A Good Guy: 279 Hours

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News, Society & Culture, News Commentary, Documentary

4.8 • 11.8K Ratings

🗓️ 24 October 2024

⏱️ 42 minutes

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Summary

"Have you ever tried to overthrow the U.S. government?" Marine Sgt. Joshua Abate was in the middle of a routine polygraph test to receive top-secret clearance when he made an extraordinary admission: He had followed the crowd that broke into the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. This admission leads to a different kind of January 6 story. Abate says he's not an insurrectionist. So why did it take him so long to talk openly about that day? To listen to this series sponsor-free and support NPR, sign up for Embedded+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This message comes from Organic Valley, a farmer-owned dairy cooperative of small organic family farms dedicated to protecting where food comes from.
0:08.5	Learn more at ovie. coop.
0:17.0	Hey, I'm Kelly McEvers, and this is Embedded from NPR. There's a story we told ourselves about what happened on January 6, 2021. On that day day an angry mob attacked the capital to try to stop this thing that's so essential for our democracy
0:29.0	the peaceful transfer of power a lot of us of course saw it live on TV. Reporter Tom Bowman and
0:36.3	producer Lauren Hodges were there on the ground. They saw people who looked like
0:40.9	they had military training, pushing forward, breaking
0:44.4	down doors, getting violent with cops. By the end of that day the country had
0:49.0	lived through one of the worst political riots in our history. But then the story started to change. It got all
0:56.8	scrambled and mixed up. Some people started calling the Rioters patriots.
1:02.4	Trespassers became victims.
1:05.0	And that shift has had consequences.
1:08.0	Our new series is about one Marine who went inside the Capitol on January 6th. And Tom and Lauren bring us the story he tells
1:16.4	about that day, what happened to him afterwards, and the way all of this calls into question
1:22.3	the military's ability to guarantee the oath its members take,
1:26.7	to protect the Constitution for all Americans.
1:30.4	It's called a good guy.
1:32.4	And before we get started, you should note there is some violent
1:34.6	language in this episode. Okay here's Tom and Lorne.
1:40.0	So it's early 2022 a young marine hopes to get his dream gig.
1:44.6	I tried to play it off nonchalantly, like when I applied, it's like if I get it, I get it,
1:47.6	I don't, I don't, I don't.
1:48.8	I'm not gonna be bummed if I don't get it.
	...

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