Matt Strickland: DHS Whistleblower | SUNDAY Sit-Down | Ep 572

We got Memorial Day coming up, and that's what this is about. There's kids right now growing up in this country that will never know who their father was because they were willing to give their lives up for me to be here today to fight for this country. So if I don't, if I don't stand up and fight against something that I see is wrong, all we're

doing is pissing on their grave. If we turn the other cheek for a paycheck and I couldn't look my kids in the eyes and tell my kids to do the right thing, no matter what the consequences are to you if I wasn't willing to do it myself. So I I thought for sure, there's no way I win this fight. Nobody beats the government. But one thing I will be able to do at night when I'm standing in the the bathroom mirror, I'll be able to look myself in the face and be proud that I didn't let

my children down. If we're not willing to stand up and fight today, in reality, all we're doing is we're passing this fight on to that next generation. And if you're OK with that, then in in my eyes, you're a coward. And that's something I'm scared to be. I'm scared to be a coward. All interviewers have their own style, and my style is to try to get to the point and to be intensely curious. And the key to interviewing is

listening. Take a look behind the curtain with a real whistleblower and American patriot. Prepare to embrace the uncomfortable truth because this program has no time for comforting lies. Here is civil liberties enthusiast, Second Amendment defender, and recovering FBI agent Kyle Serif. Well, hello my friends, welcome to the Kyle Seraphin show in our Sunday Sit down. I think you're going to really enjoy this one and I hope you give it a listen.

It's an important time. Sometimes you get to discover another suspendable and we've done just that got Matt Strickland on. He's a restaurant owner, he's a military veteran. He's a guy that stood up against the government multiple times, whistle blower from DHS. That's not the beginning of the story and it's definitely not the end of the story. So make sure you guys stick

around for that. I think you're going to really, they're going to walk away inspired on this Memorial Day weekend, which is a good thing to do. Something to remind you about. It's a heavy time as you're thinking about those folks doing a Memorial Day sale. Our friends over at My Patriot Supply. You can check them out at mypatriotsupply.com slash KYLEI don't want to give you a big heavy-handed talk about it. At the end of the day, we're in this for our families.

If that means that you need to prepare yourself with water filtration, emergency food, solar power, etcetera, check them out. They're doing up to 60% off right now. You guys can scan either QR code if it's on your on your screen. Otherwise just visit the website itsmypatriotsupply.com slash Kyle, go check it out. The link's in the show description. That's all I'm going to say about that right now. We're going to honor the men and women that died for our freedom.

And at the same time, we should be protecting our own by investing in the things that keep us free. And some of that means making sure that you're able to stand against tyranny with the right equipment. If you get squeezed out, maybe they take your liquor license, maybe they shut down the power at your house, maybe they take away your ability to go out and buy food. Whoever they is right now, be aware, be prepared, and a little bit of forewarned is forearmed in this case.

Let's dive right into this conversation. You guys are going to learn something good. All right, folks, thanks for joining me for the Sunday. Sit down. We got a good one today, at least I think so. I think we're going to have a fun conversation with Matt Strickland. He's a restaurant owner. He's got some stuff behind him on the wall. Matt, you want to tell people a little bit about who you are and your background and about your restaurant maybe too. Yeah, absolutely.

Well, first of all, it's, it's great to finally, finally meet you virtually, Kyle and, and I wanted to thank you for everything that you're doing up just that doing, you know, standing up for the little guys, everybody here in America that doesn't necessarily have the position to stand up and speak out against some of the things that are going on in our government. So thanks for having the balls to do it because not a lot of people do.

Me personally, I joined the join the military at 17 years old and actually my first day and I joined as a combat medic. So I was an infantry medic and my first day at my first unit was September 10th, 2001. And I was 17 years old. So get to my unit and, and the next day was on from there. And I, I enjoyed my time in the military. I, I came from some pretty rough neighborhoods growing up had, you know, not the most ideal childhood.

I don't think many people have. So, you know, I don't, I don't, I don't tell some kind of old OSB story or anything like that, but it's the reason I joined the military. My oldest brother, he was killed from gang violence in 1996. And my other older brother, he's been in prison since 1997. One of my oldest sisters, she was also killed in, in, in those same neighborhoods. And so I, I've got little

brothers as well. And I wanted to set a better example for them and prove to them that even though we, you know, we grew up in the situations and the conditions that we did, it's still, it's America. Everybody's got the same opportunities if you bust your ass and don't make excuses. So I joined the military for that reason at 17 years old. And it was the the best thing that I could have done at that point because I got the discipline that I needed that I didn't know that I need in the

military and especially. So I joined as a medic like I told you, and the recruiter kind of kind of tricked me into it because I was good at taking tests. So I did well on the ASVAP and everything and, and could, could have pretty much selected any job I wanted to. I was always interested in the medical field. And the recruiter kind of talked me into it saying, hey, listen,

check this. She showed me a picture of like this medic in the hospital, like looking up at an X-ray and all these chicks behind them, these nurses and everything. And I'm 17 years old. I'm like, yeah, absolutely. Sign me up for that. I want to go hang out with with every chick in that picture. So I always get you. I always. Get you with that that's that sly lie like it could happen but it's just.

Not going to happen. Yeah, they got me 17 year old me. But I get through basic training, AIT and all of that and I get orders for since 25th Infantry. And I looked at the the drill Sarn and I said, hey, drill Sarn, I'm a medic. I'm not in the infantry. What is this 25th Infantry shit? And he was like, well, the infantry needs medics as well. And that's where you're going, buddy. You're a combat Med. And, and at the time, I'll be honest, I wasn't all fired up for it.

And I, I was fired up to go hang out with the chicks in the, in the hospital, man. But it was the best thing for me. It's what I needed. It's what I didn't know I need, I needed. And it, it kind of set the course for my life at that point right there. And, and like I said, I, I, I enjoyed my time doing that. I made a lot of lifelong friends, a lot of a lot of brothers. Actually, one of the brothers I met is, is the reason why in the in the, in the Army is the reason why following the

military. I got into security contracting downrange and he had his own team with Blackwater. He ended up we were in the same unit. 25th Infantry ended up going to first group at Fort Lewis where I was stationed at, which is another funny story because once I realized I'm going to the infantry, I see 25th Infantry and I think I'm going to Hawaii. So I at least get to celebrate that. But no, I was going to 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry at Fort Lewis. So yeah. So they hit me with a double

whammy that day. But one of my brothers, he was as soon as I got there, we got real tight. He ended up going to selection with the first group at Fort Lewis. So, you know, he stayed there. We and we grew that brotherhood and friendship that that we started with the because we both got there at the same time.

Anyway, he got his own team with Blackwater, called me, told me about it. And at first, honestly, I wasn't, wasn't interested because, you know, a young guy just wanted to come home and, and see what I missed the past few years while I was gone and hang out with friends and, and just do what people, you know, in their early 20s want to do. But then when he told me how much they made, I was all in. I said at the time it was all, it was all SF guys, Seals.

I'm at the very least Rangers and I was just a regular infantry medic, combat medic. So he's so I told, I said, hey, man, I'm not SF or anything like that. I don't know if I can get with Blackwater. And he was like, well, you know, let me see if I can vouch for you and call, you know, talk to one of the recruiters. So anyway, I did that. I went to the vetting course down in Moyock, NC, went to that training course down there and it worked for Blackwater and. Was that course a challenge?

Yeah, the course was a challenge. It was it. It wasn't because it's not a training course that you go through with Blackwater. It's a vetting course. So you got to come down there knowing your shit. You got to come down there knowing how to shoot, move and communicate. And as a medic, you got to come down there knowing tactical medicine. You got to be squared away. And they also, you know, you also peer each other out.

So that's another reason why I thought I was going to make it, because I'm in there with all these SF guys and Seals and I'm here. I am this combat, you know, infantry medic. Oh, for sure, because you got to you got to put, I think it was every week, if I'm not mistaken, or I can't remember how often it was. But you had to fill out a, you know, a piece of paper saying who in the class would you want to deploy with the most? And then who in the class would you not want to deploy with?

Sure. They, they took the same kind of things from, from SF selections from Ranger School, things like that, where they want to see, you know, who's top and bottom amongst the peers. Yeah. So even if there was, there was, even if you we're cool with deploying everybody, with everybody in the room, you still had to select somebody. So that was nerve wracking, you know, knowing I didn't come from the same communities as these guys. So I'm probably going to be on

that chopping block. But I made it through and it was once again one of the best things that's ever happened in my life. I have no complaints working for that company. Eric Prince, one of the best bosses I've ever worked for that got squared away and has probably the best military mind of anybody that I've ever come across or met. If that guy's planning an operation, you're going to be good to go.

Like if, if we were into, if we were getting into World War three with X country and I knew Eric Prince was planning the entire war, I'd be comfortable with it because that guy's just, he's so sharp. He's so smart and, and, and, and he's also just a good boss to work for. So I don't, I don't have any any protects his guys. You know, he looks out for his guys. So it was a, it was a great experience working for that

company. So I did that until I think it was May 5th of 2009 when Blackwater got kicked out of Iraq. So I was there and it was because of the 2007 Dassault Square incident.

But So what happened is in that SOFA agreement that Obama signed with Iraq and that was put into place, I think in 2008, part of the part of that SOFA agreement said Blackwater is no longer allowed to operate in Iraq. And but it didn't make any difference because May 5th, 2009, I mean, all of us that work for Blackwater, we just woke up the next day doing the same job working for some another company, you know, so it

didn't accomplish anything. But, but anyway, it, it was very different working for another company. I won't name any, any companies to talk bad about them or anything, but it wasn't the same as working for Blackwater. I can tell you that. So in 2010, I wanted to, you know, I have been in Iraq and Afghanistan, you know, pretty much my whole adult life at that point. And, and I was married and I had kids and I want to come home and

be with my family. So I started applying for jobs and in 2010, I got a job at the National Ground Intelligence Center as an intelligence analyst. And I didn't have any Intel background or experience, but they were looking for somebody with a medical background because part of the job was casualty analysis.

So anyway, got a job there and, and I was kind of honest, to be honest with you, Kyle, I was, when I got that job in 2010, I was kind of intimidated walking into the building because I'm just this guy that's, you know, I guess kind of been a door kicker my entire life, since I was 17 years old. Never worked in the office environment at all. And part of my title now is intelligence. And I didn't see myself being that smart of a guy from being

honest with you. And I was kind of, you know, I was kind of intimidated walking into the building thinking about what those guys would be thinking about me. But I learned very quickly that, oh, these guys aren't as smart and as sharp as I thought. This intelligence thing that they talk about, actually these people, not all there's some pretty sharp people working in the industry, but the vast majority of them are actually pretty stupid.

And this job is not hard at all. So I hit the ground running in that position and, and I wanted to prove myself. So it went above and beyond, actually did some things that made it so a couple new programs were started. So I, I, I, I would say I did a great job from 2010 to 2014. But then what happened in 2014 is ISIS started taking back over Iraq and I wanted to get into that fight So, and I hated the office life, to be honest with you. It was. It wasn't for me.

Before we before we dig into that next Phase, I want to kind of just pick your brain at it, just because I wasn't there at that time, but I had this kind of growing instinct about what the Intel world looks like, various different agencies. Were you a blue badge or were you a contractor at the time? I was a contractor. Yeah. OK. So you're working in there. What was the culture between permanent employees and contractors and was there a respect differential there out

of curiosity? Absolutely. There's, there's always been a respect differential between contractors and, and government. And I think that's one of the things in the government that doesn't allow for efficiency because there's a lot of contractors that bring a lot to the table and experience and, and, and, and just knowledge. And they're not allowed to, to share that or do certain things because they're not a government employee.

They're a contractor. But to me that doesn't make any sense because we're all Americans and, you know, we're all supposedly here doing this job for the, for the same reason. But so like, yeah, for example, some of the things I did on that program, I didn't get the credit for or the acknowledgement for it because I was a contractor. And what I did had to run through a government employee. So they're the ones that moved from a 13 to a 14 or 14 to a 15 because of the work that that I did.

But I was cool with that. I never wanted to be AGS employee because I didn't see myself working for the

government for 20 years. I knew even at that point that that wasn't the life for me. And honestly, the reason for that was because I thought going into that job in 2010, maybe the government life would be for me. But I learned very quickly it wasn't because I saw how miserable everybody's life was, worked for the government and, and honestly, you know, making the same amount of money every two weeks no matter how hard you work or how lazy you are does not motive.

I'm a very self motivated person and money wise, I want my paycheck to reflect how hard I work, you know, and, and, and I would just see these people that are working all around me that I know aren't doing anything except checking their emails and I'm in here busting my ass, you know, making, making them look good and they're getting paid more than me. And, and it was just, it was just, it wasn't motivating, you know, so I knew I wanted to, I knew I wanted to be a small

business owner. That was, that was my dream at that point. And I knew specifically I wanted to be a restaurant owner because the thing I learned very quickly is that you have to really love what you do as a job, as a career, because it's going to affect every other aspect of your life. It's going to affect your relationship with your children, with your wife, with your friends, everybody. Because you're at work majority

of your life. So if you're miserable in it and you don't enjoy it, you're going to be miserable in the presence of everybody. It's going to, it's just it's going to negatively affect you. So I, I wanted to be a small business owner because I, I wanted my earning potential to be limitless. I wanted it to be dependent on

my work ethic. And you know, I've always, I've always been proud of my work ethic and knew that I've always felt like when I go through a course, a military course, or like you asked about the course with, with Blackwater, my mindset has always been, if another man has done this and completed it successfully, then I can do it. That's always been my mindset. And that's what, what, what has always gotten me through tough courses and such.

So anyway, I wanted to be a restaurant owner specifically because I love cooking. It's always just been one of my #1 passions. And I knew that if I did that every day, it'd be something that I enjoy going to work for. And, and I'm a restaurant owner now. And sometimes I'm at work, you know, 1216 hours a day and, and it feels like I was there for two. And could you imagine being inside of a government office for 16 hours a day? I feel like you were there for

three weeks. It's, it's, it's awful. It's. The worst feeling in the world. And, and I ran restaurants for a little while and I know that thing where you look down and you realize like you smell like fry oil and, and your feet are exhausted and they feel like they're about to fall off. And at the same time, you've been there, you've only been there for a few minutes and it's been all day. So that's right. And it's not for everybody. I mean, you know, everything's

not for everybody. Some people. I hate the restaurant industry. I happen to love it, you know, I love the fast pace of it. I love meeting people. I love talking to people. I love seeing somebody take a bite of something I created and loving it. You know, I just enjoy that some people enjoy working on computers. I blow my brains out. If that was my job, everybody, everybody's different. But so, you know, I talked to my wife at that point in 2014 and I was like, this sucks. I'm miserable.

I can't do this for the, you know, 30 years and and I've got a great wife. You know, she's always had my back. He's supported me and everything and, you know, been married since I was 24 years old. I'm 41 now, still married to the same woman, but always been supportive of me. So she said, well, listen, I don't want you to be somewhere that you're miserable. So figure out what it is you want to do. And then and, and you know, I've got your back.

And I told her about this dream of owning a restaurant and everything. In 2014, ISIS started taking over Iraq. And I, I knew this was my opportunity to first of all, I didn't want I, I, I was still kind of in that neo con mindset, if I'm being honest with you. I was still, I, I was still operating under the lie that we were told as to why we invaded Iraq and Afghanistan. So I, I wanted to go get some more payback from these guys taking back over Iraq for my brothers.

Then I left on the battlefield. I wasn't going to let, I wasn't going to let them just come and destroy and take over everything that I thought we built up the past, you know, 1514 years. So I went back to Iraq to fight, fight ISIS and, and I was there for, for two years. And the goal with that was to come home after this experience and not go to back to work for the government, but open my own business, open my own restaurant. So that's what I did.

Went to Iraq for two more years. 2016 came home and actually opened a food truck and and it took off pretty quick. Yeah. When you were, when you were going back over there, were you going back as a medic? Did you maintain those credentials as you're during the government time? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I maintained my my medic credentials and went back over as a tactical medic in the, in the, you know, in in the same sense that I was there before.

And it was weird when I got there in 2014 though, because there was absolutely no military there. There was no U.S. military presence. The only military presence was US contractors. US contractors. When I say no military presence, I mean, so I flew into the, I was flew in the Biop and then went to the the Baghdad embassy compound and there was literally not one great suitor there. It was wild.

It was just all contractors because they had evacuated all of the support elements out when ISIS started taking over. So it's just US contractors. Not too long after the Marine FAST team moved in to secure the, the NBC and then, and then there was one, I think it was, I think it might have been the 82nd thing that came in first. I I can't remember, but there was probably about a month there where it was just US civilian

contractors. Did that change the nature of what the what the fight looked like over there? Yeah, it did. It, it, We were allowed to for a couple of months do things that contractors probably, you know, shouldn't have, but we were allowed to do. We were allowed to do certain things for the first couple of months that were probably more of a military mission. Yeah. But anyway, so came home and, and opened that food truck and it took off.

I had two trucks, 3 trucks. And then, you know, a year and a half later, after I opened the first food truck, I opened the restaurant and it was booming. And right before COVID, I was actually getting to getting ready to sign a lease on multiple restaurants. That's how good we were doing. What was the? Hold on, what was the cuisine that you were selling out of the trucks, and was it the same thing that you're going to go brick and mortar with?

Yeah, same thing. So the name of my restaurant is Gourmelts, spelled GOURMELTZ Gourmet melts combined, obviously. So what I mean, our claim to fame is grilled sandwiches, but we do all kind of unique grilled sandwiches, like brisket sandwiches, all kind of different chicken sandwiches, pulled pork, different BBQ sandwiches. We also do smoked wings, something we call grilled cheese tacos, where we we take a corn tortilla and we grill some fresh mozzarella to the outside of a

corn tortilla. That way it doesn't fall apart like corn tortillas do and you don't have to double up the the the tortilla. We do some pretty cool things, man. And and do you love? Do you have formal? Training in running a restaurant? Do you have formal training in anything culinary? Did you ever go to any schools for this? Was this just like I got a dream? I'm gonna make it happen 0. Zero training was I've never. I worked at KFC when I was probably like 14 for like 3 weeks.

So you're well. Trained. Is what you're saying? Yeah, Yeah. So I. Had a ton of training. I was ready. Pedigree. Yeah. I so you're about to get into the COVID story and, and that's when I first became aware of Gormeltz. I I lived in the area at the time. You may not know that, but like your story was a, a big local story in the DC area. So you're in Fredericksburg, correct? Correct. Yeah. And you are further. South in Old Town, which is where my wife and I would have gone.

So you were always kind of maybe outside of our drive radius. So I never actually made it down to the restaurant. I was looking for it. I was like, where the hell are they? Like because Fredericksburg is really small in my mind. It's obviously got some additional parts. You guys are off the highway. They're off 95. Yeah, we're right. Off of 95, like not even a mile off of 95. But yeah, we're probably, I don't know, 10 minutes from downtown where you're talking about.

Yeah, I'm in the probably the most southern part of Fredericksburg. Yeah. But. It was a huge fight and, and, and it was a huge local story, a huge Virginia story and then a couple of big social media personality shared it. Much love to the Hodge twins cause the Hodge twins were the first ones that were a conservative personality that shared my story and, and, and then it kind of took off from there. But so look. You were doing the trucks. You're about to sign the lease.

I don't want to take away from the story. I just wanted to say that it was, it was an obviously big story even then. And I heard about it when I was working for the Bureau. So this is not like something I've not been, you know, unaware of. That's going back five years now then. Yeah, this is at the beginning of the lockdowns, which was February, March 2020. Yeah, March. March of 2020 so honestly, like in March of 2020, I didn't know what COVID was about. Like like nobody did.

I mean, they were telling us that this was this, you know, virus that was going to kill half of the people in the world. And so, you know, I took a step back and, and, and I said, well, let me, you know, let me close my restaurant and make sure I'm not putting anybody in danger, you know, including my family. So in March of 2020, I, you know, I listened to the, the, I guess mandates or whatever you want to call them.

And I closed my restaurant down in March of 2020 just to evaluate the situation and see what was going on because it all

happened so quickly. And then three months later in June of 2020, that's when the then governor of Virginia, which was a Democrat governor named Governor Northam, that's when he said, OK, restaurants, you can open back up, but under these provisions and and that's when it it, you know, during those three months, I started kind of noticing weird stuff that didn't make sense to make me kind of think this was more about government control than it was our health and safety.

But when they told us we can open back up, but under these provisions in June of 2020, that's when it really clicked. And that's when I, I realized, oh, this is, this is not about health and safety. This is about control. And, and the reason I say that is because they, they put in, they made me as a restaurant owner follow these like draconian mandates that absolutely made no common sense.

Like my bartender could could make a drink right in front of somebody across the bar, but couldn't hand that drink to the person across the bar. They had to walk around the bar and hand it to the person side by side. And nobody was allowed to sit at my bar, but I could pull a bar height table all the way up to the bar and they could sit at

that bar height table. And you, you, you probably know the one where you know, you had to wear a mask walking into the restaurant, but as soon as you sit down, somehow you're safe and you can take the mask off. It was just stuff that didn't make any sense. And, and I immediately recognized what it was. And I, you know, I talked to my wife about it. I said, hey, listen, I, I spent my whole adult life in other countries fighting against it.

It, you know, dictatorships. And I'm not going to come home to my country and allow a dictatorship to rule here. I don't like what's going on. And I just can't be blindly complicit in it. If I know it's wrong, I got to do something about it, yeah. What was the? Other side of that conversation because I've had similar discussions with my wife and I don't think everybody has the same one but it they all tend to run the same route.

I'm curious how yours went. Well, so my wife is, is probably has even more comments. I so I, I, I'm not the smartest guy in the world. I don't have 100°. I'm probably smarter because I don't have 100°, to be honest with you. But I do pride myself on having a lot of St. smarts and common sense a lot due to, you know, how I grew up. But my wife has even more common sense, I think, than I do. And, and, and she's actually even more of a fighter than I am.

So, you know, when I mentioned it to her, we will be, of course, it wasn't just out of the blue. We've been talking about it ever since it happened. Sure, we both saw the same things. And we're married for a reason. We share the same values. And, and when I told her, I said, Hey, listen, I don't think we can do this at the restaurant. I, I, I'm not comfortable with not affording my customers the right to choose what's right for them themselves.

And one thing I'm not going to do is take away my, my customers constitutional rights. I'm not going to be complicit in that, you know, because even though I'm being forced to do it, if I do it, I'm just as complicit as the person forcing me to do it. That's my mindset. So I told my wife, I said, I don't want to do this. I want to, if we're going to open up, I want to open up business as usual and let the people decide for themselves.

If they don't want to come to our restaurant, they don't have to. But if they want to come and they don't want to wear a mask, then they're more than welcome to do so. If they want to sit at my bar, they can sit at my bar. It's up to them, 100% up to them and see how, let's see how it goes. So she was all in from the beginning. She was like, yeah, absolutely. Did you guys discuss? Consequences. Did you war game that out at all well? So we did.

I was the only restaurant here in Virginia to do what I did. So we didn't know what the consequences would be. And obviously this is something that's never happened in the history of the US. So there was no case law to go off of. You know, we were, we were flying in the dark, but. You know, I just. I just, I couldn't be complicit in the corruption and I saw it

taking place before my eyes. You know, there's, like I said, there's, there's a lot of people that, that I, that I deployed with that have kids growing up right now in this country without a father because they thought that this country was more important than themselves. And they, they, they gave their lives. I mean, we got Memorial Day coming up. And that's what this is about.

There's kids right now growing up in this country that will never know who their father was because they were willing to give their lives up for me to be here today to fight for this country. So if I don't, if I don't stand up and fight against something that I see is wrong that's happening to the American people, not only am I wrong and the American people, but I'm pissing on the graves of every man and woman that went down range to fight for you and me

and didn't make it back. And they've got kids growing up right now in this country without them. All we're doing is pissing on their grave if we turn the other cheek for a paycheck. And so I just, I, I couldn't do it. I could not look myself in the mirror if I did and I couldn't look my kids in the eyes and tell my kids to do the right thing, no matter what the consequences are to you. If I wasn't willing to do it

myself. And, and so, and I know I didn't didn't know what the consequences. I, I thought for sure, there's no way I win this fight. Nobody beats the government. I will probably lose everything that I have worked for my entire life, you know, but my wife and I have the same mindset in that we'll be OK no matter what happens. We'll be fine. I'll go, I'll go mow lawns if I need to.

I'll do whatever it takes, but one thing I will be able to do at the end of the the day, at night when I'm standing in the the bathroom mirror, I'll be able to look myself in the face and be proud that I didn't let my children down. Because why did I bring them into the world if that's what

I'm going to do? Because one thing I think we're forgetting about in all of this that's been going on the past five years is if we're not willing to stand up and fight today, in reality, all we're doing is we're passing this fight on to that next generation, to our children and our grandchildren. And if you're OK with that, then in in my eyes, you're a fucking coward. You're the definition of a coward. And that's something I'm scared to be. I'm scared to be a coward. Where did that?

Mindset come from I. Think that mindset was, was, was instilled in me and the way that I grew up, you know, I had to, I had to being in the neighborhoods that I was in growing up in those neighborhoods, I had to, I had to fight my entire life basically. You know, like I told you, my brother was killed from gang violence when I was, you know, just just 12 years old. And, you know, he was, he was in, he was in gangs. He, he sold drugs at a high level, not proud to say that,

but that's what happened. And you know, at that point, gangs were really big in the 90s, especially in the neighborhoods I grew up in. And I live my entire childhood thinking that the people that killed my brother were eventually one day, you know, going to come after me and kill me because that's how things happened. And had to fight a lot in the, the neighborhoods that I was in. And it's just, I think that mindset was born from that.

You know, I've always, always been, you know, been a fighter. But I guess the mindset of doing the, the right thing for my country was really instilled in me through the military and, and, you know, through security contracting and, and, and being in a mixing pot, you know, being in a, a, a squad, being on a team of people that are not from where you're from, that grew up in completely different, you know, environments than you did. But being able to, to come together on one thing.

And that's that we're from this piece of land that our ancestors fought and died for and gave up so many sacrifices. So, you know, we can have the, the, the ability and the privilege to be here today to fight for that next generation. And, and it really, just really going through that and still so much patriotism inside of me that I just wanted to always do what was right for my, I'm not a perfect man by any means. Fuck up all the time. I, I, you know, I've done a lot

of wrong things in my life. I'm not, but I mean, I try to be a great husband, try to be a great father, try to be a great friend and great brother. And sometimes I feel like that, but I try all the time. I, I can honestly say one, one thing I've never failed at is being a patriot of the United States of America. I've always done what was right

for my country. And honestly, the main reason for that is because my kids are Americans and they're going to be living in this country when I'm not here one day. And that's all I think about is I will, I, I just want this place to be the best place for them when I'm not here, you know, and my family fought every war that this country has had. We've done it as Americans and I just, you know, just to steal something in me that I just, I don't know how to.

I can't put my finger on it, but it just lights a fire in me. When somebody works against that, I think that you become my enemy instantly. When I know that you're working against the American people, even if it's not me specifically, just lights a fire in me. Yeah. So I think that that comes. Through real clear, I want to. I want to have you reflect on one thing. We're pretty close in age, so the odds are you've seen the movie Fight Club or you've read the book. Does that sound right?

Yeah. Yeah, there's a moment in that. Movie where they talk about after Fight Club, all the volume is turned down on on corporate BS. Like you're in an office and people are upset with you or somebody steps on your toe or bumps into you on the bus and it just doesn't mean as much because you've seen actual violence. You've seen actual things. You with your experience as a medic, had to have hands on some some people that were really in bad shape and and done some

things with them. Teams very aggressive where your life's on the line. People died around you, I'm sure of it. So when you see those things, it tends to turn the volume down on like the government might come and shut down your restaurant, right. Is that not like just a lower consequence when you've seen people give their life for something or you've seen people die around you because the right thing wasn't done and then someone's going to shut down your sandwich shop.

You actually. Just explained it perfectly. Yeah, absolutely. And so that sums up what my mindset was, You know, if those guys were willing to to die for this country, then I better be willing to lose my business for this country and. We, we had this moment during that time, which I think a lot of us saw and it really blew my mind working in federal service. I'll just share this one more

thing. Just as you walk around and think about it. We're told that members of our law enforcement community, right, our military members, we all sign up up to it, including our life. That's the deal, right? That's what we signed up for.

Listed guy here as well. And the the deal is, is that we saw people who theoretically were willing to lose their life for everyone else's freedom and they weren't even willing to lose a paycheck for it. So how do you take those people seriously when you've seen people do the real thing? You. You. Can't you know you hear the excuses all the time? I have a family to feed and, and to me, I want to sit those people down and, and tell them, look them in their eyes and tell

them. Do you realize what you're giving the fight you're giving up right now to feed your family? What you say is to feed your family. There's many ways to feed your family, but the excuse you're using that you're, you're not taking this fight on for a paycheck every two weeks. Do you, do you realize what you're giving up and what you're

passing on to your children? You think you're doing this to save your children so you can provide monetarily for them, but in not all actuality, you're screwing your children over by not willing to step up and take this fight head on right now. Because your children's future will be so much easier, so much better if you just do what you know you should be doing right now. And I don't know why people don't understand that. Like that doesn't compute in my

head. Why they think why they think short term comfort is better than than long term stability for this country And and you know the the following generations to come doesn't compute to my own, but you said it right there. That people were were addicted to comfort in this country, we are. Yeah, is I'm, I'm telling you right now, the best thing, the best strategy that. Anybody's ever. Had is the US government employing more people than any

other corporation in the world. So by the US government being the biggest employer, they've got everybody by the balls because they can make people do something they wouldn't normally do or go along with the plan that they know in their heart is wrong to make sure that those benefits and though and that paycheck keeps rolling in. And so they got people by the balls because of that, because there's people that have worked for the government for, you know, 20-30 years.

That's all they've done. That's all they know how to do. They don't have any other talents outside of government. They couldn't do anything else in the private sector. So there's no way they're going to push back against the hand that feeds them. And the government knows that. And that's why a lot of what happens in the government, it's not necessarily because those government workers are, you know, these, these sinister deep state actors that have a

mission. It's really honestly just because these people are spineless cowards and they don't want to lose a paycheck to do what's right. That's what it comes down to. It does. I just love how how plain spoken you are it that that resonates with my heart really well because so many people dance around the answer. You know they don't. I'm sure a lot of your clientele work in federal government based

on where you are. There's got to be people that are either part of the federal government or they work really closely with folks that do most. Of them, yeah, most of most of my client, I mean, I'm in Fredericksburg, VA, right outside of DC. Most of my customer base is, is, you know, federal government workers. And like, don't don't get me wrong, you know, thinking I'm saying everybody that works for the government is a spineless coward. That's not what I'm saying at

all. Or that the government shouldn't exist and nobody should work for the government. That no, no, we, we, there's, there's programs in the government, there's agencies, there's departments, departments that do essential missions that we absolutely need to protect us as Americans. And there are people that work for the government that bust their ass. That's right. And aren't lazy spineless cowards absolutely 100%. But the default setting that's

exactly right, because the. Default setting is what you said the first time, so it's very. Few and far between. Yeah, I, I'll be generous saying it's 20% of the government work. Oh yeah, that is that. Might be a little generous, but we'll, we'll, we'll give it to you. We'll we'll round up because you got the folks in your area And, and I wonder this too, people who come to your restaurant have to know what the reputation of your restaurant is.

You want to talk about the rest of the fight that you guys got into and that where that left you today? Yeah, I'll summarize. That real quick for you. So I took on that fight and like I said, I didn't know where I was going to go, what the outcome was going to be. I, I expected to lose everything I worked for my whole life and and I took on that fight kind of under the radar.

At first. I just allowed my customers to choose what they wanted to do what was best for themselves without announcing it on social media or in the news. But eventually people started complaining to the health department that I wasn't following COVID mandates. So I got it. So I got a visit from OSHA and the Department of Health and they actually came in and they were doing their inspection. And so I've never my, my, my restaurant is the cleanest restaurant you've ever been to.

I mean, you can eat off the floor in my kitchen. You can come inspect my kitchen anytime you want to. You'll see me exactly what I'm what I'm never had a health violation at all. And that's rare for a restaurant. But had OSHA and the health department come to my restaurant and do their little COVID inspection. And in my kitchen area, in the back where we washed dishes, there's a three compartment sink and then there's a space and then there's a dishwasher.

So the ocean guy says, hey, how many people work back here at a time? And I was like sometimes 2, sometimes somebody be washing the dishes and then the other person will be putting it in the dishwasher and rinsing them off and or whatever. Sometimes two people. He was like, OK, well, I need you to put a piece of plexiglass up between those two sections so those people don't infect each other. I was like, what?

So I wanted to play with this guy and actually I recorded this when I did it and, and I did put this video on YouTube and it's hilarious. I'll send it to you when we get off. But so I saw I wanted to mess around with this OSHA guy because he was making no sense. So I said, oh, OK, cool. I said, well, what's the regulation? Like how tall does this plexiglass need to be? And he was like, well, I need to go from floor to ceiling. And I said, oh, OK, cool.

But these fire sprinklers that I have, you realize I'll be violating the fire code if I do that because I'll be blocking the sprinklers. And then he was like, oh, OK, well, yeah, don't violate the fire code. Just get him as high as as you can get him. And I said, well, that's not the regulation. I want to make sure when you guys come to spec, then I'm following regulations. And so he stutters. He well, just get him as high as you can.

And I said, OK, So what you're telling me is you guys actually don't have a regulation for it. So I said, all right, let's move on. How wide does these do these plexiglass separators have to be? And he told me, he said, actually there's no regulation for that. And I said, so you're telling me if I put a one inch piece of plexiglass from floor to ceiling, technically I'm within the the regulation. He said technically that'll suffice.

I said, OK, buddy, take your OSHA hat off for one second and just talk to me man to man. Does that make any sense to you? And his reply was, well, Matt, it doesn't have to make any sense. The governor said you will do this or you will do this. And I said, well, it's a good thing that we don't live in a under a dictatorship. It's a good thing we're Americans because we have rights. And right now you're violating

them. So you're going to have to leave my my property or I'm going to have you removed. And, and that's when he left. And then that's when he told me as he was leaving, we'll be back to suspend your health department license. And he made good on that promise. So they came back, suspended my health department license. And in the state of Virginia, you're ABC licensed. So you're licensed to sell alcohol is connected to your health department license. So I lost both of those the same day.

But my, my, my mindset was if the Constitution means nothing to you, then your licenses mean nothing to me. And I continue to operate without those licenses. And that's when I took my story public because I knew the only way I win this thing is, is if I get the people of America to come out and get behind me and support me.

So that's when I, I made a video saying, Hey, guys, this is this is what I'm doing at Gore Melts. Hopefully you guys will come out and support me. And they did at that point, they came out in droves. I mean, I had people flying to my restaurant from like the West Coast coming to Virginia and come in just to shake my hand and thank me for standing up and fighting. And I mean, it made me tear up, man. It made me at that point I knew

I was doing the right thing. And at that point I kind of felt the sense of security in that, that we might be fine, maybe we might be OK, we actually might get through this thing and it, and I truly believe that it was because of the support of the people that I did win my fights in court. So eventually with the court proved in court that some of these mandates were indeed unconstitutional and, and I won. I was, I was, I was able to prove that they were

unconstitutional. They had to give me my health department license and my ABC license, Mac. So we were victorious. Yeah, quick little. Breakaway right now, say thanks to our sponsor My Patriot Supply. Again, you guys can check themoutonline@mypatriotsupply.com/kyle. Again, that not the the normal thing we're doing. They're doing the promo code Kyle right now. So mypatriotsupply.com/kyle special discount just for this weekend.

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your money. Nothing more American than doing a fair deal and offering a deal of 60% off. Nothing wrong with that. Again, mypatriotsupply.com/kyle, that's it. We're going to get right back into this conversation. A little power outage, which is quite interesting for me. I had a little panic moment where I sat in the dark and thought, oh, my God, who's coming through my doors? You guys will continue to listen

to this. It doesn't make you feel any less panic, but it should make you feel more ready. All right, back to the conversation right now. OK, Little little power outage never stopped anybody except when all your stuff is digital and it all just shuts down and I'm sitting in the dark by myself. Matt, you were just talking about how he told the government kind of to stick. It sounds like you won that fight in the end and they you're able to send them home.

You had your liquor license restored, is that correct? Yeah, well, it, it, it was even more long and drawn out than that. So I, I won my health department license back in court. So then we went before the ABC board, the liquor board, and we basically told them, hey, listen, you guys took my ABC license only because the health department took my health department license. Well, we went to court and proved it was unconstitutional. They had to give me my health department license back.

So now in turn, you should have to give me my ABC license back. That makes sense, right? Sure. Well, the ABC. Board said, now Matt, when we took your ABC license away from you, you continued to sell alcohol without it. And I said, yeah, I did because you unconstitutionally took it away from me. So they said, well, you're not getting it back. So I said, Roger that. And once again I said, if constitution means nothing to you guys, neither does your,

your, your liquor license. So went back to my restaurant and sold alcohol business as usual. And the, this important part about that was by this time Glenn Younkin was the governor of Virginia. And I supported the heck out of Glenn Younkin while he was campaigning. I mean, he came to my restaurant to garner the support of the people that was supporting me gladly. Did you know, events forum and

everything like that. And he told me if, if we win, not only your COVID mandates gone, but we're going to make sure businesses like yours are no longer prosecuted for COVID mandates. What he won and then he did the opposite of that. I continued to be prosecuted under his governorship. And so as him being the governor, my restaurant was raided by the Virginia State Police and ABC agents for not following COVID mandates. And there's a long back story as to why that happened and why he

allowed that to happen. I'll just tell you real quick so we can move on from that. But So what happened is there was a guy that came to my restaurant who was going through kidney failure. His name is Shamgar Connors and it's a cool last name, by the way. So he came to my restaurant and he was like, hey, Matt, I'm coming to you for help because I don't know where else to go. I've been hitting up every politician there is. I'm going through kidney failure.

I'm about to die. I was on the kidney transplant list at UVA, University of Virginia Medical Center, which is a state funded hospital. And they called me, told me they got kidneys for me, but they said I won't get these kidneys until I take the COVID vaccine. And I'm just not comfortable with the COVID vaccine because my immune system is already compromised. And I just, and I've already had COVID. So I got the best vaccine

available. So he, so he told me he was like, if, if I don't get this vaccine that I don't want, they won't give me what I need to stay alive, which makes no sense. So I said, hey, listen, funny you say you need help because I'm doing a event in two weeks at my restaurant for a congressional candidate, and Glenn Yunkin's actually going to be here. I'll make sure you get in front of him.

So two weeks pass, he comes to the restaurant, I get him in front of Glenn Yunkin, tells Glenn Yunkin his story, and in front of me, Glenn Yunkin tells him he'll make sure there's a resolution to that. Long story short, with that, Glenn Yunkin doesn't He allows this man to be kicked off the UVA Medical Center kidney transplant list for not taking the vaccine. So I started looking into why

would Yunkin allow this? So I started uncovering the millions of dollars that Glenn Yankin takes from Pfizer and all the rest of the big pharmaceutical companies. So I wanted to help help save this man's life. So I started blasting that on social media and and Glenn Yankin wasn't happy about that. So that's the real reason he allowed my restaurant to be raided by the Virginia State

Police and ABC agents. But anyway, to wrap that story up, they took all of my alcohol and this was December 2nd of I think 2023 that this happened, OK. And and so it went viral because I recorded the police raiding my restaurant. I went live as it was happening and. And I told these. Police officers and you can go back and check that video. I told these police officers as they were doing it, I said, hey guys, I already won my case in court.

I already proved the reason you're stripping me of everything that I own right now is unconstitutional. And, and I, and I told them to their face and I recorded it. When I said it, I said what you're doing right now is no different than what they did back in Germany in the 40s. And you saying that I'm just doing my job. I said that is no different than what you're doing right now.

I said, you know what you're doing is wrong, but yet you're, you're using the excuse that I'm just doing my job. And that's no longer an excuse. You're screwing your kids over by saying that. And, and anyway, I ended up with it. So I got a call from everybody from across the nation, came to my defense once again, and Glenn Younkin couldn't make a post on social media without somebody jumping on there saying, hey, what about Matt Strickland and Gore melts? What are you doing about that

situation? Why'd you allow his restaurant to be rated for COVID mandates when you campaigned against it? And he couldn't make a post on social media without people coming in the hundreds and having my back. And they were calling his office everyday, sending him emails. So he finally felt the political pressure behind the scenes. They reached out to me and said, hey, we got to come to a resolution. How about this?

How about instead of, and this is December, remember he said instead of us bringing your alcohol back to you in February and giving your license back to you then and you paying the 30 grand penalty or whatever the price was, how about this? How about we bring everything back to you now and you just give us $2000. And I said, absolutely not.

Here's what's going to happen. I said you're going to bring everything back to me. I'm not going to pay you a dime and I'm going to give you until Christmas to do it. By this time it's like December 17th. I said I'm closing my restaurant for Christmas. Obviously when I open back up on the 26th, I will be serving alcohol. And I'm guessing at that point you're going to have to come arrest me.

So if you're ready for the political backlash that comes with that, I'm ready to go to jail for my country. And on December 23rd, they tapped out, brought everything back to me, gave me my license back, and that was the end of that. So that entire fight cost me a lot of money. Everything that I had right before I went into that fight, like I said, I was doing very well, getting ready to sign the lease on multiple restaurants for the first time in my life, had, you know, well, in the six

figures in the bank. At one point during that fight, my bank account was drained to -500 dollars, and I didn't know how I was going to make it the next month. And yeah, I'm a Christian and, and, and I take my faith very seriously. And I just believed that God wouldn't allow that to happen. And he brought me down to the lowest point. Nothing. And and that's when my story became public.

And at that point, the next month, the people showed up and supported me and I was able to pay all my bills, pay all my employees, and I had a couple 100 bucks in the bank. And then the next month pay my bills, pay my employees, and I had 1000 bucks in the bank. And I'm nowhere near where I was by any means, but I'm able to provide for my family. And I believe that's because I stayed faithful to the Lord and I stayed faithful to the American people.

And they showed up in droves to to back me up. And so because of that fight, and because it took so much from me, I had to I had to go back to work as a government contractor to, you know, try to make some more money because of what the government put me through, ironically. And that's the reason why I was at DHS as an Intel analyst. Have you and I ever. Talked before this no. Never have we. Ever.

Compared notes about the commonalities between what went on COVID and the Nazi Germany and people following orders, no. Not at all. There's something. Really. That it? It's really hard to understand how many people made the same analogy at the same time. And every time. Someone does it that I haven't talked to him. I'll tell people that are listening to me like this is the first time we've talked. We had a conversation when the power went out. That's about it.

It was a few minutes compared a couple of notes, which are also very similar. We have similar stories with the folks that, you know, the gals we married and and how they look at the world now and versus maybe the way they did. But other than that, we didn't have to compare notes because men knew this. Like I feel like, I feel like we're throwbacks. Is that is that what's going on here? Like we just rake their guys from 40 years ago that just don't want this crap to to to

jump into our lives like this. It kind of does. Feel like that I don't I don't I don't know what it is I don't know why men aren't men anymore. I, I always say that if my grandfather's generation were all to magically come back to life and see the men running around this country now, they'd be embarrassed. They'd be embarrassed of what their, what their lineage grew into because it's, it's, it's it, it, they wouldn't recognize it.

It doesn't represent what they stood for at all whatsoever. And I, I, I don't think so. I got in the media, I, I got some backlash for saying that to those police officers. They, they, they started saying me and my restaurant don't support police officers, which is a lie. They started saying that I compared police officers to Nazis, which I compared what those specific officers were doing that day to what Nazis did back in the 40s.

Yeah. I wasn't being walked into a a train to step into a gas chamber. No, but they were taking my livelihood away from me. They were taking, they were stealing from me and they couldn't have cared less how it affected me or my family. And that's no different than what they did back in the 40s to, you know, to the, to the Jewish folks.

There's, there's a whole. Book about this, we talked about it on my program on a pretty regular basis, but the book's called Ordinary Men, and it's the story of how men who are just keeping a roof over their head and working for the government and doing what they're told following orders.

They went from being guys that were butchers and bakers and Candlestick makers and people who ran restaurants and, you know, they're regular dudes and they got conscripted into, to work for the Nazis. And, you know, within two years, three years, they were shooting little kids in the back of the head and, and, and old people that were moving too slowly to

get on the box cars. And so, and the other crazy part about all that, Matt, is that the historical examples already been set for people that said no to those disgusting and unlawful and, and, and inhumane orders. And nothing bad happened to those guys. We already know what happens if you say no, you might lose your livelihood.

But generally speaking, when the regime is looking for compliance, it doesn't actually even go punish the people that don't comply because it would highlight that that actually there is a resistance and that what they're doing is wrong. So in any case, well, you know, good on you for doing the right thing. And I didn't know all the back story on it. I knew enough of it from from being in the area. Makes perfect sense to me.

Again, do you find that the people that are quite a bit older than you, people in their 70s and 80s seem to have a kinship with the value system that you're talking about that maybe skip the people that are our age, They. Do I mean, I, I love when people from that generation come into my restaurant. I, I spend probably more time than I should sitting down talking to them.

Actually, my first job straight out of the military was I worked in the emergency room up in Fairfax in the, as a medic in the ER. And I worked the overnight shift from 7:00 PM to 7:00 AM. And that night shift is, you know, it's a level 1 trauma center. So you're, you're, you're bumping and grinding until about 3 O clock in the morning. And from three to seven, that four hours takes so long because everybody's already, they've already overdosed or they already gotten in that fight or

they already have gotten shot. So those, those last four hours ago, I slowed what I used to love to do during those last four hours of my shift was going the rooms of of World War 2 veterans to just talk to them because they were the most realist people on this earth at that point. A lot of most of them are going now, but I just used to sit, love, sit down and talk to them because they didn't give a shit what you thought. They didn't care about hurting

your feelings. If you ask them a question, you were going to get an honest answer from them. And I just, I appreciated it, even if I didn't like the answer. I appreciated the fact that you weren't going to bullshit me and I and, and people today, I, I love that about some people that, that that's why I try to surround myself with people that aren't going to bullshit me because it's so easy to tell when you are. And I just, it's something that not a lot of men hold as a value

today. And it's, and it's, it's sickening to me, honestly, I don't, I don't know how women date these guys, to be honest. So really. It's it. There's a funny dynamic about all this for some reason. You know, like women basically steer a lot of society by what they're willing to tolerate in their mate and. And and they have certain.

Expectations. So when I hear men say, you know, you know, women are acting like this way, it's like, well, you, you seek out women that are like that and women who are upset about the way men are. You allowed men to treat you that way for some reason or you demanded it of them and they did. And you know, we're all to blame for it. It's just, it's strange to watch it as kind of, I feel like an outsider.

I feel like a like a like a stranger in my own land often times because my wife and I walked in. My wife has gone from being someone who was a Liberal Democrat out of New York and she wears a veil to church every Sunday. And she converted to to to Catholicism and got baptized in 2022. Like I said, we haven't talked before this, but my wife got baptized the day before. They took my badge and my gun

away. If you could imagine, God does speak in really interesting, powerful signs occasionally when we really need it, and I think that's one of them for me. But that's why and. I don't I don't believe in coincidences. You know, I think everything happens for a reason. And I think if you're willing to open your eyes questions that you have, there are answers for them all around you. That's right.

You just got to be willing to look up from your phone every now and then and recognize that, you know, the Lord puts those answers in front of you. And it's up to you to it's up to you to acknowledge them and see them. And honestly, I think the one of the, one of the biggest ways, like you said, we've never talked before. I don't know where you stand spiritually or, or religiously. You say you go to church. So that tells me pretty much

what I need to know. But I think one of the best ways that the Lord speaks to us is through our gut. You know that gut feeling you have that that that just instinct when you know something is wrong or when you know you have to do something. I believe that that's the, the, the Lord speaking to us. We, we got that kind of 6th sense and that, that gut instinct for him to kind of guide us. And when you knowingly ignore that, usually bad things happen and you can you can watch people

ignore. It in real time and if you've ever questioned the subject or if you've ever rolled up a high value target and they've done something they shouldn't have done and you ask a real simple question and that that there's a visceral response when human beings know they're doing the wrong thing because they're being told to do otherwise and

they can't do it you. Can feel it absolutely you're absolutely I'm going to send you the video of when those police officers came to my restaurant that day watch watch what their face looks like as I I already I don't even. Have to see it. I will see it, but I already know what it looks like because it looks the same way that my boss taking my badge and gun looked when I shook his hand. Matt. I reached out because I instinctively or he wanted to shake my hand for some reason.

He held his hand out to me. This is a man that's got 8 inches on me, probably 70 lbs on me. You know, I'm 5/8 and weigh $1.80 and, and he's probably in the 250 range and he's, you know, 6 something 6364. And he he reaches out to shake my hand and it was ice cold and soft and and and scared and you could just, he knew in that. Moment that you were a bigger man than he was. I did too. And. My boss came up and he said you handled that like a gentleman.

My other boss and and I said, well, these men are beneath me, you know, and when you have that moment when you're righteous and you know, and in your fight you were and that's why you don't accept any half measure. That's why a $2000 fine and we'll make it go away shortly. It's like, no, no, you apologize is the answer. The answer is, is that tyranny doesn't get, you know, I have a little thing. I'll send it to you on my phone. You can send it to people

occasionally. It says you don't make peace with evil, you destroy it. Absolutely. And what? What those men? Were doing whether they were complicit or they called the order out, or they just obeyed it, that's evil. That's what evil looks like. It's good men agreeing to something that they knew was wrong, and that's why their face looked that way. One of you knew it too. One of the guys. That was in that video.

One of the police officers, one of his friends he grew up with, came to my restaurant in the next couple of days following the incident. Yeah. And he said, hey, man, I just wanted you to know that guy in the video, he is on the same page as us. He's got the same values as us. He didn't want to do what he did, but you know, he was just doing his job. I said that guy doesn't have the same value systems as me

whatsoever. He's not on the same page with me. And we don't believe the same things because I would have lost my job that day. That's the difference between him and I. And I would have done it with pride and I would have went home and told my wife. I did so with my hell, my, my head held up high and we would have been just fine the next day. That's the difference between me

and that man. If you can call him a man, but it's it's a. It's an easy identifier and it and and anybody who says, well, they believe this way, but they acted another way. Show me, don't tell me. Real simple. That's it, man. I mean, that's what we're supposed to do is men, our actions are supposed to speak way louder than our whether our actions do speak louder than our words. And that's why it's so easy to identify who The Who the cowards

are in this society. And then the wild thing is, so I, I was going to like school board meetings and such during the COVID stuff because my kids are in public school. I got 2 in college now. And and then my, my twins, who are the youngest, they're going into ninth grade, but they were

all young back then. And I was at the school board meetings pleading for these folks to let our kids back in the schools and let the kids back in the schools without masks on. And, and the disappointing part about it the most is supporting pointing part about it all is I was one of the only men in there doing it. The rest of the 50 people and they're fighting the school board were women. It was like 3 guys and 47 women

in there. And I would even make posts about it on social media like, hey, where's the men at? Why, where, why is it moms for liberty? Where's dads for liberty? Where you guys at? You fucking cowards? Why aren't you guys joining me at these school board meetings to speak up for our kids and our wives and our community? And it was just so it was, it was disheartening is not even the word for it.

Man. It was embarrassing, you know, for, for me as a man to to be in there with all those women and just feel bad for them and have them make excuses for their Oh my, you know, my husband gets off late and I understand that. So do I, but I'm here because this is more important than anything right now. It was just so it was disappointing, but I won't won't be dead, dead horse. No, I know I'll. I'll add this little piece to it and maybe this, maybe this helps.

I think that one of the greatest two things, we had a really incredible gift in Joe Biden's presidency, which is difficult for people to accept. We also had a really incredible gift that was given to us when these COVID tyrannical mandates

came down. And, and the, the gift was as we got to see what was happening, we got to reveal who was who in a way that you couldn't have done it without hardship without, you know, testing folks in the same way, you know, you throw something in the fire, you find out whether the purities are there or not. We found that out. I think if you had eight years of Donald Trump, he would have been ineffective for four more years. He would have been impeached another time.

You would have just been hamstring by a bunch of people that didn't quite see what we were up against. And in the same way, I, I think the, if we hadn't had the, the COVID lockdowns, we wouldn't have seen what people would and would not tolerate. And who will those people were. And so you know what side you're on. And I know what side I'm on and I know what side other people are not. We saw some people on the fence that realized they got a second chance because it didn't all go

away. They can make a better decision now. They probably won't. That's just the way that human nature works. But at least they get that free will. Maybe God will turn their hearts to actually realize what matters. And and so that's a gift. It's it's an ugly gift. It's not what we would choose for ourselves. You're right, I'm. Glad all of the hardships that have happened in my life personally have happened the past five.

I'm a totally different person than I was in 2019 and I'm I'm happy for it. Like I told you, I got less money in my bank account than I did in 2020. But the, the main thing out of all of this, honestly, Kyle is and the reason why I'm grateful for what happened to me is because my kids got to see me go through all of it. That's right. They were watching me everyday.

They were watching their mother and their father everyday go through being in a court or before some kind of board on a monthly basis, you know, being dogged in the media by liberals. And, and they got to see everything that happened to us and they got to see us not quit, not for one day that we even

think about quitting. And, and, and what I'm grateful for is that is not a that's not a lesson that I could buy my children if I wanted to. So it taught them something that they will, they will pass down to their grandchildren. And I can't buy that lesson if even if I wanted to, Kyle. And that's why I'm so grateful for it. But you're right that certain things have to happen in order for us to wake up. And we were given a gift.

And I told you before I was that that kind of neo kind guy that loved the war and thought that America just, she could should just go crush everybody because we could. And we were the we were the only people in this entire world that were righteous. And we're trying and everything we did was for the right reasons. And I slowly have woken up to holy shit. And some of these scenarios were the bad guy.

And I'll, I'll tell you, it was even before COVID that I started realizing that when Trump took office in 2016, you know, I was, I was, so I, I, when I, when I came back and I opened the, the food truck, I went back to my other job as an Intel analyst just for a little bit to, because when you open a business, you're not making any money. That's right. So I got my old job back for a little bit to, you know, to kind of help pay bills and such.

So I worked as an Intel analyst under, under Trump for a little

bit. And what really opened my eyes and, and changed kind of my trajectory of thinking was if you remember, we were, we're flying some drones around in the airspace over near Iran. And they shot our drone down and, and, and all of the, the, all of Trump's senior military advisors wanted us to go to war over and it was their chance to invade Iran. And it was one night that I left work and we, we had five different strategic military targets that we're going to get hit that night in Iran.

And thousands of people were going to die. And it was, it was, it was it was an eerie feeling when I left work that day and, you know, seeing that operator, knowing that in just a few hours there's going to be people waking up in Iran and it's going to be their last time waking up. And I know this and they don't. So I remember checking the news at whatever time it was supposed to happen and it didn't happen.

And so I thought maybe something, maybe they cancelled the mission, something went wrong. And the very next day, if you remember, Trump got on TV and he said we had five different strategic military targets that we're going to be obliterated last night in Iran. He said, I called it off personally. And he did. He's the one that stopped it personally. And he said the reason I did is because I didn't think you guys shooting down an unmanned drone warranted me killing thousands of people.

But make no mistake about it. Next time I won't hesitate. And and at first, the day before, I was like, yeah, fuck yeah, let's go into Iran. Let's fucking kill everybody. We're America. And the. Very next day when he said that. I don't know why it just kind of woke me up like what, what was I thinking, man? Why, why was I thinking that? What, what, who am I? And I was like, he's right. Shooting down an unmanned drone doesn't warn us, killing thousands of people.

What is wrong with me? What is wrong with the people who were were making the decisions to let that happen? And honestly, Trump kind of changed my neo my neo con mentality at that moment. And, and then, you know, he when when we killed General Soleimani in Baghdad, when he rolled out of the gates of buy out and we, we dropped that bomb on them, obliterated them. If you remember, Iran's retaliation for that was to send 17 missiles into al-Assad air base in Iraq where our U.S. troops were.

Well, thirteen of them landed. And if you remember, there was not one American casualty. And the reason for that is because they told us the exact grid coordinates and times that these missiles were coming in, right? And the reason they did that is because they told Trump, hey, we have to have a response because if we don't, we'll have a coup in our country. That's right. And Trump. 'S responsible.

Like, Roger that. However, if one of my service members are injured, make no mistake about it, I'll be retaliated as well, and I'll obliterate your country. And, and he commanded that respect on the international stage that I've never seen before. And that's when I truly fully got behind him, you know, as a is he perfect? No, not by any means. But I believe he's the right person in the right position right now. And that's the right temperament. Too, It's like, fine, you need

to save face. I understand that. And he said something recently that that, and I don't get into foreign politics as much because I just, it's just not interesting to me. I understand we all live in a global world, but I, you know, I live in an American world. The, the thing that was most interesting is that he's like, we're not going to export democracy. We're not going to make, you know, put American values on other countries. We're going to allow other

people to be themselves. We're interested in American values in America. That's it. So don't screw with what we're doing. And that's kind of what he went out and told the Middle East. He's like, we're not trying to shove America on you. You guys do whatever you guys do. We already know what it looks like. You've you've been in war to see it. It doesn't work. You don't you don't superimpose America on top of a place that didn't ask for it. They don't want it. Well, and.

That's the reason why so many Americans have issues with this illegal immigration that's going on right now. Yeah, because I can, I can tell you that probably majority of Americans maybe not at this point because we have too much illegal immigration that happened. Most Americans just want a halt to everything right now and let us evaluate what's what's been happening.

But I can tell you that probably most Americans agree that if we were able to have some kind of psychic power and determine whether or not somebody was a good person and just coming across the border to make a great life for themselves and they were going to assimilate to the American values, I don't think any American would have a problem with that. The problem is we don't have psychic ability.

And with those families that just want to make a better life for themselves are terrorists who want to kill you. And they will kill you at the first opportunity that they have. But the problem, the biggest problem is that a lot of these people especially that come over the border illegally, they don't assimilate to the American

culture or American values. And just like those people don't want us changing their country or their systems or their value systems, neither do we. And if you're coming to America to for a better life, it, it should be known, it should, it should go without saying that you won't try to change our

country. You will assimilate to the value system and the structure that made it such a great place that you want to immigrate to. So for that same reason, we're never going to change any, any, any country in the Middle East or in Europe. Those places have been those places for thousands of years. And to think we're going to, but honestly, nobody thought that we were going to go turn these places into a democracy or whatever they want to call it.

The, the, the, the intent of these wars were to launder money and make certain people billionaires is all it was. But yeah, the sales pitch. Was what was very different than the what was deliverable in in the in the real world. I think 100% one. 100% absolutely.

But just to I do want to touch on one thing real quick, just because I talked about there was no injuries from that Al Asad air base incident, the media reported just to make Trump look bad that 100 and something soldiers were injured. Well, I like I told you, part of my job as an Intel analyst was looking at casualty analysis. So I saw every injury that happened from that attack. Every injury that happened was a reported headache from people that were in the vicinity of one

of those missiles that landed. They just had a headache. So they classified that as a concussion or TBI, and the media classified that as an injury so that the media reported over 100 and some people were injured. In all actuality, nobody was injured from that attack. And it was because of the presence of a, of a president like Donald Trump. And that's honestly, that's why I got behind. I voted for the first time in my life in 2020 because of that.

Never voted before, ever. And one of the reasons I never voted before, and I'm, I'm embarrassed to say that honestly, but one of the reasons I never voted before is because when I work for Blackwater, one of our missions was protecting these politicians when they come down range. And as the medic, you stay with the person that you're protecting, you stay with the principal and in case something happens and medics right there with them.

And so I got to meet a lot of these people and they were all full of shit on both sides of the aisle. How did I know you were going? To say that they I mean. They honestly, they were, they would, they would, what do you guys need down here on the ground to accomplish your mission successfully? And we give them a list every time and we wouldn't hear from them once they're back in DC.

They're all full of shit. But I never voted until 2020, honestly, because of those two decisions that Donald Trump made. And, and I'm I don't regret voting for him. I don't regret voting for him and supporting this time. And, and one of the reasons I blew the whistle at DHS is because I kind of want to get in front of him. I don't have his phone number.

I can't call him what I want to. Hopefully a message gets to him that he has people that he had put in these political appointed positions that are subverting his agenda and they are not doing what's in the best interest of his administration or the American people. And, and and that's why you and me are talking right now, because I blew the whistle on some of the things happening up at DHS.

Yeah, to be fair, we. Probably should have before because there's a lot of commonality here and I appreciate and it's nice hearing another saying and sober voice that sees a lot of the same things. You know, I don't have to seek out confirmation, but there's always someone out there that saw the same thing that didn't have any contact before. Let's talk about DHS. You went, when did you start working? How did you even come about the job?

Was it and and give me kind of like the parameters what level you're working at, Like give me the background on it and let's walk into it. I, I, I finally got through that fight at my restaurant and, you know, I'm down to nothing in my bank account because of the fight. And the only thing else I had to lean on was what I've done since I was 17 years old, which is, you know, government contract.

So reached out to a company, got a job as a government contractor up at DHS as an Intel analyst working on the countering weapons of mass destruction team at DHS headquarters. And when I first got there, one of the first questions I was asked is, hey, Matt. And this was under the Biden administration. So I got there in March of 2024, OK. One of the first questions I was asked was, what do you think the biggest chemical weapon threat to America is right now? And my response was fentanyl.

And, and my response was fentanyl because it kills the most Americans age 18 to 45 than any anything else, natural causes, accidents, guns, anything. Fentanyl overdoses the leading cause of death of Americans age 18 to 45. And not only that, but we know that the CCP is responsible for bringing the precursors to make fentanyl to Mexico for the cartels to make. We know that China has trained the cartels on how to take it from being a precursor into fentanyl as a drug.

And over 60% of the of the fentanyl that come comes across the border is of a lethal dose. So if you're just trying to make money, you're not going to have over 60% of your product be of a lethal dose because the last thing you want is your customers to die. You want to keep your customers alive so they keep buying from you. So the fact that over 60% of it is over lethal dose lets me know that the intent is to kill Americans.

And, and the fact that the only reason it's it's it's it's able to be made in, in Mexico is because of China. It, it is being used as a chemical weapon. So that was my response to them. And you know what their response to me was? I don't feel like it was going. To be positive, no, they said. Matt, you can't say the F word in this office. Fentanyl. And, and it was obvious why, because it was under the Biden

administration. Everybody I worked for in there was liberal and they knew it was their fault and the administration that they supports fault that we have a fentanyl crisis in America. So it's best just to ignore the problem. And, and I wasn't, I wasn't allowed to do anything Fentanyl as an Intel analyst working for the, the, the, the, the, the weapons of mass destruction team at DHS, which is insane. So they told me it's a narcotics issue, Matt, it's not a chemical weapon issue.

So that's not our lane. You're not allowed to touch it. So, so I wasn't. So anyway, I worked in that role since March of last year. And I I So what happens in the Intel community when when it when an intelligence analyst creates a report or Intel note or an Intel bulletin? It's, it's actionable Intel. So you're creating this to send out to the rest of the Intel community for them to take action on it. And I saw many, many, many different Intel reports come out for review.

Because like for me as an Intel analyst, if I'm creating Intel report, I send it out to the Intel community for everybody to look at and review and either suggest changes that should be made or tell me it's good to go before I publish it. So a lot of those reports would come into my e-mail across my desk and I would look at them and they were almost, I would say at least over 60% of them were completely politically biased and targeting Americans for things that should be

illegal. And in October of 2024, something came across my desk that I could, I could no longer stay silent on. And So what happened at that point is that's at right after Hurricane Helene in North Carolina happened. OK, Yeah. And. I received the Intel report for review that that targeted the victims of Hurricane Helene.

It said that we need to look into these victims in Hurricane Helene because they're spreading conspiracy theories on social media that can put FEMA workers in danger on the ground. And these conspiracy theories that they were spreading were things like. FEMA. FEMA sent. Money to different cities in different states to house illegal immigrants. Well, that's not a conspiracy theory. That's easily provable. Over $300 million was sent from FEMA to house illegal immigrants.

And conspiracy theories like FEMA doesn't have enough money to make it to the end of hurricane season. Well, that's also not a conspiracy theory. Secretary Mayorkas himself said on mainstream media, CNN, Fox News, all of the channels that we don't have enough money to make it to the end of hurricane season. So they had all these things in these reports that were conspiracy theories that were easily provable to not be conspiracy theories, but actual facts.

So I flagged it and I said hey guys. First, you can't. Target these victims who just lost everything from this hurricane for things that are not conspiracy theories but actual facts. And I sent evidence up when I flagged that report in my e-mail, I said, here's the evidence that these aren't conspiracy theories. These are actual facts.

And this needs to be changed before this report is published and other people within the Intel community take action on it, like surveilling these these victims. And, and I set that up and I heard nothing back. And so I kept reaching out to, I sent it up through my chain of command. Nothing happened. Nothing happened but and I kept pressing them and by the time I heard something back, they said, hey, Matt, that's not our lane. Your lane is is chemical, biological, radiological or

nuclear weapons. That's it. And I said, OK, Rodger that man, why'd it come across my desk for review then? And I said even beyond it being my lane as an Intel analyst, I'm an American. So this is my lane as an American. It's my lane as AUS government employee, even though I'm a contractor to look out for the people who are paying me to be here. So it is my lane and it's your lane to do something about it. And they said well the reports already went out as is. So they were.

They put that Intel report out as is. And to be fair. Those are First Amendment protected things. You can think or say anything that you like. Now how about crazy how it is? Like what does the federal government have as far as taking it? You have the right to spread even a conspiracy theory online. Yeah, it's up to the American people to accept it as truth or call you out of your bullshit,

you know, but well and, and. I want to put a finer point on why this is dangerous and and I'd like you to help me kind of explain it to people because this is a broader problem in the Intel community, at least in my experience. You get something like that, a novel indication that conspiracy theories or Catholics in Richmond, VA are white supremacists or take your pick of whatever thing is, you know, that pro-life advocates might hurt people at abortion clinics.

And you don't have any evidence of that because you don't need to to write an an IIR or any of these other Intel bulletins or a domain awareness product. So you're going to generate a report that's basically your suppositions. It's your editorialization of something. You've analyzed the facts and you've got some, you know, concrete little touchstones. You're going to put them all together. And you say this is what I

believe this information means. And you send it out there and it goes across someone's like your desk and nobody, there's not another Matt there who says, hey, this is problematic. And by the way, possibly, you know, any illegal use of our resources to call it out. So everybody agrees to it. It goes out there. Well, someone writes on that product, someone sees that product and writes a follow on product, which becomes part of a body of work.

And now suddenly it is an agreed consensus within the intelligence community that hurricane victims might be targeting FEMA workers because we've got 11 different intelligence reports that have all been peer reviewed and vetted. Or we think that Catholics who like Latin Mass are problematic because we have 17 people in various field offices from DHS and Border Patrol and ICE and you name it, you know, they're, they're over in the FBI and

they're over in NSA. And they're all saying, well, these people might be white supremacists, which by the way, is also illegal in this country. It's not illegal in this country. You can be a white supremacist. Like we probably don't want to hang out with them, but you can be you're on. It Kyle and that's. You're on it feed. Feed that back to. People to understand what happens when you build on

somebody else's body of work. That becomes sort of like an established mentality inside these offices. It becomes the truth. You know, once 10 different Intel analysts put that out, it becomes the truth and it becomes actionable Intel. And that's what I was trying to prevent. And and, and you would think that I'd be applauded for that, but I, I painted a huge target on my back at that .0. Yeah, I knew what I was doing when I did it, but I had to do it.

And then so Fast forward to December, when you remember when all the drone activity was coming? I do was here the DC area. Now this was after the elect. So that that report that I flagged, remember that was in October. That was before the election. So I was kind of, you know, I was, I wasn't protected by the new Trump administration that was coming in. I was, I was ready to lose my job over it.

So Fast forward to December when the drone activity was happening here in the DC area, I reached out to through my chain of command once again and I said, hey, guys, we are the CWMD team for the Department of Homeland Security. It's our job to protect the homeland from any kind of CBRN attack. And we're getting multiple reports of all these drones here in the area. And we know that bad actors, state actors and non state actors are trying to equip drones with CBR and weapons.

So now this is our lane. You can't use the excuse now that this isn't our lane. I said, why are we talking about this in the office? Why aren't we a part of any investigation into this? Why haven't I heard one word about this drone activity in the office? And crickets once again. And eventually when I kept pressing, kept pressing, my boss got back to me and said, hey, man, not our lane. We don't do drones. So that's what the government workers do, man.

They, for the most part, they kick the can down the road and they spend more manpower and time trying to figure out a way to get out of doing work than they do actually doing work. The excuse is always this isn't our lane. We're not allowed to do this because this is our mission, when in all actuality, it relates to our mission. But so at that time, I was just a thorn in their side.

I kept calling out bullshit, calling out improper reports and politically biased reports, reports that targeted Christians. And it was so I, I knew it started, it started to be a very hostile work environment for me. And what happened at that point is the new, so over the CWMD program at DHS, the, the, the guy at the top of the food chain, there is an assistant secretary, OK, that is appointed to that position by the the president.

So in January, in came a new assistant secretary before you even. Get into that piece. Do you mind explaining to people? Some people probably have never worked in a real hostile work environment where you know that any day somebody could walk you out or, or or you know. You're you're. Constantly. Basically scrutinized for everything. You can you explain what the physiological response is? You're first of all, you're a medic. I have the same background.

I can you talk about what it feels like when you're walking in those doors and and and looking around and realizing that you're you're not in friendly territory anymore. Yeah, yeah. I mean, if it feels like, well, I've boxed since I was seven years old, OK. And it kind of feels like you're walking into the room, to be honest with you. You know, when I, when I walked into the skiff every day, I kind of felt like I was walking into the ring a little bit. Like I was walking into a fight.

Like everybody was looking at me like, oh God, here's this dude. Can you just shut up, Matt, and let us make our money and, you know, not cause any ruckus and not rock the boat. We've been doing this for so long. And here you go showing up, you know, messing everything up for. That's kind of what I felt like, man. But would you say? It's a fight where you don't know who's going to hit you, absolutely. You don't know where it's coming from.

And, and, and so they, they took me off of the report reviews. So they took me off the list of people that the reports come to for review is what they did in retaliation for me flagging these reports. And, and, and then so the new assistant secretary came in and this guy's name was Dave Richardson. And he, he hit the ground running. Everybody was.

So the first, his first all hands meeting, he scared the shit out of everybody because he said, hey, listen, I'm going to make sure Trump's agenda is pushed forward. And he came very forcefully. And everybody was was scared of him at that point. And we had to brief him on what the Intel division was doing and, and they asked me to do it because they everybody was scared. They were like, hey, Matt, will you brief the new assistant?

Second, suddenly you got. Value now you're the guy that they need in that fight yeah, of course I was like yeah, I. Don't give a shit, I'll brief him. I was like, wow, this is my opportunity to let him know that what should be happening in this office is not happening. And I did. Yep. And and and he liked it. And honestly, from SO they kind of messed up making me brief him that day because he realized my

value pretty quickly. And he brought me into all the senior level meetings that after that as a contractor. Sure. Usually it's all SES and fifteens in these meetings. And he had me in those meetings from that point on as a contractor. And, and so I was, so he started a series of working groups, complex problem solving working groups to attack issues that the CWMD office should have been attacking for decades, for years

and they hadn't been. And he had me in all these senior level working groups and over, so not to get too in the weeds, but you got DHS headquarters and then you got this countering weapons of mass destruction program underneath that. And then in the CWMD program, you got these different directorates, one being the Intel directory where I worked well over each directorate. You have an SES level person and you have AGS 15 who is that person's deputy. Got it.

Well, so the SES and the deputy over the Intel division didn't like the fact that the assistant secretary found favor in me and was bringing me into all of these senior level meetings. And so they already didn't like me for, you know, flagging all of these reports and such and finding out who I really was. But then when the, the, the assistant secretary found favor of me, they really didn't like me at that point. And the hostile work environment really ramped up.

They would, they would, they would come up to me and ask me why he's got me in these meetings. And I would tell them, hey, I don't know, man. Ask him. I mean, you're my boss. Yeah, but he's your boss. So that means he's my ultimate boss. He, he put something on my calendar and I go, that's what it is, man. I'm, I'm following orders of the senior executive person on this

program. And so anyway, that, that really created a lot of tension because they knew the reason that he had me in those meetings and working on the things I was working on is because he didn't have any confidence in those people because he saw the, the, the risk adverseness of them in the inaction. And, and honestly, so CWMD right now is on the chopping block to be cut. And the reason it's on the chopping block is because of their risk adverseness and their inaction the past few years.

They're, they have not been doing what they should have been doing and in any way. So he had me in those meetings be, you know, because of that, he trusted me and I wasn't working outside of the scope of my contract. Everything I was doing was Intel related, related to the Division I was in. But they didn't like the fact that he had me in those meetings. So what happened is that hostile work environment ramped up.

They started having me report every week, every meeting that I was in, what the meeting was about, what the do outs were for me of that meeting, every project that I was working on. And I said I complied. I was like, OK, Roger that. You know, even though the the assistant secretary. You. Know he he chose me instead of them in some of those meetings for a reason. I still complied and let them know what I was working on.

I was getting calls so the SES and the 15 on my program would call the the, the core, the person in charge of the contract who would then call the company I'm working for and complain about me saying they don't know what I'm working on because I'm working directly for the assistant secretary, right? And that's what. That's not what they hired you to do, allegedly. That's not what they hired me to do. They hired me to work in the Intel division. My reply back would be like, I'm

working in the Intel division. I'm just taking directions from the assistant secretary anyways, so I let me, let me. Just ping a thought off you or a question. Would you prefer to go to war with a team that you trust, which you've done before, or show up in an office like you were in with those DHS folks where you've what you've been calling hostile work environment? Which one is preferable 10 times out of 10?

I'd rather be shot at by people I know are my enemies than being an office full of people that tell me they're on the same side as me and stabbing me in the back. 10 times out of 10, I just want people to. Get a grasp on it.

I had a buddy one time telling me that he would rather go back and invade Fallujah again than go to Air Army Airborne school because he thought it was really dumb and he didn't like the way they trained it. It's like there's some things that, like even administrative bullshit like you're talking about can weigh on you more than I think than combat. And that I've had more than one person tell me that there are things like that that are much, they're much less preferable.

And so anyway, you're, you're one more data point in that lane. Yeah, well. I'll wrap that up with I wanted to go through everything they did to make it a hostile work environment. It'd take an hour and it was insane. But so I had the company I work for call me and tell me, hey man, somebody in your office is trying to get you fired. And they told me I should file a hostile workplace agreements.

They saw how bad it was. They said we even got word through the core that somebody said you're not going to have, you're not going to have the protections of the assistant secretary forever. And then he. Said, take that as a threat. Somebody wants you fired in there and just watch your back in there, Matt. And, and I said, Roger that. So anyway, the assistant secretary of CWMD 2 weeks ago ended up becoming the acting

administrator of FEMA. So right now he's serving in both roles, the assistant secretary of CWMD as well as the acting administrator for FEMA. So as soon as he got appointed to that position, he has been over at FEMA 100% of the time, obviously trying to get his wheels under him.

Yep. And so as soon as that happened, almost a very, I think it was might have been the very next day I get an e-mail from my contracting company telling me that the SES and the 15 that are over me and my directorate has said I'm going to drop everything that assistant secretary has had me working on. I am not to go to any meetings

unless it's ran through them. I am not to meet with anybody or talk with anybody outside of the Intel division and I'm to report to them every morning to get my marching orders. So they really ramped up the hostile work environment as soon as the the AS was gone. And then not only that, they said any meetings I am a part of they want reported everything

that happened in that meeting. What my do outs in those meetings were, they knew that part of the reason why I'm working on what I'm working on is because they haven't been doing their jobs the past four years and they really wanted to know, you know, what was going on with the alcohol anyway. So, but not only that, they said from now on I need to report every conversation that I have during the walk work day with

people. They want to know who those people are and what the conversation was about. Yeah. So just insane reporting requirements that nobody in the US government has to go through and the the the the reason for it was from the put their their foot on my neck and try to make me quit. Basically. Yeah, or or build. Out the the the termination documents with whatever it is that they're trying to build together.

I mean, this is classic stuff. Anybody who's worked in government and seeing how this goes, they're just paper and a file full of grievances. So they can say this is the reasons why I'm Matt is such a terrible person. He was the worst. He was 5 minutes ago. He was fine, but now he's the worst guy we've ever seen. And if we don't do something, we would be the real problem here. So adios, it's. Exactly right. So it's almost like I've seen this. Done before. I'm sure you have, man.

And I'm sure there's people going through it right now that they are going through it right now. Yeah. But ironically, Cameron Hamilton was the administrator of FEMA as soon as Trump took over. So Cameron Hamilton, who's a former Navy SEAL, who is a really good friend of mine, he was put as the number one guy over at FEMA. And I was doing a great job over there, man. He was, he was getting shit in order over at FEMA and he was there for four months.

And ironically, he was fired and Dave Richardson, the assistant secretary in charge of me at CWD, was put to take over his place. So that was kind of weird for me, but but anyway, So what happened and what led to my firing is, like I said, Cameron Hamilton's real good friend of mine. I knew the whole story behind why he really got fired as the FEMA administrator. And I don't know how much you know about it, but he did a congressional committee hearing meeting May 6th or 7th, so just

recently. Yep. And he was asked in that congressional hearing what he what he thought about FEMA being eliminated. And his response was, I don't believe it's in the the best interest of the American people for FEMA to be 100% eliminated.

And his stance has always been that he agrees that it needs to be drastically reduced because there's a lot of fraud, waste and abuse within FEMA that there are there's there's certain essential missions within FEMA that can't go away because nobody else in the US government does it. And if you try to hand these missions off to state Emergency Management teams, they're going to fail because they don't have the assets or the capability to fulfill these certain functions.

So Cameron's, and that's actually the president's view as well. As well as what Secretary Noah has been saying, if you listen to, I mean, that's a yes, a. Nuanced position, it's like, look, a lot of things could be cut back, but there's a couple things that can't be duplicated somewhere else. Like that's a nuanced position for thinking people that are in in operating good faith, so.

If you listen to what Noam or Trump says, they say FEMA won't exist as it does today, which means not going to go away, but it's going to be drastically reduced. And that's what was, Yep, that's what was what Cameron's recommendation was. But he has also said it's up to President Trump in Congress with what happens to FEMA. And whatever their wishes are, whatever their direction is, I'll carry out. So they said that they fired him

because of those remarks. They said they fired him because President Trump wasn't 100% eliminate FEMA. And he said that he recommends FEMA not be 100% eliminate. Well, that's false. Actually, Cameron Hamilton knew the entire time he was in that committee hearing that he was already fired. Sure. So if you don't mind, I'm going to share with you real quick the real reason why he was fired. Let's do it and then.

Hopefully Cameron will come on and talk to me as well because I'd be happy to have him on. He and I have interacted online only for probably 2 years now or a year and a half and I'd be happy to have him on. Talk about it. So OK. Yeah, set it up. Yeah, well, so. Ironically, man, Tom Holman, he, he, he, he, he came to support me at my restaurant when I was going through everything. And he just one of the best dudes in this world, man, Tom Holland, is he he's just a

genuinely good dude. And so I've been friends with Tom Holland for, you know, past few years because of that. And he called me and, and it was late November, early December, and told me, he said, hey, Matt, I'm getting threats from every cartel under the sun and I can't get any protection from this, this Biden administration. And he knows what I used to do in the military, knows I used to work for Blackwater. He was like, is there anything, you know, can you help?

And I said, absolutely, man. So I stood up a protection team for him, you know, in 30 minutes and, and Cameron Hamilton volunteered to be a part of that team. That makes sense. So we were with. Tom, you know, pretty much every day leading up to the inauguration, and I tell you that to tell you how close Cameron and I are, you know, he's he's like a brother to me. I know his heart. And the last person's integrity you would question is Cameron. He's just a genuinely good dude,

man. And if you have a conversation with them, you'll, you'll immediately see what I'm talking about. Just genuinely good guy that just loves his country and wants to do the right thing for it. But anyway, he was really fired because of a personal beef between Corey Lewandowski and him. Christy Norm is not the real secretary of BHS. Corey Lewandowski is the real secretary of DHS. His official position is one of her senior advisors, but that's

not the case. He's the one really running DHS. Christy Norm, in my opinion, is just, it's just campaigning for 2028. And so where that rift began between Corey Lewandowski and Cameron, Cameron Hamilton was if, if you remember, there was a payment sent out from FEMA to New York City for $60 million. And that payment was part of the Shelter and Services program, the SSP program that went to housing illegal immigrants in the the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City. Oh yeah.

Yeah, so. That happened in February under the Trump administration, under Cameron's watch at FEMA. So, and they blame that in the media on Cameron. So what really happened with that incident is Cameron was told right away, soon as he took over to freeze all grants coming out of FEMA, 100% Lottie, Dottie, every grant freeze it.

So he did, he complied. And then later on, DHS realized that because of the massive spending that the Biden administration did on the way out, they put ice in a hole by like 200,000,200. I don't, I forget how much it was, but they put ice in a major hole financially, purposefully I bet for. Hamstring the Trump.

Administration when Trump took over, sure well to try to make up some of that capital DHS council as long as as well as the secretary, deputy secretary, their direction to Cameron was hey, unfreeze all grants because what they wanted to do is so as FEMA, like if you're the governor of Texas and, and I give you a grant, let's say, let's say you're doing a project that cost $8 million, right And, and, and I give you $8 million to do that project. Well, you've only spent

$2,000,000 on that. I can tell you to stop work on that project and that remaining $6 million we're going to use for mass deportations. So that was their reasoning behind unfreezing these grants. They wanted to use the grant money that hadn't been used by these states for the mass deportation flights and such. Got it a good idea, you know, on on paper. So they told him unfreeze all of the grants and, and Cameron triple checked with them.

Are you sure you want me to refreeze, unfreeze all of the grants and, and this is all in e-mail, in writing. They said yes, unfreeze all grants. And that direction came from Christy Noah's lawyers. DHS council said that to Cam unfreeze all grants. So he did. He did. He followed orders. And one of those grants that were unfrozen was the grant that went to New York City that was then used to house illegal immigrants back in February. Well, Doge picked up on that. Elon Musk tweeted it out.

And this was during the Super Bowl that this happened. Yep. And Corey Lewandowski calls Cameron and just starts berating them like, hey, what the fuck is this? What's going on? And cameras like, whoa, whoa, whoa, you, you told me to unfreeze these grits that came from your office, man. This is not at my direction. You guys did this, not me. And so anyway, obviously the secretary's office doesn't want to admit their stake to to President Trump.

So they blamed it on Cameron. They blamed it on camera in the media as well, when in fact it wasn't Cameron's fault. He followed orders from the secretary's office. So that right there started the rift between him and Corey Lewandowski, who is actually running DHS. Fast forward to there was a meeting. So Corey Lewandowski is the senior advisor to Christy Noem.

Well, Christy Noem's deputy secretary is this guy called Troy Edgar. So Troy Edgar and Corey Lewandowski called for a meeting to talk about either eliminating FEMA or drastically reducing it. And they sent this, they sent this meeting out via a, a program called E SEC, which is it's just a, it's a, it's a, it's a government program. It's a former formal interagency information sharing calendar

invite that you can send out. OK, well, Troy Edgar sent that that meeting out that the title of the meeting was FEMA abolish or reform and that meeting went out via E SEC. Well, the problem is that many, many people have access to E SEC within DHS. So many, many people saw this meeting about to happen between the Secretary's office and the administrator of FEMA that is about abolishing FEMA.

So, so they had they hold the meeting and then not even 12 hours after the meeting, it's reported to the media that these senior leaders had this meaning about abolishing FEMA. So it is true they want to abolish FEMA, right? Sure. Well, Corey Lewandowski once again, he calls Cameron, he berates Cameron and he accuses Cameron of being the one that leaked this information to the media. And Cameron says absolutely not. That wasn't me. I didn't leak any information to

the media. So then Corey Lewandowski says, well, then you'll have no problem coming to taking a polygraph to prove so. And Cameron was like, absolutely not. I don't have any problem with that. So Cameron with the DHS headquarters was interrogated for hours. They flew somebody in out of state to interrogate them, gave him a polygraph test, and he passed that polygraph test and, and, and, and nobody apologized for it.

They just continued to allow the media to blame that leak on Cameron. And, and, and so that rift grew between Corey Lewandowski and Cameron. And then also, to be honest with you, in several different meetings, man, Cameron just, he's a very smart guy and he just called Corey Lewandowski on his bullshit. And if you know Lewandowski, he's a, he's got a, he's got an ego that won't fit in this room. And he's a, he's AI mean. He's a guy that he flies off the chain and cusses at people all

the time. He shouldn't be in the position he's in basically. So anyway, that's what soured the relationship between him and Cameron and he's been wanting to fire Cameron ever since then. And a lot of other things happened, you know, related to what I consider to be corruption that Cameron didn't allow, which is another reason they wanted

the fire room. For example, the if you remember that Bourbon Street attack in New Orleans, of course, when the guy shot up Bourbon Street and killed those folks out there. Well, the, the governor of Louisiana, he, you know, he declared an emergency for that. And, and for that incident, he said he, he, he was speaking to Governor, I mean Secretary Noah and said that as a result of that attack, there was, it cost him $50 million in, you know, recovery and, and, and clean up

from that attack. And he wants to build DHS because of that disaster or that emergency declaration that he made. He wants to send this $50 million bill to DHS to be paid. And Christy Noem promised them that, yeah, send me that 50 dollar, $50 million bill. It'll be paid by DHS some way. We'll fund it via FEMA. So that that that was sent to FEMA, that $50 million bill.

Not Well, first of all, that attack that happened on Bourbon Street, there's no way that the result of that cost you $50,000,000 to clean up. There was some corruption baked into that. I don't have any evidence of that, but if you just use, we're talking about. Louisiana here so. $50 million, what at most after the, you know, the cleanup of the incident, all you're paying for is, you know, extra security for a few days or whatever. That's not $50 million. So there's some corruption baked

into that. Anyways, Christie Noah promised the governor of Louisiana that that bill would be paid by DHS and specifically FEMA. So that $50 million bill was, was, was sent to FEMA and and FEMA, you know, through the, the correct process, sent that bill to the White House to be to be approved while President Trump denied it. President Trump denied that $50 million bill to DHS from the the governor of Louisiana. Sure. So FEMA then drafted a notice of denial to the governor.

But the problem is, prior to that denial, Secretary Noam have already spoken to the governor multiple times and promised that DHS will find a way to approve this request. But once once DHS was was made aware of that final denial from from FEMA in the White House, once the DHS secretary's office was made aware, Lewandowski and Noam, they weren't happy. They weren't happy with Cameron and they sought to find other means to reimburse the state using FEMA funds.

And actually, in April, after Trump had already denied the request, DHS, the secretary's office, directed Cameron Hamilton to process the request anyway. And Cameron denied and stated that their costs were not reimbursable under a FEMA program and their disaster requests had already been rejected by the White House. So. So that's another reason they wanted to fire him because they wouldn't. He wouldn't just secretly do what they wanted him to do. Yeah. Well, I mean, what?

You tell me if I'm putting words in your mouth here, but it sounds like somebody got their image tarnished and Cameron was a good scapegoat. And that image tarnishing happened with some PR issues that happened in the media that looked bad but weren't. And then maybe a funding request where promises were made that couldn't be capitalized on because there are actual policy and appropriation mandates that certain money is only supposed to go to certain places and you

got to meet certain criteria. And if somebody's being an honest operator and says, sorry, I can't do that. And by the way, the boss says no, the chief executive of the United States said, I'm not interested in this. I'm not going to sign off. That's the end of that. But doesn't mean that someone's not going to lose their job over

it, right? Yeah. And. That's The thing is, is, is Cameron, Cameron says, hey, I was, you know, I'm put here by ultimately I work for Trump. If Trump approves this, it'll be approved. But the White House denied this request. Yeah. And I'm not going to go over the president of of the United States head and approve this request. So if you want this request approved, Secretary Norm, you're going to have to go talk to the White House. It seems like that's what. Should happen anyway.

I mean, I can just imagine we saw a chain of command, right? The military. This is a simple idea if if you're working a job and and the commander in chief comes in and you've been ordered to do one thing and the commander in chief gives you some different orders. Those supersede your immediate

supervisor. That's super, you know, supersedes the captain, that supersedes even maybe, you know, a Colonel that's running whatever your squadron or your group or your wing or, you know, I don't know what the Army, army versions of it are. But like, it's pretty straightforward. There's one ultimate boss. We know who that person is in the executive. You work at DHS, That's an executive agency. So you work for Trump at the end of the day. And if he came in and said no? You.

Know there's no there's no real argument there 100%. But what you know, what Christy Noem is doing is she's, she's collecting political favors, Sure. And I believe she's collecting political favors and endorsements. For future, it sounds like from what you're saying right in 20. 28 Because while all of these grants were, were paused, the, the, the Governor of Missouri actually called Secretary Noam and multiple people from FEMA were on this call as well. And like I said, all grants were

paused at this point. And the Governor of Missouri was urging Secretary Noam to make an exception and turn back on grants, at least just for the state of Missouri. And, and, and, and she did, she actually turned on grants just for Missouri because of that request from the, from the governor And OMB was concerned at that point.

And, and this came from multiple people within FEMA that DHS was going rogue with their budget and not involving the president in these significant decisions, which obviously have significant backlash. And in in late March, no one authorized, she authorized the payments for some of these

grant, these grant programs. And in April, DHS and FEMA, they actually received a court order directing the cessation of this manual review that they were doing on some of these grants and reinstatement of previous grant payments that have been put on hold and legally awarded to the states. But it's obvious that the secretary norm is she's running around just collecting political favours for, in my opinion, her run for 2028. Wagowski is running DHS.

He's incompetent. He should not be in the position he's in. And there's some there, there's some things going on there that so there's some conflicts of interest. So the position that he's in, he doesn't have to report financials and he's involved in a lot of contracts. And I'm not going to make any accusations because I don't want to get sued.

Yeah. But I can tell you when you're in charge of the entire DHS budget and then you're also associated with contracts that involve DHS, that's of conflict of interest and should not be happening. There's a real ethical. Question there. I feel like I can turn you over to some people that might want to look into that and not from the federal side of this is stuff that this is what the journalist historically used to do for accountability. That's right.

That's what, that's what investigative. Journalism actually looks like it's like, oh, you're doing things that are unethical regardless of whether you're on our team or not. Send them my way. Man, I'm I'm going to and we're. Going to make that happen and if Cameron wants to come on and talk to me, I think that was a great tee up of what his story looks like and and why. And I've been meaning to talk to him for probably a year and a half now. So that's a easy thing.

If I I just want. To I just want to reiterate, man, all of these details that I know they didn't come specifically from Cameron. I know that's terrible people at senior levels within FEMA who have all corroborated this, not just one person. So I'm not sure if if if he will come on and he he was actually transferred to another position. That's fair, if he. Wants to come talk. He's got a spot here. There's always a space to to to tell the story. I want to.

I want to end with a couple of thoughts #1 how, how are things going now as you sit there? You, you know, you're, you got terminated like a couple days ago, your contract did. So how, how are you doing and can people support you and what's the status? Just give me kind of an update on that. Yeah, I'll, I'll. End with with with with that because I didn't even talk about me being fired yet. So sorry.

I jumped the gun, but I've read it and I think a lot of my listeners, people actually, I said I have ADHS whistle blowing, ADHS whistle blower coming on and someone said, well, I hope it's Matt Strickland. That's a good guess. So I, my, my chat was on to this earlier this week. Sweet. So I I I put a post out when Cameron was fired in support of Cameron. I didn't say anything that violated the contract I was working on. I didn't name any names specifically.

All I basically said was a vague post saying Cameron was doing great things at FEMA, He shouldn't have been fired. And basically that's it, that he should, I just put a post on support. He should have been fired. He's doing great things at FEMA. He is in support of President Trump's agenda more than most people that are working for the administration actually. And and that's what I put in that post basically so. Last.

Thursday I get a call and this person told me that somebody very high up in VHS was pissed off about that post I put out in support of Cameron and they want me fired for it. And I and I told that person, I said they can't fire me for that post. That is First Amendment protected speech. I didn't say anything classified in that. Nothing, no proprietary information. It was just my opinion that Cameron Hamilton shouldn't have been fired. And I'm allowed to post that on social media.

And I sent him a case law. I said, hey, let that person that wants to be fired know that there's case law on this, and they can't fire me over that. Well, that person hurried up and got off the phone. And very soon after that call, not even an hour later, I get a call from my company saying that they got word from DHS that I'm not allowed to come on the property tomorrow, which would have been Friday. Yeah. And I said. Why? And I knew why I knew it from from that post. I said why?

And, and the guy that called me from my company said, I don't know. All they gave me was that you're not allowed to come on DHS property tomorrow. So I'm suggesting you take a PTO day. And I said Roger that. And I told him I said it's because of this post. And I sent them the post And I said, is there anything wrong with that post? And they said absolutely not. There's nothing that violates your contract in this post. They can't fire you for it. Well, Friday comes. I get no word.

I called my company. Hey, did you guys hear anything? They said no, nothing at all. I said, is that typical? Have you ever had somebody be told they can't come on the property and you weren't given a reason why? And the next day, nobody from the government reaches out to you. And they said absolutely not. This is fucking weird. We've never had this happen before, but we'll get back to you once something happens, once we hear anything. Well, the next day, Saturday.

So this took two days. Saturday I finally get an official word from my company. I'm assuming that why it took so long is because they sent that post to the lawyers to review and they were trying to figure out if they can legally fire me over it or not 100%. Saturday I get a. Call from my company like, hey, Matt finally got word while

you're fired. They're using the excuse that you worked on things when the things that assistant secretary of the program had you working on was outside of the scope of your contract. So they're firing you over that. And I knew immediately it was bullshit. You're telling me the direction I took from the senior executive on the contract following his order is why I'm being fired. So that's, and everything I worked on for him, like I said,

was in the scope of my contract. So it was just an excuse to fire me because they knew. And they, I'm assuming that they, they, they, that they properly got counsel from the lawyer saying you can't fire this guy over this post. But my, my opinion and what I think happened is Corey Lewandowski, the the maniac that he is, probably said, well, you're going to find something to fire this guy over because he's not coming back to DHS property.

And and that's I can almost. Guarantee that that phone call happened, somebody called out and said find me a lawyer that's going to find me an answer that's going to go the way we want. Just the same way that you've worked in an Intel community that knows how to find the answer. No, and not my job, not my lane. Yeah, somebody will pick up. You're embarrassing us. We're going to figure out a way to make it our problem to to get rid of you. And isn't that amazing?

It was fire. This guy, find a reason. Exactly what you said. Yeah, predetermined. Outcome go find me the the actions that that justify and and substantiate it 100%. Man, so now trying to find a lawyer that'll help me in this legal battle because I'm not taking this laying down man and I love it. I want to, I want to, I want to do the best I can to help with

that too. If, by the way, if you happen to be listening and this is your jam, you want to get in this First Amendment type stuff, there's a space for that. We've got a couple of leads. Like I said, I've already reached out to some folks and we're going to try to get some answers there. The other answer is that they. Need man, this should be an open and shut case form. Yeah, the sad. Thing is, it always takes time, it always takes money, and it takes a will to fight it.

You've got that. So that's something, yeah. I don't have money, no, but you got the you got the will to go forward with it. And and there are people that want to see these. Where I'm at at how I'm doing, man, you know I don't have I didn't have a plan when I spoke up at my restaurant. I didn't have a plan when I blew the whistle on those bullshit Intel reports at my job and I don't have a plan now. I just I just know I need to do that gut instinct. I told you yeah, I believe God

talks to you through. I just followed that man and tried to trying to do what I thought I was there to do, which is protect the American people is all I've ever done as a contractor. And I didn't have a strategy and a plan of this is what happens next. And if they do this, I'm doing this. I don't have that plan. All I know is that I need to do what's right. So I'm in a position now where once again, you know, I'm losing a lot of income for doing the

right thing. But like I said before, man, I'll mow lawns if I have to. I don't give a shit. But I want to be able to look my kids in the eyes and my wife and look myself in the mirror and be proud of myself at the end of the day. So you know anybody that needs a lawn mowed man out in Fredericksburg? Yeah, I love it. Let me let me put one last thing in there. Is it just a kind of reflection? And you tell me what you think of this.

What do you make of the fact that a guy who joined the Army at 17 years old and, and, and you know, now you're 41 and, and you're talking to people that are sub cabinet level positions and you're, you're making friends with people that are on the news every day. And, and you're in this actual like at we're at, you're at a level. It probably doesn't make a whole lot of sense of that 17 year old kid. Do you ever have that moment where you sit back and go like, how the hell did I get here?

I do. I do, you know, I have a have a, you know, I have those moments like I told you about when I walk into the office as an Intel analyst and I've never been an Intel analyst where I think I don't belong here. I'm not supposed to be here. Everybody's smarter than me. When I actually meet these people that are on TV, these people in these high level cabinet positions, Yeah, I realized very quickly, oh, I am supposed to be here. These people are not impressive at all whatsoever.

These people are liars. These people are here for self gay. These people are here to make money and that's it. Honestly, you know, the, the deep state that people talk about the establishment, whatever you want to call them, there's some people who are nefarious and actually trying to do things to hurt people 100%. But the vast majority of them are just are greedy, they're power hungry and they'll do anything it takes to to make a

lot of money. And, and that's what it comes down to. And these people are, they're not intelligent. Like I said, they're not impressive. So when I get around these people and I meet these people and, and, and I think this 17 year old kid from the neighborhoods I'm, I'm from shouldn't be here. I pretty quickly realized that, oh shit, yeah, I I should be here because these these people are the reason why we're in a position that we're in as a

country. And there's very few people actually represent the American people. And that's why I love Tom Holman so much, because he's, he's one of those genuine people that don't give a shit. We'll, we'll absolutely get fired for doing the right thing for the American people. And I know not a lot of people know them. They just know them from being on TV and such. But I can tell you right now that that dude's got your best interest in hand.

And I wish everybody in government was like him, but unfortunately 98% of people aren't. Yeah, no. They never will be. And the other fun thing is, is all those people that you, you wonder whether or not you should be in the same room. They wouldn't have survived the things that you've survived. It becomes really obvious when you start meeting folks like that. I've had similar experiences. So I, I appreciate your assessment on that too.

It's like I said, it's one more, it's one more just confirmation of something that. Everyone. Expects that these people are heroes and they've got a name they recognize and therefore they're going to go do something for you. At the end of the day, most of these people, they're self interested, you know, it's not evil, not in the not in the sense that they're diabolical. It's evil in the sense that they just don't have any scruples or

moral and they're just wanted. Well, let me ask you A. Question man, Sure. Do you ever think about why it's always the same names that are picked for certain positions? Especially now when in the past five years, so many true patriots have stepped up and done the right things for America and the American people that should be in certain positions. Do you ever ask yourself, why is it always the same people that are nominated for these positions and we get the same result?

Why aren't some of these people who have been willing to give up everything, like the people who were kicked out of the military for not taking the, you know, the the COVID vaccine? Why aren't some of those people promoted to some of these high positions? Why? Yeah. You know. I mean, I have an instinct. It's the most cynical instinct there is, though. Yeah, I'm with. You, I think we got the same instinct on that, man.

You know what? Next time you're in the DC area, we better go get a fucking beer, man. You know it's a it's. A deal, it's a done deal. I hate being in DC, so it'd be nice to stand around someone that I don't hate being around. My, my, my worst instinct is always that some of these people have no other choice but to do

that that kind of work. And and for whatever reason, and maybe this is maybe the worst thing because cynically I can look at other people and say those are crappy actors or bad people and I don't I don't want them in charge anything. But the other problem is, is that Americans, and maybe this is the legacy that we learned from COVID, maybe you and I learned the same lesson. Americans desperately want a king. They want someone to say that

it's all going to be all right. They don't want personal responsibility to do the hard thing on their own. And then the worst part of it to me is as long as they feel like they can root for their team, it doesn't matter if their team does the right thing when it happens. Well, you're absolutely. Right, babe, we got an idolatry. Problem is what I call it. They want somebody. Else to do the hard part for them.

That's right. In all actuality, you know, like if I wasn't the only restaurant in Virginia to do what I did, if a hundred other restaurants stood up and said no, there would have been nothing that they could have done about it. Same 100%. Same. There's no reason why people should know your name, because what you did should have been common in the same way that exactly. It's the same story. For me, there's nothing exciting or exceptional about what I did,

in my opinion. You know what the craziest? Thing is, is after I won in court, COVID mandates were still in place. I thought for sure when I walked out of that courtroom and I proved these mandates were unconstitutional, I thought for sure the next day all restaurants would would do what I did. None of them did man. They still followed those mandates even after I proved in court what I proved and it just meant it. It doesn't compute in my head.

I don't have an answer for it. People ask me why do you think that is? Man, I don't even have the space in my mind to go into uncovering of reason that makes sense to me. It doesn't make sense. And like for you wouldn't have the gun, you wouldn't have to have done what you did as an FBI agent. If you know there were 100 FBI agents that did what you did, there'd be too many of you guys to to target, to prosecute.

But unfortunately, men, there's not a lot of Kyle Seraphin's in the FBI or or in the USG as a whole. And that's the reason why they can put all the resources they want to target you and, and get you up out of there, man. Yeah. And the saddest? Thing is, is one, it was effective because it got rid of me and everybody got the message the same way. They just got the message that anybody that was feeling the same way you were in your Intel shop, they realize, hey, shut

your mouth or lose your job. Those are the two options. It's very straightforward. So if you want this paycheck every two weeks, that's it. We used to say that some of these people don't love service. They don't love America. They just love seeing that that golden eagle take a shit in their bank account every two weeks. That's. Weird, I actually had a guy

tell. Me that about one of our one of our long time 25 year, we call him 25 year mistakes FBI agent that just he's been there too long to get rid of. So he'll be there until he retires when he wants to. And I said, you know what does he like working? Does he doesn't care about the mission? Does he care about anything? And they go, man, he just loves seeing that golden eagle shit in his bank account and he just go

what a disgustingly pathetic. There's better ways to make money than being in the United States government. There really are the the reason the. Problem is like working for the United States government should be such a noble thing to you, you should brag about it. Yeah. And when somebody tells you they work for the United States government, you should say, oh, holy shit, that's a sharp dude. That's that's somebody that loves America. And there's now now.

I know it's somebody that doesn't have any other common sense or capabilities. They could never start their own business or their own restaurant that this is the only option they had. And if you take it away from them, then you're going to be paying them on welfare. It's a my buddy calls it a glorified jobs program and it's just basically welfare by another name. And I don't disagree with most of those jobs. It's highly paid. Welfare is what it is. Yeah, it is. Yeah, with.

With the dignity of not pretending like you, you have to accept the dole even though you don't provide any service for anybody. That's. You're exactly right, man. And, and, and, and the disappointing part is there's a lot of sharp people that do work for the government. I've seen, I met them, I talked to them and they just are beholden to this paycheck, man. Well, they're a threat. They're. Also a threat. To anybody that sucks.

So like, God forbid you step out and try to do something and, and, and be exceptional, because if you do, you're the problem. You are a problem as an exceptional human being. Like they don't need that. Nobody wants to see exceptional people. That's a good.

That's a good. Point man, I, I hope you know some of you, you government folks watching contractors or blue Badgers, whoever you are, that are sharp and that actually do love this country, but maybe haven't stood up and said something because of self preservation. I hope you guys change your mind here at some point soon and, and start doing what you're really there for, which is working for the American people. And I, I promise you once you do it, you'll feel much better about yourself.

That's right, immediately, instantly you'll feel much better about yourself. And I know there's a lot of patriots still working for the US government and there's a lot of smart people working for the US government. I just want you to prove that to us, man. Step up and and do what you're there for, representing me and everybody else who's on the outside, hoping you're doing what you should be doing behind closed doors.

Yeah, I'll just. I'll go on record and say the pay is shit but but the feeling of of of doing the right thing is good. So they kind of balance out. The road is tough too. And you wonder. Why all of these famous people that have millions of dollars are the most depressed people? Because money can't buy happiness. No, it can't buy. Integrity either can it it can't buy. Integrity, it can't buy time. You know, it's like the old, the, the, the analogy. If, if I gave you $1,000,000,

would that make you happy? You would say, yeah. And I'd say, well, how about I give you $100 million? Would that help you out? You'd say, yeah, but what if I said I'll give you $100 million? What that means your life ends in two weeks. Would you take that deal? Nobody takes it. Nobody takes that deal because time is way more important than money and, and, and so is integrity and being able to look at yourself in the mirror. So people, just please understand how, how deep and how

meaningful that analogy is, man. And, and, and take it to heart and, and start doing the right thing. And you know what the right thing is. And I promise you'll, you'll feel much better about yourself. You might have a smaller banker bank, smaller bank account, but you'll sleep so much more soundly at night. You won't need that CPAP machine, I promise you. So good. You got a friend here, Matt. I appreciate you spending all this time with me.

Thanks for working through the exciting power outage we just had, which was fun too. And yeah, I'm glad HRT. Didn't Buster your door, man? I thought that man, me, you and. Me both. Like you say, you sleep more soundly, except when you start thinking about the tactical team that might be prepping to come through your tort. That doesn't make you sleep soundly at all.

Thanks I. Appreciate that brother, and hopefully we will have the chance to get together in person, man, and I hope so too, yeah. Yeah, open, open line of communication. You reach out anytime I can help you and same I'll do the same. Sounds good all. Right, thank you, brother. All right, buddy, have. A good one. And that's the Sunday sit down with Matt Strickland, a true suspendable friend. I didn't know that we were going

to have so much in common. I love finding out that there are people out there that have the same ideas, they saw the same things that many of you did that I did, and they made the same decisions and many of us did as well.

Which is that? What is it worth if you can't look your kids in the eye and be honest and proud of your actions and know that you at least took the fight to the enemy where they were when they came at your door and you didn't cower and wait and hope that somebody would come and save you? It's a good message. It's as good as any for Memorial Day. God bless you guys want to check out the show You'd always do so during the regular weekday

shows. I'd appreciate it if you did at rumble.com/kyle Serifin. That's the easiest way to do it. If you're watching this and you have not hit a like yet, that's the thumbs up. Please do so. Same thing over on YouTube. We really appreciate the new viewers over there. It's making a big difference over 10,000 and climbing right now. youtube.com slash at Kyle Serifin. It's so easy to get the show a day early if you're so inclined and you can do so by going to

our locals channel. And that's just locals. It's it's Kyle serifin.com rather, Spotify is the easiest way to take it with you and that's Kyle seraphinshow.com. If you ever want to get the link right there or if you want to share it with a friend, we'd really appreciate it if you did like share, subscribe, comment, etcetera. You guys know how to do it. All those things boost us up in

the algorithm. Leave us a five star review, if that's an option where you're at, whether you're on Apple or whether you're on Spotify, all those things are very appreciated. We always grow a little bit there and it does help the show rankings. So that's it for me today. I hope you guys have a peaceful and thought provoking and and a joyous Memorial Day because those who allow something and left it all in the field out there. All the people I know.

That serve this country. They wanted you to be able to enjoy it. Remember them, but also celebrate your families that you're still there with. All right, God bless. See you again on Monday. On Memorial Day proper, we'll do something special. Thank you for listening. To the Kyle Seraphin Show, streamed live weekdays on rumble.com/kyle Seraphin. Follow Kyle on Twitter, True Social and Instagram at Kyle Seraphin.