Python. How to deal with criteria before or in a FOR loop

i was messing around with a Python library called 'ytchat'. It's subscribes to my Youtube livestream chat and takes commands from there. In my case it controls a PTZ networkcamera.

In general i got it all working, but now i need some sort of timer and 'active user' built in. Otherwise it would most likely escalate in a livechat mess. (chatbot reacting to all users instead of the active one)

So the relevant part is this:

    def start():
    print(timer_user)

    if timer_user == 50:
        chat_obj.start()
        chat_obj.subscribe_chat_message(respond)
        chat_obj.join()
    else:
        print('Timer still running')
        # sleep(timer_interval)
        start()
start()

and

def respond(msgs, chatid):
print(chatid)

global active_user_name



for msg in msgs:
    print(msg)
    print(msg.author.display_name)
    active_user_name = msg.author.display_name

    if msg.message_text.strip().startswith("!") and msg.message_text.strip() in valid_commands \
            and msg.author.display_name == active_user_name:
        #valid
        chat_obj.send_message('Gebruiker ' + active_user_name + ' heeft controle over de camera.', chatid)
        print('Countdown user start')
        user_thread = threading.Thread(target=start_countdown_user)
        user_thread.start()
        if msg.message_text.strip() in ['!right', '!Right']:
            camera.ptz_control_command(action="start", code="Right", arg1=0, arg2=4, arg3=0)
            sleep(1)
            camera.ptz_control_command(action="stop", code="Right", arg1=0, arg2=4, arg3=0)
            print("Right")
        elif msg.message_text.strip() in ['!left', '!Left']:
            camera.ptz_control_command(action="start", code="Left", arg1=0, arg2=4, arg3=0)
            sleep(1)
            camera.ptz_control_command(action="stop", code="Left", arg1=0, arg2=4, arg3=0)
            print("Left")
        else:
            print('Else')
            True
    else:
        print('Invalid command, just a chat message or not active user')

The problem is that i need to check IF:

• a message starts with an exclamation mark
• the message is in the valid commands list
• and the active username is the current msg author

As far as i can tell the FOR loop inside the respond function takes the 'msgs' object and spits out each message as 'msg'. I need 'msg' to valide my IF statement.

So my main question is how do i validate these three criteria before entering a loop ? Or maybe break out/ continue (another) loop ?