FM Talk 1065 Podcasts
Angelo Fermo - Jeff Poor Show - Wednesday 7-16-24
(music plays) Welcome back to the jet pours show at FFX Talk with 065. Thanks for sticking around on this Wednesday morning. We're at Huntsville this morning. We're at a nondescript office building, kind of off of Whitesburg in Huntsville, Fred Parker-Griffith, a lone against his conference room, one of his office buildings to use today. So we're appreciative that still a couple of program about an hour from now. We'll have Joey Clark from Newstalk 93.1. And Montgomery, and then in the 11 o'clock hour, our good buddy from the 2nd Congressional District, Barry Moore will be with us. So make sure you stay tuned for that Barry calling in or Congressman Moore. I should say calling in for Milwaukee. We could hit on more of what's been going on at the RNC here throughout the program. And then I assume we'll have a couple of cameos for our good friend, former Congressman Griffith. I mean, why do you think you, you know, if you're a Democrat right now, what are you thinking? So we'll figure that out here shortly. But joining us now is a former DHS agent. It knows the federal law enforcement realm better than a lot of us around here. But I'm pleased to bring on Angela Fermot to the program. Angela, good morning. How are you? Hey, good morning, Jeff. Thanks for having me on the show again, man. I appreciate it. Hey, thank you for making time. I'm appreciative that you could do this, especially a lot I texted yesterday. So thanks for making it on short notice. Well, I appreciate you putting me on this lineup you got on here today. It's a pretty good, good show schedule that you got. So thank you. We're slowing down a little here. We jam-packed in the last few days. Let's start here though. Just watching what happened there on Saturday, clearly there were, I don't think just one or two things that went wrong and the way they're trying to explain it. But there were a lot of failures of protocol with that security detail. No, absolutely it was. I mean, you can see it and, you know, I kind of, it's one of those things where, you know, I think somebody made a comment on one of these channels that this was like the 30-something event that Trump has done. It was like 36 or something that he's done so far this year, which is a lot. And it's a strain on Secret Service and their resources when you're doing that many events, especially when you've got other candidates out there. But, you know, you look at that and even the average person that looks at that, you know, I don't know if it just was complacency. They kind of got in the groove of, you know, whatever, you know, not really going through the motions and not actually extending out. And, you know, the security perimeter and stuff. But, I mean, the average person can look at that and go, "Well, wait a minute, that building right there should have been secures 150 yards away." You know, there should have been somebody posted on every corner. I mean, from a strategical standpoint, you look at it and say, "Well, I wasn't somebody on that roof to begin with." You know, there's the -- it appears there was lack of communication where you have citizens reporting what they're -- were saying, you know, which that, you know, that is definitely a -- a concern where you have citizens calling this out, you know, several minutes before and it's like there was a lack of communication. I think they showed today some more footage of the scenes of the area for the perimeter. It looked like they didn't have entry and exit points for the vehicle. I think one of the police vehicles had to ram down a fence to get the officers through the first perimeter into the second, you know, perimeter towards the building. Even when you saw Trump come off stage after he was shot by Secret Service, there was a kind of a lull in getting -- you know, get the vehicle out of that area at all. You know, I -- from my experience in dealing with it, you know, it's -- like, you know, Secret -- Trump has his own protective detail and then you have these advanced teams that go in and they -- they -- they look at all these areas and aspects going into. I think there's reports out that they look at it as a vulnerability and then they pull the resources of the local police department and stuff to augment them out and help them out in those situations. And I -- it just -- it's kind of mind-blowing that the fact that they didn't have that area secured because it's not like there was a ton of buildings and they're like, okay, well, we didn't know which one it could have come from. I mean, there's not a lot out there in that field, especially 150 yards away from the -- the podium that it was at. So, you know, that's -- that's a concern. It'll be interesting when some stuff comes out to see if there's e-mails out there, had they requested additional resources, you know, because the Secret Service is part of DHS Department Homeland Security as a whole. So, it's not just Secret Service when these details are occurring. I mean, even this time of year is a very busy year because we have the UN detail. Well, Secret Service controls all those details and stuff that goes on. And so, what they do is they reach into the ranks of the other departments. So, they reach into the ranks of the, you know, Homeland Security Investigations, which I was a part of. And, like, every office is required to send so many agents to every details when they request to the RNC, to the UN, to presidential, you know, speaking event. So, they -- they lean on those resources when they need it. So, it's kind of -- you're kind of wondering, you know, why they didn't have that. I mean, I -- in each region, Homeland Security has their own basically, like, attack team in those areas. Those guys, that's all they do. They love that stuff. They train kind of like SWAT teams, you know. Why weren't those teams being pulled and put in those areas? Those guys would love to do, you know, in those areas and do secondary perimeter and stuff. So, it's a major fault. And it's going to be interesting when you see some of this stuff come out. Well, and, you know, my perception kind of limited but unique is -- and I've been to 100, probably way more. I don't know. Events that require Secret Service detail, be it for kind of a mid-tier candidate, are for the President of the United States, for former presidents, vice presidents, et cetera. And they all have varying degrees of Secret Service protection. I mean, it's just obvious, be it. Right. Duke Gingrich, who got Secret Service protection when he ran in 2012, and he was just only one South Carolina. They gave him Secret Service protection. Or be it, you know, all of the Presidents, Trump, Obama, Bush, Clinton that I've seen before. And they're all different. But it looked to me, and I think this gets back to you saying he's done -- Trump's done 30-something events. And people have told me, "No, that's not the case." But it just seemed like today we're kind of stretched in and you didn't get the A-team there for that event in Pennsylvania. Yeah, I'd agree with you on that. And I think that it's kind of one of -- you know, like he has his own protection team. And then, like I said, you have your advanced teams that come in weeks prior to set everything up. I feel exactly the same way. I know people say that. But even -- you know, again, I don't -- I think she should resign just because of, you know, the buck does stop with the Director of Secret Service because he's in an appointed position by Biden and he should fire. But it really goes back to that local -- there is somebody that was in charge of that thing, that entire location. And it'll come out in the congressional hearings that they'll do. And that person is also responsible. I mean, it's like being a leader in the military or any operational that you're doing. That one person is responsible for organizing the state locals from the state police, to the sheriff's department's local police department. You know, looking at a maps thing, we're going to place officers here in these locations. We see weakness points in these locations. So, you know, there is somebody that -- it'll be interesting to see that comes out that -- I mean, that individual that was in charge of that location is ultimately responsible for the laps in there. And, you know, they're in charge of the planning and the location. So, that's going to be something to see that comes out as, why was there a lackluster, you know, area of coverage in that area, you know? Well, it's this, Angelo. And I mean, I think there's stretch then, number one. But -- and I'm not saying that they intended for someone to take a shot at the president of the United States. No, absolutely not. But it does feel like when you leave your keys in your car at night and the windows roll down, like, you know, it's in stare for the taking and you want to have your car got stolen. That there were just a lot of corners that were cut and just a lot of people who were just kind of through the whole Trump phenomenon running the show there. Well, you know, and there's some questions that they're not asking you, that I'd like to see what comes out like, how does a kid walk across to this building with an AR rifle? And no one sees him with the AR rifle going to this building. You know, I just can't believe that he just -- I mean, maybe he did, you know? But it seems like he had a plan going there. He knew where he was going to try to get, you know, because I think the amount that Trump was coming there from the first week of July, so, you know, it'll be interesting once they -- if they ever reveal it to us, what was in his social media, what was in his computer searches, what was in his phone searches, because I think that's going to shed a lot of light on some information. You know, I think the other day, for example, somebody mentioned -- and the general public doesn't understand this, and I saw it myself when we were at the NAS, you know, Pensacola Naval 2019 terrorist attack over there. You know, as soon as that attack occurred, we were already en route over there to support, you know, the FBI and that stance. And I think as soon as we got there within an hour, we already knew that the shooter had already pledged his allegiance to Al Qaeda on one of the social media platforms, but within that first hour, the shooter was identified, the social media platform was identified, and those posts and stuff were pulled down, so the general public didn't know what, you know, that information was out there and that shooter had been posting and stuff like that, and it'll be interesting to see if that's the similar situation that occurred in this factor. You know, did that shooter have a social media presence, and was it pulled down, you know, either by the social media companies or, you know, at the request of the federal law enforcement? That's one I'm really kind of interested in, because there's no way a 20 year old kid that's been plotting this, you know, because I mean, he's been plotting and he, you know, made his little makeshift explosives and, you know, had a plan in place, so he's done some research on there, and it'll be interesting to see what the one is electronic devices. If they ever let us know, you know. Well, tell me something here, because I kind of dismiss this as more government incompetence that I do, some kind of grand conspiracy, but knowing what you know about sort of how the interworking to the federal government, I mean, they couldn't pull off. The deep state isn't the driving force here, is it? No, absolutely not. You know, we used to laugh all the time inside the bubble, the government bubble that we call it, you know, because you hear all these reports about the deep state, and stuff, and they're not that organized or good as some of the people out there like to think. I mean, it's more, they're boggling through life, barely getting by, you know. But yeah, I mean, like, you know, it's just a lackluster and, you know, operational planning out there, and it's, I guarantee you moving forward, like you looked at the RNC, they're the nine, I think you had, like, secret service agents around, and all of his same height, you know, they were really pushing the protection detail on him at the RNC as a show of force, and he's going to get whatever he wants along with his kids, and, you know, they all should have the protection. You know, secret service has a $3 billion, I think it's $3 billion a year budget. I mean, so they have the resources, and they have the resources to reach into the other department of Homeland Security to pull those officers out to help augment the Secret Service Department. So if they're there, they just need to utilize, you know. Enjoyed by Angela Fermot here on the program. But the repercussions here, I mean, do you think it's, is it just a situation within the Secret Service room? They need to make some tweaks? How do you think there needs to be some wholesale changes from top to bottom? I mean, we hear DEI, and we hear all of this sort of social engineering going on behind the scenes, and it's really, really a threat to meritocracy. I mean, does that, should Trump be elected? I mean, or whoever, is it in need of, like, a real makeover? I think it is, they need to, you know, the DEI situation. They've focused on that so much. I saw it on the outskirts of, right before I retired, and stuff. You know, a reporter asked me something the other day about this, and I said, "Look, I could drive to South Alabama over here, and I can get you 20 college kids that are graduating, or I could drive to people, you know, up to Montgomery, and get you 20 kids that are just out-crossed and outside the military, and I can get you the best of the best." And we could put them in those roles, and they would be willing to take those jobs, but, you know, we've, right before I left, we switched to this hiring system only, and they're kind of rushing it through. Like, it's like, they'll do an announcement, you know, for a specific, you know, gender, and they'll just push that down the throat, and it's like higher at all costs as quick as possible. Get them in, and you're not, like, you know, when I came on, you went through so much background checks, and you went through all this stuff, and if you had certain things in your, you know, criminal history, you didn't get to make the cut. You know, you had to do so many push-ups you had to do, you know, so many sit-ups, you had to shoot at certain scores and stuff, and you had to be, you know, able to comprehend the training material that was being presented to you. And I think they've kind of cut corners on that to meet quotas for this DEI stuff that they're pushing, and your result is you're not getting the best of the best that you used to get, you know, and I think if Trump gets in, and when he gets in, I hope they take a strong look at that and start, you know, just make an aggressive campaign operation to recruit and retain those type of people, and you're going to get them. You know, it's just, you just can't just throw it together and play, "We got to meet a quota, so we're just going to do this and run with it." Well, it's kind of interesting that you say that, but I mean, Angela, I mean, look at all aspects, at least in Alabama, municipal police departments, county sheriffs, and even at the federal level, but, you know, prison guard, any kind of, like, in that realm of law enforcement, they're having a hard time getting people. Is it, I mean, what makes it any different for the feds? Well, the difference in the feds is, you know, I hate to say it all comes down to money and benefits. You know, I mean, the feds, you know, like, when I was a police officer in Mississippi, I went from $21,000 a year, you know, right at 9/11 to, you know, to hire an older federal government, I went to $35,000 a year, I thought I was the richest person in town. You know, I mean, that's the job, and I mean, of course, that pay scale has changed dramatically over the past 25 years, but, you know, they know that when they get, you know, on the federal side, that's where you're getting the more paid, the more benefits. They need to tweak it a little bit because it's not as appealing as it used to be when I first got hired on, you know, I mean, it was a strong push for that. There's other things that they can do, retention in place, you know, people don't want to move their families that much anymore. So, you know, some of these agencies, you know, hire and put the people within the local areas, which I think is kind of a benefit and a plus. But now you're right, the local departments are having a tremendous hiring issue, and it's not just the local police departments, it's even our military. You know, they're cutting corners on letting some recruits and stuff in, both with the local police department and the military in order to meet the numbers because, you know, it's not just the local police department. And the military in order to meet the numbers because, you know, the newer generation, they just are going a different route. And I think that that, you know, patriotism that you saw at 9/11 with the tariffs to tax is kind of faded out a little bit. And, you know, maybe the younger generation are going a different route in life, you know. Angela got to leave it there. We're out of time. But like I said, thank you for coming on Make a Time Force. It was a marvelous talk again soon. Oh, absolutely, Jeff. Thanks for having me. And have a good day, brother. I appreciate you. Thank you, Angela Fermot, and therefore, DSH. We'll be right back. This is the Jeff Moore Show. And if it talks, 1.0.6.5. ♪ And I'm all alone now ♪