Tom Ridge
Former United States Secretary of Homeland SecurityWikipedia
46
MENTIONS
24
EPISODES
23
PODCASTS
Search complete. 46 mentions across 24 episodes found for "Tom Ridge".
Sep 13, 2026
Joe ThomasHOST
I wasn't listening to you at the time.
Joe ThomasHOST
I hear you say that you protested the Patriot Act to Tom Ridge himself.
Joe ThomasHOST
Well, good for you.
Joe ThomasHOST
It didn't help because we now have flock cameras and police officers at the other end of it rounding up the usual suspects.
Gray DavisGUEST
He says, I pulled up NORAD, which is the Aviation Defense Command in America.
Gray DavisGUEST
And I said, this is Tom Ridge talking, don't permit any commercial aircraft to fly north of Fresno on the weekend that the attack was supposed to occur.
Gray DavisGUEST
So I can't tell the rest of the world that's happening.
Gray DavisGUEST
But like many other governors, I was doing my job to protect the people I was sworn to protect.
Joe ThomasHOST
I imagine Governor Shapiro will be amongst the speakers.
Joe ThomasHOST
I've been told that Tom Ridge is...
Joe ThomasHOST
No, because he passed.
Joe ThomasHOST
In any event, they're expecting Governor Shapiro, perhaps even Senator Fetterman, to be there at these events right now.
Jane HarmanGUEST
Part of the solution which some of us recommended was to create a dedicated Homeland Security function.
Jane HarmanGUEST
And that function, we thought, should be in the White House and Tom Ridge became its first coordinator.
Jane HarmanGUEST
Along the way, the White House proposed a much more ambitious concept And in order to get this function as part of law, we embraced that concept.
Jane HarmanGUEST
And then there became the Department of Homeland Security.
Jane HarmanGUEST
Specially trained Homeland Security investigation agents are in diplomatic posts everywhere in the world, and they're reviewing suspicious visas.
Jane HarmanGUEST
And TSA screeners are daily depriving al-Qaeda and other terror groups of the ability to turn more aircraft into weapons, a tactic we know they are continuing to attempt.
Jane HarmanGUEST
Today, as Tom Ridge said, DHS remains a work in progress, but the efforts of its people are its backbone.
Dasha BurnsHOST
All right, Congresswoman, so you said in 2013, you talked about how it was a work in progress.
Michael SmerconishHOST
And you know who was on bus number one with me? Jose Melendez Perez.
Michael SmerconishHOST
And when we got to Shanksville, who was waiting for us? The former governor of Pennsylvania, the nation's first Secretary of Homeland Security, the Honorable Tom Ridge.
Michael SmerconishHOST
Here's a portion of one of my many interviews with Jose Melendez Perez.
Michael SmerconishHOST
Would you remind my audience, what were you doing? What was your job at that time?
Garrett M. GraffGUEST
You know, President Bush himself resisted the creation of the department for a long period of time.
Garrett M. GraffGUEST
You know, perhaps listeners to this podcast will remember, and effectively no one else in all of America, you know, uh, Tom Ridge, the Pennsylvania governor, is first appointed to head what is the White House Office of Homeland Security immediately after 9/11, and that Bush's original hope was that he was going to be able to build something that was sort of akin to the National Security Council inside the White House that would be the governing apparatus, you know, and sort of budgetary apparatus to coordinate Homeland Security across all the existing departments and agencies in government.
Garrett M. GraffGUEST
And that it is only really with the growing list of intelligence failures that become clear after 9/11, where the US government failed to, you know, so-called connect the dots about the 9/11 plot before it happened, that you saw advocates like Joe Lieberman really begin to push for the creation of DHS and ultimately the largest government reorganization since the creation of the Defense Department.
Garrett M. GraffGUEST
And I think what we now understand, and, you know, the, there were these warnings, you know, a decade ago, and, you know, I was writing about them in Trump's first term, is that the culture and organizational management structure of DHS made it uniquely susceptible for a president who, shall we politely say, was less focused on constitutional norms than you would have the, in the traditions of the Department of Justice.
Hugh HewittHOST
Sure.
Hugh HewittHOST
Tom Ridge, God love him.
Hugh HewittHOST
Great American.
Hugh HewittHOST
Red, blue, green, yellow.
Chantal KreviazukGUEST
America.How does it feel to you today, with that perspective, to see what's unfolding, the barriers being raised, that kind of thing?
John ManleySOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
It, it breaks my heart and, and Tom Ridge became a, and still is, a, a good friend of mine.
John ManleySOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
Um, and he w- I have to say he was one of the first Republicans to sign the Never Trump letter back in 2015.
John ManleySOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
Um, so I ... he's, he's appalled by what's been happening.
Barry DHOST
When Taps was being filmed in Valley Forge Military Academy, I believe that a young Timothy Hutton and Tom Cruise stayed at Ray's house in West Vincent.
Barry DHOST
From what I remember, somebody involved in the movie production was a friend and said, Hey, Ray, could these two stay there instead of a hotel? and a lot of political friends, including, at the time, Governor Tom Ridge.
Barry DHOST
Ray had quite a colorful history.
Barry DHOST
He started the Ray Carr Orchestra back in high school and led the band until 1964, the exception.
John ManleyGUEST
It, it breaks my heart.
John ManleyGUEST
And, and Tom Ridge became a, and still is, a, a good friend of mine.
John ManleyGUEST
Um, and he w- I have to say, he was one of the first Republicans to sign the Never Trump letter back in 2015.
John ManleyGUEST
Um, so, uh, he's, he's appalled by what's been happening.
14 more episodes mention Tom Ridge.
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