January 30, 2025 • 30 mins
In this episode, Lisa discusses the devastating impact of Hurricane Helene on Western North Carolina, highlighting the community's struggles and the responses from President Trump and FEMA. Matt Van Swol, a local resident, shares his firsthand experiences of the intense flooding, destruction, and emotional toll on families. He criticizes the inadequate media coverage and FEMA's slow response, contrasting it with President Trump's visit, which brought attention and tangible support to the affected areas. The Truth with Lisa Boothe is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network - new episodes debut every Monday & Thursday.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
In our first White House Press sectary briefing, Caroline Levitt
made a point to talk about how President Trump wanted
his first presidential visit to be to western North Carolina
and to California.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
That this is why Americans know.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
That he's a man of the people, that he doesn't
want any American to feel forgotten. And we know that,
especially the citizens of western North Carolina, four months after
Hurricane Helene, have felt forgotten. That they have felt like
they haven't been heard by the Biden administration, that FEMA
was not there for them, that FEMA was actually causing more.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Harm than good. They felt left behind.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
And if you remember, Hurricane Helene caused devastation in western
North Carolina. There were at least one hundred and four
reported deaths. The flooding was so severe, exceeding thirty inches
in some places, resulting in historic widespread flooding. It was
described with terms like biblical that's how bad it was,
leaving neighborhoods destroyed, communities isolated with no access out. But
(00:59):
those days are over with President Trump, and he made
a point to let them know that. And what I
think was so cool about his visit to Western North
Carolina and to California. If you watched the press conferences,
he handed the press conference over in both instances to
the citizens, to the people. He wanted them to be heard.
And in one instance, when one man was talking about
(01:19):
the difficulties that he has had, the struggles that he
has had, President Trump asked him to name the insurance company,
to name and shame the insurance company that hadn't been
helping him. I think those Americans felt heard for the
first time in a long time. And as much as
President Trump gets criticized, this is someone who loves America,
who wants to put citizens first. I mean we saw
it during his first term when he visited Texas twice
(01:41):
after Hurricane Harvey, or when he visited Florida after Hurricane Irmar,
even as a candidate, when he visited East Palestine, Ohio after.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
They were ignored by the Biden administration.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
So we're going to talk to one man today who's
from Western North Carolina, who has been relentlessly fighting to
try to bring the truth about the dam image that
was done to Western North Carolina, as well as just
the fact that the community has been ignored by FEMA.
Bringing a lot of those issues to light as well.
So he's been a truth teller for his community. His
name is Matt Vincewell, we're going to talk to him
(02:13):
about that, his experiences living through Hurricane Helene, and then
also how this has shaped his personal opinions, his politics,
his viewpoint on the government. What's it like to live
through something like that. So stay tuned for Matt vance will. So, Matt,
(02:34):
you lived through Hurricane Heleen and western North Carolina where
you reside, first of all, tell us what that was
like to have gone through that, to experience it, you know,
walk us through your story so we have an understanding
of kind of where you were and what you've been through.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
So we we live in a small town just outside
of Asheville called Weaverville. We live along just a little
ways from like this, this very small creek. And during
Hurricane Helene, this little creek that was maybe five feet
wide a it's max went to essentially two football fields
wide during the flooding and took out most of the
(03:13):
homes along the creek, nearly all of the bridges, and
we saw like eighteen wheelers like floating in the creek.
It was just one of the wildest things you've ever
seen in your life. I couldn't believe it was real.
Like I still remember driving out of our neighborhood after
a neighbor actually took his tractor and pushed all of
(03:37):
the trees out of our road because we had probably
one hundred trees. We lived on this little cul de sac,
and we probably had one hundred trees down over our road.
We couldn't get out, so a guy with a tractor
ended up chainsawing some trees and clearing the road for us,
which was awesome.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
But I'll never forget.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
Pulling out of our driveway and seeing what I think
looked like an ocean, but it was actually our little
creek that had just risen and just smashed through everything
in sight. It was one of the craziest things I've
ever witnessed. But we were with that power for three weeks.
We left and went to Charlotte, North Carolina, got starlink
(04:17):
and a generator one night, and then came back and
actually ended up running really long extension courts into our neighbors'
homes so they could power some of their appliances for
a couple of weeks, and then our home kind of
became like the Internet. Cafe for the neighborhood because we
were the only ones with starlink. So it's crazy to
(04:38):
just see people come in and like call loved ones
and say like we're okay.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
It was just I mean, this is the craziest experience I.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Guess living through. I mean, it's always crazy to me.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
You know, Thank God I've not had to live through
something like that.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
I might.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
I do live in Florida, so you know, there's always
the possibility.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
You know.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
I can't imagine just having you know, resided someplace for
you know, a while, it's your home, and then just
wake up one day and everything you knew is gone
and different and life has changed that substantially. I just
I imagine that's a really hard thing to digest in life.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Yeah, it's been really hard on our kids the most.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
And how old are they.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
They are thirteen, eleven and four, so man, it's so
so hard. But they see, you know, all the parks
that they normally play in are still just completely destroyed.
You know. I've posted a couple of videos of the
soccer field just right across from my home, and you
(05:42):
can see like tractor trailers on the soccer field and
campers and it's it's all still there, and so many
of the parks, the playgrounds that we used to go
to are gone.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
And I think my wife posted this the other day.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
But we were driving just a target to at some
stuff and my son looks out the window of the
four year old and he goes, are there dead people there?
And it's just something he thinks about constantly when we
drive by all this debris piled up everywhere, because he,
you know, he has just such a basic understanding of
(06:17):
what happened, but he knows it was horrific and that
you know, people died, and it's just, you know, it's
one of those things you should never have to explain
to your toddler that, like, yes, it was hard and
we're getting through it, but they just feel the effects
every single.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Day, if I mean, that's got to be hard as parents,
because you know, with young kids, obviously you want to
protect them. You want to shield them from pain and
from you know, having to witness bad things. I guess
how do you kind of balance that with also you know,
they're they're probably wondering why their lives have been so
disrupted as well, So I mean, I guess how do
(06:51):
you balance that. As a parent, I imagine that's going
to be a really challenging thing to try to navigate.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Yeah, as a parent, you just hate it. You know
it your heart.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
You don't know what to say, But I have to
say that kids are so resilient and one of the
greatest things that's come out of this is seeing my
kids volunteer and help other people, like they volunteered at
so many different places, sorting clothes, food items, putting you know,
(07:22):
food in people's cars. My four year old got to
deliver an RV with us to a woman who's homeless
after Hurricane Helena lost her home and got to put
toys in it for a kid a year younger than him.
And I think that's just such a good experience for
kids to be able to give back in a way
they never would have been able to if a natural
(07:46):
disaster like this wouldn't have happened. But I'm truly, I'm
really so proud of my kids for the way that
they have they've handled it and being able to give
them an experience of giving back.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
I think it is so important.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
What is living through a natural disaster lake that teach
you about humanity? I know you had talked about how
you know your neighborhood. You set up sort of an
Internet cafe for the rest of the neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
I guess what does it show you? What does it
tell you about humanity?
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Yeah? I mean it brings out the best and the
worst simultaneously, you know, and you find out very quickly
that essentially nothing.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
Else matters except the friends that you've made in life,
because those are the people that come and help you.
And we always think that we have, you know, less
in common with people than we actually do. Like the
neighbor that cut us out of our driveway, I've only
talked to him twice in my whole life, and he
spent seven hours on my road.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
You know, just trying to get us out. And I
mean I've.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
Only talked to this many class and you know, he
took time out of his day to help. And I
truly think that that is what makes Americans Americans. You know,
regardless of your political views, if something bad is going
to happen, we're going to be there for you. And
no one talked about politics at the beginning of the storm.
Everyone was trying to help everyone. And you know, we
(09:10):
had some bad actors that tried to do some looting
and stuff, but our neighborhood set up like a little
police force with people driving around with walkie talkies and
made sure everyone was safe. And that felt great, and
I just really think that it brought out, you know,
some of the best in people, and you know, we
all worked to make sure everyone else was okay. And
(09:33):
you know, our house barely had any damage at all,
and other people's had, you know, terrible damage. I chained
saw quite a few trees off of neighbors' houses during
this first weeks of the storm, and then obviously we
saw so much worse damage with the flooding later on
that we just couldn't believe.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
And that's kind of phase two.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
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com slash booth bo tg. Yeah, it is so interesting
how resilient humans are. You know, you're talking about just
how you guys set up your own police force and
you know kind of people just coming together to problem solve.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
So you've really been fighting for.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Your community by bringing the truth on ax, by by
posting about it, sort of forcing attention to the issue,
making sure that it's not forgotten.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
You take us through for people who are unfamiliar.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
I mean, obviously we saw images after the hurricane hit,
but take us through just the level of devastation and
the damage that it did, and then also talk about
how important X has been for you to get the
word out about that devastation.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
Oh man, Yeah, I haven't even been to all of
the places that have been devastated. There's just so many,
especially like out in the Hallers, in some of the
mountain areas like Spruce Pine and others that just got
absolutely walloped. And I feel like East Tennessee, you know,
had had some really rough stuff happen as well.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
But down I've lived very close.
Speaker 4 (12:03):
To downtown Nashville, and like I said, I lived next
to a creek, and all of those homes and bridges
you know, got flooded pretty pretty badly. And it was
just beyond comprehension, Like the mind really couldn't comprehend what
you were seeing because it didn't look familiar in any sense.
Like I remember getting to the French Broad River maybe
(12:24):
day two or three, I mean, when the flooding had subsided,
subsided substantially, and I still didn't recognize it. I could
not believe how bad it was, Like the river was
so wide, it just didn't even look the same. Especially
the River Arts District in downtown Nashville just completely underwater,
(12:45):
completely leveled.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
It was just so crazy.
Speaker 4 (12:49):
And I remember I was at a restaurant called White
Duck Taco when I first heard about that the assassa
of or the attempted assassination of Trump, and we were
all out there like looking at our phones, and I
was staring at it from a bridge and it was gone.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
I mean, it was not there anymore. And I just thought, Wow,
these are.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
Going to be so many memories that are just going
to be wiped off the face of the earth.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
And that's just in the little little portion where we were.
Towns like Marshall, where we have a lot of friends.
Speaker 4 (13:25):
I mean, those places are completely you know, wiped off
the face of the earth. Like it surprises me that
they're able to even pull out from the experience of
the flooding that they got.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
It's it's just insane.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
But X you know, was really a lifeline, I think
for getting the word out about what was happening in
western North Carolina because very few mainstream media outlets were
covering it, especially you know, at the beginning of the storm,
like maybe the first two to seven days we did
have a lot of coverage, and then, just like any
(14:02):
national disaster.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
People just lose interest. They don't really want to hear
that things aren't going well. And I'm guilty of that myself.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
Just as a consumer of media, you know, forgetting about
places like Leahina and Mali and East pastein.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
So I just didn't want that to happen to us.
Speaker 4 (14:22):
So I kind of made it my mission to stay
on top of it no matter what until things started
to turn around. And it was just so surprising to
me how long it has taken for that mission to
finally be accomplished. I mean, I would have never thought
in a million years that I would still be posting
(14:44):
about FEMA and people needing electricity and food and propane
four months after the storm. Like no chance would I
have ever thought I'd be doing something like that. But
it was necessary because people were hurting and they just
didn't have a voice. And I've truly felt like, you know,
(15:05):
perhaps we were screaming into the void for four months straight,
and it was just truly amazing when Trump came and
gave a voice to some of the people.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
I think it was one of the most beautiful things
I've ever seen.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
We've got a quick commercial break war with Matt on
the other side. What has the experience been like trying
to work with FEMA, trying to work with you know,
your state, with your governor?
Speaker 2 (15:31):
What has an experience been like for people?
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Super frustrating? Oh so frustrating.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
You know, for me, we actually, you know, we didn't
have any damage to our home, so we applied immediately
for the seven hundred and fifty dollars. We got it
within a couple of weeks. It took a lot longer
and a couple of denials to get a generator I bought,
and I'm still waiting for my chainsaw to be reimbursed.
That's okay, but so many people have had, I mean
(16:01):
so many frustrating stories. And those are the people we
talked to with our little nonprofit operation Shelter. Oh, you
just hear some horror stories of people getting denied from
FEMA or FEMA just really slow rolling.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
The ball to help them.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
We talked to a woman just this weekend who miraculously
got approved for the forty two thousand dollars a couple
of months ago, but still hasn't gotten it. So she's
not been able to rebuild or even start the process
of rebuilding and is just waiting on FEMA to hand
her that max amount of money. But I mean, some
(16:39):
others we it is a crazy story. FEMA put a
lot of people in these transitional Housing assistance programs, which
are essentially just hotel stays extended hotel stays, and one
of the people we were working with, she reached out
to us because FEMA was going to kick her out
of her hotel, but they had not yet inspected her
(17:01):
home to see if it was habitable.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
So we actually got in the phone with Ted Budd's office.
Speaker 4 (17:08):
And they were able to confirm that FEMA dropped the
ball in her case and get her hotel stay extended
from FEMA. But that's just one of like so many stories.
And I was just talking to a guy at the
gym yesterday morning who says he's given up. He's not
going to even continue trying to get some of the
money from FEMA. And I do feel like that's where
most people are at at this point. They're just they're
(17:30):
just sick and tired of it.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
You mentioned in the beginning how politics originally wasn't really
part of the conversation.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Imagine it is now.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
You know, I guess how has this reshaped maybe political
views in the area or yours, or you know, talk
about sort of the evolution of politics being you know,
now being more part of the equation here.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
Yeah, I mean it is completely reshaped my opinion of
politics having really impact on people's lives. I mean, I
leaned pretty center left on most political issues, or did
before the storm, and I find myself leaning very far
right now.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
And I think.
Speaker 4 (18:16):
Once you realize the government's ineptitude, especially in this particular response,
it's hard to unsee something like that, and it was
especially frustrating, I think for everyone here to like, For example,
my wife knows people at CNN personally. She was going
to do a documentary for them, and when the storm hit,
(18:36):
she reached out to them and said, you know, hey,
you know me, I'm on the ground. I would love
to like get in contact with you. And they ghosted
us for four months straight. They would not talk to us.
And the only networks that would have us on at
all to talk about anything were you know, right wing networks.
(18:56):
You know, people I never thought i'd talk to in
my life, life news maps, Fox News news Nation like
places I never thought I'd be talking on. I was
talking on because they were the only ones that would
give us a voice. And then to go through the
(19:16):
press conference after press conference of FEMA just talking down
to people in western North Carolina making excuses for why
they couldn't get homes into the mountains because it was mountainous,
saying that no one was living intents, and then renaming
the word tent to be lightweight tent or heavyweight tent
(19:38):
to make sure that you know, and then call us
out on misinformation, you know, constantly.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
It was just it was such.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
An eye opening experience for me to realize that just
because it's not on CNN doesn't mean it's not happening,
and you can't unsee it once it happens to you personally,
and it happened to us. We got left behind and
the media just kind of left us there, and FEMA
Tree is just terribly you know, some of the press conferences,
(20:07):
you know, went viral, not because press conferences are so boring,
they went viral because FEMA was just talking down to
mountain folk out here and it was jarring to watch.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Why do you think that happened? Why do you think
some of the media ignored the story or the the
Bide administration, you know, sort of ignored your area.
Speaker 4 (20:29):
Is an election. I am fully convinced it was an
election issue. You know, it happened right right before the election.
I mean, I am personally convinced that's that's what it is.
It certainly wasn't a business decision. You can see that
immediately if you go look at my tweets, which have
millions of years like they could have absolutely had a
(20:51):
lot of clicks and very interesting stories had they chosen
to pursue it.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
They just chose not to. And my guess is because.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
It just didn't fit the agenda they were trying to push.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
What did that mean for your community to have President
Trump make western North Carolina and then California his first
domestic trips of the president of his presidency, to make
sure it happened in his first week.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Oh man, it.
Speaker 4 (21:17):
Was, Like I said, I think it was one of
the most beautiful things I've ever seen.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
In my whole life. I have. I mean, I've watched
Trump a lot on the news, I have.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
It's been pretty rare that he steps out of the limelight,
hands his microphone to someone and says, tell me your story,
and that's exactly what he did in western North Carolina.
And I was crying the whole time. It really was.
I was like, I feel like I've been telling these
victims stories for months and months and months, and you know,
(21:47):
the Biden administration to just ignored us for those months.
You know, we have been screaming we need more help.
You know, the help isn't coming fast enough. It's too slow.
Really bad things are happening, and it was just silence
on the other end of that line.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
And then Trump comes.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
In and he's like he's you know, allowing a guy
on national TV to go after his insurance company.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
He was like, name them, name them.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
I know it was wild, but I mean these that
that's what we need. We needed that. We needed that
so bad because that's the reality of what we were
hearing from people constantly, like all day, every day, from
people we are trying to help. And it was just
mind blowing to me that the.
Speaker 4 (22:31):
Stories were not getting out in the way that they
that they should.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
And I just have to say, like, it was so beautiful.
Speaker 4 (22:37):
To see Trump come in and you know, make those
promises and then to see the executive actions actually roll out,
and I feel like we're already seeing some change at
least in my area that is positive.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
It's just, man, it just felt so good.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
You know, President Trump gets attacked a lot, but he's
he's always had a heart for people. And when we
saw with these policy, you know, he's always like he's
always you know, even when he was president during his
first term, he always tried to get her hostages back.
You know, he's always been very protective of his people.
You know, you said that you were a center left before.
I guess has this changed your position or your viewpoint?
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Your viewpoint of President Trump?
Speaker 4 (23:19):
One hundred percent? It has completely turned it around. I
cannot emphasize that enough. Like even if it was a
political move, I'm already seeing action. So you know, to me,
actions matter much more than words. And he came here first,
and the you know, Biden administration ignored us and said that,
(23:44):
you know, we were being dramatic or spreading misinformation, and
that was just not the case. You know, we were
we were trying to help people were getting let down
left and right by FEMA, and we were like, hey,
I even wrote like an open letter to FEMA. You know,
a couple of months ago, like this is how you
can turn it around, please help us, and none of
(24:05):
it actually got done.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
And it's just wild to me to see true action.
Like their motto of promises made, promises kept is so good.
I love that motto because it invites transparency into what
the government is doing, and people go, aha, yes he
did make that promise, and yes he has kept that promise.
(24:27):
And the promises he made to visit western North Carolina
he kept Jadie Vance visiting Virginia and seeing the Hurricane
Elene devastation there. He made that promise, He kept that promise.
The executive actions that have come in, it's just like
one thing after another and you're like, wow, Like, man,
I really should have gotten out of my echo chamber
(24:48):
and seeing some different news years ago, because now I
feel so stupid.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Well, I really don't think it's political, because you know,
he already won, right so, and he can't run for
he can't run for re election, and so he really doesn't,
you know, gain anything that politically outside of just I
really just do believe that he genuinely cares about the
American people, and you know, feels like it's his job
to protect them. You know, I imagine too, like going
(25:14):
through something like this just changes your whole perspective. Like
you know, we talked about the changing perspective on like
politics and things like that, but just of like government
and like its role and you know, it's effectiveness, and
you know, I guess, so how does that How do
you view government?
Speaker 2 (25:29):
After this?
Speaker 4 (25:32):
I viewed government as having as getting in the way
of what's happening and what needs to be done, especially
during disasters.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
And I feel like I repeated myself so much.
Speaker 4 (25:43):
Saying, you know, if if FEMA is really good at
his job, why is it so slow? Like why isn't
the United States Premier Emergency Management Agency moving as slow
as it has been? It should not exist if it's
going to be this slow and pure crect And it's
just completely changed the way of thought about the role
(26:05):
of government in things like disasters. When I saw Samaritan's
purse absolutely everywhere in western North Carolina, and I have
yet to see someone in a FEMA outfit anywhere, It's just,
you know, it's kind of crazy. And you know, I
know there's a lot of calls to abolish FEMA or
(26:26):
dramatically reform it. And I think that's exactly right, because
one of the mottos we've been saying here on the
ground is, hey, if the rules are hurting people in
a disaster, change the rules, you know. And it just
felt like every rule was sacred with FEMA and nothing
could be changed to actually help people.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
When they really needed it.
Speaker 4 (26:49):
You know, they were they were blocking people from putting
temporary homes in what FEMA designated as a floodplain. I mean,
these are mountains thousands of feet down fashed and you know,
flooding doesn't happen here very often, that's why it's in
the news. And you know, they were they were blocking
people from trying to get just you know, RVs on
their land because FEMA designated that area of flood zone.
(27:13):
And just stupid stuff like that happened over and over
with FEMA, and it just felt like, you know, maybe
agencies like this do more harm than good, you know,
and maybe these these agencies need to be overhauled so
that they're actually working for the people instead of just
existing to hand out money to the people they employ.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Well, yeah, or you.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Know, I mean even I was just thinking with the
seven hundred and fifty dollars. I mean it's like that,
doesn't you know if you've got a family that doesn't
really go that far, you know, particularly lost everything.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
So it's like and.
Speaker 4 (27:47):
Even the forty two thousand dollars that guess the MAXI
amount have you can you buy a house for forty
two thousand dollar? Yes, they're not going to be able to.
And nobody here had had flood insurance because it's the mountains,
you know, Like, so insurance didn't cover anything up here.
And I think that's like one of the things people
forget is like, well where was the role of insurance?
(28:10):
And nobody had flood insurance, so their lives are completely
upended and insurance is paying them nothing. If your home
was flooded and you didn't have flood insurance, it's tough
luck for you.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
Yeah, because I mean you wouldn't think to have it.
Speaker 4 (28:27):
Of course, not if you live on a tiny little
creek up in the mountains. You're not you know, you're
not going to think to have you know, your home
float away hundreds of feet that that would have.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Never crossed your mind.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
I can't even imagine where can people follow your content?
As you know, we hope that your community gets the
hope that it needs and hopefully gets some of these
regulations and red tape slashed so that the response is
more efficient.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
Yeah, follow me on X. Matt Underscore van Swell.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Matt, thank you so much. I'm so sorry to your
fans and to everyone in your community. I really I
can't imagine just how scary and devastating and disruptive that's
got to be, and just how hard it's got to be.
And I know it's been a long time and it's
probably just been really exhausting, and.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
You know, probably felt like given up hope.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
So I'm glad that glad you didn't, and you know,
really respect the fact that you continue to fight for
your community.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
Yeah, thank you, Lisa. It means a time that you're
covering the story. I mean, it just feels like we've been,
you know, screaming to the void for months, you know,
and it just means so much that anyone would actually
touch the story.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
For all the people here.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
It was Matt van Swell. We appreciate him for taking
the time. Just can't imagine living through that or Hark
goes out. I want to thank you guys at home
for listening every Monday and Thursday, but you can listen
throughout the week. I want to think John Cassio and
my producer were putting the show together until next time.
In our first White House Press sectary briefing, Caroline Levitt
made a point to talk about how President Trump wanted
his first presidential visit to be to western North Carolina
and to California.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
That this is why Americans know.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
That he's a man of the people, that he doesn't
want any American to feel forgotten. And we know that,
especially the citizens of western North Carolina, four months after
Hurricane Helene, have felt forgotten. That they have felt like
they haven't been heard by the Biden administration, that FEMA
was not there for them, that FEMA was actually causing more.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Harm than good. They felt left behind.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
And if you remember, Hurricane Helene caused devastation in western
North Carolina. There were at least one hundred and four
reported deaths. The flooding was so severe, exceeding thirty inches
in some places, resulting in historic widespread flooding. It was
described with terms like biblical that's how bad it was,
leaving neighborhoods destroyed, communities isolated with no access out. But
(00:59):
those days are over with President Trump, and he made
a point to let them know that. And what I
think was so cool about his visit to Western North
Carolina and to California. If you watched the press conferences,
he handed the press conference over in both instances to
the citizens, to the people. He wanted them to be heard.
And in one instance, when one man was talking about
(01:19):
the difficulties that he has had, the struggles that he
has had, President Trump asked him to name the insurance company,
to name and shame the insurance company that hadn't been
helping him. I think those Americans felt heard for the
first time in a long time. And as much as
President Trump gets criticized, this is someone who loves America,
who wants to put citizens first. I mean we saw
it during his first term when he visited Texas twice
(01:41):
after Hurricane Harvey, or when he visited Florida after Hurricane Irmar,
even as a candidate, when he visited East Palestine, Ohio after.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
They were ignored by the Biden administration.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
So we're going to talk to one man today who's
from Western North Carolina, who has been relentlessly fighting to
try to bring the truth about the dam image that
was done to Western North Carolina, as well as just
the fact that the community has been ignored by FEMA.
Bringing a lot of those issues to light as well.
So he's been a truth teller for his community. His
name is Matt Vincewell, we're going to talk to him
(02:13):
about that, his experiences living through Hurricane Helene, and then
also how this has shaped his personal opinions, his politics,
his viewpoint on the government. What's it like to live
through something like that. So stay tuned for Matt vance will. So, Matt,
(02:34):
you lived through Hurricane Heleen and western North Carolina where
you reside, first of all, tell us what that was
like to have gone through that, to experience it, you know,
walk us through your story so we have an understanding
of kind of where you were and what you've been through.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
So we we live in a small town just outside
of Asheville called Weaverville. We live along just a little
ways from like this, this very small creek. And during
Hurricane Helene, this little creek that was maybe five feet
wide a it's max went to essentially two football fields
wide during the flooding and took out most of the
(03:13):
homes along the creek, nearly all of the bridges, and
we saw like eighteen wheelers like floating in the creek.
It was just one of the wildest things you've ever
seen in your life. I couldn't believe it was real.
Like I still remember driving out of our neighborhood after
a neighbor actually took his tractor and pushed all of
(03:37):
the trees out of our road because we had probably
one hundred trees. We lived on this little cul de sac,
and we probably had one hundred trees down over our road.
We couldn't get out, so a guy with a tractor
ended up chainsawing some trees and clearing the road for us,
which was awesome.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
But I'll never forget.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
Pulling out of our driveway and seeing what I think
looked like an ocean, but it was actually our little
creek that had just risen and just smashed through everything
in sight. It was one of the craziest things I've
ever witnessed. But we were with that power for three weeks.
We left and went to Charlotte, North Carolina, got starlink
(04:17):
and a generator one night, and then came back and
actually ended up running really long extension courts into our neighbors'
homes so they could power some of their appliances for
a couple of weeks, and then our home kind of
became like the Internet. Cafe for the neighborhood because we
were the only ones with starlink. So it's crazy to
(04:38):
just see people come in and like call loved ones
and say like we're okay.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
It was just I mean, this is the craziest experience I.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Guess living through. I mean, it's always crazy to me.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
You know, Thank God I've not had to live through
something like that.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
I might.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
I do live in Florida, so you know, there's always
the possibility.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
You know.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
I can't imagine just having you know, resided someplace for
you know, a while, it's your home, and then just
wake up one day and everything you knew is gone
and different and life has changed that substantially. I just
I imagine that's a really hard thing to digest in life.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Yeah, it's been really hard on our kids the most.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
And how old are they.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
They are thirteen, eleven and four, so man, it's so
so hard. But they see, you know, all the parks
that they normally play in are still just completely destroyed.
You know. I've posted a couple of videos of the
soccer field just right across from my home, and you
(05:42):
can see like tractor trailers on the soccer field and
campers and it's it's all still there, and so many
of the parks, the playgrounds that we used to go
to are gone.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
And I think my wife posted this the other day.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
But we were driving just a target to at some
stuff and my son looks out the window of the
four year old and he goes, are there dead people there?
And it's just something he thinks about constantly when we
drive by all this debris piled up everywhere, because he,
you know, he has just such a basic understanding of
(06:17):
what happened, but he knows it was horrific and that
you know, people died, and it's just, you know, it's
one of those things you should never have to explain
to your toddler that, like, yes, it was hard and
we're getting through it, but they just feel the effects
every single.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Day, if I mean, that's got to be hard as parents,
because you know, with young kids, obviously you want to
protect them. You want to shield them from pain and
from you know, having to witness bad things. I guess
how do you kind of balance that with also you know,
they're they're probably wondering why their lives have been so
disrupted as well, So I mean, I guess how do
(06:51):
you balance that. As a parent, I imagine that's going
to be a really challenging thing to try to navigate.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Yeah, as a parent, you just hate it. You know
it your heart.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
You don't know what to say, But I have to
say that kids are so resilient and one of the
greatest things that's come out of this is seeing my
kids volunteer and help other people, like they volunteered at
so many different places, sorting clothes, food items, putting you know,
(07:22):
food in people's cars. My four year old got to
deliver an RV with us to a woman who's homeless
after Hurricane Helena lost her home and got to put
toys in it for a kid a year younger than him.
And I think that's just such a good experience for
kids to be able to give back in a way
they never would have been able to if a natural
(07:46):
disaster like this wouldn't have happened. But I'm truly, I'm
really so proud of my kids for the way that
they have they've handled it and being able to give
them an experience of giving back.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
I think it is so important.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
What is living through a natural disaster lake that teach
you about humanity? I know you had talked about how
you know your neighborhood. You set up sort of an
Internet cafe for the rest of the neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
I guess what does it show you? What does it
tell you about humanity?
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Yeah? I mean it brings out the best and the
worst simultaneously, you know, and you find out very quickly
that essentially nothing.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
Else matters except the friends that you've made in life,
because those are the people that come and help you.
And we always think that we have, you know, less
in common with people than we actually do. Like the
neighbor that cut us out of our driveway, I've only
talked to him twice in my whole life, and he
spent seven hours on my road.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
You know, just trying to get us out. And I
mean I've.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
Only talked to this many class and you know, he
took time out of his day to help. And I
truly think that that is what makes Americans Americans. You know,
regardless of your political views, if something bad is going
to happen, we're going to be there for you. And
no one talked about politics at the beginning of the storm.
Everyone was trying to help everyone. And you know, we
(09:10):
had some bad actors that tried to do some looting
and stuff, but our neighborhood set up like a little
police force with people driving around with walkie talkies and
made sure everyone was safe. And that felt great, and
I just really think that it brought out, you know,
some of the best in people, and you know, we
all worked to make sure everyone else was okay. And
(09:33):
you know, our house barely had any damage at all,
and other people's had, you know, terrible damage. I chained
saw quite a few trees off of neighbors' houses during
this first weeks of the storm, and then obviously we
saw so much worse damage with the flooding later on
that we just couldn't believe.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
And that's kind of phase two.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
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(10:53):
com slash booth bo tg. Yeah, it is so interesting
how resilient humans are. You know, you're talking about just
how you guys set up your own police force and
you know kind of people just coming together to problem solve.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
So you've really been fighting for.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Your community by bringing the truth on ax, by by
posting about it, sort of forcing attention to the issue,
making sure that it's not forgotten.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
You take us through for people who are unfamiliar.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
I mean, obviously we saw images after the hurricane hit,
but take us through just the level of devastation and
the damage that it did, and then also talk about
how important X has been for you to get the
word out about that devastation.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
Oh man, Yeah, I haven't even been to all of
the places that have been devastated. There's just so many,
especially like out in the Hallers, in some of the
mountain areas like Spruce Pine and others that just got
absolutely walloped. And I feel like East Tennessee, you know,
had had some really rough stuff happen as well.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
But down I've lived very close.
Speaker 4 (12:03):
To downtown Nashville, and like I said, I lived next
to a creek, and all of those homes and bridges
you know, got flooded pretty pretty badly. And it was
just beyond comprehension, Like the mind really couldn't comprehend what
you were seeing because it didn't look familiar in any sense.
Like I remember getting to the French Broad River maybe
(12:24):
day two or three, I mean, when the flooding had subsided,
subsided substantially, and I still didn't recognize it. I could
not believe how bad it was, Like the river was
so wide, it just didn't even look the same. Especially
the River Arts District in downtown Nashville just completely underwater,
(12:45):
completely leveled.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
It was just so crazy.
Speaker 4 (12:49):
And I remember I was at a restaurant called White
Duck Taco when I first heard about that the assassa
of or the attempted assassination of Trump, and we were
all out there like looking at our phones, and I
was staring at it from a bridge and it was gone.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
I mean, it was not there anymore. And I just thought, Wow,
these are.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
Going to be so many memories that are just going
to be wiped off the face of the earth.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
And that's just in the little little portion where we were.
Towns like Marshall, where we have a lot of friends.
Speaker 4 (13:25):
I mean, those places are completely you know, wiped off
the face of the earth. Like it surprises me that
they're able to even pull out from the experience of
the flooding that they got.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
It's it's just insane.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
But X you know, was really a lifeline, I think
for getting the word out about what was happening in
western North Carolina because very few mainstream media outlets were
covering it, especially you know, at the beginning of the storm,
like maybe the first two to seven days we did
have a lot of coverage, and then, just like any
(14:02):
national disaster.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
People just lose interest. They don't really want to hear
that things aren't going well. And I'm guilty of that myself.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
Just as a consumer of media, you know, forgetting about
places like Leahina and Mali and East pastein.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
So I just didn't want that to happen to us.
Speaker 4 (14:22):
So I kind of made it my mission to stay
on top of it no matter what until things started
to turn around. And it was just so surprising to
me how long it has taken for that mission to
finally be accomplished. I mean, I would have never thought
in a million years that I would still be posting
(14:44):
about FEMA and people needing electricity and food and propane
four months after the storm. Like no chance would I
have ever thought I'd be doing something like that. But
it was necessary because people were hurting and they just
didn't have a voice. And I've truly felt like, you know,
(15:05):
perhaps we were screaming into the void for four months straight,
and it was just truly amazing when Trump came and
gave a voice to some of the people.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
I think it was one of the most beautiful things
I've ever seen.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
We've got a quick commercial break war with Matt on
the other side. What has the experience been like trying
to work with FEMA, trying to work with you know,
your state, with your governor?
Speaker 2 (15:31):
What has an experience been like for people?
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Super frustrating? Oh so frustrating.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
You know, for me, we actually, you know, we didn't
have any damage to our home, so we applied immediately
for the seven hundred and fifty dollars. We got it
within a couple of weeks. It took a lot longer
and a couple of denials to get a generator I bought,
and I'm still waiting for my chainsaw to be reimbursed.
That's okay, but so many people have had, I mean
(16:01):
so many frustrating stories. And those are the people we
talked to with our little nonprofit operation Shelter. Oh, you
just hear some horror stories of people getting denied from
FEMA or FEMA just really slow rolling.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
The ball to help them.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
We talked to a woman just this weekend who miraculously
got approved for the forty two thousand dollars a couple
of months ago, but still hasn't gotten it. So she's
not been able to rebuild or even start the process
of rebuilding and is just waiting on FEMA to hand
her that max amount of money. But I mean, some
(16:39):
others we it is a crazy story. FEMA put a
lot of people in these transitional Housing assistance programs, which
are essentially just hotel stays extended hotel stays, and one
of the people we were working with, she reached out
to us because FEMA was going to kick her out
of her hotel, but they had not yet inspected her
(17:01):
home to see if it was habitable.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
So we actually got in the phone with Ted Budd's office.
Speaker 4 (17:08):
And they were able to confirm that FEMA dropped the
ball in her case and get her hotel stay extended
from FEMA. But that's just one of like so many stories.
And I was just talking to a guy at the
gym yesterday morning who says he's given up. He's not
going to even continue trying to get some of the
money from FEMA. And I do feel like that's where
most people are at at this point. They're just they're
(17:30):
just sick and tired of it.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
You mentioned in the beginning how politics originally wasn't really
part of the conversation.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Imagine it is now.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
You know, I guess how has this reshaped maybe political
views in the area or yours, or you know, talk
about sort of the evolution of politics being you know,
now being more part of the equation here.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
Yeah, I mean it is completely reshaped my opinion of
politics having really impact on people's lives. I mean, I
leaned pretty center left on most political issues, or did
before the storm, and I find myself leaning very far
right now.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
And I think.
Speaker 4 (18:16):
Once you realize the government's ineptitude, especially in this particular response,
it's hard to unsee something like that, and it was
especially frustrating, I think for everyone here to like, For example,
my wife knows people at CNN personally. She was going
to do a documentary for them, and when the storm hit,
(18:36):
she reached out to them and said, you know, hey,
you know me, I'm on the ground. I would love
to like get in contact with you. And they ghosted
us for four months straight. They would not talk to us.
And the only networks that would have us on at
all to talk about anything were you know, right wing networks.
(18:56):
You know, people I never thought i'd talk to in
my life, life news maps, Fox News news Nation like
places I never thought I'd be talking on. I was
talking on because they were the only ones that would
give us a voice. And then to go through the
(19:16):
press conference after press conference of FEMA just talking down
to people in western North Carolina making excuses for why
they couldn't get homes into the mountains because it was mountainous,
saying that no one was living intents, and then renaming
the word tent to be lightweight tent or heavyweight tent
(19:38):
to make sure that you know, and then call us
out on misinformation, you know, constantly.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
It was just it was such.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
An eye opening experience for me to realize that just
because it's not on CNN doesn't mean it's not happening,
and you can't unsee it once it happens to you personally,
and it happened to us. We got left behind and
the media just kind of left us there, and FEMA
Tree is just terribly you know, some of the press conferences,
(20:07):
you know, went viral, not because press conferences are so boring,
they went viral because FEMA was just talking down to
mountain folk out here and it was jarring to watch.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Why do you think that happened? Why do you think
some of the media ignored the story or the the
Bide administration, you know, sort of ignored your area.
Speaker 4 (20:29):
Is an election. I am fully convinced it was an
election issue. You know, it happened right right before the election.
I mean, I am personally convinced that's that's what it is.
It certainly wasn't a business decision. You can see that
immediately if you go look at my tweets, which have
millions of years like they could have absolutely had a
(20:51):
lot of clicks and very interesting stories had they chosen
to pursue it.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
They just chose not to. And my guess is because.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
It just didn't fit the agenda they were trying to push.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
What did that mean for your community to have President
Trump make western North Carolina and then California his first
domestic trips of the president of his presidency, to make
sure it happened in his first week.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Oh man, it.
Speaker 4 (21:17):
Was, Like I said, I think it was one of
the most beautiful things I've ever seen.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
In my whole life. I have. I mean, I've watched
Trump a lot on the news, I have.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
It's been pretty rare that he steps out of the limelight,
hands his microphone to someone and says, tell me your story,
and that's exactly what he did in western North Carolina.
And I was crying the whole time. It really was.
I was like, I feel like I've been telling these
victims stories for months and months and months, and you know,
(21:47):
the Biden administration to just ignored us for those months.
You know, we have been screaming we need more help.
You know, the help isn't coming fast enough. It's too slow.
Really bad things are happening, and it was just silence
on the other end of that line.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
And then Trump comes.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
In and he's like he's you know, allowing a guy
on national TV to go after his insurance company.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
He was like, name them, name them.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
I know it was wild, but I mean these that
that's what we need. We needed that. We needed that
so bad because that's the reality of what we were
hearing from people constantly, like all day, every day, from
people we are trying to help. And it was just
mind blowing to me that the.
Speaker 4 (22:31):
Stories were not getting out in the way that they
that they should.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
And I just have to say, like, it was so beautiful.
Speaker 4 (22:37):
To see Trump come in and you know, make those
promises and then to see the executive actions actually roll out,
and I feel like we're already seeing some change at
least in my area that is positive.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
It's just, man, it just felt so good.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
You know, President Trump gets attacked a lot, but he's
he's always had a heart for people. And when we
saw with these policy, you know, he's always like he's
always you know, even when he was president during his
first term, he always tried to get her hostages back.
You know, he's always been very protective of his people.
You know, you said that you were a center left before.
I guess has this changed your position or your viewpoint?
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Your viewpoint of President Trump?
Speaker 4 (23:19):
One hundred percent? It has completely turned it around. I
cannot emphasize that enough. Like even if it was a
political move, I'm already seeing action. So you know, to me,
actions matter much more than words. And he came here first,
and the you know, Biden administration ignored us and said that,
(23:44):
you know, we were being dramatic or spreading misinformation, and
that was just not the case. You know, we were
we were trying to help people were getting let down
left and right by FEMA, and we were like, hey,
I even wrote like an open letter to FEMA. You know,
a couple of months ago, like this is how you
can turn it around, please help us, and none of
(24:05):
it actually got done.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
And it's just wild to me to see true action.
Like their motto of promises made, promises kept is so good.
I love that motto because it invites transparency into what
the government is doing, and people go, aha, yes he
did make that promise, and yes he has kept that promise.
(24:27):
And the promises he made to visit western North Carolina
he kept Jadie Vance visiting Virginia and seeing the Hurricane
Elene devastation there. He made that promise, He kept that promise.
The executive actions that have come in, it's just like
one thing after another and you're like, wow, Like, man,
I really should have gotten out of my echo chamber
(24:48):
and seeing some different news years ago, because now I
feel so stupid.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Well, I really don't think it's political, because you know,
he already won, right so, and he can't run for
he can't run for re election, and so he really doesn't,
you know, gain anything that politically outside of just I
really just do believe that he genuinely cares about the
American people, and you know, feels like it's his job
to protect them. You know, I imagine too, like going
(25:14):
through something like this just changes your whole perspective. Like
you know, we talked about the changing perspective on like
politics and things like that, but just of like government
and like its role and you know, it's effectiveness, and
you know, I guess, so how does that How do
you view government?
Speaker 2 (25:29):
After this?
Speaker 4 (25:32):
I viewed government as having as getting in the way
of what's happening and what needs to be done, especially
during disasters.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
And I feel like I repeated myself so much.
Speaker 4 (25:43):
Saying, you know, if if FEMA is really good at
his job, why is it so slow? Like why isn't
the United States Premier Emergency Management Agency moving as slow
as it has been? It should not exist if it's
going to be this slow and pure crect And it's
just completely changed the way of thought about the role
(26:05):
of government in things like disasters. When I saw Samaritan's
purse absolutely everywhere in western North Carolina, and I have
yet to see someone in a FEMA outfit anywhere, It's just,
you know, it's kind of crazy. And you know, I
know there's a lot of calls to abolish FEMA or
(26:26):
dramatically reform it. And I think that's exactly right, because
one of the mottos we've been saying here on the
ground is, hey, if the rules are hurting people in
a disaster, change the rules, you know. And it just
felt like every rule was sacred with FEMA and nothing
could be changed to actually help people.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
When they really needed it.
Speaker 4 (26:49):
You know, they were they were blocking people from putting
temporary homes in what FEMA designated as a floodplain. I mean,
these are mountains thousands of feet down fashed and you know,
flooding doesn't happen here very often, that's why it's in
the news. And you know, they were they were blocking
people from trying to get just you know, RVs on
their land because FEMA designated that area of flood zone.
(27:13):
And just stupid stuff like that happened over and over
with FEMA, and it just felt like, you know, maybe
agencies like this do more harm than good, you know,
and maybe these these agencies need to be overhauled so
that they're actually working for the people instead of just
existing to hand out money to the people they employ.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Well, yeah, or you.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Know, I mean even I was just thinking with the
seven hundred and fifty dollars. I mean it's like that,
doesn't you know if you've got a family that doesn't
really go that far, you know, particularly lost everything.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
So it's like and.
Speaker 4 (27:47):
Even the forty two thousand dollars that guess the MAXI
amount have you can you buy a house for forty
two thousand dollar? Yes, they're not going to be able to.
And nobody here had had flood insurance because it's the mountains,
you know, Like, so insurance didn't cover anything up here.
And I think that's like one of the things people
forget is like, well where was the role of insurance?
(28:10):
And nobody had flood insurance, so their lives are completely
upended and insurance is paying them nothing. If your home
was flooded and you didn't have flood insurance, it's tough
luck for you.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
Yeah, because I mean you wouldn't think to have it.
Speaker 4 (28:27):
Of course, not if you live on a tiny little
creek up in the mountains. You're not you know, you're
not going to think to have you know, your home
float away hundreds of feet that that would have.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Never crossed your mind.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
I can't even imagine where can people follow your content?
As you know, we hope that your community gets the
hope that it needs and hopefully gets some of these
regulations and red tape slashed so that the response is
more efficient.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
Yeah, follow me on X. Matt Underscore van Swell.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Matt, thank you so much. I'm so sorry to your
fans and to everyone in your community. I really I
can't imagine just how scary and devastating and disruptive that's
got to be, and just how hard it's got to be.
And I know it's been a long time and it's
probably just been really exhausting, and.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
You know, probably felt like given up hope.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
So I'm glad that glad you didn't, and you know,
really respect the fact that you continue to fight for
your community.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
Yeah, thank you, Lisa. It means a time that you're
covering the story. I mean, it just feels like we've been,
you know, screaming to the void for months, you know,
and it just means so much that anyone would actually
touch the story.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
For all the people here.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
It was Matt van Swell. We appreciate him for taking
the time. Just can't imagine living through that or Hark
goes out. I want to thank you guys at home
for listening every Monday and Thursday, but you can listen
throughout the week. I want to think John Cassio and
my producer were putting the show together until next time.
Host
Lisa Boothe
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