The Two Americas: Patriotism vs. Protest

The stark contrast between patriotic celebrations and political protests reveals the deepening divide in American society, while international tensions and domestic violence further complicate our national landscape.

• Army's 250th birthday parade showcases military history with tanks and historical uniforms in DC, privately funded despite criticism
• Simultaneous "No Kings" protests across the country appear disconnected from reality since true authoritarians wouldn't permit such demonstrations
• Political violence in Minnesota leaves two Democratic lawmakers dead in targeted attacks by a man with confusing political affiliations
• Israel conducts preemptive strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities based on intelligence showing imminent nuclear weapons capability
• Israel-Iran conflict escalates with ongoing strikes, potential US involvement likely given American interests and commitments
• Former FBI official Kash Patel reveals declassified documents alleging Chinese Communist Party interference in the 2020 election
• Questions arise about FBI Director Christopher Wray possibly suppressing intelligence before the 2020 election

Keep moving, keep shooting.

Chapters

• 0:00 Show Introduction and Current Events
• 2:35 Army's 250th Birthday Parade Celebration
• 17:36 No Kings Protests and Public Response
• 28:54 Minnesota Political Violence Investigation
• 47:00 Israel-Iran Conflict and Nuclear Tensions
• 56:00 FBI Documents on CCP Election Interference
• 1:00:00 Show Wrap-up and Final Thoughts

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

It's the Elsa Kirk Show, with Clay Novak serving up trending news and conservative views Brought to you by the Elsa Kirk Collection and Refuge Medical. And now it's time for the show.

Speaker 2: 0:20

Well, hello, it's always such an abrupt thing, I've got to fix that. It just goes. Oh, here we are, hi, anyhow, hey Clay, hey everyone, how are you doing, clay?

Speaker 3: 0:30

Yeah, it's a little doomy, gloomy here in the Midwest, but you know, thankfully it's summertime. Yesterday it was like I don't know, like 95 something heat index, and today it's pouring, so it's summer in the Midwest. But other than that, everything's good. How about you?

Speaker 2: 0:46

Good, same same. We've had so much rain. It's uh, it's so thoughtful the weather I mean that very sarcastically to rain every single weekend it feels like. And then the sun comes out for Monday and it's actually rainy here today, so it's making me a little bit cranky. Does it make you cranky? I can't really.

Speaker 3: 1:04

I don't mind the rain. I actually and I'm a heat baby with all you know everything I did in the army seemed to be in the summertime and very hot and in hot and dry places. So I don't mind the heat, but the humidity is what kills me.

Speaker 2: 1:16

So yeah, yeah, yeah. So we got hey. So we got some good topics. We always have good topics, guys Come on, but yeah, some interesting stuff. We're starting off on a high one, so I'm looking forward to getting to it. How about you?

Speaker 3: 1:27

Yeah, let's get started.

Speaker 1: 1:29

All right Tonight on the Elsa Kurt show with Clay Novak. From tanks rolling in DC to chaos marching in the streets, we're asking one question which America are we becoming? The Army's 250th birthday parade sparked pride for some and protest for others. Enter the no Kings rallies. Then we turn to Minnesota, where political division turned deadly. A targeted killing spree leaves a state reeling and the media spinning Overseas. Israel and Iran are on the brink. Bombs, drones and bunker busters fly as prophecy collides with geopolitics. And back home, a bombshell of a different kind.

Speaker 2: 2:14

Fbi Director Kash Patel says the CCP interfered in the 2020 election, and he's got the documents to prove it Truth, tension and a whole lot of things the media doesn't want you to see. And now it's time for the first two topics that we're going to be talking about, and I just want everyone to and I'm going to remind everyone just pay attention to the contrast, right? So let's start off with. You already know where I'm going. Let's start off with just a little overview from the parade. The celebration it was the Parade of Patriots Army. The army turned 250 years old. It was a great celebration.

Speaker 2: 2:45

Along with President Trump's birthday, it was just and Flag Day, so it was a multi, multi part patriotic day. So here's a look at that ¶¶. So, so, yeah, I gotta say you play me some patriotic music and my heart just goes huge. I love it. So just keep that video in mind. Um, we're going to talk about this a little bit and then, when we get to that next topic, which you know is going to segue perfectly into um, we'll make that comparison, but yeah, so, uh, give me your thoughts on the parade. What did you think of the whole thing?

Speaker 3: 4:09

okay, I I know this is going to shock some people I didn't watch 25 year army career, 25 plus year army career. I didn't watch the parade I I don't like parades, um. I don't watch the rose parade. I don't watch thanksgiving. I don't watch parades, um and I know that I probably should have it's the Army's 250th birthday but I did see highlights. I did some, you know, did my due diligence. I knew we were going to talk about this, so I saw bits and pieces.

Speaker 3: 4:40

Army's birthday and Flag Day coincide. They do also coincide with President Trump's birthday. Let's dispel one thing right now. The Army started planning for this and putting in for all of the permits and everything else a year ago. Okay, so this is not President Trump saying let's do a military parade for my birthday. The Army started this under the Biden administration. They were this all was. You know, the initial planning for all this started under President Biden, because the army does things and, truthfully, in Washington DC, you have to plan things like this a year out. So let's get that out of the way right off the bat.

Speaker 2: 5:14

Yes, because you know that's like the the. You know one of the many big accusations that that this was just Trump's way of having a big party for his birthday Cause's all about him.

Speaker 3: 5:23

Yeah, and listen, this is not a normal thing in the United States. The optics of this are a challenge. I actually admire both administrations the previous and the current for agreeing to do this and taking this on, because in reality we don't see parades like this in the United States. The last time we saw something like this in DC it was after the Gulf War in 1991. Right, so the victory parade for that. So we're talking, you know, 35 years. We see parades like this normally in places like communist China and Libya and like dictatorial nations all over the world. We don't see this stuff normally in the United States. But this was a.

Speaker 3: 6:02

It was a birthday celebration for the army was to honor 250 years of honorable service to the nation for the army and everybody who served in it. I think, from what I saw, it was done well. They did a great job touching on the history of the army, with the different uniforms, you know, the different vehicles. They even honored the army air corps, you know, which then eventually became the Air Force by flying some World War II aircraft. We had old tanks, you know, and all of those things, and I think you know they did. The Army did a good job overall, you know kind of paying tribute to its, you know lifelong service to the nation. I will say the one bit of feedback that I got. I saw from veterans everywhere was the uh.

Speaker 3: 6:45

The soldiers marching on the ground looked bad to the train. I.

Speaker 2: 6:51

Oh yeah, I did hear that Right.

Speaker 3: 6:53

Right. So to the trained eye. Everybody said, you know, they look terrible, they've marched out of step, they weren't marching. Well, those kinds of things. Um and okay, fine, um, I I will. You know, I'll, I'll tell everybody.

Speaker 3: 7:05

It's not a secret inside the military. But you know, people have this image in their head from movies and TV shows that like formations of soldiers march everywhere. They go on a base all the time, like that's normal. They do it every day. That is not the truth.

Speaker 3: 7:18

Um, for ceremonies like this, there's a lot of practice and rehearsal that goes into these things. But soldiers don't generally march. There is very little marching that goes on on a daily basis. In fact we used to make it part of our physical training regimen. When you did your cool down after working out was to practice marching One to keep the skill where it should be, but also just as a physical cool down for what you're doing. But we don't do a lot of marching on a daily basis. So for those folks that said hey, that doesn't look right, it looks out of step, whatever, That'll tell you why. But I think overall it was a good event. The optics again were a challenge. I know we're fighting things like there's cost to this. People don't know that this was almost all completely privately funded. I didn't know that until just a few days ago.

Speaker 2: 8:11

I did not know that at all. I don't even have that in my notes. I have no idea that was the case.

Speaker 3: 8:16

Very little of this came out of the Army's budget or the Department of Defense budget. A lot of it was funded, so that helps, helps take away, you know, a little bit of the sting when you've got, you know, things within the military that need to be fixed soldiers living conditions and some other things that can always be improved so that that kind of takes some of the burn off of it. For another thing, it's like it's like the Trump's birthday thing. Right, right, oh, this costs so much money.

Speaker 2: 8:46

Well, it really didn't cost that much money because it was privately funded by some, some groups, some private funding groups. So that's good For me. That kind of like changes a lot in the, in the sense that like cause that was one of the big employees, oh, it was going to cost so much. It costs so much money, Cause I think I think the number I have here is like so 25 to $45 million for this, which kind of blew my mind a lot. I mean, I don't have a good concept of money anyhow, I'm like a toddler with that. So you know, no surprise that I can't even wrap my brain around that. But so privately funded, I had no idea. I feel like a lot of people had no idea of that Because, again, you know, besides the whole President Trump's birthday and he's tooting his own horn, blah, blah, blah, it's a party for him the next thing was the cost of this.

Speaker 2: 9:32

So that's wild. Now I wanted to ask you why do we not do this more often? I know this was special in that it was the 250th birthday, but why don't we have any kind of like these major celebratory parades with our military? Is it a safety security thing that we don't want to put them all in so many of them in one spot when we're under, you know, I mean I guess we're kind of under constant low key threat. But I mean, what's the reasoning for not doing it? Because I love, like I said, I love the patriotism and I just feel like we need more of it.

Speaker 3: 10:01

Well, so about 95 percent of what you saw on the parade had to be brought in from other places. There's no tank station in Washington DC. There's no. You know they had Bradley fighting vehicles, they had Stryker, you know, wheeled vehicles. They had all kinds of military equipment and troops brought in from all over the country and it's not cheap. So you know, if you were going to do anywhere, you did this. Pick your major metropolitan area Los Angeles, chicago, philadelphia, new York, washington DC, miami, whatever. It's going to cost a lot of money because the nation is as big as it is and you would have to bring everything in to do it on the scale that they just did it.

Speaker 3: 10:41

And then I think the other part of it is is that we don't ever want to be seen as a militaristic nation, a military based nation, while we are, you know, the most powerful military in the world. It's a little bit of walk softly and carry a big stick. We as a nation don't want to be associated with that. You know, hardline, militaristic. You know just the vibes that it's always had associated with China and the old Soviet Union. And you know just the vibes that it's always had associated with China and the old Soviet Union and you know Germany and third Reich, that kind of stuff. Like we don't want to be associated with that kind of you know imagery that you get from those. So I think that's why we shy away from it.

Speaker 3: 11:17

For the most part, we do love, you know, our smaller stuff. Flyovers are always great. You know the Thunderbirds and Blue Angels and the Golden Knights and all that cool stuff. Air shows we do love air shows. Those are kind of you know, nationwide but you go to one of those and truthfully, very little of that is active duty military. So yeah, it's just the cost is part of it. We also don't want to have that. As much as we love our military and we do I just don't think we want that imagery associated with us, the United States.

Speaker 2: 11:44

So yeah, well, that makes sense. That makes sense. I understand that, Did I? So I'm like you, clay, I did not watch it. I watched. You know we've talked about this before, guys, right, I watch very little television news. All of this is I literally watch what I need to watch to know what I need to know. That is it, I mean, that's it in a nutshell. So I did not watch either same thing, except for clips and all of those things and the research. Now, one of the things that I read was that only I don't. This doesn't even seem possible. Only Fox News aired the parade. Is that accurate?

Speaker 3: 12:23

Yeah, I think it got very little coverage. I know Fox covered it. I know most of the other media outlets did not, not in a live streaming, you know kind of format. So, no, there was not a lot of coverage outside of Fox News or the Fox News networks, family networks. So, yeah, it didn't get. I think somebody else covered it, I don't remember who it was, maybe kind of one of those smaller networks, maybe I don't know who it was, but I saw it on a couple of places, but not like you would see the State of the Union or you would even see the. You know the Independence Day, you know celebrations that they have all the time, those kinds of things. It was very, very little coverage, as is expected from mainstream media.

Speaker 2: 13:11

Yeah, definitely from the mainstream. Yeah, I just, I think it just kind of surprised me more that the you know, the more conservative or neutral even stations were not carrying it. It's kind of bizarre to me, were they focusing more on that other thing going on all day, is that?

Speaker 3: 13:27

well, they, they probably were, I think, the only other thing. There's two things that I do want to say about this before we move on, cause we. The next thing is just as important, probably arguably more so, but um, two things about this parade, and I don't want, because I don't want people to get things twisted. One you know the soldiers that participated in this. They were all, like I said, brought in from other places, okay, and, and you know, their equipment was brought in, which means that it was loaded onto rail cars or things like that, weeks, you know, week before, two weeks before the soldiers got there, days before there was rehearsal. They were probably there till days afterwards. So this is, you know, this was a big thing. And, and I said, you know, cause, I've walked a bunch of parades, I've stood in a bunch of formations, I, I've done a lot of this stuff and I will tell you that, you know, soldiers don't necessarily enjoy this stuff, okay, I can imagine they would not.

Speaker 3: 14:19

You know, if it starts at nine o'clock in the morning, you can promise that you're going to be up at 2 am. Right, it's just, it is what it is. So, you know, is it an honor to be in something like this? Sure, it is Five, 10 years from now. They look back and go. You know, I was in that parade. It was pretty cool. Sure, that morning they were cursing a lot and it's soldiers, are soldiers. Right, sure, there's value in that parade. I Right, sure, there's value in that parade.

Speaker 3: 14:43

I think you know people celebrating the Army's 250th anniversary or birthday is is admirable. I think it's a thing we should do. I think the Army did a great job. I think it was great for recruiting, I think it was great for visibility. There's tons to be gained from this. And again, five, 10 years from now, even that morning, I'm sure there were some soldiers that were like, hey, this is pretty cool, um, but there were plenty of them that were like, man, I would rather be at home asleep, you know, in the barracks on a Saturday morning with a hangover, but uh, but they weren't Um. So you know it's, it does take a little bit of a toll, um. And yes, soldiers have a job to do and this is part of it, and good on them, but uh, but you know they don't always enjoy it.

Speaker 2: 15:22

Yeah. And then the other part is Any of them Sorry, any of them watching and hearing me say I want more, I'm sorry. I'm sorry guys, I won't ask for more, not for a long time Not for a very special occasion then.

Speaker 3: 15:34

Well, there's going to be more of this coming up, and so the Marine Corps birthday is coming up this fall, their 250th, 50th, and you know you've got all of these things that are coming in the next few years, um, where you're going to see more and more of this. Um, but there was a, there was a tragedy at the end of this and again I I'm surprised it hasn't gotten more coverage in it and it was purely an accident, uh, but a heavy equipment transport. So they put these tanks on trucks right to get them to the rail yard instead of driving them through the city and breaking up all the concrete because they weigh 70 tons. Um, so they loaded a tank onto one of these heavy equipment trucks that disperses the weight and all this other stuff and then they drive it to the rail yard. Um, uh, one of these trucks hit and killed a woman in Washington. Oh, it was not an army vehicle, it was a contracted vehicle to move the tank itself. Oh boy, you know I'm very surprised that that hasn't gotten more press.

Speaker 2: 16:32

This is literally the first I've heard of it. I had no idea that that happened.

Speaker 3: 16:35

Yeah, in an attempt to blame something, anything, on President Trump.

Speaker 2: 16:38

Of course, right, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 3: 16:49

That did happen and it is a tragedy. But you know, that's one of those things that you know, these things don't when they don't go off perfectly smooth, and I don't envy any commander, any leader that was anywhere near that formation, because there were rumors of President Trump leaning over to Secretary Hegseth and going, hey, why does that look like that? Or hey, those guys don't look right. Or hey, why did that happen? Supposedly there was a phone call afterwards. I don't know Rumors of that, who knows if it's true, but these are the things that you know unfortunately will leave a lasting mark and a stain on an otherwise great day. You know, I just don't want people to take that out of context and turn it into something it's not.

Speaker 2: 17:21

Right, yeah, absolutely, Because you know well. But whoever watches this show will be able to say, oh, hang on a second. I actually know the truth of that. So good job, Clay.

Speaker 3: 17:32

But there was also another thing going on.

Speaker 2: 17:35

No, what's there? What's there? I feel like, yeah, I think you're right, there was something else going on, all right. So of course you all know we're talking about the no kings marches, protests, rallies I guess it depends on who you are and where you are what you want to call it, but I did promise you guys that we had a video to watch and contrast with. Now, remember that beautiful, patriotic, awesome video we just watched that just made you want to I don't know say the Pledge of Allegiance or something. Well, compare it to this. We are forced from fear and greed to expose the lies of patriarchy Sign.

Speaker 3: 18:26

Bigger sign Go home fascist. Go home fascist. Go home fascist. You're not welcome here. Go home, fascist. Why I'm?

Speaker 4: 18:35

fascist, fascist.

Speaker 1: 18:36

Around here is a shade. Yeah, that's what, uh.

Speaker 4: 18:42

That's a disgusting shirt, huh.

Speaker 3: 18:44

Oh I love it man.

Speaker 2: 18:56

Yeah, that's a disgusting shirt, huh. Oh, I love it man. Yeah, then there was that so charming and amazing. I, I believe, I, I feel like what was the chant in?

Speaker 3: 19:01

that first, something to the effect of we are porn stars, something I don't, something about exposing the patriarchy.

Speaker 2: 19:05

Exposing the patriarchy, yeah. Okay. So you gotta love the left right, I mean you gotta love them, and I don't really mean that, as if anybody could not guess that I'd love the fact that they created a protest and a rally and a march about something that is not even a thing. It's not an issue. Trump has never considered himself a king. In fact, if he did consider himself the king a king, he probably would have banned any type of protest or march along those lines.

Speaker 3: 19:43

So that is the absurdity of this right. I mean, the absurdity is, if he was a king, if we had a king, there's no way that they would be protesting. They'd be allowed to protest, they would not be allowed. No way. So that is the number one absurdity of this entire thing, Mm-hmm, yeah it just.

Speaker 2: 20:05

You know my daughter gets on my case. Mom, don't be judgy, Don't be judgy about people. And every time I say, honey, I'm not being judgy, I'm just being honest. This is I'm just being honest. Here were mostly peaceful rallies, with, of course, the exceptions LA. La is your general constant exception these days.

Speaker 2: 20:32

There was an inordinate amount of elderly people. Did you see the little brigades of nursing home people coming out? I'll throw it on here, Just coming out of what I think is their nursing home. I don't really know when they're wearing their little crowns on their heads and they're, you know, waving their little handwritten signs and I just get the feeling that they thought they were on a field trip to Burger King and they, you know, were getting. That's why they had crowns. I don't know if they had any idea what was really happening. Maybe they did, I don't know.

Speaker 2: 21:06

There was one video that came out of it that really actually pulled at my heartstrings and just made me so sad and angry at the same time at the left for the way they manipulate people, particularly mentally fragile people, elderly people, and it was this older woman, I think she was like 74, and she's crying and her voice is shaking and she is. It's genuine. This woman was terrified that King Trump, you know, is what they're portraying him as is just going to take away all of their rights and he's just going to, you know, end America as we know it, and she was truly scared and sad and frightened. And it's like this is what they do to these people. They take the most fragile people in our country and they manipulate them into either a frenzy of, you know, mania and insane violent behavior it's just or they do that, you know, and these poor people are living in terror of something that is not even remotely a threat in this era of this lifetime, it's just mind boggling. Tell me about some of the stuff you saw in your searches there.

Speaker 3: 22:23

Yeah, so it was supposed to be between 1500 and 1800, um different locations across the country. Some are much, uh, more well attended than others. Um, you know, I I think some of the smaller ones were literally yard signs um and nothing more. Um, I, there were estimates of 4 million people participating across the country, which I find absolutely absurd One. There's no way that you could tell how many people were participating, you know once you get into the larger metro areas, but I think 4 million is crazy. There were all of the assumptions and assertions that people were being paid uh participate in this in various locations. Um, you know, and, and it started with the LA, uh, you know, the LA riots, uh, that expanded. They started on whatever it was Tuesday last week and then carried on through Saturday, um, but they were being some people were being paid $200 to to participate. Um, I don't know how true any of that is. It wouldn't shock me even in the least. We know that the Walmart heiress was advertising full-page ads to try and get people involved. So that was an issue.

Speaker 3: 23:36

The Pacific Northwest, outside of Los Angeles, seemed to be a bit of a hotbed and, oddly enough, utah, salt Lake City, for some unknown reason, which I was also unfortunately the only location for a fatality directly related to, uh, the no Kings rallies, where? But but it was. It sounded stupid. It sounded like somebody was in a crowd, somebody started arguing with somebody else and then somebody shot somebody. It wasn't a a um, you know, a targeted like shoot the protesters, or a targeted you know somebody who's anti-protest or whatever it wasn't. It just seemed like something somewhat unrelated happened to be in the midst of the crowd. But you know, it's the whole thing just had this weird forced feeling to it.

Speaker 3: 24:25

You know, we'd talked about it last week because, again, la had had piped up and we were starting to see the beginnings in, um, chicago and, I think, new York maybe, but I almost none of it carried into the weekend except for LA. Um, you know, there was a little bit, you know, in Chicago. I know, um, there was a little bit New York, but not really Um, so I know there was a little bit in New York, but not really. So you know, I think for the most part, I think it was a total flop nationwide. I don't think it many people you know, other than a few key statements by some politicians and elected sheriffs down in the great state of Florida. You know, I don't think there was a lot of attention paid to it.

Speaker 2: 25:02

Truthfully, yeah, yeah, I don't. It did not have the impact that they were hoping. Whoever they are and I agree with you, you know, I think there were probably, to a degree, some paid actors there do, trying to stir things up and agitate things, but I think the general vibe was like, I think even the people there are like, well, I mean, what exactly? What do we? What are we doing? No King, no Kings. Okay, you know, sounds good, I'll just wave my my sign and dress up in my silly clothes and, you know, march around. Yeah, it was, it was silly, it was just silly is really what it was no impact, no effect on anything. It just made them look sad, silly, bitter fools, really. You know, this is a patriotic day. This is, I mean, it's flag day, and you know, I did see signs, particularly a lot more of those, the elderly crowd, which is, you know, the angle they were probably taking with them, like, take back your flag, take back your country from. You know the patriarchy and King Trump, orange man, bad and whatever other things they can throw out there. You know, it's just sad. It's just it was a sad display. You know this is what a great event the parade was, what a great time celebrating our army, celebrating Flag Day, celebrating this country, and instead that's what you want to do. It's like you know, be angry. I shared it and did a commentary on it. I'm not going to bother, I don't even think I'll show it on here. It's not even worth it. But you know, these are one of these bigger protests Somebody had set up it almost looked like a lemonade stand or no.

Speaker 2: 26:47

You know what it looked like. It looked like a, uh, lucy's, um, peanuts psychiatry. You know five cents psychiatry. And this woman had set up this little stand. It looked like that. You know, lucy's stand on on the peanuts or whatever. Uh, charlie Brown and, um, she had a Trump doll and they could take the doll and for whatever I don't know, a dollar, $5, whatever it was you can yell at the doll and bang it on the table and do this, and it was a video of this. You know, kooky old guy doing just that and looking absolutely absurd, absurd. And you know, being a great poster child for one of the many, for not only what's wrong in this country, uh, but for, you know, mental decline in in our society. It's, it's so, and I keep harping on that because it's just, it's so obvious, it's so clear when you look around, when you see that video that we shared, um just the, the, the mental.

Speaker 3: 27:42

I won't even go so far as to say mental illness, although you know um just the mental, the mental decline of people and the things that they do and the things that they think are a good idea is just wow.

Speaker 2: 28:01

Please point on the doll where the orange man hurt you Right, right. Like you are a grown adult. You are collecting social security. Probably you have a pension, maybe. I mean, this is what you're doing with your time. I think that's the thing that keeps getting me, at least in this week. It's the elderly people. Those are the ones that are bothering me the most. Like you should be living your best life right now. You should not have pardon me everyone. You should not have pardon me everyone. You should not have an F to give. Like you should just be living your life because you earned it. Like you earned the right to just coast and relax and do joyful things, and like you're just marching around being angry. Oh, it makes me sad. It really does. Maybe it's just me, I don't know.

Speaker 3: 28:48

Unfortunately, though you know, this breeds reactions by some people that and you and it leads to significant things like we had in Minnesota. Yes, Right.

Speaker 3: 28:58

Yeah, and so we had. You know, it turned out to be well, initial reports on Sunday morning, even late Saturday night, was that there was multiple politicians that were attacked in Minnesota and some shootings occurred. So the first report that I saw was that four were killed. And then it came back and it said, you know, one lawmaker and her husband were killed, and then another lawmaker and his wife were were injured, which turned out to be the truth. Um so, um, you know, uh, hortman and her husband and Hoffman and his wife I had to get those right Cause I knew I was going to mix them up for the ages Um so they were lawmakers, state lawmakers, in the state of Minnesota.

Speaker 3: 29:43

Uh, both Democrats and uh were attacked, you know, saturday night in their homes and were shot by, at that point, an unnamed man who they knew had been dressing, dressed up like a police officer, had a vehicle with police lights, he had a police uniform, had a police badge, those kinds of things, and he shot and killed two and shot and killed, shot and wounded two others, and then, boom, gone on the run. Nobody knew where he was at um, and then, monday, I think it was, um, it came out who it was later, um, you know this guy, vance bolter, um, and really his background, he was a, uh, lifelong democrat. He was uh, um, you know, put. He was a, a nominee and selected for government work by Governor Walz, oddly enough, and, and and so he had a lot of deep Democrat ties, or ties to the Democrat party, and he lost it, lost his bearings and he went after these lawmakers.

Speaker 2: 30:43

Yeah, yeah, I, you know so, as is always, and I took a good, a good lesson from you a long time ago, early, early days, of not jumping on that hurry up and report it bandwagon, for the exact reason that you. You just said that like you get all of these you know wrong, half true, half false reports, and then you spend all this time backpedaling. But all of that other information now is out there and that's what everybody's running with. So I sat back on this. I don't even know, to be honest with you, I don't even know if I have posted anything about it as of yet, because there's so much as always, so much conflicting stuff coming in. So all of the things that I was hearing initially was exactly what you said Lifelong Democrat, voted Democrat, was on the Tim Walz. He was a Tim Walz hire, all of these things. He had the no Kings flyers in his vehicle, all of this stuff that was strongly pointing to him. You know, being another crazy liberal. Then I start seeing all these other things coming from the other side, saying that oh, no, no, no, no, he's a registered Republican, he's a Christian nationalist, he's and I'm sitting to go.

Speaker 2: 32:05

Well, now we're talking like radically different stories here, not just a little different, radically different, and, to be honest with you, I still don't really know what the truth is. Uh, there's a lot to this story that is kind of questionable. A lot that's very questionable. I have the video, the release from the police there, and this gives their rundown, and I think this is probably important for everyone to see, because this is probably like at this moment, assuming everything that he's saying is the truth. I don't have a reason to not believe this. We know how all the conspiracy things happen. All I'm going to say is this is what they said for chain of events and what's going on, did not? I don't think they make any mention of political affiliation in this. I can't remember now, but let's just watch it. You guys can see it with us.

Speaker 4: 33:00

Brooklyn Park, minnesota, in the home of Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman. At approximately 3.30 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, 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 Belter as he rushed into the home, but he escaped into the home and out the back.

Speaker 4: 34:23

Officers recovered Belter's nine-millimeter Beretta, along with the body armor and the mask, behind the home along his path of flight when he fled on foot. They later searched belter's car, but they found five more firearms, including a skull style rifles and a large quantity of ammunition. Belter also had in his car notebooks containing a list of more than 45 minnesota state and federal elected officials, including Representative Hortman. 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.

Speaker 2: 35:12

So, you know, I mean, let's state the obvious, no matter what the motives are, what anything is, it's you's, it's frightening to know that anyone can just go right on the internet find out where you live.

Speaker 2: 35:40

You know all of those things. I mean, we all should be bothered by that and I'm sure, I'd like to believe, we all are, um, you know, as for his political affiliations, I don't know, uh, the things that I would say it's like weird to me, not politically related, just the whole, that whole process of him going up to the door, engaging with the police, still getting through the door, killing the couple and then escaping out the back door and evading capture for a couple of days, a couple, a couple of years. Yeah, um, and I say that that is so mind boggling to me, because if you see video footage of of him um, there's some surveillance video probably somebody got it like on their ring camera or something of him walking towards the door or something and, um, he's kind of ambling. He's not an agile man, he's not a fit man. So those are some of the things that I'm kind of struggling with and saying how come you couldn't catch him?

Speaker 2: 36:47

That should have been like a massive manhunt right away, right Like you're calling everybody in, everybody's going out. You know, I guess he went out the back door and just disappeared. I don't know. I mean, what are your thoughts?

Speaker 3: 37:01

Yeah, there's a lot of sketchy in this and I you know me, I only, I only subscribe to a couple of conspiracy theories, but this, this has got some weird stuff going on. That's got to be out. Yeah, yes, they found his car. Yes, stuff going on that's got to be ironed out. Yes, they found his car. Yes, he had a list of over 45 politicians, both state and federal or from other states, including Ohio, wisconsin and Illinois, if I remember correctly, and he had no King's Day propaganda in his car. That all sounds very, very fishy. He did supposedly send a series of texts to his family that night, apologizing to his wife, apologizing to his children, saying, hey, daddy went to war last night, you know. Apologizing to his wife and said, hey, there's going to be some armed and very itchy trigger finger people coming to see you. I apologize for that.

Speaker 3: 37:51

So there's a lot of like over over the top. This is, you know, you know, vance bolter, belter, whatever his name is like. There are just like neon signs pointing to this guy. You know, um, I saw some of the reports like he owns a security company, spent some time in south africa. Uh, doing that kind of work doesn't seem like that kind of guy doesn't seem like he has the background to be that kind of guy like you said, not fit, not a guy that can be on the run for three days. Um, you know, and if they found his car with all that stuff in it, how did he get away? When did they find his car right and actually ditched a car later on, which is one of the reasons. It's one of the ways that they found him.

Speaker 3: 38:32

But is he that? Is he that dumb to ditch his car with all the evidence in it? Right, I mean, there's so many weird things about this. You know, the mask over his face, um, you know, if you saw it, it was a latex mask that looked very realistic, very realistic. In a ring camera. It looked like it did not look realistic at all. You know latex I get, but yeah, there's just a lot of holes in this and none of it smells right. It just something is wrong with all of this. Minnesota that voted the only two Democrats in the state of Minnesota that crossed party lines and voted against extending healthcare for illegals in the state, and that's why they were targeted. It would be very interesting to know the 45 other. I've seen a couple of other names, but pull the other 45 or so names that are on his list and cross-reference them and figure out the whys, what the linkage is, and I'm sure there's some poor dude in the FBI.

Speaker 3: 39:39

You know in the basement doing a spider web diagram trying to figure all this stuff out. But yeah, it's, there's something about it that just doesn't smell right and I and I don't know enough, and we not. I don't think any of us know enough to put our finger on it right now, except for the fact that my gut says this ain't it like this? Wrong here?

Speaker 2: 39:58

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that is I. I and many people who have been following along with this story, uh, are pretty much saying the same thing None of this is adding up, you know? Um, I don't know it, just it doesn't add up. Is this going to be another one of those things I guess we'll never know type of scenario? Very, very possible. I hope not, you know. I hope they do get to the bottom of whatever the case is.

Speaker 2: 40:25

And, by the way, I mean this shouldn't have to be said anymore, at least not from Clay and I. All I care about is the facts. If the guy is a, you know, raving, raging Trump supporter, a extreme right winger, a Christian radical, if he's, if he is those things, he doesn't represent us, he doesn't represent. You know what I mean? Like, I'm not going to be upset by that because, no matter what you know, the left is going to think whatever they're going to think and say whatever they're going to say. What you know, the left is going to think whatever they're going to think and say whatever they're going to say. We're going to say whatever we're going to say, and you know what I mean. So we're not going to, we're not going to have that come to Jesus moment together, where we're all going to agree on it clearly at this point.

Speaker 2: 41:04

I would love for that to be the case. If we could just finally sit down at the table and and talk like humans to each other. Doesn't look like soon, but whatever. Whatever the truth is, that's all I want, right? I mean yeah.

Speaker 3: 41:18

And and the important thing and I you know everybody makes jokes about Epstein and and all that, but he's got to be protected in pretrial confinement Like, otherwise we're never going to know Jack. So that's my biggest fear right now is I do have this guy in custody and that he he has got to be. I don't care if they put him in solitary for the next two years until this thing goes to trial that guy. He cannot be exposed to potential harm in prison because otherwise we are never going to know what happened. Right?

Speaker 2: 41:48

Yeah, absolutely yeah, they're not saying. They say he's got you know, they're talking about his notes that he has. They're stopping short of calling it a manifesto. Right're not calling it a manifesto, they're just calling it notes, which is interesting in itself too. I mean again, layers upon layers upon layers of very interesting, curious things going on with this, um, that aren't making sense. And I believe too, uh, the wife now again, this could be not true. Uh, was she stopped or caught with, like they said, like uh, passports?

Speaker 2: 42:20

plane tickets like that yeah loaded loaded weapons as well did you hear that?

Speaker 3: 42:25

that I that I didn't hear. I I heard travel plans, travel arrangements made for her. Either she wasn't, you know, obviously hadn't left yet, but it was. If she knew, why did she leave? If, you know, obviously hadn't left yet, but it was. If she knew, why did she leave? If she, you know, or why didn't she leave, or something about that that didn't seem right as well. So it's, we just all got to cross our fingers and hope that this comes out in the court case somewhere or through investigation and we figure out what exactly happened and why.

Speaker 2: 42:51

Yeah, yeah, I mean. The nutshell of it is is we're we're leaving this off with more questions than answers. Certainly, and um, you know the the simple, uh obvious fact that it's incredibly tragic that these people lost their lives, uh over whatever kind of insanity. Um doesn't matter where the insanity stemmed from. The fact is that two people lost their lives, um, horrifically, and um you know, huge sympathies to their, to their families and to the injured uh couple as well. It's just a whole thing's awful. Everybody just needs to calm the heck down and stop instigating insane people.

Speaker 3: 43:34

Basically, you know there's a whole bunch of that going on in the Middle East right now.

Speaker 2: 43:38

There sure is. Oh, my goodness, yeah, go ahead.

Speaker 3: 43:43

Yeah, so this is an ongoing, obviously ongoing, thing. This is Israel-Iran conflict. That's been going on since forever. This is just the latest iteration of it, and so preemptive attacks by Israel on Iran based on an intelligence report that said Iran was less than a month away from being nuclear weapon capable not nuclear capable, not nuclear energy capable, but nuclear weapon capable, which they're not supposed to be doing. So you know and we could go backwards in time and talk politics about sanctions lifted and put back on and nuclear power versus nuclear weapons, blah, blah, blah, blah blah you know the Israelis have stepped in once before and destroyed sites in Iran for this exact same reason, and so they stepped in and they did it again just the other night. Now it's been since then. It has been a perpetual back and forth exchange. It's almost like something you'd see out of a movie, where it's like the Israelis do this and then the Iranians fire back, and then the Israelis fire back, conducting for what seems like a very, very long time. This is the fruits of that. So they knew they had a very good read on where Iran was in their nuclear development and it got to the point where it was critical and the decision had to be made and action had to be taken. So they did it. And so you know, setting conditions, targeting intelligence, gathering of leadership, of scientists, of where they live, where the facilities were. And oh, by the way, if you're going to do this, you might as well hit some of the military leadership and some of the national level leadership in the government as well, which Israel did. And they did it like two levels down right, the chief of staff who just got appointed four days ago, because the former chief of staff got killed in the initial. He got killed yesterday, right. So they know two and three moves ahead, who's getting placed in. And the Israelis are continuing to assault that and kind of the way this whole thing went down.

Speaker 3: 45:52

You know Iran invested a lot of money a long time ago in an, in their own version of a dome, you know, air defense system to protect them from instances just like this. Well, they didn't have the money and the technology to keep it up, and what the Israelis did was they flew in with stealth aircraft. First they targeted some key facilities, but they targeted the entire air defense network, um, and then they turned around and they flew a bunch of conventional planes in behind it because Iran couldn't protect itself anymore, you know, and and so then it just became this perpetual, like you know, israeli the Israelis would fly back, they'd refuel, they'd read arm, they'd get about two hours of sleep and they'd get back in the plane and they fly and they'd do it again. And in the meantime, the Iranians were launching missiles and drones and whatever else they had, you know, in return. So you know that they killed the leader of the IRGC again. This is like the fourth one of those in the last two years, I think, that have been killed.

Speaker 2: 46:48

It's got a long line of them. It is.

Speaker 3: 46:51

I said it before when they killed Soleimani it's the most dangerous job on the planet because your life expectancy is about zero. So you know, the question people keep asking is what role has the US played in this up to now and what is our role going forward? I would tell you that you know, very indirectly, you know, and very privately, we have been in support of this, as we always have. We have been in support of this as we always have. You know, there's no secret that President Trump and past presidents not all but have said Iran cannot be nuclear capable because you can't trust them to do the right thing. You could say oh well, they deserve nuclear power. Well, you know, they're just going to take that and they're going to turn it into a nuclear weapon capability and we can't have that. The globe cannot afford that. So so I'm sure we supported Israel with intelligence, I'm sure we supported him with munitions and those sorts of things. You know, and people will say well, what is? You know what? They provided a capability to the terrorists in Iraq when I was there, that that otherwise wouldn't have existed, and it was one of the most deadly things that we all had to deal with. It was called an explosively formed projectile inside of Iraq. They did not have the capability to produce these munitions and it's a special type of IED that we all had that we all feared. Um, but the, the capability was coming from Iran and everybody knew it. Okay, so Iranians have directly, indirectly, been killing Americans since about 2006. Okay, Um, so if you think Americans haven't been involved or don't have a stake in this against Iran, we we certainly do.

Speaker 3: 48:33

Now, going forward the you know we've got a second strike carrier group, you know, pulling into the Mediterranean. There's been reports of dozens of aerial refuelers flying into the Middle East, american aerial refuelers to support air operations. I would be willing to bet we've done things like you know reroute satellites. We've probably forward deployed drones. There's probably special operators on the ground right as a whole bunch of let's provide a bunch of options just in case.

Speaker 3: 49:04

And mostly, what everybody's talking about is using our stealth long range bomber capability to absolutely remove any potential for these underground testing facilities that the Iranians have been using labs and so forth, using our munitions, the famous bunker buster bombs delivered from a B-2 bomber, to just bury the entire project, take all of their facilities, collapse it, bomb the crap out of it and be done with it. But in general, we will continue to support Israel, as we have in the past and probably always will. Um, and, and you know, for for most people, what they don't realize is and I this is one thing I did say about Saturday night is that when this kicked off, you know, when we take this capability away from Iran, they do have terror networks that they support globally and it wouldn't have taken anything for them to alert and activate that capability, that global terrorist network that they support. So that's my concern. Now I have much less concern about Iran doing anything to anybody in the very near future, but that terror network that they support globally is probably now the biggest threat.

Speaker 2: 50:19

And I know that you know people on both sides of the aisle are throwing a lot of accusations at Trump, that you know, whatever. I guess it depends on what their feeling is. But he, you know, and I'm going to play this for you he's very clear on his position when it comes to Iran, what he thinks and what he feels and what he wants. I mean, this is what he had to say about it.

Speaker 3: 50:41

Don't want a long term war. They're afraid that we're going to get into a long term war.

Speaker 2: 50:44

We're not looking for a long term war.

Speaker 3: 50:45

We're looking.

Speaker 1: 50:46

It's only. I only want one thing.

Speaker 2: 51:00

Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. I mean he's, you know, listen, the man cannot say it any more plainly that is what he thinks, that's how he feels, that's his stance. If you can take that I get that, I get the vibe that he is like you can take that any old way that you want to take it. This is the fact and this is how it is and I love him for that. You know. I just I do and you know. I mean I think it's safe to say that of course nobody wants to, wants us to get involved in a war, to be, you know, hands on fully in it and everything. But we do have an obligation and a commitment to Israel to be supportive to them. They are our friends, they're our allies and I mean that's simply the way it is, and I know there's a lot of people that are not cool with that. But too bad, so sad, I guess, right.

Speaker 3: 51:49

Yeah, but we have, you know, the same people who will say we have an obligation to police the globe are the same people who don't want us involved with this. And this is truthfully policing the globe. It's that President Trump saying they just can't have a nuclear weapon and he doesn't say why. But he doesn't have to say why they just can't be. You know, we've got whatever it is. Now I think it's seven, maybe nine nuclear capable countries in the world and they are all mostly responsible grownups. Right, this is Iran does not fit that category.

Speaker 2: 52:24

No, I mean, this is the people shouting death to America. So kind of thinking that we are involved to a degree. You know this is our own personal interest that we're looking out for. You know, not just Israel is our own personal interest that we're looking out for. You know, not just Israel, israel, of course, but our own personal interest, and you know he's. I guess, like we said, he could not say any more plainly these are not people who should be trusted with nuclear weapons. Period end of story. And you know.

Speaker 3: 52:50

Yeah, and and not only can they not be trusted that they won't employ them, they can be trusted to the point that they won't sell them. I mean, that's an even bigger kind of scary scenario is that they would build six, keep five for themselves, take the sixth one and sell it to some crazed, lunatic radical Islamic terror group and then lose track of it. And then nobody knows where it is or what it's doing or who has it or what you know the target is. So you know that's an even bigger crazy scenario that that nobody on earth can afford to have. Because you know, once it leaves governmental hands of any kind, um, then you, then anybody, everybody's at risk.

Speaker 3: 53:33

Um, you know it could end up in some, they could sell it to Zelinsky for crying out. You know what I mean. And then Russia's at stake, or you know what I mean. So there's a lot of fear in this and I think everybody's on every rational person's on the same sheet of music that they can't have this. And unfortunately we're at the point now where the US does not have the option of not being involved Directly and publicly involved.

Speaker 2: 53:58

Yeah, you just answered my question. I was going to ask you do you think that our direct intervention is inevitable? And it sounds like the answer is yeah. Yeah, it is inevitable. Yeah, yeah, I know very little of the war stuff, but it seems kind of like a given to me that that is the case, seems kind of like a given to me that that that is the case. You know, the only way that that could not happen is if Iran just stops and says whoa, whoa, we give up, you win, we're not going to. You know, obviously you'd have to back that up with absolute proof.

Speaker 3: 54:27

And well, you know, President Trump did say to the supreme leader, the Ayatollah, and said you know, unconditional surrender, leader the Ayatollah, and said you know, unconditional surrender. There have been a number of people that have said that this is a grand opportunity for the youth movement within Iran to overthrow the government because there is, in a weird turn of events, a youth movement that wants to be westernized. And I say that's weird because if you know any of the history of Iran, the reason that they have the government that they have now was because of a youth movement in 1980. So, like they were a hardline Islamic youth movement that overthrew a very kind of moderate government. And you know, 40 years later, here we are. 40 years later, here we are. But now they're hoping that the opposite happens and that a much more westernized, liberal, modern youth movement, less religious, has the opportunity to overthrow and maybe kind of settle things down a little bit. So we'll see what happens, but I think we're going to see something significant happen, probably within the next, I would say, 72 hours.

Speaker 2: 55:30

Yeah, yeah, okay. Oh, that's a great moment to remind everyone. Yes, we are recording on Wednesday, guys. You guys and us in the comments will be watching on Thursday evening. So for you, right now it's Thursday. We're recording a day early.

Speaker 2: 55:47

If anything happens between the time of this recording and the time of this airing. Now you know why. We're not covering whatever that might be, so hopefully nothing happens, but you know we like to do this is what you know. We like not covering whatever that might be, so hopefully nothing happens, but you know we like to do this is what you know. We like to call it the weekly recap. We recap all the week's events for you, so you don't have to watch it. You don't even have to. You can be like us and only watch what you absolutely need to watch to be informed, and that would be us. We will get you informed. We'll hopefully make you smile and laugh a little bit along the way, and yeah, so there you go Now you know we tell you every week, just in case somebody wants to get in that comment section and yell at us.

Speaker 3: 56:21

And they inevitably do.

Speaker 2: 56:23

They do anyhow. They do anyhow and that's okay. We have one very last quick thing to mention here. Fbi, Kash Patel, drops a bombshell or is it a bombshell? I mean, if I guess it depends on who you ask drop the bombshell that they declassified documents alleging that the CCP interference in 2020, including a plot using fake US driver's licenses to cast mail in ballots for Biden. So, basically, you know, this would suggest confirmation that the 2020 election was tampered with was. Well, it was tampered with. It was I don't know if he's going so far to say stolen.

Speaker 3: 57:15

And I think the kicker is, like Senator Grassley pay attention to is not whether or not it was successful, because we can't go back in time and fix things, but we can hold people accountable. In August of 2020, before the election, and Christopher Wray was the director of the FBI at the time, and these Intel reports got out and then they all got recalled back into the bureau and then it all disappeared.

Speaker 2: 57:46

And he said it never existed, it never happened.

Speaker 3: 57:50

And that, I think, is probably the biggest thing out of all of this that we need to pay attention to, because that is not just evidence of China being involved and interfering and potentially even altering the outcome of the election, but what you've got now is a former FBI director and probably most of the bureau leadership on board with this, protecting it and really probably being a part of it. And oh, by the way, who are they talking to at the time? So that's, that is, I think, christopher Wray, and his link and all of that Intel stuff is probably the bigger story than than anything else, but we'll have to wait and see, cause that's really all we know, right?

Speaker 2: 58:29

That's it. That's that's all we've got so far, and I know a lot of people are sitting back on. We already know, we already know this, yeah, we already know this, but it's the confirmation, it's the proof and it's the accountability that matter right now. Like Clay said, we can't, we can't go back in time, we can't give President Trump a third term. A third presidency can't be done. It's, that is over Now. We just need to do whatever can be done, you know, and we have a responsibility to do whatever we can do to prevent that from ever happening again, and that goes for either side.

Speaker 2: 59:03

We don't want anybody cheating to get into that role. We want it fair and square, even if it's not who we want. Just fair and square. Fair and square facts, honesty, accountability, like these are such basic things that we shouldn't even have to be bullet pointing, right, I mean? But this is, this is where we are in the world. It's OK, though. It's OK, we're going to watch this one. We'll watch it for you guys. We'll watch all of the things that are going on and we'll report back on those and whatever else is happening next week as well. This was a great show, clay.

Speaker 3: 59:37

Yeah, I think we probably need to start keeping a tally board of, like you know, kind of unresolved and do maybe do a wrap up show.

Speaker 2: 59:44

What a great idea.

Speaker 3: 59:45

I love that. So, like the topic that we need to keep an eye on in the future and make sure it doesn't die and disappear, we probably need to keep track of these and do a hey, three weeks ago we talked about this and now it's this. I love that We'll think through that one, folks, and we'll figure out a way that we can do that without being too cumbersome.

Speaker 2: 1:00:04

Yes, absolutely. I got nothing left. I had a great week. I'm looking forward to a great week. Got a conference going on this week that I'm going to. That'll be a lot of fun, Completely unrelated to anything that I do. Normally this is for somebody else, so go figure. You know it's not enough time of the day to do all of the things, but that's that, and I, as always, Claire, I love hanging out with you and talking all this stuff. It's always an education for me because you know things that I don't know and I like that. It's fun.

Speaker 3: 1:00:30

Well, we've been doing it for almost two years now, so clearly it works and you know I appreciate doing this every week with you, but for mostly for everybody else. Um, love hanging out with you guys, popping on uh, you know, whether it's a Facebook or YouTube or whatever during the broadcast and being around, um, so we love doing it for you and, uh, you know, until next week, keep moving, keep shooting.

Speaker 2: 1:00:51

Take care guys.

Speaker 1: 1:00:52

Warrior leader, author, Patriot, From ranger school to the battlefield, From the front lines of combat to the front lines of culture. Retired Lieutenant Colonel Clay Novak isn't done fighting for truth. Catch him on the Elsa Kurt Show and read his no-holds-barred blog at claynovakauthorcom. Keep moving, keep shooting. She's the voice behind the viral comedy, bold commentary and truth-packed interviews that cut through the chaos. Author, brand creator and proud conservative Christian this is Elsa Kurtz.