Firebrand - Matt Gaetz - Episode 114 LIVE: Lost And Broken (feat. Rep. Adam Smith) – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz

00:00:00.000 Thank you.

00:04:35.000 You can battle congressman Matt dates 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.

00:04:58.000 Matt Gaetz right now, he's a problem for the Democratic Party.

00:05:01.000 He can cause a lot of hiccups in passing the laws.

00:05:04.000 So we're going to keep running those stories to get hurt again.

00:05:08.000 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!

00:05:17.000 You are in the right place!

00:05:19.000 This is the movement for you!

00:05:21.000 You ever watch this guy on television?

00:05:23.000 It's like a machine.

00:05:24.000 Matt Gaetz.

00:05:25.000 I'm a canceled man in some corners of the internet.

00:05:29.000 Many days I'm a marked man in Congress, a wanted man by the deep state.

00:05:33.000 They aren't really coming for me.

00:05:35.000 They're coming for you.

00:05:37.000 I'm just in the way.

00:05:43.000 Welcome back to Firebrand.

00:05:44.000 We are live broadcasting out of the Rayburn House Office Building Room 2021. The Capitol Complex in Washington, D.C. I'm told we're on a new platform now.

00:05:54.000 Kick! 0.98

00:05:54.000 So if you're a kicker... 0.98

00:05:56.000 Follow us on KICK. We're there.

00:05:58.000 Thanks for tuning in.

00:05:59.000 We've got folks from Nevada, Oklahoma, Michigan, Arizona, Hawaii, Arkansas, Florida, and Washington State.

00:06:05.000 If you're the Washington State viewers, you're going to want to stick around because at the end of this episode, I've got a terrific interview with a Democrat member of Congress I have sparred with frequently, but it's an interview that I think will give you great insights into the pressures of this job and but it's an interview that I think will give you great insights into the pressures of this job and governing and, frankly, just existing in this Congressman Adam Smith will be joining us.

00:06:31.000 He's got a new book out called Lost and Broken, and it seems that a great deal is lost and broken these days.

00:06:37.000 Also going to give you an inside look at the debate we just had on Syria on the floor, a hearing with our military personnel subcommittee.

00:06:46.000 It was one of the most uncomfortable moments for a general in front of the Armed Services Committee in a long time.

00:06:53.000 We're going to have that clip, but first, the big news on Capitol Hill today, the IRS whistleblowers, Whistleblower X, we now know as Joseph Ziegler.

00:07:03.000 They are laying out the case that in similar circumstances, anyone other than Hunter Biden would have seen a felony charge and that people were directly involved in suppressing the investigatory work with very large sums of money, tax monies owed, not paid, Hunter Biden getting special treatment. tax monies owed, not paid, Hunter Biden getting special treatment.

00:07:22.000 And you remember what they did to the FBI whistleblowers, right?

00:07:27.000 Garrett O'Boyle, Steve Friend, Marcus Allen? 0.76

00:07:29.000 They made them all out to be white supremacists, dangerous conservatives.

00:07:35.000 You know, those people that President Obama complained about clinging to guns and Bibles.

00:07:41.000 Well, you're not going to be able to make that case against the IRS whistleblowers.

00:07:45.000 You're not going to be able to smear them just because, I don't know, they're unvaccinated or conservative or they're evangelical Christians.

00:07:57.000 You're dealing with people who might otherwise be regularly counted, Among the Biden supporters, but they saw the injustice and they stepped forward.

00:08:08.000 Let's go right to Joseph Ziegler in the House Oversight Committee giving whistleblower testimony.

00:08:13.000 Take a listen.

00:08:16.000 I've recently discovered that people are saying that I must be more credible because I'm a Democrat who happens to be married to a man.

00:08:23.000 I'm no more credible than this man sitting next to me Due to my sexual orientation or my political beliefs.

00:08:31.000 The truth is, my credibility comes today from my job experience with the IRS and my intimate knowledge of the agency's standards and procedures.

00:08:41.000 In early August of 2022, federal prosecutors from the Department of Justice Tax Division drafted a 99-page memorandum In so, they were recommending for approval felony and misdemeanor charges for the 2017, 2018, and 2019 tax years.

00:08:59.000 That did not happen here, and I am not sure why.

00:09:04.000 I think we're all pretty sure why.

00:09:06.000 It's because there's a protection racket that exists for the benefit of the Bidens at the expense of the rest of us.

00:09:13.000 And really, when you're talking about Hunter Biden's tax evasion, it's the least of the Biden family's worries because increasingly, the money laundering is coming forward.

00:09:22.000 The connections to the Chinese, some shady businessmen in Eastern Europe, Was plowing cash in exchange for favors from the Bidens. 0.95

00:09:31.000 And it's all coming out.

00:09:33.000 Unfortunately, we have a Department of Justice far more interested in going after conservatives, targeting them, sending the FBI to big tech companies to censor our speech than to actually follow up on these true crimes.

00:09:48.000 I want to also give you an important update regarding work that occurred in the House Armed Services Committee today.

00:09:54.000 As I've said many times, the greatest perk of being a member of Congress above all else The opportunity to nominate our young patriots for military academies.

00:10:06.000 West Point, the Naval Academy, Air Force Academy, Merchant Marines.

00:10:09.000 You typically get to see the best of the best and on days when even you're a little down about the country or the state of affairs, when you see these brave young patriots step up to express their love of country through service in our military academies, it is revitalizing.

00:10:26.000 Well, increasingly, we have learned that at these military academies, there's been an invasion of wokeness.

00:10:32.000 And it's the radical race ideology.

00:10:35.000 It's the radical gender ideology. 1.00

00:10:37.000 You'll recall some of the slides that were being presented to students.

00:10:41.000 Ask them not to say boyfriend or girlfriend.

00:10:44.000 You had to say partner.

00:10:46.000 Not mom or dad.

00:10:47.000 You had to say parent.

00:10:49.000 You have to say y'all instead of you guys.

00:10:52.000 I guess I don't much mind y'all coming from where I come from.

00:10:56.000 But nonetheless, the lack of oversight, the lack of institutional respect for the norms and values of the country seemed to have gone away and we should investigate why.

00:11:07.000 So we had all of the service academy superintendents of their various areas before the Congress and we were asking them questions.

00:11:16.000 Now, you're about to see me question General Clark.

00:11:21.000 General Clark is the leader of the Air Force Academy.

00:11:26.000 And at the Air Force Academy, it seems as though some of this stuff has gone most sideways.

00:11:32.000 And so I'm asking him about a scholarship program that they allow to advertise and solicit on their base, and he can't even define the basic terms of eligibility drawn from radical gender ideology.

00:11:51.000 Take a listen.

00:11:55.000 A diverse and inclusive force is a warfighting imperative.

00:11:59.000 This is on a slide at the Air Force Academy.

00:12:02.000 General Clark, do you agree with that statement?

00:12:07.000 I do agree with that statement, sir.

00:12:09.000 So, I mean, were the Mongols diverse?

00:12:13.000 Well, sir, I'm not really as versed on Mongol warfighting as I am on US warfighting.

00:12:20.000 How about the Vikings?

00:12:20.000 Were the Vikings diverse?

00:12:23.000 Again, sir, I'm looking at our country, the most diverse country in the world.

00:12:27.000 Sure, but this is about a warfighting imperative.

00:12:29.000 How about the force in Ukraine?

00:12:31.000 Are the Ukrainians fighting the Russians a diverse force?

00:12:36.000 Sir, once again, my concern is the people that I'm charged to build into leaders.

00:12:42.000 Right, but you would acknowledge that throughout history, including present history, that statement hasn't borne true in every example, right?

00:12:49.000 Sir, what I would say is that those countries have to rely on the full force of their population to build a war fighting force to win our wars, and that's why it's important for us to be diverse, because our nation...

00:13:01.000 Sure, so let's look at the population that actually makes up the fighting force frequently.

00:13:06.000 Now, we have more men than women, right? 0.99

00:13:08.000 70-30-ish?

00:13:10.000 That's correct.

00:13:11.000 And of the men we have, most of them are not transgender men, most of them are cisgender men, right?

00:13:19.000 Yes, sir.

00:13:20.000 But yet, at our academies, we push something called the Brooke Owens Fellowship.

00:13:25.000 Are you familiar with that?

00:13:26.000 I am, yes, sir.

00:13:27.000 And in that fellowship, it specifically says, if you are a cisgender man, this program isn't for you.

00:13:35.000 So, you just said that your answer on why we do such this full hug of these diversity concepts is because it's all about the fighting force that we draw from But you're literally pushing a program in the academies that says, if you're a cisgender woman, a transgender woman, a non-binary, agender, bigender, two-spirit, demigender, what's demigender?

00:14:01.000 Sir, that's a term of the people that are eligible for that particular scholarship that is available.

00:14:08.000 What's a demigender person? 1.00

00:14:10.000 It's a person who looks at their gender in a different way than I do, sir.

00:14:16.000 Well, sure.

00:14:16.000 That's all of these people.

00:14:17.000 You're a cisgender man.

00:14:18.000 You don't even get to apply.

00:14:20.000 Do you know what demigender really means?

00:14:23.000 I'm not really sure, sir.

00:14:24.000 Right.

00:14:25.000 So, do you know what agender means?

00:14:28.000 All one word, not a space gender, but agender.

00:14:33.000 Sir, I don't.

00:14:34.000 Right, so here we are pushing a fellowship, calling for people that you don't even know what the words mean, and the number one group of people, the cisgender men, are excluded.

00:14:48.000 Now, in the name of diversity, equity, and inclusion, should we be pushing programs that we can't define, That exclude the largest group of service members.

00:14:59.000 Well, sir, first, that program is not an Air Force Academy program.

00:15:03.000 It's a program open to our entire country.

00:15:06.000 Right, but you guys advocate for it within the Academy.

00:15:09.000 We allow our cadets to apply for it.

00:15:11.000 Why are you allowing your cadets to apply for a program when you cannot define the basic terms of eligibility?

00:15:17.000 Because it's an opportunity for us to develop them as warfighters, and we look for every opportunity that we can.

00:15:23.000 But you don't even know what the words mean.

00:15:24.000 How can you use this as a way to develop the warfighters if you don't know what it means?

00:15:27.000 Well, some of those terms may not be applicable to us at the Air Force Academy, but some are.

00:15:33.000 Well, if you don't know what they mean, it's hard to tell if they're applicable or not.

00:15:38.000 I think one of the reasons why some of this stuff has gotten into the academies is because we don't have the same oversight from the Board of Visitors.

00:15:46.000 And, Mr. Chairman, I seek unanimous consent to enter into the record an article from the Washington Examiner entitled, To Push Wokey Ideology, Biden Illegally Gutted Military Academy Oversight Boards.

00:15:57.000 And so, in this piece, it goes through a timeline where on September 8th, 2021, all of President Trump's appointees were fired.

00:16:05.000 On September 17th, Secretary Austin created Board of Visitors subcommittees, and then he populated those subcommittees with people who weren't on the Board of Visitors.

00:16:13.000 Have you ever seen that happen before?

00:16:16.000 Sir, our Board of Visitors is populated and supports us in great fashion.

00:16:20.000 Right.

00:16:21.000 What about the subcommittee?

00:16:22.000 Are there people on the Board of Visitors subcommittees who are not on the Board of Visitors?

00:16:27.000 I can't answer that, sir.

00:16:29.000 Seems like something we ought to know.

00:16:31.000 Yes, sir.

00:16:32.000 I'm not sure.

00:16:33.000 Right, but that would be odd, right?

00:16:34.000 I mean, here, let me ask the question this way.

00:16:36.000 You don't have any basis to disagree with the reporting here in the Washington Examiner that literally we have people who are not on the Board of Visitors who are serving on these subcommittees.

00:16:45.000 You have no basis to disagree with that, do you?

00:16:50.000 Sir, I'm not exactly sure the question you're asking.

00:16:53.000 I'll have to take that for record so I can understand exactly what you're asking.

00:16:58.000 Representative Escobar.

00:17:02.000 We are back live.

00:17:03.000 Selena on YouTube says it's crazy that I even have to ask these questions.

00:17:08.000 And I'll be straight with you.

00:17:09.000 I still don't know what demigender means.

00:17:11.000 And I don't know what agender means.

00:17:13.000 And I'm not entirely sure we need to know these things to grow warfighters.

00:17:17.000 The point I was making in that hearing that I continue to make is that our military should be focused on lethality, capability, survivability, and having to worry about whether or not we've got the right number of Demi-gender people in a scholarship-fellowship program is a distraction from that mission, and oftentimes it's divisive and harmful to the very sense of unity that we're trying to create in the military. 0.97

00:17:44.000 So I know I play you a lot of these clips of me asking tough questions of these generals, and it is weird, Selena, that I have to keep doing it, but we have to shine a light on this, and that's a point that many of you have made as well.

00:17:55.000 But it's not just here in our country where our military is engaged in far-flung misadventures.

00:18:00.000 I've consistently made the argument that the United States should not be entangled in major power competition in Syria.

00:18:07.000 But one of the statutory things that allows the Syrian conflict to go on with continued U.S. entanglement is the power we have vested in the executive to declare a national emergency.

00:18:20.000 So in 2004, Nearly 20 years ago, we declared a national emergency in Syria.

00:18:29.000 And the Congress is supposed to vote on those national emergencies, their propriety, And every six months.

00:18:38.000 But we don't do that.

00:18:39.000 It allows for massive slush funds, endless wars, and a real risk of accident or escalation.

00:18:47.000 So I filed legislation to end the national emergency in Syria, believing sincerely that the United States of America is more likely to be the cause of a national emergency in Syria than the solution. 0.68

00:19:02.000 Only, I think it was like 25 or 26 people out of the 435 in Congress voted with me.

00:19:09.000 Over 300 voted the other way.

00:19:12.000 So I got killed in this vote.

00:19:16.000 But I think we won the debate and I want you to see it.

00:19:19.000 Take a listen.

00:19:22.000 I brought a war powers resolution to the floor of this Congress to get U.S. troops out of Syria, arguing that the United States being excessively entangled in great power competition in Syria wasn't making life better for Syrians, it wasn't playing out to our benefit in the sphere of great power competition, and that it left U.S. service members and contractors as sitting ducks.

00:19:47.000 And following that vote, which I lost overwhelmingly on a bipartisan fashion, sadly, there were casualties.

00:19:55.000 There was the death of an American, because we have now become the neighborhood crime watch of certain areas in Syria where there are oil rigs.

00:20:06.000 And that's what it's all about.

00:20:07.000 So I now come to the floor with this resolution to repeal a 2004 Emergency vis-à-vis Syria.

00:20:17.000 2004. Now, it's supposed to be voted on by Congress every six months thereafter, but we have been derelict in our duty in doing so.

00:20:26.000 And so I'm glad that today we're bringing forward a number of these emergency resolutions that have just been dormant slush funds, spending untold sums of money, with no transparency as to how much is going into the Syrian emergency.

00:20:40.000 But how about this rule for how about the House thinks about emergencies?

00:20:43.000 Nothing's allowed to be an emergency for 20 years.

00:20:46.000 Because if it were really an emergency, there probably would have been some cataclysmic event of biblical proportion before the 20 years.

00:20:54.000 And if it's still an emergency 20 years later, it's a chronic condition and the United States cannot be the world's policeman and we cannot be the world's piggy bank.

00:21:04.000 Now, if the principal argument against my resolution is that my resolution is soft on Assad, well, the logic that undergirds that is that somehow the 2004 resolution was this great anti-Assad tool that we must have, that we must maintain to beat Assad.

00:21:22.000 Well, look around.

00:21:23.000 Mr. Speaker, Assad's never been stronger.

00:21:25.000 So if this 2004 resolution was Assad kryptonite, it's been the worst Assad kryptonite you could ever imagine. 0.61

00:21:32.000 It's malfunctioned.

00:21:34.000 So I think we ought to repeal this emergency.

00:21:37.000 We have sought transparency to see how much money has been going pursuant to it.

00:21:42.000 We don't know the answer to that question.

00:21:43.000 And to the extent that there are sanctions that we still want to maintain, whether there are the other National emergencies that exist targeted at terrorism generally, at Russia, at Iran, the Magnitsky Act.

00:21:58.000 There are all kinds of other authorities for the President, the Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of the Department of Commerce, even the DOD weighs in, state, regarding sanctions regimes.

00:22:09.000 So this is not a vote to lift sanctions and then just hope for the best with some pretty gnarly Syrians. 1.00

00:22:15.000 In fact, it's us standing up, To do our job, and that's what we should do in repealing this 2004 resolution.

00:22:21.000 I reserve.

00:22:22.000 I can't think of a more effective way to insult the President of Israel when he stands on that podium and addresses us tomorrow.

00:22:32.000 Well, I would observe, Mr. Speaker, to the gentleman, that if he is looking for a more effective way to insult the President of Israel, he need look no further than the remarks of some of his own colleagues in the recent days, which I would deem far more insulting than this policy debate about how to have an effective sanctions regime.

00:22:52.000 No one here is arguing for sanctions relief vis-à-vis these individuals.

00:22:56.000 What we're saying is that the National Emergencies Act is a very ineffective Inefficient way to administer a sanctions regime.

00:23:06.000 We do have specific authorities with the Magnitsky Act, with the national emergencies vis-à-vis counterterrorism.

00:23:13.000 Treasury has these authorities.

00:23:14.000 State has these authorities.

00:23:16.000 And most importantly, Congress has the authority to impose sanctions.

00:23:20.000 If you believe that there are people who should be the subject of sanctions by the United States government, we are the board of directors of the most powerful country on the planet Earth.

00:23:27.000 We can introduce those bills, we can vote for them, and we can fulfill our constitutional authority.

00:23:32.000 What I'm asking the Congress to do is to repeal a 2004 emergency vis-a-vis Syria when Syria doesn't look anything like it even did in 2004. And to my Republican colleagues, if you vote to allow This national emergency to continue. 0.69

00:23:47.000 What you're doing is you're gaslighting unaccountable spending by the Biden administration because they never have to make requisite report regarding the outlays on these matters.

00:23:57.000 And the money just moves around.

00:23:58.000 We never quite see the efficacy of it.

00:24:01.000 And we are all strong supporters of Israel on this side of the aisle.

00:24:06.000 Certainly, and I would observe that U.S. policy in Syria has not particularly helped Israel.

00:24:11.000 Matter of fact, when you had terrorist groups setting up camps in Syria directed at Israel, you know what the Israelis did?

00:24:17.000 They took them out.

00:24:18.000 They blew them up.

00:24:19.000 That sent a message to Iran? 0.79

00:24:21.000 The balance of power was restored and it did not involve the United States of America becoming the bloc captain of Syria or anywhere else in the Middle East.

00:24:30.000 And if we want to do that, it should be through a war powers resolution with Congress affirmatively voting to do it, not just having rolling national emergencies.

00:24:37.000 When the law contemplates a requisite obligation for us to vote to reauthorize these things, we never do it.

00:24:44.000 We don't do our job.

00:24:45.000 Then the money goes out the door and we don't see a safer Israel, a safer Middle East, or a safer Syria.

00:24:51.000 All we see is an empowered Assad. 0.81

00:24:53.000 So if this is the great tool we had against Assad, we better be thinking of some different ones because it hasn't exactly worked out as the proponents of this national emergency would seemingly indicate.

00:25:02.000 I yield back.

00:25:05.000 If I don't mind saying so myself, I think we won that debate overwhelmingly.

00:25:10.000 Burl on Facebook agrees, says he wants to see a vote every six months, or this should be void.

00:25:16.000 Marla says that it is super bad that I only got 25, 26 of my colleagues to vote with me.

00:25:22.000 I would agree, but we have to smoke them out.

00:25:24.000 We have to show who's voting with the people of this country and who is voting to be the Syria block captain.

00:25:32.000 And we also have Alan observe that The GOP is a little top-heavy with rhinos. 0.88

00:25:39.000 Quite the observation, Alan.

00:25:41.000 Moving now from the GOP to an interview I'm very excited about.

00:25:45.000 Congressman Adam Smith wrote a book called Lost and Broken.

00:25:48.000 This may be one of the least political policy interviews that we've done on Firebrand, We have human beings who serve in this Congress, who are policy makers, who have the frailties and foibles and follies of regular folks, and when those are confronted in the crucible of this place, it oftentimes can lead to lessons that maybe our Firebrand viewers would enjoy and could use to help others.

00:26:13.000 So please enjoy my extended interview with Democrat Congressman Adam Smith.

00:26:21.000 Get ready for a very different kind of interview.

00:26:24.000 Firebrand viewers will be familiar with Congressman Adam Smith.

00:26:28.000 He hails from the state of Washington, a beautiful part of our country.

00:26:32.000 He's the former chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and he is currently the lead Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee.

00:26:38.000 Now, we've had many spirited debates about military policy and our beloved service members, and we usually play those debates right here on Firebrand and discuss them, and you can clearly see that Representative Adam Smith is very sharp, very quick rhetorically, and if I don't mind saying so, A very worthy debating adversary when we disagree.

00:26:58.000 And I think it's a good thing for the country to see lawmakers disagree on substance while actually addressing the substance and not just trying to cancel one another.

00:27:09.000 There have certainly been times in my seven years here when Congressman Smith has convinced me to change my view on matters.

00:27:15.000 Specifically, he's often effectively pointed out when we're making expensive military systems that are not useful to the warfighter.

00:27:24.000 The littoral combat ships come to mind.

00:27:26.000 I don't know if I've ever convinced Congressman Smith to hold my point of view on something, and I certainly won't force him to make an admission of that here today.

00:27:34.000 But here's some advice to every viewer of this program.

00:27:37.000 At least a few times a year, read a book from an author that you might fervently disagree with on something.

00:27:45.000 I do this quite frequently.

00:27:46.000 It's how I came to read the essential text of critical race theory, which we highlighted on this show years ago.

00:27:52.000 So, Congressman Smith has recently written a book that I highly recommend fitting within this portfolio of observing and understanding and flushing the issues out on.

00:28:03.000 And that's true even if you don't agree with Adam on a variety of other things.

00:28:09.000 It's not particularly a book about Congress or policy or politics, though there are juicy insights on all of those things.

00:28:15.000 The book.

00:28:17.000 Lost and Broken is about pain, anxiety, and the overall state of the human condition.

00:28:24.000 Representative Smith has endured an incredible personal journey, and I've been reading books by members of Congress for more than a decade, and I can honestly tell you I have never seen a book where a member of Congress, currently elected, was more personally vulnerable and honest about crippling challenges with Focus and strength and a number of matters that we're going to discuss.

00:28:48.000 So we hope lost and broken no more.

00:28:50.000 My colleague Adam Smith joins us now.

00:28:52.000 And Adam, maybe start with just letting people know the journey you've been on.

00:28:57.000 Sure.

00:28:57.000 And first of all, thank you for having me on.

00:28:58.000 I completely agree with everything you just said.

00:29:00.000 And you have at least convinced me on the medical marijuana issue and on the need for allowing service members to test whether or not drugs can help them with their PTSD issues.

00:29:10.000 So there are issues.

00:29:11.000 And I agree with you.

00:29:12.000 We should have those debates.

00:29:13.000 Now the issue is I had a severe anxiety and chronic pain problem.

00:29:18.000 And my book actually starts in 2016 after my third hip surgery, which I was not getting better from.

00:29:25.000 And the anxiety really hit me in 2013. Chronic pain hit me in 2014. By 2016, I thought I was never going to solve the problem, bottom line.

00:29:34.000 I had tried all kinds of doctors and psychiatrists and all kinds of different things and I was in worse shape than ever.

00:29:39.000 So then I sort of figured it out.

00:29:41.000 I eventually did find people who could help me.

00:29:43.000 So what the book does is it talks about how I got there because pain and anxiety rarely just sort of pop up.

00:29:49.000 I really had to go back into my full history as a person.

00:29:52.000 And then most importantly, how I got out, and if I have one big message on this, you can get better.

00:29:58.000 There are treatments for both mental health and chronic pain, and I hope I can help people find that path.

00:30:03.000 As you've been talking about it, you know, we say anxiety and chronic pain almost as one continuum, but talk about how those two conditions inform on one another.

00:30:12.000 Yeah, no, it's really interesting, and we don't fully understand, to tell you the truth, but it is absolutely true that Mental health conditions like anxiety or depression can trigger pain in your body.

00:30:23.000 Now, in my case, I had two separate sets of problems.

00:30:26.000 The pain certainly contributed to the anxiety and vice versa, but I had a knee surgery when I was a kid.

00:30:32.000 I never properly rehabbed from it.

00:30:34.000 My body, after 30 years, eventually broke down.

00:30:37.000 And mental health-wise, I had a problematic childhood.

00:30:40.000 Hard to explain.

00:30:41.000 I was adopted.

00:30:42.000 There was all kinds of issues involved there that I never truly dealt with, which really triggered the anxiety.

00:30:47.000 But they can definitely feed off of each other.

00:30:50.000 And the anxiety was first for you.

00:30:52.000 What do you think that people get wrong most about the challenge of confronting anxiety and working through it?

00:31:00.000 Wow.

00:31:01.000 A lot of answers occur to me, but I'll go with two.

00:31:04.000 Number one, I think, certainly for me, one of my challenges when the anxiety hit me was, there's no way to fix this.

00:31:12.000 Okay, I mean, what is a doctor going to say to me?

00:31:14.000 I mean, I understand, okay, if my knee hurts, okay, maybe I need surgery, maybe I need physical therapy.

00:31:21.000 I think all the time.

00:31:22.000 How am I going to change the way I think to stop having anxiety come?

00:31:26.000 And that's a fundamental misunderstanding.

00:31:28.000 You can, in fact, change the way that you think.

00:31:31.000 You can teach your brain to better deal with the stresses and strains that you face in life.

00:31:35.000 Second thing I really didn't understand was this concept that's going to sound a little loopy, but the basic idea, you have to have a sense of your own self-worth.

00:31:44.000 And if you don't, You are going to have a lot of problems, and it's a lot harder to have than you think it is.

00:31:50.000 That basic...

00:31:51.000 Well, the Buddhists would refer to it as the concept that we are all worthy of love.

00:31:55.000 If you don't understand that about yourself, you're in a bad place.

00:31:59.000 And it took me a long time to grasp that.

00:32:01.000 It doesn't seem like a...

00:32:04.000 An easy place to arrive if that is a challenge that presents.

00:32:07.000 We're joined by Congressman Adam Smith.

00:32:09.000 The book is lost and broken.

00:32:11.000 He's describing it and it couldn't have been an easy decision to write this book because in politics we always want to present the toughest, most impenetrable version of ourselves in campaigns and in legislative debate.

00:32:27.000 Did you have to go through a process to be so fulsome in describing the experiences you've had?

00:32:32.000 Well, yeah, but I think the process I went through was those six years.

00:32:36.000 I can't remember what it was, but I was getting some surgery or something, and you're in an embarrassing position and everything, and the nurses and the doctors are like, now, are you okay with this?

00:32:45.000 And I'm like, at this point, okay, yes.

00:32:48.000 I mean, I've I've been through three surgeries, psychiatrists, everything.

00:32:53.000 I had felt already so exposed to the broader world that I guess I felt more comfortable sharing it more broadly.

00:33:01.000 And also, second big lesson after the self-worth thing is, if you're going to get to a proper place in terms of mental health, you have to be honest with yourself.

00:33:10.000 Because a lot of what drives us to anxiety is Is that you are suppressing things.

00:33:15.000 Maybe you're angry about something that you're hiding.

00:33:18.000 You're in a relationship or in a job that you know you have to keep so you kid yourself about whether or not you really like it.

00:33:24.000 Or things from your childhood that you're either angry about or feel guilty about.

00:33:28.000 So good mental health, being honest with yourself.

00:33:31.000 You can lie to other people.

00:33:33.000 You may have to to get through the day, but you have to be honest with yourself.

00:33:37.000 And I felt this was one of the best ways, A, for me to do that.

00:33:40.000 And B, to show people that this is one of the paths to getting better.

00:33:44.000 I want to understand techniques that you use.

00:33:47.000 Some people are big into meditation.

00:33:51.000 Others, I know you're a big go on walks guy.

00:33:54.000 If you stand in one place in Washington, D.C. long enough, you'll see Adam Smith walk by it.

00:34:00.000 At one point or another because you're sort of always on the move.

00:34:04.000 But if someone's going through anxiety and they don't know that they have access to exquisite tools, what's some of the advice you would give?

00:34:13.000 Meditation is one big thing.

00:34:14.000 And I was really intimidated by meditation because, well, I used to joke that I'm really stressed out because I don't have enough time to meditate, which seems like counterintuitive.

00:34:23.000 And then also when I do meditation, the idea is, you know, clear your mind, right?

00:34:27.000 And I'd be sitting there and I'd get, oh, I thought of something, you know, so I've failed.

00:34:31.000 That's not what meditation is.

00:34:33.000 What meditation can teach you to do is not to chase after every thought.

00:34:38.000 You have to give your mind space to not try to process everything.

00:34:43.000 To just experience what's going on around you.

00:34:45.000 So a couple minutes a day, whether I'm on a walk or brushing my teeth, I'll just say, okay, I'm not going to try to solve any problems right now.

00:34:52.000 Thoughts are going to occur to me.

00:34:53.000 I'm going to hear things.

00:34:54.000 I'm going to notice them and let them go.

00:34:57.000 And when you train your mind to do that, that's the other thing I do on my walks.

00:35:00.000 I don't take my phone with me, which drives my staff crazy occasionally.

00:35:04.000 Yeah, I bet they love that.

00:35:05.000 But it's like you have to give yourself some space where you're not constantly reacting to everything around you.

00:35:13.000 And the biggest lesson that this taught me was you don't have to solve every problem.

00:35:17.000 In fact, we get the question all the time.

00:35:19.000 I'm sure you get it.

00:35:20.000 What keeps you up at night as a member of the Armed Services Committee?

00:35:22.000 And I always have the same answer now.

00:35:24.000 Nothing keeps me up at night because that's not going to solve anything.

00:35:28.000 Okay, me staying up for an extra two or three hours, I'm not going to somehow solve the problem.

00:35:32.000 And I didn't used to know that.

00:35:33.000 I used to think, okay, if there's something out there in the universe that's unsettling to me.

00:35:37.000 I have to solve it.

00:35:38.000 I have to deal with it before I can relax.

00:35:41.000 And I'm like, you're not going to solve every problem.

00:35:43.000 They'll be there in the morning when you get up.

00:35:45.000 Deal with them then.

00:35:47.000 Just like every person's physical health oscillates throughout their life, there are times when you're a little more healthy or a little less healthy, I would presume mental health probably doesn't follow the same linear track.

00:35:57.000 I know in my life it certainly hasn't.

00:36:00.000 And in low points, I lean on my spouse.

00:36:04.000 I lean on faith.

00:36:06.000 You've got a very successful marriage.

00:36:08.000 What were some of the places that you always knew you could go in tough times to ensure that you were able to reset the course?

00:36:17.000 Well, I'm a little bit more introverted, and certainly there are people that are good to be around and good to talk to.

00:36:23.000 But I always say it's three things.

00:36:26.000 Sports, exercise, and humor.

00:36:28.000 Those are the three things that I lean on.

00:36:31.000 I love working out one kind or another, and I will spend an enormous amount of time thinking about what the Mariners should do at the trade deadline, which helps me go.

00:36:39.000 And also, if something strikes me funny, which, by the way, is part of the reason why I like engaging with you.

00:36:44.000 You are a clever, intelligent person.

00:36:47.000 I don't agree with you on a lot of things, but I totally agree.

00:36:50.000 We have a good back and forth.

00:36:52.000 Those things seem to give me space to let the problems go.

00:36:57.000 You know, it's interesting you mention sports because for me, thinking about Florida State University football or thinking about sports, We have to find, I think more of those places to go.

00:37:18.000 You know, when I was growing up, whether you were a Seminole or a Gator mattered a lot more about who you could be friends with and whether you were a Republican or a Democrat. 0.91

00:37:26.000 And I wonder if there are assemblies of people, whether it's churches or otherwise, that give us more of a platform to be able to escape kind of the anxieties that drive, no matter what your life is and your profession is.

00:37:40.000 Yeah, I agree.

00:37:40.000 I think it's going to be different for different people, but you do have to find those things that just bring you simple joy.

00:37:46.000 I think it can be really stressful, particularly in our profession.

00:37:49.000 You know, and I think you and I are very similar, and I think that we...

00:37:51.000 We think a lot about, okay, I'm trying to get something done.

00:37:54.000 What's the right answer?

00:37:55.000 How do I solve this?

00:37:56.000 How do I do that?

00:37:57.000 You can really get yourself on a treadmill there that never stops if you don't take a step off and think about something like sports that ultimately doesn't matter.

00:38:06.000 It's fun.

00:38:08.000 It is.

00:38:08.000 It brings me joy, so why not focus on it?

00:38:11.000 I'd love to know, you know, you're a leader among House progressives, you're a leader in the national security entities.

00:38:19.000 How have colleagues of yours reacted to really just such an honest and bare bearing of the journey you've been on?

00:38:27.000 Well, very positively.

00:38:29.000 I think that the best thing one member just said to me just last week, he had been struggling with anxiety.

00:38:34.000 He didn't think he could address it.

00:38:36.000 Reading my book made him think, yes, and he said he had the best week of his life because he actually started to address it.

00:38:42.000 They've told me stories about family members many times themselves as well.

00:38:47.000 The other way is a number of members have come up to me and said, hey, I had no idea you were going through that.

00:38:51.000 You know, some have apologized, which is completely unnecessary.

00:38:55.000 You can't know everything that's going on around you, number one.

00:38:58.000 And number two, I will tell you that professionally, Mac Thornberry, former chair of the committee, who was chair right before I was, contacted me about this.

00:39:07.000 And that committee and the staff and all members, Republican and Democrat alike, in fact, I quote Michael Turner in the book at one point, were incredibly supportive to me throughout this process, and I really appreciate that.

00:39:21.000 Yeah, I mean, you know, we see even during committee at times when there'll be a debate or discussion, you'll stand up, take a few walks around the room and sit down.

00:39:30.000 And I wonder sometimes whether that's physically you wanting to get the muscle movement going or whether or not there's actually a mental health component of getting up and moving around.

00:39:39.000 And I found walking around a little bit more frequently improves my mental health.

00:39:44.000 So the walking around has a dual benefit.

00:39:47.000 Well, the good news at this point is I'm doing it just because I like to move.

00:39:51.000 There was a number of years there.

00:39:53.000 Gosh, there were times when I had to lay down on the floor in the other room because my back was killing me.

00:39:58.000 Like I said, from 2014 to 2018, it was because I can't sit here.

00:40:04.000 I'm in too much pain.

00:40:05.000 I've got to get up and move.

00:40:06.000 But now, it's just a thing that I do.

00:40:11.000 Lost and Broken is the book.

00:40:12.000 Adam Smith is the congressman.

00:40:15.000 Final note I want to end on.

00:40:16.000 We're really entering an era where there's a lot more, I think, diagnosis on the mental health front, a lot of recognition.

00:40:23.000 To be candid, it's not your generation.

00:40:26.000 It's this Zoomer generation that seems more self-aware on these matters, whereas the Gen Xers and the Boomers were probably dealing with these things without some of the tools and resources that we now know to be available. 0.98

00:40:41.000 I worry at times about the overindulgence of that, that if we want to still ensure that people confront their challenges and deal with them and don't just cloak it in a sense of, well, I'm mentally unhealthy.

00:40:54.000 What's the most encouraging thing you could say to someone who's aware that they are going through chronic pain or anxiety and they want to know that there's a better way ahead?

00:41:05.000 Well, as with most things in life, it's about balance.

00:41:08.000 And I would say generationally, you're absolutely right.

00:41:10.000 One of the big positives is younger generations are now willing to talk about these things.

00:41:16.000 There was an older ethos that was, now keep it to yourself, don't talk about it, don't engage in it.

00:41:21.000 But that has to be headed somewhere.

00:41:24.000 And I do worry, as you said, the younger generation, I don't want to just talk about it.

00:41:28.000 I don't want a solid excuse for why my life's miserable.

00:41:31.000 I want a path to a solution.

00:41:33.000 There has to be a resiliency here, not just, you know, as you said, an overindulgence, but okay, what's going on with me?

00:41:40.000 How can I get better so that I can lead a healthier and more productive life and be a more responsible person?

00:41:47.000 So, I would say the most optimistic thing, just, gosh, since I wrote the book, I wrote it in 2020 during the pandemic, I think there has been an opening in which a lot more people are speaking openly about mental health, which is step one.

00:42:00.000 But you've got to get to step two, which is how do you get better?

00:42:02.000 How do you find those treatments that can help you?

00:42:05.000 I sincerely hope that the readers of this book are able to access that critically important step to a more constructive way to think about these things.

00:42:14.000 The book is Lost and Broken.

00:42:16.000 The Congressman is Adam Smith from the great state of Washington.

00:42:20.000 And I feel smarter having conducted this interview, and I'm sure that folks will feel smarter if they get the chance to read your book.

00:42:26.000 Thanks for joining me.

00:42:27.000 Thanks, Matt.

Firebrand - Matt Gaetz - July 19, 2023

Episode 114 LIVE: Lost And Broken (feat. Rep. Adam Smith) – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz

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