WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.980 OK, so the date is Tuesday, January 27, 2026. 00:00:04.679 --> 00:00:06.219 And if you've been looking at the news this week, 00:00:06.360 --> 00:00:08.019 it probably feels like everything is happening 00:00:08.019 --> 00:00:10.880 all at once. It's a lot. The news cycle is just 00:00:10.880 --> 00:00:13.839 spinning. It really is. But if you sort of zoom 00:00:13.839 --> 00:00:16.420 out and look at the map, it feels like the entire 00:00:16.420 --> 00:00:19.879 political world is focused on this one very cold 00:00:19.879 --> 00:00:22.879 spot, Minneapolis, Minnesota. It's absolutely 00:00:22.879 --> 00:00:26.000 the eye of the storm. And, you know, it's rare 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:27.839 that our source materials line up this neatly. 00:00:27.980 --> 00:00:30.239 We have a political analysis of the current standoff 00:00:30.239 --> 00:00:32.280 there, and we're putting it right up against 00:00:32.280 --> 00:00:34.679 a historical record of the first Minnesota regiment 00:00:34.679 --> 00:00:37.179 at Gettysburg. So we're talking about a metaphorical 00:00:37.179 --> 00:00:40.700 hill to die on in 2026. Right. And a very, very 00:00:40.700 --> 00:00:44.210 literal and bloody hill in 1863. Exactly. And 00:00:44.210 --> 00:00:46.609 the mission for this deep dive is to figure out 00:00:46.609 --> 00:00:49.229 why Minnesota, of all places, keeps ending up 00:00:49.229 --> 00:00:51.329 in this role. Why is it always the place where 00:00:51.329 --> 00:00:53.670 the line gets drawn? We're going to unpack this 00:00:53.670 --> 00:00:56.929 current political siege of Minneapolis. The whole 00:00:56.929 --> 00:00:59.149 situation with the Trump administration, ICE, 00:00:59.149 --> 00:01:02.500 DHS. All of it. And we'll see how it's basically 00:01:02.500 --> 00:01:05.859 a modern echo of a legacy that, well, that started 00:01:05.859 --> 00:01:08.099 with bayonets in the Civil War. And I have to 00:01:08.099 --> 00:01:10.379 say, some of the details in this political source 00:01:10.379 --> 00:01:13.040 are just wild. We're not just talking bowls. 00:01:13.159 --> 00:01:15.500 We're going to talk about the fashion choices 00:01:15.500 --> 00:01:18.319 of a Border Patrol commander. Which is way more 00:01:18.319 --> 00:01:20.579 interesting than it sounds. It really is. And 00:01:20.579 --> 00:01:22.640 then we'll get into a historical suicide charge 00:01:22.640 --> 00:01:24.799 that, you know, might have literally saved the 00:01:24.799 --> 00:01:27.439 entire country. There's a lot to get through. 00:01:27.560 --> 00:01:31.079 So let's start with today. The reporting we have 00:01:31.079 --> 00:01:34.719 paints this picture of a White House that thought 00:01:34.719 --> 00:01:37.260 it had an easy win, but now it's just stuck. 00:01:37.359 --> 00:01:39.540 They call it the worm turning. Which is the perfect 00:01:39.540 --> 00:01:41.599 way to put it. I mean, just think back to last 00:01:41.599 --> 00:01:44.420 week. The administration kicks off Operation 00:01:44.420 --> 00:01:46.359 Metro Surge. It was supposed to be this huge 00:01:46.359 --> 00:01:49.700 show of fours. Right. Federal agents, DHS, ICE, 00:01:49.939 --> 00:01:52.799 all flooding into Minneapolis to restore order. 00:01:52.980 --> 00:01:55.260 They were turning the heat way up. A real shock 00:01:55.260 --> 00:01:58.030 and awe approach. But then... The catalyst happened. 00:01:58.170 --> 00:02:00.609 The shooting of Alex Pretty. Right. And this 00:02:00.609 --> 00:02:02.590 is the moment the whole narrative just breaks. 00:02:03.269 --> 00:02:06.109 Alex Pretty, a U .S. citizen, is shot by federal 00:02:06.109 --> 00:02:09.009 agents. And the initial story from the administration 00:02:09.009 --> 00:02:12.610 was, you know, textbook. He was violent. He resisted. 00:02:12.610 --> 00:02:14.750 He was a threat. He came right at us. That was 00:02:14.750 --> 00:02:16.750 the line, wasn't it? That was the exact line. 00:02:16.810 --> 00:02:19.469 But the thing is, in 2026, there are cameras 00:02:19.469 --> 00:02:22.289 everywhere. And when the video evidence came 00:02:22.289 --> 00:02:24.509 out, it didn't just poke holes in the story. 00:02:24.650 --> 00:02:27.930 No, it just incinerated it. It completely incinerated 00:02:27.930 --> 00:02:30.389 it. The footage showed Pretty never drew his 00:02:30.389 --> 00:02:34.030 weapon. He wasn't the aggressor. And that gap, 00:02:34.090 --> 00:02:36.430 that huge space between the press release and 00:02:36.430 --> 00:02:39.189 the video on everyone's phone, that's what triggered 00:02:39.189 --> 00:02:41.449 this massive shift. The analysis we're looking 00:02:41.449 --> 00:02:43.469 at calls this a canary in the coal mine moment. 00:02:43.530 --> 00:02:46.830 And they point to one specific person who really 00:02:46.830 --> 00:02:49.409 shows how fast the ground was shifting. A guy 00:02:49.409 --> 00:02:51.689 named Chris Middell. Yeah, Chris Middell. Now, 00:02:51.810 --> 00:02:53.969 look, normally a candidate dropping out of a 00:02:53.969 --> 00:02:56.610 primary. It's not huge news. He was running for 00:02:56.610 --> 00:02:59.569 governor on the GOP ticket, but it's how he did 00:02:59.569 --> 00:03:01.750 it that matters so much here. You didn't just, 00:03:01.750 --> 00:03:03.229 what, send out a press release and disappear? 00:03:03.569 --> 00:03:06.689 No, not at all. He posts an 11 -minute video, 00:03:07.250 --> 00:03:09.710 and in, you know, the world of political attention 00:03:09.710 --> 00:03:12.169 spans, 11 minutes is basically a documentary. 00:03:12.830 --> 00:03:15.270 He looks straight into the camera and says he 00:03:15.270 --> 00:03:17.969 cannot support retribution on the citizens of 00:03:17.969 --> 00:03:21.909 his state. Retribution. That is a powerful word. 00:03:22.169 --> 00:03:24.930 It's a heavy word. He essentially went from being 00:03:24.930 --> 00:03:27.650 a party standard bearer to saying, I can't be 00:03:27.650 --> 00:03:29.669 part of this if this is what it means. And this 00:03:29.669 --> 00:03:31.849 is a perfect example of what they call the Overton 00:03:31.849 --> 00:03:34.849 window shifting in real time. Ah, the Overton 00:03:34.849 --> 00:03:37.150 window. I love that concept. It's the range of 00:03:37.150 --> 00:03:39.849 ideas that are considered acceptable for public 00:03:39.849 --> 00:03:42.289 debate. And normally, that window moves like 00:03:42.289 --> 00:03:45.229 an inch at a time over years. Right. In Minnesota, 00:03:45.490 --> 00:03:47.469 because of the shooting, it basically shifted 00:03:47.469 --> 00:03:51.009 a mile in 48 hours. Maidle made it OK for other 00:03:51.009 --> 00:03:53.270 Republicans to say, no, this has gone too far. 00:03:53.530 --> 00:03:55.789 And once that happened, the floodgates just opened. 00:03:55.909 --> 00:03:58.870 It wasn't just local guys anymore. The list of 00:03:58.870 --> 00:04:00.969 national heavy hitters turning on the administration 00:04:00.969 --> 00:04:04.509 over this is pretty surprising. It's a very strange 00:04:04.509 --> 00:04:06.509 group. I mean, you expect the moderates, right? 00:04:06.610 --> 00:04:08.810 People like Bill Cassidy, Susan Collins, they're 00:04:08.810 --> 00:04:10.750 usually the first to get nervous about this stuff. 00:04:11.030 --> 00:04:13.969 But then you get Texas Governor Greg Abbott. 00:04:14.069 --> 00:04:17.439 Wait, hold on. Greg Abbott. The same Greg Abbott, 00:04:17.639 --> 00:04:20.319 who, as the source points out, is famous for 00:04:20.319 --> 00:04:22.660 putting razor wire in the Rio Grande. The very 00:04:22.660 --> 00:04:26.569 same one. The irony is just it's so thick. Abbott 00:04:26.569 --> 00:04:28.810 came out and said the administration needs to 00:04:28.810 --> 00:04:31.329 recalibrate. That's a record scratch moment. 00:04:31.569 --> 00:04:35.009 It is. The analysis basically says, look, when 00:04:35.009 --> 00:04:37.629 you have lost Greg Abbott on an enforcement issue, 00:04:37.709 --> 00:04:40.790 you have completely lost the plot. If the guy 00:04:40.790 --> 00:04:43.310 who defines hardline policy is telling you you've 00:04:43.310 --> 00:04:45.730 gone too far, you are on your own. And it's not 00:04:45.730 --> 00:04:48.310 just the politicians. The media ecosystem is 00:04:48.310 --> 00:04:51.050 fracturing, too, which I think is maybe even 00:04:51.050 --> 00:04:53.290 more dangerous for the White House. Oh, absolutely. 00:04:53.550 --> 00:04:55.370 The real sign they've lost control of the story 00:04:55.399 --> 00:04:57.879 wasn't the Senate, it was the media. You have 00:04:57.879 --> 00:05:01.339 CBS News, now led by Barry Weiss, reporting pretty 00:05:01.339 --> 00:05:03.839 aggressively against the official story. That's 00:05:03.839 --> 00:05:06.439 a big shift. But the real damage is coming from 00:05:06.439 --> 00:05:10.500 the populist right. The bro demographic, as they 00:05:10.500 --> 00:05:13.500 say. Exactly. The source points out that guys 00:05:13.500 --> 00:05:15.779 like Joe Rogan and even Bubba the Love Sponge 00:05:15.779 --> 00:05:18.600 are just lambasting the administration over this. 00:05:18.800 --> 00:05:20.699 I just have to pause on the fact that we're citing 00:05:20.699 --> 00:05:23.680 Bubba the love sponge in a serious analysis of 00:05:23.680 --> 00:05:25.379 national politics. I know. It sounds ridiculous. 00:05:25.920 --> 00:05:28.399 But think about who they reach. These aren't 00:05:28.399 --> 00:05:31.019 people reading policy journals. They speak directly 00:05:31.019 --> 00:05:34.540 to the base. And if Bubba is on his show looking 00:05:34.540 --> 00:05:37.379 at that pretty video and telling his listeners, 00:05:37.660 --> 00:05:40.600 hey, the government is lying. There's no spin 00:05:40.600 --> 00:05:42.600 that gets you out of that. It breaks the echo 00:05:42.600 --> 00:05:44.939 chamber. Completely breaks it. Fox News was trying, 00:05:45.060 --> 00:05:47.259 you know, they were blaming the app signal for 00:05:47.259 --> 00:05:49.060 protest coordination, trying to make it about 00:05:49.060 --> 00:05:51.579 tech. But eventually the sheer weight of it all 00:05:51.579 --> 00:05:54.600 forced them to pivot. They had to admit on air 00:05:54.600 --> 00:05:57.079 that the video showed Pretty never drew his weapon. 00:05:57.379 --> 00:06:00.120 So the narrative collapses, the media turns, 00:06:00.319 --> 00:06:02.620 the base gets angry. And when that happens in 00:06:02.620 --> 00:06:05.800 DC, somebody has to get the boot. Which brings 00:06:05.800 --> 00:06:07.939 us to a character study that I found completely 00:06:07.939 --> 00:06:12.360 fascinating. Gregory Bovino. Ah, yes. The commander 00:06:12.360 --> 00:06:14.699 at large. Which, as the article notes, is not 00:06:14.699 --> 00:06:16.939 a real rank, right? Not at all. It's a made -up 00:06:16.939 --> 00:06:20.379 title, has no basis in law. But Bovino was the 00:06:20.379 --> 00:06:22.779 face of this operation. He's the guy on TV giving 00:06:22.779 --> 00:06:25.480 the press conferences. And the article spends 00:06:25.480 --> 00:06:27.759 a surprising amount of time talking about what 00:06:27.759 --> 00:06:31.439 he was wearing. Specifically, his belt. The Sam 00:06:31.439 --> 00:06:33.639 Brown belt. OK, I saw the picture. That's the 00:06:33.639 --> 00:06:35.319 leather strap that goes over the shoulder and 00:06:35.319 --> 00:06:37.579 across the chest, right? That's the one. It looks 00:06:37.579 --> 00:06:41.319 very... Tactical. Very serious. It looks extremely 00:06:41.319 --> 00:06:43.939 intense. It just screams authority. But this 00:06:43.939 --> 00:06:46.300 is where the story gets really interesting. That 00:06:46.300 --> 00:06:48.639 belt was invented by a British officer named, 00:06:48.639 --> 00:06:52.259 well, Sam Brown back in the 1800s. And he didn't 00:06:52.259 --> 00:06:54.420 invent it to look tough. He invented it because 00:06:54.420 --> 00:06:56.759 he had lost his left arm. Wait, what? It was 00:06:56.759 --> 00:06:59.860 disability aid? Purely. Imagine you're on a horse, 00:07:00.019 --> 00:07:02.000 you've only got one arm, and you need to draw 00:07:02.000 --> 00:07:04.560 a heavy saber from your hip. With a normal belt, 00:07:04.920 --> 00:07:07.120 the scabbard would just flop around. So Brown 00:07:07.120 --> 00:07:09.459 created this strap over his shoulder to hold 00:07:09.459 --> 00:07:11.600 the scabbard steady so he could draw his sword 00:07:11.600 --> 00:07:14.120 with one hand. So this thing that Bovino is wearing 00:07:14.120 --> 00:07:17.079 as a symbol of ultimate authority started out 00:07:17.079 --> 00:07:19.660 as an accessibility tool. Exactly. It was standard 00:07:19.660 --> 00:07:22.220 issue in World War I. But after that, when we 00:07:22.220 --> 00:07:24.680 stopped fighting with swords, it mostly vanished, 00:07:24.939 --> 00:07:28.680 except for a brief comeback with fascists in 00:07:28.680 --> 00:07:32.379 Italy and Germany. Not great company to be in. 00:07:32.620 --> 00:07:34.660 And here's the practical point the analysis makes. 00:07:35.139 --> 00:07:38.100 In modern policing, that strike is actually a 00:07:38.100 --> 00:07:40.620 huge liability. It's dangerous. It's something 00:07:40.620 --> 00:07:42.800 for a suspect to grab onto in a fight. So the 00:07:42.800 --> 00:07:45.579 fact that Bolvino is wearing it in 2026, the 00:07:45.579 --> 00:07:49.490 source argues it is 100 % cosplay. It's a costume. 00:07:49.610 --> 00:07:52.449 It is. It's about projecting an image that isn't 00:07:52.449 --> 00:07:55.310 backed up by function. And apparently, that costume 00:07:55.310 --> 00:07:57.389 didn't do him any good against Jake Tapper. Well, 00:07:57.389 --> 00:07:59.850 that interview was rough. It was brutal. Tapper 00:07:59.850 --> 00:08:02.149 caught Bovino in a flat -out lie about a judge 00:08:02.149 --> 00:08:04.689 on live television. Bovino denied it. And Tapper 00:08:04.689 --> 00:08:07.069 just read off the documented instances. It was 00:08:07.069 --> 00:08:09.470 a total humiliation. And the fallout was immediate. 00:08:09.730 --> 00:08:12.350 Lightning fast. Bovino's fired. His social media 00:08:12.350 --> 00:08:14.250 is gone. And he's been sent off to El Centro, 00:08:14.250 --> 00:08:17.250 California to retire. The article has this pretty 00:08:17.250 --> 00:08:19.279 snarky line about him. wanting to open an apple 00:08:19.279 --> 00:08:21.079 orchard asking, how do you like them apples? 00:08:21.500 --> 00:08:24.100 Wow. But he's not the only one in the hot seat. 00:08:25.079 --> 00:08:27.120 DHS Secretary Kristi Noem's in trouble, too. 00:08:27.699 --> 00:08:30.139 She is in a very, very tough spot. She tried 00:08:30.139 --> 00:08:32.379 to shut down the investigation into the shooting, 00:08:32.539 --> 00:08:34.759 which made the moderates angry. But she has a 00:08:34.759 --> 00:08:37.919 bigger problem with her own base. hypocrisy. 00:08:38.120 --> 00:08:40.659 The gun issue. The gun issue. She came out and 00:08:40.659 --> 00:08:42.799 criticized Alex Preti for carrying a gun, but 00:08:42.799 --> 00:08:45.120 you have to remember her signature achievement 00:08:45.120 --> 00:08:48.419 as governor of South Dakota was signing permitless 00:08:48.419 --> 00:08:51.220 concealed carry into law. So she literally built 00:08:51.220 --> 00:08:53.559 her career on the idea that everyone should carry 00:08:53.559 --> 00:08:55.720 a gun and now she's attacking a citizen for carrying 00:08:55.720 --> 00:08:57.980 a gun. And the base sees that hypocrisy. You 00:08:57.980 --> 00:09:00.259 can't be a Second Amendment champion only when 00:09:00.259 --> 00:09:02.659 it's politically convenient. Democrats have filed 00:09:02.659 --> 00:09:05.120 articles of impeachment and a lot of Republicans 00:09:05.120 --> 00:09:08.240 are just letting her twist in the wind. And speaking 00:09:08.240 --> 00:09:10.379 of the Democrats, the source describes them with 00:09:10.379 --> 00:09:13.639 a phrase I love, Democrats in a ray. For once, 00:09:14.019 --> 00:09:16.379 yes. Senate Majority Leader Schumer has played 00:09:16.379 --> 00:09:19.559 this really smartly. He's offering to pass 11 00:09:19.559 --> 00:09:22.460 of the 12 big budget bills. He's just isolating 00:09:22.460 --> 00:09:25.019 the one for DHS. So he's saying, look, we can 00:09:25.019 --> 00:09:28.210 keep the entire government open. pay the military, 00:09:28.389 --> 00:09:30.730 fund the parks, all of it. We are just going 00:09:30.730 --> 00:09:33.269 to have a very specific fight over this one operation. 00:09:33.490 --> 00:09:36.009 It's a perfect trap. It forces Republicans to 00:09:36.009 --> 00:09:38.330 either trigger a full government shutdown, which 00:09:38.330 --> 00:09:41.409 everyone hates, or keep funding this operation 00:09:41.409 --> 00:09:43.669 in Minneapolis, which is becoming more toxic 00:09:43.669 --> 00:09:46.730 by the day. Even swing district Democrats like 00:09:46.730 --> 00:09:50.269 Tom Srazi are now publicly apologizing for ever 00:09:50.269 --> 00:09:52.590 having voted for DHS funding in the past. It 00:09:52.590 --> 00:09:54.929 all feels like this very modern kind of chaos. 00:09:55.559 --> 00:09:59.080 social media viral videos. But this idea of Minnesota 00:09:59.080 --> 00:10:02.399 standing firm against a huge force, it has this 00:10:02.399 --> 00:10:04.419 incredibly literal echo in American history. 00:10:04.419 --> 00:10:06.279 It really does. And we need to pivot here. We 00:10:06.279 --> 00:10:08.740 are leaving 2026 for a minute and going all the 00:10:08.740 --> 00:10:12.559 way back to July 2nd, 1863, Gettysburg. Because 00:10:12.559 --> 00:10:15.759 to really understand the, I guess, the DNA of 00:10:15.759 --> 00:10:17.720 this state, you have to look at what happened 00:10:17.720 --> 00:10:20.240 on a little ridge in Pennsylvania. This story, 00:10:20.259 --> 00:10:21.980 every time I read it, it just stops me cold. 00:10:22.179 --> 00:10:24.600 It's late afternoon on Cemetery Ridge. The Union 00:10:24.600 --> 00:10:26.720 Army should be in a strong position, but instead, 00:10:26.960 --> 00:10:29.360 it is in total chaos. And this is because of 00:10:29.360 --> 00:10:32.379 General Sickles. General Dan Sickles. A political 00:10:32.379 --> 00:10:35.580 general, not a career soldier. He decides he 00:10:35.580 --> 00:10:37.659 knows better than his orders, moves his entire 00:10:37.659 --> 00:10:39.279 corps forward off the high ground, and just gets 00:10:39.279 --> 00:10:41.580 them annihilated. When they break, they leave 00:10:41.580 --> 00:10:44.860 a gigantic hole in the Union line. How big of 00:10:44.860 --> 00:10:48.559 a hole are we talking? A quarter mile wide. Just... 00:10:47.879 --> 00:10:50.379 empty space between the advancing Confederates 00:10:50.379 --> 00:10:53.360 and the center of the entire Union Army. And 00:10:53.360 --> 00:10:55.899 pouring into that gap is a whole Confederate 00:10:55.899 --> 00:10:59.440 brigade from Alabama, maybe 1 ,200, 1 ,500 men. 00:10:59.519 --> 00:11:01.440 And if they get through that gap? If they punch 00:11:01.440 --> 00:11:04.320 through, they split the army in two. The battle 00:11:04.320 --> 00:11:07.200 is lost. And if Gettysburg is lost, the whole 00:11:07.200 --> 00:11:09.080 war might be lost. And there's nobody there to 00:11:09.080 --> 00:11:11.639 stop them? Almost nobody. General Winfield Scott 00:11:11.639 --> 00:11:13.500 Hancock, he's one of the top Union commanders, 00:11:13.899 --> 00:11:16.639 rides up and sees this disaster unfolding. He's 00:11:16.639 --> 00:11:18.840 looking around desperately for any unit to plug 00:11:18.840 --> 00:11:21.779 this hole. And all he can find is one single 00:11:21.779 --> 00:11:25.039 small Regiment, the first Minnesota. And when 00:11:25.039 --> 00:11:27.000 you say small? I mean tiny. They had already 00:11:27.000 --> 00:11:29.799 taken losses, sent men out on other duties. There 00:11:29.799 --> 00:11:33.220 were only 262 men left standing there. 262 men 00:11:33.220 --> 00:11:34.799 against, you know, well over a thousand. That's 00:11:34.799 --> 00:11:37.240 not a fight. That's a speed bump. And Hancock 00:11:37.240 --> 00:11:39.940 knows it. But he doesn't need a victory. He just 00:11:39.940 --> 00:11:43.120 needs five minutes. Ten minutes, maybe. Just 00:11:43.120 --> 00:11:45.120 enough time for reinforcements to arrive. So 00:11:45.120 --> 00:11:46.940 he rides up to the Colonel and gives an order 00:11:46.940 --> 00:11:48.940 that is basically a death sentence. Take those 00:11:48.940 --> 00:11:51.179 colors. He points at the advancing Confederate 00:11:51.179 --> 00:11:53.440 flags and says, Colonel, do you see those colors? 00:11:53.539 --> 00:11:55.980 Take them. He didn't tell them to hold their 00:11:55.980 --> 00:11:58.460 ground. He ordered them to charge, to attack 00:11:58.460 --> 00:12:01.399 a force five times their size. Can you imagine 00:12:01.399 --> 00:12:03.679 being one of those soldiers? You look at the 00:12:03.679 --> 00:12:05.919 math, you look down that hill, and you know. 00:12:06.200 --> 00:12:09.659 You just know you are not coming back. The historical 00:12:09.659 --> 00:12:12.279 record says they didn't hesitate for a second. 00:12:12.679 --> 00:12:16.000 Those 262 men fixed their bayonets and charged 00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:19.120 down that hill. And the absolutely insane thing 00:12:19.120 --> 00:12:22.600 is, it worked. How was that even possible? It 00:12:22.600 --> 00:12:26.019 was pure shock. Psychological shock. The Alabamians 00:12:26.019 --> 00:12:28.639 see this tiny but ferocious charge coming right 00:12:28.639 --> 00:12:30.340 at them and they must have thought, nobody would 00:12:30.340 --> 00:12:32.700 be this crazy. This has to be the spearhead of 00:12:32.700 --> 00:12:35.899 a huge counterattack. So they paused. They halted. 00:12:35.980 --> 00:12:38.460 They stopped their advance to form a proper battle 00:12:38.460 --> 00:12:41.080 line to receive the charge. And that moment of 00:12:41.080 --> 00:12:43.740 hesitation, that was all Hancock needed. He got 00:12:43.740 --> 00:12:46.419 his 15 minutes. But the cost of those 15 minutes? 00:12:46.519 --> 00:12:49.340 The cost was just, it's unimaginable. In that 00:12:49.340 --> 00:12:52.720 short charge, 215 of the 262 men were either 00:12:52.720 --> 00:12:56.399 killed or wounded. 215. Out of 262. It's an 82 00:12:56.399 --> 00:12:59.240 % casualty rate. To this day, it is the largest 00:12:59.240 --> 00:13:01.879 proportional loss suffered by any surviving US 00:13:01.879 --> 00:13:04.940 military unit in a single battle. They were effectively 00:13:04.940 --> 00:13:07.360 wiped out in 10 minutes. And yet the source says 00:13:07.360 --> 00:13:09.379 they were back in the line the next day. The 00:13:09.379 --> 00:13:12.100 47 survivors were. They were back on the line 00:13:12.100 --> 00:13:14.740 for Pickett's Charge on July 3. General Hancock 00:13:14.740 --> 00:13:18.200 later said, no soldiers on any field ever displayed 00:13:18.200 --> 00:13:20.860 grander heroism. That just gives you chills. 00:13:21.019 --> 00:13:22.879 So let's connect these two dots. We have this 00:13:22.879 --> 00:13:26.559 historical legacy of just extreme resilience, 00:13:27.399 --> 00:13:30.639 of holding the line at a massive physical cost. 00:13:31.000 --> 00:13:33.740 And in 2026, we see Minneapolis facing a very 00:13:33.740 --> 00:13:35.539 different kind of siege. It's political. It's 00:13:35.539 --> 00:13:37.759 about the media, about civil rights. But that 00:13:37.759 --> 00:13:40.139 idea of holding the line seems to be baked into 00:13:40.139 --> 00:13:42.440 the state's identity. And based on the political 00:13:42.440 --> 00:13:44.159 analysis, it seems like that line is holding 00:13:44.159 --> 00:13:46.360 again. The administration is actually retreating. 00:13:46.419 --> 00:13:48.919 They're blinking, yeah. The reporting says Trump 00:13:48.919 --> 00:13:51.620 himself is now calling Governor Walz and Mayor 00:13:51.620 --> 00:13:54.919 Frey suddenly calling Alex Preti's death a tragedy. 00:13:55.399 --> 00:13:57.679 He's pulling Bovino out, replacing him with Tom 00:13:57.679 --> 00:14:00.460 Homan, which the source pretty clearly sees as 00:14:00.460 --> 00:14:03.080 damage control. It is a tactical retreat. The 00:14:03.080 --> 00:14:05.720 source uses the phrase death of Trumpism by a 00:14:05.720 --> 00:14:08.360 thousand cuts. And the argument is that this 00:14:08.360 --> 00:14:12.240 whole war on Minnesota backfired so badly that 00:14:12.240 --> 00:14:15.700 the administration's numbers are now deeply underwater. 00:14:15.940 --> 00:14:18.429 It seems like they've pushed and Minnesota pushed 00:14:18.429 --> 00:14:20.830 back hard and the administration is the one that 00:14:20.830 --> 00:14:23.990 buckled. It's a fascinating parallel. In 1863, 00:14:24.350 --> 00:14:27.019 it's a bayonet charge. that stops an army because 00:14:27.019 --> 00:14:30.320 of the shock of the resistance. In 2026, it's 00:14:30.320 --> 00:14:33.080 video evidence, it's public outcry, and it's 00:14:33.080 --> 00:14:35.259 political calculation. And it's still individual 00:14:35.259 --> 00:14:37.340 acts of courage. I mean, Chris Maydell dropping 00:14:37.340 --> 00:14:39.360 out of that race, that was his version of charging 00:14:39.360 --> 00:14:41.799 down the hill. He sacrificed his own political 00:14:41.799 --> 00:14:44.220 career to try and stop something he saw as a 00:14:44.220 --> 00:14:46.340 disaster for his state. So we've covered the 00:14:46.340 --> 00:14:48.480 Sam Brown belt, which I will never see the same 00:14:48.480 --> 00:14:50.960 way again, the shifting political alliances of 00:14:50.960 --> 00:14:54.559 2026 and that unbelievable 82 percent casualty 00:14:54.559 --> 00:14:56.850 rate of First Minnesota. We have and it really 00:14:56.850 --> 00:14:59.029 does make you think about what sacrifice means 00:14:59.029 --> 00:15:00.929 in different eras. That's actually the thought 00:15:00.929 --> 00:15:03.350 I want to leave you with today. The source noted 00:15:03.350 --> 00:15:05.950 that Gregory Bovino wanted to retire to an apple 00:15:05.950 --> 00:15:08.470 orchard and instead he got sent away in disgrace. 00:15:08.549 --> 00:15:11.590 Okay. But just consider this contrast. In 1863 00:15:11.590 --> 00:15:14.730 holding the line required this supreme bloody 00:15:14.730 --> 00:15:19.029 physical sacrifice. 262 men literally throwing 00:15:19.029 --> 00:15:21.690 their bodies into the fire to buy 50 minutes 00:15:21.690 --> 00:15:24.700 of time. But in 2026, that line is held in a 00:15:24.700 --> 00:15:26.799 different way. It's held with information. It's 00:15:26.799 --> 00:15:29.139 held by people leaking a video, by politicians 00:15:29.139 --> 00:15:32.360 breaking ranks, by citizens just refusing to 00:15:32.360 --> 00:15:34.259 accept a story that contradicts what they can 00:15:34.259 --> 00:15:36.480 see with their own eyes. And if the administration 00:15:36.480 --> 00:15:38.360 is retreating from Minneapolis, as our sources 00:15:38.360 --> 00:15:40.899 suggest, it raises this really big question for 00:15:40.899 --> 00:15:43.899 our time. Is public pressure, is solidarity now 00:15:43.899 --> 00:15:46.379 as powerful a force as a ban at charge was in 00:15:46.379 --> 00:15:49.899 1863? It's a powerful thought. And hey, if you 00:15:49.899 --> 00:15:52.320 ever find yourself at Gettysburg, go find the 00:15:52.320 --> 00:15:54.440 monument to the First Minnesota. It's worth standing 00:15:54.440 --> 00:15:56.899 there for a minute. Really puts things in perspective. 00:15:57.480 --> 00:15:59.879 Absolutely. Thanks for diving in with us. Talk 00:15:59.879 --> 00:16:00.340 to you next time.