Someone who was in the 6th row at Trump rally Saturday

Someone who was in the 6th row at Trump rally Saturday

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
I am overwhelmed with all of theinformation that is, you know, it
feels like constantly streaming our way rightabout now. And also he's back too
from VAK. Welcome back, Joshy. I'm glad you made it back.
It's good to be back. Iwas bored, you know, just laying
around in a beautiful hotel room andsitting in a jacuzzie all day and eating

(00:25):
nice food. It was really boring. So I was like, I got
to get back to work. Thisis one of those moments in history where
you're going to ever remember. Youknow, where you were when you heard
the news President Trump had been shot. An assassination attempt took place in Butler,
Pennsylvania on Saturday, and at aTrump rally there, and I was.

(00:48):
I was sitting in Great American Ballparkwatching the Reds when everything started breaking.
You should have. The whole placestarted to kind of get quiet.
It was. It was very eerie, even though the game was going on.
You could tell the audience people therestarted to realize what had happened.
And these pictures and everything coming out, uh, you know, Trump's face
with blood on it, and youknow, all real time, it's just

(01:11):
like, oh my gosh, allthe uncertainty and what were you doing?
I mean, it was I'll tellyou what I was doing. I was
having a cocktail at Spoons. Itwas. That was Saturday. We got
back on Friday. We got backThursday night and Thursday evening and then uh

(01:33):
Friday was uh Friday. My head'sspinning from Friday. A lot going on.
But I was sitting at the barat Spoons. I was. I
was the first, you know,time I had had a chance to go
away and get a cocktail since weleft for vacation, and uh crazy.
And then my friend Daryl goes textme. My friend and my neighbor darrellly

(01:55):
goes the bastard shot trump. Isaid, why And I'm looking around.
We can't fight. It's there's notelevision coverage, right, so I had
to go to YouTube to get thecoverage from the live Fox feed out of
Pittsburgh. That I mean, itwas. It was insane. How like
the mainstream media was like, ohand then somebody it was just like,

(02:15):
oh somebody heard they said loud noisesat the trumpet. Wow. Yeah,
that was all this this information comingfrom you know, lamestream media who didn't
want to admit right away exactly whathad happened, but exactly what it was.
Right. I want to bring ina guy, you know, friend
of the show and uh, youthe listener know you've heard him on several

(02:37):
times with us. He was theformer FOP president. Jeff Simpson is joining
us now. Jeff was in thesixth row at the Butler County rally on
Saturday, and Jeff, welcome tothe show. Thank you so much for
joining us, brother. I appreciateyou. Hey, Mark, no problem
at all, glad to be back, not under the circumstances, but thanks

(02:58):
for having me on. Yeah forsure. I just really, I really
want to hear what you saw.The way things played out to be somewhere
like this clearly is gotta be surrealfor you at this point. But take
us through as everything began to happenand you're realizing what was unfolding. Now,

(03:22):
you being in law enforcement basically yourentire adult life, I still don't
think that can prepare you for somethingthat went down like this. No,
something you never expect but you alwaysthink and happen. So I'll give you
a quick lead in. I'm aPennsylvania native. I grew up in Beaver

(03:45):
County, Pennsylvania, which is ahalf hour away the Butler Farm Show pairgrounds.
My grandfather used to take us asa kid. So it's was also
my mother's seventieth birthday, so Ifigured, what a great time to go
home. Well, my mom couldn'tgo because my sister had her fourth baby,
and I was only went because Iwas able to get VIP tickets.

(04:06):
As you know, I retired ona disability, so I can't stand in
long lines and do all that stuff. It's just too much for my medical
condition. So I was blessed toget connections for VIP tickets. The weight
was short, I was able tosit, They had stools, water,
Everything was a great vibe, greatenvironment, and we got there early.

(04:29):
We got seated. Imagine the setupreally was like a the infilled at the
I'm a pirate's guy, you're ared sky. But imagine just the infield
just in line with third base fencedin trump probably being halfway between home plate
and the pitcher's box. And thenthere's three sets of bleachers and that was

(04:56):
gated off, and once they upthe gates, everybody, the VIPs went
through a line. The regular attendeeswent through a line and they were screened
just like you're going through the airportby the Secret Service. We make it
in. We have green wrist brandswhich takes us up front. We got
a good seat six to row back, within thirty feet of the podium where

(05:21):
Trump was going to take the stage. Ironically, the kids talked about moving
to the bleachers, and I'm like, no, the son's in our face,
the bleachers stuff on my back.Do let's not do that. Then
Trump will be at our back.So we did not move. We almost
moved exactly to those bleachers and justgot ready for the rally to begin.

(05:44):
Yeah, so as you first ofall, I want to say right now
that President Trump has picked jd Vance, Ohio Senator jd Vance as his vice
president running mate. So it's TrumpVance for for president vice president. It's
a great pick. It just bothersme that we're gonna lose him, you

(06:06):
know. Yeah. So I don'tknow, Jeff, if you were following
this, but it literally was somethingthat I had to bring up because clearly
it's happening. No, not aproblem. Actually I just got the text,
but I wasn't going to say it. Jd Vance was his campaign I'm
close with and they were the onesthat were very kind and got me the

(06:28):
VIP tickets. So jd Vance willbe solid to resonnate with the people.
He was tough enough to unseat TimRyan, which was a huge seat.
So I think Bernie Marina will followsuit an unseat Sara Brown. I'm confident
of that. I think the peoplesee that. So I don't think he
could have picked a better person.It was disappointed in Pence, and I

(06:51):
think jd Vance has got a rock, stay and solid and performed very well.
Yeah, I'm excited to see this. He would the Las Vegas odds
on favorite. Actually jd Vance washe was leading that. The only thing
that that that bothers me is nowMike Twine will get to appoint his replacement,
and you can just already go aheadand say Senator Dolan. I think

(07:14):
that's pretty much going to be whathappens. Yeah, So anyway, there
it is. Jd Vance is goingto be President Trump's running mate here and
I again, there are a lotof people speculating Nicky Hayley might even have
been like some surprise since she's atthe Republican National Convention. But there it
is. Jd Vance is going tobe is now it's official that Trump his

(07:39):
running mate is jd Vance Senator hereof course from Ohio. So back to
this, what had happened on Saturday. Jeff Simpson is joining as former FOP
president. You were in the sixthrow at the Butler County rally on Saturday,
and so you saw all of this. You were telling me you were
basically a twenty five feet from thestage, correct, that is correct?

(08:03):
You know after the weight Trump cameon stage. Of course, the crowd
goes wild, and it's just lookingat the makeup. I mean, you
had kids in front of me.Was a ninety two year old veteran who
was as excited as all hell tosee him come in. And there was
small children and a mother in frontof me, and of course my life

(08:24):
and daughter to my left. Hecame on stage to Lee Greenwood's you had
a classic song about America and waswell received and began a speech. So
it was about was it how longinto the speech before everything began to happen?
Yeah, this is funny. Thisis why we don't question cops immediately

(08:48):
after a critical incident. But thingsstill come to me and it's just been
two days, but it was Iguess five minutes at the time, and
I guess it was almost just undersix. So what the iron thing is,
what people don't know was he starteda speech and then about four minutes
end, he said, to youguys, mind if I go off teleprompters

(09:11):
because those two things left and rightlooked like merrors. Those are actually teleprompters.
And he said, I want togo off script. And he said,
I like my graphs. Will somebodybring up my graphs? And he
wanted to talk about illegal immigration,so he went off script. And you
know, he's very interactive with thecrowd, and the crowd said sure,
you know they were I mean interview. It's just the way it can resonates

(09:33):
the American public. And he turnedhis head to the right and he looked
up at the graph because they hadthree big screens, and he started to
explain the graph to the people.He said, I like those usual information,
and that is when he turned hishead. If he did not go

(09:54):
off script, you know, everythinghas a reason for happening. He did
not go off script. There isno doubt to speak facts, There's no
doubt that bullet would have went intohis head. So when he went into
his speech about illegal immigration, thatis when three pops that I recognized a

(10:18):
gunfire went off. The entire crowdstarted to scream, people started dropping down.
Trump kind of looked his left,looked as right, and they saw
him grab his head and he disappearedfrom the podium. Secret Service immediately came
up to the podium jumped on topof him. There was I think there's

(10:41):
eight or nine rounds altogether. Therewas another series of about five shots and
then it was just mass chaos,But I don't know, it seemed like
forever, maybe within a minut itafter the last shot. As a law

(11:03):
enforcement officer, I'm always thinking,Okay, where's the second assault coming from.
What's going to happen? But itdidn't. So he came up,
Secret Service started to move there,swat guys came out and I could immediately
see that close that he had bloodon his right ear. And be honest
with you, guy's anger at like, like Josh said, said those bastard

(11:26):
shotting And I could hear him yellingsomething And now I found out it was
like he wanted to shoe So justwhat an act of courage And before he
went off stage. I could hearhim yell wait, wait, and he
fist pumped the crowd and he mouthedfight, fight, fight, And in
the middle of that, it givesme chills, the crowd went wild.

(11:50):
I mean, after he was justshots rang out and it's clearly an assassination
attempt. And when he mounted that, I mean, the crowd just wild.
And then I'll give you a littlebreak to ask me a question,
but he doubled over, so Ithought he had been struck. Worse,
I wasn't for sure, but obviouslyhe had been struck, and then he

(12:11):
got him off stage. But thenthe real chaos ensued after that. All
right, He is a former FOPpresident, Jeff Simpson. He was sixth row