Daniel P. Driscoll

So I started using this line a couple weeks into getting into the job.

I think once you realized how decayed and how—

calcified, and what I would say is lowercase c, how corrupted the decision-making model in the Pentagon has been for decades.

I basically started telling people, a ton of the senators and congressmen I would meet with, when they would ask for an update, I said I was the mixture of a Southern Baptist preacher and a jihadist who's going to pull the temple down on all of our heads, because we had to rebuild the thing.

I was at a conference in the Middle East when I used it, and I think the Southern Baptist preacher part didn't hit with the nuance I was intending.

And then I think when the gasped in the room when I said jihadist woke everybody back up that had been zoned out.

Let's do it.

So, and this came up during our breakfast.

I think one of the problems the ATF has had for a very long time is similar to something the Army deals with.

So, we have the Corps of Engineers.

And if you've had anyone who's built anything in any of the 50 states or worldwide, oftentimes their experience with the Corps of Engineers is terrible.

Everything takes forever.

It's too expensive.

And the outcomes leave a very bad taste in most Americans' lives or, excuse me, in their mouths after interacting with them.

And the reason this is the case is not that the soldiers who are part of the Army Corps of Engineers or the civilians are bad.

It's because they personify some of the stupid shit in government when they have to show up on sites.

I think for ATF, if you think about alcohol, tobacco, and firearms, that is a lot of Americans' favorite things to do.

And so a lot of the rules and regulations around those topics lands on ATF's doorstep.

And so I've gotten to talk to a ton of agents.

I've gone on raids.