From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A production of I Heart Radio. Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt, my name is Noel. They called me Ben. We are joined as always with our super producer Paul Mission Control decond. Most importantly, you are you, You are here, and that makes this stuff they don't want you to know. Paul, could we have a breaking news sound cue? Folks, We interrupt your originally scheduled programming today to bring you an important episode. As we record on January seven, yesterday evening, the current president of the United States and cited invasion of the nation's capital, interrupting the largely ceremonial procedural process of certifying the recent presidential election. These insurgents, terrorists, mob whatever you want to call them, stormed into the halls of Congress with tepid resistance at times tacit assistance from law enforcement on the scene, and as we record today, the United States is in a state of turmoil. Its future is uncertain on a level not seen since the Civil War. This is not hyperbole. Here are the facts. So the US UM. You know, we've talked about the electoral College. It's always been kind of a bit of a head scratcher, UM, but it is the system that we have where the voters sort of kind of a little bit elect a president every four years UM. After our individual votes from individual states or tally, they go to that mystical body, the Electoral College UM, which is a body of UM electors that are appointed by their parties or political machines, and then the electors cast votes on behalf of a state's voter so they're almost like sura gets for the actual you know, citizens that are that are casting the votes. Uh. Those votes then go to Washington, d C. Where this largely ceremonial I mean entirely ceremonial uh certification process happens. It's been referred to that way by a lot of lawmakers, where like, oh, in the age of the Internet, this is not a thing that we need to do. It's really just kind of like the new Congress, and it's like day one, a fresh start. We certify the election, peaceful transfer of power, move on with our lives in a positive direction. That's correct and as you said in all, the electoral College really is an episode all of its own. It's very controversial, it's a strange process. It doesn't feel necessary a lot of the time. Um, and there are a lot of problems with it and a lot of points of contention, And hopefully we will be covering that in the future. For the next time, we need to talk about all of this, and especially since things have gone so hey wire. However, things were a little bit different this time. It didn't work the way it was supposed to. Forces, both for and and domestic, both sincere and sometimes sinister, sought to disrupt the process. And this is this is something that's been happening over the past several elections. It is a growing thing that we are seeing where where forces outside want to disrupt foundations of geopolitics. I'm telling you the Russian alex Jones, Alexander Dugan, Uh, familiarize yourself with the book. Check out our previous episode on the Modern rest Sputant. Yeah, allegations of fraud were widespread on both sides. This is uh not too different from the twenties sixteen election. Yet the American public was increasingly radicalized and divided. It's never before. We were entering a post true era. For the first time in modern US history, a city US president has explicitly refused to acknowledge the results of the election. And yes, there was a statement issued, which will get to in the second part of what will probably be a two part episode. But I would, uh, I would ask everybody to read the language of that statement carefully and say, you know, conclude for yourself whether or not you think that counts as an acknowledgement of results. All of this means that we are spoiler alert, no longer on the established original timeline. The concept of the traditional transfer of power and the milestones date wise for that transfer to occur are under fire in a very real and literal way. So what happened? Here's where it gets crazy. First, let's let's look at a blue by blow of the day, and then we'll go back and look at some of the larger context here. There was a rally on January six. Congress was tasked with certifying the results of the electoral College. As we said earlier, this is largely procedural. C SPAN probably got some great ratings when Congress finally resumed doing this in the wee hours of January seven, as the date of this certification process approached, both Democratic and Republican politicians and officials and pundits traveled widely in person, on the radio, on the internet, on cable. They were trying to rally support for various things, including the recent senatorial runoff here in Georgia, and they wanted to show their support for or position to the official results of the election. And again, many people, many many people, all or parts of this election were seen as fraudulent. No, not just let's be fair, it's They're not just people saying that, um, the presidential election was rigged. There are people who were saying the Kentucky senatorial election was rigged, or that the Georgia senatorial election was rigged Arizona as well in Pennsylvania. And on January six one, around noon, the current president Donald Trump held a rally at the Ellipse I believe it's called, nearby the White House outside and in this rally, he repeated his claims that the election had been stolen from him. He even said it was. He said stuff like it's statistically impossible that he didn't win, so on and so on. He called on VP Michael Pence to overturn the results. Uh. What he means when he says that is that in the electoral college process and the certification process, the vice president is the person who ultimately signs off and certifies yes, these certificates are legitimate. Therefore we're calling the election for you know, this new president and vice president. All he really has the power to do, though, is to say, oh, something is fishy and send it back to the States. Correct. He can field objections if they are raised by other members of Congress, which was set to occur. Uh, this is what the President was talking about at this time. And you know, he had kind of availed warning for Pence, talking about how much he likes Pence and then how he will be very disappointed if Pence does not overturn this. But unfortunately for that side of the argument, Uh, the vice president does not legally have the power to overturn this stuff. And in this this rally, Donald Trump also turned on officials in his own party, the GOP, the Republican Party, urging his supporters to march on the Capitol, telling them explicitly, I'll be with you. And it seems at present present, as we record, it seems that many of these supporters, maybe not all, but many had in fact come prepared to do just that and will prove that later in the show. I think maybe he meant I'll be with you and more of like a Mufasa on the Lion King kind of way, only more of the like watching you on TV from a secret bunker kind of way. Perhaps perhaps because despite his earlier statement, President Trump did not in fact accompany this uh this crowd to the Capitol, and Penn said also earlier stated he would comply with the norms of the election process. This is a statement he later reiterated. And so that's that's the rally you may have heard about in the new was yesterday and last night, and it was leading up. It was all leading up to January six. This was widely broadcast in various channels. Do you guys want to talk a little bit more about what happened at the rally? I don't know if I was just like out of the loop, but I didn't see the rally until after. It's sort of in retrospect and hindsight. Matt, I believe you you saw it when it was initially televised, or you definitely took some really good notes on it. I saw bits and pieces of it, but then today I rewatched it, and I just want to discuss language and something we talked about on this show a lot and ideas and how a simple idea in someone's mind can trigger action. And I just want to talk about some of the statements Ben, you noted a bunch of them that President Trump said while he was there at that rally, again in extremely close proximity to the Capitol Building where all of you know, the electoral process was happening. Um. He he made a lot of statements there that were specific to the concept that, you know, the United States itself was under siege, he said. He used that phrase under siege, UM, using the US versus them where they rigged the election. They are stealing America right now. He said something this, This is one specific quote, if we allow this group of people to illegally take over our country. And then he didn't finish that thought. He continued on with with another statement. But I just want to talk about making a statement like that to someone who UM believes in you as a speaker, believes in you as a leader, you are leaving open ended the the effect you're leaving open ended the conclusion to that statement. So in the listener's mind, the person there at that rally, to the individual, you kind of fill that in, like, if we don't go right now and we don't stop this, then X is going to happen. And a lot of a lot of times that becomes a worst case scenario situation, at least in an individual's mind. And I think that's one of the reasons why this was We're going to talk about it later, but why why the state some of the statements made at that rally, we're so dangerous. I'll see yeah to to um clearly dog whistle or signal what you want to occur while also um while while also phrasing it in such a way as to avoid accountability for one's statements at a future date. It's interesting too, because just a few days prior, we had the leak of that phone recording of Trump talking to our Secretary of State Raffensburger, where he similarly veiled language um. He It's likely he's aware of the possibility of being taped, and so he says things like help me out, guys, give me a cut, cut me a break. All I need is ten thousand votes, etcetera. Uh, and and he speaks about these this idea of the election being stolen, um, like a true believer, like he he really And that's what makes it so difficult to separate, Like is he actually threatening people? Is he actively spreading misinformation? Does he really believe these things? Um? And I think that's a really interesting part of this figure. Well, you know, unfortunately, because he is the president and because he is you know, a leader that has looked up to by you know, millions of other people. When you say something like and we fight, we fight like hell, and if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore. That that kind of statement, it's just dangerous. Or come tomorrow it will be wild, which was another statement not from the rally, but in advance of the rally. So I yeah, I think you're making a good case regarding the language there. And to be objective, there is not an explicit call for violence on the on the president's side, but the but there was an explicit call to march to the capitol. Was the intent on the executive On the executive end, was the intent to have a large, peaceful demonstration outside the capital. While the certification process was ongoing, or was the intent two physically disrupt the process. The question of intent is one of the more difficult things to prove in a court of law. But regardless, if you guys are okay with it, I'd like to continue through the timeline here, Yes, I absolutely. I will just say one last thing, um Matt, to your point about language and inciting. You know, you go from a statement like, uh, you know, we we fight, we fight like hell or if we don't, we want have a country to some of the statements you heard some of these marchers saying to news reporters things like if our voices aren't heard today tomorrow, we bring our muskets. You know. So it's it's it's like, I don't know, it's it's hardly the intent of the inciting moment is hard to discern, but what happened is not hard to discern. And all of the red flags that should have been seen months and months in advance, Uh, it's it's shocking that they weren't. Yeah, and uh, you know, conspiracy Realist and a previous I don't remember whether it was an episode or a strange news segment I had. I had asked had I had asked us in the crowd whether we considered some of the recent actions leading up to yesterday, Uh, indicative of an attempted coup. And now as we as we explore the timeline blow by blow with you based on what we know today, UH, I'd like to hold that question in the front of your mind and see if your if your answer has changed. So, at one pm in the nearby capital, which I think as we abolished as walking distance from the White House for any one unfamiliar with the geography, Congress was counting and certified the electoral votes. It is a It is a process that is so um formalized and ceremonial that what you see happen is people go state by state and repeat the same language about this uh, about how this certificate looks legit. And then at that point every for each state, the Vice President of the time ask the floor whether there are any objections. If they're none heard, then he just says none heard and they move on. Uh. And as we said, they had been counting on some they have been counting on several objections, and they have people in advance UH say that they would object. This is the last procedural stop in the train before inaugurating the press it an elect on January, and in this case it's Joe Biden. But you know, in s the president elect was Donald Trump. This just this happens regardless of political party. At the time. Going into this, at least one House representatives and a dozen GOP senators were expected to object to the results of several states, including Arizona, Pennsylvania, and of course Georgia. Uh. When we say expected, what we mean is they were on record saying I'm going to object, So it's not hearsaying, it's not speculation. The first objection, predictably, came from an Arizona congressman, Republican Paul Gozer. He objected to the electoral results of Arizona. Surprise. He was joined in this objection by sixty GOP House members and seven of those aforementioned senators. When these objections occur, this is going to be very important later When these objects occur, here's what happens. This is part of the process. The Senate and the House of Representatives split. They go to their own physically separate chambers to debate the objection, to weigh the credibility of this, and this is when what I would call the first turn of the day occurs. That's right at about one thirty, police issued an order to evacuate UM both houses of the Legislature as pro Trump supporters began to clash with police outside of the Capitol building, and it started along a perimeter and then gradually spilled out into actually breaching the Capital steps, which which which public members of the public are not allowed on. By the way, UM Forty five minutes later at fifteen, Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma was interrupted during his remarks with this information, and the Senate was immediately pushed out into an emergency recess, forced to take an emergency recess because these individuals, some of whom could possibly be referred to as quote finger protesters, other of which we'll get into the legist the legality behind certain terms, but there are other terms for what some of these people were. They had breached the actual building, no metal detectors, no pat downs, nothing, absolutely breached the building. And we're flooding into the sculpture Hall, I believe is what it's called. Yeah, and this is right about the time that at least I personally was glued to. It was my phone and I was just watching a live feed of this going down. And it wasn't really until this moment around you know, one thirty two pm, uh that I think a lot of us across this country were glued to some kind of media watching the events. And what we're gonna do right now is take a quick word from our sponsor and then we'll be right back to go through what happened next. And we've returned not just to the show, but to this timeline. The Vice President Michael Pence is ushered away by security. It's important to remember that at this point he is no longer considered by many people in the crowd to be an ally of the current president. The capital is on lockdown. At two pm, President Trump hops on Twitter. This is when he could still use Twitter, and he turns on Pence, explicitly writing the following, Because this is serious, We're not going to uh, I'm not going to do a silly voice. At least says the following. Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our country and our constitution, giving states a chance to certify a corrected set of facts not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify USA Man's the truth. Six minutes later, the mayor of d C, Muriel Bowser, orders a six pm to six am curfew. These curfews should be familiar with anybody who was living in a major metropolitan area in the US during the summer protests or the ongoing protests throughout twenty twenty. When these curfews were vigorously enforced by authorities and multiple cities, they were spoiler alert, not as rigorously enforced in this case, which is just one small piece of a a larger question. And by as in this case, you mean compared to the summer when Black Lives Matter protesters were tear gased on mass and essentially a mobilized a military force was mobilized against them. Um, you know, and obviously there was looting and there was bad behavior and there and there were you know, there was violence, but it felt like a very proportionate responses. All I'm gonna say, Yeah, not just not just BLM protesting, that's a huge piece of it, but also ongoing protest in Portland, Oregon, UH covered by our covered extensively by friends of ours, especially Robert Evans uh and his in his core who have done amazing work. Uh. Trump is still on Twitter two thirty eight pm January six when he tweets please support our capital police and law enforcement. They are truly on the side of our country. Stay peaceful. That's pre the video message. Correct. Yes, that is correct, got it. I just I think it's worth pointing out really quickly that like Pence has always been like it's a seemingly unimpeachable uh huh no pun intended, um confidante to Trump and someone who was just a hard line follower and supporter of Trump. All it took was this one moment for him to be dead to the president. I just think that's interesting. And I can remember somebody in the coverage that I was watching pointed out that of of all of Trump's qualities, are things that he values and holds most highly and dear is loyalty. And the moment he sees someone as having breached his loyalty or or betrayed his trust, they are immediately dead to him. Um. And I think that's what you saw happen, and that's why Mike Pence all of a sudden went from being like Trump's guy to and target. Oh absolutely, I mean because well it's it's indicative of a larger pattern that we have seen throughout uh the past four years. And this is not an opinion, this is a fact. The turnover has been profound. Now, there are supporters of the current administration who's who would argue that turnover was necessary because these various officials were not doing their job. That's that's one viewpoint that they would have. There's any other viewpoint that they were fired because they were refusing to uh disobey uh, you know, political norms or disobey legal precedent. You know what I mean, That they were fired because they refused to violate the terms of their job. This yeah, bigger right now, This is really a culmination. I don't think it's surprising to anyone who is paying attention to this pattern. And now we get to it between two and three pm, not just the nation, but the world is glued to one screen or one speaker or another as the capital is breached. This is the first time the US capital has been overrun since eighteen fourteen, when British forces invaded and burned the place down. And I don't mean they started a cool rave or a nice party. It was literally lit and not in an enjoyable fashion. Was it destroyed to a significant degree and then had to be rebuilt. Yeah, in eighteen fourteen there was extensive damage. We have to remember the capital itself was still under construction at that moment in time, and it had been built with a lot of fireproof materials, you know, stone and so on. So uh, there was a lot of stuff that was still preserved. But like class was melted, Statues were destroyed, thing paper was burned, of course, left and right. Uh. But the point about this is this is not a normal thing and it should not be normalized. It should not be taken as like, oh wow, the guys were right when they said we might look back on fondly. This is badge. And the Senate was evacuated before before the chambers of the Senate and the House were evacuated, people were like hunkering down right Luckily for history, one Senate aid had the quick thinking to the presence of mind, amit a crisis, which is a hard thing to have one Senate age. She grabbed the electoral certificates copies thereof because she was concerned that the mob, the invading insurgents were aiming to physically destroy the votes as a way of preventing the electoral certification process, which to me is um not a very well thought out plan. Well that's what I was gonna ask. I mean, then we talked about the symbolic the symbolic nature of this act. Uh, it's not like that would have actually accomplished anything, right, I mean, it's it's it's codified in records somewhere telling these are the only copies and then when we have to start all over again or what it would be more of a symbolic burning or a symbolic stealing, just as much as this act as a symbolic act, correct, you know, I just want to say this is this is all about language and what we're talking about the intentions of the people that did end up going to the capital and actually going inside and breaching it. As as we're talking about here, they were told that they needed to stop it from happening, and um, you know they were they were told a lot of things that we're not directly, Hey go and take those papers, you know, or you know, do anything, don't hurt anybody. They were never told to physically hurt anyone, but they were told that we have to be strong. You have to show your strength. Well, um, you'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong. Um saying we will never give up, we will never concede. It doesn't happen. You don't concede when they're s theft involved. Our our country is haven't had enough. We will not take it anymore. That's what this is all about. So it's just when when you have all those things kind of in this soup of thought that you've just instilled in everybody, when there's physical action taking place, it's tough because you are you have to kind of you have to imagine that what this is, what this is doing inside someone's head. We can't see inside any individual's head, but we know that this is pushing towards violence without saying physical violence. And then you got group think that plays into it pretty heavily. Or like you see one person jumping over the rail, I'm gonna do that too. That sounds like a great idea. Before you know, and everyone's following suit. Then before you know what everyone's on the steps. Then before you know what people watch, matching windows and escalating because one person sees it follows the leader, you know, not man not, you know, entirely calling into question these people's humanity or intelligence. I mean, maybe some of them, but the group thinking mob mentality is real, and I've never seen it manifested in any clearer way than that footage. That's a piece of it. But I don't I don't buy the idea that it was spontaneous nor organic to that degree. I have an excellent example of the kind of phenomenon that I believe you're alluding to, Matt, and I do not want to poison the well. I looked into this and I was trying to find a good one to one example of that phenomenon. Again, not the characters involved. I'm not comparing the characters here. It's very important, folks. I am comparing the say, ecological process. During the series of attacks and murders collectively known as Helter Skelter today, Charles Manson and the legal teams prosecuting him found themselves in a very strange pickle because you see, Manson did not himself physically attack or murder his victims. In fact, there was a long conversation in jurisprudence here about what it was that Manson specifically did. He had radicalized a group of psychologically vulnerable people. Uh, he had pushed them further and further towards extremism. And in interviews. But if you don't believe me, you can pause this episode right now. You can go to YouTube. You can watch the interviews with Arles Manson on tape in prison where he says that he did. I think he says, I didn't do anything but write a couple of bad checks. I didn't tell these people to kill somebody. I said if if someone were to do it, if I were to do it, I would leave. His specific quote is I would leave something witchy. And so here we see and Matt, I don't know if you agree. I'm trying to read your body, your facial expression here, but I think that is a good analogy, because Manson, per his account, did not specifically tell people to do the things. I totally hear what you're saying, and I can see the similarities there. For me, this is of a lesser extent than that what the President said, because he was extremely careful in a lot of that. It was writing that line. This is why it similar. It was writing the line between telling people to go do something violent that's what I'm saying, or or even saying a violent thing, because he's not a violent thing. He's saying more abstract things like we have to fight for our country. Our country is going to be gone. You know, if we don't fight, we're gonna lose the country. Um, they're taking over. We've gotta He's not saying like we gotta go and stop this by doing this or anything like that. Yeah, but keep in mind, I mean, we're we're one of the most warlike countries on earth, and we call the uh we we call the the apparatus that wages many of these wars, the Department of Defense. We know the language game. You're right, because the individual maybe does not that's standing there in that in that at that rally, does not fully understand that. But that's the tricky part two when it comes to language. Um, you can't really you can't really impart your own interpretation of someone's intent if they're not actually outright saying the things. So like the idea of sedition is to um incite revolt or or a violent act against an authority, uh figure lawfully elected authority or an institution um with the intent a goal of destroying it. And you know, the way Trump's supporters reacted to his words are one thing. But Trump's words themselves, I think it might be hard to pin something like sedition on his actual words in this case. And to be clear, the last thing ben to be clear, the last thing that was said by the president. I'm gonna read this to be clear and a bit fair here. Um. This is the statement, our exciting adventures and boldest endeavors have yet have not yet begun, my fellow Americans, for our movement, our children, and for a beloved country. And I say this, despite all that's happened, the best is yet to come. We're going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue and we're going to the capital, and we're gonna try to give He said some stuff about Democrats. He says, we're gonna try and give the Republicans the kind of pride and boldness they need to take back our country. So he is specifically saying we're going to go support the Republicans. And then what what played afterwards? That why m c a I thought he was he was barred from using that. There have been a handful of times where he's he's had songs of these using rallies and the artists of issue seas in assists. For some reason, I thought why m c A was one of them? Maybe the village people need the cash or how do you even get cash from being played at a rally? Does that work? It goes It goes back to licensing and how never owns the rights of the times? Yeah, off the times. It's not the artist spoiler. But in the case of um illegal or in case of like illegal use of a song, that kind of took a back burner after what we're going to talk about, doubt. So back to where we were, the Senate evacuated, things are going down. Uh, there's this plan that what was I going to say? Oh, so we have to put in our requisite always stunny in Philadelphia reference, there's a there's one episode I can't remember which one it is, Folks tell us if you remember off the top of your head. There's one episode where there's this running joke that the folks, the hesitates to call them protagonists. The principal characters have always studying in Philadelphia are trying to obliviate and invalidate signed contracts by eating them. And that's like they're number one go to nuclear move and so destroying physical copies of these votes like this, uh it is, it's akin to that because it could delay the process for sure. It could for sure, but it doesn't it doesn't automatically invalidate what happened. And so the remaining members of the House of Representatives are in a very bad spot. They are told to take cover and to don gas mask before they are being escorted out, and it wouldn't be very clear. This is all sides of the political aisle, Democrat, Republican, Independent. Everybody's getting evacuated. There's no one in the halls of Congress who was like, this is super chill and cool and I'm picking up some relaxed vibes. Does anybody have a hostess cupcake? No, they're panicking and fearing for their lives increasingly. If you see any of the photographs that came out during that time, they're they're stunning. They're literally people cowering as though there's an active shooter situation going on, like ducking down behind these rows of seats that line the hall um it's a it's a lot, it's a lot to look at, and some of the invaders made it to the Senate floor. We'll talk, we'll talk just just a second. We'll rewind to talk about how this entry occurred. But right now it's your point. Well, you can see multiple images throughout this breach and occupation. You can see law enforcement inside the house chamber, house of reps chamber, guns draw and the doors barricaded. In fact, recently I saw something that was pretty fascinating. There's one now famous picture of people of law enforcement aiming guns through the broken areas of a door. And then there's another picture from the other side of like through the whole of the of the people with the guns trained and you can I mean, there's so many pictures. But I think if we're now that we're mentioning the breach, I think, if you guys are okay with it, we need to talk a little bit about how that breach went down, because this is supposed to be one of the most secure buildings on in the country, right like like in d c let alone in the country. I mean, for I'm trying hard not to curse you guys, but for Pete's sake, and I hope that makes your day if anyone listening to this is named Pete for your sake, dude. Uh, we like our studio is kind of hard to get into. Well, we have to like if we if not or NOL or Mission control or I forget our little security things, then we have to figure out how to like call one of our friends to come let us in. I mean, I was up there recently with a with a with a guy I'm working a show with and I had left and we left at the same time, and I'm I got home and he calls me and tells me he left his keys in there, And it took an hour and a half too for me to get someone to I couldn't come back. I was I was occupied. I had to call like a security I call secure, had to call a security person who then had to confirm his identity. Hey literally, I mean like with an I D and then get confirmation through our office manager from me to allow him and escort him into the office to get his keys and then escort him out. So, Ben, you talk about how did this breach occur? Like, isn't it still kind of a mystery? Are we speculating here because I feel like there's you know, there's a lot of unknowns here as to how this breach occurred. Yeah, we're gonna talk about all that coming up very soon. Just to point out, we have a private security company that works in our building where we have that office. The Capital and the other government buildings within Washington, d C. Have an entire police force of two thousand individuals that work for them. When do they just get the day off or something? There? The Capitol Police, they're the Metropolitan look d C. When it comes to law enforcement and security. Is this weird mixed tape of fiefdoms is probably the best way to describe it. Um, what are we talking about? Though, We'll tell you we're diving into the breach after a word from our sponsors, we've returned. So there's a weird, at times funny, at times tragic phenomenon that occurs when multiple mainstream news outlets are covering the same story, they start to use the same language. Sometimes this becomes an example of a thought terminating cliche, and there's some information control. And then sometimes it's just because people are pulling from the same primary sources. Right, So one of the big words that became very popular and widespread over the past twenty four hours. And if you read the right stuff, UH, in the weeks leading up to this, that word was breach. This Uh, this attack was brought to you by the letter B. Law enforcement has been roundly criticized as this began. They were roundly criticized even before the mark to the capital for the quote unquote resistance they gave these riders, these insurrectionists, if you can call it that. One of the gates near the capitol was open when this, When this group approached, UH, the mob was literally ushered in by members of law enforcement police forces in some cases not confirmed yet, but all. They also seemed to have removed some barricades. UH. The extremists were removing their own as well. They took down some others. You can see the photos of these people climbing walls. That's not made up. It's not photoshop. It happened, UH. And we can confirm claims from numerous sources on from social media and from on the ground observers. This was nowhere near the level of security that that occurred at those earlier protests. In nowhere near Like I don't I I don't even know what the plan was on the part of law enforcement, and a lot of the statements I don't know buy you guys, But a lot of the statements I've seen by law enforcement officials, uh in the wake of this event, they're not super persuasive. They don't sound like a good plan. I don't know. What do you guys think I would agree with you ben it the numbers of law enforcement in the area at the time, we're drawn down a bit, and I think this is what this would be my opinion. I think the reaction to the earlier protests, the actions that were taken as a result of those protests, um to to draw down on the militant force of police police departments across the country, at least that I believe. I mean, you can look at Atlanta and look at our police force, and look at a bunch of other cities, including Washington, d C. And just see how much of an impact these other protests have had throughout the year and specific on you know, uh, the response of police forces and things like calling in the National Guard, calling in additional police departments for assistance. I think, in my opinion, this was in a way of response to those earlier protests or the response to the response of the protests. I see trying to be um seeming like less belligerent. Yes we're we're not. We're not coming out as a militant police force to you know, stop you from from protesting something. Um. But to the fact that everyone was white, that's the big butt in of this scenario. I don't think you can look at this objectively and fully think what I just said, If that makes sense, I think that's a portion of it. Yeah, we also have to consider, you know, um, this is something we'll explore further in depth in part two of of our episode here. But uh, the factions that were assembled where they weren't all from the same place. You know, there were organizations like the so called Proud Boys, which I still it is just such a terrible name just from a pr perspective. Their white nationalists, supremacists, you know what I mean. And there are also people who are not identified with those groups. But yeah, you'll see Confederate flags waving, You'll see Keepers. Isn't that another faction? Keepers was one yet And we have to acknowledge this. There are everyday American citizens who are there who just believe in in the sitting president and the movement and the rhetoric and what is being stated. They just believe. And they're not affiliated like you said. They they're just everyday people, even just just his policies, you know what I mean. Like something, I was talking to my mom and we were at odds about a lot of this stuff, and she now feels a little differently, but she said, I just liked his policies. I felt like they were good for me and my money and and and and things that are important to me. So, yeah, that's what I was trying to say, uh, just a second ago. Yeah, there are there are policies, and I hope we did that with the I hope we did that earlier in the episode where we said, you know, not all of these people who attended a rally did so with the plan of storming the capital of the United States. It would be misleading to say that was the case, But it would likewise be misleading, uh and disingenuous to say that there weren't people showing up with that plan. And we'll tell you exactly why we know that and why that has a proven fact just again a bit later in this episode. So back to this breach. Yes, one of the gates is open. Yes, members of law enforcement again not all are are on tape are documented assisting these folks, right and their entrance of the capital. Uh, the distance by law enforcement is nowhere near the level of aggressiveness applied to earlier protests in in multiple cities, as you said, Matt, and that that is simply factual. The reasons for that there are a couple of possibilities. That's the most diplomatic thing we can say. Uh, you know, is it race based? Is it a reaction to the public outcry of the way that law enforcement had handled previous protests. Is this something else? There was no initial deployment of crowd dispersal techniques. We've talked about these in the past, No sonic weapons, no rubber bullets. Uh. This was in clear contrast to the treatment of earlier protesters. So, Matt, maybe you're right, maybe that's maybe that's a piece of it. I mean, there was tear gas pretty early on, but but it wasn't preached, it wasn't from law. The first stuff was um not tear gas. There were some chemical ir attants dispersed pepper spray, spray, and then tear gas. Tear gas yes, yeah, and flash bangs and then and the tear gas, the tear gas dispersal I think. Yeah, as you said, mattic comes, it comes later in the timeline. Certainly wasn't for the benefit of allowing a photo opportunity to happen. Right. So where is the National Guard? You might say? We have so many of them, because states have their own national guards, and Washington, d C. Is surrounded by you guessed it, states. Uh, the Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police who were in place in advance of this. Uh, there is several hundred, but they're far less than we're on duty at the BLM protests Black Lives Matter protests, and they are far far outnumbered by the thousands of people who are surrounding in an attempting to encroach upon the capital h On Tuesday, the day before this all happened, the mayor announced DC Metro Police would the lead agency, and they coordinate with the Capitol Police, US Park Police, and the Secret Service. They got some limited support from the DC National Guard three hundred and forty people, I think, but those folks were unarmed. What their job was They were supposed to help with traffic flow, because as anybody has been in the Beltway you can tell you, uh, DC traffic is terrible. Um, last time Matt, you and I were up there, we we were very fortunate to have a friend on the ground drove us around, in part for us because we didn't know what the hell was going on. It's very true and that that number three forty is we're going to talk about. It was much fewer than the number of National Guard that would generally be you know, sent out in that area as a response. And according to officials, the reason why there were so few members of the National Guard actually sent there, and the reason that they were unarmed was because of the response to earlier protests. At least that's that's what's been stated. And and if I'm not mistaken, there is also a bit of a discrepancy as to the timeline of when they were called upon, like there there was there was a report that I heard early on that the the President was refusing to call upon them or or something like that. Like there, there was definitely a bit of a late to the party situation. Then ultimately I believe it was Pence that called upon them. Yeah, I found this outing confirmed it on Twitter yesterday. So the uh, if you look at the Defense dot gov and the PR releases, UM, while there was still sort of a fog of war and immediate you know, disaster clouding our access to information. If you go online, UM, I posted this bim bowl in HSW on Twitter dot com. You can see a statement by Acting Secretary Miller on how the DC National Guard was fully activated. They did not speak with President Trump. They spoke with Vice President Pence, as well as HOW Speaker Nancy Pelosi, UH, Leader Mitch McConnell, Senator Schumer, and Representative Hoyer. And those are the folks who greenlit this. UH. The President was not involved in the conversation. Possibly UH for any number of reasons, some more plausible than others, all at the present moment speculative. And it's very important for us to say that because what we've recounted so far, folks, are the facts. This is what happened. We've given time stamps where applicable and available. We know that was originally reported to your point, Noel, that the current president refused to authorize it, or like the d O D refused to authorize it. But per the d O D s own statements. It was indeed Vice President Pence who authorized and questions about how this occurred, how this transpired, remain unanswered as we record today, which brings us to one crucial point we need to make in today's episode. So we were learning about this and the actual events at this same time, a lot of people across the planet were and like it seems that we like multiple intelligence agencies like multiple uh excellent journalists like multiple like Ukrainian news services knew what knew this was going to happen. We had been like basically everybody except for the folks in charge of law enforcement in d C. We knew something. There was a huge likelihood of something chaotic happening. But this is ongoing, and so when we go to part two of this, we're going to be talking about things as best we can in in a factual manner based on what we can prove. We're going to introduce some of the speculation. Some of this speculation may well be answered by the time this episode comes out on our second episode comes out on Monday, January tenth. All the things that you just said, Ben, I think really begged the question. Like we were talking off air, I mean, there's more security on that building in peak tourist season, you know, than there is than there was that day. So to me and we we've all kind of chime in on this a little bit, it begs the question like who knew what when? And did people do things on purpose to allow this to happen? People in power. Yeah, we're gonna talk about that next week. We would just ask that over the weekend, keep your ear to the ground into whatever you know, eight news sources you choose to to get your information from. Uh, just just keep listening, keep watching, and we'll talk about it together on Monday. And you all know this, but I mean, just diversify your news sources. You know, like you said, there's an echo chamber effect when you have live coverage of things like this, where even whether parallel thinking or uh like the thought term in cliche term, start getting kind of overlap happing. So I think it's important to have a diversity of perspective on these things and just you know, make up your own mind. And I'd like to give a personal thank you to all of the people who were literally risking life and limb to report on this from the ground. Uh, the excellent work by outfits like Pro Publica, the excellent work at Bellancat, the excellent work by some of our pure podcasters. In this regard, we want to hear from you, We want to hear your experience, and we are exploring this further an episode two. Odds are that some of the things you may have asked yourself listening along today's episode are going to be answered or explored an episode two. So please do tune in in the meantime if you haven't heard it yet, check out our episodes on the foundation of geopolitics, check out our episodes on infiltration of the military, and check out our check out our previous episode on the controversy of the any fifth Amendment. How do I get in touch with you? You might be asking yourself, Well, that's something we can definitively answer, and we could do it right now. We don't have to wait for part two. Yeah, you can get with us on the usual social media channels Instagram, Twitter, Facebook. Why not give a look at our Facebook group. Here's where it gets crazy. That's a great idea. If you don't want to use Facebook, though, you can give us a call. Our number is one eight three three st D w y t K. You can leave a message, we will hear it and it might end up on one of our listener mail shows. Just let us know if you don't want us to use your voice, or you don't want us to use your name, any specifics like that would be good. I also want to give a huge shout out to Emily, who sent us a fantastic email, which is another way you can contact us. She sent us an email with all kinds of great links to this story that we're talking about today, as she was following it along as we were and just sending us all kinds of great stuff. So thank you, Emily. If you want to be like her, you can always contact us the good old fashioned way. We are conspiracy at iHeart radio dot com. Stuff they don't want you to know is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.