Go out for the call. We were kind of listening, it was an old call. We were sitting there and my wife had just called because it was towards the end of our shift. She was seeing what time i was coming home. So im talking to to her and im like were about to head to this call. Its a little strange. So i hung up with her and we head down there and we get there. We didnt really know too much about it. Unbeknownst to us, we parked right next to it. Of course we moved, that seemed ideal. We take my car down to second and broadway and Sergeant Miller wanted me to stay down there to help with because pedestrian traffic on broadway, the busses were starting to do their routes and stuff. So of of course i was listening and everything and they went up to the apartments and i kind of stayed down there and kept on going up to second and commerce to hear what the rv was saying and thats just stuff that ill never forget, you know, the sound of the announcement saying primary objective is to evacuate, evacuate now, and its a female voice. Odd. And then of course im kind of pacing back and forth because i kept on having to turn pedestrians around. It was a weird feeling, not being able to be with everybody else but i knew that i needed to stay where i was at. Because you want to be with your detail, especially when you have a feeling somethings not right and something that weird just you dont get stuff like that. So but i was standing there by my car and i heard tyler say the music just came on. So i got i went to go get closer and i heard it and i was like oh, my gosh. So i was about to get on the radio and say i know its almost not my place but, like, everybodys getting out of the buildings, right . We need i wanted everybody to be safe. So then i saw a group of them which couldnt really tell that i was assuming was brenda and sipos and tyler walk around the rv back toward their cars so i kind of saw them. I started walking up to second and commerce because i wanted to talk to them. I wanted to know, like do we need to go to more buildings. What do we need to do . You know, i was just getting really antsy. And i talked to my wife again, told her that things were just really strange. And so but as im walking towards them on the right side of the road, right side of second, i see wells at his car and i was like, well, hes closer and ill go talk to him, see what we needo do. So i dont know what told me to do this. It was really weird. But i decided to change my direction, go on the other side of the road, start walking towards wells. So as i started walking towards him, he starts walking towards me. You could see on the camera too the footage, ive seen it, and i told him i didnt think anybody would ever believe how close he was. I was probably 1 o 10 steps away from him, 15. We were walking towards each other and i just saw the biggest flames ive ever seen, the biggest explosion. I mean, i just saw orange and then him and i saw him stumble and i felt it. I felt the heat, the wave, and i dont know how i kept my footing but i kind of blinked and i couldnt see him for a second and i lost it and i took off at a sprint towards him and like he said, ive never grabbed somebody so hard in my life. I grabbed him, he grabbed me. And we just ducked into a doorway because we didnt know what was coming afterwards and i will never forget the windows shattering after the blast, all around me, kind of looked like a big prop from a movie scene, all the glass breaking at once. It hit me all over. Just being able to hold him and grab him. The first thing i could do you couldnt hear anybody at first, it scared the heck out of me. But just i said theres been an explosion and multiple medics, i didnt know what we had and i was so scared that i lost my entire detail because i didnt know where they were. I just saw them pass by it. So after that, we just made sure that we felt a little bit safe enough to go back and regroup and luckily i heard everybody on the radio and didnt know how okay everybody was but i knew everybody was you alive and so i was happy to hear that nobody else was seriously injured. But thats pretty much it. Yeah. Can i go now . [ applause ] all right. These officers have agreed to take just a few questions. Please, if you have a specific officer, identify that or if you dont have a specific officer, well try to find the best one. Bomb squared, were they on the way. Yes, the bomb squad was on the way. They had been requested and they were on the way. Maam, right here. [ indiscernible ] yes, maam. The front had a shade as well to keep view completely obstructed. All of the shades on the back windows were down as well. So you couldnt see in at all. I didnt see any person in or around it at all. When i first arrived, i didnt notice the rv but with it being christmas, i was like maybe theyre just visiting family and parked there so i didnt pay much attention to it but i did not notice anyone outside around it either when i first arrived. [ indiscernible ] to my recollection, i went around behind it, just to double check after the announcements started, to see if we could get a tag for more information and stuff like that. I did not notice a tag anywhere, i did not notice any kind of bracket for a tag even. So unfortunately, couldnt give more information. [ indiscernible ] yes. What i specifically remember and we found out later, what i remembered was downtown where the lights shine bright, later, the atf agent i spoke to pulled it up and its downtown by Petulia Clark was the specific song that was played. [ indiscernible ] im sorry, got to speak up for me. [ indiscernible ] it wasnt a consistent countdown. It was like a hello, this is a warning. For your safety, evacuate the area. That looped for a few minutes. As we were getting red i do go in the building, it changed to you have 14 minutes to evacuate the area and thats when my mind started changing, we started looking at the building and there was also of cameras on the rv, like surveillance cameras above the mirror. So you got the hangover part that hangs over the windshield, sorry if im talking with my hands. You have to you got the hangover part, the rear view mirror here, the camera set in between that. It felt like whoever was behind it was watching it. For me, it felt weird. All of the cop lingo that you hear about spider senses, the hair standing up on the back of your neck, all that went through my body and immediately the training kicked in that we do as far as staying calm but being vigilant and watching around us. So that became our primary objective, is to as we were evacuating, also looking for any threats in the surrounding area. [ indiscernible ] okay. We have been watching the six National Police officers who nashville Police Officers who helped evacuate downtown before the massive explosion. These are people who ran toward the danger, risking their own lives. Each one inspiring in his own way as we heard what they did that day, undoubtedly saved a whole lot of lives. In a year where theres been focus on police abuses, that Police Officers, not just there in tennessee, risk their lives every day. Time now for media buzz. Im howard kurtz. Howie the media were celebrating after Congress Passed the 900 billion covid relief bill and then President Trump who had not been involved in the negotiations posted a video that deep sixed the christmas package. I am asking congress to amend this bill and increase the ridiculously low 600 to 2,000. Or else the next administration will have to deliver a covid relief package and maybe that administration will be me. Now, he blows up a bill thats actually the first chance for working class americans not in Donald Trumps oligarchy but working class americans to get a little bit of relief. It would be a damnable thing to delay relief the way you are right now by not signing and force millions of americans to suffer, to starve, all through the holidays, and into the new year, if you dont deliver. The president has always had a sense for what average people are feeling and they look at this bill, guys, and they see it loaded up as a typical d. C. Swamp bill and see a 600 check for me. Are you kidding me . 600 is absurd. Its insulting, its grotesque. Which is why President Trump is demanding those checks are more than doubled. Howie joining us to analyze the coverage in new york, will cain, cohost of fox friends weekend. Jessica tarlov of, a Fox News Contributor and here in washington, Griff Jenkins, fox news correspondent. The president made some good points about 600 checks being too small and some of the pork in the bill that the conservatives have focused on but theres been media condemnation because he waited until the house and Senate Already passed the compromised measure. I think we should establish two things. First of all, would it be better if the stimulus, the covid relief checks went from 600 to 2,000 . Well, there are many republicans and democrats who think the answer to that is yes. Theres the issue of process. Has the president always played by the rules, has he always done business as usual as it is done in washington, d. C. , the answer is no. So as this plays out in the coming days, if the bill is made better, if pork is taken out of the spending bill and if the stimulus and Coronavirus Relief checks go up, well have to say it was a success. The president doing something that the media condemns and may not be business as usual, but might just get the objective accomplished. Howie griff, some of the spending that the president object ofs to and some of objects to and some is hard to defend, its not the 900 billion covid bill, its in the 1. 4 trillion Government Spending bill that the two got merged by congress. Many are not making the distinction. This is not normally done when you have a relief bill, such as the covid bill, married to the 1. 4 trillion spending bill which has to be spending to keep the government running. Whats interesting is that the president as you mentioned in the intro was not involved in these negotiations. In some of that actual aid to the Foreign Countries was requested by the president s own state department. So many on his own Negotiations Team to include obviously led by secretary of treasury, secretary mnuchin, left sort of clueless left to figure out what they would do now because you have this being held up. At the end of the day, i think the fact that the aid is being held up is going to be the defining moment. Howie well, jessica, nancy pelosi and the democrats love the idea of 2,000 stimulus checks. The media also say the aid package was too small. But what the pundits are focusing on is trump having the mia during the negotiations and Steve Mnuchin negotiating a deal that the president now called a disgrace. Yeah, i dont think that the focus is improperly placed. I think the fact that the president deep sixed the bill and went off to maralago to have his holiday when Unemployment Benefits ran out yesterday and you look at what is in the bill on the covid relief side, 400 billion for food banks. How many times have we talked about the lines of americans sitting in their cars, stretching miles, sometimes down highways in order to get in there so that their kids can eat. We have a Food Insecurity problem in this country. We have an unemployment problem. All of that would have been taken care of by the bill. The president should have signed it and demanded extra money for americans which democrats and many republicans would have been happy to sign. He blew this up. Howie you made the point about the president s unusual negotiating style. He did this back when he was a reareal estate developer. He would make demands after the contract was signed. Journalists said he blind sided some of his aides and allies who didnt know he was going to do this, including Mitch Mcconnell. Republicans, some of them didnt want to spend this much money. That may be, howard. There are others that are questioning the president s motives in this entire thing as well. Heres the thing. I think weve gotten so used to the same way of doing business in washington. Maybe its time to try a different approach and the president has. Look, im not going to sit here and ascertain the president s motives every step of the way. What i will look at is the outcomes. Does he get accomplished what he says he wants accomplished, which is increasing the covid reis leaf checks to Everyday Americans and reducing the amount of money of no one debates what jessica just brought up. We should have aid coming to Small Businesses and american thats are hurting right now. What americans are looking at is sidebyside, meager covid relief checks with things like gender studies programs in pakistan being funded. Can the president increase the relief going to americans while decreasing the pork in the stimulus bill. Whatever his process is, even whatever his motives are, i want to see the end result. Howie griff, just briefly, this is not a washington game. As of yesterday, Unemployment Benefits ex fire expired for ab0 million americans. Even if the president signs the bill tomorrow, they will lose a week. There are real life impacts for people who were told they would get the package at christmas time. Thats right. Theyll lose a week and toward the end of the week the Eviction Moratorium will expire as well. We know tomorrow morning, Speaker Pelosi will put on the house floor a bill for increasing those checks but no indication shes stripping any of that pork out that the president is upset about. And so the real life consequences that impact 10 million plus americans is definitely on track unless the president acts fast. Even if he acts by the time we go off this show today, theres still going to be some negative impact on the 10 million plus receiving the unemployment benefit assistance. Howie you know, theres been a lot of focus of course on the president still fighting the election battle. He tweeted up a storm on christmas even and again yesterday. The media have ramped up 24r criticistheircriticism of the p. I want to play a piece of of sound from msnbc contributor, jason johnson. Its not just were in a coup. Were in the beginning of a coup that will only get more violent and the men and women who are placating the president on this, the men and women in congress who are pretending this isnt really an issue, they are now terrorist sympathizers. Howie the president is fair game, especially one who declines to concede after the Electoral College votes. But describing republican lawmakers and supporters of the president as terrorist sympathizers, doesnt that go too far . It does for me. Ive never supported that language when it comes to any side of the aisle. We know what a terrorist is. Its not anyone who hasnt killed a bunch of people or crafted a plot to do that. I do agree with the sentiment the president is subverting american democracy, he is feeding lies to millions of people who have blindly supported him for four years about the most secret of Democratic Institutions here in america and its dangerous. Its also of going to hurt his party for the georgia runoffs. Kelly loeffler doesnt know what do. She cant call joe biden president elect even though he is, because of what might happen. President trump might parachute in and say dont vote for loeffler or perdue, they dont support me, stop the steal or whatever ridiculous hashtag he uses. Howie will, the president tweeted yesterday that the elections in afghanistan are more fair than those in the u. S. Which have produced a fake president. I guess to go along with fake news. And hes referring to joe biden. He talked about Supreme Court being incompetent and weak. What do you make of that language and is this part of the president trying to set up the argument hell make for the next four years . I think what were talking about in both of these topics is hyperbole. Useful hyperbole, absurd high hyperbole. When you played that clip, its an absurd analogy. Terrorism, i dont know whatever other ani analogies he was using there, its hyperbole stretched to the point of being a lie. Its just not true. Youre also talking about the president using hyperbole and saying the American Election is worse than those that take place in afghanistan. However, i believe at least one of the things the president is referring to is the massive use of mailin balloting in the United States. Unprecedented. No doubt. Its not a form of voting employed throughout the world. Throughout the world, first world countries, modern economies, modern countries have not accepted the idea of mailin balloting being legitimate form of balloting because its open to potential fraud. Does that make us as bad as afghanistan . Im doubtful of that, howard. I think it points to a problem that should not be one rolling forward. Howie all this comes after reports of the president being pitched in white house meetings on try to seize the disputed voting machines, on using the military to rerun the election in certain states won by joe biden and hes relying more now on people like Rudy Giuliani and mike flynn and sidney powell, who has been at the white house three times in the last week. Let me get a break and well be right back. Howie media are going haywire over President Trump handing out a whole bunch of pardons and commutations just before christmas. There was one for Paul Manafort, one fort George Papadopoulos. And one for Charles Kushner, jareds father, who served a prison term a decade andahalf ago. There were three former republican members of congress convicted of offenses ranging from Money Laundering to conspiracy and misusing Campaign Funds and four black border guards, convicted of killing iraqi civilians. There were plenty o