Cougardville,
You of course are free to believe and promote as you wish. The USP/Famous radio talk show host, event is a perfect setting for promoting basically anything that flies in the face of reality and facts.
Since there will be Pennsylvania hunters attending and since I am proud of my native PA heritage and since some folks are gullible, I hope you do not fall in line in promoting lies, as is often, (always), the case with that particular speaker.
For instance; the PGC did not deny the wolf/coyote hybrid existence. As a matter of fact the Pennsylvania Game News published and article about that very thing over 20 years ago.
Coyotes have been known to exist for over 80 years in this region, (PA/NY), in some numbers – no PGC denial of that either.

You asked the question about knowing someone who has seen a cougar. I know of no one who has seen a cougar. I do know of several who “think” they have seen a cougar. I also know of some who produced pictures of cougars and claimed they were local. They sure were, if you consider Idaho or Wyoming to be local to PA.
I have used the example many times of my neighbor who is now 70 years old and has lived in this mountain region all of his life and is a very active outdoorsman and hunter.
A couple of years ago I showed him a video of an extremely large bobcat in my field, (in pouring rain), I paused it, rewound and re-played it--- “cougar” was what he said. He was not the only one who quickly determined it to be a cougar, but he was the most experienced one.
Does having photos of deer that were “devoured” mean, – having photos of dead deer that were “eaten” by predators? No surprised there! Do you have photos of predators “killing” those deer?
We could go on and on but the bottom line is that there is no credible evidence of any substantial number of cougars in this region --- none! Delaware had two or three that were determined to be released captives. West Virginia had “tracks” and guess who, coincidently, found those tracks? None other than the founder of the Eastern Cougar Foundation!

No one is saying it is impossible that formerly captive cougars exist. In fact, one was shot by a PA hunter in 1967.
As you said, you can make your own decisions as to who you aligned yourself with.
If you have been active in studying JS then you should be aware of some of his claims. Many of which are proven to be lies, gross exaggerations or selective bits of the whole picture.
If, in that case, you still see him as “tells it like it is,” then you have more then adequately introduced yourself.
And oh yeah, we are not in "A Crisis" here in PA. Sorry, the sky is not falling and, by far, most outdoorsmen and women are aware that we have it pretty darn good.