Episode 23: The Afghanistan Disgrace with Brandon Tatum

Published Aug 25, 2021, 9:00 AM

Thanks to the Biden administration’s incompetent withdrawal, thousands of Americans remain trapped in Afghanistan. And now non-profits are going into Kabul to save these people stranded behind Taliban lines because the administration has turned its back on American citizens. For this podcast, Anna takes listeners through the situation on the ground in Kabul and introduces us to some of the organizations doing the brave work of saving lives when our government won’t act. Anan also brings on conservative activist and former police officer Brandon Tatum to discuss the Biden administration’s failures in Afghanistan, what the heck is going on with America’s military leadership going woke, and the future of our country. Plus, Brandon shares his remarkable spiritual journey, explaining how finding God changed his life for the better.

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Up next, Luna Talks with Anna Paulina Luna part of the Gang which thanks to the Biden Administration's incompetent withdrawal, thousands of Americans remain trapped in Afghanistan and now nonprofits are going to Kabul to save these people stranded behind Taliban lines because the administration has turned its back on American citizens. Today I introduce you to these organizations doing the brave work of saving lives when government won't act. This is Luna Talks with Anna Paulina. Hey, everyone, and welcome back to this Wednesday's episode of Luna Talks with me, your host on a Paulina Luna. As you know, the media and I don't think it's going away anytime soon, but coverage of Afghanistan, so many people are talking about it, and rightfully so. But as you know, and we'll get into the meat and potatoes of this episode, I have a special guest, Brandon Tatum. You probably know of him, you've heard of him. He's an incredible and very affluential conservative black activist. He'll be joining us later on in the show. But I wanted to talk to you about the situation on the ground at couple and what two very special organizations who I've communicated with, I've worked with. I know the people heading them up are doing in order to, I think, save some of Americans that are basically stranded. We know that Jen Psaki, our White House Press Secretary, is saying that Americans are not stranded in Afghanistan, but she's lying. They obviously are. We've seen the footage, and we are fortunate enough to live in a time where these people have access to cell phones and they're able to show the world what's happening. Because I guarantee you if they didn't have that technology, we wouldn't be seeing the footage now, and a lot of people would think that this withdrawal is not as bad as it currently is. But before we get into these organizations, I want to share a tweet that actually found and it's important because it shows that these organizations are going above and beyond. They're not just talking about it. They're finding Alutians and they're taking action, and that's something that we could all do. When Brits were trapped at Dunkirk, Churchill sent fishing boats across the channel to rescue them, While ten thou Americans are trapped in Afghanistan Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin says, we don't have the capability to go out and collect large numbers of people. All right. That should just show the state that we are at in our country, where you have the Secretary of Defense sitting there flat out in a press conference lying to the American people. We do have the capability for those wondering to rescue large amounts of people. We have the aircraft to do it, we have the manpower to do it. They're just choosing not to do it. Now. These organizations that I want to address, one of them is Global Surgical Medical Support Group, and the other one is the Nazarene Fund. I can tell you that I know both people that are organizing and basically have headed up these organizations, and that these organizations are going into Kabul and they are actually taking people out, which is something that I never thought in my lifetime I would ever see Americans having to go rescue Americans in the private sector because our own government and our own White House, our own administration has turned their back on the American people. There's not one person that I've met, There's not one person that I've talked to. I'm talking Democrats, Independence Republicans that genuinely feels good about the state of Afghanistan, and which how this withdrawal was conducted. And there is something within the military community called intelligence driving operations. And you cannot tell me that the Secretary of Defense and that the White House was not briefed on the threats that would exist if they withdrew the military before civilians. You cannot tell me that they did that and that they didn't know what the consequences were going to be because of that. Unless we are being completely run by idiots. There's no way that you can tell me that they didn't understand the impact of that decision. So the first group, Global Surgical Medical Support Group. I came across them about five years ago. It's headed up by Dr Aaron Epstein. He is a ner surgeon, and he actually started this organization because organizations like Doctors Without Borders didn't think that it was a good look to hire veterans, that it wasn't good for their branding. And so he realized that if you're going to go into these war situations, if you're going to be offering medical services and working with Allied forces and trying to genuinely help. Would it not make sense to bring on people that had experienced those situations before, so why not hire military veterans. So the organization as a whole is comprised of a majority military veterans that have now moved on, whether they're in the special operations community or not, have moved into the medical career fields and are now still volunteering and doing great things across the world. So they were operating in Syria with the Kurds and they have since moved forward and are now offering their services to evacuate Americans actually in Coople, So on Tuesday morning they were actually able to Lion and they're working on extractions as we speak. The other organization is one that is again headed up by Tim Ballard, so you may have heard his name before. He is also one of the heads of Operation Underground Railroad, which is a counter trafficking organization for children. But the Nazarene Fund is actually focusing on rescuing Christians in the Middle East and Glenn Beck has connected that organization. They raised an incredible amount of money in the last couple of postings that they've done, and rightfully so they are investing in extracting people that will essentially be slaughtered by the Taliban. And if you look at some of the stories coming out of Breitbart talking about how the Taliban is literally raping the bodies of some of these people that they're murdering. I mean, it is complete chaos over there. And we are fortunate enough and blessed enough to be in a country where there are still good people who are willing to answer that call. And I think that so many of us could really learn from all of that. So many of us could realize that we can't just talk about it, We can't just complain about it on the internet. You have to take action, and that if you have the ability to do so, please do that. Because there's so many there's so much evil in this world. And if there's one thing that I could ask all of you to do, it's to be the light in a dark world. And that's something that we really need right now, especially in this country. So that's why I wanted to bring on Brandon Tatum. Brandon Tatum is someone that I met at Turning Point, USA. He was hired on with me around the same time, so it was he myself, Candace Owens Charlie Kirk and we actually would travel the country together and do debates at college campuses. But I wanted to bring them on because, like you know, my platform is one that I hope to elevate other voices that are breaking the stereotypes that exist within the mainstream media, especially about conservatives. Brandon Tatum grew up basically not in a good situation and turned his life around, found God, became a police officer, and has since to date become one of the most affluential conservative black activists in the country. And the fact that he is to take that initial step forward to actually pursue what his heart was telling him to do, which was to speak the truth, is something that we all need to be doing today. So if you'll sit tight, we'll be back right after this commercial break with Brandon Tatum, former law enforcement officer, very very amazing person. Stay tuned, Welcome back everyone. I am joined now with Brandon Tatum, not only someone who I am proud to call my friend, but someone that who is not only a former law enforcement officer, but also one of the most prominent conservative black activists in the country. Brandon, thank you so much for joining Luna Talks. Today, if you can, real quick, please introduce yourself to everyone and tell us your story. Well, um, I think you you started off a little bit. I was in policing in Tusslona, Arizona for about six and a half years, honorably served. I was on the squad team. I did everything. I trained new officers how to become officer. A trained at the academy. I was a spokesperson believe it or not, uh, And I grew up in Fort Worth, Texas. I was an All American football player coming out of high school. I went to the University of Arizona, which led me to be in Tucson, where I was a police officer. I was in I went to the University Arizona play football for about five years. I was in the NFL Draft in two thousand teen. Unfortunately I didn't get drafted, which led me to policing. And then after policing, I got into politics, start doing podcasting and work for Turning Point USA with you and you know, so on and so forth, man, and I've done so many things after that, and now I'm at this point. Well, I mean, I will never forget we were at I think it was Writer University in New Jersey and we were supposed to go talk to I don't know, like thirty kids show. There's like five hundred projesters. I mean it was crazy. So I feel like battle hardened from the beginning in regards to how to actually start the conversation. Sometimes some people don't even want to hear it. Um. But you know, going going into kind of your service and what you experienced as a law enforcement officer, I can't help but think, especially right now, that you know you've been in situations where it has been life and death, You've been with people who have not been good people that you had to basically say like, Okay, enough is enough. I'm thinking about what people are going through on the ground right now currently in Afghanistan and what our military service members are experiencing in Kabul that are in charge of policing security and whatnot. It's no secret I think at this point in time that the Biden administration did not have a plan for that withdrawal, and that if they did have a plan, it was backwards. And maybe they're too much so focused on the whole woke ideologies, But I mean, what is your perspective on everything taking place? Yeah, I think it's a disgrace, you know, Um, to remove our troops the way that Joe Biden did. I mean, is it inevitable that we had to get out of Afghanistan? Yeah, it may have been. I mean, we don't need to be over there for eternity. However, there's a strategy to it. And when you produced the proper strategy, you get good results. It makes it easier for people on the ground, it makes it safer. But when you allowed our troops um prematurely and leave American citizens and allies and people that we're now trying to extract right now, you know, we leave them there, you pull the troops out. Now you gotta send back triple the amount of troops to try to do the excavation. I mean, it is incredibly disappointing for me. Um, We we look weak on the stage, on the world stage. And you know, Joe Biden is just incompetent. I mean, it speaks to his incompetence and not just him. You know, obviously he's not the one pulling the trigger on everything, right, so it speaks to the incompetence of him as a leader because the buck stops at him. But also his administration, and people that are in place that are supposedly are making these military actions or are suggesting these military actions they're making, they're doing an incredible harm. I mean, people are dying um as a result of what Joe Biden did. I can tell you that when I saw that video that came actually out of the White House where they had brought on a TikTok influencer, and then you see that that's being promoted directly on the White House and social media channels. And then you see that you know, the military was talking about how we need to focus an effort and understanding and I quote white rage, and that was from an acting general within the military. And then you see that this whole strategy seems like it was done backwards. I mean, you're obviously a conservative black man, and you have and I've seen you go through such hate from people because you're simply standing up for your ideologies and your beliefs. But in regards to what the military is doing with critical race theory and how they are, in my opinion, or segregating the military, now, I mean, what is your message. You know, military service members, you are essentially a law enforcement officers, so You've worked with people from all colors and creed. What is your message to them. Yeah, I mean when I was a police officer, you know, a large majority of the guys that I worked with were former military, and some of them were still um in the reserve, and so they would do military duties and be police officers. So I spoke to them all the time. I still know people in the military, and it's a mess. I mean, it is happening. Last place that we should see critical race theory and pushing of racial identity and all of this woke stuff should be in the military. The military is our last line of defense. You know, the military should be here. People should be worried about life and death and war and how we can protect you know, on the homeland and abroad. That's all we should be worried about. Nobody cares about your sexuality, Nobody cares about your gender, how many people you sleeping with, what you what you think about yourself today or tomorrow, whether you whether you want to be a man or not. None of that. Man equal pay and all this other stuff that they try to enforce, and nobody cares about that. We need to be fighting wars and winning and I think it's doing an incredible disservice to our military by pushing division. Because if you're gonna talk about white rage and white privilege and the and the white man is bad, what do you think that's gonna create on the military that we have that are that are very diverse, you know, black military personnel, some may feel some type of way about white people, and that's and that that's not the environment that you want. And people that I talked to the military talk about the division that's occurring. I mean, and it's not just the military. They're doing this in policing, to do this in sports, and it's causing such an incredible division that's weakening us, especially militarily. But I just I'm sick of the wokeness. You know, political correctness is killing people. Counsel cars is killing people, I mean literally, and so I wish we would get away from that and get back to the basis. It's interesting too, because you see jensak So, she was at a White House press briefing, think it was yesterday, and she goes, you know, Americans aren't stranded, they're not left behind. And then you go and you see the footage that's actually coming out of some of these people that are literally just have cell phones. They're saying, Hey, we need help, We're stuck here. I think it was a state department actually had emailed out visas for people to print off. So how are you going to vet all these people if they are Americans? Maybe they're not. I mean, like it's just such chaos and catastrophe. And then you see what the actual talking points are from the White House. Obviously you've been to the White House several times. I mean, you look, there's like a day and night difference between these two administrations. So I guess my next question for you is, you know, Kamala Harris has been very very quiet, and a lot of people are talking about the potential that Kamala Harris. Are they going to try to basically make her president? In what do you think? I mean, Joe Biden has one foot in the grave. His brain is circling the drain at this point, and everybody can see it. It's not even it's not even just because I'm I'm conservative and I vote Republican majority of the time. It's had nothing to do with that. The guy is incompetent and we could see that they they're setting up the racial and sexual identity in Kamala Harris to then proceed future elections. They are going to force her into into being the president, and they're gonna push feminism and all its radical left things that they could not previously push and it's gonna set the president. So now in future elections, what are they gonna do. They're gonna force this woke ideology. They're gonna force trends and all kind of stuff to be the president. Not because it's the person is the best qualified. It is because they want to push an agenda I think the next and there's going to be a gay woman just the way. That's the way they're doing in our country. But um, Kamala Harris and the White House and all this, it's it's the reality of the projection that they did on the Trump. They projected chaos on the Trump. There was not chaos on the Trump. They projected that it was all you know, radical and Trump was out of control. And everybody know this is really happening in the Biden administration. I mean, Kamala Harris is completely incompetent. They picked the person who was probably the worst candidate running for president. And she alluded to the fact that Biden was a racist during the campaign. It's all a facade, Yeah, she did that. And then it was interesting too because now you hear like out of the White House that their offices don't even really talk. I don't want the president of the United States and the Vice president of the United States have offices that are not talking. Okay, like we are fighting China. China hates us. They want to wipe us off the face of the planet. Now we have the Taliban that has been armed to the teeth with military equipment, and you have the vice president and the President's office apparently not talking, TikTok influencers running all over the White House releasing videos, and then China is basically been like, this is the best thing that could have ever happened to the United States. I want to talk about the right after this quick break, about your story and how you found God, because I think a lot of people are realizing that we're fighting a spiritual battle right now. So if everyone will sit with us real quick, we'll be right back after this short break. All right, everyone, welcome back. I'm here with Brandon Tatum. Brandon, I know that you have a spiritual journey and that's actually what I think really changed your life and turn it around. Can you share your story with us? Yeah? Thanks, thanks, it's my favorite part. So you know, I grew up like like most people in the country, you know, I think majority of people in the country are religious to some degree. I grew up, you know, in the church, but the church wouldn't need me, you know, which means that and we didn't really take it seriously. You know. We went at a at a religion and routine. But when I got a little Older's when things really start changing for me. When I got to college in two thousand and five, you know, I had a difficult time in football, and that was my life. Football was my God at that point. And once it started going downhill, like many people, you begin to question your faith. You begin to question, you know, what am I doing? It's God real? You know, my Catholic and my Christian? Like what does this really mean to me? And how did this apply to my life? And so I went through that battle and it came down to the fact of saying, I want to see if God is really real? And I started going to church. Um, I went to a few churches I did not like. And then I finally went to a church Emanuel Grace, Apostolic church woman, and I was in Tucson, and it was like home to me. And God had given me visions and dreams of of being saved, you know, and and and those things propelled me to continue to go to church. And for the first time in my life, I actually heard a preacher preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and I never forget. He spoke about the door, you know in the Bible that says Jesus a door in the way to the Father, but through Christ. And he was saying, you can't go around and you can't go under it, you gotta go through the door. You gotta go through Christ. And I ended up getting baptized and and and fill with God's spirit and it it com leately changed my life forever. I mean, I used to have gold teeth in my mouth. I used to listen to wrap music, and I used to cuss every word out of my mouth. And God just changed me. It was almost like an overnight thing. Once I surrendered and said, you know what I want. I want things to be different from me, and it just took me on a different trajectory. You know, I quit looking at race. You know, race was a big thing, you know, black white, you know, racism and all this. It just went away. It was like, you know, we're all God's children and we should focus on treating each other. Um that way. And from that point forward. I mean, God has been an incredible blessing in my life, um and it's made me the man that I am today. Do you think that with everything that we're seeing, Because I know sometimes when I see people getting attacked and I see people speaking truth and then they get attacked, and I sit back and I'm like, you know what, if you can just for a moment quite your mind and realize why you're being attacked, it's because you're being spiritual attacked. Do you think that the more that we are taking on I think this like dark energy, this dark spirit that's happening currently in our country. Do you think the more that we take that on, the more that we're gonna be attacked? I Mean, it's biblical and the Bible that says in the last Day is good to be evil, and evil be good, and you're gonna be attacked, and there's gonna be false preachers and teachers, and you know, all of these things are already prophesied in the Bible, and that's what's happening. You know, when I look back and I see people that are so evil, that are so deranged, that are so brainwashed, and it's nothing you can say to them to fix the way they think. I mean that they're just incredibly hateful because you don't believe politically what they believe, or because you are a certain race, and they begin to turn on their family members because of rhetoric. And you say, how is it that I can even present truth to you. I've been your friend for thirty years and you can turn on me. And I think that we should sit back and say, it's not just the person that you're looking at. It's an influence. It's a demonding influence that people are trapped under that creates this environment in their mind of hatred, jealousy, envy. Because a lot of the hate that you and I received is not just because of you know, if you're being Hispanic and speaking truth and maybe in black is speaking truth, it is because people are incredibly jealous that you can speak freely, that you're confident that you have what they perceived as a good life and and and you bother the things that are internally within within them. You nailed it. It's like sometimes you'll be talking and it's not you, it's them, and you say something and that truth, Oh my gosh. Whatever they're holding, whatever they're caring it is. It's interesting to sometimes see the physical reactions. I remember you and I what we must have been. Maybe we're in the Ohio or something. We were at a school and I remember we were with a group of people and sometimes these kids would come up and they would just want to fight, and You're like, look, I'm gonna grown adult, like, I'm not gonna fight with you. But you'd sit there trying to have a respectful conversation and they couldn't handle it. They would just shut down or get angry or yell. And it's like that type of stuff. I think if people could only see what's really happening to the youth of our nation, you know. I say that was kind of for me the training that I needed to, I think, move forward and do what I'm doing now. And I know for you to you're crushing it. I mean, you're basically one of the most prominent aside from Canadas owns. You're one of the most prominent conservative black voices in this country. And I see all of that and it just reminds me that we are really fighting. I think something a lot more spiritual than we realize. So I know that you've been motivational and that you are an incredible speaker. Are you doing any events anytime sooner people can go see you? I mean, tell us about your YouTube show. Yeah, so my YouTube I started with the YouTube YouTube show. I think I got almost one point seven million subscribers, you know, thank gosh. I do daily shows, I do interviews and stuff like that. I mean, most of what I do is this commentary about topics that people everybody's talking about. You know, I'm giving my take on it, speaking truth, revealing things that will not come out on the media because you know, they have an invested interest in line to people. Um so I do that a lot. As far as speaking, I kind of slow down because I have a baby now. Uh he's six months old. Congratulations, I kind of I kind of want to stay at home with my family. But if something comes up, people can always find that through my website at the arts Tatum dot com. If I have an event, we'll put it up on there, we'll share it on my social media so people can participate. But for the most part, I'm just here trying to do what's right, you know, making as many videos, waking as many people up as I can. I guess one of the most incredible things that that's going to occur on November the thirtieth is my first book I've ever written. Um, it's coming out November the thirtieth. It's called Beating Black and Blue, Being a Black Cop in America Undersea. So I'm kind of excited about that. It was a dream I had when I was a cop, and now it's come to fruition. That's amazing too. And it's like you hear your stories, especially I know right now it's kind of toned down. It was interesting at the end of or really right before the election, I felt like that was the first time that I realized that the media was actually pivoting this whole racial issue within law enforcement. And then actually, i'd say even wrongly stereotyping the black community because they don't show people like you on television. They like to say that the black community is stereotyped as this you know, ghetto community and it's not UM. But then also to you see what happened with the BLM. Right, it's moving all through President Trump's election cycle and then into and I think that your story is so instrumental in waking people up to realize, you know, defunding the police hurts minority communities. There are very very respectable and good law enforcement officers. And they're not just white, they're black, they're Hispanic, they're all different colors of the rainbow, and it's completely damaging to be stereotyping like that. Where can people find you on your social media? Yeah, the obsciertatum on all my social media platforms. Um, if you put the obsiertatum or osci tatum in anything, you'll see you pop up on Google or duc dug go, which whichever searching you want to use. UM, It'll all pop up there and you can find me on just about every platform. Okay, My last question for you before you go, because I know I've been talking you're off here for a minute, UM, is with everything that we have in the country, I like to try to keep the show a little bit more positive because I feel like so many people see what's happening and then they just want to turn off their TV, they want to turn off social media, they just don't want to deal with it. What do you think is a way that people can help out and then also do What do you think is going to happen in the next couple of years with our country? Do you think that we're gonna come back from this or or what is what is on your heart? I'll give you two scenarios on the bounce back of America, you know, and I have to be a realist with this. It's going to go one or two ways. Now. We all know the negative way. If we continue down this path and people don't stand up and be bold and speak out and stand up against some of these things, we're gonna go down a spiral drain um if we do stand up, which I think a lot of people are waking up to this. I mean people that I never thought. We'll send me videos of people blatantly lying on the on the news. My friend is sending me all these vaccination videos and I'm like, dude, I don't even know you were in a politics. So many people that are waking up and saying, m there's something to this, you know. I'm starting to be in and people are not just walking around like blind sheep. You know, people are waking up. And when when Americans wake up, just like nine eleven and when we have these crucial points in our history, will wake up? Are the best of us come out? You know? This divisions has gotten to a flame point, you know, like it's it's it's to us such a heightened point that people are sick of it. They're sick of the division. They see what's going on. And I think it's going to create some unity that we didn't necessarily have before. And so that's the way I see it going. If we do us right, if people stand up and be bold like you and I, despite people not liking you or not want to talk to you, no more family members being disappointed in you. You gotta stand up, because little did we know that standing up will create us with such a platform that we have so much influence. You know, just imagine if you and I never said anything because we were worried about what people were thinking. That's millions of people not being influence that could have otherwise been influenced. So I think the country can go down an incredible path if we stand up, If we stand against these things. We inform our brother and sister about is going on. Understand it's a spiritual battle, build our relationship with God and also projected to the world. I think that we are going to be highly successful as a country. Well everyone, if you've tuned into the show, definitely make sure you check out Officer Tatum. He has an incredible YouTube show amazing, amazing commentary on it, and then also to your social media pages. Fire, I go to it. I'm like, man, Brandon's posting some banger stuff on there, so check him out. At him, follow him on Facebook, Instagram, I'm sure you have get our Twitter. You're on all the platforms and YouTube. So thank you so much for joining us today. We appreciate having you on and love to have you back against soon. Before we go, I want to thank Brandon Tatum again for a great interview, and I want to thank you guys so much for listening. If you enjoyed today's show, please leave us a review and rate us five stars on Apple Podcast. To hear more of my episodes and get my weekly newsletter, go to Gingridge through sixt dot com, slash on a. You can also find me on Twitter, Parlor, Facebook and Instagram at Real Ana Paulina, and a special thank you to producer Drew sty writer Aaron Kleigman, and executive producers Debbie Myers and Speaker New Gingridge part of the Gingridge through six network

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