Secret Service Agent Breaks Down the Trump Security Scare

In this episode, Brody talks with former Secret Service agent Scott “Mooch” Bryson about the recent threat against President Trump. They break down how security actually works in a hotel and why agents can’t just lock everything down.

They also explain layered security, how multiple teams and strategies are designed to stop a threat before it reaches its target and why what looks chaotic on camera can still be controlled and effective.

Finally, they zoom out to discuss leadership under pressure and the broader cultural situation.

No Sanity Stories | 25 Years Protecting Presidents in the Secret Service

Beyond the Service -- Scott's Podcast

The Stories That Built Snowbird

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Transcript

Bonus Episode Setup And Why Now

SPEAKER_01 0:00

It is a bonus episode. JB is not here with me. It's actually late in the evening on I don't know what day it is, but it's the it's the Monday or Tuesday after the attempted assassination of President Trump, the guy that tried to get into the White House. And I heard I just heard a lot of real negative media and press kind of back in the Secret Service. And after the thing that happened in Butler in Pennsylvania a couple years ago, I think people are quick to cast judgment and give their unprofessional opinion. And I thought Melmakoff got back up. He came on and did a great job explaining the breakdown at Butler. And then after that, he started his own podcast, which I would encourage you to check out. It's called Beyond the Service. It's got a YouTube channel, and he uses, I think, TikTok, and I know Instagram and some of those other social media outlets. It's so uh good to get his perspective because he lived it. He lived it behind that curtain for 25 years and he did everything. He did everything from listening to we'll link the 2024 episodes. There were two of them where I had him on. We can link those and go back to those kind of introduction. Because in those we go through his story, how he got into Secret Service and then what his career looked like. But I want to get him on here, get his perspective. We're gonna kind of tag team it because he's got uh a listening audience. And then we do, and then some of you listen to both. And I think after tonight or after this drop, a lot of you listen to both. But um, yeah, I uh by the time we we we've got a heavy recording day tomorrow. We're recording an episode or two tomorrow. We wanted to get this out as quick as we can. So by the end of this week, which by the I don't know when this is going to drop, but it will be within a week of that attempt on the on the president. Um so you can kind of hear how the system worked, not how it broke down like at Butler, but how it worked and how the the the would-be assassin or shooter was taken down. So uh it'll it'll be fun to talk to him. I've already talked to him and excited to get into this conversation and just get his perspective on it. Welcome to this bonus episode of No Sanity Required.

SPEAKER_00 2:43

Welcome to No Sanity Required from the Ministry of Snowbird Wilderness Out there, a podcast about the Bible, culture, and stories from around the globe.

Why The Media Gets Security Wrong

SPEAKER_01 2:54

All right, cool. Well, we're we're rolling. I'm recording, so hit it and let's roll. I wonder if your listeners, I wonder if they've uh if they've heard, you know, I interviewed you the way this dog got rolling is I interviewed you after the Trump got shot in the ear. Uh in Pennsylvania. And I was like, I gotta call Mooch for your listeners don't know, man. You're back in the day, you were Mooch. You wasn't Scott Bryson's Secret Service agent.

SPEAKER_02 3:22

Um I've been I've been a lot, I got a I think I got more nicknames than most people I know.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

Yeah, I would imagine probably your time in the service. I'd say that that's probably that probably comes with a territory, lots of nicknames.

SPEAKER_02 3:34

Yep, a lot of nicknames, that's for sure. It's funny, I was called Mooch today. My one of my neighbors is an older guy, he's a real cool guy, and I'm went driving by and he always was like, Hey, what's up, Scott? And today he goes, What's up, Mooch?

SPEAKER_03 3:45

Oh, hello.

SPEAKER_02 3:45

And I'm like, Who the heck have you been talking to? And he's like, Yeah, I played, I played golf with one of these guys you went to high school with the other day. He said to tell Mooch hello. I'm like, good gracious.

SPEAKER_01 3:54

I mean, that's like that ended when high, I guess, when you went off when you left home after high school, but that's still that's still my favorite of all the nicknames. I could we could we could shame each other and tell what our grandmother called us, but I won't do that to you if you won't do it to me.

SPEAKER_02 4:10

Yeah, truth. White flag.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

Oh, it's so funny. Uh well, so so here, man, on my side, um, and I we've been trying to line our schedules up so I could come on on your side and and and we can have a conversation on your your show, your podcast, and I really still want to do that. But yeah, so I um I I just hate doing stuff like that through the phone or the computer screen. I really want to do it in person. Yeah, so okay. But if if it comes down to need to do it that way, we can do it. Okay, so here's the one problem. I don't own a computer. I don't own a laptop. So uh when we do that, I I I had a guy reach out the other day uh at the other podcast and ask if he could interview me, and I said, Yeah, man, can we just do it by the phone? And he said, uh no, man, you need I need you to use your laptop. And I said, uh we got a profit. Um I have to get I have to borrow a laptop from somebody on our media team here at Snowbird. That is classic. Yeah, no, no surprises there.

SPEAKER_02 5:15

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 5:17

Um all right, so here's the deal. I don't for for your folks, I it might be worth me saying, I don't, I'm not personally on social media. The ministry that I'm affiliated with, the the program that I run. But we have a we have a strong social media presence. We have a team, and they do a good job uh of putting our stuff out there. But me personally, I don't I don't have any social media that where I'm active. And so uh I didn't I a lot of times I don't know exactly what's going on. I don't do a great job of keeping up with current events, and so I heard something about the White House uh correspondence dinner that there was an attempted assassination on the president. So yesterday morning, this is this is you know, I guess a couple days after the fact, yesterday morning, I looked, I went online uh just on my phone and I just looked for you know videos of whatever was available from cameras on stakes or on stage and it would just look chaotic to me. You know, as a as a civil guy, I mean as a civilian and a layperson, I'm looking at it and I'm like, it just looks kind of chaotic. And so I thought, and I'm just gonna text guys you know if he could walk us through what's going on and kind of what happened there, what that you know, what were we seeing? You see people running down a hallway and it looks like if they just draw their weapons. Um I I read that one agent was Scott was hit. So kind of walk us through. Do you mind walking my listeners and your listeners through what does it look like to set up for that event? What's going on, what are we seeing when we're watching those videos? I did see some cat boys, some of some of your guys, the counter stalk guys, which I know you did that for a while. We talked about that that part of your career in depth when you were on on the podcast on my podcasting. Uh and and so I saw those guys kind of come on station there at the uh you know at the table, but just walk us through what's going on, how do you set that up? What what are we looking at?

Rights And Reality At Secure Venues

The Checkpoint Rush And First Shots

SPEAKER_02 7:16

Yeah, no problem. And um, I will um I will tell you everything that uh that I'm allowed to tell you. Obviously, I signed an NDA when I left the job, and I'm not trying to go to prison, so I won't give away any trade craft or anything like that. We I try not to talk about numbers and things like that. Yeah. Yeah, so I'm happy to do that. And and I will tell you, I talked to a buddy of mine yesterday who was actually really fired up, great dude. And uh we we were on the job together for many years, and um he was really quite frankly, he was just pretty pissed off. Uh, he still lives up in DC and he works for another agency now, and um he's still connected a lot more than I am. But you know, he was saying that uh, you know, he was getting frustrated in particular with Fox News. And you know, obviously I I'm we're conservative, that's no secret. Like I'm a conservative, I'm a Christian, first of all. Let me be very clear. I I'm a Christ follower, so I'm not even sure if I'm a Republican anymore. I just know that I'm a conservative based on my my faith values. And so I I but I do try to get my information from multiple different outlets because I I you know, I wanna I wanna I just want the information. Let me form my own opinion. So whether it's Fox News and uh or um you know Newsmax or whatever, whatever the case. I I listen to a bunch of conservative talk radio stuff too. So anyway, that's kind of what I do. Uh but he said they they were really and I I don't watch Fox, I don't really watch the morning show or whatever, but he was saying it killed me and those guys were really upsetting him because everybody's a security expert. And um it's easy to throw shade at the after the fact. So I want to say this too to your listeners and to mine. Uh when when Trump got shot uh in Butler, uh that's when my whole, you know, you interviewed me and that's kind of how my podcast got its legs. Um, and I was very critical of the guys because that was Bush League, that was an F minus. And so I have no problem, you know, calling a state of state. I, you know, on my podcast all the time I say we call balls and strikes, that's what we do. Like we speak truth to power, you know, all those little cliche things, but that's what I want to do. I want to speak, I want the facts, I want the truth. You know, Bon Gino says it really well, you know, you don't need to be first, you need to be accurate. So I try to do that too. Uh but like all these experts are coming out saying all these things, well I say experts, air quotes, right? But um basically to sort of paint a picture, when you set up when you set up uh a venue, a site, uh, in this case, a hotel with oh, by the way, if you didn't know, there's like a thousand something rooms in this hotel. It's a oh it's an operational hotel. You could have had, you know, Brody Holloway spending the night there, right? Just minding your own business, right? So it's still open for business. Um and you know, they were saying things like, Well, you should have searched the whole hotel for guns and you should have done it. First of all, have you ever heard of the Fourth Amendment? Number one. Number two, there's a thing called the Second Amendment. And even though DC has sec uh DC has some very strict gun laws, I can promise you right now, if I ever roll back into DC, I will have a gun with me. I'm not gonna broadcast it, it's gonna be in my suitcase or on my purse, and you're not gonna know it. But if if if the Secret Service were to go room to room searching people's rooms for guns, I mean that's that's a violation right there of your civil liberties. But that's that's that's for a topic for a different day. Um, but anyway, those guys are just kind of talking, not they're talking heads anyway. But um, yeah, so basically what happened was the guy came up to the checkpoint. So anytime POTUS or VPOTUS or whoever, any of these cabinet members go places, they they're you know, they're they're screened. They're they have magnetometers, they have x-ray machines to hold nine. And it's kind of like TSA at the airport, right? So there's a conveyor belt over there where you put your wallet or whatever, and then you walk through the mags. Well, the first video that I saw, and it wasn't the greatest video, it looked like he was kind of over there to the left putting his stuff, like maybe himself in his pockets or something, and he was gonna cooperate, and then he kind of bolted. But then I saw another angle, it looked like he came running from down the hall. So I'm really not sure what he was doing uh or how he got there. But where where I want to defend the service is is this. You know, they they had a tremendous failure in Butler, okay, which we've talked about at nauseam. I don't need but that that was a failure, okay. But this to me wasn't a failure because it'd be no different than Joe Schmoe walking up to, and I'm just gonna make up a I mean this is a real cross trim. I'm gonna tell you the post name and number, but so let's just say Joe Schmoe walks up to the corner of 15th and East Street where there's a uniform division post and he just pops a guy. Well, I mean, I mean, the White House has a perimeter, but the perimeter doesn't go all the way down to the to the mall. It doesn't go all the way to the Washington minimum. I mean, it can only take up so much real estate, right? So the same thing at a hotel, you can only you can only push out the perimeter so far. And Title 18, United States Code 3056 is the statute that gives Secret Service the authority to protect uh and create a buffer, a perimeter, uh basically a mobile perimeter, wherever POTUS is. And so that's what happens. They have a checkpoint, and that's where this knucklehead was at. Now, what I was told is he shot an officer. Now, I don't know if it was a uniform division officer, so for your audience to know, the Secret Service is broken down into agents and the uniform division guys. So the uniform division guys are tasked with a lot of things. One of their things they have to do is they have to set up the magnetometer checkpoint. And so there's always at least one agent, maybe two, depends on how many mags are out there. Uh and the agent for I I don't want to say supervising, but for lack of better terms, the agent sort of supervising whatever. Not really, but kinda. And so there's an agent posted out there with a uniform division guy. And so that's where the guy kind of bum rushed. And it did look to me, because I mean according to the reports I heard, a dude got shot. So I don't know if it was an agent or the uniformed division guy, doesn't matter because Secret Service employee. And thankfully he was wearing his vest. And then you could see looked to me like a couple agents were trying to break leather and come out, uh, maybe uniformed guy too, and then they kind of gave chase. And I know I'm preaching to the choir with you, uh, who's a you know another gun enthusiast. It's hard to hit a moving target. And so it's like this guy, this guy had some wheels, man, and he was rolling pretty good. And not only that, but we have no idea what was in the backdrop. You can't just, you know, you're accountable for every round that goes downrange. So I think the guys were trying to get on him. It certainly looked like they were trying to pop him. Uh, and then they gave Chase. Um, I'm a little unclear as to how they got him. Uh, I think I w I heard that he was somehow gotten to some room or something. Uh, and I don't know if they talked him out or whatever, but um, I think they actually did a good job. And here's the other thing that it's important. The magnetometers for this particular for this particular site, not always this way, but for this particular venue, um the magnetometers were on a completely different floor. So the the ballroom where they were was on a different floor. Now, I don't know if this guy came in on the ground floor and POTUS was on the second floor. At first I was told POTUS was up on the second floor, then I was told he was in the basement. Regardless, the event site itself was on a completely different floor. So that's a good thing. So it's I mean, you know, the media, you know how it is, they're gonna sensationalize everything and they w they they there has to be a villain. It can't it couldn't possibly be just that the bad guy's crazy or a lunatic or evil or whatever. It has to be there has to be a scapegoat. Um, and so to to break this down, you know, I think on the front end, unlike Butler, I think the guys they had a they had a perimeter set up, and you know, I think I think I think that was fine. I mean, you can't it's like I was uh a buddy of mine called me Saturday, a former uh Army Ranger, and kind of busting chops a little bit, which is which is what happens, it's fine. And he was like, What happened? This crap's gotta stop. I'm like, dude, this is no different than you being out at a fob in Afghanistan at the farthest checkpoint and some Yahoo walking up and popping. Yeah, you can't I mean, you're at the farthest checkpoint. I mean, that's what it is, dude. You know what I mean? So I mean there's a perimeter. You can't you you don't roll in there and just take over the whole country in one night. You you know, you you build it out and you and you and you take real estate as you go. So and then he sort of laughed and we cut up a little bit, but he it he was just having fun with me. But yeah, I try to I try to give him a real world, you know, analogy. Oh, I I think it worked. Um and again, it wouldn't be any different than you know, a guy walking up to the White House uh on the North Fence line and jumping the fence and doing it. I mean, the fence is there to some fences are there to keep people out, some fences are there to keep people in. You know, obviously I think that uh the fence at the White House um is a deterrent for honest people most of the time. Uh and then, you know, you got wacos that want 15 minutes of fame, or you got a real bad guy who wants to do something nefarious, and then uh, you know, then you go from there. So it's like, you know, you could take it a step further and say, well, what are we supposed to do? Are we should we should we build a moat? Should we go back into like Henry VIII days and put a moat around there with alligators in it? I I don't know. It's like it's never enough, you know what I'm saying? Yeah.

Layers Of Protection Inside The Ballroom

SPEAKER_01 16:44

Yeah. So I appreciate the way you walked through that because it seemed to me, um uh the little bit that I saw that you know that you're able to watch through these media outlets to I I what I initially thought was not that there was a breakdown. It what I thought was wait, the system worked. We got the guy. He he didn't he didn't I mean and it that makes sense what you're saying about a fob, like someone taking shots at a fob that's deep in the Tangy Valley or somewhere way up in Kandahar, and there those guys are having uh shots taken at them, but they're still taking it to the bad guys at the at the end of the night, that dude was rolled up. That makes sense. There were degrees of separation that he still couldn't get to POTUS. So it would stop before it got to that point. That makes sense. Um, yeah, I mean, I I was um when I watched that, I was with a couple of people. And when the I was with a couple of my security team guys, and this was cool because when the when you see those guys draw and the and the news person I was listening to or the commentators you know was was questioning why they didn't shoot. And the two guys with me were like, this guy's an idiot. What do you mean why did they not shoot? We don't even know what they're looking at. We don't know what uh know your target and what's beyond your target. There's a there's a dire time where you take a shot and that's an ideal situation. But you don't just pull your gun out and start shooting at a guy that's running through uh an occupied building. Um there's so much you can't see there. Uh but yeah, the bottom line is it worked. The system worked in the case. Can can you speak to it's okay if you if if you can't. I I knew that we would be very limited in what what you can speak to tactically or strategically. Um but it it like there there are layers to this, right? I mean he gets he gets he sprints by those guys that you know POTUS is not right there at the end of the hall and the next guy he comes to.

SPEAKER_02 18:52

Yeah. No, a hundred percent. And and again, not to be you know trying to sound like the cool guy or the cloak and dagger guy. I I just I can't talk about numbers. And and the bottom line is I don't know what the numbers were for that night because I wasn't there. But I will tell you there are there are uh without giving away tradecraft here, there are, let me just say, multiple layers. And we talked about this last time, you know, a year and a half, two years ago, when I was pissed off about Butler and uh, you know, um the the the surveillance uh apparatus wasn't there. Okay, well I promise you it was there now because he's hitting POTUS. I promise you. And you saw the tactical guys, the cat guys, um, and then they had local, you know, I don't know, like depending on where you go, like you normally are married up with uh whether it's the county or the city, wherever you are, you have their SWAT team, could be the state, state police sometimes, you know, in DC, you know, sometimes they have military assets. Um, you know, I I don't know if they had, you know, a tier two unit with them or not, but I wouldn't be surprised. I mean, I know we have tier one units on standby for the inauguration, different things like that, kind of more like a QRF, but you know, and and FBI, the HRT guys are super squared away. And so you you've got all kinds of assets in town. And um you have multiple layers. So you've got the Secret Service Uniform Division we talked about. You've got the agents, you've got the Capitol Police were there because they had protectees there, you had Metro DC Metro Police, right? You probably had some park police guys there, uh, you know, because they're protectees. And I mean you just had you had more guns in that room than you could check a stick at. And so, yeah, it you know, the dude got by the checkpoint, but he didn't get very far. And he's he didn't even get to the same floor, you know what I mean? And so, uh, you know, and the Secret Service has had some egg on its face in the past, you know. I'm not gonna say the guy's name because he's a friend of mine, and I know the guy who who handled business when, you know, spent several years ago. Now I'm thinking it was uh I think Obama was still in office when that when that guy, the military guy was experiencing some really bad PTSD and he jumped the fence and he and he actually got into the house, remember? And he was and he was kind of he was he was running like wobbly, his legs look wobbly. First of all, I as an older guy, I would I I could think I could have justified shooting him on the on the north ground. But you know, you had young young UD agents out there with not a lot of experience, and they just didn't feel like they could articulate that, so they didn't, and they got in the house. Well, to me, that's a failure, too. My buddy, uh, you know, who was in the house working, uh, the first lady, or the girls, I can't remember what the time, uh, the Obama family. Uh I've almost said his name three times. I'm trying to out of respect not to say uh because I interviewed him for my podcast and it was just a good interview, and he's like, he asked me not to post it. He got cold feet, so I didn't post his interview. It was an awesome interview. But anyway, it's a great dude. And um, and he went upstairs and tackled the guy on the state floor. And I had been on cat with him. I'm just a real solid dude. So uh you know, you you're gonna have your 10%, you're gonna have your failure. Years, you know. Unfortunately, that job is a zero-fail mission. So you can't you can't fail. The bad guys only got to get it right once. I mean, you gotta think how many days, well, there's 365 days a year. How many, how many, how many uh fights are there in a year? How many how many places does he travel in in a presidency in the in a term or two terms? I mean, it's fight after fight after motorcade after motorcade. It's it's incredible. And so these ding dongs get it right once or twice, which is by like don't don't get me wrong, it's it's too much. It should be zero. But like Butler was a black guy. Uh the guy getting in the White House, he ultimately got tackled by a stud, a friend of mine, um was a failure in in some ways. Um my buddy did a good job, but it shouldn't have gotten that. Well, but I think what happened this weekend is not a failure. I I I just don't think it was a failure. I think the system worked, um, which we can get into, you know, here in a second as far as we haven't even gotten into the ballroom yet. But as far as the perimeter goes, and another thing that's important for your audience to know, and mine as well, Secret Service agents or uniform division folks are not ticket takers. There's a list, right? There's a press list, there's a guest list, all these tickets uh ticketed events. You know, there's staff out there. Um, everybody with a lapel pen on and an earpiece isn't Secret Service. Everybody thinks they are. But a lot of these guys are staffers, right? And there are a lot of them are young and and they're in college or their daddies have money and they they got them a job. So they are the de facto ticket takers. They're kind of the they're the gatekeepers saying this guy should be in, this guy shouldn't be in, he doesn't have a ticket. Oh yeah, he can come in, he's on this list, even though he doesn't have a ticket. So Secret Service, the one thing that aggravates me with Secret Service Management is we're really good at taking a punch, man. We never we never deflect. Uh we always we always take we take the brunt of the fall. We never say the staff did this or the staff did that. And on on one hand, there's yeah, I think that is that's you know it's a good character trait to just kind of always eat eat it. You always eat crow. But at some point you gotta like call it call it for what it is. But I'm not saying that was the case in this particular situation, but I just want I want your audience to know because I've heard some of these, I guess more like I don't know if I want to say celebrities, but like these news out news media outlet people are well, no one well, dude. It's not our job to check your past three blocks down the street. That's somebody else's job. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_01 24:28

Oh yeah. Yeah, absolutely. That makes perfect sense.

SPEAKER_02 24:32

I've sort of rambled on sort of rambled on that one.

SPEAKER_01 24:34

That's all good. That's why I wanted to get you on here because I felt like that was I I've, you know, me and you sit around the fire and I've picked your brain and asked you questions about these things enough that I felt like that was going to be the answer, but I just want people to hear it because you got, you know, you got a bunch of jackwagons on the with the anybody now, man. Everybody's uh in a quote unquote independent uh journalist. Independent course because you know, you got a YouTube channel or you got a you can use your TikTok account or your your the same stuff we use, right? You can they get to use the the dumb dummies get to use, and some dummies man some dummies out there. And so I I just I I want folks to hear, no man, this it's actually worked. It worked, the system worked. And uh so once you get in, so once you get into the ballroom, then those are the guys I know you've got your counter assault guys, but then you've got guys there as well. Um and and that's just another layer of security, then, right?

When Leaders Must Be Moved Fast

SPEAKER_02 25:35

Yeah, so you're gonna have your protective intelligence folks in the room, they're all gonna be so you know, depending on the s scenario, you you're you're gonna dress for the occasion. So that was a black tie event. So everybody was dressed up. I mean, you know, if you're taking your protectee out to Aspen to go skiing, you're you're you're gonna be wearing jeans and a hoodie, right? You're not gonna be you're not gonna be wearing a suit. So you try to blend in. And and the same thing for nice events, um, if they're black tie. So there were, I would guess, I would guess, no I you know, based on my experience in the past, no one's told me this, but I would I would assume that there were uh agents scattered around that room, not just for POTUS, but for uh other, you know, just for intelligence purposes or CSUs like countersurveillance, you know what I mean, or poststanders. There's always poststanders in the room. Um so you got a you got layers, man. You got all kinds of agents everywhere. And then of course, you know, up on stage, you've got POTUS, which is you know, it's called PPD Presidential Protected Division. You got the VP, which is DPD, uh vice presidential protected division. So it probably looked a little chaotic because people run around like an anthill, but like the dudes that were assigned to JD were going to JD. The 47 guys were going to Trump, right? And uh the cat guys were coming out, you know, taking care of business for they're they're they were there for for Trump. Uh they could have possibly had a team there for VP, don't know about that. Didn't see them, but they they could have had a VP team there. Um and then of course all the cabin members are then you got the FBI guys going to get cash, and then you got you know the guys going to get Pete and different things. So every it's very choreographed. I mean it looks like it looks like pandemonium, uh, but every like these two guys are going to get him and these three guys are going to get her, you know, 120 or whatever it was. So I will say though, shout out to uh I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna say something I probably shouldn't say, but then I'm saying it out enough. So uh I was on PPD. I did two tours on PPD, uh one one as a worker B with W for almost six years and Obama for a short time, and then I got promoted to go back and I was with Trump. Um so it was kind of a running joke at the Secret Service, like you know, PPD guys, you know, they think they're the varsity team, and then we call the the VP guys the JP team. It's not really true. But we like it's just you know, it's just like that Ranger buddy of my calling calling me to bust me up, doesn't I? So it's just all the good fun. But in all seriousness, though, even though like we say, uh, you know, the VP guys are the JBers. Well, I will say, hat tip to those boys because they got JD off the stage really quickly. And I was like, let's go. Like, what was the PPD guys? Which I want to talk about briefly, and I don't want to belabor this too long because I I don't this is just an opinion, okay? I thought that the PPD guys were slow. I was I was like, are you serious right now? Like, get his grab him and get him off stage. You know, the cat guys were there, Johnny on the spot. Uh the one agent that got in front of him, I thought I mean that's what he was doing. He was a worker bee. The guy behind him is a supervisor. Uh I recognize his face, but I couldn't remember his name. I I'm sure I know him, but I can't remember who he is. Um, and I don't know this to be true, okay? But based on my experiences there, I spent nine years of my career at the White House. It's very political. Uh and you you're I'm not saying that you're not, I'm not saying that upper management doesn't support you, but if you're if you're 100% in the right, they're gonna pat you on the back and do a press conference with you for you. And they're oh Scott is amazing, blah blah blah. But if there's any kink in the armor, they're they're gonna leave you out of drive. You know what I mean? And so I just in my opinion, in my opinion, I feel like some of these, and and these guys are high like these are high-level supervisors. This isn't some young guy. I feel like they're afraid to do their job sometimes. And I hate to say that, and I don't know that that's true. You know, you you can go back, you can go to the old Google machine and and go to YouTube and pull up the the incident where the guy threw the shoes at at at 43 over in Iraq in 2008, and the detail leader was standing right there, and he's an awesome human. I'm not gonna say his name either, uh, because he's an awesome, awesome human being. And one of my best supervisors I ever had. I loved him so much. But like you can see W kind of pushing it, like, no, you're you're I mean, now you're like, you know, you remember the scene in 13 hours where where uh the was it uh one of the steel guys was like, now now you're in my world. So like the chief of station was like blow, you know, tell him to do all this crap, and now when the when the crap hits fan, um Ron or whatever it was was like no, no, you're in my world now. Now you're taking over to free. So that's that you have to have a strong personality in those roles. And a lot of times you have guys, I'm not gonna say that they're um they're obviously competent or they wouldn't be there, but you you have to have a guy who's just not like I don't give, I don't give a rip. This is what we're doing. I know you're the leader of the free world, but you're in my world now. You know what I mean? I don't know if that makes sense. And I feel bad saying that I'm gonna be very, very careful that that's my opinion. I don't know that to be true. And then so I said that to my buddy, Richie, who would call me Saturday or Sunday, and he was mad uh about all the crap that they were taking. And um and I said, I feel like the PPD guys were a little slow. And he said, Well, he said, I talked to a couple of them, and you know, they were, you know, Trump basically, you know, was like, No, let me see what's going on. So that but that's where I see that's where I still take a little bit of a different stance from him. Those guys grabbed JD and were manhandling him. You gotta grab POTU and say, Nope, we're out of here. I don't give a crap. Like you can fire me later.

SPEAKER_01 31:28

Yeah, that makes sense. That actually makes a lot of sense. That makes a lot of sense.

SPEAKER_02 31:32

I just think guys are scared to do their job, brother. If I if I'm being honest, they're just they're a little gun shy. Yeah, that's all it is. And it wasn't that long. I mean, it seems like a long time, you know, but it's like you can't uh no disrespect to the leader of the free world, but brother, we're out of here. You know what I mean? Just grab him and go.

SPEAKER_01 31:50

Yep, no cowboy time you ain't a cowboy right now. We're we're getting you out of here. That makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 31:55

Yeah, you know, that's just well again, my opinion. I don't know if I'm right.

SPEAKER_01 31:58

Hope I'm wrong, actually, but yeah, that that I think that man, that paints a really clear picture. I think for people listening to this, whether they're no sanity required listeners or they're beyond the service listeners, or both. We got a lot of that are both. Um I think that that's good. That's helpful. That's what I wanted to that's why I wanted to pick your brain. I th I I feel like it gives me a really good picture. And uh I'm I'm just glad I'm glad it worked. I'm glad it, you know, the the the unthinkable didn't happen. But man, they're gonna keep they're gonna people are gonna keep coming after this president, man. They hate him. It's crazy.

Spiritual Warfare And Gospel Urgency

SPEAKER_02 32:34

It's just so bad. You know, I thought once upon a time, uh I don't listen to him much anymore, but I used to listen to Michael Savage all the time. That dude made me laugh. He he's really smart too, by the way. But he he was hilarious. And uh old Jewish dude, I don't know if you've ever listened to him. He was called the Savage Nation. That that's oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And he was uh he's hilarious. I remember I love that guy. But um oh gosh, I lost my train of thought. Uh but he was uh, you know, he was just talking about uh all this stuff, and and uh, you know, I I don't know if he said this uh or not. Uh sorry, I lost my train of thought on on what that rascal used to say. But um I I believe, and I know I feel like you probably do too. Uh this spiritual warfare is not going anywhere anytime soon. I mean, the the rhetoric is completely out of control. I mean, it's it's got it's gotten to the point now where you've actually had a few Democrats this week come out and sort of, you know, say, God, this is too too far, you know. So that's good. I mean, that is a good takeaway.

SPEAKER_01 33:38

Yep. Yep. Man, what a crazy world. What a crazy time.

SPEAKER_02 33:44

Crazy, crazy time.

SPEAKER_01 33:45

Still good to be alive. And I know, I know uh there's no re-election for King Jesus. He's on the throne and he's ruling and reigning. And I don't know how it all works. I don't know exactly how it's gonna go down, but gosh, man, you gotta think we're getting close. I mean, I know every every generation has thought that. We're like, come on, let's just go. Let's go, let's go. I'm ready.

SPEAKER_02 34:06

I know, I know. I'm so thankful for his patience. You know, uh uh just in my own personal life, you know. Like, I just I'm obviously thankful for his grace more than anything. Um, I'm also pr patience is a close second for me. Like the fact that he's so patient with us is just is I'm it's humbling. And, you know, it's self-respect. I'm ready to go. Like, let's get up out of here. Uh but yeah, I I agree. Like, I I guarantee during World War II, people were like, oh, Hitler's the Antichrist of Stalin or whatever it was. I listen, I get it. You know, it's ever but every day we are a a day closer, but I I I just can't help but believe it. I mean, with all the things going on with Israel and you know, Russia, China, North Korea, you know, uh the Bible talks about Gog and Magog and all that stuff, and it's just like we gotta be close, dude. I I I definitely think we're close.

SPEAKER_01 34:57

Yeah, and I think uh I I appreciate you saying that about the patience of the Lord. You know, scripture says that the Lord is long-suffering, he's not willing for any to perish. And and that doesn't mean everybody's gonna miss, you know, gonna avoid hell. Like I think that when when Peter says that the Lord is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. That doesn't that doesn't mean there's two things that doesn't mean it doesn't mean everybody's gonna come to faith, and it doesn't mean that God is unable to do something that He's that He wants to do. It's like saying the Lord is not willing that a father beats his child or that uh someone commits sexual abuse. That's not God's will, but but it's that that person's will and in their stand they've they've made a choice. And I think uh when you talk about the patience of the Lord and the fact that he's long-suffering, I I was talking to one of our missionaries, one of our uh international guys the other day who served in in Togo, which is in West Africa. I've been there, and I don't know if you did you ever travel to Togo during a service? Probably not.

SPEAKER_02 36:01

No, I've been to Sierra, I've been to Sierra Lee, I've been all I've been all over Africa, but not Togo.

SPEAKER_01 36:05

I'm in like the 208th smallest, poorest country out of, you know. It's just so this guy was telling us the other the other night we're talking in the a couple weeks ago, a voodoo chief. This could be the equivalent of a Muslim imam at at a mosque. A voodoo chief uh came to faith in Jesus, professed faith in Jesus and you know and accepted the gospel message. And I think okay, every day that the Lord doesn't return with the old people, the old people would you know, quote the King James Version of the Bible and say that every day that he tarries, every day the Lord waits and and and doesn't end it off, it's another day that people are coming to fight in Jesus. You know, the the one thing we know to be true is that the 20th century persecution of the church was greater than all other centuries combined. And now we are in the 21st century and it seems to be continuing to identify. But the thing that's fascinating about this is the greatest number of like when you numerically the movement of the gospel in places like China all over the African continent, much of South America, we don't see this much here because we're a lot like the church at Laodicea who had no need, and we don't need anything. They aren't comfortable with everything. But when you go to the places where the church is being squeezed and persecuted after the exact evangelistic explosion, and people are coming to faith in Jesus. So I'm good with the Lord Terry. The longer he waits, the more people I know he's gonna say the gospel is swooping the earth, and then people are coming to faith in Jesus. But likewise, I think persecution is intensifying. And so I don't know when he's gonna come back, but I know that every day he's not back is another day we got work to do to to to proclaim the the truth of the gospel, and so keep our hand wrong. Keep our hand to the plow and um and proclaim it, you know.

Snowbird Updates And Closing Requests

SPEAKER_02 37:59

Yeah, no, 100%, dude. And uh, you know, it's funny, uh, this is off the subject just a little bit, but it's in the same vein. So uh we had uh church meeting last night and uh walking out to the car, I told Elizabeth, I said, 'Cause they were talking about FTA weekend and SWO weekend down here this weekend, and then of course, uh our our church comes to your camp first week of the first week of the summer every year. And I told her, I said, you know what? I am going to starting next year, I'm going to I'm going to spend a week of vacation going to Snowbird with with the youth. I don't have my kids are grown, you know that. But I just I I love it up there so much, and you guys are doing the Lord's work so much, and he's had his hand on your ministry for so long, and it's just so impressive um the obedience that you guys have and the the steadfastness and his and his just his his uh his oh gosh, what's the word I'm looking for? He he's just his his grace that he's just him his hand is on your ministry, dude, and and it's on my church too. My my preacher preaches the gospel. I I I I joke with him all the time. Uh Pastor Snow's a little bit older, he's in his 60s, and I'm like, you know, we we come here because you preach the gospel unapologetically. I'm not trying to have no stinking TED talk, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 39:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:14

Or some prosperity bull crap. And so, you know, he kind of laughs, and he's a good old Tennessee boy, he's an East Tennessee boy, so he's basically one of us, you know, and he's just he's awesome, dude. And and and an associate pastor Josh is great, and then Jamie. So I told Elizabeth, I said, you know what, I'm gonna start going to Snowbird. I'm tired of messing around. I'm tired of you know, my job my job has just always sort of dictated my life, you know, and I'm kind of done with that mess. So anyway, you're gonna have to put up with me starting next year.

SPEAKER_01 39:40

Oh man, that we that would be so cool. It's a standing invitation, man. We'll we'll we will take you just plan on it and we will take care of it on our end and make sure that uh we get you here. That would be so cool, man. I would love that. And for and people that listen to beyond the service that that don't know who we are. Um Yeah, we just had our spring men's conference, and we had there were there were over 700 dudes in the room for that weekend event. And we do that a couple times a year. Last week was our women's conference, same deal. It was women at that event. We do marriage conferences, and so I don't know. Um, you you and Elizabeth came to a marriage conference one year. That was so fun, man. It was just cool having y'all at the time.

SPEAKER_02 40:21

You know what's funny because I had retired, spent 25 years of service. I retired October 22, 2022. She said, What do you want to do to celebrate your we made it? I'm like, we're going to doggone marriage retreat because we never could go.

SPEAKER_03 40:34

And so cool.

SPEAKER_02 40:36

The first thing we did was we took off to Andrews, baby.

SPEAKER_01 40:39

That's so cool. That's so good. Yeah, man, next next summer we'll plan on that. We'll plan on it. That'll be cool.

SPEAKER_02 40:46

Yeah, be good stuff. Well, uh love you guys, of course. I think you know you know that. And uh tell everybody we said hello.

SPEAKER_01 40:53

Um we'll do it. You you do the same. Appreciate you, man.

SPEAKER_02 40:57

Thank you, Brody.

SPEAKER_01 40:58

All right, see you. See you, dude. All right, that that that'll wrap it up, and uh, I hope you got something out of that. And it kind of, you know, for me it it painted a good picture. I kind of felt like the that when the dude goes running by the checkpoint, I thought, oh, this this is working. They caught him, you know. He didn't I didn't realize that it was two different floors and that the event was on a different floor. But I did when people were like, why didn't this guy shoot? And I was talking to some of our security guys and we were talking about it, and it's like, well, a guy's running down a hall with a bunch of people, you you can't just start cracking off around. Um so man, what a hairy situation, though. If the guy's armed and he's running through a crowd of people, you know the president's in proximity, but also there's others there. It can turn into my thought was man, it could turn into an active shooter situation. Thank God it didn't. And that they got the bad guy and nobody died. And I'm thankful for that. But uh enjoyed that. I enjoyed listening to what Scott had to say. Old Moot loved that dude. I'd go to war with that guy. I can tell you that much, him and my other cousin and the guys we had on Paco and Duke, my brother and cut uh one of the other cousins. And man, I'd go to war with them boys. Um I'd I'd I'd feel confident in my team. If I had a group of snowbird dudes and in my family, um, I'd fight pretty much any bad guys we need to fight. It's a good feeling to be part of that kind of brotherhood. I definitely would get Kyle and Ben down here. Uh our our instructors, the guys that do our training. Excited for y'all to hear from Kyle. I know I keep bringing that up. So that's gonna be fun. That's coming up here in a few weeks. And pray for us as we're ramping up for our staff training to start and 1226 right around the corner. Lots more content coming at you. We've got a bunch of stuff already recorded in the dock, including um we are uh as I'm recording this, we're setting up to interview the the former sheriff of Cherokee County. If you go back a year, last year we did an episode where we walked through the Eric Rudolph manhunt story. That was about a year ago. We'll link that in that episode. But we're gonna do a follow-up episode. We're gonna interview the sheriff who was in office when Rudolph was called in 2003. And he's a longtime personal friend of mine. I love him and his family, and I'm excited for for that interview. That'll be coming soon. Um lots of good stuff. And just glad you're along for the ride. Uh, we'll talk to you soon.

SPEAKER_00 43:34

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