← Independent Americans with Paul Rieckhoff
Independent Americans with Paul Rieckhoff
White House Correspondents Dinner Shooting Fallout. Nobody Believes Anything Anymore.
00:29:29
A 31-year-old with a shotgun, a pistol, and a stack of knives tried to assassinate Trump at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. A Secret Service agent took a round to the vest. Wolf Blitzer lost a shoe. And UFC's Dana White called it "awesome." Paul Rieckhoff — combat veteran, IAVA founder, 9/11 first responder and past attendee of the event — flies solo on this Manosphere Monday to put the attack in context: this is our normal now, and the president most responsible for the atmosphere is the same one weaponizing it against the press. And, he takes you inside what the event (and the security) are really like.
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- [00:00]
Paul Rykoff
This level of violence, and especially political violence, is not something we can wish away or pray away or social media post away. It's deep, it's widespread, it's constant, and it's growing. And the whole world, especially outside of America, can see it. And until and unless America has a president and a Congress that can unite and develop a comprehensive national strategy to change it, we need at least a national strategy with increased resources to protect against it. Welcome to independent Americans, everybody. Welcome to episode 505. I'm your host, Paul Reikoff. It is Monday, April 27th. Monday is back. And like every Monday on this show, it is Manosphere Monday, Manosphere Monday. And I'm coming to you from New York City, usa, where the weather is nice. Very, very nice. And therefore, today's artist is nice and Smooth. Nice and Smooth, the iconic east coast hip hop duo from here in New York City that was made up of Gregory O, otherwise known as Greg Nice, and Daryl O, known as Smooth B. Smooth B Barnes, of course. The duo released a ton of albums between 89 and 97, which I think is maybe the classic time of hip hop, especially the great New York hip hop. They had songs like Sometimes I Rhyme Slowly, Hip Hop Junkies, Funky for you. Dwick, of course, with Gangstar, no Delaying and Cake and Eat It Too. One of my favorite hip hop songs of all time, of course, is Dwick by Gangstar and Nice and smooth from 1994 where he said smooth. I dropped jewels like paraphernalia. I'm infallible, not into failure like a rhinoceros. My speed is prosperous and pure Knowledge expands from my esophagus. I'm going to try to expand the knowledge for my esophagus today in a solo show as I bring you the five eyes. I bring you in every single pod, whether you're listening or watching on YouTube. They are integrity, information, inspiration and impact. Did I miss one? I don't know. Independence, integrity, information, inspiration and impact. It's Monday. Sometimes I miss them. All right, no, guess, just me. Let's try to go into this Monday and take it nice and smooth and stay vigilant. All right, folks, I think we need to discuss a top topic that kind of sits over everything that was suggested by our fearless creative director, producer, genius man who makes shit happen behind the show, Chris Rosenthal. Here's my top topic for today. Trump has made normal, non crazy people into conspiracy theorists, and it's breaking everything. I think this is really, really important. We're going to get to the White House correspondent's dinner, we're going to get to Iran. But nobody believes anything that Trump says. And now people are starting to not believe anything. Like his overall atmosphere of truth bashing, conspiracy pushing, madness, chaos, mayhem. It's making everybody a little bit crazy, and it's making everybody doubt the news. It's making everybody doubt assassination attempts. It's making everybody doubt the truth, which might be the bigger story. Beyond the White House Correspondents Dinner, Trump is created a command culture of crazy, of dismay, of anxiety. I think that's bad for our national security, it's bad for our democracy, it's bad. And it's increasingly bad for our collective national mental health. And it's another thing to think about as we go into a week which will be full of surprises and diversions and politics and extremism and who knows what else. But it's another reason to stay vigilant. All right, beneath that top topic, of course, we got to talk about the White House Correspondents Dinner. I touched on it a little bit this morning in the media blitz episode that I sent you. But if you haven't heard, I've been to the White House Correspondents Dinner before. It is a very weird event where people act like they're just at some gigantic rich person's nerd prom. But you've got heads of state, you've got media titans, you've got celebrities all mushed into one room. Now folks are finding out a lot more about the White House Correspondent's Dinner than they ever have before to include the security. I will tell you, as someone who's been before, I was struck by what I thought at the time was kind of, I won't say poorest security, but different security. And here's the key part. When you go into the Hilton, when you go into the hotel, all the hotel guests are kind of hanging around outside. Sometimes there's lots of people outside. You have to walk through that crowd. There's paparazzi, but they don't actually close the hotel, which means for a lot of people who are there for, I don't know, a class trip or a conference, they kind of hang out and watch. Which, the first time I went, kind of struck me as a potential security risk. But again, I want to reiterate, huge props to our Secret Service, huge props to law enforcement who kept everybody safe and who always keep everyone safe for the most part when these things are going on, which are incredibly complex, incredibly stressful, and we never know how many threats we don't know about. But here's what we do know the defendant in the press gal at Tech has now been charged with trying to assassinate Trump. The defendant is 31 year old Cole Thomas Allen. He faces two counts of federal gun crimes and one of trying to assassinate President Trump. We'll find out a lot more about him in the days to come. I'm sure. It looks like he displayed photos of the weapons. Sorry, The Justice Department displayed photos of the weapons in a press conference taken from him, including a black pump action shotgun and a.38 caliber pistol and a number of knives. He just bum rushed the metal detector and the agents responded. We know now that one Secret Service agent was shot in the protective vest and returned, then turned and fired multiple rounds at the suspect but did not hit him. He fell to the ground, suffered minor injuries, but was not shot. So it sounds like the Secret Service agent got shot by another member of law enforcement or another secret service agent. And as someone myself who's been in military police units, who's been trained as a military police officer, as someone myself who's done crowd control, who's run checkpoints, who's been in combat, I know that a lack of fire discipline might be the most dangerous thing in this situation. Oftentimes cops unload their rounds and end up shooting each other. So you could have imagined a much more severe, dangerous situation where bystanders like Wolf Blitzer, who was apparently right there and lost his shoe, could have been caught in the crossfire. But in the end, the subject was taken down, the subject has been arrested and now the world continues to understand and try to unpack the what happened. Let me just say again, incredible respect for Secret Service DC and law enforcement, especially after this. And I want to reiterate something I said a bit this morning. This is our new normal now, America, not just our new normal, this is our normal. Our demented and dangerous normal. Violence is everywhere. And it's like a post 911 reality that some still refuse to accept. But this level of violence, and especially political violence, it's not something we can wish away or pray away or social media post away. It's deep, it's widespread, it's constant and it's growing. And the whole world, especially outside of America, can see it. And until and unless America has a president and a Congress that can unite and develop a comprehensive national strategy to change it, we need at least a national strategy with increased resources to protect against it for all leaders and everyone around them from both parties. And it must be a top national security priority. Tackling this, facing this, neutralizing this is Much more important for our national security than Venezuela, Iran, Cuba, or anything else. Imagine if he had gotten inside. Imagine if he had taken out the president or the vice president or multiple members of the Cabinet. Then it would be the thing we're focusing on. But too often, these shooting incidents, especially ones involving kids, are just brushed aside or politicized, and the same will likely be true now. Trump will do something crazy, something will blow up in the world, and for the most part, people will move on. But maybe we can use this as a clarion call to remind, especially everybody in that room, that kids are often facing much less security, much weaker defenses, and they're much more vulnerable. That feeling of fear that those people had in the room, many of whom have been in combat situations, some of whom were veterans themselves, many of them felt helpless. Many of them felt scared. Some of them felt cool. Some of them met the moment. But our children should never have to face a situation like that. And while I'm pretty sure the White House correspondence, security is going to be changed in the days to come, our children, especially in this country facing gun violence, face the same threats. Maybe one day we can just get past the prayers and thoughts and posts and actually come up with what we need, which is a strategy. A strategy to protect our kids and our strategy to protect our elected leaders, and especially this president, who is more responsible for the atmosphere than everybody else. I am not going to both sides this shit. The Democrats do not have the podium that he does. They do not attack their political enemies like he does. They're not saying nasty shit. I like he does. They did not start an insurrection and try to overthrow the government like he did, but he is uniquely responsible. But we can all respond. And until we do, we're all less safe. And until we. Until we do, our enemies are celebrated.
- [10:13]
Chris Rosenthal
Our enemies are celebrating.
- [10:29]
Paul Rykoff
All right, one thing I just got to pull out. Some of the reactions were just surreal. A lot of reporters taking pictures of themselves instead of what's happening. And Dana White, UFC president, had a very unique reaction. Dana White thought it was awesome. Play this one, Chris. It started getting noisy, tables getting flipped over, guys running in with guns, and they were screaming, get down. I didn't get down. It was fucking awesome. I literally took every minute of it in, and it was a pretty crazy, unique experience. So you were on the aisle.
- [11:01]
Guest or Interviewer
What exactly did you see?
- [11:02]
Paul Rykoff
We were sitting right in front of the tape. I just want to say, what a jackass. Like so many of them. There's the macho stuff. This was awesome. That's not awesome, dude. That's not awesome. And frankly, UFC fight on the grounds of the White House is not awesome either. This is the kind of bullshit that we need to get rid of and a great example of why I call our Monday episodes Manosphere Monday. We want to push back on this kind of a manosphere attitude. The only thing awesome was the response. The only thing awesome is that nobody got killed. But sitting in that room and experiencing it for the first time, it's not a ride at Disneyland, man. This is our unfortunate reality. And there's another reason we all need to stay vigilant. All right, let's of course, stay vigilant when it comes to Iran. Peace talks are off. That happened before this happened. Make no mistake, Trump will manipulate this episode into Lord knows what. And we need to remain vigilant and also continue to call him out on his attacks on the Free Press. More on that in a second. But let's talk about the fact that he either didn't make happen or blew up potential negotiations that were supposed to happen in Iran. And this was his rationale. Play this clip, please, Chris.
- [12:10]
Guest or Interviewer
I think the prime minister of Pakistan's great and, you know, they'd like to see something happen. But we're not going to be traveling 15, 16 hours to have a meeting with people that nobody ever heard of.
- [12:23]
Paul Rykoff
What changed to make you make that decision?
- [12:25]
Guest or Interviewer
Too much travel. When they say the meeting schedule for Tuesday, I said Tuesday. That's a long time from now. But when you get right down to it, it's a lot of traveling. No, we don't want to do that.
- [12:34]
Paul Rykoff
At what point do you send Wyckoff and Kushner and send Vice President Vanc? What point are you going to be ready?
- [12:39]
Guest or Interviewer
They're all very competent. All three. Those are three good. But they weren't meeting with the leader of the country. They were meeting with other people. And I said we're just not going to do it. Too much traveling takes too long, too expensive. I'm a very cost conscious person.
- [12:56]
Paul Rykoff
He says they're not going to be traveling 15 hours. Too much travel takes too long, too expensive. He's a very cost conscious person. He says this after spending a billion dollars a day to bomb Iran. This is another example of why nobody believes anything he says. And less and less people believe what we say here in America. So supposedly he's going to come up with a new Iranian proposal that might reopen the Strait of Hormuz. He will keep himself in the spotlight. The trip was canceled. Meanwhile, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Arakachi traveled to Russia to meet with President Vladimir Putin, following meetings in Pakistan and Oman. So the bad guys continue to get better. He and Putin are discussing the war in detail, which is bad news for us and bad news for Republicans, especially running for reelection. Oil is now at a three week high. Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, is well above 100 bucks a gallon. Fertilizer is expensive. Diesel is expensive. Food is getting expensive. Everything is getting expensive. And Trump says not to worry about it. He told you it was going to go down. It's not going down. And it's another reason why nobody believes anything he says. Don't let him make you crazy. And remember, our enemies are celebrating.
- [14:12]
Chris Rosenthal
Our enemies are celebrating.
- [14:23]
Paul Rykoff
And our allies are worried. And they're calling it like it is, including French President Emmanuel Macron, who's saying what needs to be said out loud. More and more, the Europeans are speaking out and hoping that more of us in America will do the same. But he had a statement that should be recognized and we need to focus on. Play that one, please, Chris. First, we should not underestimate that this is a unique moment where a US President, a Russian president, a Chinese president are dead against the Europeans. So this is the right moment for us. Wake up, he says. So we should not underestimate. This is a unique moment where a US President, a Russian president and a Chinese president are dead against the Europeans. So this is the right moment for us. Wake up. I mean, this is the axis of evil. It's being positioned that way and it looks that way, and we are on the wrong side because people don't trust President Trump and they don't trust Vance, and they shouldn't. So remember, he does not speak for most Americans, especially on issues of Ukraine and issues of war and peace. And we must continue to speak out and offer an alternative narrative from this country. The Europeans see it and Americans are finally catching on more and more by the day. I've long said the American public is not stupid. They're not stupid, but they're slow. And they're finally catching up on this one. They're recognizing that Trump has been pushing bullshit on forever wars and, and creating peace and being the peace president and no regime change. And there's new polling that says that his disapproval rate has climbed to the highest level of his second term at 58% and only 39% approve. And that is about what it should be, if not higher. Americans are finally understanding that he cannot be believed and he should be held accountable, especially on issues of national security. And GOP senators appear to be waking up, too, especially on the issue of Hegseth. The Hill is reporting the GOP senators are losing confidence in Hegseth amid the Pentagon turmoil. Really? The Hill says a growing number of Republicans are losing confidence and some would like to see him move on, although they say it's Trump's call. Republicans spoke on condition of anonymity and say Hegseth wouldn't be confirmed the heading up Pentagon if he was renominated by Trump today. Oh, you think? Is that the bar? And they say the turmoil is a major concern. Yeah, it's been a major concern. One senator said off the record, the hollowing out of incredible leadership at the Pentagon has been a big concern. It really came to a tipping point when General George was dismissed. Well, more of them need to speak out publicly, say it candidly, and get rid of Hegseth. The sooner we get rid of him, the sooner we'll be safer. Hegseth's feud with Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is another source of. Of irritation. A lot of people hold Driscoll in high regard. He's also an aide to Vice President Vance, and they're close. So watch this space and be sure to keep an eye out on what's happening around our national security because Trump is all gas and no brakes and nothing is slowing him down. So stay vigilant. All right? And he's still waging war. Not against Putin, not even effectively against the Iranians, not against poverty, not against oil prices, but against the press. And he's going to use the press corps dinner incident to try to ratchet that up. Make no mistake, he's going to use it as a cover. And he's coming after Jimmy Kimmel. Yes, the President and the first lady are now coming after Jimmy Kimmel after a widow joke. That was two days before. The correspondence dinner had nothing to do with the correspondents dinner. Kimmel has been a longtime critic of Trump and New York Times is reporting that he had imagined himself as the mc a dinner. And he said, of course our first lady Melania is is here. Then he pretended to address her, calling her beautiful, saying, Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow. And he makes cracks about Trump's age and health. This was before the gunman, before the incident. But now Trump and Melania are calling for Jimmy Kimmel to be canceled. They're calling his joke really shocking and something beyond the pale, the pearl clutching and the victimization of. Of himself to try to attack another member of the media. After they've taken down CBS and taken down PBS and taken down NPR and taken down Stephen Colbert. Now they're coming after Jimmy Kimmel. Oh, and don't forget the Stars and Stripes, which also had its ombudsman fired last week, who I invite to join on this show. But the war on the press is continuing and it's another reason to stay vigilant. All right, There's a lot happening all across the world. We will continue to cover it this week and bring you guests who can meet the moment. Check out our recent conversations with Admiral James Stravides when I talk to Nolan Peterson about drones. We'll bring other folks coming up. And a lot more as I continue to focus on national security, especially as one of the few veterans with a national podcast. I'm going to try to keep a focus on those issues because I think they're more important than everything else. But there's some stuff in politics, too. Queen, Queen Camilla and King Charles are here for a four day visit. They're going to attend a garden party at the White House, which will, I'm sure, do tons to make Trump look more in touch with your gas prices. And the GOP is bracing for what they're calling a nightmare week as pressure mounts to end the DHS funding standoff, which is still ongoing. Let me give you some good news in politics, and of course it comes from independence. I talked about it on Morning Joe. I'm going to talk about it everywhere I can. But we are the people's champions. Independents are going to be the majority soon. And we're not just moving the needle. We are the needle. And there are lots of candidates out there fighting like hell, independent candidates who have to just get on the ballot. And one of them has succeeded. Veteran Brian Bangs, who's running in South Dakota for Senate, is on the ballot. He had made an announcement today saying that he has officially secured a place on the ballot. Major milestone for his grassroots campaign that has no big money, no billionaires, no PACs. The campaign got 4,500 signatures with a 93.8% validation rate, the highest of any statewide candidate in this cycle. He continues to get great support from across the political aisles and especially from independents, his spokesperson said. This achievement is a testament to the strength of this movement. People in South Dakota are stepping up to demand accountability, transparency, transparency and leadership that puts them first, they said. This milestone is just the beginning. We're committed to carrying that energy all the way through Election Day. Brian Bangs will join me on this show again soon. But I want to send a shout out to him, to Seth Bodnar, Ty Pinkins, Todd Achilles. Everybody else who's running for office is big and small. I'm going to continue to try to bring them to you. Independent Veterans of America continues to recruit them. So if you're one of them or you want to be one of them, look for the link in my show notes. Keep after it, folks. And let's all stay vigilant.
- [21:13]
Chris Rosenthal
Stay vigilant. Vigilant. Vigilant. Vigilant.
- [21:18]
Paul Rykoff
Stay vigilant. All right, finally in sports, big week for us in Little League and in flag football. I'm exhausted. My Mondays are like total exhaustion days. But it was really fun. Weather here is good. Big shout out again to all the coaches, umpires, referees. You guys deal with so much shit. And a special note to the parents, stay on the sidelines. And please respect the referees. And remember, you're an example for our kids. We had an incident at a flag football game where some parents came on the field, were screaming at our kids and even at one point screamed at my little guy, hey, kid, you're going to drop it. He didn't drop it. He scored the game winning touchdown. And he learned how to shut up. People. In a crowd that are out of control, you do it with your game. But at the same time, we all got to check ourselves. The emotions are high around politics. Let's not take it onto the little league field or the soccer pitch or wherever your kids are. Right? Let's all work as much as we can to set the right example. All right? And in basketball, it was an amazing weekend of basketball. The Magic beat the Pistons on Saturday. Thunder beat the Suns. Knicks finally pulled it out. Looked like the team they can be. Let's hope cat can put it together. Timberwolves beat the Nuggets, but they lost Dante DiVincenzo to an ACL injury. A huge loss there. Ant man's got a knee injury. We'll see how that goes. And then Sunday, the Raptors beat the Cavs. Spurs Victor Webeyama is back from the head injury, looking like a number one seed. They beat the Blazers. Celtics beat the 76ers take a 31 lead and Rockets beat the Lakers. That game is now 3:1. Tonight we got some more good ones. Pistons and the Magic. Orlando leads that series 2 to 1. Thunder and the Suns. OKC has got a chance to clean the clock with that one and sweep. And I still think the best series, Timberwolves versus Nuggets. We'll see if Jokic can rally and bring them back. NHL has also been great. Baseball has also been great. And the Savannah bananas, we're here in New York. I missed it. But sports is always fun and it's a good reason to bring us together, especially as we go into the spring on a new week. And finally, I got something for you. I got something good.
- [23:19]
Chris Rosenthal
Something good. Something sweet. Feel the fire.
- [23:24]
Paul Rykoff
All right. Today is day 1516 of Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine. And there are stories of inspiration that I am going to continue to highlight. And I'm going to play this video and you can watch it hopefully on YouTube and maybe here some highlights if you're listening on Apple podcasts or wherever you, wherever you are. But I want to tell you what this, what is what this is all about. A ground Robot evacuated a 77 year old Ukrainian lady from Lima. Her home of 53 years was destroyed by the Russians. She's walking along a shelled road when pilots from the 70 sorry, 60th separate mechanized brigade spotted her and they sent a ground robot to rescue her. And on the top they had a blanket that said grandma, get in. Three other civilians who were walking were escorted by drone to the evacuation point where an armored vehicle took them to safety. This entire operation lasted four hours, but the Ukrainian soldiers sent robots in to save a grandma. They are continuing to stand up for freedom. They are continuing to fight to save civilians. They are protecting their cities. And to start a Monday off, they're saving grandmas with robots. That's the kind of inspiration we're going to need. We're going to need something nice and smooth and inspiring and motivating and that's a good example. And it's something good. All right. It has been a big show already, a lot to cover on a Monday. We're going to continue to bring it all week long. I'll continue to be On News Nation, Ms. Now, CNN, wherever else. Continue to give me your feedback, please, and help us all stay vigilant. All right. As I mentioned, we got a big week coming up on Friday. Want to point your attention to something? Eugene Merman is coming. My old friend Eugene Mirman, the great comedian. You know him from Bob's Burgers, from Flight of the Concords. He was also in a really rough car accident recently and he's going to talk to us about surviving that, how he's bouncing back. His new project's coming up. So if you're a fan of Eugene Mirman, you're going to want to tune in. If you're not you will be by the end. We'll also have other guests from news media politics coming up. Henry Rollins will be coming back soon. Jesse Ventura will be coming back soon. Lots of other folks from the left, the right, and especially the middle because we're daily now and we hit number 15 on the charts. If you didn't hear it, please follow and subscribe wherever you are. Get the merch. I have our new Independent Americans cup. Check this out. These are really cool. They're on our webpage. Independent Americans US. They're also on our YouTube page. They hold a lot of water or whatever else you need to drink in times like this. You can join our Patreon community, send us a couple bucks to keep fuel and independent media to challenge the corporate and partisan media. And if you go to our YouTube page, we are now posting the songs, the brilliant songs created by creative Chris Rosenthal that so many of you have asked me about. If you go to our YouTube page today, you will hear the ICE GTFO song that we dropped last week. It's really cool. We'll get something good up there. We'll get the independent anthem, all our songs, and you can spread the goodness of our music that is unique to this show and I think a really fun part of what makes us different. We are trying to battle all the corporate nonsense and all the heat and bring light to contrast and America's divided. We're working here to change that. And this week we're gonna do it again. Adding light to contrast to heat. If you're now among the almost 50% of independents out there who are a part of this country, who are almost half of the country, this is your show. It's another week to declare your independence. If you're a Republican or a Democrat and you finally had enough, how about declaring your independence this week and shout me out. Let me know. Hit me up on social media or send me a note and tell me your story of declaring your independence. I want to celebrate people's declarations of independence, especially as we get to our own country's Independence Day, which is also our birthday on July 4th. We're going to build up toward that in the weeks to come because our independent movement is hope for the future. Country over party, people over politics, light over heat. You know the deal. Challenging the status quo and fueling a new movement spanning all across our society. And that movement is growing and bringing the hope that is the oxygen of our democracy. Hope like nice and smooth hope like the Ukrainian grandmas. Hope like so many of you out there who continue to push forward and do the right thing because our hope is the oxygen of our democracy. If you enjoyed the show, please do me a solid, share it far and wide and invite other people to declare their independence. 10,000 people are leaving the Democratic and Republican parties every day. They're leaving the corporate partisan media and they are finding us. So get on board and stay vigilant, my friends, because eternal vigilance is the price of freedom. And now you're not alone in your vigilance. We're all vigilant and we're all in this together, especially in what will surely be another crazy week. Do not let him make you crazy. Do not let all this make you crazy. Stay vigilant. Stay cool. I'm your host Paul Rykoff. Thank you for tuning in to Independent Americans on this Manosphere Monday. I will see you tomorrow or you will hear me tomorrow. Check us out on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts everywhere else. We'll be back with a new episode tomorrow. Until then, Happy Monday and stay vigilant, America. And go get one of these cool cups.
- [28:52]
Chris Rosenthal
Stay Vigilant tells me the left and right are dreams for those without a clue and when you wait it's time
- [29:01]
Paul Rykoff
to grow and it's not cool to
- [29:04]
Chris Rosenthal
believe in school but if I can say one thing I've seen the children of the revolution and the good trouble they can bring he says the red and blue are dead and independent is an attitude an island in the sea of rhetoric and I can probably go he tells me the left and right Our dreams for those without a clue and when you wait, it's time to
- [29:24]
Paul Rykoff
grow Power by Righteous Media. If you like the show, please take a moment to rate, review and subscribe. It really does help the show to grow. Thank you for listening.