Speaker 1: And welcome to the Big Podcast. How are you happy Monday?
Today is the sixteenth day of June, year of Our Lord,
twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2: My name is Tom Sullivan. And you know it's not
a great list to go over today. We have quite
a weekend that we just finished off. We've got the
shootings in Minnesota against the political officeholders there. I don't
care what party you are, there's nothing good about that.
The question now is it was this offer? There are
going to be copycats and things along those topics. Will
dig into it today. The war Iran and Israel still
going strong. There are rumors, in fact the Wall Street
journals talking about the fact that Iran may actually want
to sit down and have talks all of a sudden
with not only Israel but also the United States. And
the whole thing about the United States getting involved. I mean,
it's one of those where the President's being very coy
and for political reasons. Again, we will dive into all
of that. The parade over the weekend, the Army two
hundred and fiftieth birthday.
Speaker 3: What did you.
Speaker 2: Think about the parade? It cost a lot of money,
but then there were corporate sponsors. Was it an ego
trip for the president. Your reaction, I would love to hear.
The phone number here is eight five five two nine
five sixty six hundred eight five five two nine five
sixty six hundred. Paul, leave a message, we'll play, we'll play.
I'm looking forward to playing a bunch of the messages.
But immigration, apparently the president is carved out. Uh, don't
go after the people working on the farms, but go
after the people that are living in cities, especially big
cities run by Democrats. Harry Enton has the latest on
all things regarding statistics, if you will. And the G
seven is underway in Alberta and the G seven it's
a three day event today they're supposed to focus on
the global economy. But you know what that brings up
that bro oh, yeah, that brings up the whole business
about the tariffs. And so they're Donald trumpet. But this
was in his first term Trump one point. Oh, that
was the big deal where he shook up the G seven,
Angela Merkel and the whole crowd. They were all turning
against him because he tore up an agreement. He was
kind of the skunk and the picnic. The first time
he went to the G seven and so that's kind
of him. He may be going back to tear things
up again. But anyway, today they're going to talk about
the global economy. They'll also talk about the wildfires which
are near Alberta in Canada, drugs, fentanyl, migrant smuggling, all
that's on the list today. Tomorrow they're scheduled to add
Zelensky of Ukraine and Mark root Routine, the new NATO
General Secretary, to talk about NATO and Europe's involvement with Ukraine.
If any then they're going to open it up to
other leaders besides just the seven. It will be ball
of fireworks probably today and tomorrow. That's what's going on today.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police are saying they expect protesting
Calgary and also in banf Both of those are near
where this summit is taking place. So starting with the war,
the headlines are about the fact that we don't know
if this is true or not. The headlines are about
the fact that the president vetoed the idea of Israel
taking out the Ietola wanted to kill him, and a
lot of people think that until you get rid of
the Ayatola and his crowd, you are not going to
stop Iran from being the world's number one terrorist supporter. Basically,
is Donald Trump really want to stop? I know he's
anti war, and is he what's he thinking when it
comes to not taking out the leader of Iran? I mean,
this is this is fundamental to winning a war. Don't
you think is taking out the leader? Maybe not? Maybe
they can leave him in place. I don't think so.
If Israel wins the war, which I would think that
they're going to be able to Iran looks like they
are in bad shape. There's even been talked about plans
to evacuate the Ayatola to Russia, and that'd be fine too,
so he doesn't get killed, but take him out of
Iran and put Iran back into a country that it
was many, many decades ago before the Ayatola came in. Apparently,
again more reporting about the fact that the supporters of
Donald Trump are split heavily on this whole idea about
the war in Iran. There is a big split about
Israel's security versus Iran and can we help defend Israel itself?
But Marjorie Taylor Green is leading the pack saying stop, stop, stop,
don't do anymore. What's the matter with you. We are
not into killing other people. We are for peace. Tucker
Carlson is another one who is yelling about the fact
that what are you doing, Donald Trump? Why are you
even suggesting anything about helping Israel? And the President has
said when asked about are we going to get involved,
he says it's possible we could get involved. So there's
a split going on within the mag of crowd about
those that want nothing to do with other parts of
the world be I guess total isolation. And yet on
the other hand, there are people going Iran is a
world menace. They are the supporters of all kinds of
terrorist attacks, and that brings up the question about do
they have sleepers here in the US. Are they going
to start attacking some of us in this country because
of their thinking that the US is involved. Apparently we
have navy ships in the area that are helping to
defend Israel from some of the missiles that have come
pouring in over the last couple of days. Apparently Israel
has fired three I'm sorry, Iran has fired three hundred
and seventy missiles at Israel. And you've seen the news
coverage where they are there's some of them getting through,
none of them getting through where they're killing people in
Tel Aviv. So the iron Dome is working, but not perfectly.
It is stopping a lot of it. The other question
about do we get involved is apparently the bunker Buster,
which is this area called Photo or photo I'm not
even sure the pronunciation, but it is the number one
no clear sight in Iran. That is where they are
doing the enrichment of the uranium, and it is very
deep underground and you can't get to it by fire
jets dropping bombs. They're going to have to have the
big bunker Buster bomb. It's a thirty thousand pound bomb,
and the only plane that can load the thing and
fly it and drop it with precision is the B
two bomber. We're the only ones with the bunker Buster,
were the only ones with the B two. So are
we going to get involved or not? We will wait
and see what the President comes up with. But right
now he's hedging, and I think he's hedging because of
political reasons. He knows that there are Maga people that
are supporting him and Maga people that are complaining about
what about us even being possibly involved. So that's what's
going on over in the in the Middle East. As
far as the war goes oil prices, that's where you're
going to feel the impact. Oil prices have surged on
this at first, but now today. We'll wait as we
go through the day, but the markets are all very
very positive. Oil prices are going down. We're down around
seventy dollars a barrow. We were up to seventy four
dollars a barrel on Friday. So oil prices, I don't
know if you're going to feel any impact that the pump.
If the price goes up and then over a couple
of days comes right back down again. So we may
see oil prices affecting gas prices, but I'm not sure
it's going to the market today are actually fairly calm.
The stock market's doing well. Tomorrow and Wednesday, the FED
is meeting, so a lot of people in the financial
markets are waiting to see what the Fed will do,
and at this point people are betting the Fed is
not going to do anything. No, not a thing. With
the uncertainty about the impact of tariffs and then the
uncertainty of oil prices, and higher oil prices are always inflationary,
but oil prices popped up, and now I'll ask we're
treading on this Monday, they're back down again. Let's start
this analysis by checking in with General Jack Keane.
Speaker 3: Well, certainly the a Israelis are doing a remarkable job
and taking down the leadership that's involved in these operations,
decapitating them much as they did what has be law.
And certainly they the air superiority they have is the
way we would begin in operation, and so they can
move around the country with no impediments whatsoever. But the
real focus is we all know on two things. The
ballistic missiles. I think they've the Iranians eight waves about
three hundred and fifty missiles. We estimate they have somewhere
around a couple thousand of those, some much better than others.
And we always knew this was going to be a
problem that some of them would penetrate the air defense
systems and casualties would result. The casualties are light, but
still they're heavy than what the Israelis are used to receiving.
Speaker 4: And that's a fact.
Speaker 3: So their intensity about getting these ballistic missiles launchers, their infrastructure,
there's storage sites, their supply chain, all of that is ongoing.
But the center of gravity is the nuclear enterprise twelve
sites capability spread out around them. You've emphasized the specific ones,
thetons Eschfahan, and Fordaw four Dow is the center or gravity.
Because here's what's really going on in the Ayatola's mind.
I think he never came to the negotiating table to
really give up his nuclear capability voluntarily. Why why didn't
he want to dismantle it? Because he always believed that
he can recover and rebuild it after an Israeli airstrike,
and he's counting on the fact that Ford Dow will
survive this. It is in the United States core national
interest to help Israel destroy completely this nuclear enterprise and
fordw sits out there as a potential target that Israeli
is challenged by. Its not that they don't have imagination.
It's not that they couldn't do some surprising things. None
of that certainly would be off the table. But the
guarantee is to for the United States to use its
penetration bombing to take that side out. And I believe
once that's done, we start to see the end of
this thing. Well, the United States core national interest that
Iran does not have a nuclear capability and get to it.
That's a fact. And this capability if we if we
leave it there, the Ayatota will recover and rebuild. And
that's what he's absolutely counting on. That's why he never
was willing to give this man on the program himself
with verification that would end his program here. He believes
he has a chance. And that's what these guys are
all about. And we've got to we've got to finish
what we started here. We can't we can't look like
we haven't come to the assistance of the Israelis when
they needed it the most here to finish this operation.
They are our strongest ally in the region. What do
you think the Arabs would think after the President's visit
there looking at this and they're saying, my, if the
United States isn't it going to help the Israelis at
this critical time, what's the chance they're going to help us?
And does this motivate putin a little bit more to
state the course in terms of what he's doing, and
President she if we don't help the Israelis finish this off,
it's their operation. We would lend a support to it.
To finish it off. And that's what I'm suggesting, and
I'm certain the President is making those considerations.
Speaker 2: Then there's this Apparently the President was on the phone
with Vladimir Putin and is asking or talking to him
about Putin being the mediator between Israel and Iran. He said,
I would be open to it. Putin is ready. He
called me about it. We had a long talk about it.
We talked about this more than his situation. This is
something I believe he is going to get resolved. So
the President wants Putin to get involved as the mediator
between Israel and Iran. Really, here's Tom Cotton with his
reaction to that.
Speaker 5: Well, I don't think Vlatimir Putin, in the middle of
his own or in Ukraine, is going to intervene to
try to stop this conflict between Israel and Ron. I
believe that it's been reported that Vadimir Putin told around
Supreme Leader that he needed to sue for peace because
if he didn't, his own government might fall. As happened
last fall in Syria. Dana, Israel had weakened Hasbelah, which
had propped up Bachel al Asad's regime in Syria. Syria
had been a longtime client of Russia, and as rebels
began to rampage across Syria targeting Assad's power, he asked
for help for Putin. And what did Putin do? Nothing?
He gave him a flight to Russia and the Assad
tyranny finally fell. So once again we shouldn't be surprised
see that Putin doesn't extend a hand to his friends
at a time of need.
Speaker 2: So Syria now says to Israel, hey, you want to
use our airspace for more than happy to have you
use it. Yeah.
Speaker 5: Until just last fall, it was run by a key
Iranian and Russian client state. It was penetrated with Hesblo
terror group that had the blood of Americans and Israelis
on its hands. But because of Israel's brilliant campaign against
not just Thomas, but has a blood because of it,
strikes in retaliation for Iran's attacks on Israel's twice last year.
It's a new day in the Middle East, and you
have a Syria that is not just implacably opposed to Israel,
but is standing by as Israel uses its airspace to
pummel Iran's air defenses and its nuclear sites. That's again
a tribute to Israel's strength going back for almost two
years now since the October seventh attacks, and especially President
Trump support for Israel since he returned to the White
House this January.
Speaker 2: What about the political part of this, About the fact
that you've got Mega going two different directions depending upon
some of the supporters supporting the president and some of
them saying no. Pete set who is former George W.
Administration official. This is what he had to say about
the split.
Speaker 6: Dissent within a political party is common and is sent
on this particular topic is inevitable because you do have
an element of the magabase, particularly the influencer class, which
I would put Marjorie Taylor Green in that bucket, that
believes we should be isolationists. They prefer isolationism over engagement.
And to be very clear, isolationism versus intervention is a
false choice. You can be engaged without being an interventionist.
And a lot of these folks, maybe Marjorie Taylor Green
is not part of this group, but the influencers and
those they influence have not read intelligence briefings, they've not
been in the situation room. They don't really grasp the
burden of leadership and the responsibility that comes with it.
Speaker 2: This brings us back to your pocket and mind and
oil prices that did shoot up, they've come back down some.
They're around seventy dollars as we're recording. It was seventy
four on Friday. I had been in the load of
mid sixties before all of this broke out. So what
about the inflationary impact of this on your pocketbook? Are
you going to be paying more at the pump? Roger Ferguson,
former Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve, has this comment
to make about it.
Speaker 7: I think the FED is well positioned right now. I
think they're not going to cut rates this meeting, next meeting.
I'm not sure what's going to happening beyond that, and
we'll wait and see. So right now, I think they're
in a wait and see mode. They're hoping for further disinflation,
but they know they've got to be vigilant, and so
I think they're going to signal a lot of vigilance
this meeting and will be very patient before they cut rates,
probably disappointing a few people. You know you actually cannot
cut And also you hear a lot of talk from
Fed policy makers about inflation expectations, not just long term
but short term maybe becoming a bit problematic. So I
think they're very much on guard against signally anything that
suggests that they're rushing to cut.
Speaker 2: But what about oil prices? They, like I said, they
were higher on Friday. We'll see how they turn out today.
But here is Rebecca Babin, she is with CIBC season
Oil analysts.
Speaker 8: Well, so things did get a little bit worse. We
actually saw both Israel and Iran both hit some energy infrastructure.
The key here is they didn't hit oil infrastructure. And
the second real key is they didn't hit any export
facilities for crude oil. So you can hit internal domestic
refineries in Iran, we will see a price reaction. But
carg Island, which is their export facility where they export
every barrel that comes out, is a wide open target
for Israel and they haven't hit it.
Speaker 3: Why.
Speaker 6: I think there's two reasons.
Speaker 8: First, if you want the US to come in and
help you and maybe hit some of those deeper kind
of nuclear.
Speaker 4: Sites, as in President Donald Trump, yep, do not mess
with this inflation.
Speaker 8: His lightning rod and everyone knows it, and he's very
about it. Is crude oil prices. So you do that
and you ultimately put yourself in a position where you've
hurt the person you want to help you. And on
Iran's side, keep in mind, you know we're talking a
lot about the straight of horr moves this morning. I've
listened to all of your segments. Think about Iran here.
If they go and kind of start targeting the straight
of her moves, who do they hurt. They hurt China,
their biggest customer. They hurt themselves because they can't get
their barrels out. That's their only stream of revenue to
fund this war. So in some ways, I think what
you're seeing is the market telling you, I know there's
a higher risk that this escalates and we have like
this tail event, but right now, we don't think anyone's
best interests in this conflict is higher oil prices.
Speaker 2: We'll get to the closing oil and stock market numbers
and we'll get to the end of the podcast today.
But hey, how about that parade.
Speaker 9: I mean.
Speaker 2: It was big, I was army, So I'm going congratulations
to the US Army two hundred and fifty years old.
I know people made a big deal about it. I
get their arguments about the fact that that's what they
do in Moscow and North Korea and stuff like that.
But I thought it was nice to celebrate our army
and so happy birthday US Army two hundred and fifty
years old. And by the way, they were talking about,
you know what, the no King protest around the country.
When it comes to no king, I don't mean to
bring up the fact that we have royalty in this country,
political royalty. They've talked about the Kennedys being royalty for
as long as I can remember. And over the weekend,
while people were complaining about no king in the Hamptons,
they had George Soros's son married. Have to look up
her name of Huma Abdeen. Yeah, remember she was married
to Congressman Wiener and that didn't work out because Congressman
Wiener had a problem and so she divorced him and
it's been a few years. So she found a rich
guy to mary and this is it was all royalty.
His name is Alex Soros, son of George and Juma
Abdeen was the right hand aid to Hillary Clinton. So
the Clintons were there the president by Bill Clinton, former
Vice President Kamala Harris was there with mister Kamala Harris,
Chuck Schumer, Haakim Jeffries, Nancy Pelosi, Nicki Hilton. I mean
it was Anna wind Tower. So it was the money
and the politic power that all showed up for the
wedding of Alex Sorows and Huma Abadeen on Saturday in
the Hampton. So who says we don't have kings, looks
like we have royalty. I know that for sure. So
we got that to mark off. And by the way,
again they talked about the price. The prices were all
over the map, so that means that nobody knows how
much that parade costs, supposedly around forty five million dollars.
But they also got corporate sponsors genius to pick up
the tab I don't know if they picked up all
of it. I don't know if they picked up half
of it, but at least there was that to throw
into the works as well. So I want to do
I'll do the market numbers here, but then I also
have There was a news conference today in Minneapolis by
the federal prosecutors and the local officials that were in
Minnesota about the shooting of the political people in Minnesota
over the weaking, the killing of the woman and her
husband who was a state official, and then the wounding
of another couple. But apparently from this news conference, those
weren't the only two places. He went to four homes,
and luckily two of them they just weren't home at
three o'clock in the morning. But the police work on
this was incredible, how good the police were about being
able to first of all, get the hunch to go
over to this senator's home to see whether she was okay,
and that's where they ran into the guy, the bad guy,
and completely derailed his plans because he was on a
mission to kill a lot of people, a lot of politicians.
And I think i'll play the news conference for you
at the end of this podcast, because it was like
the script from a true crime movie, but sadly it
was real, so we'll play that for you as well.
But for market today, let me just get that in
here now, because the market's turned out just fine now
up three hundred and seventeen to forty two. THOY five
point fifteen, SMP up fifty six, Nasdaq up two hundred
and ninety four. Price of goldfell forty six dollars down
to thirty four oh six and oil I told you earlier,
we're kind of bouncing around on oil down a buck
and a half down to seventy one dollars now for
one barrel of oil. But here is it's about. I'm
going to say about a half an hour maybe of
the news conference from the authorities in Minneapolis earlier today,
and it's just chilling to find out that this person
did what they did and how great the police work
was in order to stop them. So I'm going to
leave it on this for you to finish the podcast
for the day, if you're so inclined, and we'll try
this again tomorrow.
Speaker 9: In the early morning hours of June fourteenth, Belter went
to the homes of four Minnesota state politicians with the
intent to kill them. Belter first traveled to the home
of Minnesota State Senator John Hoffman in Champlin, Minnesota. Belter
arrived at the senator's home disguised as a police officer.
He arrived in a black SUV with emergency lights turned
on and with the license plate that read police. Belter
wore a black tactical vest and body armor. He carried
a flashlight and a Bretta nine milimeter handgun. He also
wore a hyper realistic silicon mask. Senator Hoffman had a
security camera. I've seen the footage from that camera and
it is chilling. Belter knocked on Senator Hoffman's front door
and repeatedly shouted, this is the police. Open the door.
Senator Hoffman and his white Yvette came to the door.
When they opened the door, Belter shined the flashlight in
their faces and said there had been a shooting reported
in the house. Belter asked if they had any weapons.
When Delter lowered his flashlight, which he had shined in
their face, they realized that he was not a police officer.
They shout it out, You're not a cop, You're not
a police officer. Belter then announced this is a robbery
and forced himself into their home. When Senator Hoffman attempted
to push Belter out and stop him from entering his home,
Belter shot him repeatedly. Belter then shot miss Hoffman repeatedly.
Belter fled the scene and the Hoffman's daughter called nine one. Unfortunately,
the Hoffman survived, although they remained hospitalized. After shooting Senator
Hoffman and his wife, Belter traveled to the home of
another Minnesota state representative in Maple Grove, Minnesota. Video surveillance
showed that Belter rang the doorbell at the state representative's
house at approximately two twenty four am on Friday night. Again,
he was dressed as a law enforcement officer, wearing a
tactical vest and body armor, carrying a handgun and a flashlight,
and wearing that same hyper realistic silicon mask. Again, the images,
as you can see on the screen are haunting now. Fortunately,
the state representative was not home. She and her family
were gone on vacation, and so Belter left. Belter then
traveled to the home of a Minnesota state senator who
lived in New Hope, Minnesota. He parked in the street
in that same black SUV with the police license plate
at about two thirty six am on Friday night. After
learning of the shooting of Senator Hoffman, New Hope police
dispatched an officer to conduct a wellness check on the
state senator who lived in New Hope. When the New
Hope officer arrived at the scene, she saw Felter's black
SUV parked down the block with the lights on. The
New Hole police officer believed that Belter was a police
officer who had been dispatched to the scene to check
on the status of the state senator. The new Hole
police officer pulled up next to Belter in his car,
rolled down her window, and attempted to speak with him.
Belter did not respond, according to the officer, he just
sat there and stared straight ahead. So the new A
police officer who had been dispatched to the scene, proceeded
to the state senator's home and she waited for other
law enforcement to arrive. When they did. By the time
they did, Belter had left the scene. Belter then traveled
to Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, and the home of Minnesota State
Representative Melissa Hortman. At approximately three point thirty am, Belter
arrived at Representative Hortman's house in his black SUV with
the police license plates. He parked in the driveway and
left the emergency lights on his SUV flashing as if
he was a police officer. Belter approached Representative Hortman's home
again dressed as a police officer, wearing the tactical vest
and body armor and wearing that hyper realistic mask. He
was armed and carrying a flashlight before he entered the home.
Two Brooklyn Park Police officers arrived at the scene. They
too had been dispatched to check on Senator and Representative
Hortman after learning of the shooting of Senator Hoffman. When
they arrived at the scene, they saw Belter's black SUV
parked in the driveway with the emergency lights flashing, and
they saw Belter standing in front of the house, several
feet from the door. When Belter saw the officers get
out of the car, he drew his weapon and began firing.
He rushed into the house through the front door, firing
into it. He repeatedly fired into the house, and when
he entered, he murdered Representative Hortman and her husband Mark.
The Brooklyn Park Police officers fired at belt Belter as
he rushed into the home, but he escaped into the
home and out the back. Officers recovered Belter's nine milimeter Bretta,
along with the body armour in the mask find the
home along his path of flight when he fled on foot.
They later searched Belter's car, where they found five more firearms,
including Astault stile rifles, and a large quantity of ammunition.
Belter also had in his car, notebooks containing a list
of more than forty five Minnesota state and federal elected officials,
including Representative Coortman. Now, Belter planned his attack carefully. He
researched his victims and their families. He used the Internet
and other tools to find their addresses and names the
names of the family members. He conducted surveillance of their
homes and took notes about the location of their homes.
He also prepared another way. He concealed himself as a
police officer, outfitting his black SUV with police lights and
a police license plate, wearing a black tactical vest and
body armor, carrying a police flashlight and a handgun. And
of course, he wore that hyper realistic silicone mask as
seen on in surveillance videos. The video of his arrival
and shooting Senator Hoffman is truly chilling. Again, it's no
exaggeration to say this is the stuff of nightmares. There's
a photo of the firearms found in Belter's abandoned suv.
Based on these crimes, we brought a federal complaint charging
Beltner with an array of federal charges. Counts one, one,
and two charge him with stalking. Count one charges him
with Stocking Representative Melissa Hortman using interstate facilities, and that's
Title eighteen United States go twenty two to sixty one.
The statutory penalties there are life in prison. Count two
similarly contain is charge saysm with Stocking State Senator John
Hoffman using interstate facilities. The statutory the maximum penalty of
that count is twenty years in prison. Counts three and
four charge Belter with the murder of Melissa and of
the Hortman's using a firearm but violation of eighteen USC.
Nine to twenty four j count and these are punishable
by a term of life imprisonment or even death. And
Counts five and six charge him with shooting the Hertman
and the Hoffman's using a firearm, and both of those
towns also carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. Now,
before I finish my remarks, I want to say a
little bit about law enforcement and the manhunt that we've
heard about the last two days. Over the fast forty
eight hours, federal, state, and local law enforcement from throughout
the state of Minnesota have worked together together to carry
out the largest manhunt in Minnesota history. Now, a lot
has been said about law enforcement in recent weeks. But
make no mistake, the men and women of our federal, state,
and local law enforcement put their lives at risk and
on the live on the line to keep Minnesota safe.
They work tirelessly day and night to make sure that
the tragic events of Friday night end it without further
violence or bloodshed. We owe them all a debt of gratitude,
and they will forever have my respect in admiration. Over
to Special Agent Alvin Wisson from the FBI.
Speaker 10: Thanks, Thanks Joe, good morning. My name is Alvin Winston,
and I serve as the Special Agent in charge of
the FBI Minneapolis Field Office, which covers the states of Minnesota,
North Dakota, and South Dakota. I want to begin by
extending my deepened condolences to the families of the victims
and to the community that has been shaken by this
devastating act of violence. Our thoughts remain with those who
are grieving and all who have been impacted by this
tragedy over the weekend. The people of Minnesota and the
nation have been watching closely as this case has unfolded.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension provided a detail update yesterday,
so I won't repeat those specifics. This was a targeted
attack against individuals who answered the call to public service.
The FBI's role in moments like this is clear to
stand alongside our partners, bring federal resources, intelligence capabilities, and
reach to the effort not just to apprehend the individual responsible,
but to understand the full scope of the threat. That
work continues. This case became the largest coordinated manhunt in
Minnesota's history.
Speaker 6: We are proud to.
Speaker 10: Stand shoulder to shoulder with our law enforcement partners across
the state. No single agency could have done this alone.
And because of that unified effort, a dangerous and the
visual was taken into custody. Let me say this clearly,
political violence has no place in this country. The FBI,
alongside our partners, will remain focused on the work ahead
and on ensuring justice is served. And with that, I
hand it over.
Speaker 6: Did you.
Speaker 4: Thank you with those comments? And we're thankful today to
see these charges filed. Early on, with our partners from
the Federal Bureau Investigation and other federal partners from the ATF,
United States Marcial Service, and others, they provided assistance to
the team of local investigators of the Brooklyn Park Police Department,
Henry County Sheriff's Office, and the BCA that we're working
on this right to begin with, along with all the
other hundreds of people that stepped up with the Champlain
Police Department as well, in to pursue this justice. You
might be asking, because we see a lot of times
these cases go in various orders when they are but
this is an indication that the United States Attorney's Office
stands along with us in the state of Minnesota that
when somebody and an evil individual decides to move this
and create fear in our communities and commit evil acts,
that we will pursue every possible charge that we can,
from the state charges that you've learned about today to
these federal charges that were discussed early on. And I'm
grateful for the leadership of the United States Attorney's Office
and the FBI for helping us move that forward so
quickly in a coordinate approach. We do that because, as
sa See Winston said, in situations like this, we have
individuals that step up to serve their communities. They are
elected officials across our state, and when an individual chooses
to target them for their role in representing all of us,
it's an incumbent upon all of us to put all
the resources forward to hold that individual accountable, to seek justice,
and to make sure that we are working together to
show the community across Minnesota and the United States that
political violence is never okay. We as a country are
formed on the basis that we have political discourse and
that we have a debate ongoing on what we do,
and that we elect people day and day out to
represent us. And when somebody tries to undermine that, it's
important for all of us to hold that person accountable
so that we can move forward as a country and
have a system in place that are representative government and
that we provide the protections for those individuals and their
families moving forward. And so I'm thankful for these charges
today to move this forward and the great work of
the United States Attorney's Office partnering with us to move
forward on this. And with that, they'll take some questions.
Speaker 9: Why is it NOTT of terrorism charges? The question, you know,
we brought the charges that we think are appropriate right now. Obviously,
these crimes are about forty eight hours old, so even
ongoing investigation, and I can't comment as to what other
charges may or may.
Speaker 5: Not be brought.
Speaker 9: Will you seek the death tellerty Lou, thank you for
the question. Will we see the death penalty is too
early to tell. That is one of the options for
several other charges, though.
Speaker 11: Jane, mister belt Weer have gideous systems are even looking
into whether he may have FOT assistance and if he did,
what are the potential consequences for anybody who may have
assisted him, either before or after he's stracted truded.
Speaker 9: Our investigation remains ongoing in several areas, including whether or
not he had anyone helping him, assisting him and either
carrying out these attacks or fleeing from them. I can't
comment to that at this time. There's nothing in the
complaint suggesting that someone did, but the investigation is ongoing.
In fact, it's just an ex infancy spent forty eight hours,
most of which we are primarily focused on finding him.
Speaker 11: In Minneapolis shortly after these grants acre. Do we know
how he got from to Minneapolis?
Speaker 1: Was it on?
Speaker 9: But I don't know the answer to that.
Speaker 11: We want feels clerity about the state charges concurnt with
the federal charges.
Speaker 4: How does that all work?
Speaker 11: Does this? No, you don't know the state charges or
take presidents.
Speaker 9: It does not nullify the state charges. They remain in place.
Today he was brought into federal custody. He'll make his
initial appoint initial court appearance and federal court over in
Saint Paul at one thirtie Central time this afternoon, and
my expectation, based on prior cases, is the federal case
the federal charges will be litigated first, but the state
charges won't necessarily go anywhere.
Speaker 11: Did he talk me some why investigators belief he carried
out the stud and for how long he may have
been planning his death.
Speaker 9: Well, it's pretty clear from the evidence that he's been
planning these attasked for quite some time. There's voluminous writings,
as you've seen in the reporting, that were found both
in his car and his house about his planning, lists
of names and individuals. In terms of the why, it's unclear.
Speaker 12: International with the New Hole police, what had law enforcement
been told at that point?
Speaker 11: Were they aware to be on the lookout for a
dark SCV? They've resembled the police baker.
Speaker 9: I don't know, I can turn that. I don't know
if one of my colleagues here, no, I know that
they had heard about the shooting of Senator Hoffman, and
being the diligent law enforcement, they were knowing that they
had elected officials living in their community as they went
out to do a wellness check.
Speaker 4: I don't know more than that, what I what I
can say and as you can, I don't know the
specifics of the question and what on that whether it is.
What I will tell you is that Hennefet County law
enforcement working together at that time, knew of that, and
so as the different jurisdictions around duty, some of them
did proactive you know, as we've heard you've heard from
Chief Barly on this and mable Grow for example, or
in Brooklyn Park I'm sorry, for example, they went out
proactively to check on the status and the well being
and that's how we encountered this and prevented additional attacks
which we believed certainly could have occurred from occurring. So
we don't know the specifics on the New Hope as
to what they were doing, but they were tracking the
shooting that happened, and so several of them were being
proactive and checking on various people that they knew resided
in their city.
Speaker 13: As the officers in Brooklyn or the Brooklyn partnower series
of his fund he shoot at them or was he shooting.
Speaker 11: Into the house and they kind of chased them into
the house.
Speaker 9: My understanding is it's unclear at the moment whether or
not he shot at them. It's possible that he did,
it's not clear. Obviously it was a chaotic sand.
Speaker 11: Was it wearing the mask when the new Gulpe officer interactively?
Speaker 9: I believe he was, although I can't say for certain the.
Speaker 13: Reason I believed that there was plans to get ad
additional violins at say the first best step was going
on on that day.
Speaker 9: I've not seen evidence of that. It's hard to say
what his plan was. Obviously, he went to the homes
of no less than four elected officials. He had a
list of other elected officials their home addresses.
Speaker 7: So to make sure that we connect the dots properly,
could you name the other two officially?
Speaker 9: You know, we can't at this time. I wouldn't surprise
me if they publicly identify themselves, but it's not really
my place to do that if they want to protect
their own privacy.
Speaker 11: What's your message to Minnesultans who may yet a length
they knocked on the door front? Police is something's going
on in their communities.
Speaker 9: I mean, I'm going a lot law enforcement handle that one.
I don't know if someone shirt police.
Speaker 14: Good morning police chief Mark really booking for police department?
Speaker 4: Great question.
Speaker 14: Like we send all the message our community when this
first occurred is you always can call nine on one
and verify if the person at your door is a
police officer. If they are a working police officer, they
will be connected to a dispatch center that can validate that.
So the first thing I would do is, if you're
concerned about it, is called nine to one one. Obviously
there's a lot of different uniforms and it's never wrong
to do that.
Speaker 11: Can you clarify the shootings stuff? Because we were told
I believe that the person in custody did shoot at
police work from residents.
Speaker 4: That's important to Yeah, so I'll answer this again. That's
part of the act investigation. And I know there's been
a lot that's going on, But as anytime law enforcement
uses deadly force, there's a walled off, separate investigation to
examine that. At that time, I will tell you we
still work through we are gathering evidence when we go
through this happened incredibly fast. What I can tell you
is the police officers that were there unseen that while
they were assessing the situation that the gunfire erupted, and
we are still working through and reconstructing that crime scene.
We've gathered all of the evidence related to that, and
what was said there is that this is definitely happening
very quickly, and we definitely know that he began shooting
at the hortman's as will be detailed in this information,
immediately once the officers were assessing the situation, whether or
not that the gunfire was returned at the officer or not.
We are working through that and we need to recreate
the crime scene itself, and I should say, I want
to say in that process the gunfire was erupting in
such a way all around that that is part why
with the reasonable interpretation on some of those is where
that came from initially was.
Speaker 11: Central motive here.
Speaker 15: It is widely who afforded that the list this hit
list names of people who are abortion wise supporters.
Speaker 11: And also can you please release the names of a
two other targeted victims who were.
Speaker 9: As I said, with respect to the other two potential victims,
I think it's up to them whether they want to
publicly identify themselves. As I said, it wouldn't surprise me
if they do. They're elected officials, but that's their right. Obviously,
they didn't have families and children and privacy interests that
they needed to sort through, so I'll let them do that.
With respect to the potential motive, let me say this,
there's been a lot of press coverage and speculation and
discussion about manifesto. I've seen nothing like a Unibomber style
of manifesto. In his writings. He had many, many notebooks
full of plans, lists of names, surveillance efforts that he
took to surveil and locate the home addresses and family
members relationships with these elected officials. But I have not
seen anything involving some sort of political screed or manifesto
that would clearly identify what motivated him. Obviously, his primary
motive was to go out and murder people. Now they
were all elected officials, they were all Democrats. Beyond that,
I think it's just way too speculative for anyone that's
reviewed these materials to know and to say what was
motivating him in terms of ideology or specific issues.
Speaker 4: There's a lot of.
Speaker 9: There were some abortion rights supporters I believe on the list,
but again there was dozens and dozens and dozens of
names on you know, hundreds of pages of documents that
were recovered with his writings on them.
Speaker 11: He confess and give more details after his appreheaded lest sight.
Speaker 9: I'm not going to comment on that at this time.
Speaker 11: Can you talk about how long this freak planning and
surveillance went on.
Speaker 9: Do you have any idea here's what I got on
for an extensive period of time. I think it's unclear.
The writings appear to have been done at various times
over the course of at least months, I would say,
But beyond that, it's speculative.
Speaker 2: Does he did he have truth? That's got two questions
that go for the same thing.
Speaker 11: He appeared to be involved with some kind of a
home security or a professional security operation.
Speaker 9: I wonder if you have.
Speaker 11: Any details into that, and was he familiar to law
enforcement even though it didn't.
Speaker 2: Appear to have any kind of serious criminal records.
Speaker 9: I've seen the press reporting on his security company. I
don't know anything beyond that or any involvement that would
happen in this case, and I had no knowledge of
his interactions with law enforcement prior to this.
Speaker 11: Can you commented all about you know, in this car,
the light pack, the license plate, maybe a bit of
a batch snip. Was he obsessed with police?
Speaker 9: I have no idea that I think I skipped over
the Clyde. The police license plate wasn't an official looking
police license plate as you can tell it said, I
believe it was like a reflective black things that you
would buy to put on like a mailbox, like your
address on a mailbox.
Speaker 11: See, you've been obsessed with I have no idea.
Speaker 16: That his wife was quote detained at a stop brushop
in Anania, Uh, and that Andrew clar was found weapons, passports,
and a lot of cash.
Speaker 11: He was also with three children. Is that true? And
is the wife?
Speaker 4: I'll defer to law enforcement on that one. Yeah, I
can answer the question. So when you know the question
was detained. Obviously, when an individual commits these, you know,
hainus accent. We knew he was the suspect in this case.
We're going to want to talk to the family. You know,
at this point in time, this is you know, under
active prosecution, and so we want to be careful about
what we say. She was cooperative with us at that time.
There were firearm in the vehicle at the time, at
valid reasons for her she was legally in possession, I
should say that at this time, and there were other
items that were recovered, but we're going to leave that
to some of the prosecution as we work this out,
so we're not going to comment on all of it.
As this is still continue to be part of the
active investigation. We need to figure out exactly what all
this means in relation to this to.
Speaker 11: Be clear of there's not going to be a prosecure
as a district court then today.
Speaker 9: And there'll be an initial appearance in federal court over
in Saint Paul, Minnesota at one thirty Central time this afternoon.
I do not anticipate there will be an a parents
in state court today.
Speaker 13: Just one more question on the hit Listen, you said
forty five names and we see more than that.
Speaker 9: There's lots of I mean, go yeah, and I think
I can help.
Speaker 4: I mean, there's a lot of names that we're working
together right now, so the FBI, there are some and
we've mentioned this that there are some other names that
are from out of state. They have been working through
the Minister, through our Fusion Center network across the United States,
and then our partners at the FBI are helping coordinate
with that in that process. The question is a good one.
Part of what we're looking through. The names, the numbers
that you're referencing, they are was names in multiple notebooks.
Some of them are redundant. So I don't have a
total number of people that were in there because some
of them are overlapping on multiple lists. And again I
do want to continue to clarify this is not a
list of people that was in a numerical order and
some sort of ranking. These are names that are being
developed as we are looking at this across multiple writings
in terms of that, just to be clear about sit off.
Speaker 9: Of the name even in there, though I believe it was.
Speaker 4: Where is it.
Speaker 9: Right now? I think he's in the custodies of the
United States Marshall Service over at the Saint Paul Federal Courthouse.
Beyond that, I'll defer to the marshals on where he'll
be held. Assuming he's held in custody pending trial. It'll
be an initial appearance because he's only charged by complaint.
He has not yet been indicted, so he'll have an
initial appearance as all defendants do before a federal judge,
where he'll be asked to identify himself, the court will
appoint in a lawyer to represent him, or he can
retain when I have a lawyer represent him, and then
the court will ask whether or not we will move
to seek his detention pending trial, which we obviously will,
and then the court could set a detention hearing and
a preliminary hearing to assess whether or not this probable
cost to charge him by complaint. How much of that
will happen actually today is unclear. We'll see at one
point thirty is that.
Speaker 11: The warranty for federal building on the old court.
Speaker 13: Of your incident correct for superintendent happens yesterday the way
that things played out yesterday when you came up for
the five thirty or so fres poverds, did you adjall
that he was close to being caught at that point
or did it come as a surprise when you got
the trailcam information.
Speaker 4: So that you know, we as noted we still had
belief that he's a silly county when we held that,
we did not know the information specifically that it was
there based on the overall investigative. That was still our
belief there, but the specific information that led to his
arrest at that time, we were not tracking yet. I mean,
and I assume that's related to the timeline. These teams
and the law enforcement teams acted very quickly when they
had us specifically that led us to know he was
in that area, and so it was a relatively short
period of time where they converge and were able to
do that.
Speaker 11: What we knew before this day's confidence bad enough, you
have told us is even worse.
Speaker 15: Where does this rank in terms of the tacks that
you know of across the United States? And you address
some of your reaction, but can you all three give
us your react.
Speaker 9: Look, I mean, this was a political assassination, which is
not a word we use very often in the United States,
let alone here in Minnesota. It's a chilling attack on
our democracy, on our way of life. It's only the
most recent example of violent political extremism in this country,
and that's a trend that's been increasing over the in
recent years. And that's unfortunate. And I hope it a
wake up call to everyone that people can I disagree
with you without being evil or needing to be killed
or hurt.
Speaker 12: Perspects of this investigation worked on involved with the printing
out books.
Speaker 11: How many were discovered?
Speaker 9: Some My understanding is some notebooks were recovered from his
vehicle and others from his house. Although obviously there was
a lot of the law enforcement literally from all around
the state. I couldn't begin to identify all of them.
Representatives of many of those or some of those agencies
are here, but far more were involved. And so all
I can say there was many notebooks recovered from multiple locations.
And part of it.
Speaker 11: Makes sense about him going back home, like what was
he thinking? Did he say he was trying to get
back to his house. I mean, it's odd.
Speaker 4: I guess you could say.
Speaker 9: I can't speculate as to what was in his mind.
He obviously went on a murderous rampage on Friday, So
I think I'm not aligned with this thought process.
Speaker 11: Mister Winston. Can you talk about if they're any short
of potential being paid to what kind of safety is
be given to politicians at this time?
Speaker 4: Or is this a spacebook?
Speaker 11: People feel like any threat that's fun.
Speaker 10: Okay, So what we're gonna do is we're gonna, of
course take these threats as serious as possible and throw
all available resources towards these threats. We are in lockstep
with the Capitol Police on a regular basis and we're
continuing to have those conversations about threats towards politicians.
Speaker 4: Thank you for that question.
Speaker 9: Maybe one more question here before we wrap up.
Speaker 17: Chief Fully, just wanted to wrap it back to hoping
you can spink to just how give it all it
is that your officers acted proactively, stopping by Wortman's house
and likely stopping more victims.
Speaker 14: Yeah, great question. Just for everybody in the room, the
question is all important. Was it that the police officers
stopped at Representative Hartman's house, Rachel, which really foil this
entire plan. It's incredibly important that started with a sergeant
who was actually off duty, was walking out of the
building and had heard that there was a shooting in
another community at center Hoffman's house being alert seeing two
officers and the police, Perman said, hey, drive by Melissa
Hartman's house and just check on the house with JA,
And that's essentially what. They pulled up and found that
in the drive was the car and essentially the criminal
act was occurring. As they pulled up, had they not
foiled the plan. You know, he essentially took his vehicle
away from him, which evolved all his maps, all his names,
all his weaponry. I would be very scared what it
would look like over the next few hours that had
we not done that.
Speaker 11: The New Hope and Maple Grove incidents are just the
one in Champlain.
Speaker 14: He only knew about the one that occurred in Champlain.
Speaker 12: So the officer, the other officer came upon me at
the second Palace and Staggins in your vehicle. Did she realize,
like didn't she report them? And when they started chased,
did she realized that was suspectful?
Speaker 9: I don't think she did. She knew something was awry.
And then he left and proceeded to Brooklyn Park and
carried out the next shooting. So it got lost in
the chaos of the event, on lost in the cast
of events, But there was a new shooting shortly thereafter.
It really is remarkable to the question earlier how he
went to four houses at night, and in three of
them or two of them, he encountered law enforcement, and
the third and fourth one and the second one no
one was home at all. It's remarkable how diligent law
enforcement was at two thirty three o'clock and three thirty
in the morning on a Friday night that they were
responding to just do wellness checks on our politicians. It's
a testament. The last forty eight hours have been an
incredible testament to the professionalism and dedication and commitment of
our federal, state, local law enforcement. Thank you all.
Speaker 2: And then here are some comments from John mill reformer
YPD after hearing the news conference from the feed officials
in the state officials in Minneapolis.
Speaker 18: Well, reading between the lines what we're seeing as a pattern.
I mean, if you look at the statements of the
individual from the Boulder, Colorado attack, from just a couple
of weeks ago, molotov cocktails against marchers for hostages. He
said he was planning that for a year. If you
look just before that, the Jewish Museum attack, you have
an individual who is planning that in extraordinary detail before
he struck. And then you look at this attack, all
different agendas, all separate motivations, but another individual who has
been stalking, collecting, surveilling, mapping, supplying, arming and thinking about this.
So this goes back to what we learned from the
FBI profilers in behavioral science, we tend to say, because
these things burst out suddenly, this individual snapped and this
attack followed. These people don't snap. This is a slow boil,
and we're seeing the result of it, but we're also
seeing it with greater frequency. But we learned so much
in the last few minutes about the details that had
been sidelined because job one was finding him and that's
what the focus was. But when he came to Senator
Hofman's house, showing up in his fake police uniform with
his fake police car, he said, open up, this is
the police. We have a report of a shooting at
your house. Now we're in a hall of mirrors. What
he is using as his ruse is that there's some
kind of swatting call, which politicians have become accustomed to
late night visits from the police. Then when they say
you're not a cop, noticing that he may be wearing
this latex mask, his badge doesn't look right, he says
this is a robbery and forces his way into the house.
What we then learned, of course, is that he went
on to another location and then another location of other
elected officials, where he didn't make contact before getting to
the speaker's house where he engaged in that murders rampage.
So this would have been a night of terror. And frankly,
as was pointed out, had that off duty sergeant not said, hey,
while we have this shooting going on a couple of
towns away, let's start to hit these locations and check
on our elected officials, and would really need a little
more detail on that because, as you point out, that
could have been a life and death decision, which is
did the vehicle look like a neighborhood patrol, a security patrol.
Did he say something or did he say nothing? But
you know the instinct to go check on that house.
But yeah, I mean there are a couple of things.
When they go back over this with a fine tooth comb,
there will be some brilliant moments and there may be
some that require a much deeper look about decisions made
in the field. To be clear, manifesto was introduced into
this conversation early on by law enforcement, but I think
not in a public way. I think that was in
their kind of speed reading of We've got a very
complicated notebook with a lot of opinions and thoughts of
it that may give us a window into opportunity. But
we also have this extensive list of names, so seventy
names to start off with, fifteen more found during a
search warrant yesterday Saturday at a residence where he often stayed,
and then the statements today that the notebooks are rife
with different names addresses, So these seem to be his
research materials, basically what we would have called in law
enforcement his targeting package, where he's gathering intelligence, putting together
locations with that intelligence and details, and then separate thoughts
about his thinking on a number of issues which they
didn't really get into today. So our best loose into
his targeting and his motive were his choice of targets