[00:00:00] Tommy Jackett: [00:00:00] Very low barrier to get into the wrong spot.
Brad Blanks: [00:00:07] With committed
to
Josh Janssen: [00:00:08] do the daily talk show for 10 years, I had guys
Tommy Jackett: [00:00:11] in the calendar just like to check the
Josh Janssen: [00:00:13] temperature in the room. I told you my squeegee
Tommy Jackett: [00:00:16] story.
Brad Blanks: [00:00:19] It's
the
Josh Janssen: [00:00:20] daily talk show episode 941 and
Tommy Jackett: [00:00:24] Al Gronk on the ground in the U S Brad blanks. Welcome back to the show mate.
Brad Blanks: [00:00:29] Oh, Tommy Joel show IFL is happy. New year. It's all happening. Um, great. Great to see your faces.
Tommy Jackett: [00:00:36] Hey, how long do you keep saying happy new year? I mean, I'm still saying it even I'm even acknowledging Christmas.
How long do you roll it on for? Well,
Brad Blanks: [00:00:44] yeah, as I said it, I really want to say perfection for you guys. Did I set up for you? There's you, you made me feel like it's easy right at this moment, you guys say, so there you go. Okay. And so you were [00:01:00] out in
Josh Janssen: [00:01:00] Washington, you're in Washington day, say a different type of celebration tomorrow.
Uh, is the inauguration, is that, is
Brad Blanks: [00:01:07] that correct? That's right. Yeah. And, and always one of the great potties, uh, in America. And this will be my will third inauguration. If you can call it. That this one, that's a bit different, of course. But my first one was as a backpacker in, uh, 1997 for bill Clinton's second term.
And, uh, I ended up in the bar that was featured in the hit eighties movie St. Elmo's fire, a bar in Georgetown and I, I was doing shots of Dallas Cowboys. So I thought, hell goods, America. Well, what a country? That's just a big potty, obviously for bill, bill Clinton. One of the great horn dogs of modern times.
And, uh, and then, um, my second, uh, inauguration was, uh, our Obama's and that was inspiring and a party in itself, but that was more of a potty. I was partying with like 80 year old women that are [00:02:00] busting from Alabama. That was so over the moon that they saw a African American president get. Get sworn in, and that, that was a different type of party, but they brought bourbon.
So all in all very good parties in the inauguration. And, uh, of course this one, uh, I've uh, w what's happened in the last three weeks. Uh, this is on deep, deep lockdown, the city, and, uh, very, very silent on the streets of, uh, Washington DC.
Tommy Jackett: [00:02:27] Hmm. I mean, it's you think about Australian politics and bringing in someone like Mo and no sense of a party, maybe a celebration from people that are into politics, politics, but the U S are a different breed in respects to the people running the country and the powers that be, what is the vibe really on the ground right now, compared to the Obama one?
Like, what is the sense you're getting in Washington?
Brad Blanks: [00:02:55] Uh, in terms of just on from the street, it is totally [00:03:00] dead. This is, uh, like an army base, uh, uh, to people that have beat that of, uh, reporters that I've ran into, um, real life reporters, not like me, um, that have worked in, um, Baghdad and Afghanistan. They say the city set up like that in terms of the zones to get.
Through section by section to get through areas of the city. Uh, and every corner is manned with, uh, soldiers, national guard, uh, with, uh, machine guns and, you know, you know, army, uh, transport, uh, which is a bit daunting. Uh, no sudden moves from me as I walked through that. I always kept my hands. I went up to a police, uh, went through one checkout and I thought I could get through.
And they all sternly told me to go the other direction. Um, but the first thing they do is check my, check my hands. And I was like, Oh, geez, I don't want to get shot for holding a big clunky I phone. Um, so yeah, you, you, you tread very lightly as you walk through, but yeah. The vibe, very quiet. I don't want to say solemn because it's [00:04:00] still, you know, bringing in a, a president, but it just, uh, just quiet, very calm and, um, yeah, not much movement on the streets and no, not many members of the public.
What
Josh Janssen: [00:04:11] did it feel like? Um, the domestic flight. So you flew in at around six hours ago, is that sort of business as usual or with COVID and everything are things very different.
Brad Blanks: [00:04:22] Uh, no, I got, I drove the family minivan drive minivan down. Jay was crying. That was about six and a half hours from New York city.
So came in, um, I actually, I broke it up. I stayed at night in Philadelphia, which was nice and, um, quite interesting. I woke up there overlooking. Yeah. In my hotel with her, I could see a glimpse of light where the, uh, you know, where the declaration of independence was signed and the Liberty, Liberty bell.
And I went, wow. Yeah. What would these guys think of? You know, um, you know, 200 odd years on as we dry it, you know, coming to DC, which is on fully sort of military lockdown, but, but, um, [00:05:00] but yeah. Yeah, I haven't flown yet Josh, but when I do, I'm going to be. Ring you guys, and I'll give you a full account with Americans.
We want to, we want to have
Tommy Jackett: [00:05:08] log from, you made at least for the channel. What's the sense of the Corona virus mixed upon all of this, because I mean, there's two huge things going on in the U S yeah,
Brad Blanks: [00:05:19] I don't know. It's it's yeah. It's it's. Out of control it's it's, it's sitting blunt and blatantly on top of all this.
So you, you, you, you're out there looking, trying to get through these checkpoints and you're still very socially distant. Um, we're all masked up, which is great. And, uh, and that's obviously why a lot of people haven't turned up, um, even to try and have a look at the barricades, like. Like I'm doing, but the, yeah, it was, it was banned to be a virtual, uh, inauguration.
Anyway, uh, before the events of January six with maybe people socially distant throughout the, uh, throughout the [00:06:00] national mall, you know, where the great big, uh, water areas between the Capitol and, uh, the, the Washington monument, um, leading up to the Lincoln Memorial that it would have been public. In there, but, um, the January six events pretty much ruled that out.
Mm. So
Josh Janssen: [00:06:15] where, where presidents sworn in, is it on the step somewhere? I'm
Brad Blanks: [00:06:19] like, can you give us a second on the steps of yeah. On the steps of the Capitol building and they overlooked that, you know, that huge grass area that runs then to the, uh, The water, where of course, as we saw in Forrest Gump, when Jenny ran into the water, you know, screaming for forest as he was up the other end, which is where the LinkedIn Memorial was.
Um, it's a beautiful, I know you've guys have been there. I think
Tommy Jackett: [00:06:45] they use it in a bunch of movies, Messiah that TV show, there's like a shot of him walking across the water, like. Jesus in front it's yeah. It's so iconic. I mean, do you w when there is none of that shit going on is in the [00:07:00] barricades, how close can you get to,
Brad Blanks: [00:07:04] to it?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can. Um, well, in terms of the big day, I mean, let's say, uh, Yeah, probably a couple of hundred yards or meters back. Um, and in terms of Obama, you couldn't get because of the crowds you couldn't get up. So when, when I Bama was there, I was probably 700 meters back and you could hardly seen, but they had screens all the way up to be a part of th that inauguration.
Um, but it's, it's, uh, it's a wonderful event. And if you like history, uh, albeit American history, It's um, quite the pageantry of it's quite quite impressive. Um, yeah. And then, uh, the one for four years ago was more yeah, fascinating. And the fact that it was Trump getting inaugurated and, um, that, yeah, I loved watching when Trump went to the white house and.
Um, Obama and Michelle Obama [00:08:00] were waiting there to accept them in and have them in for a cup of tea before the big event. And, uh, things like that, things that won't be happening, um, for Trump, you know, and, uh, Biden. Yeah. And so what does the
Josh Janssen: [00:08:13] schedule look like for you for the day? How do you break it up?
Brad Blanks: [00:08:16] What are your plans? No, I'll do some radio in the morning and, and then I'll like, I, I it's, it's a really funny thing. I'm going to go over to there's a cafe, a Catholic church is where Joe Biden will, uh, He'll do his prayers in the morning and I'll go and try to see how close I can get to that. Uh, I don't know if it's actually in the zone or an outside from my Google mapping, it's just outside a zone.
But, um, as we know, it will be pretty well, uh, secure, but I'll try to see if I can get a glimpse there. Yeah. What of the Zion's main?
Josh Janssen: [00:08:47] So is it sort of separate, like separating the public from the events or like, and how do you get it? Yeah. Between
Brad Blanks: [00:08:54] the zones. Yeah, not yet. So that they're not completely locking them down [00:09:00] as of now, because you, people are living within zones and people have to work within the zone.
So, um, they're, they're in there, but I'm, I'm seeing the egg going through them going. Yeah. All right. This is all, I think every time we'll just be on full lockdown, um, from beginning to end tomorrow, uh, of the day. Yeah. So there's the scary thing is you look at all this and it's crazy. It's so much security and you're sitting there in your head going all right.
Do they have Intel? That they know something or is it just, you know, are they just over-correcting from, you know, three weeks ago that it was one of the biggest screw ups in American history, what happened at the Capitol building? So they just
Tommy Jackett: [00:09:42] has to be optics. Like if, if something happens, it's like you get it wrong once, get it wrong twice.
That'd be the fault. Yeah.
Brad Blanks: [00:09:51] Yeah.
Tommy Jackett: [00:09:52] I mean, Brad blanks, usually on red carpets also now on the ground in what is [00:10:00] the biggest moment in American politics? History? What is, um, what's your feelings like? Is it, you know, as someone that does light stuff, but also covering the hardest stuff? What is your vibe?
Brad Blanks: [00:10:10] What's your feelings?
No, no, I, I do have to start and try to find the lightness in the hottest stuff. Um, No, he I'm actually analyzing all going. There's no traction. And I love looking at other reporters. I'm just glad I don't have to be a real life reporter because I'm watching these people, these international journalists and they're standing there reporting nothing.
There's nothing. Yeah. It's like, yeah, it's really nothing going on. And, um, and, and. And then you, you obviously watch a lot of cable television, you know, CNN and Fox news and MSNBC. I'm going through them all. And they're all repeating the same story. Even they're struggling because tomorrow is the big day.
Tomorrow is where you can, you know, they'll break down his speech. And, um, but all these people that are standing there now outside barricades, you know, if the white house is little [00:11:00] glimpse in the back of the Washington monument, I'm, I feel sorry for them, but in some ways I'm like, Holy smoke up. I've got nothing to talk about as well.
Cause we all want something to chit chat. I tried talking to people, but people don't really want to talk. Cause you got a mask on, you know, like everyone's sort of a little bit afraid of each other and you can't really chat with the cops. You can't crack a joke and, and I can see them looking at me. I look like a big beefy guy.
I look like a guy that stormed the white house three weeks ago, so, yup. Big beefy white guy, you know, like a where's my where's my Viking hats.
Tommy Jackett: [00:11:35] What's your, what do you, where have you thought about like, cause you can obviously go dressed up in a costume. You'll
Brad Blanks: [00:11:41] definitely get spear tack on, but I'm trying to look.
I put on a rip curl. I thought rip kill sweater. Try to bring out the eaters. Yeah, but I bought some that looked like
[00:12:00] I'm a cross between a cross between like a redneck and cop
Tommy Jackett: [00:12:09] CCTVs, him rocking up in a minivan record.
Brad Blanks: [00:12:13] Definitely up to no good on the list. And so when you say you just great weapons, when you, when you see the,
Josh Janssen: [00:12:20] um, headlines, it's pretty dark, you know, the FBI ma you know, doing warnings, and then you hear talks of full blown, civil Wars.
Like, do you
Brad Blanks: [00:12:31] get a sense that there's there's truth to that? Or
Josh Janssen: [00:12:34] we're going to say anything close to what's being sort of communicated.
Brad Blanks: [00:12:39] Yeah, no, it's a great question. Cause I sit there and yeah. Is it, the Intel is FBI got all these tips there that we don't know something, but then the other side of me is it, you know, it'll go through, it'll be a peaceful transition tomorrow and Biden will wake up Thursday morning.
There'll be no incident and he'll be president and the country rolls back, [00:13:00] you know? Um, I get so many, you know, all my friends in Australia will. Text me and email me and go, how do you live in that country? It's crazy. What's going on there? And it's hard to explain, but 95% of the people just get on with life.
Like they're just everyone's yeah. The traffic's packed. The roads are packed. People are working it, you know, My heart goes out to the people, small businesses that are crushed and from the coronavirus, that's, that's more important to me, obviously what happened three weeks ago was, you know, chilling and crazy that that could have happened, that people thought they could stop, uh, you know, a transition of power, but, but, but most people in America just wake up, get the kids to school and just get cracking.
And, and that's how I feel if, if there's no incident, you know, during the inauguration or on the day that. It is country. We'll roll back.
Tommy Jackett: [00:13:52] Yeah. I mean, I was listening to a guy talk about the coronavirus and he referenced the situation in Melbourne and the [00:14:00] severity of the lockdowns, which it was, it was, it was pretty, pretty full on.
But then he started talking about how drones were patrolling, which is like, I live here. I haven't even heard of that. No, that's not what's going on. Is there anything? Yeah. Um, we wouldn't know over here based on the media and what they're sharing about. The States and the situation, like when you're driving, you're getting that sort of, it's like you're driving up the chef, you're getting the, you know, experience of stopping in at a local area, local town.
Yeah. Any sort of insights on the ground.
Brad Blanks: [00:14:32] Yeah. Well, it's great. Great. That question because I I'll be in like, you know, I've lived in a bubble for, you know, 10 months locked down in essentially suburbia, New York and, and been back into the city like 10 times. A couple of nights at each time back into New York city, but it's so good to get out and even, yeah, the drive from, from up, you know, New York state down over the, over late night, last night and this morning and [00:15:00] pulling into gas stations.
Is that again? There's these places are filled there's people in there happy all masked up, just getting on with life. So, yeah, there's a real. Enjoyment from seeing people live their daily life. Although we all know we've been in this together, you know, locked down. And the only indication, you know, when you w when I was driving that there was something was from the fact that everyone was wearing masks, you know, when you go into the gas station, um, or, you know, buy some food.
Um, but the different perspective was good that, that everything is ready to go. Like, there's this pent up, um, you know, Uh, want to, to be with other people again. So that's, that's how I, um, I'm taking it and that's know, as I said, if it gets through the inauguration fine. And, uh, we can get the vaccines going it's yeah.
Yeah. We're going to be naked dancing in the streets by August. Tell us what get over here. It's got to be a circus simultaneously.
Josh Janssen: [00:15:55] Donald Trump is organizing his own. A farewell [00:16:00] party. Do you know any person that's going, like, are there any sort of, uh, celebrities that have actually communicated and said, yeah, I'm going to be going to the
Brad Blanks: [00:16:08] potty?
No, I, I don't, I don't have the list, but I did. I laughed when I saw Anthony Scaramucci got an invite. The moot. If you remember, he was like, So 10 days, he was his communications manager and, um, Trump fired him or they left, uh, split up after 10 days. And then the MOOC became one of Trump's most vocal, um, haters out there.
And, uh, and he ex he got an invite, which makes me laugh. Like it's like a clerical invite the accidentally by. Yeah. Um, that, that, that someone invites the person you really didn't want that school friend gets an invite to the wedding that you didn't really want them. Yeah. So people broadcasting,
Josh Janssen: [00:16:46] uh, Trump's thing, like is it going to be,
Brad Blanks: [00:16:49] that will be on mainstream media.
Yeah, that will be, um, that will be broadcast. Yeah, that'll be in the morning. Um, obviously it's never happened, I think in 150 years [00:17:00] where a sitting president hasn't been there for the inauguration. So it is a historic moment in its own way or be it, you know, uh, not sportsman like, um, that Trump will, will be, um, yeah, he'll be.
Uh, at Andrews air force base, uh, it'll be like 7:45 AM.
Josh Janssen: [00:17:18] And what state is that? Washington
Brad Blanks: [00:17:20] DC or where is that in Washington? Yep. And it's about 15 minutes. Um, along the highway, I passed it on the way into town today. Um, and he'll get a chopper from the white house. Um, and that's always pretty cool to see the president leave the white house in the Chapo, you know, when they give the final wave goodbye and he'll be in that land at Andrews and yeah.
And then he had his main pitch does have red capita extravaganza, which I tried to get figured out to try to repeat some context to get over there. I had one guy from CVS is like, ah, Brad, Um, I don't think, I think it will be very tough to get in like, you know, a manager at CBS. And I was like, Oh, [00:18:00] I don't think this one's too hard to get into.
I think, yeah. I think they're doing five invites at a time. Yeah, that's right. They're doing plus fives, like
unbelievable. But I think that'd be fun. I think I can just turn up there and Uber just. Yeah, my old Victorian driver's license. They'll think that's a press credential at all. Uh, yeah. Um, just go straight in. Um, but, but yeah, so he gets, he has a big fan fan. He's got records, he's got a full army band and, and, and look at the, at the end of the day for as you know, um, how can you say it?
Some for what's gone wrong in the last three weeks with the end of his presidency, there's still 48% that voted for him. So there's still, and if that approval ratings I say has dropped, let's say there's still 45, 40% of the nation that will still want to see there. The man Donald Trump, you know, fly off into the sunset.
[00:19:00] So, um, that will be televised and there'll be some pomp and ceremony, but he hasn't been heard from, for the last a week. You know, there's been no Trump sightings and, um, and the mainstream media have been waiting for his. Yo, uh, pardons that, that they say you'll pardon 100 people. And that'll come out, you know, overnight tonight.
Um, which, which is everyone's sort of hanging on the last bit of correspondence they're going to get from, uh, this president.
Tommy Jackett: [00:19:28] Joe exotic number one is I'm being pardon? No, I said, do you see all those fake fake news reports that Joe exotic to me? Yeah.
Brad Blanks: [00:19:36] Pardon? Is it a weird hair? We've got to go to a stage where we're rooting for Joe exotic.
We want him to get that part and that way I just want him on Tik TOK, you know? That's brilliant. We want Joe doing Tik TOK videos. That'd be fantastic. Wouldn't it? Yeah. Cut the animals
Tommy Jackett: [00:19:56] out. Hey, um, as a parent bringing up [00:20:00] kids in the United States of America, what's that like? What's your feelings.
Brad Blanks: [00:20:06] Yeah, no, look, it's.
El kids have been in tune with Trump. You know, my kids are 11, eight and six, and they've, you know, being in New York city and, you know, middle of New York, they, you know, Trump's from New York. They, they saw him in home alone too. Um, yeah. Uh
Yeah. Yeah, but Ben Stiller just said this morning, or yesterday that he's going to keep Trump in zoo Lander. So I think that's a big for the history and not editing films, which is good. Um, but, but my kids know, my kids are fine. I think they have a good understanding of what's going on and what's happening in a, uh, in a good tone.
I, it doesn't it, they didn't get. Sort of hurt or they didn't see it as they just saw. [00:21:00] I think there may be, maybe they're just immune to the craziness of the presidency over the last four years. Um, and, and then, and the Capitol, you know, thing was just the cherry on the cake, but it was another day in the office of dad having, you know, CNN on tape.
Oh, Trump, what's Trump doing? Oh, right. Yeah. He created an insurrection into the capital. Oh, cool. Back to their coloring in him. Yeah, I'm playing with stuff. And maybe if it's a good, good
Tommy Jackett: [00:21:28] point, I wonder, make them more interested in politics as they get older. Like I remember John Howard as a kid. All I remember him for is his eyebrows, his bad bowling, and also the gun recall, um, the gun amnesty, you know, taking, taking my uncle's shot.
God, that was fucking annoying. But other than that, I don't really remember anything, any other. But when you're six or seven, you can, I remember shit. Josh remembers shit from too. Yeah. You wouldn't know that politics, these kids are probably, you [00:22:00] know, proficient in
Brad Blanks: [00:22:01] politics. Yeah. That's a really good point because things will be burned into their mind.
Like they could, now that I think about it, I could probably name. Yeah. Even my six year old could probably name three crazy things that happened in the Trump presidency. And, and that's, you know, um, which brings you to the whole thing that these TV networks and media kind of will Ms. Trump in that they'd never say because he brought eyeballs.
He brought like, and I enjoyed Joe Biden speeches, but I'm not always going to stop. And. Check myself for five minutes, maybe walking through somewhere and just watch a Biden speech. Whereas, and it's not full seasons landscaping as well. I was looking for that on the why he knocked up. I should've said this live from the four seasons.
Josh Janssen: [00:22:54] So where are you now? So you were talking before we started your currently in a hotel room. Uh, [00:23:00] you've got your phone. Are you going to see how close you can get to the white house? Or where do you think you can
Brad Blanks: [00:23:06] go? Yes. That's what I did. I'll get out of there and I'll call you as coach. I'll call you from a barricade and say, yeah, it'll be interesting if I get there and the barricades are actually shutting up and the soldiers really have their weapons out and stop riff-raff from getting through.
But I'll attempt to do that for you guys. Okay, so you're on your ground.
Tommy Jackett: [00:23:24] I mean, do you want to, you can even give us a little tour around the hotel room and out the lobby and down there now,
Josh Janssen: [00:23:29] if you want, if you can
Brad Blanks: [00:23:30] follow you great. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, it could be a while, but we'll um, let's um, let's say it's a 10 minute walk, if that's all right.
Say my overweight, big guy, puffing and panting.
That's the last joke before you go out. All right, I'll get cracking now. How do I do this? This is exciting life. Yeah. So
Josh Janssen: [00:23:59] Brad is, is [00:24:00] now getting on to his, uh, to his phone. Classic, um, hotel
Brad Blanks: [00:24:06] bed. I actually got to go to the bathroom
Josh Janssen: [00:24:09] once or toes.
We'll edit this anyway. We can shop around. Okay, here we go. Where
Brad Blanks: [00:24:16] are you? Um, I actually don't know what straight on, but let's, uh, I'm, I'm in right in the downtown business district of Washington, DC, as you can see, we, uh, 7:34 PM. And the streets are empty
approaching one, checkpoint,
Tommy Jackett: [00:24:45] nothing like hearing American sirens, you know, really feel like you're in a movie.
Brad Blanks: [00:24:50] Yeah. There's a bit of, yeah, so a bit of songs, but yeah, nothing. Um, so other than the sirens, you just had complete silence. [00:25:00] Yeah. And so
Josh Janssen: [00:25:01] a checkpoint, what do you have to do? Do you have to provide some form of ID or what sort of questions do they ask?
Brad Blanks: [00:25:07] Yeah, they haven't, I've been going through them tonight and there's no questions. They just really look you up and down and make sure you're not, uh, not, not about the storm, the Capitol building or. It was, it was a police
Josh Janssen: [00:25:19] or is it military? And so, and what's the difference between
Brad Blanks: [00:25:24] all the three, three, three of them, the soldiers, military national guard called up.
So there's 25,000 of them, uh, secret service as well. And they're pretty cool there. Yeah. It's good to see secret service. They're pretty focused individuals and not, not much chit chat, just yes or no questions. And, um, here we go. Fireman going past. But I'll lead. See over here. He's just a checkpoint.
That's not, yeah, not too crazy. Well, it's all just pushing each other around now. And so what is the national
Josh Janssen: [00:25:56] guard? Is that like the reserves? Like what, what, what's the equivalent in [00:26:00] Australia?
Brad Blanks: [00:26:01] Yeah. Like the reserves. Yes. Yes. And they get called up quickly. I can turn it on. Quickly within hours, I get called up very quickly.
Um, and then the local police, which you have,
Tommy Jackett: [00:26:13] is that a military truck that I can see?
Brad Blanks: [00:26:17] Yeah, that's a, that's a military Jeep right there. Yeah. Which is pretty cool. Yeah. That's a little boy in you there. Tommy
Tommy Jackett: [00:26:26] guns.
Brad Blanks: [00:26:28] Yes. Yes, yes. And so
what's
Josh Janssen: [00:26:31] the deal with, um, Washington
Brad Blanks: [00:26:34] DC? Are you
Josh Janssen: [00:26:34] allowed to have guns? You like to carry them?
Like what's the deal from a civilian?
Brad Blanks: [00:26:42] No, not on this, because I'm only getting that information from. Uh, a guy was found accidentally in a checkpoint area with a weapon in his vehicle after his vehicle. And he got laid off and he wasn't there wasn't an issue, but no, from, I [00:27:00] dunno outside, I'm pretty sure you have guns if you have a license for it outside the checkpoint, but no weapons in this area that I'm now in this sort of.
Green zone that they've been calling it. So, um, it looks like a bigger check point and I'll see if I can get through here. I think I can this one, any,
Josh Janssen: [00:27:21] any, any vehicles allowed through or was it just
Brad Blanks: [00:27:23] pedestrians? Um, no, there are vehicles in this one. So this is just looks like a pedestrian checkpoint. Um, but the vehicles are getting in.
Jeez, look at, Oh, he comes up. This is pretty cool. Actually, I might. This looks awesome. We've got a troop of soldiers coming through, walking, walking, walking, walking.
Tommy Jackett: [00:27:50] Do you feel scared or
Brad Blanks: [00:27:51] you feel that? No, I just meant, I might just tell me to piss off, I reckon. Yeah,
[00:28:00] Josh Janssen: [00:28:01] you've got your fucking hoodie. Just to show them your rip tone. You'll be fine.
Brad Blanks: [00:28:08] Oh, wow. Back to Australia.
Thanks fellas.
That was worth it.
Josh Janssen: [00:28:35] And so where are you? Can you explain like how close you are to the Capitol building versus the white house and how far are they apart? Anyway.
Brad Blanks: [00:28:45] So now I'm on, I'm running parallel, parallel to the whole, the strip, the national mall. They call it not like Jensen shopping mall. It's a long path that [00:29:00] runs from the Lincoln Memorial.
All the way to the Capitol building and I'm just parallel to that. So that's, that's probably 800 meters to my left and I'm going to walk in and make that distance a little shorter. And, um, so going through a checkpoint here, I'll just give you sort of my perspective. Um, so this is interesting now there's no one here.
And I think today in that white vehicle with secret service, um,
Josh Janssen: [00:29:30] What sort of people are staying at your hotel? Have you seen
Brad Blanks: [00:29:32] anyone? Yeah. All reporters, no fans. Hey buddy.
Tommy Jackett: [00:29:39] Wow. It looks like you've just entered a music festival, like through, underneath a, um, like a marquee with barriers. Someone's just check your bum bags to see if you had any keys on you.
Your inmate you're in.
Brad Blanks: [00:29:52] Yeah. I mean, that's all I got. So very good.
Tommy Jackett: [00:29:56] And so bred these buildings around you or people living in those, are they [00:30:00] apartments or businesses?
Brad Blanks: [00:30:01] These are, these are these now. I think we're in the government area. So these are all government buildings, federal, federal buildings. Most of them would be, you know, um, And then you always can tell it, the corporate ones are probably a bit newer like that there, but all right.
Um, now
Tommy Jackett: [00:30:20] I was just thinking me, asking you, if you feel unsafe, it's probably one of the safer places to be.
Brad Blanks: [00:30:26] Yes. Very safe. Exactly. Um, all right. So again, I don't think I nailed it when I said so you might be able to see the tip of the Washington monument through there. Yeah. And that's the middle, the middle of the mall.
And know in that, in that direction is the Capitol building and this direction is, um, uh, the white house. So we're getting closer to where we can get at least a glimpse [00:31:00] of the white house.
Josh Janssen: [00:31:02] And so what time will you start in the morning, then? What time will you be up and about.
Brad Blanks: [00:31:08] Yeah, I'll do my first radio bit at about six, 15:00 AM in the morning and come mid morning.
Like I'd love to get out of the way Biden has got to church and have a look, but look, most of my day will be back to the hotel room, watching it on watching the actual inauguration speech. I'll be back on again and see if there's any movement on the streets, but it's been good. It's it's it, it's, it's sort of a different feeling than previous.
I know durations, and I'm getting closer to a checkpoint here and I'll give you a look as one approach.
Tommy Jackett: [00:31:54] Is there any sports bars or bars in the area that are actually open?
Brad Blanks: [00:31:59] Yes, there is [00:32:00] I'm to, I'm going to hit there after this, but now as I'm doing the dry January, so it's a real killer.
All right. So here we are. This is, so this is, um, this actual is called the black lives matter protests. Yeah. So this has
Josh Janssen: [00:32:23] that yellow paint on the, on the floor, on the, on the road. Yep.
Tommy Jackett: [00:32:27] All right. Is that saying something or is that just, yeah,
Brad Blanks: [00:32:29] so it says BLM. Yep. Yep. It is. It's actually spelled out and it goes for the whole whole street.
Yep. Yep. Wow. So here we are. Um, yes. So here we go. So that's the white house you can see in the back there with the Washington monument next to it.
Josh Janssen: [00:32:54] And so with the, um, with everything that happened at the Capitol, do you find that, uh, friends of [00:33:00] yours that are Trump supporters,
Brad Blanks: [00:33:02] uh, how do they reconcile it?
Josh Janssen: [00:33:04] Do they separate the president from what happened or do some people think it's gone too far and they. Yeah. W what's your
Brad Blanks: [00:33:11] sense? Yeah. Like a few of them have gone down the rabbit hole of the QA QA now.
Yeah. So it's a hard one, right? Yeah. Yeah, we all love a good conspiracy theory. Yeah. I love, I would have read a hundred JFK conspiracy books as a young fellow. As you get a bit older, you sort of realize that, uh, conspiracies that really were, you know,
Tommy Jackett: [00:33:45] it's all a bit silly, a little bit silly
Brad Blanks: [00:33:51] intellectual. You can quote me on that. Totally. A bit silly,
[00:34:00] but I've had a few mates that are down that rabbit hole and that you can't even, you can't even. Discuss it with them.
Tommy Jackett: [00:34:10] Um, I think, you know, you know, you've got a friend who's deep in it. If they reference Q Anon as cute
Josh Janssen: [00:34:17] really nickname,
Brad Blanks: [00:34:20] but she's going to do it. Yeah. Um, the, the member of the church when Trump went out was the Bible.
So that's, um, right here, which is, um, which has memory stood out. Yeah. It's
Josh Janssen: [00:34:32] so quiet right now. So what are you saying? So there's a few people with some cameras. Are there. Um, what other sort of types come out
Brad Blanks: [00:34:40] at this point? I love how you politically correctly said
is it,
Josh Janssen: [00:34:51] is that people, is it people who, uh, who are celebrating Joe Biden? Is it more political?
Brad Blanks: [00:34:58] Is it protest? [00:35:00] Is it try to save yourself?
Wonderful people? Wonderful. Typed, um, all having a great time celebrating the Joe Biden president, this young lady, this man here has been sitting here all day and he has a mad max out. This is to Australia. Yeah. Come and say hello. Look at this guy. All right, what's your name? My name is smoky. Smoky, smoky SIM smoky, smoky,
look, look at this. Wow. Very cool. Start a jacket. Looks great. Security is missing. No one will touch him. He said
[00:36:00] negative, negative. Yeah. There's a lot of negative energy.
Okay.
Um, but yes, some wonderful people who look like they're camping out.
Yep. So once I once camped out like these guys to get spice girls tickets back in 99, how long,
Tommy Jackett: [00:36:36] how long do they plan on being there for.
Brad Blanks: [00:36:39] How long will you be here for
the actual first day, the day after the inauguration so we can celebrate and make sure they don't cause destruction because yeah, he's a bit worried about destruction and, um, this man is the last line of defense [00:37:00] and the jacket. Can I just say, if I could touch the jacket. Yeah, right. It's a big moment.
Right? I love that guy. Wonderful. Smokey, smokey sin. He's now big in Australia. I love this man. All right. So there we go. We've got that. And, and, and as we see. We, uh, have the church over here. We have one policemen and there's a hotel that's the people are staying in this hotel, which is interesting.
Tommy Jackett: [00:37:41] So you kind of get past that barricade though.
That seems like it's really stopping everyone.
Brad Blanks: [00:37:46] Yeah, that's the last one. Um, I remember today there was a crowd of guys here talking to a couple of, um, police officers. And I walked in to hear what they were talking about. And then I saw three other police officers walk up. I think I [00:38:00] made a sudden move, which is not the right thing to do, but, um, but it's yeah, so it's interesting that there's no, not as busy as you would think.
And this is the closest you can actually get to see. A monument. You got to see the white house and the Washington monument. So it's um, yeah, it's, it is it's bizarre. No one except me, me and reporters.
Tommy Jackett: [00:38:27] You're going to be passionate to go and sit there for that long, like. If you can't actually say anything, it'd be like going to a concert and being outside the arena and hoping that you could hear a
Brad Blanks: [00:38:38] little bit of it.
Yeah.
Josh Janssen: [00:38:40] It sounds like the best view is going to be in your hotel room on the TV
Brad Blanks: [00:38:44] room surface.
Yes, it's unbelievable. But yeah, this is it right from the epicenter of the inauguration. It's quite baffling that this the whole world will [00:39:00] be. What was sort of talking about this and watching this? Um, yeah, and tomorrow it's sort of the center of media and there's nothing really going on here, but
Josh Janssen: [00:39:12] it reminds me of the Commonwealth games, the amount of people
Brad Blanks: [00:39:18] sad. Yeah.
Josh Janssen: [00:39:21] But thanks. Thanks bread for giving some, giving us some insights on it. All.
Brad Blanks: [00:39:26] Yeah, no, that's great guys. Great to see you guys. And, um, yeah. Um, thanks for having me on. Thank
Josh Janssen: [00:39:32] you. And you are going to be on Instagram, doing a bunch of stories and stuff like that throughout the day.
Brad Blanks: [00:39:37] That's right. Yep.
Yep. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Selfies of me trying to get like a Washington monument in the background. Um, but I, I do, I do, I do love the soul interviewers. I love, I love that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's awesome. Anyway guys. Awesome. [00:40:00] Cross. It makes them beyond. Thanks bro. Have a good one. It's a daily talk show. Bye.