Mikie Sherrill and Michael Fanone: Full-Time Criming and Corruption

Little everyday frustrations adding up. Elite checking from NASA Federal can help. Get your paycheck up to two days early. Enjoy cell phone protection, roadside assistance, and identity theft aid for peace of mind. Even earn dividends on your balance. If your checking account isn't working hard for you, switch to elite checking from NASAFederal at NASAFCU.com slash elite. NASA Federal Credit Union. Smart. NASA Smart. Federally insured by NCUA. A snarl in the woods. Ancient forest spirits nip at his heels. He can outrun a force of nature on foot. He needs an instant power machine built for the wild. The only escape is in. The Toyota BZ Woodland, off-road handling, all-electric power. Leave evil in the dust. John Cho stars in camping. Face to Wild, test drive Toyota's new all-electric family at your local dealer. Toyota, let's go places.

Hello and watching. Welcome to the Bullwark podcast. I'm your host, Tim Miller. We got so much out there for you today. We got a Mike and Mikey doubleheader, which I'm going to talk to you about in a second. But because of all the news, you should go and check out the Bullwark takes feed as well. I interviewed Julie K. Brown, the best journalist on the Epstein case about what she's seeing out there, particularly with Maxwell. Sarah Longwell is out with Rapid Response video about the emails around Epstein. We have the next level today. I interviewed Dave Wasserman about redistricting. we have an unending sea of content for you and news. So please make sure to check all that out. And segment two of this show, I've got my friend Michael Fanon on the pod, and we'll talk a little bit about Epstein and plus a bunch of other law enforcement news. But first up, I am delighted to welcome the big winner of last week's off-year elections. She is a four-term congresswoman and former Navy helicopter pilot. And now... We get to call our governor-elect of New Jersey. It's Mikie Sherrill. How are you doing? I'm good. Thanks so much for having me. Governor-elect? How's that sounding? Are you used to the ring yet? No. Are you making your children call you governor yet? This is too much information, but when my dadders keeps going, hello, governor, which is really annoying, joke after a while. Good for her. Yeah. All right, governor. Well, we're going to do some podcaster accountability here. You know, over the course of the campaign, I was expressing many of, like many people out there, like we're just so pissed about the state of affairs and the state of things. And like I had these emotional needs that I didn't feel like you were always fulfilling, which is maybe not the job that you were going for there as running for governor of New Jersey. And I was like, I want the Normie Democrats to punch him in the face. I want him to fight harder. And, you know, there was a lot of punditry out there about how people were nervous about your campaign. Turns out you won by 14 points. I don't even think the biggest Mikie Sherrill stands expected a 14 point win. How do you explain the disconnect between the chattering class and what actually happened? So I think. People weigh the crisis in different ways. And there are a lot of people here in New Jersey that are weighing costs as the crisis that they're facing. So it's really hard when you can't pay for your prescription drugs and your groceries or you're looking at being kicked out of your house. That is the central existential crisis for many people here. So while many of us are really concerned about our democracy, I've served almost my entire life. I know what it means to live in places where you don't have freedom of speech, where you can be disappeared in the middle of the night. And we're seeing that here, right? We're seeing secret police being developed in the DHS, loyalty oaths, people being picked up, disappeared for 70 days at a time, that kind of thing. To many of us, we're seeing all this. But when...

When you're talking to an entire statewide electorate, and they are facing a crisis in their family or how they're going to make sure their kid gets a good education and access to a good future when they're housing insecure, that kind of thing. You're suddenly not connecting. And so it was really important to lay out the economic crisis. That's what people wanted to hear. And so it wasn't just saying, oh, I'm going to take on electricity prices. It was, I'm going to declare a state of emergency. on your utility costs. Like a connection with the urgency of the moment here. But then more broadly, taking on Trump and reminding people in a very specific economic way that he is destroying your ability to succeed. It really struck me, and this gets a little New Jersey weirdish, but our state motto is liberty and prosperity. And I always thought, you know, I've always been a little bit of a liberty girly, right? Like, oh, fight for your freedom and join the Navy and, you know, protect the Constitution. But. You need both. When you're shut out of school, when you're shut out of jobs, when you have a president of the United States that's running a worldwide extortion racket where he's making billions and you're seeing your costs go up every single day, that's a really important fight in the whole realm of opportunity and what democracy means. And I think sometimes, you know, we miss that a little bit in our loftier ideals. I want to get into the specifics of the affordability part of the campaign, but just. just to politics nerd out for one second. I mean, were you feeling it? Like, were you, like on the ground? Were you feeling like there was this disconnect between, you know, sort of the broader discussion that, oh, this is a really close race. And, you know, there are some concerns about the Democratic candidates not lighten the world or whatever. Like, were you, were you, like, that's not what you were seeing on the ground? Or were you as surprised as everybody else as the numbers were coming in? No, we were saying great stuff on the ground, and I kept trying to convey it, and it was a hard race. You know, you run different races. This is my fifth race in New Jersey. This was a picking people and puddles up off the ground from 24 and saying, no, we can do this and this is important and you've got to stay engaged. And really, it felt like the first half of my campaign was saying, yeah, I get that we all feel like Democrats suck, but we can fix this in this one. You know, we can really. You know, these things move very, very quickly. Remember, 2018, Blue Wave, now we're here. So I think we're building back the Democratic brand as this really strong brand. And it was really important to start here. And we in New Jersey had a responsibility as one of only two states with this statewide election. And so we got to work. And then we were feeling it. And, you know, as you run different races, you can sense whether or not.

There's the momentum. People are engaged. And one of the things that's always interesting to me is when young people get engaged. And that is a sign of energy. We don't always see young people in my campaign. Sometimes we do. Sometimes we don't. And this one more than ever, we had a huge number of young people get engaged to the point where. And by the way, as everyone's reporting, there's no energy on the ground, we're having like 500,000 person rallies. And we're having about five of them a day. We're seeing hundreds of people come out in Ruby Red Ocean County on a Tuesday or something. You know, the disconnect felt real. But then I'm at one rally with a group of teenage boys. And I have teenage boys. I'm sorry, I thought all the teenage boys were Maga Groyper's now. Is that not, is that not right? Well, this is how quickly things shift, right? As people understand, economic opportunity and college kids are worried about jobs. So I see these teenage boys, and I thought they were sort of trolling me because, like I said, I have teenage boys. But they're like so excited. They're taking all these selfies in the audience. They're even doing like hearts like this. And I'm going, what is, what are those boys? You know, are they? And so I was like, are they going to like put out some video like how much I suck? So I asked afterwards, I said, I noticed those gentlemen, you know, kind of right, front left. What was that about? And they go, oh, they have been knocking doors for you. They are so excited. I'm like, wow, okay. I'm like, we're, you know, we're hitting it. And I was saying to somebody, this was kind of the campaign nobody wanted except the voters. meaning it was exactly what voters wanted. They wanted me to show up. They wanted me to express interest in what they needed. And then they wanted me to enact an agenda that was going to actually make their lives better. And that... You know, it's sort of how I run and it always hits. But it wasn't necessarily what insiders in New Jersey. Democratic insiders here aren't used to running in the suburbs, but they haven't been turning out the cities very well. So just building out this huge turnout operation. I mean, Newark hasn't turned out numbers like this since 2005 for a governor's race. We saw Hudson swing 22 points. We saw Psaic swing 18 points. These are some of our. This is like Patterson, Jersey City, Hoboken Union City, that kind of stuff. And a lot of that was working closely with people who knew how to do this turnout. Some of our mayors are elected, some of our county executives, that kind of stuff, our chairman, working closely, but then also grassroots groups, young people. I mean, it was just this jugger nut of a campaign that, and people in New Jersey love their politics and love good campaigns. So this was like an old school. Everybody get the hell out knock on doors campaign and it worked.

Back to kind of the substance of the affordability message. There was a substack liberty and power as a former staff of yours is writing with this. I don't know if you've seen this. And he was talking about the ways in which your and Zohran Mamdani's campaigns were aligned in one sense. And he wrote that you broke with the corporate friendly mold of most Democrats taking on corporate power and exploitation and making that front and center. Does that resonate with you? And do you think was going after, you know, concentration of power a central part of your campaign or whether? other elements of the affordability message you think resonated? You know, it's funny because I'm always leery of anything in the Democratic Party where people don't seem to want jobs or people don't care about jobs. And I know you're kind of laughing, but I think some of us feel that sometimes, that when I'm talking about jobs, when I'm talking about economic opportunity, there are people in the party that almost feel like that sounds. somehow like not aligned with our ideals. And, and yet I couldn't think of anything more important. You do need some companies for people to have jobs. Right. I mean, going after, I'm all for going after elites. Yes. Companies do need to exist for people to have jobs. And need to get money there. The way it was phrased was not something. I was a little surprised to read it. I wonder that that's not how I express it. But the idea of going after concentrated power. is something that really resonated with me because that seems to be the fight here. Is the president trying to concentrate a lot of power in the hands of a very few? and the push to really grow a working class, a middle class, and have opportunity for everyone. You know, and I talked a lot about opportunity in my campaign because I see it in my own life. I talked about my grandpa's junior job. I talked about my dad growing up poor and putting himself through college. I talked about the changes and regulations in the military that allowed me to graduate with the first class of women to have access to. combat jobs on ships and aircraft and how that changed my opportunity trajectory. So opportunity is really important and it feels as if this is an administration that's trying to shut it down for so many people. I always think of it trying to create this Argentinian economy with wealth concentrated in the hands of very few. And then subsidize, I guess, the Argentinian economy with U.S. dollars. But nevertheless, so that resonated because that's the fight. It's why I think unions are so important for fighting for working people. It's why I think it was so important to me to put together the traditional democratic juggernaut of working people, both, you know, in the suburbs and in our cities, having everyone come to the table about what it was going to take. And look, I mean, the basic premise is access to great education. access to a great job, making sure the state's driving innovation. So I am very pro business in the sense that's how we drive access to jobs and opportunity. I am not for the concentration that we've seen in this country of power in the hands of a very few.

And so were there any specific policies on that point? And you mentioned the energy emergency. Was there anything else that was top of the agenda list? So really expanding access to that first-time homebuyers program, you know, I've probably historically been a little bit like, you know, sometimes there's a lot better ways to invest your money than a home and blah, blah, blah. But here's the thing. I remember. getting brief after brief after brief when I was, you know, at the Naval Academy about if you just put $20 away each month or 40 bucks, you know, you'll be a millionaire by the time. I remember thinking, I don't even think I have 20 bucks in my bank account right now. There is no way that I'm putting 20 bucks away and not, you know, going out with my friends this weekend. So you can't convince people. But the one thing people always pay into is their rent or their mortgage, right? That's your home. So. it's almost like a forced way of developing wealth. And I've seen in so many cases how that home when a loved one dies is the breadwinner or something that, you know, got you your start when your grandparents died or something like that. So really. expanding the first-time homebuyers program because right now housing costs are so high. So helping people get in to that first home and start to develop that. Things like making sure there's more competition in the market. When we see some of these food prices go up, some of its tariffs in a worldwide economy, some of its people taking advantage. I remember reading probably about four years ago or so that egg prices went up by like 700%. That wasn't. tariffs, right? Those are produced here in the U.S. So really making sure we have competition. You know, if we push in some programs to help small grocery stores and bodegas startup, that can address competition in the market. Government-run bodegas? No, independent grocers and stuff, you know, entrepreneurs. Don't get me in trouble here. It's okay to have some difference. I mean, obviously, look, if the connective tissue between you and Zohran Mamdani, run the mayor's race was a focus on affordability, there's obviously going to be differences, right? I don't know. And do you look at that and see anything that you're like, well, you know, I think maybe for folks that are running in other parts of the country, you know, there is a way that Iran that was different from him? Or are you worried that you're going to get exiles across the? Across the river, moving across to New Jersey. Interestingly, to your point that you're raising, probably one of the biggest differences, I'm not a Democratic socialist. I really do think capitalism as long as people have access to opportunity. So. I'm not talking capitalism like robber barons of the 1920s. We're not doing Iran Rand. Right. Exactly. I'm not a fan. I was, you know, when I was young and dumb, right? Who wasn't? When we like grow up and mature and care about others, we take a different view of the world. So really focused on expanding access to opportunity. But that is a key difference. I do think, you know, people want to build something.

For example, I think some of the reason I connected so well with the Latino vote was because there are our most entrepreneurial group of citizens in New Jersey. So making sure they have access to small business expertise and cut through red tape and permitting so they can not spend tons of time and money trying to get that small business open was really compelling. Affordability was compelling to everyone to grow their family. So all of that. made sense. The black community, you know, they know what the disparity study looks like. So again, it's opportunity. It's saying, look, you know, I'm just being shut out in too many cases and this is what it's going to take for me to grow my business. Going back to the president and how you're going to be in a different role than you are in Congress and potentially, I mean, maybe at times working with them, I don't know, but certainly combating some of the policies that are threatening people in the city. It might be hard for some of the people to get across from New York to New Jersey if they want to because the gateway tunnel that he shut down, I guess, because he's mad at... at Chuck Schumer or who the hell knows what it is. So whether it's the gateway tunnel issue, whether it's the ICE and CBP agents, going to communities. Obviously, we've seen this in Newark and elsewhere. How are you thinking about that and ways and where to pick fights with him, you know, where to stand up for people of New Jersey, where maybe there are opportunities to. take the temperature down if there are any. Yeah. So I would say when I look at this race and what just happened, you know, I think what I ran is sort of a different kind of democratic leadership, the willingness to be tough. and to take on fights when it comes for fighting for people, a willingness to fight, you know, to fight for people, whether it's Trump or whether it's members of my own party, to stand up. That's kind of a reputation. I have to take bold action. So that was the, you know, emergency, state of merchant utility costs and announced this is what I can do so people know they can hold me accountable and know exactly where that line is. I think my bio as a Navy veteran and then a mom of four both expressed that, Yeah, I was willing to do the hard things. I was tough enough to do the hard things. And because I'm a mom, I'm not going to, I'm going to be sort of unrelenting in fighting for everybody. And that is, that is the mandate that I was given, was to fight for the people of New Jersey. And so when it comes to Trump, I think what people want as a fighter, but they don't want somebody who's just going to pick battles to like up their, you know, profile or something. I'll handle that for you. The Twitter trolling. I can do that part. Thank you. Thank you. They want somebody who's going to stand up and say, all right, it's illegal for you to cancel the gateway tunnel funding. That's congressionally appropriated funding. You know, this is the most important project of national significance in the nation. We're 20% of the nation's GDP in the Northeast. This is a key infrastructure project and is a key economic driver. So they want me to stand up for that. But if it just comes to, I don't know, like the east wing of the White House.

It's offensive. It's gross. It's whatever. But it's also not really going to have much to do with the cost of anything here in New Jersey. So I think there's like that key focus on when to stand up to the president. And then we've also got a lot of federal money we need here. We've got the 250th anniversary of our nation. New Jersey is the crossroads of the revolution. More battles here than anywhere else. We're really proud of our state. We want to make sure that we can show it off and we have different opportunities to do so through historic funding. We also have the FIFA World Cup final here. So we want to make sure that as we have people from across the world coming here, that we have the security, that we have the federal funds to run that really, really well. So there are ways in which, you know, I very much need to work with the federal government and I need them to perform well. And then you come to things like the fact that New Jersey sends $70 billion more to the federal government than we get back. And now the federal government's failing at things like SNAP funding, failing at things like, you know, Affordable Care Act. So where is the health care going to go? If they are taking down the whole health care system and they are taking all of our money, what's the plan here? And so there's a fight in there. But there's also a, hey, if you're going to send that money back to us, do that, we'll run it. Or if you have a better idea and do that. But if you're just not going to give people health care, that's the fight side. If you're willing to come up with new ideas, that's the let's figure this outside. So then you've got two months. Is there a specific thing when you look at January? You're like, man, I'm going to have to really go out the administration on this because what they're doing right now is hurting people. Well, there's snap. funding. I mean, even though part of that was related to the shutdown, not, you know, there's significant cuts to it that the federal government is anticipating with the one big beautiful bill. We have significant cuts to Medicare with the one big beautiful bill. Cuts to how we generate power and electricity with the one big view. I mean, all this stuff is a huge cost associated with some of the key things that impact people's affordability, health care, utility costs. how we grow. And the idea that we're going to go back, I would say people here in the state of New Jersey, including Republicans, understand that all these costs are actually pushing us back into a more expensive way of doing business, just driving everyone to emergency room care, having communities that are sicker, having kids that aren't able to go to school and parents that aren't able to go to work. All of this stuff is pretty well understood in our state. And I assume... and a lot of red states as well. I don't know. There's another point of view on how things are going with the economy. I do want to share with you. This was the president on Fox News. And why are people saying they're anxious about the economy? Why are they saying that? I don't know that they are saying. I think polls are fake. We have the greatest economy we've ever had. You've been out there with the people of New Jersey? What do you think? Is he in touch with what's happening out there? So when you run a campaign, like I just did, six-way primary, you know, tough fight to the finish. I spoke to thousands of people, sometimes a day.

And they know what's going on. And that's what the president's going to have a really hard time managing, because this isn't just put some spin on it or just say some funny things and everybody forgets about it. This is people who are seeing costs go up everywhere. They're about to see gas prices go up because of the president. The tariffs are... putting small businesses out of business. We have big businesses that are in hiring freezes. We know nationwide about 22 states are in a recession right now. Many states in danger of being in a recession. You know who gets it the most? And we saw a big uptick in young voters in my campaign and young people getting engaged. they know what's going on. When I go to colleges and universities, they see the job market. They are sort of in a panicky state. I've spoken to some people who had job offers rescinded because now a lot of big companies because of the chaos and the economy are pulling back on expansion plans. Just over a year ago, before Trump got into office, All of my businesses, my big businesses here were saying, Mikey, you need to grow the workforce. I need to see better higher ed. I need to see output better. We are hiring. We're expanding. And now I'm talking, you know, I was just talking to a mayor a couple weeks ago, said he had an employment fair. And he had a really hard time getting businesses there. And he had about 1,500 people coming for about five jobs. They were just around the block. He showed me the video of how many people came. So it maybe hasn't permeated the media yet. But on the ground, there are really concerning signs about this economy. And so it's voters are, I mean, just look at New Jersey, right? What just happened? I mean, that's not voters being sort of. you know, feeling like the economy is good or things are going the right direction from Trump. I guess it hasn't permeated the bubble of, you know, the truffle parties that Donald Trump is having in Mara Lago. Doesn't seem to have permeated that yet. All right. What is your advice for those four Democrats? You've run for the House for you won four times. Obviously, I think congressional races, House and Senate races are different in some ways than governors' races, but there's some similarities. You've now done both successfully. One, the only. Well, I guess you and Abigail Spanberger are the ones who have done so in now the Trump's second term. What is your advice for colleagues, people to call thinking about next year as far as how to campaign? I mean, obviously the obvious answers focus on affordability. But what are some specific things that they could do as far as getting attention, contrasting to Trump, and God willing, outperforming the polls by eight to ten points like you did? Yeah, I don't want to say like totally go with your gut because that sounds like a weird idea. But I would say speak to as many people on the ground from the communities you want to represent as possible. And I'm not talking the groups. You know, I'm not talking like just go to the grassroots leaders because they don't always represent people. They often have a specific.

thing that they're working on. And that thing, whatever it may be, is the thing that animates them and drives them in their advocacy. And that's great for that, you know, group. But it doesn't necessarily represent even the people they are purporting to serve. So you really have to get in with the people on the ground. You can speak to any number of pastors or. elected officials that are close to the ground, how they win in tough places. So really just getting into communities and actually hearing what they're saying and then kind of going back and forth with them about what you're going to do. Because, you know, we had a couple ideas on what we thought. could be really helpful. And people just were kind of like, no, that's, that doesn't really, you know, float my boat. So really finding those key issues that are keeping people. Was there an example of that? So New Jersey housing prices have gone up by 50% in the last five years. And I really see it as a supply and demand problem. And we tried to talk about how we thought more housing supply would be good, whether it was transit-oriented development or repurposing commercial spaces and protecting open spaces because we're really densely populated. But no matter how we communicated on it, wealthy people felt like we were coming after their neighborhoods. And not wealthy people thought we were going to build a bunch of luxury apartment buildings because they're saying that go up everywhere. So it just didn't connect. And I said, you know. Look, I'm not building on open spaces. I'm doing transit orient and I'm repurposing. There's a ton of like strip malls that could be repurposed. It just didn't connect. And so as much as I thought that was a key affordability issue, housing and I'm still going to address it, if you're running to serve people and people don't like your ideas. You got to get the ideas that are going to connect with them, right? And that's where sometimes, yeah, go figure. It's like rocket science here. So that was one example. And then you also, I think, if you're going to, you know, depending on your electorate and certainly the, in New Jersey with the affordability crisis, it was almost like everything we did people had complaints about. And so running against Trump. everybody kept being angry, like all you're doing is running against Trump. What they didn't clock was that I wasn't running against him, like I said, on the East Wing of the White. I was saying he's driving up your cost. It was my message wasn't an anti-Trump message as much as it was an affordability message. And he was driving up costs, which was very key. So that's, I think, important. And then they were mad that all I was talking about was affordability. But again, That right now, if you're serving working people, and if you want to grow, what I think of as Democrats at our best is when we are serving working people, when we're creating education, access to opportunity jobs, that's where, you know, when we're like liberty and prosperity, I think we're missing prosperity here. And I think that's really key. Well, Trump driving, you kind of said at the top, Trump driving up your cost while he's enriching himself with money from, you know.

All right, delighted to welcome back, a former Metropolitan Police officer known for doing undercover investigations in gay bars at Apex, Washington, D.C., my old stomping grounds. On January 6th, he was attacked by the mob that storming the Capitol, probably more noteworthy. Now he's the host of the Michael Fanon Show on YouTube and Substack. It's Michael Fanon. What up, honey? What's up, buddy? Good to see you. Good to see you. Initially, we had talked about doing a pod on law enforcement's lack of pushback to the administration's actions, and we need to get to that, but like we have an insane amount of news over the last 36 hours. I want to get your take on. Starting with this morning, a bunch of outlets, initially CNN acquired a tranche of emails from the House Oversight Democrats. House Oversight Democrats doing something. Shout out. It included emails from Jeffrey Epstein to Glenn Maxwell. and to Michael Wolf. One such email appears to be a conversation between Epstein and Maxwell about why the local police down in Palm Beach didn't look into Trump. This email was in 2011. He had been arrested in 2008. Epstein writes, I want you to realize that the dog that hasn't barked is Trump. Victim named Redacted, spent hours at my house with him. He has never once been mentioned, police chief, et cetera. As a former cop doing investigations, I wonder what you'd make of that email. Listen, I think that the cover up here for rich and powerful people that did some incredibly heinous, disgusting things is long. And that list is distinguished. And it's not surprising to me at all. I mean, we saw, you know, Alex Acosta, the prosecutor in that case, do some things and treat Epstein in a way that I've never seen a federal prosecutor treat somebody who was accused of. again, doing some pretty despicable things with children. Yeah, and you'll go watch back and watch that documentary, and the local cops down in Palm Beach were doing real work, and they were the ones that were confused. And it's interesting. My read on this, you know, it's hard to kind of divine one email is that, is like Epstein basically like talking to Maxwell about whether Trump. like worked with the police, right? Because in a different email, he talks about how Trump knew about the girls, referencing the girls that they had recruited, groomed from Mar-a-Lago for their sex trafficking of, of, you know, both minors, both sex trafficking, both girls and young women. There's an element of this like we knew, right, that Trump was involved in all this. It is something, I think, a little bit... different. And it is advancing the story, so to speak, that we have Epstein now in writing to Maxwell saying, the victim, one of these victims, spent hours at his house, at my house, not a Marlago, spent hours at my house, Epstein's house, with Trump.

It seems pretty cut and dry about what Donald Trump was up to. Yeah, I mean, listen, I've sat across the table from a few criminals in my, you know, illustrious career. And, you know, everything that Donald Trump does in the denials, the denials of even, you know, knowing Jeffrey Epstein, oh, I may have met him a few times. He was, you know, blah, blah, blah. There's so much evidence to show that, no, they not only were they not just. acquaintances, but they were friends. And not only were they just friends, but they were best friends. And not only were they best friends, but they seemed to spend a tremendous amount of time together and have a lot of financial intertwining between the two of them. It shouldn't come as a surprise. It certainly doesn't come as a surprise to me that these emails exist and that, you know, the likelihood that Donald Trump is in the Epstein files probably mentioned as more than just an observer. per se. And then that's also look at the lengths that Republicans, Republican lawmakers are willing to twist themselves into pretzels and go against their at least purported principles on a daily basis to try to cover this all up. Obviously now that Gravalia is going to be finally. After like the longest period of time ever between a member of Congress winning a special election and then being seated, she's finally going to be seated. And so they now have the votes for a discharge possession with additional files. I talked yesterday to Julie Brown about that. People can listen to what her takes are. She's been. the top reporter on this over on the Bork takes feed. I want to talk to you about a couple of these other stories that are related to your experience. One is from our man Will Summer here at the Bullwark. You're an amazing story early this week about just the continued effort on the right to come up with insane smears against you and the other cops that were protecting the Capitol on January 6th. The latest example is from the Blaze, which was originally that Glenn Beck outfit. The Blaze reported that a female former Capitol Police officer who has since joined the CIA was a, quote, forensic match for the person that allegedly had placed those pipe bombs. It's one of the great mysteries that we still have about January 6th or some pipe bombs placed at the DNC and RNC. The blaze had the supposed bombshell. It was a former Capitol Police officer. The forensic match was based on her gate. And they decided based on, you know, kind of looking at some video of her walking, they brought an equine expert, like a horse expert in to determine whether her gait was the same as the gate of the person on the video, setting the pipe bombs. You should not be surprised to learn that this woman that they had randomly named had already been a target of the Maga Wright. She was photographed as one of the officers firing pepper balls. at the rioters on January 6th. She testified against January 6th participants. So this seems like an obvious payback smear attempt. And I don't know, maybe an opportunity for her to get some money in a lawsuit because it is absolutely insane. The Blaze is now obviously backtracking hardcore on this story. I hope she sues the Blaze and sues them into oblivion.

This is a total bullshit story. I was a cop for 20 years. I never heard of anybody using the gate of an individual as indisputable evidence that they were, in fact, the perpetrator. That's insane to me. Also, there were other facts that I have since learned by doing very little research on my own. Yes, she was a Capitol Police officer. She did leave the Capitol Police, but not to join the CIA as some type of covert operator. She joined the CIA as a uniformed police officer that guarded their campus facility. And so, you know, it's not... Deep state. Right, yeah, yeah, not quite what the, what the Blaze, I think, was alluding to. That that job was some type of, you know, that maybe she had been with the CIA previously or whatever. She was a spook that had been planted there. Like the whole premise of this conspiracy theory that it was a Fedurrection that day is so funny to me. Because like all you do is just think about it for two seconds, how stupid it is. That it's like this idea that there were like. a handful of fed boys in hiding in the crowd, egging people on. And that's like a couple of the cops there tried to get people riled up by, you know, shooting pepper bullets at them. It's like, for starters, you guys used unbelievable restraint that day as compared to what we've seen from police in other situations. Number one. Number two, it's like. Imagine I'm putting a couple Fed boys in the No Kings protest, like walking around being like, hey, you know what I think we should do today? Storm the Capitol. Like the No Kings, you know, NPR Topebag crowd wouldn't have been like, hell yeah, yeah, good. Yeah, great idea. Let's storm the capital. It's just like the whole theory of the case is is moronic. Yeah, it's interesting too. I was just engaging with somebody on. I don't know, Facebook or some shit that likes to slide into my DMs and spout this conspiratorial nonsense. And every once in a while, I'll indulge them. But it's the same thing. It's, well, the cops open the Bill Gates that day. You're literally ignoring. you know, a cornucopia of evidence that suggests that this was a violent insurrection inspired by Donald Trump and his supporters and pointing to one singular image of a cop seemingly opening a door to a mass of rioters who are trying to force it open and then saying that that singular act is now, that is the narrative of the day. Yeah. So, you know.

You can't cure stupid. Yeah, you can't cure stupid. We're kind of like blaming, like, the bodega guy in Kenosha for, you know, his store getting attacked by the rioters because he unlocked the door. You know what I mean? It's just like, what are you even talking about? Your other January 6th thing related to the pardons. Earlier this week, Justice Department announced a mass pardon for 77 named individuals. who are not necessarily involved in the riot per se, but like we're involved in the plot because they're either fake electors or organizing the fake electors and they attempt to overturn the election. You did a video over on your channel on this guy, Andrew Take. I don't know if I'm pronouncing his name right. Who cares? Actually, this fucking dirtbag that was also pardoned. Tell folks about Take and then if you have any other thoughts on the latest spate of pardons. Yeah, he was an insurrectionist pardoned by Donald Trump, participated in the January 6th, 2021 attack on the Capitol and has since been, you know, re-arrested for some pretty heinous acts against minors. You know, the reason that I highlighted this and highlight these other stories is there's this, at least on the right, there's the kind of. understanding or narrative that the individuals that went to the Capitol that day were these good, wholesome, God-fearing people that just were so inspired by this atrocity that was being committed by the Democrats in the stealing of this election and denying them their liberty. That's not the case. And I had the experience of having six individuals that pled guilty to assaulting me and knowing their criminal backgrounds. These were people that were already predisposed to violence. Many of them had criminal convictions for drug trafficking, drug possession, spousal abuse, sex crimes. And so, you know, you really have to consider that as like what type of person? attacks law enforcement because Donald Trump told them that the election was stolen, despite all the evidence to the contrary. And it's exactly what you would think, criminals. It is a dark irony, really, that, like, this Trump movement was, like, undergirded by a Q&N conspiracy that was centered around, like, how there's this pedophile ring and all these elite liberals were involved in this great pedophile ring. And now, you know, today we have a couple of stories like that the guy that Trump pardoned that had attacked you all at the Capitol was sending dick picks to. a girl that he thought was 15, it was actually an undercover agent. But saying dick pecks to 15-year-olds, and we've got Donald Trump, according to emails, between like the two most notorious child sex traffickers and sex traffickers in the country, talking about how Donald Trump was spending a lot of hours of time with the victims. You know, I mean, it seems like the pedophilia was coming from inside of the house. There might be a little bit of projection. Yeah, no, I mean, you know, listen, I try not to.

to, you know, go down these rabbit holes too often, but there's a great content creator, Reich Wing, on Instagram that highlights each and every one of these cases in which, you know, somebody who's associated with the Trump administration, the Republican Party, or was at the insurrection, has been arrested for crimes, sex abuse crimes or crimes against children. Long list, I assume. Short list. Short list. And if it's a whole account, it seems like there's enough material there to keep it going. They average like 30 a month. So that's pretty significant. Let's talk to you also about Cash, our boy Kash Patel, the head of the Bureau of Investigation. Wall Street Journal's story on him yesterday, big profile on the drama and issues inside the bureau. One of the items in the story was in response to another Will Summer. Shout out to Will Summers is doing the work over there. He's got our false flag newsletter for us here at the Bullwark. But Will had written about how the planes... that cash was taking. We're going to, there was a disproportionate amount of times that the FBI plan is going to Nashville to visit his girlfriend, who he said on Twitter is a country music sensation. It's not exactly true. She does do country music videos on YouTube, which is true. It's in the interest of accuracy. She's not a sensation. It's kind of sad for him to be posting that when, you know, he should be investigating criminals. But he's been going to visit his country music sensation girlfriend in Nashville. And she also sang the national anthem at a low rent wrestling event. Will wrote about that. Cash got mad and fired, this is in the Walser Journal story, fired Stephen Palmer, a 27-year agent who ran, not 27 years old, he's been in the bureau for 27 years, an experienced agent who ran the FBI's critical incident response group, a unit that responds to high-risk situations like child abduction and hostages. So again, like the administration said that they were supposed to be cracking down on this and going after the petto rings, they fired the guy who was the leader of the unit that went after people that abducted kids because I guess part of that unit, they also are responsible for the plane movements. And he was like the fall guy for the fact that Cash got embarrassed that he was flying his plane to see his little girlfriend so much. Yeah, I have a hot take on this. Please. All the criticism of Kash Patel, you know, I don't understand it. You know, this is a guy that he's a conspiracy theorist and a podcaster who is now the head of the FBI. What did we expect?

Oh, I expected worse than this, actually. This has been better for me. It's a little bit comical. I was worried that he was going to get in there and be like, oh, man, I now have all this power. I have all this investigative power. And anybody that was ever mean to me once on the internet, we're going to like go after their phone records and shit. I thought it was pretty ominous. But instead, he's using the plane, the taxpayer plane, to go visit his girlfriend. And he's giving out people challenge coins. And he's, you know, popping off on social media. I don't know. It could be worse, I guess. That's the biggest challenge point I've ever seen in my entire life. Could be worse. No, I, yes, absolutely. It could be worse. Although I think, you know, considering the rate in which he's firing career agents from the department, I don't think we have very much time left before the FBI just becomes a useless. agency as far as it's effectiveness in both foreign and domestic investigations. You've got friends in law enforcement world. Like, what is your sense? Like, it's hard for me to judge in the outside, like, how much this is affecting, like, rank and file folks, you know, in federal law enforcement. Or, like, what are you hearing? What do the, what are the text chains say about that? So for the most part, I think that, you know, there's individuals that are absolutely embarrassed by leadership. But they've been embarrassed by leadership in the past. I tried to point out the fact that this is something different. You know, this is not an FBI director making a policy decision that you disagree with. You know, this is somebody who is exploiting the office who is grossly unqualified to hold the position. And it shows every single day. And I think Kash Patel knows it. If you see the looks on his face, he clearly has imposter syndrome. He knows that he doesn't belong there. And he's trying to do everything he can to present. this tough guy persona, and he just looks like a clown. It's all in the eyes. His panic is the sheer panic that he has every day is right there in the eyes. He can't hide it. He can't help himself. And I'm sympathetic to cash on this because I... I don't have a good poker face. I get a little frustrated on a panel over the weekend. And like the number of people who are there that were just like, your face when they were talking. And so I get it. I don't have a poker face either. But, you know, I'm not trying to run the Bureau of Investigation. I can't unsee him with the Viking helmet. I don't know if you've seen that mean. But now every time, yeah, there's a, when he was talking about Vahala. In one of the speeches, somebody made a meme about it wearing a Viking helmet. And now every time I see Kash Patel, like in my mind, he's wearing a Viking helmet. And I just, I can't take the guy seriously. Just why we're doing clownishness with Cash, I do have to mention. So this was a couple weeks ago now, Halloween, also in the journal story. We had seen this. He had posted early in the morning that the FBI has, you know, stopped a terror plot in Michigan.

And there was some news, like, at the time about how, like, that's strange because nobody had actually been arrested yet. Like, he got out over his skis, just like he did in the Charlie Kirk investigation. But the new item in the journal story, which is insane, is that it was true that they were going after a terror plot because there's still some people at the Bureau that are doing real work. I don't think Cash is included in that. But two of the friends or accomplices maybe of the terrorists saw Cash's tweet. so saw that the arrests were coming and tried to flee. Like, they had plans to leave the country. They'd changed it. Like, they moved up their plans. Luckily, they were still intercepted. I don't know from me. I think it was at the Newark airport, so you can correct me on that. But, like, Cash's desire for attention and to make big boy announcements about how he's arresting terrorists, like nearly allowed two friends of the people there investigating. to get out of the country. I'm like that's the type of clownishness that we're dealing with. None of this is normal. That's kind of like the mantra, I think, for this administration. But like I always go back to like the Charlie Kirk investigation and the fact that, you know, the director of the FBI flew out there and was real time tweeting, you know, information that was coming in that had not been vetted or verified by the agencies themselves and put out all of this misinformation, all of this disinformation. And, you know, that unfortunately. has become, you know, the thread when it comes to Kash Patel. He's the first, wants to be, you know, the first on the scene. He wants to be, you know, intimately involved in every press conference, which is just not something that you traditionally would see the director of the FBI do, ever. I saw you on, I guess it was on MS, MS now the other day. And you were talking about how. This politicization of the FBI, like, is affecting you and, like, how, like, you see it in other ways that we've seen, like, in the news, like, beyond, like, the high-profile firings. And you said basically that you had, I guess, reported threats to the FBI and, like, they'd done nothing or you'd not heard back. What is your sense for what, like, what is happening with that? Yeah, so, I mean, this stems from, obviously, since my congressional testimony, I've received. a pretty significant amount of death threats. You know, some of them are just arbitrary, you know. And shouted down at a South Beach bar, I heard. Souted down in a South Beach bar. Yeah. Anyways, so do members of my family. And members of my family reside in different jurisdictions. And so rather than constantly reporting, you know, these individual crimes to the, you know, individual jurisdictions themselves, I thought that it was important, you know, being somebody who's been in law enforcement myself, I understand how these things work, that we had a point of contact within a federal agency. And so I sent, you know, a host of information, a compiling of these threats to a friend of mine within the FBI. And despite, you know, attempts by me to follow up, never heard anything.

It's also, I mean, look at the relationship that I've had with the Department of Justice, which, you know, was my local prosecutors for 20 years when I worked as a DC cop. You know, I went from being considered a victim because of what happened to me on January 6th and the assault cases. You know, after those pardons, not only am I no longer considered a victim by that agency, but you have individuals in there like Ed Martin who are actively looking to. bring charges against me for God knows what. I mean, I've heard things thrown around like perjury and, you know, a number of other charges stemming from either my congressional testimony or my actions on January 6th. Now I am actually being targeted by my former colleagues who through no actions of my own. previously considered me a hero and now consider me to be a villain only because there's a different administration and we now, you know, they're they are politicizing the agency and politicizing prosecutions. Going from being a victim to a target of the same agency over just because of the change and the political leadership. I just want to say to your point about the FBI thing, like, And, you know, people listening to this don't have, like, experience with this, you know, you might wonder, like, okay, well, FBI's got to be busy, like, they respond to everybody, you know, that makes these sorts complaints. But I, on the type of thing you're talking about, like, political threats, you know, myself and others, I know, have, you know, received some of those. Not really recently for me. I think that the freaks have given up on me a little bit, you know. I've gone, I've been woke for so long that, uh, We'll say that out loud. Yeah, don't say that out loud. But there's some more recent targets like you. But I was kind of surprised actually about the opposite, like about like the level of customer service from the FBI, if you will, back in the day. Like I didn't really feel seriously threatened, right? But it's like you reported anyway. And, you know, like you get a call back from. an agent, they talk to you, they give you their number, you know, they say, well, you know, if you need somebody to contact, you don't call the main line, right? Like, I've had that experience, and I know several of my colleagues have. So it is noteworthy that, like, they just ghosted you, right? Like, that's not nothing. That's not in your head. Yeah, no, I mean, these were, these were actual crimes. I mean, these were individuals that had docksed me on the dark web that were calling for the rape and murder of my children. that were posting addresses of my family members, my immediate family members, and also my ex-wife. And so where my children reside? And you got nothing. I got nothing. And I mean, you know, the same thing with local law enforcement. You know, shout out to Fairfax County Police. You know, we would report these things to them and they would say, well, it's on the dark web. There's nothing we can do. And so, you know, you're on your own. And really no compassion, no empathy whatsoever from, you know, from those organizations, despite the fact that I was a colleague for 20 years and, you know, actually worked with some of those agencies throughout my career. Crazy. So needless to say, Tim, we don't call them. We don't call 911 when we need help anymore. Yikes. I'm starting to feel some 20-20 feelings right now. So I'm going to, we're going to move on from that. But that fucking sucks.

Okay, so back to the original thing that we were texting about, I wanted to have you on about. It's just like there's so much news, like some of what like we're seeing in Chicago and other places has like come out of the headlines a little bit for the last few days. But obviously this is still coming back with the crackdowns we've seen from ICE and CBP and the way they're using local law enforcement in these various jurisdictions. And I was just wondering like what you kind of made of that and like what you made of like how. people that I think a lot of folks are in tough positions, right? Like if you are on the lower rungs in federal law enforcement or if you're a local cop in one of these cities, you know, like, what are you going to do? Do a sit-in, right? Like, and you're getting these sort of requests. So I'm just kind of wondering, having been, you know, kind of in there, like what you think have always seen from that perspective. Yeah, I mean, first and foremost, I mean, it's unfortunate that the rank and file officers bear the brunt of, um, the criticism for what's happening, you know, in these different jurisdictions, you know, as far as local, state local law enforcement, because the bad actors are ICE and Customs and Border Patrol. I mean, I've seen some pretty egregious acts on behalf of some local police officers as well. But, you know, the root cause here is coming from ICE and customs and Border Patrol and the way that they conduct themselves, which is, you know, unlawful, overly aggressive, abusive. I would rise to call it state-sponsored violence. But the disappointment and the anger for me stems from the lack of response from the leadership of these state, local, and municipal agencies. I mean, take Washington, D.C., for example. I get the fact that it's a federal city that Donald Trump can do more and do it with more ease than he could in some of these other places. But you take Pam Smith, the chief of police for the Metropolitan Police Department. She just disappeared. She did nothing. She said nothing. And there are some very, you know, I think poignant things that she could bring up. And one of them is why we have had this longstanding policy that state and local police departments do not participate in immigration enforcement operations. And that's because, you know, in. these jurisdictions, we have a responsibility to provide police services to all the residents of the city, regardless of your immigration status. And for people that, you know, are saying, well, they don't deserve, you know, access to police services. Well, yes, they do, first of all. And that's an incredibly, you know, unempathetic thing to say. But. Let's just imagine, for instance, that you, a critic of that policy is in Washington, D.C. and become the victim of a crime. And the only witness to that crime is somebody who's here in an undocumented status. Well, they're not going to come forward if they think that ICE will be there waiting for them. ICE is going to be there waiting for them and deporting them. And so you're not going to get justice.

And so is that really the type of world that we want to live in? No, it's not. And so people in police leadership. could easily hold a press conference and simply explain why. You know, they could talk about the reasons behind those policies. They could talk about why this is bad for the community, why that this is sowing the seeds of distrust at a time where, I mean, let's be frank, law enforcement, you know, has not been one of the most credible institutions in this country for a very, very long time and has struggled to build. relationships with the communities that's charged with keeping safe. What is your sense for, I mean, and this is like something that's coming for everybody, right? Like in the law enforcement world, I mean, like you're hearing from folks just like the amount of people that are like being reassigned to doing this kind of immigration work. I mean, I hear things from my friends in law enforcement. And it's like, I don't know that it's really sunk in for people like just how significant the amount of immigration work like local and, you know, regional federal law enforcement is is having to do. Yeah, no, I mean, listen, as somebody who hated being retasked as a narcotics investigator, because it's, you know, it's very hard to put an investigation that you're right in the middle of on hold for, you know, a week, a month, multiple months, and then come back to it with any degree of effectiveness. I have actually several friends in DHS who work child exploitation cases. which I would say is probably one of the highest priority cases, at least in my humble opinion, in law enforcement. And these aren't just like small time cases. These are domestic and international trafficking rings involving small children. And they've been retasked for months at a time to put those cases on hold and go around and do jumpouts at Home Depot to try to grab, you know, people who... you know, again, are only undocumented and have committed no crime. That's fucking nuts. That's nuts. I mean, it's clear to me that this administration has made this their not just a priority, but it seems like the only crime that they are concerned with pursuing. And so absolutely all across this country, investigations are going unstaffed and unopened simply because they just don't have the resources. And that's not just...

The retasking and reassigning of federal agents, it's also you have to take into account the amount of federal agents that are leaving the profession altogether because they don't want to be a part of this. I do have to correct you there, Michael. I think that the administration is focused on two types of crimes, immigration crime and also. technicalities on your mortgage if you're a Democrat. You got to make sure that your mortgage filings. $19,000 is a lot of money. Yeah, you want to make sure that all the T's across and eyes are dotted on your mortgage if you're a Democrat. And that's something that they're investigating pretty closely. Thankfully for me, Tim. under this administration and this economy, I will never own a home in my entire life. And so I don't. Certainly not too. Right. I don't ever have to worry about applying for a mortgage and getting busted. Last thing, just for kicks. They're moving a little Gregory Bovino. Do you know that guy, the CBP guy, the little Nazi guy, with the Nazi haircut that looks like he's in, Inglorious Bastards. He's doing like the salutes and stuff with his hand where he stands, you know, on top of like multiple booster seats. He's been pushed out of Chicago. He might be coming to New Orleans. Hope not. Charlotte is the other name that's out there according to... The Washington Examiner. I should just say this really quick. Quick aside, this is a point of personal privilege. The Washington Examiner, suppose a news outlet on the right, has this headline about the story. Gregory Bovino leading Border Patrol into new battle in Charlotte. New battle in Charlotte. Sorry, guys, that's not like how things work, actually. You know, federal law enforcement, border patrol agencies aren't battling American citizens in American cities. But anyway, I'm sorry that they're like little fucking, like, you know, mini-me sadist porn, immigration porn is what they're going for there. But I don't think that's how the government's supposed to work. Anywho, I want to play J.J.B. Pritzker talking about little Greg leaving town. All I can say is that, you know, whether it was the loss in the elections a week ago that's led to Donald Trump deciding to pull CBP out or the fact that Gregory Bovino is a snowflake on a day when you can see some snowflakes, whatever it is, the people of Chicago have deserved better than having CBP and Gregory Bovino in this city. A little snowflake. I like the idea of making fun of them. I'm wondering what you think about J.B. Pritzker there. And if you can like maybe one-up them with any thoughts that you have about Gregory Bovino. I wish we could clone J.B. Pritzker and replace every Democratic governor, maybe with the exception of Gavin Newsom. But I'll be honest with you, Gavin's got some baggage. I'll take, I don't know how many Democratic governors we have, but I'll just take a bunch of J.B. Pritzker's. You're on the J.B. Pritzker policy? Yeah, I like that guy.

Because you like the name calling? Yeah, I like the name calling. I think that I come from the camp, but when they go low, you fucking get in the gutter. Yeah. And I think that that's the only thing really that the MAGA world responds to. I will say, you know, you talked about Gregory Bovino's stature. And I remember seeing this photograph of Bovino going into the federal courthouse, you know, when he was. called in there to report about, you know, the many crimes that he and ICE agents had been committing throughout the city. Did he use the doggie door? No, but I saw this. No. I saw this picture. And it was him. And there was like four, he's surrounded by four CBP agents in full tactical gear, masks, the whole nine yards. And they looked like they were 10 feet tall. And I was like, damn, where did they get these giant motherfucking customs and border patrol officers? And I forget who I was talking to, but they're like, no, dude, Bovino's like five foot two. And I was like, they're just normal size guys. Bovino is like a legit, he's a little person. But I, you know, definitely he's got, you know, he's got the, the. small man complex. And he's just of all the, I got to say, of all the Trump orbit, Trump world clown car passengers, Bovino to me is, is numro uno. Like he is just the biggest buffoon that I've ever seen. You know, whether it's that weird, the hand gestures that he did when he was leaving the courthouse. He's a clown. But he's also, you know, he's a very sadistic. individual that clearly revels and takes joy in the pain and suffering of others. And so I look forward to some accountability when it comes to Bovino and seeing that guy on the other side of a jail cell bars. We can only dream. Michael Fanon, I appreciate you so much, buddy. Appreciate your service. Thanks for doing the pod. And we'll be talking again soon. All right. Great. Good to see you, Ten. All right. Thanks so much to Michael Fanon and to Governor-elect, Mikie Sherrill, New Jersey. Check us out over on the next level feed. We've got so much more coming at you today. And we'll be back with another edition of the podcast tomorrow. Look forward to seeing you all then. Peace. Walking on the boardwalk, New Jersey Shore, if I come to New York, can I sleep on your floor? Been living out of a suitcase on the motel floor, and running up to tabs at the corner store. At the corner store.

work podcast is produced by Katie Cooper with audio engineering and editing by Jason Brown.