Firebrand - Matt Gaetz - Episode 103 LIVE: DeSantis & Disney, Mayorkas & Mexico – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz

Ron DeSantis and Walt Disney are in hot water over a new lawsuit filed by the Florida governor against him. Is this an effective effort to fight corporate welfare, or is it just pure virtue signaling and professional wrestling? And who are the new members of Florida's new state board of directors that the governor is putting in place to replace the one that was appointed by the outgoing governor, and what does that mean for the future of the state's tourism industry and its ability to generate tax revenue? Firebrand breaks down all that and much more on this week's episode of the Firebrand Podcast. Subscribe, Like, and Share to stay up to date with the latest Firebrand news and discuss all things going on in the world of politics, culture, entertainment, and business! Resources Mentioned: The New York Times Bestselling Author of The Devil Next Door Robert Downey Jr. s The Assassination of John McCain, Jr. The Man Who Could Not Read a Quran Matt Gaetz's Alex Mayorkas's The Deep State Chuck Todd s What the Deep State Has to Do with the Homeland Security Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkos Andrew Yang's And much more! Subscribe to Firebrand on Apple Podcasts Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about our Sponsorships and become a supporter of our Sponsored Podcasts Become a Friend of The Firebrand Firebrand. Subscribe and Retweet us on Anchor.fm.fm/Firebrand and leave us a Review & Retweet Usual Rate Us a Review on iTunes Support Us on Review & Share Us on Reviews and Reviews on PODCAST Thank You Review Us on Podcasts & Subscribe on Podchromeo.fm Share Us On Social Media Subscribe To Our Podcasts and Subscribe On Spare Credits: Subscribe On iTunes Learn More About Us On Podchronicity & Shoutout To Our Insta-Friendship Leave Us Out There On The Podcasts On The Same Day & Subscribe On A Podcast About This Podcasts And We'll Be Receipts On It Will We'll Have A Podcast Out There Will Be A Podcast On The Next Episode Soon Learn More On This Week 5/27th Day Thanks for Listening To Our First Episode on This Will Be Released On Thanksgiving Day, November 18th, November 27th, 2019

00:00:00.000 Thank you.

00:04:48.000 Matt Gaetz was one of the very few members in the entire Congress who bothered to stand up against permanent Washington on behalf of his constituents.

00:04:55.000 Matt Gaetz right now, he's a problem for the Democratic Party.

00:04:58.000 He can cause a lot of hiccups in passing applause.

00:05:01.000 So we're going to keep running those stories to keep hurting him.

00:05:05.000 If you stand for the flag and kneel in prayer, if you want to build America up and not burn her to the ground, then welcome, my fellow patriots!

00:05:14.000 You are in the right place!

00:05:15.000 This is the movement for you!

00:05:17.000 You ever watch this guy on television?

00:05:19.000 It's like a machine.

00:05:21.000 Matt Gaetz.

00:05:22.000 I'm a canceled man in some corners of the internet.

00:05:25.000 Many days I'm a marked man in Congress, a wanted man by the deep state.

00:05:30.000 They aren't really coming for me.

00:05:32.000 They're coming for you.

00:05:34.000 I'm just in the way.

00:05:40.000 Welcome to Firebrand.

00:05:42.000 We are recording on assignment in the state of Florida, but there are a few topics I've got to give you an update on.

00:05:48.000 And I've got sort of a strange, bizarre personal story at the end of the episode you're going to want to stick around for.

00:05:54.000 Trust me.

00:05:55.000 I've got updates regarding Alejandro Mayorkas, the Homeland Security Secretary, who definitely deserves impeachment.

00:06:02.000 What he said about Mexico and how astonished even Chuck Todd was.

00:06:08.000 But I do want to begin here in Florida with an update regarding the Florida story that seems to be getting everyone's attention.

00:06:15.000 That is DeSantis and Disney.

00:06:17.000 And the operative question in this whole saga between Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the Walt Disney Corporation is whether this is a true, sincere effort to crusade against corporate welfare Or whether it's just virtue signaling and professional wrestling.

00:06:37.000 So I'm going to lay out what's going on in this saga and then you decide.

00:06:42.000 Is this Governor DeSantis really cracking down with an effective effort against that type of corporate welfare?

00:06:49.000 We oppose.

00:06:50.000 Or is it something else and is there a willingness to maybe still treat Disney a little different than everyone else gets treated in the state of Florida?

00:06:59.000 So, the new theater in this fight is a lawsuit that Disney has filed against Governor Ron DeSantis.

00:07:06.000 They've filed that lawsuit against him in his official capacity.

00:07:09.000 And the principal claim in that lawsuit is that their First Amendment rights have been violated and they are being retaliated against as a company based on their opposition to the legislation that Governor DeSantis signed that the Florida Legislature passed that stopped some of this radical gender ideology from being taught in taxpayer-funded public schools.

00:07:31.000 So they go through that change in CEO. But Governor DeSantis takes note of the fact that Walt Disney actually has a very special privilege in Florida that a lot of corporations don't get.

00:07:45.000 The territory they reside in has been designated a special district, the Ready Creek Improvement District.

00:07:52.000 And there's a board that typically It's but an extension of Disney.

00:07:58.000 Typically the board of the Reddy Creek Improvement District, where Disney's parks are, they're just vassal states of Disney.

00:08:06.000 There's no arm's length relationship between them and the corporation.

00:08:10.000 They're there to just perform on what the corporation sets forth.

00:08:15.000 So DeSantis gets the authority, lawfully, to appoint the board.

00:08:20.000 And he's going to appoint people that have an arm's length relationship with Disney.

00:08:25.000 Now again, that doesn't sound retaliatory to me to just say, look, this has got to be something where you don't just dictate the terms under your own private government.

00:08:36.000 There has to be some accountability.

00:08:38.000 If people don't like who the governor appoints, they can vote against the governor.

00:08:43.000 That's the beauty of a system that is just not run by corporate technocrats, but with some sense of political oversight.

00:08:52.000 So DeSantis appoints his new board members.

00:08:55.000 And in the final moments of the outgoing board, they totally bind the new board and make an agreement with Disney That gives all the power to the Disney corporation that was supposed to reside in the special district.

00:09:09.000 So what sounds shadier and swampier to you?

00:09:13.000 Governor DeSantis wanting appointees on a public board performing a public purpose over a private corporation or a private corporation Using its vassal state board members to shred any sense of public oversight of this property and to just allow Disney to do what they want for whatever they want.

00:09:35.000 Something that regular landowners don't have.

00:09:38.000 We usually have to live under the regulations of our counties, our cities.

00:09:42.000 Disney prefers their oversight to be captive like Rapunzel, not responsive, like Governor DeSantis would seemingly have it be.

00:09:51.000 Now, Disney has had a very large role in the economy, image, brand of the state of Florida for more than half a century.

00:10:00.000 They, in many ways, have helped Florida avoid a state income tax by generating so much tourism, tourism that then spills over and creates benefit for other parts of the state.

00:10:10.000 So don't count me among those.

00:10:12.000 Who simply want to have an adversarial relationship with Disney forever.

00:10:16.000 We would like to see Disney be a good corporate partner of the state, just like the state wants to be a good partner for all of our citizens.

00:10:23.000 Nothing political about that.

00:10:25.000 Just how a representative republic is supposed to work.

00:10:29.000 But they have had so much influence.

00:10:33.000 They've been able to wrap the apparatus of state government around their particular business model, so much so that last year I pointed out a few examples of this on Firebrand.

00:10:45.000 Take a listen.

00:10:47.000 For quite some time in the state of Florida, if the Walt Disney Corporation opposed a piece of legislation in the state capitol, it was deemed to have a fatal rodent problem and it was unlikely to become law.

00:11:01.000 Disney had enormous power in Florida legislative politics, in part because they employed an army of lobbyists to dole out millions of dollars in political donations.

00:11:11.000 I'm talking about millions of dollars.

00:11:13.000 And in exchange, they expected favorable treatment from lawmakers, maybe a little more than their fair share.

00:11:20.000 The lobbyists were there to enforce the implicit deal.

00:11:24.000 I mean, look at what Florida did to bend over backwards for Disney over the years.

00:11:28.000 Florida created a state agency out of nothing, largely to subsidize Disney's vast marketing budget through an entity called Visit Florida.

00:11:36.000 It's quite literally corporate welfare.

00:11:40.000 Florida created an entire municipality, a city, just to give infrastructure grants to Disney directly on Disney property.

00:11:49.000 Want to know why Florida doesn't have stronger laws against illegal immigration?

00:11:53.000 Disney supports illegal immigration.

00:11:55.000 They love that it's downward pressure on wages.

00:11:58.000 Florida's premises liability laws have basically been written by Disney for 20 years.

00:12:05.000 So, fast forward to today.

00:12:07.000 Now Disney is filing suit because they allege this retaliation by DeSantis.

00:12:13.000 And it's my assessment that DeSantis is entirely within his rights to take the action that he has taken.

00:12:20.000 And the real challenge is the outgoing board's rush to surrender the rights that should have been transferred.

00:12:27.000 Now, the question remains, is DeSantis using the right tools here?

00:12:30.000 And that's what I want to talk about next with Disney.

00:12:33.000 Or, as I posited in the opening, is this more like professional wrestling?

00:12:38.000 Vivek Ramaswamy was on Meet the Press yesterday, and he leveled a charge of crony capitalism directed at Disney by Governor DeSantis.

00:12:48.000 That he was actually creating exemptions to help them.

00:12:51.000 Take a listen.

00:12:53.000 Let me ask you about the Disney dust off with Ron DeSantis.

00:12:56.000 On one hand, I assume you agree with pushing back at Disney the way Governor DeSantis has rhetorically.

00:13:03.000 But is there a point where you think it is too much to use government to punish business?

00:13:09.000 Here's where Ron DeSantis really lost it here.

00:13:12.000 He's gone on the wrong path.

00:13:13.000 He claimed, and this part actually sounded good to me, Disney should have never had crony capitalist lobbying-related privileges in the first place.

00:13:21.000 Here's the part he doesn't mention.

00:13:22.000 One of those crony capitalist privileges was, and I think the most relevant one, Was codified into law by none other than Ron DeSantis in 2021. So Florida passed this political anti-discrimination statute, which I applauded at the time.

00:13:36.000 It said if you operate internet companies, this includes streaming services like Disney does, that you can't engage in viewpoint discrimination.

00:13:43.000 Now here's the funny dirty little secret of that.

00:13:45.000 They wrote into a last minute exception into that law for anyone who also operates a theme park more than 25 acres in the state of Florida.

00:13:53.000 For doubt.

00:13:54.000 That's crony capitalism.

00:13:55.000 And so the irony is Ron DeSantis, who's now railing against crony capitalism and rolling that back, was the one who actually passed that into law for the case of Disney.

00:14:04.000 So I think that undermines the credibility of his crusade.

00:14:07.000 I prefer to get to root causes rather than doing political stunts.

00:14:12.000 Special carve-outs for Disney is still happening to this day.

00:14:15.000 I argued in an opinion piece recently for the Orlando Sentinel that there were special tax privileges that Disney had that needed to be extinguished by the Florida Legislature.

00:14:25.000 You can look it up.

00:14:26.000 It was April 8, 2022, about a year ago.

00:14:30.000 Rep Matt Gaetz closed tax loophole that benefits Disney and others.

00:14:35.000 And I think that would be a far more effective tool.

00:14:38.000 Now, the bottom line is that DeSantis has not acted outside of his powers, but there still is a lot of special treatment that Disney is getting.

00:14:48.000 So, that said, if Governor Ron DeSantis wants to be the great white knight of the anti-Disney culture war, he should not swallow special carve-outs in law like those that Ramaswamy pointed out.

00:15:01.000 He should also call for a change in Florida tax law, as I pointed out in my piece in the Orlando Sentinel.

00:15:09.000 The House immigration bills are out of committee.

00:15:12.000 They're getting ready for the floor.

00:15:13.000 I've told you on Firebrand, Kevin McCarthy committed to a May floor vote for a tough but fair pro-America, America First immigration plan.

00:15:26.000 And it looks like we're getting ready for just that.

00:15:28.000 Kevin McCarthy keeping that promise to move that immigration legislation.

00:15:33.000 It's out of committee.

00:15:34.000 It has the E-Verify features.

00:15:35.000 It has the asylum reforms.

00:15:37.000 Remain in Mexico. 0.99

00:15:38.000 Safe third country.

00:15:40.000 But recently I took note, it was actually just on Sunday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Meet the Press, here's what he had to say about Mexico.

00:15:51.000 Take a listen.

00:15:54.000 Is it time to deal, I mean, I know some people are calling for more direct military confrontation with these cartels, or to call them terrorist organizations, but is it time for a strategy that is similar to what we did with the Colombian cartels in the 80s?

00:16:06.000 So, a couple things.

00:16:08.000 Number one, we are taking it to the cartels with unprecedented strength and focus.

00:16:14.000 And there's a misperception that Mexico is not a good partner in our fight against Is that government an ally or not?

00:16:22.000 They don't act like an ally these days.

00:16:24.000 They are an ally, and we have a very close partnership with them.

00:16:27.000 Then how come they don't help on this fentanyl stuff?

00:16:29.000 They seem to just ole this.

00:16:30.000 That is a misconception.

00:16:32.000 I will tell you that we have transnational criminal investigative units.

00:16:36.000 Our Homeland Security Investigations personnel are in Mexico.

00:16:41.000 AMLO denies it, though.

00:16:42.000 AMLO himself denies it in public that somehow they're having anything to do with fentanyl trafficking.

00:16:49.000 Chuck, I can't speak to his public statements.

00:16:52.000 I can speak to what happens on the ground operationally, and we work very closely with our Mexican partners.

00:17:01.000 I don't know where Mayorkas gets off saying that Mexico has been some great ally.

00:17:08.000 Even Chuck Todd pushes back on Mayorkas. 1.00

00:17:12.000 Is Mayorkas covering for Mexico? 0.93

00:17:14.000 What would be in That for him.

00:17:17.000 It's so obvious what is going on.

00:17:20.000 The Mexican government is corrupt to the core and it is an open secret that the cartels and the military often provide notice to one another, give permission to one another.

00:17:32.000 And in some places, the cartels have considerably more operational control even than the Mexican military.

00:17:39.000 But yet we're calling Mexico this great ally in the fight.

00:17:42.000 I got a list of just some of what we've seen from Mexican officials and their own operations.

00:17:48.000 So just this year, Gennaro Garcia Luna, the former Secretary of Public Security in Mexico, was convicted by a federal grand jury in Brooklyn, New York, five counts, with a superseding indictment charging him with engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise that includes six drug violations,

00:18:09.000 international cocaine distribution conspiracy, conspiracy to distribute and with the intent to possess cocaine, conspiracy to import cocaine, All kind of ties with the Sinaloa Cartel, all kind of references in this trial to the millions of dollars in bribes that slush around between the Sinaloa Cartel and government officials,

00:18:31.000 so much so that that's often the retirement plan for these government officials, to go work for the Sinaloa Cartel, as happened in this case and as this conviction showcases.

00:18:42.000 And in this case, Luna, who was the former public security chief, was actually organizing the safe passage of the cartel's drug shipments.

00:18:52.000 They were passing along sensitive law enforcement information about ongoing investigations into the cartel.

00:19:00.000 And then to boot, they were helping some cartels in their battles and rivalries with other cartels.

00:19:07.000 So literally weaponizing the government of Mexico to go and mediate cartel turf battles and drug battles.

00:19:15.000 Sound like a great ally?

00:19:17.000 Certainly not.

00:19:18.000 There was a New York Special Agent that gave testimony in this trial, and I want to read it to you.

00:19:23.000 Quote, He's right on the money.

00:19:41.000 Is not a bug in the system.

00:19:43.000 He is a feature of the system and it is repeatable over and over.

00:19:48.000 There's another case I want to let you know about, Emilio Lozoya.

00:19:51.000 Now, Lozoya is the former head of Mexico's state oil company.

00:19:56.000 He is also under fire now for corruption charges and he has been singing like a bird.

00:20:01.000 According to a leaked deposition from this particular case, You have this guy, this former head of the cash cow that was the energy entity, saying that three former Mexican presidents were on the dole taking bribes.

00:20:16.000 And that a lot of those bribes were directly linked to cartel activity, to illegal campaign financing.

00:20:25.000 The reason that these three former presidents, former head of public security, former head of the energy entity, are able to get away with this for so long, the reason they're able to do so much harm is because they get cover from people like Alejandro Mayorkas.

00:20:46.000 When he says that Mexico is a great ally, it gives cover to a lot of the very operations that are going to benefit one cartel against another or all of them against us.

00:20:57.000 Now, as a proof of this dynamic, I can just tell you when I went to Yuma, Arizona, we saw the cartel caravans of people and the military ATVs going back and forth at times within a few feet of each other.

00:21:13.000 Everybody knows the deal.

00:21:15.000 Everybody knows that the cartels are moving people through, the military provides a permission structure for that to occur, and it's our country that has all these terrible challenges that result from millions of people coming in without permission or process.

00:21:31.000 Also, I think indicative of this corruption and this lack of focus on partnerships that would work, AMLO, the current president of Mexico.

00:21:43.000 We detailed on a previous episode of Firebrand how when he met with Secretary Blinken, they talked about eroding borders between the United States, Mexico, Canada, just creating one unified North America.

00:21:57.000 It sounded terrifying.

00:21:59.000 Well, now what AMLO is saying about the fentanyl epidemic is that it results from, quote, a lack of hugs.

00:22:08.000 So if you're one of the parents out there who's had to revive a child, maybe you didn't get the chance to revive a loved one who died from a fentanyl overdose, AMLO is saying it's your fault for not hugging them enough.

00:22:22.000 How utterly disrespectful and how Detached from the actual role Mexico is playing as a turnstile with these Chinese component parts manufactured in Mexico, moved across the border to every community in our country. 0.99

00:22:40.000 And now we see the result in our morgues, in our ERs, and in the future consequences of all of our lives.

00:22:48.000 Right now, these cartels are a very difficult dynamic to control.

00:22:55.000 And they've been able to get larger because U.S. leaders go down to Mexico, meet with these Mexican officials, act as though everything is hunky-dory.

00:23:03.000 And the reality is the Mexican government is in unity government with the cartels in far too many cases.

00:23:10.000 So we'll continue to call out Mayorkas and hope that in the future he's able to call out America's enemies rather than describing them as allies. 0.99

00:23:20.000 So in Northwest Florida right now, it's festival season.

00:23:24.000 Don't think Coachella or Bonnaroo or Burning Man.

00:23:28.000 Think more seafood and art and culture and wine.

00:23:32.000 You see, in the spring months of April and May and in the fall months of September and October, in Northwest Florida, we don't have the usual rush of summer-driven tourism.

00:23:45.000 And so we call those times in the spring and in the fall our shoulder season.

00:23:50.000 And during shoulder season, a lot of entities come together to put on a songwriter festival or a seafood festival or a wine festival or an art festival because that brings people in when the weather is warm, when the fish are biting, when life is great and there are hotel accommodations and lodging accommodations usually at a bit of a deal and our world-class restaurants are able to show off and they've got plenty of tables available while people are here.

00:24:18.000 This past Saturday my wife Ginger and I attended the South Walton Beaches Wine and Food Festival at Grand Boulevard in Sandestin in Walton County, Florida and we were enjoying catching up with new friends and old and folks recognized me and so we were taking pictures and having polite conversations and as I was chatting with one gentleman A lady threw a drink on the both of us and she was promptly arrested.

00:24:46.000 I want to thank the great folks at the Walton County Sheriff's Office who ensured that this did not escalate and that everyone is kept safe.

00:24:53.000 And I want folks to know why we press charges in circumstances like this.

00:24:58.000 It's quite alright for folks to let their voice heard with an opinion or a comment.

00:25:03.000 Folks can shout and scream all they want.

00:25:05.000 This is America and people ought to be able to say what they believe, what they desire, even offer criticisms or critiques of people in public life.

00:25:15.000 But if we start allowing stuff to be thrown or hurled, if we allow people to be harmed, there is a severe risk of escalation and accident.

00:25:26.000 And we don't want to see anyone in harm's way, whether it's family members, supporters, or even our detractors.

00:25:35.000 We want them to be safe, too.

00:25:36.000 But when they Really cross the Rubicon beyond just words to throw in stuff and striking me and striking a gentleman I was speaking with with a drink.

00:25:47.000 Well, then that really has caused harm to our community and it's something that we want to contain and extinguish and not see going forward.

00:25:55.000 So as I understand it, the person who was arrested is Selena Chambers.

00:26:00.000 She was charged with two counts of battery, and of course, she is a left-wing author.

00:26:08.000 Her stuff is not exactly my type.

00:26:11.000 It seems after the 2016 election, based on some of her writing, she became very obsessed with Donald Trump, and she engaged in something called a resistance expression.

00:26:22.000 And I'm quoting directly from one of her works here, quote, Resistance is expression that can take a physical form.

00:26:30.000 She's also a donor to the Joe Biden presidential campaign.

00:26:34.000 She talked about her emotional turmoil following the 2016 election and just going through some of the stuff she's written.

00:26:43.000 It is it is really bizarre.

00:26:45.000 She writes about feminist surrealism and I had to review what that entailed and she says that women need a surrealist survivor kit and it needs to include psychoanalysis, mythology, memoirs, Satanism, there's connections to Wiccan life in some of this so Very strange, but you know what?

00:27:13.000 Whenever there's a conservative who acts out of line, it's like the biggest story in the world.

00:27:18.000 But when you get a radicalized leftist breaking the peace in my community who traveled here, by the way, from Tallahassee, Florida, I doubt it'll get the same pickup, but we'll make sure that there are appropriate consequences through the legal system because that's what the safety of our community demands.

00:27:37.000 Thanks so much for joining me on Firebrand.

00:27:40.000 Make sure you are subscribed with notifications turned on.

00:27:42.000 Leave us a five-star rating if you're listening on one of our listening platforms.

00:27:46.000 And we'll be back soon with more Firebrand.

00:27:48.000 Roll the credits.

Firebrand - Matt Gaetz - May 02, 2023

Episode 103 LIVE: DeSantis & Disney, Mayorkas & Mexico – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz

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