0:02

For years, Tasha Adams would get

0:05

into these awful fights with her husband

0:07

about money. their finances were

0:09

in complete shambles even when they had

0:11

a solid income. He would spend

0:13

the money almost immediately

0:16

I

0:16

would have to say, hey, the power is gonna get

0:18

shut off or, you know, the water is gonna

0:20

get shut off where this bill is due. It has

0:22

to be paid tomorrow. Meaning,

0:24

don't spend this money.

0:26

But

0:26

inevitably, her husband's stewart

0:28

would find a way to spend it. A lot of

0:30

times on frivolous stuff, like he'd

0:32

order these expensive custom made

0:34

knives from catalogs. This

0:37

was the nineties.

0:38

And so he would not tell me until he

0:40

would say, hey, there's a knife that's going to be delivered

0:43

you know, first thing in the morning, you

0:45

have to pay the guy four hundred dollars at

0:47

the door.

0:48

Very reluctantly, she'd hand off four

0:50

hundred dollars they desperately needed

0:52

to keep the lights on. Never making a

0:54

fuss. because if she did, he'd berate

0:57

her or guilt trip her. Tell her how she's the one

0:59

who doesn't manage their money

1:00

responsibly. even

1:01

though she didn't have a job or a personal

1:03

bank account because he told her to close it when

1:06

they got married.

1:10

Throughout her marriage, Tasha held onto

1:12

some hope that things would get better financially

1:14

and emotionally. That one day,

1:16

the reality might match her ex expectations.

1:20

She knew her husband had a rough childhood,

1:22

and so she'd often tell herself, he

1:24

deserves my patience. I

1:26

can fix him. I thought, well,

1:29

he just needs years and years of

1:31

all of my love and attention to make

1:33

up for all the years and years he never had from his

1:35

family. And that's all it'll

1:37

take. I mean, how hard can it be to fix

1:40

someone

1:40

like this?

1:42

So she stayed and she stayed.

1:44

They had kids first one,

1:46

then three, eventually six.

1:49

But Stuart didn't change.

1:52

In fact, the only thing that changed is that

1:54

things got steadily worse.

1:58

In

1:58

many ways, Tasha's story is a

1:59

familiar one. In fact, we've told stories on

2:02

this show about financial control within a

2:04

marriage. and how it's usually reflective

2:05

of bigger, deeper issues.

2:08

But this story is

2:10

different. See,

2:11

Tasha was far from the only one

2:14

who believed if

2:14

she supported Stuart, it would pay

2:16

off. My husband was

2:18

Stuart Rhodes, founder of the

2:20

oath keepers. chiefly

2:23

responsible for the January sixth

2:25

insurrection.

2:27

Stewart Rhodes is the founder of

2:29

the alt right militia group. the oath keepers.

2:32

He's been charged for conspiring to incite

2:34

the capital riots that happened on January

2:36

six, twenty twenty. States.

2:40

I've got out of the Ford and the

2:42

fasteners. He'd

2:44

recruited former police and military veterans

2:47

to the oath keepers using far right rhetoric

2:49

about defending the constitution against

2:51

traitors. While their mission at

2:53

first seemed vague, Stuart ultimately

2:55

called on his group to help former president

2:57

Trump overturned the election. He

2:59

needs to know from you that you

3:01

are with him, that he does not do

3:03

it now. Well, he is commander in

3:05

chief We're going to have to do it ourselves

3:08

later in a much more desperate,

3:10

much more bloody war.

3:12

Stewart's trial for conspiracy

3:15

is currently underway. We reached

3:17

out to Stewart's lawyers, but they never got back

3:19

to us. The group has all

3:21

but broken up since the capital riots. but

3:23

there were Splentures long before that,

3:25

in large part because of how Stewart

3:27

spent the oath keepers money. In

3:30

a way, money was at the heart of Stewart's

3:32

rise, and also his fall.

3:35

The

3:35

way he earned it, the way he misused it,

3:37

both

3:37

in his marriage and in the oath keepers.

3:40

And tracing it tells a complicated story.

3:43

one of false hope, control,

3:46

and

3:46

manipulation.

3:49

I'm

3:51

Irene Perez, and you're listening to this

3:53

is uncomfortable. A show from MarketPlace about

3:56

life and how money messes with it.

3:58

It can be hard to put

3:59

your arms around something as massive

4:02

as an insurrection. But

4:03

behind those big headlines, you

4:05

can includes

4:06

in the smaller, more intimate stories.

4:09

In the stories

4:09

of the people who shared an inner

4:11

world with a destructive force, like

4:14

Stuart Rhodes. because

4:15

behind any defining moment, there are a

4:17

lot of tinier moments we never hear about.

4:20

Things that if they've gone any other way,

4:22

that defining moment might have looked

4:24

different, or maybe it would have never happened

4:27

at all. Our producer

4:29

Hannah Harris Green and I have spent

4:31

hours and hours talking with Tasha,

4:33

trying to understand her marriage, which

4:35

in some sense is a sort of decoder,

4:37

a way of understanding how a man like

4:39

Stewart works, how he couldn't say the

4:41

things he did and why people

4:43

followed him. Today on

4:45

the show, the life of Tasha and her

4:47

children, how they became wrapped up in

4:49

Stewart's financial and political teams

4:51

and how the fate of this one family

4:54

became tied to the fate of

4:56

this country.

5:01

Stewart Rhodes was good at

5:03

making people feel like he was their savior.

5:05

The person who'd come to lead them out

5:07

of the ordinary and into the

5:09

exciting. Tasha met Stewart

5:11

when she just finished high school living in Las

5:13

Vegas where she grew up. Eighteen

5:16

year old Tasha was terrified of

5:18

confrontation. She was remarkably

5:20

shy. That is except for when she was

5:22

on the dance floor. It was the one

5:24

place she could express her true desire.

5:26

to be seen, to be that person waving

5:28

and blowing kisses at the audience. And

5:31

it was ballroom dancing where she thrived.

5:33

because what ballroom dancing requires from the

5:36

female partner in particular is the

5:37

ability to follow someone else's lead.

5:40

You have to be able to read

5:42

body language and and feel a slight

5:44

movement because your partner could decide to

5:46

change at any moment. And it's a

5:48

very particular skill set to

5:50

just follow you know, if he

5:52

suddenly decides to turn you or lift you,

5:54

you just have to feel that. And

5:56

so that was something that it

5:59

seemed like I was pretty

5:59

good at.

6:01

Detasha, it always felt like there was someone

6:03

else in her life leading the way.

6:05

She was the baby of the family, the

6:07

youngest of five siblings. Siblings

6:09

who told her stories of their much more difficult

6:11

upbringing. Before Tasha was born,

6:13

her parents were still establishing their business.

6:16

But by the time she came along, it was

6:18

thriving, and the family was just all around

6:20

more stable. And so Tasha

6:22

felt guilty about how comparatively

6:24

easy her life was.

6:25

being the youngest in a large family, spoiled

6:28

and entitled was a huge hot button

6:30

for me. It

6:33

was something I was always afraid of being

6:35

seen as It

6:36

left Tasha forever feeling like she

6:38

didn't deserve what she had, that

6:40

she owed people. And when

6:42

Stewart waltzed onto her dance floor that

6:44

year, seemed to understand this insecurity almost

6:47

immediately. At first,

6:49

he felt like a dream come true. A

6:51

dream she'd never quite dared to dream before.

6:54

like he was inviting her to take the bolder

6:56

more sparkly tasha that she became on the

6:58

dance floor and lived that life

7:00

instead. Everything

7:02

about Stuart felt like a dare.

7:06

Stuart and Tasha

7:07

met at the dance studio where she taught,

7:09

and he began showing up the class early just

7:11

to hang out with her He was clearly into

7:13

her. But since he was a student,

7:16

they weren't technically allowed to date.

7:18

So now we've added a layer of

7:20

fate and magic and

7:22

secrecy. Right. This whole

7:24

thing. All the ingredients you

7:26

need to make something enticing. Yeah.

7:29

All the ingredients for romance and complete

7:31

disaster. Stewart

7:34

had been honorable a discharge from the military

7:36

after an injury and was working as a

7:38

valet driver. He was twenty

7:40

five, seven years older than Tasha. He

7:43

was smart, He was bold. He

7:45

was so different from the dull Mormon boys

7:47

she dated within her church and

7:49

so different from her. Tasha

7:51

lived with her parents at the time. Not

7:53

long after she'd met Stewart. He called her

7:55

family's house phone at ten PM to

7:57

ask her on a date for that night.

7:59

at midnight. It made her

8:02

nervous. Made her excited. He

8:04

took

8:04

her to the Hoover Dam, which was full of other

8:06

couples. and we did kiss

8:09

and

8:09

which is against all my roles so you

8:11

don't kiss on the first day. Yeah. Why

8:14

do you think he kissed?

8:17

I sort of just looked around and thought

8:20

this is me stepping away from that world. And

8:21

there's also a bit of freedom

8:24

with dating someone who I knew was

8:26

not an act a church member.

8:28

Tasha was raised Mormon as a member of the

8:30

Church of latter day saints. So she lived under

8:32

strict rules about almost everything,

8:35

especially about dating. This

8:37

kiss was assertive in a way she'd never

8:39

been. It was almost like an invitation to

8:41

a different world. There

8:43

would be no judgment Nobody

8:45

would know what happens in

8:47

this world. It's not gonna be gossiped

8:49

about -- Right. -- you know, suddenly

8:52

suddenly hit church. How how did he

8:54

feel after that kiss? It

8:56

was, like, this is great. This is

8:58

living. Tasha

8:59

got home at five AM. And

9:01

then a few hours later, Stuart was

9:04

already calling her for a lunch date.

9:06

She

9:06

was smitten. Soon

9:07

after, they started dating.

9:09

He seemed

9:11

to know what he wanted and was willing to

9:13

go for it. He was also a big talker,

9:15

but even that, Tasha loved.

9:17

I was just so shy -- Mhmm. -- and

9:20

so non confrontational. And I I

9:22

really wanted someone to do the talking

9:24

in life for me. Stewart

9:26

was a persuasive guy. And while

9:28

Tasha liked that about him, her feelings

9:30

started to slowly shift. When

9:32

a few months into dating, he tried to

9:34

persuade her to do something that would

9:36

ultimately shift her

9:37

life trajectory.

9:40

When they

9:41

first met, Tasha had a

9:44

plan. Her parents set aside four

9:46

thousand dollars to help her get started in college.

9:48

and she'd earned the rest by teaching ballroom dancing.

9:51

After graduating, she'd become a journalist.

9:53

That was her ticket to Bright

9:55

Future. But then

9:56

months into dating,

9:57

Stewart crashed his car.

9:59

He needed a new one and

10:01

didn't have money for the car he wanted.

10:03

But Tasha did, that

10:06

college

10:06

fund of hers, he went

10:08

after it. Like,

10:09

if I borrowed this

10:10

money from you, the money would be

10:12

back, you know, if you're really

10:14

serious about this relationship, if you really

10:16

do love me

10:17

like you like you say you do, you

10:19

know, you understand that I don't have a car

10:21

and this

10:21

is my one chance at a dream car.

10:24

So then you lent him the money.

10:26

I

10:26

did. She

10:28

figured, okay, he'll pay me back.

10:30

It's fine. But weeks

10:32

went by, the semester was just about to start,

10:35

and she still didn't have her

10:37

money. One day, they were in his

10:39

new car when she told him, I need to

10:40

start school. You know, I can't

10:43

face my mom if I don't start school again.

10:45

And he kind

10:46

of laughed.

10:47

and he looked at me and he says, I'll tell

10:49

you what, I do have a deal for you.

10:51

I have the best deal for you. You're ever

10:53

gonna get any laugh. He

10:55

says, I do. I do. I've got that all handled.

10:58

and

10:58

he looks at me and he puts the car in park

11:00

and he gestures with his hand and

11:02

he says, I'll tell you what.

11:06

This

11:06

half any

11:07

gestures to the passenger side of the car.

11:10

This half of the car

11:12

is all yours. Mhmm.

11:15

and that was my payment for

11:17

for

11:20

I just cried

11:22

And I just and I just

11:24

hid. I faced the the

11:27

passenger side. It just out the window,

11:29

and I just Cried

11:31

like, what am I going to do?

11:33

What am I going to do? How

11:35

am I gonna make this funny back?

11:38

And the next thing that happened

11:40

the was I started getting very

11:42

isolated from my family -- Mhmm.

11:44

-- because I did not want

11:47

to be around them because I didn't

11:49

want them to bring up.

11:50

You know, when are you starting school? What

11:52

is going on?

11:54

Tasha would ask

11:55

him, when or how am I gonna

11:57

finish college? Stuart

11:59

would assure her. Don't worry. I've

12:01

got a plan. But this

12:04

was just the beginning of Stewart's

12:06

plan, a plan that would not only

12:08

derail Tasha's life, but also help

12:10

plant the seeds for something much

12:12

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12:14

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13:46

After

13:46

Stewart used Tasha's college money for

13:48

a new car. He told her, don't

13:50

worry, I've got a plan. He

13:52

said it's simple. Well, it's the long

13:54

route, but it's the right route. First,

13:57

you'll put me through college. Then

13:59

I'll support you through

13:59

college, and

14:00

then we'll have the life of your dreams.

14:03

big house with an open kitchen,

14:05

whatever fancy cars we want,

14:06

a property in the Vegas mountains.

14:08

I'm

14:08

destined for something great,

14:11

Tasha. He told her that all the time.

14:13

And he also had a plan for how

14:15

she'd support him through college. He

14:17

started

14:17

pressuring me. You know what?

14:19

to quit

14:19

my job as a dance instructor

14:21

and start stripping. Oh.

14:24

He

14:25

argued stripping pays better than being a

14:27

dance instructor. Like, just do the math,

14:29

Tasha. Obviously, you should

14:31

strip. But it was

14:32

more than just math

14:33

to her. He'd already pushed her so

14:35

far beyond her Mormon roots. And

14:38

yeah, at first, that felt exciting. But

14:40

more and more, it felt like she was betraying

14:43

religious values that had been instilled in her. values

14:46

about how to behave as a woman.

14:48

You know,

14:48

I don't wanna use the term damaged goods, but

14:50

mentally, that's what I was thinking. you'd

14:52

lost your virginity to him? Yeah.

14:55

Yeah. I did. And

14:57

so the yeah,

15:00

this this has changed the dynamic

15:02

for me. You know, I I wanted this

15:04

perfect life and I felt like

15:07

It was

15:07

too late for that other life.

15:12

Stripping would be just one more step in a

15:14

direction she'd never intended to

15:16

go. but she already felt so far

15:18

gone. She couldn't go back now.

15:21

In any objections she had,

15:23

Stewart would squash them in the most

15:25

tasha specific way. Like, he

15:27

seemed to know exactly how to hook

15:29

her. Stewart had a difficult

15:31

upbringing. He came from a family of

15:33

migrant farm workers and he Tasha that his

15:35

family was poor and they were tough on

15:37

him. He'd sometimes

15:38

use this against her. He

15:40

tell her, I

15:41

didn't have the family you had.

15:44

You know, I didn't have the

15:46

happy board

15:47

game, you know, family home

15:49

evening,

15:50

He's already demonstrated and laid

15:52

out the evidence in front of me that I am

15:55

selfish,

15:55

emotionally immature, spoiled

15:59

and

15:59

entitled. Tasha told

16:02

us that she'd never learned how to respond

16:04

to that kind of pressure. She was just

16:06

nineteen years old, In an effort to

16:08

make him happy, to ease any

16:10

tension, she'd cave almost right

16:12

away to all of his requests. And

16:15

he wouldn't relent. anything

16:17

he'd push harder in these smaller,

16:19

more intimate ways. Like

16:21

almost every night before he drop her off at the

16:23

strip club, he'd take her to eat at

16:25

El Pollo Loco. I would say, no,

16:27

I can't eat. I'm gonna be sick.

16:29

And he would insist on getting me a

16:31

stupid burrito every night and he'd put it in

16:33

my hand and he'd just stare at me and tell me to

16:35

eat it. and little bites of it.

16:37

And every single time, I'd say, pull

16:39

over, and I'd throw up. And

16:41

I I honestly think that maybe he got

16:43

a sense of power that he

16:45

was making me do something that was so

16:47

demeaning to me. The one

16:49

place she could escape was the one

16:52

place that always been an escape. The

16:54

dance floor. As this shipper,

16:56

I would put on performing mode,

16:58

which I was really good at. And

17:01

we had

17:01

Yeah. And then we had that

17:03

that, you know, that energy was

17:05

also addicting. And so I did also

17:07

have that sign

17:08

of me that really craved adventure.

17:11

Mhmm. And so

17:11

that was sort of an outlet.

17:13

It was the

17:14

dichotomy of

17:15

the world Stuart Broderin too.

17:18

It was both not at all her and

17:20

bury her, but like

17:21

an outsized bolder version of her.

17:23

A version of her life in which

17:26

the celebrity

17:26

who filled the Elite Strip club where she worked. They

17:28

shine the spotlight

17:29

on her. Celebrities

17:31

are requesting me to dance and I'm on

17:33

the main stage and I feel like

17:35

a superstar, you just dance on top all night, or symbol

17:37

would just give me a hundred dollar tip or two

17:39

hundred dollar tip. And there was one night I came

17:41

home with seven hundred dollars.

17:45

But then

17:48

once

17:49

the lights dimmed and Tasha was

17:51

off stage again, She'd feel

17:54

consumed by guilt. I thought,

17:55

well, I'm I'm definitely going

17:57

to hell, so I hope there's a deal I can

17:59

make

17:59

with God. This sounds really

18:02

absurd. But

18:02

IIIII hope that there was

18:04

like AAA clause in

18:07

the God contract. Since

18:10

ultimately my goal was to be a

18:12

good

18:12

wife and a good mom, as

18:15

long as

18:15

I didn't die, between

18:18

now and some kind of eventual redemption

18:20

that I would ask for,

18:22

then maybe I would be okay.

18:24

Not long after

18:25

she started stripping, Stewart offered

18:28

Tasha the redemption she thought she

18:30

needed. He proposed and

18:32

soon after they got married. Their

18:34

wedding was at a horse ranch. It was beautiful. The

18:36

kind of wedding she'd fantasized about

18:38

for years. Everything felt

18:40

great. I was so happy we're finally

18:42

married. I've married my honor back.

18:44

You know? So

18:46

I fixed that, but

18:48

then as they drove away towards

18:51

their honeymoon. I suddenly felt sick

18:53

and that I don't know why

18:55

and well, I I guess

18:57

it

18:57

was a nice subconscious, obviously, screaming

19:00

at me. Once they were

19:01

married, Tasha's plans to go back to

19:04

school seemed to disappear even

19:06

further into their rearview mirror.

19:08

She got pregnant and

19:10

stopped working. Stewart did

19:12

finish school. He graduated Suma cum

19:14

laude, and eventually went on to get his

19:16

law degree at Yale. Throughout our

19:18

interview, Tasha noted multiple times that Stewart is

19:21

very intelligent. After

19:23

he was done with school, he started working for

19:25

congressman Ron Paul and

19:27

doing her freelance legal work. Tasha would

19:29

go on to have six kids. We

19:31

talked to her oldest, Dakota.

19:34

We

19:36

bounced around the country

19:38

a

19:39

lot. When I was growing up,

19:41

I'd say we moved to roughly

19:43

every

19:43

year and a half to two and a half

19:46

years. Today,

19:47

Dakota is twenty five. He

19:49

says his family would hop around,

19:51

sometimes living in student housing or with

19:54

grandparents. He remembers long

19:56

periods where the family could barely

19:58

scrape by. There were times

19:59

where we had lived entirely

20:02

off of canned oatmeal

20:06

and dried apple chips

20:09

for months. I will

20:11

never voluntarily eat

20:14

a piece of dried apple ever again as

20:16

long as I live. Because

20:18

even when Stewart was earning decent

20:21

money, his spending was out of

20:23

control. Like he'd buy all those expensive

20:25

weapons and custom made knives we mentioned at the top of

20:26

the epic owed. Tasha

20:29

rarely pushed back and she didn't have a job

20:31

herself.

20:34

And

20:35

the kids knew it wasn't something they

20:37

could complain about. because if they

20:39

did, Stuart would start ranting about how they

20:41

don't really care about their dad as much as they

20:43

care about what he could provide for them. Like

20:46

Dakota remembers one day being in the car with

20:48

his family. When Stuart was saying things

20:51

like it was their fault if he worked himself

20:53

into a heart attack. if

20:54

he dropped dead, we would

20:56

all throw a party and dance on his

20:58

grave, and he's punctuating

21:01

this with rhetorical questions

21:03

like you would you would be happy if

21:05

I drop dead right.

21:08

And as little kids are in the

21:10

back I believe there were three

21:12

of us at the time. And

21:14

we're, like, crying and

21:16

yelling back and know when he

21:18

asked is rhetorical, you would

21:20

like to see me fall over dead

21:23

because you don't care about me.

21:25

And mom just drives

21:27

back crying. Dakota believed

21:28

that without Stuart, things would

21:30

be much worse, that they would be out on

21:32

the street. All the kids were

21:35

homeschooled. and Stewart taught them that they needed

21:37

their dad to protect them from all the terrible

21:39

things that could happen in the world.

21:41

This

21:41

sense of impending doom

21:43

that Stewart seemed to feel and instill on

21:45

the people around him. It

21:47

translates in other tangible ways. Like

21:50

both Tasha and Dakota say he'd

21:51

buy a crap ton of survival man.

21:54

He was definitely a hoarder.

21:56

The worst things got, the more

21:58

he hoarded,

21:59

mounds of boxes of

22:02

bags of survival knives. And

22:03

he's on himself as a kind of

22:05

future

22:05

hero. He's the next George

22:08

Washington. Or maybe a

22:10

leader of some kind of post

22:12

American secessionist state.

22:14

Dakota says over time, his dad's

22:17

anti government sentiments kept

22:19

growing. boiling into revolutionary fervor during the

22:21

two thousand and eight presidential election.

22:24

That year, Stewart had made a name

22:26

for himself as an organizer for

22:28

Ron Paul's presidential campaign.

22:30

And when President Obama was

22:31

elected instead, he felt

22:34

that it was the beginning of the

22:36

end.

22:36

Dakota watched this transformation.

22:39

That's when Stuart's kind of pre

22:41

existing persecution complex and

22:44

inflated sense of his own importance

22:46

as far as being a an opponent of the

22:48

government. That's when that really started in. That's when

22:50

the PREPA talk really started

22:52

in. A lot of people

22:54

saw Ron Paul's campaign as

22:56

the last best chance to save America

22:58

from coming collapse and

23:02

just assumed that it was all downhill

23:04

from there. Unless,

23:07

of course, Stewart did something

23:10

about it. and he decided

23:12

he would. In fact, Stuart

23:13

Rhodes would help save the

23:16

country.

23:18

In

23:18

two thousand and nine months after the election,

23:20

Stewart started to convert the fears and

23:22

ideas in his head to a full

23:24

fledged organization in the real

23:26

world world. It

23:27

was winter. The family was at home

23:29

as usual. I

23:30

remember I was in our

23:33

bedroom. I was

23:33

nursing my baby. It was my

23:36

fifth baby. it's

23:36

late. Kids are asleep. It's like two

23:38

in the morning. And hey, I can

23:40

hear you just clacking away and and I can

23:42

hear him because he always insisted on blasting

23:44

music light work. even if I'm trying

23:46

to sleep with a baby. All

23:49

the

23:49

lights are on. He has ACDC

23:51

blasting.

23:52

This is how he

23:55

worked all night. There at

23:57

his computer, Stuart was writing essentially

24:00

a

24:00

manifest his new organization.

24:02

The group would

24:03

be non partisan and it would recruit

24:05

specific kinds of

24:06

people. People who had sworn it

24:08

out to the constitution, So

24:10

mostly military police. People

24:12

like

24:12

him. He would rally them around that

24:15

oath they'd all sworn to support and

24:17

defend

24:17

the constitution. an

24:19

oath they

24:19

would band together to keep. He would

24:22

call

24:22

them the oath keepers.

24:25

In

24:25

his mind, the oath keepers were essentially the

24:28

new founding fathers. Their

24:30

purpose not to start a new

24:32

country, but to defend it.

24:34

And just like how their original revolutionaries

24:36

defied the British and their orders of tea taxes

24:38

and the like, you know, defiance and service

24:40

of a

24:40

higher cause. he

24:43

saw his group as also defined what he

24:45

saw as a corrupt authority in

24:47

service of a higher one, the

24:49

constitution. Stewart

24:51

wrote and wrote and wrote late

24:53

into the night.

24:54

He's just clicking and clacking away

24:56

at his desktop computer, piled

24:59

with crap, you know, just a giant mess, and he'd

25:01

been typing for

25:02

hours. And I I would definitely

25:03

describe it as a mania.

25:05

He wrote

25:06

up ten orders, both keepers will

25:08

not obey. Some of the things

25:10

sounded like run of the mill right wing

25:12

talking things. Like, we will

25:13

not obey any order to disarm

25:15

the American people. But

25:18

some

25:18

of the orders are more out there.

25:20

Like hero, we will not obey orders

25:22

to blockade American cities. Thus,

25:24

turning them into

25:25

giant

25:26

concentration camps.

25:34

Finally,

25:35

he finished typing and turned

25:36

to Tasha. She

25:38

was still in bed with the baby dosing off.

25:40

He

25:40

woke her up and said, I'm

25:42

gonna do it. I'm gonna post this. What do

25:44

you think? And then he read those ten orders

25:47

to me, and he kept saying this

25:49

is an epic moment. This moment

25:51

is huge. this will change

25:53

everything. Tasha

25:54

was five kids into this marriage by

25:57

then, and this rhetoric was

25:59

familiar. She'd heard his calls for other

26:01

people to sacrifice and service of

26:03

a supposed bigger cause. Help

26:05

me go to school, and then you'll be

26:07

able to go later. you're giving me

26:09

your money so that one day I can buy you

26:11

a big house in a nice car.

26:14

But instead, she'd watched him use

26:16

her money in support for

26:18

really whatever he wanted. When

26:21

he became the breadwinner, as he promised

26:22

Tasha he would someday, it

26:25

never

26:25

actually did go to making the family's dreams

26:28

come true. They kept eating oatmeal

26:30

and apple chips for months on end, and he

26:32

kept buying more and more survival

26:34

equipment. So when Tasha

26:36

heard his latest rally and cry,

26:38

what she wanted to say. I

26:40

found it embarrassing. You know, he's

26:43

talking about we won't run people up into

26:45

FEMA camps and And we

26:47

won't, you know, we won't do this and we

26:49

won't do that. And it was like, of course,

26:51

like, who is gonna ask you to do this?

26:53

But I don't say that,

26:54

of course.

26:56

When he was in a state

26:57

like this, pushing back felt impossible

26:59

and never really swayed

27:00

him. So she

27:02

swallowed her doubts, crossed her fingers

27:04

that Stewart's vision would pan out for good, that

27:07

maybe they'll finally get the life he'd

27:09

promised. And she said

27:11

said I said, wow.

27:13

This

27:13

is be big.

27:15

He seemed to understand

27:17

something I didn't that this was a

27:19

huge moment.

27:20

He seemed

27:24

so positive that the

27:26

second he hit

27:28

publish.

27:28

everything

27:30

would change. And

27:33

everything

27:33

would change, Stuart

27:35

would go on to make history.

27:38

You

27:38

don't have a right to

27:41

disobey or lawful orders. Do

27:43

you have a tuning a

27:46

tuning of this

27:50

Whether

27:53

Tasha believed in this mission or not, should

27:55

go on to help manage the organization. And what

27:58

happened next? To Tasha's family,

27:59

to the country. That's

28:02

next time. This is

28:04

a two

28:04

parter. The only person who really knows

28:07

where all of the group's money went

28:09

is Stewart Rhodes. I paid the power

28:11

bill past due, paid

28:13

the rent, got our

28:15

car title back from the car loan people.

28:18

That was still

28:20

desperately attempting to salvage a father's

28:22

son relationship. and

28:24

gain his approval. I just remember

28:26

being so afraid.

28:27

I was just shaking all

28:31

over and he just walked

28:32

out. That's next

28:34

week,

28:34

and this is uncomfortable.

28:41

If you have

28:44

any thoughts about this story or just wanna shoot

28:46

us a note, you can always email me in the

28:48

team at uncomfortable at

28:51

marketplace dot

28:51

org. We love hearing from y'all. Also,

28:53

do not forget to check out our weekly

28:56

newsletter. There's always great wrecks in there for her things

28:58

to cook or listen or

29:00

watch. This week, I write about our

29:02

theme for the new season, exploring x

29:04

expectations versus reality. You can sign up

29:06

for our newsletter at marketplace dot

29:09

org comfort. Alright.

29:12

This episode was lead produced

29:14

by me, Hannah Harris Green,

29:16

and hosted by Dima Chrays.

29:18

We reported and wrote the script

29:21

together. The episode got additional

29:23

support from producers Alice Wilder and

29:25

Peter Balenon Rosen. Zoey

29:27

Saunders is our senior producer.

29:30

Our editor is Karen Duffin. Marquee Greene

29:32

is

29:32

our digital producer with help from

29:35

Tony Wagner. Our

29:37

intern

29:37

is phenol Patel. Sound

29:39

design and audio engineering by

29:41

Drew Jostad. Donna Tam

29:43

is the director of on demand at Market

29:45

place, and Francesca Levy is

29:47

our executive director of digital. And

29:50

our theme music is my

29:52

wonderly. This is

29:53

a comfortable is supported in part by

29:55

the Sisense foundation, partnering with

29:57

organizations and people working for a

29:59

better and more

29:59

just future since nineteen

30:02

eighty five. Alright. We'll catch

30:04

you all next week.