live at the Will Cain Country YouTube channel. The Fox News Facebook page, and you can follow us on Spotify or on Apple. Congressman Mark Harris, above North Carolina's eight congressional district joins us now.

Congressman, glad to have you on the program. Hey, Will, it's great to be with you. Thank you for having me today. I'm excited to talk. talk to you about Charlotte, but I've got this conversation going because it's in the news cycle about Thomas Crookes and Miranda Devine was on the show. I'd love to ask you two questions to the extent that you know as a public office holder. One, how much of the FBI is turned over when a new administration comes in? Like, is it just the top leadership? Or is it, this is actually

from a viewer, a viewer who is watching right now, a listener, was curious about that. Because we're talking about, you know, the oddity of spanning administration. and not having new information on crooks. How much is it a new FBI, actually? We know Bongino and Patel, and I'm sure they've made other changes, but, you know, the FBI is a behemoth. What are we talking about that has actually changed from administration to administration? Well, that's a great question, Will.

It's my understanding that really it's particularly the top brass, if you will, the upper echelons of these departments that have changeover when an administration. changes. As we've seen, there have been some of the career folks through the years that have been there. And I think oftentimes when we talk about the deep state, it's just like any other department that we've got where you may have people down at various levels that are not changed over. And it takes, I think, that's something that when Cash Patel took over the realm FBI, that that became sort of a priority that he makes sure that we have an FBI that we can have confidence in and that they understand the priorities of this administration.

And the second question I wanted to ask you is it's really open because I asked this is why? Why are we deprived on this particular story, Thomas Crooks, right, that we have so little information outside of now a source that is given reporting to Tucker Carlson and to Miranda Devine at the New York Post. why are we not getting more information in a case that has spanned two administrations? Well, I think that your viewers, I thought it was listening in your last segment when you mentioned the poll that was done, and they seemed kind of split over a third, a third, and a third of those various reasons. And I do think that in reality, that there are excellent questions of why.

And I think you can only assume that there's some things there, A, that there's some things there, A, that they don't feel like they are confident to go forward with. But there were so many questions about the Crook's case all the way down to his phone and the amount of encryption that was involved there from foreign countries. And I think that obviously is information that I have to hope and believe that intelligence officials are aware of and are getting to the bottom of. And I think that, again, there seems to be a desire of the American people to want to know more of this information. I'm grateful for those that have been able to get to it.

All right. Congressman Mark Harris of North Carolina with us here on the program. So the headline is as follows today. Trump administration begins massive violent crackdown or massive, I'm sorry, massive crackdown on violent, illegal immigrants in Charlotte, North Carolina. And then this is an absolutely stunning stat, Congressman, that 21,000 kids did not show up for school in the Charlotte Mecklenburg School District on Monday the first day of operations. That's 15%, I believe, of the school district, Congressman. What am I supposed to make of that? I think it's staggering, and I think exactly you can just look at it on its face, and it definitely rings and begs the question of what's going on there in our Charlotte Mecklenburg school system,

what's going on in the whole Charlotte-Meklenburg area. I'm very thankful that the Custom Border Patrol has made its way to Charlotte. I'm thankful that in the first really two and a half days, three days, I heard a report this morning that there have been more than 200 arrests that have already been made. And when you look at the people that they are taking, these criminal illegal aliens and bringing them off the streets of Charlotte, that can only be a good thing.

It can only be a good thing for bringing down crime numbers. It can only be a good thing for making the people of Charlotte safe once again. And it can only be a good thing for restoring confidence in the people that really and truly law enforcement is doing their job. And that's a point I really want to make, Will, when you see, and there have been reaction from leaders in the city and even the governor that oftentimes comes off negative about CBP, but I want folks to understand, and I've been stressing on any time I've had a chance to talk about it, that the Border Patrol, they are law enforcement. That's what they are. And they deserve our respect,

and they deserve our honor as law enforcement. And to be somehow teaching children that you're to be fearful of these people, well, it must only mean that you must be a criminal, or you have some kind of criminal element going on in your area if you're living in fear. If you are not breaking law, I learned as a child growing up, that policemen were our friend. Law enforcement was our friend, and we were always taught that and trained that. So I don't know what's happening here in our society that we somehow are trying to make these folks out to be enemies when they're really just simply protecting the public and enforcing the law. Well, is that your takeaway, Congressman? Is your takeaway that, okay, 15% of the school district didn't show up for school?

21,000 kids, is that a significant number of families in Charlotte because they are Latino or because of some other reason are in fear? And by the way, let's separate this into three groups. One, criminal illegal aliens committed a crime other than simply illegal immigration, right? There's no way that 21,000 kids fit that profile or their families fit that profile. next group illegal immigrant in the country illegally having broken the laws of the united states of america immigrated here illegally now that's got to be a much bigger number does that account for the full 15 percent or are you arguing there's a third group that believes hey i'm Latino they're i'm an american citizen or i'm a green card holder i'm here legally but i'm worried they're

going to wrap up my kid or me picking up my kid from school do you think that represents that The last group is a significant percentage of the 15 percent? I think it could very well represent that last group, but I think you've got to go back to the first group that that criminal element that is there, that is the target of Custom Border Patrol. But when you listen to what some of the elected leaders in Charlotte have been trying to say, when you look at what the governor has been trying to say, and when you look at the media and what they've been trying to present, those are the stories that unfortunately breed fear

in the in the public and particularly in those that are here in concern for their children getting caught up i've been stressing to people again and again they are coming after the criminal illegal alien when people say but why do they come to charlotte i can only assume it's because they have intelligence they have information that has caused them to come after the individuals that they're seeking and you don't want to hang out with with the bad criminal element because you could get swept up in that moment Okay, let's stay with that first group, the criminal element. So this is the story.

I believe this is at Fox News.com. Human trafficking soars in Blue City, it's a reference to Charlotte, as gangs, highways fuel perfect storm of child exploitation, say the experts. According to data, I believe that Charlotte comes in at ninth in the country in terms of child human trafficking or human trafficking in general. And the article suggests that's because of your highway system, a huge intersection going, you know, Charlotte's a bit of a hub point across the south of a lot of in-and-out highway systems. So is that something that you as a congressman, you've known,

like Charlotte has a problem with this, that number one, that criminal element, human trafficking, illegal stuff going on in your community? That's exactly right. And it is. And, you know, again, people want to talk about why it's the case. The fact that we have 77 and 85 going there and just a little to the east, Interstate 95, running up and down the East Coast. I get all that. But the fact that that's a reason we may have that problem, the problem still exists. And that's why we needed the Custom Border Patrol. And they chose to come to Charlotte, again, following intelligence, following information that they had in order to come and take some of these bad guys off the street. That's what we're looking for. That's what Charlotte needs. And I think the citizens overall in

Charlotte are going to be grateful. It's a great city. It's got an incredible number of events, sporting events that happen there. Bowl games are going to be coming up very soon. The Panthers play there. And it's got a great theater. It's got great restaurants. We want everybody in the surrounding area to feel like they can come to Charlotte and they can be safe.

I don't know if I would bring the Panthers up on your selling point. I get everything else. He won't Sunday, buddy. He won't Sunday. Just remember we beat the Falcons. Okay, yes, congratulations to the Panthers on their victory over the Falcons. No, okay, here's the thing, Congressman, okay, take the human trafficking, take what's going on in Charlotte, take the criminal element. My suspicion is that you have almost 100%, we can put the over under 75% of approval rating for ICE and Border Patrol deportations of the criminal element of illegal immigrants in the country.

Okay. I'm just guessing on the polling right now. All right. The third group, which we set aside, which may be living in fear inappropriately because of media malpractice and hype. American citizens or permanent residents who are like, oh my God, I don't want to get swept up in some raid. You know, I think that is a, that group needs to be set aside as well because I do think that's a product of irresponsible conversation. But I think a responsible conversation, the one that is not being had, is the second group. Okay. It's the middle group, and that is the illegal immigrants in this country who are here illegally, having not committed any other crime but being here illegally. Now, I don't know where the polling is. I've seen something from 40 to 60 percent of people support the deportation of that group of people in America. But polling is important only insofar as it's politics, how that impacts your race, how it impacts the midterms, how it impacts President Trump. But I do know this. It is a democratically elected law to deport, to enforce the law on illegal immigration. That reflects popular will.

We voted and y'all voted on deporting illegal immigrants, irrespective of their criminal records. Correct. The question is why that group has all of a sudden gotten incredibly controversial. It's incredibly controversial to deport an illegal immigrant. It wasn't in the past. It wasn't in the 80s. Cheech and Chong made movies about LaMigra coming to get them. We knew about raids in the 80s, in the 90s, if you were employing illegal immigrants.

But somewhere recently, this has shifted, and this has become a thing that matters in polling and not in the enforcement of law. And I'm really fascinated by that. I understand that you have to factor it in on your next race, polling. But shouldn't we be enforcing the laws if it's really unpopular? popular, maybe we vote in new laws that we don't deport illegal immigrants. Well, you're exactly right, Will. And we do need to have that conversation. And that conversation, I think, we have continued to say is going to take place. And I think we've got

to look at how we're going to deal with immigration and even those that are here illegally. But make it clear, President Trump ran saying that he was going to secure the border. And then he has done that in a phenomenal way. Second step, after the border, is secure, we've got to remove the criminal element out of this country. And that is what is given priority. It's the reason we made and increased a number of ICE agents significantly in the one big, beautiful bill that we passed. We wanted to be able to take care of that criminal element, the gangs, to get those people out of the United States of America. And once we feel like that we have accomplished step one of getting that border secure and that we are

getting that criminal element out, I do believe there will be more and more conversations on what we're able to do moving forward. I just think it's important for folks to understand the president ran on establishing law and order in our cities. There's no debating that in many of our cities like Charlotte, we have got a number of illegal immigrants that are there, and we have that criminal element that is obviously there that they've been arresting here over the last few days. And I think it's just going to be a matter of time before we continue to have those conversations, but that's the reason Secretary Nome made it very clear in the opening days of this administration. And it's led to a couple million self-deporting in saying, we want

you to go, go on your own, offered them $1,000, offered them a free flight home, and then they could go through the process of applying so they could come back in. Listen, I've been a pastor for 36 years. I've told folks, I can't imagine a more biblical approach than doing exactly what Secretary Nome has done when she made that announcement. And what this administration has tried to do to get folks a chance to self-deport, get things in order, and come back in legally. We've got to continue to keep that message consistent as we go forward. Right. Two more questions really quickly on this, Congressman, you being a pastor. So that second group, deporting illegal immigrants, not criminal.

I'm always, the language is always such a mess because it is criminal to be an illegal alien in the United States, but not a crime beyond, not a crime beyond illegal immigration. That seems to be the one that has inspired all the Catholic bishops, you know, in America, to put out their video, which they did over the last weekend, you know, denouncing ICE deportations. I'm curious what you think about that, the Catholic bishops basically coming out together and announcing the deportation of illegal immigrants? Well, obviously, I disagree with that because I, listen, I believe that we've got to be a nation of law and order.

And that means that we've got to be a nation that has borders. And if we're not going to respect our law and order, to your point they've made earlier, change the laws, if you want to change the laws, we're not to that point yet. But I think that we've got to recognize that we, if we're not a nation of law and order, And I think biblically, that is very clear. And so I disagree with that decision by the bishops to push in that direction. And I believe that we need to take the more biblical approach. And that is let's get ourselves established where we need to be.

And then let's begin to help folks come here legally the way it was intended to do with immigration, legal immigration. That's what we've got to continue to emphasize. That's a whole other Boloax. that's a whole other conversation, you know, how much is appropriate. But one more last question, and I ask you this in your role as a congressman, perhaps in your conversations with Secretary Nome, do you have any idea what ICE and Border Patrol deportations are as they break down in those three groups? You see, to be fair, the Trump administration and Republicans only talk about group number

one, the criminals, okay? The left and TikTok, I know this. I live in Texas. I talk about the third group. They have you believe American citizens or permanent residents are being wrapped up in this type of thing unjustly and sent off to El Salvador. That's their narrative. And then there's that second group. Do you have any idea how it breaks down?

What percentage fit into each bucket? No, I don't know how that breaks down, but I think that's an incredible question. And I would love to ask that question. I would guess to venture or venture a guess that really and truly it is, it is. is that first group, that criminal element, that is at the top of the heat. Those are the ones that are being deported. I do not hear, in my district, at least in North Carolina,

I do not hear of many cases at all. In fact, I talked to a friend of mine that was in Chicago, and there was so much false narrative that was being shared through the media that a Hispanic pastor pointed out and made clear that this whole thing that folks were showing up at churches and they were busting into worship services, This Hispanic pastor who had a very strong network said that he checked with all the people

in his network and there was not a single instance where that had occurred. Again, people just create a narrative and run with it. And so I would venture the guess that I would think that it would be a very small element, certainly in North Carolina, they're just in that third group for certain as the left is. And I would even imagine that that second group is a very small percentage. and it's overwhelmingly those that have got a criminal record and criminal background that are actually being deported. Yeah. I think you're right on the third group.

I don't, my, my suspicion is it's very low to zero to one percent in that permanent or legal mistakes. But the second group I'm fascinated by, what percentage is it between just illegal immigrants and criminal legal ones? And I'm going to stay on that. I'm going to find out the answer to that. You said it's a good question. Thank you. I'm going to stay on it. I think the American people deserve the facts on that.

I think it's a great question, and I will raise it. I promise you that. Thank you. Let us know. If you find out the answer for what we do, I hope you'll let us know, Congressman. Most definitely. Are you a tar heel? Are you Wolfpack? Are you not a North Carolina guy all the way through? Are you Duke? Oh, God. I got to tell you this. I went to Appalachian State University. My daughter went to App State. my second son went to UNC Chapel Hill, and my youngest son went to Wake Forest. So I tell folks, if the Bible says, where your treasure is, and they say if where your treasure is,

your heart will be also, probably Wake Forest is where I dumped more money than any. So I'm a deacon fan as a result of that. I can imagine. I can imagine it's not cheap, Wake Forest. Which, by the way, I've been told Wake Forest like Duke is a little bit of a northeastern school. A lot of northeasterners at Wake Forest, and I've also been told this recently. Not quite like Duke, man. Not quite.

Listen, if you try to compare any North Carolina school to Duke, you have just insulted us with a tremendous insult. Well, let me end with a compliment then. I heard recently, this was just in the last couple of days, a school that people are hot on, it's on the rise is App State. I heard that recently. Hey, look at App State. It's a very popular new. alternative people are talking about. Out of state. It really is. Beautiful mountains of North Carolina. You cannot beat Boone North Carolina. When I was going there many moons ago, there were a lot of

folks that came from Florida to those cold mountains in the winter, but there's nothing that can beat upstate for sure. All right, Congressman, it's been a great conversation. Thank you for your time today. Thank you. It's been a pleasure to be with you, Will. All right, it's Congressman Mark Harris of North Carolina here with us on the Will Cain Show. Okay, I think that was an information-packed episode. We're going to do some more deep dives on both of these topics. Thomas Crooks. By the way, today at 4 o'clock on the Will Cain Show, make sure we're going to stay on Epstein as well. We've got to find out, I'm sure the Congressman prior to cast his vote. I think that was just a little bit earlier. They were hoping it would be unanimous on Epstein. We've got more on Epstein.

And we've got to find the answers on this, some real truth, cut through the noise on illegal immigration and deportations. All right. We'll be back again tomorrow. Same time, what do you guys up on the screen for? Do you want to talk? No, I was just saying, I like you writing stuff down now. Two days? It's interesting. What do you mean?

Is that new thing? Yeah, yeah. Do you always do that or is that a new thing? I like it. Yeah. Taking notes. No, I always do. No, thank you.

Well, you know, sometimes I'm smart. Well, sometimes. Sometimes I'm, sometimes I'm, don't you guys think that I want that information on those deportations? Yeah. I want that information. What? When I'm smart?

Did you look it up, Ed? Well, I can't report what Ed says just off the top of his head. We'll let you go. Ed's one of these guys. I've got a group of people. Real quick, I've got a group of people that tell me what they saw in TikTok. And, you know, and by the way, it's often out of Chicago. Like, I show, there are certain places of my life where I'll show up and be like,

Did you see that on TikTok where they got this guy? And it's a horrible story about deportation. And I'm like, dude, you got to get off TikTok, you know, Jose. You got to get off TikTok. You can tell them to come in a light. You really have to be careful. You can see them over there. You have to be careful with stuff online now.

What I'm getting at. I just saw a story about how Secretary Hegseth and his wife have adopted a child, like a migrant child or something. Like, it's AI is blowing up everywhere. So you've got to be really careful with some of these stories. A migrant child? Something like that. It was something weird.

It was like, oh, wow. And then I saw another one that was very simple. Can I give you a quick example of that? Yeah. Did I tell you this? This is like a month ago. My mom texted me. And she's like, what's up with Joey Jones?

And I'm like, what are you talking about? That's how you guys is? I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. I'm like, I don't know what you're talking about. And she goes, him suing the view. And I'm like, I have no idea what you're talking about.

Like, I don't know if he is. And she sent me some article, right, about that Joey Jones has sued the view for whatever, defamation or something. So I text Joey. I'm like, dude, are you suing the view? And he's like, no, man. There's an entire ecosystem of AI fake stories about me to him. Joey's saying this. And he showed me.

And it's not just that he's suing the view. There's like 10 different versions of stories all fake about Joey. Like, and I don't know if that's one dude out there. It's like, I'm really going to AI up. Joey or what that, I don't know what happened there, but he says, I get contacted all the time. And it's all over Facebook. He's like, I get contacted all the time about this or that. He's like, they're all fake. It's all AI fake stories out there. To your point, Patrick, you've got to be so careful now. The long and short of all this diatribe, go ahead, two a days.

I'm calling it now. AI's going to get so good with videos and stories like that. We're not going to be able to use the internet or social media anymore, and we're just going to have to, like, not just not go on it because we will have no idea what's true and what's not in like four years. Well, that's the purpose of this program. Yeah. That's going to be one of the guiding license program to cut through the BS, the noise, the chaos. It's going to be insane. To give you the truth.

And I'll make this promise to you right above TikTok on credibility, but just above is Ed. So he will not be, he will not be who I turn to for the truth in the future. All right, that's going to do it for us today here on Will Kane country. We'll be back again tomorrow. Same time, same place. see you next time listen to ad free with a fox news podcast plus subscription on apple podcast and amazon prime members you can listen to this show ad free on the amazon music app