In this episode of The War Room, host STEPHEN K. MILLER sits down with Adam Gertler to discuss why Peter Navarro is the best choice to replace Joe Biden as Vice President in 2024, and why he should have been chosen years ago.
00:01:20.820Was this something that you were inspired when he was sent to prison over the misdemeanor?
00:01:25.660Or is this something because of your family's background, your background, you've been thinking about this a lot?
00:01:31.240I've been thinking about this a lot, you know, following the news during the first Trump administration.
00:01:36.140You know, whenever Dr. Navarro was included on a project or on a trip, I always felt like the American people had a seat at the table when it came to the work that was being done in the first Trump administration.
00:01:47.340So this is something that I've been thinking about for years.
00:01:50.440I think that he would be President Trump's best choice for vice president in 2024.
00:02:30.980If I talk to my producer, Cameron, can we get I want the MTG piece teed up and just give me the thumbs up when we've got it from what she did yesterday.
00:02:38.540You have spent your career on investigating the CCP, what happened during the pandemic, all of this with with detailed investigations that, quite frankly, are far deeper in Capitol Hill.
00:02:52.500You've always come to me and say, hey, this town is run by the lobbyists.
00:03:06.200I think we saw it really come to the forefront during COVID-19 with Big Pharma, of course, ratcheting up their lobbying expenditures to the tune of millions, over $10 million.
00:03:15.560And, of course, I think with the salt in the wound, the worst part of it is that the people that they're hiring are former federal government employees who are taxpayer dollars used to subsidize.
00:03:24.020And I think it sort of speaks to the managed decline of this country that we are creating basically the enemy.
00:03:29.220We are propping up the people paying their salaries to give them the leverage, the kind of understanding of how the intricacies of the federal government, which they then used to exploit the members that they used to work for, to push for policies that are so at odds with the American people.
00:03:43.340And I think sort of the age-old question that we're always trying to come to terms with here in the warm is when you say, you know, they are doing this, they're pushing these policies, whether it's the uniparty, whatever kind of nebulous term you want to put in there.
00:03:54.460I think so much of the locus of that issue falls on the lobbyists because they're corrupting the members, they're corrupting the staff, and the staff wants to go and work for these lobbying firms, so they're not going to bite the hand that will eventually feed them right down the road one day.
00:04:09.080And I think, too, the other very important element when it comes to the lobbying, we're, of course, talking about, you know, the domestic enemy, right, which is, I would argue, big pharma, big tech, these big woke corporations.
00:04:19.580But the foreign element of lobbying is almost more sinister, and, you know, I've focused on that through the purview of the Chinese Communist Party, but it shouldn't be lost on anyone.
00:04:27.780When the Trump administration came out and, I believe, what was it, about two dozen Chinese companies on their military or on our entity list blacklisted them basically for being proxies of the People's Liberation Army, over 25% of them had active representation from U.S. lobbyists.
00:04:43.840Again, from the same companies, which, by the way, refused to work with Republican candidates, disavowed us for, you know, daring to question the election and the integrity of these elections.
00:04:53.580These are the same people who have worked for candidates and, you know, for corrupt foreign leaders in third world countries, helping them attempt to overturn election results.
00:05:01.540So I think that the lobbying issue really just is a glaring example of how backwards the priorities are in Washington, D.C.
00:05:09.200And this gets to Ken Buck's statement on Stephanie Ruhl last night.
00:05:12.980Oh, it's not the institutions that were staffed by good people.
00:05:15.720They have been corrupted by money, and the instrument to do that is these lobbying firms and what we call K Street.
00:05:21.720That is one of the most corrupting elements of all.
00:05:26.040In the arena, in the lines down yesterday, I want to play this again so you can see the response she got when she brought up the motion to vacate, basically clean out, clean up the Republican Party.
00:06:16.420You went in there in front of all America and all the world.
00:06:20.540You heard the K Street money just absolutely through the instruments of the Democratic Party and the Republican people that have been bought off.
00:06:57.140You can talk about the special interests controlling Washington, D.C.
00:07:01.040But the vote yesterday proved that Mike Johnson is completely bought and paid for by the Democrats.
00:07:07.380Nancy Pelosi, Jerry Nadler, the two Democrats that led the effort to impeach President Trump twice, voted to save Mike Johnson, along with Hawking Jeffries and the entire Democrat leadership team.
00:07:22.200And that shows you right there that we have a lot of work to do in our GOP conference.
00:07:27.660If we're going to be the Republican majority that holds the House under President Trump, then our Republican majority needs to be whipped into shape.
00:07:36.580Because yesterday they completely capitulated to Democrat control of the House of Representatives, even though we have solid control with Republican votes.
00:07:46.240And it was proven yesterday, all the lies were proven, Steve.
00:07:50.860Democrats can't take control of the House.
00:07:53.880Hakeem Jeffries cannot become Speaker of the House because we have the votes and we hold the majority.
00:07:59.780But Hakeem Jeffries is indeed Speaker today because Democrats saved Mike Johnson.
00:08:05.060Let's say, you know, the great Matt Gaetz, I know he's a colleague of yours and been a fighter.
00:08:09.080You've gone around the nation with Congressman Gaetz, obviously has a huge following here in the war room.
00:08:14.600He put out right afterwards, I agree with Marjorie, I agree with Congressman Greene, I agree with the bill of indictment.
00:08:21.180But we have a couple of slippery colleagues in here that might flip to vote for Hakeem.
00:08:26.460And I'm very worried about him taking, actually becoming not just the de facto speaker, but actually the speaker.
00:08:53.200Because the reality and the truth is in the coming weeks, just in a few weeks, we have three more new Republicans joining us in the House of Representatives that are about to win special elections in very red seats.
00:09:05.620So if that was going to happen before I called the motion to vacate, it would have happened yesterday when I called the motion to vacate.
00:09:25.020We lost it back when Mike Johnson passed Biden's full agenda that fully funded the Department of Justice that is prosecuting President Trump and wants to put him in jail the rest of his life.
00:09:36.200This is the same Department of Justice that is politically persecuting January 6th defendants to the point where the 5th January 6th defendant that we know of committed suicide in April.
00:09:47.060So Mike Johnson fully funded the weaponized government.
00:09:51.200He weaponized the FBI, gave them a brand new building.
00:09:56.140Chuck Schumer was so happy with that second part of the omnibus.
00:10:04.920He just passed it through the Senate and then bragged about Mike Johnson, how much he likes him and how happy he is to work with him.
00:10:12.240So the reality is the Uniparty got fully exposed.
00:10:17.060And in that big exposure there, Steve, people need to realize that there was a variety of reasons that some Republicans voted to save Mike Johnson.
00:10:27.740And then there was a variety of reasons that Democrats voted to save Mike Johnson.
00:10:33.240But what got exposed yesterday, Steve, is that the people's house does not belong to the people.
00:10:39.140It fully belongs to the Uniparty and the numbers are huge.
00:10:43.300I mean, think about the fact that our Republican Party is unwilling, unwilling to stand up to a Republican speaker, throw him out, no matter what the timing is, no matter that we have an election six months away.
00:10:57.740They're unwilling to throw him out because they don't want to rock the boat.
00:11:01.060It's not because they're afraid Democrats are going to take control of the House.
00:11:04.620They're just afraid of rocking the boat and afraid how that might play out.
00:11:14.520There's a long time between now and November.
00:11:17.880And the biggest threat we have coming as we move towards the fall is the September 30th government funding deadline.
00:11:24.200And that's where we can get another omnibus crammed down our throats that pays for more of Biden's wish list, that gives Chuck Schumer more of what he wants.
00:11:33.380And the real threat is another huge package of billions of dollars going to fund the war in Ukraine, where I can tell you right now, Lloyd Austin and many, many of the people here in Washington want to put U.S. troops on the ground.
00:11:50.660And as this war is continued and peace talks are not had, that is a real threat that may happen to us because Ukraine is running out of men.
00:11:59.020They are running out of men that are able to fight, so much so that they are now drafting their own prisoners and putting them out on the battlefield.
00:12:10.020But now was the time to remove Mike Johnson as a speaker and go ahead and put someone else in that can at least hold the line until we reelect Trump in November.
00:12:21.340We'd like to hold you through the break if we can.
00:12:23.760But leading up to the break, Eli Crane was here.
00:12:36.740Last night I gave a speech in Palm Beach, Florida, totally different crowd.
00:12:42.940I said, MTG just coming for about Mike Johnson, remove Mike Johnson, most of the vacate, unanimous, standing ovation, having your back.
00:12:50.800Throughout the country, Republican voters and the people engaged in MAGA politics and Republican politics have your back on this.
00:12:58.980Is that seeped into the consciousness of the conference, ma'am?
00:13:02.340Maybe they're finding out when they get back home this weekend, Steve, as they're out campaigning for their own primary reelections.
00:13:09.720I hope they're hearing exactly what you described.
00:13:12.820I know my district is proud and is standing with me, and I'm so grateful to them.
00:13:18.180But this is why I ran for Congress, Steve.
00:13:20.220I literally walked out in 2020, and I said I'm running for Congress because I'm sick and tired of the Republican Party that never does what it says it's going to do, that never holds Democrats accountable, and never, ever pursues our agenda and puts it into action.
00:13:36.560We never defeat the Democrats with the Republican Party of today.
00:13:39.840And I ran for Congress to take a sledgehammer to the Republican establishment and to hold the Republican Party accountable because we don't have time to sit and wait while people have their big fancy fundraisers, while they go hang out with the lobbyists on K Street, and while they give their little five-minute speeches at committee hearings and they have their little Fox News hits and they talk tough on TV.
00:14:22.740You have to get into shape for competition.
00:14:25.020The competition and the race is coming in January of 2025.
00:14:28.960And if our Republican majority right now can't stand up to the Democrats while we actually hold the Speaker's gavel, then what kind of Republican House majority are we going to be when we finally get Donald J. Trump back in the White House?
00:20:06.380I ran for Congress because Republicans didn't support President Trump when he was president the first time.
00:20:11.640I'll never forget Paul Ryan and the complete failure as a speaker he was and that Republican-controlled Congress that washed their hands of President Trump and allowed the special counsel Robert Mueller to basically pursue President Trump in unbelievable politically weaponized ways.
00:20:30.580That was on the Republicans' watch, where that whole thing started, you know, and I'm done with that Republican Party.
00:20:36.780I am going to hold that type of Republican-controlled Congress completely accountable.
00:20:42.280And so that's what we're doing here today.
00:20:44.740Again, we've got to get this Republican majority in shape and actually ready to fight.
00:20:49.700Because let's talk about where we're at, Steve.
00:20:52.000We still have a stolen election from 2020.
00:20:54.560And if anybody watched the hearings from Georgia, where they were litigating and talking about where are these ballots and how many ballots are missing and talking about the different numbers and all the different counts from the 2020 election, needs to realize that we're in for a big fight for this 2024 election.
00:21:12.920And election integrity is the number one issue.
00:21:15.720And that's something President Trump has told me personally himself.
00:21:18.760So I'm going to do what President Trump says and make sure that our elections are watched, supervised closely, and do everything we can to prevent election fraud.
00:22:45.040But I'm not going to back down on holding my party accountable.
00:22:49.040We're going to do everything we can to reelect President Trump so that we can pursue our agenda in 2025.
00:22:55.540Before you bounce, Warren Posse is going to light the phones up today.
00:22:59.780What should be their message to the 196, their representatives that didn't have your back and allowed Mike Johnson in broad daylight to become Hakeem Jeffries' mini-me?
00:23:11.840That Hakeem Jeffries is now the Speaker of the House.
00:23:14.240Hakeem Jeffries told the nation on 60 Minutes on Sunday.
00:23:17.160What should they say to people when the emails are sent, the text messages, and the calls?
00:24:44.000And I've been telling my GOP conference that we have to earn the votes of the people, that we have to be a Republican majority right now that earns the majority in 2025.
00:24:55.800You can't just sit there and constantly hide behind President Trump and depend on him to drag you across the ballot because this is the last time he is on the ballot.
00:25:06.380So it's time for the Republican Party to straighten up and actually earn the votes of the American people.
00:25:13.760Congressman Green, one more time, where do people go to get all the information about you?
00:25:17.980You can follow my social media, RepMTG.
00:25:21.500And if you're willing to pitch in to help defend me and help me out, defendmtg.com.
00:25:52.660What inspired you to take on K Street?
00:25:56.440Yeah, you know, my brother and I wrote this book, and I'd covered lobbying for 20 years and realized that a lot of what you say is right, that there's sort of one establishment in Washington.
00:26:10.960And they're sort of against everyone else.
00:26:12.860And if you look at the policies that we're creating in Washington, you know, they help the well-off and the establishment at the expense of everyone else.
00:26:19.680I think that's creating a lot of these problems, both on the right that you're talking about, but also on the left.
00:26:24.360I mean, a lot of the regular rank-and-file Republicans and rank-and-file Democrats are both being sort of screwed over by the establishment in D.C.
00:26:31.840So it seemed like a worthy thing to dive into.
00:26:43.140I came up with that title late one night.
00:26:45.240It just seemed kind of a catchy thing.
00:26:46.420But, you know, we're looking at sort of some of the bad guys in Washington who are taking public policy and shaping it in ways that hurt regular people, Republicans or Democrats, and helped corporate America.
00:26:56.180And Wolves seemed like the right title for that one.
00:27:01.900I know everybody in this audience is going to get this book.
00:27:04.280Also, Patrick K. O'Donnell, the greatest combat historian, people you've supported him forever, launched his new book, The Unvanquished, a five-star review in today's Wall Street Journal.
00:30:06.340This is a guy who would not close the border, would not use any leverage at all.
00:30:10.140He had all the leverage in the world and promised us, looked us in the eye, he was going to seal the border, secure the border, no more illegal alien invasion.
00:30:18.380And now he's talking about mass deportations.
00:30:31.720You're going to start, just wait for it.
00:30:33.900We're going to get our investigation, right?
00:30:36.860Because we've dropped the hammer on these guys.
00:30:38.260The only thing they respond to is smash mouth.
00:30:42.900You would love to be able to do it anyway, reason, you know, what's the good of the people, what helps the American people, what puts America first?
00:31:01.500They're impervious, they think they're impervious to voters because of the K Street funnel of basically distorting public policy for the good of corporate interest and big donor interest.
00:31:15.220Brody Mullins, you've been the lead investigative reporter on this for the Wall Street Journal for, is it two decades, about 20 years?
00:31:35.060I mean, when I first started, we had the Republicans who were obviously the party of big business and championed lower taxes and lower regulations for companies.
00:32:13.000You know, we've had a series of open trade bills that have moved American jobs overseas and hurt American people.
00:32:19.640And that's just getting worse and worse and worse.
00:32:22.040There is a little more transparency about where this money is going, but it's still not enough.
00:32:26.720In your book, give me your theory of the case of why you called it Wolves of K Street and about K Street.
00:32:34.440Why do you, Wolves already puts in people's minds, these people are killers, they travel in packs, they're looking to devour, you know, humans.
00:32:43.160Why is it Wolves and why you use that?
00:32:45.620Why did that come to you in the middle of the night of this is the best way for me to describe it to an audience, guys going through an airport to grab the book?
00:32:52.380You know, we certainly didn't mean it in any sort of a violent way, but it is a pack.
00:32:58.040And one of the problems in Washington is that there's really only the corporate lobby talking to members of Congress.
00:33:04.440There are not interest groups for populists or progressives that really have any influence in Washington.
00:33:09.820So when a member of Congress sits down, a Republican or Democrat, when they sit down to decide whether they're going to vote on a private equity tax increase or a free trade bill or some regulation,
00:33:17.960the only people they're talking to are lobbyists, they open their office doors, there's lobbyists XYZ all down the hallway, and there's no one representing the other side.
00:35:58.620They gave all their money to Hillary Clinton because they supported sort of that pro-business center that Clinton represented.
00:36:04.080Donald Trump won because he had the people.
00:36:05.860When it comes to lobbying, it should be the same way.
00:36:08.360The companies have the power and the resources, but the people should really be able to stand up and get members of Congress to do what they want.
00:37:09.720Well, I think the other interesting thing, too, is that a lot of the firms that are representing, whether it's corporate America, but there's a lot of crossover when it comes to representing foreign interests, too.
00:37:19.480And I think my take on that and what sort of the, I think the real truth of it is, the Chinese Communist Party, all these countries that are sworn adversaries,
00:37:28.780they are strategically picking the same lobbying firms that these corporations, the American corporations are hiring.
00:37:35.740Because they see that they're dialed into the American corporations and they're getting what they want.
00:37:39.640And that's why they dovetail and say, we want these guys, too.
00:37:42.220And I think part of it, and it's more broadly what the Chinese Communist Party's kind of infiltration strategy has been as of late.
00:37:47.820I think from 2000 to 2010, sort of around the World Trade Organization entry, they were content with just influencing narratives about the rise of China.
00:37:57.020And just kind of the American economic perception that China was an economic miracle, which is why we're okay with outsourcing factories to them and inviting them in.
00:38:07.080But I think in the last decade, you've seen the Chinese Communist Party become a lot more hostile and aggressive.
00:38:11.640And I think the reason why they are putting a lot of these same firms on retainer is because they want to have control over what these companies are doing, too, right?
00:38:23.440And when you talk about the sort of elite merger going on in this country, it's very curious, right, that the China, it's not, it's not just even Chinese companies.
00:38:32.060It's Chinese embassies, Chinese, the ministries, the Chinese regime itself are hiring the same exact companies, the rather law firms and lobbying firms that American companies are.
00:40:20.720Just like Netanyahu to call the bluff of Joe Biden.
00:40:23.720Joe Biden said no arms that was already allocated by the house, no arms, no weapons.
00:40:28.460If you're going to go into Rafa and take out the Hamas, uh, brigades, Donald Trump has got the same thing with the judge.
00:40:34.100The judge says, you say anything else, you cross this line on the gag order, you're going to go to jail.
00:40:39.120Call the bluff, call the bluff on the house members.
00:40:42.580When you contact your house member today, make sure you put them on the spot.
00:40:47.180Explain to me, have the staff explain to me exactly why you backed, uh, Johnson who was saved by the Democrats.
00:40:53.120Make sure you ask them first, how does this start to build to a boil?
00:40:56.800Cause I can tell you, it's going to be a long, hot summer on the campuses, in the streets, but it's going to be a contentious summer in, uh, in, in, on Capitol Hill.
00:41:04.980Mike Johnson's running now over to Fox or Brian Kilmeade talking about what a tough guy he's going to be on mass deportations.
00:41:11.000A guy that had all the power, everything you possibly do to secure the border and didn't.
00:41:16.340Yeah, I won't hold my breath, but the reason why we're already in this period, I think of kind of stagnation is because we had a year of Kevin McCarthy, who is the epitome of the moneyed interests in Washington, DC, right?
00:41:26.560You could, you have a faceless person there.
00:41:28.000He just represents whatever the donors, right?
00:41:30.280He, he got the spot because he was good at raising money.
00:41:32.720And now you have Mike Johnson up there and look, whether it's the border election integrity, they always, the only way they introduced the legislation, the only reason that Mike Johnson is there talking about mass deportations, they probably focus tested that with like MAGA people.
00:41:46.440They think that's the red meat that they eat is because we forced him to not to do something, but just to give us an inch thinking that we'll take it.
00:41:57.320I'm so glad that you don't want to, you don't, you don't need more performative.
00:42:00.920How about this? The COVID select committee puts out a letter yesterday telling the state department that they need to give us the unredacted version of a document, very pertinent to the origins of COVID buried lead there being that it was the U S state department that covered for the Chinese communist party, not even the Chinese communist party.
00:42:15.140How about you strip them of their funding instead of sending another useless letter as Nancy Pelosi.
00:42:20.840How many letters did she ever send when she was speaker?