Firebrand - Matt Gaetz - Episode 121 LIVE: What Is Happening In The Middle East? (feat. Curt Mills) – Firebrand with Matt …

Kurt Mills of The American Conservative joins me to discuss his new book, The Bare Case for Israel: A Brief Scenario for Israel in the Middle East. In this episode, we cover: What is a bare scenario for Israel? Why does Israel need one? What does it mean for the situation in Gaza? Why is it so important to Israel to have a plan in place to respond to an attack by Iran on its territory? And what role does Iran play in all of this? Is it a factor that can be leveraged to bring peace between Israel and the Palestinians? If so, what role should it play in bringing peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis? And how can Israel and Iran work together to achieve that goal? All that and much more on this episode of Firebrand Live! Firebrand is a production of the Firebrand Podcast, a podcast that focuses on the intersection of politics, culture, technology, and culture in the modern world. Produced in Washington, D.C., and broadcast live from Room 2021 at the Rayburn House Office Building on the Capitol Complex on the West Side of Capitol Hill, where we stream live from a virtual virtual reality headset and satellite link to the real-world broadcast from the ground floor of our own Firebrand's virtual reality headquarters. Subscribe to Firebrand to get immediate access to all things Firebrand LIVE streaming wherever you get your favorite shows and social media feeds, and get access to the latest Firebranding and social medias, wherever you re listening to the most authentic firebrandism is available. Music: "Firebrand Live" - Firebrand live on the airwaves, wherever and whenever you get it's going. Download Firebrand.fm/firebrandlive? Send us your voice memo and we'll send it to us! Tweet us your answer to us on your feed! on the fastest and most authentic response to our most authentic, fastest firebrand response to this episode? We'll be listening to your thoughts and mashup on the latest episode on Firebrand in the next episode of on this week's episode of the podcast! Subscribe, tweet us your thoughts, or any other podcast you'd like us to us to say and we're listening to this podcast on the firebrand life! or your thoughts on it on the best of what we're reading or watching it on social media?

00:00:00.000 Thank you.

00:04:51.000 You're not taking Matt Gaetz off the board, okay?

00:04:53.000 Because Matt Gaetz is an American patriot and Matt Gaetz is an American hero.

00:04:58.000 We will not continue to allow the Uniparty to run this town without a fight. 1.00

00:05:03.000 I want to thank you, Matt Gates, for holding the line.

00:05:08.000 Matt Gates is a courageous man.

00:05:10.000 If we had hundreds of Matt Gates in D.C., the country turns around.

00:05:14.000 It's that simple.

00:05:15.000 He's so tough, he's so strong, he's smart, and he loves this country.

00:05:20.000 Matt Gates.

00:05:22.000 It is the honor of my life to fight alongside each and every one of you.

00:05:26.000 We will save America!

00:05:29.000 It's choose your fighter time!

00:05:30.000 Transcending the Firebrands. - Welcome back to Firebrand Live.

00:05:40.000 We are simulcast streaming from room 2021 of the Rayburn House Office Building here at the Capitol Complex on Washington, D.C.

00:05:46.000 There's plenty of Capitol Hill drama that we're going to get to with the speaker's race, a fast moving race.

00:05:52.000 People who just 24 hours ago were deemed to be never Jordans all of a sudden announcing their public support for the speaker designate.

00:06:01.000 Also, some economic news regarding how Americans are dealing with Bidenomics.

00:06:05.000 I'll get to that.

00:06:06.000 But we have a very special guest, the contributing editor at the American Conservative, Kurt Mills, someone I speak to a great deal about foreign policy here to share his perspective on what's going on in the Middle East.

00:06:18.000 The American Conservative, of course, is a publication you should all be reading.

00:06:22.000 It is the fountainhead of intellectualism for a lot of the non-interventionist right, certainly emerging from a lot of the viewpoints of one of their great founders, Pat Buchanan.

00:06:34.000 Kurt, thanks so much for joining me.

00:06:36.000 Thought-provoking piece at the American Conservative, the bare scenario for Israel.

00:06:42.000 Before we get into that piece, give me your perspective on kind of what chapter we're in in the book here in this conflict, and what do you think is animating what Americans and people around the world are observing in Gaza?

00:06:59.000 This is a lot one of the longest standing conflicts in the world.

00:07:03.000 You know, the last 10 days.

00:07:10.000 You know, I think everyone's just sort of waiting.

00:07:15.000 The Israeli response so far, you know, needless to say, already a thousand plus Palestinians have died, has been relatively restrained.

00:07:25.000 We haven't seen the Israelis go in and try to occupy the place, Gaza, door to door, a la, you know, the U.S. and Iraq or Fallujah. 0.63

00:07:36.000 Everyone's just sort of waiting to see what happened.

00:07:39.000 I think a critical component of all of this is whether or not they can establish a link between the Palestinians, Hamas, and Iran.

00:07:53.000 Now, of course, the Iranians do finance Hamas. 0.88

00:07:57.000 There is interchange there, but that is a completely different I think that would be a huge deal because the Iranian link to this,

00:08:28.000 A, B changes the nature of the Israeli war, who they target, and B would be the most likely thing that would draw the U.S. into a wider war in a real way.

00:08:38.000 So let me pause there because I think this is the biggest difference in how the Congress is observing this conflict and how the administration is because really at a bipartisan level You've got most in Congress believing that this was not a surprise to the Iranians, that there would be no Hamas without Iran, that an operation of this scale requiring this coordination, synchronization, land, air, and sea, that Iran had to be involved.

00:09:09.000 The administration, I believe, has a very different viewpoint.

00:09:12.000 I think that there are senior officials in the Biden administration who believe that Iran was just as surprised by this attack as the United States or Israel were.

00:09:22.000 And what I think I want to get into with you is how this thing gets broader.

00:09:28.000 Because right now, you're looking at essentially an asymmetric conflict.

00:09:32.000 I worry that if Iran in fact animated this attack, this operation, They would have done so with the goal. 0.99

00:09:42.000 They would have done so full knowing what Israel's response would be in Gaza.

00:09:47.000 And if the whole kind of geopolitical overlay here is Iran is feeling isolated in the Middle East with the Abraham Accords, with the red to dead water infrastructure, with the Israelis and the Saudis going into business together on technology deals and capital markets, and with the Qataris and the Israelis working together on liquefied natural gas, A conflict with Arabs on one side, the Israelis on the other.

00:10:15.000 And I worry that they're trying to draw Israel into an overreaction in Gaza and then use that as a basis to launch rockets out of Iran into Israel.

00:10:25.000 What do you think?

00:10:26.000 Yeah, that's an interesting hypothesis.

00:10:28.000 I know that I actually felt it that way.

00:10:30.000 I think it's worth underlining for your viewership.

00:10:34.000 That, of course, the Iranians and Hamas are fundamentally different in two major ways. 0.75

00:10:40.000 They're different ethnicities.

00:10:42.000 The Iranians are mostly Persian, and Hamas is Arab, and Hamas is also Sunni Muslim, and the Iranians are mostly Shia Muslim.

00:10:53.000 The government is Shia Islamic.

00:10:55.000 And so to a certain extent, this is a partnership of convenience.

00:10:59.000 And the exact level of coordination is murky.

00:11:02.000 But at the end of the day, definitely people within the Iranian elite basically view the Hamas people as savages and, you know, don't super care about them in a certain respect and, you know, would be fine if it was, you know, a choice between them. 0.54

00:11:17.000 And the Iranians to pick themselves. 1.00

00:11:19.000 I do think it's worth underlining, of course, that Hamas is a useful foil to the Israeli government. 0.97

00:11:26.000 And that's why there's such a level of coordination. 0.99

00:11:29.000 As to the actual stipulation that Iran is intentionally going in Israel into, you know, a potentially very stupid war. 1.00

00:11:37.000 And what I say is stupid. 1.00

00:11:38.000 I mean, what are the Israelis I think killing two million people is obviously off the table. 1.00

00:11:45.000 It would be massively discrediting to Israel as a nation state.

00:11:50.000 But I think also a potential occupation of Gaza is a huge mess for the Netanyahu government.

00:11:58.000 I mean, if the Israelis, you know, a thousand plus are already dead, if they get 10,000 plus killed going door to door in Gaza, I mean, that's going to A, bring down the Netanyahu government and B, you know, they just called up the 300,000 reservists.

00:12:14.000 A lot of these people are not hardened IDF soldiers like we think.

00:12:17.000 They're civilians like you or I, you know, and the idea that they're going to go door to door, I think it's just pretty risky for the Israelis.

00:12:24.000 So, yeah, it's just it's just I don't think anyone knows what they're going to do.

00:12:29.000 Mostly because we don't know how this happened.

00:12:31.000 I think as I got into my piece a little bit, nobody had this.

00:12:36.000 Nobody had Hamas as this powerful or at least this competent.

00:12:41.000 I mean, nobody had the Israelis. 1.00

00:12:43.000 This is asleep at the switch.

00:12:44.000 The piece is the bare scenario for Israel.

00:12:47.000 It's at theamericanconservative.com.

00:12:50.000 And you write about Netanyahu's agony.

00:12:53.000 What is the agony of Netanyahu?

00:12:57.000 Yeah, I mean, so just, you know, to sort of zoom out here, Netanyahu is the longest serving prime minister in Israeli history.

00:13:04.000 He's also the most important prime minister, not from the founding generation.

00:13:10.000 So Israel is founded basically by these sort of center-left socialist types after World War II. And Netanyahu is obviously a break.

00:13:18.000 He is a secular person himself.

00:13:20.000 He's not particularly religious, but he has forged a merger of basically hard-line right-wing Israeli nationalists with some of the most religious people in the society.

00:13:33.000 And Israel had really begun crafting itself as a sort of, you know, basically very different Western civilization at a time when Western birth rates are falling off The cliffs and a lot of people in the West, as I'm sure you're aware, are sort of self-hating and not proud of their countries.

00:13:50.000 The Israelis have been really going in another direction. 0.99

00:13:53.000 With some controversy, there have been massive protests within Israel, but it appeared that Netanyahu, he overperformed in last year's elections and came back to power, really was kind of on the glide path to forge a new country.

00:14:07.000 I think now the idea that he You know, his principal claim to fame, that he is the security guy, was undermined, is a big deal. 0.64

00:14:17.000 And I think, you know, there's a sort of bias that the, you know, the Palestinians are incompetent and are just going to get, you know, the Israelis are going to wipe the floor with them. 0.73

00:14:27.000 I think the Palestinians are going to suffer massive fatalities. 1.00

00:14:31.000 But in a certain sense, this is Could be pretty close to checkmate in terms of what the Israelis are actually going to do.

00:14:38.000 I mean, how are they going to take out all of Hamas? 0.99

00:14:42.000 I mean, they may be able to do it in Gaza, but are they going to assassinate Hamas political leadership in Qatar?

00:14:47.000 And I mean, I think that's just a real, real crossing of the Rubicon and pretty dangerous stuff.

00:14:53.000 One of the questions you ask in the piece, what if Israel in this period ends up being remembered as Russia?

00:15:01.000 Very provocative.

00:15:03.000 How do you think the tactics and the kind of judgment of history will weigh on these endeavors?

00:15:12.000 Yeah.

00:15:13.000 So, I mean, this is why, you know, covering national security, like, you always hear this stuff like, well, the Pentagon did a war game.

00:15:19.000 And, you know, it's just sort of laughable, all of these projections.

00:15:26.000 Given what we know about how a lot of this stuff looks when we actually get on the battlefield, people did not think, the smart set did not think the US is going to struggle as much as it did in Iraq, and the smart set did not think that Russia would struggle as much as it would in Ukraine.

00:15:41.000 And so, yes, Israel, serious country, top five military capabilities pound per pound, intelligence capabilities pound per pound, but in an actual war, full on war with Hamas, Can Israel achieve its objectives and do so at a reasonable cost to its own country?

00:16:00.000 And I think that's an open question.

00:16:02.000 Because Putin could take Ukraine by nuking the place and being persona non grata On the global stage, he is elected not to do that.

00:16:13.000 He could also mobilize everybody in Russia to fight for the war and presumably gain territory that way.

00:16:18.000 He doesn't think he can do that.

00:16:20.000 So can Netanyahu do that?

00:16:22.000 Of course, the Israelis don't, you know, concede that they have nuclear weapons, but they do.

00:16:27.000 And can they use nuclear weapons?

00:16:30.000 On a territory contiguous to them?

00:16:32.000 Probably not.

00:16:33.000 There was definitely concerns from the Russians doing the exact same thing in Ukraine.

00:16:36.000 It's still pretty close to home to do a nuclear blast.

00:16:39.000 So again, I think Israel comes out of this no matter what. 1.00

00:16:43.000 Major civilization, very important, very powerful.

00:16:46.000 But their military options potentially are way, way more limited than people had even realized.

00:16:52.000 I think Israel comes out of this a larger country, not a smaller country.

00:16:56.000 I think that you're going to have to have a lot of these Gulf monarchies involved in almost a Marshall Plan for Gaza after the Israelis lay siege to Gaza. 0.85

00:17:06.000 And I think it's really interesting you point out like the The political goals of Israel right now have to align to what you observe in the military operations, but that there are no real political goals of Hamas.

00:17:18.000 You talk about, quoting now from the piece, it is clear that Hamas has now removed itself from all talks aside from hostage negotiations for a ponderable future.

00:17:29.000 Hamas rules Gaza because the majority of the population believes in its agenda. 0.91

00:17:35.000 That's a quote that you You're bringing from an IDF lecturer.

00:17:41.000 So, you know, with Hamas having no goals, with Israel having goals that have to align to the military operation, how do you think it ends?

00:17:52.000 Well, I mean, again, I think the big question is whether or not there's going to be an Iran war about this.

00:17:58.000 I mean, this is sort of my bugbearing concern.

00:18:01.000 You could definitely see a scenario.

00:18:03.000 I mean, again...

00:18:06.000 Zooming back 20 years ago, so if this is Israel's 9-11, the US got into Afghanistan, dispatched the Taliban government from power pretty quickly, chased Al-Qaeda out of the country.

00:18:17.000 But of course, you know, the leadership of Al-Qaeda, bin Laden famously lived 10 more years.

00:18:22.000 And then in the long run of history, the Taliban is now in charge of the same territory 20 years ago.

00:18:28.000 You know, there is just the danger here of the war widening and people forgetting why this even started.

00:18:34.000 If that does not occur, and Netanyahu is able to run a disciplined operation in Gaza, and what does the disciplined operation look like?

00:18:46.000 Essentially, vaguely limiting civilian deaths in the area, and successfully assassinating The leadership of Hamas.

00:18:55.000 So I think the key ones here would be the political leadership in Gaza.

00:19:00.000 There's a head of it who's been in charge of it since the elections in 2006. There is this guy called The Guest, El-Deef.

00:19:07.000 They basically move him from house to house.

00:19:09.000 That's why he's called The Guest, if they can get him.

00:19:12.000 And then maybe if they can get the head of basically the Hamas, you know, rival group to the far, far extreme even of Hamas, the head of Islamic Jihad, And maybe that's going to be enough scalps for them to claim victory. 0.67

00:19:28.000 But again, Hamas's leadership, political leadership also exists in Qatar, as do a lot of Islamist leaderships throughout the region.

00:19:36.000 And, you know, I don't think Israel is beginning to continence a I think it's not even particularly advisable because the reality is Qatar serves a useful purpose. 0.97

00:19:53.000 It's a moderating force on a lot of these countries.

00:19:59.000 It didn't come out of this whole cloth.

00:20:01.000 Qatar was allowed to keep the lights on in Gaza because the Israeli government feared the alternative.

00:20:07.000 But now the status quo is obviously unacceptable.

00:20:10.000 I think it's a really important point about how in the Middle East with these shifting alliances and you've got the obvious tensions that persist between the UAE and Qatar, Qatar and the Saudis, the Saudis and the Iranians perhaps in some sort of de-dollarizing new phase the Saudis and the Iranians perhaps in some sort of de-dollarizing new phase of their relationship Very important.

00:20:34.000 Before I let you go, Kurt, I want to get your reaction to Speaker-designate Jim Jordan putting out a plan for the House of Representatives.

00:20:44.000 He says, Additional steps we must take to destroy Hamas and support Israel. 0.95

00:20:48.000 Iran sanctions for funding and arming Hamas, enforce existing sanctions on Iranian oil, more interceptors for Israel's Iron Dome, more precision-guided munitions, more ammunition rounds, more intelligence-sharing, replenish drained U.S. stockpiles.

00:21:05.000 That's a lot.

00:21:07.000 Your reaction?

00:21:09.000 Yeah.

00:21:10.000 I mean, look, in Republican politics and in American politics right now, it's pretty safe to target the Iranians for more sanctions. 1.00

00:21:21.000 The previous administration sanctioned them pretty much to the brink of bankruptcy.

00:21:28.000 It's just a question of what these sanctions really do.

00:21:31.000 I think we've also seen the Russia case, the limits of sanctions on a lot of these economies, and particularly for some of the de-dollarization You know, aspects that you just mentioned and referenced elsewhere.

00:21:44.000 I think it will be interesting, though, to see how this all gets kind of framed.

00:21:54.000 I mean, a sort of cut on this that I could see happening is whether or not somebody is going to convince President Biden to enter basically a war of all against all in defense of liberalism, right?

00:22:08.000 We've got to fight Ukraine over here, got to do the China war there, and got to take out Hamas and Iran. 0.99

00:22:14.000 And then, oh, by the way, we have to take out, you know, the would-be Timbuk dictator in our own country who just happens to be our principal political rival.

00:22:22.000 That would obviously convulse US politics.

00:22:26.000 But I think Jordan's statement there is well in line with Republican consensus at the moment.

00:22:33.000 Kurt Mills, contributing editor at the American Conservative, one of the people I call frequently to discuss foreign policy issues.

00:22:39.000 Thanks for sharing our conversation with my viewers, man.

00:22:43.000 Thanks so much.

00:22:43.000 Take care.

00:22:44.000 We now are going to react to the latest from FBI Director Christopher Wray.

00:22:50.000 Sasha, go ahead and play that clip.

00:22:54.000 In this heightened environment, there's no question we're seeing an increase in reported threats, and we've got to be on the lookout, especially for lone actors who may take inspiration from recent events to commit violence of their own.

00:23:11.000 So I'd encourage you to stay vigilant, because as the first line of defense protecting our communities, you're often the first to see the signs that someone may be mobilizing to violence.

00:23:24.000 I'd also ask you to continue sharing any intelligence or observations you may have.

00:23:30.000 And on our end, we're committed to doing the same so that together we can safeguard our communities.

00:23:38.000 We are back live.

00:23:40.000 Be vigilant.

00:23:41.000 That's the message from FBI Director Christopher Wray.

00:23:44.000 The very same FBI Director who oversaw an organization that turned a lot of anti-terrorism capabilities and functions internally.

00:23:53.000 Against political opponents, against people who supported the Second Amendment or who didn't want unchecked immigration into our country, now they're saying, because of our open border, because of threats to the country, Keep calling in those tips. 0.73

00:24:07.000 I think we need an FBI that's actually focused on potential harm to Americans, not becoming a political enforcement wing of either political party, and unfortunately that's what we've seen under both Republican and Democrat administrations.

00:24:22.000 The FBI unaccountable, breaking the law, and there's an opportunity cost, and you see it laid bare by the FBI director right there.

00:24:31.000 There's also cost to Bidenomics, and before we get into the ins and outs of the speaker race, we bring you to a tweet that really caught my eye from unusual whales.

00:24:41.000 Go ahead and put that up, Sasha.

00:24:43.000 Americans filed more than 39,000 bankruptcy cases in August, an 18% increase from the same point last year.

00:24:53.000 So if Americans are going bankrupt at a considerably higher rate, if our economy isn't growing as we would expect if inflation remains stubbornly high, It becomes very difficult for the Biden White House to tell you that everything is awesome, that the economy is improving.

00:25:09.000 The reality is that more and more Americans are finding themselves in a circumstance so dire that they are filing bankruptcy at a higher rate.

00:25:18.000 It shows that the interest rates that people are having to utilize to accrue debt are crushing people.

00:25:25.000 There is a direct link between the government spending that I am fighting against and rising interest rates Rising APR and increased bankruptcies.

00:25:36.000 These things are connected.

00:25:37.000 It's important you know that.

00:25:38.000 And the lived experiences of Americans, I think, are going to be very, very reflective in how people think about the economy, not just some empty White House briefing on the subject.

00:25:50.000 Alright, we're going to get into what's going on in the speaker's race, rules changes, big news, Jim Jordan putting out a letter to really try to rally Republicans to his cause.

00:26:04.000 And this is a letter, I'm going to read you parts of it, that showcase where a lot of these discussions are going, what's being highlighted, and how Jordan intends to respond.

00:26:15.000 So it's an October 16 Dear Colleague letter.

00:26:19.000 Jordan says the principles that unite us as Republicans are far greater than the disagreements that divide us.

00:26:25.000 He continues, the country and our conference cannot afford us attacking each other right now.

00:26:30.000 It is time we unite and get back to work on behalf of the American people.

00:26:35.000 We may not always agree on every issue or every bill and that's all right.

00:26:41.000 We don't march in lockstep like our Democrat colleagues.

00:26:44.000 We value the discussion and robust debate that generates effective public policies rooted in common sense conservative principles.

00:26:52.000 We've discussed frustrations about the treatment of Kevin McCarthy and Steve Scalise and the events of the past month.

00:26:59.000 The role of speaker is to bring all Republicans together.

00:27:02.000 That's what I intend to do.

00:27:04.000 We will make sure that there are more Republican voices involved in our major discussions.

00:27:08.000 Our goal will be to empower our committees and committee chairs to take the lead on the House's legislative work through regular order.

00:27:16.000 This will bring us together to pass responsible legislation to fund our government and support our military.

00:27:22.000 I will tirelessly work to defend and expand our majority and help every Republican member back at home.

00:27:29.000 When Republicans come together, there is no measure to what we can achieve for the American people.

00:27:35.000 Signed, Jim Jordan.

00:27:37.000 And that is the message from the speaker-designate.

00:27:40.000 A closing argument, if you will, before we head to the floor.

00:27:43.000 And there has been a lot of progress.

00:27:46.000 There have been some big breakthroughs.

00:27:48.000 Taking you through the timeline.

00:27:50.000 When Jordan first, you know, was in this contest for Speaker following the withdrawal of Steve Scalise from the race, 81 people originally voted against him.

00:27:59.000 They voted for Austin Scott of Georgia, who's now supporting Jim Jordan.

00:28:03.000 We had a ratifying vote thereafter that 81 had fallen to 55. And...

00:28:11.000 Time and again, we are seeing people who were in that 55 now say that as a consequence of their one-on-one discussions with Jim Jordan, their interactions with constituents, the feedback they've received from the various groups here in caucuses that they're a member of, They are coming to Jim Jordan's side.

00:28:31.000 Mike Rogers from Alabama has announced his endorsement of Jim Jordan and we're very excited about that.

00:28:38.000 Neil Dunn of Florida indicated that he will support Jim Jordan.

00:28:42.000 Ann Wagner, she was viewed as a potential significant holdout.

00:28:47.000 She now has had her concerns addressed.

00:28:49.000 And by the way, these members have a right To have a meeting, to have a discussion, and to go through where they'd like to bring the House of Representatives.

00:28:57.000 And I think if Jim Jordan is that leader, that I know he can be the type of leader reflected in this Dear Colleague letter, that he's going to win folks over and he's going to chip it away.

00:29:09.000 I count about a dozen Republicans that we can still clearly identify in the anti-Jordan camp.

00:29:17.000 But that is, again, if we're really down to about a dozen, that's down from 55, down from 81. And there may be a few others that haven't publicly identified opposition to Jordan but may not have...

00:29:30.000 We're working that list down and I'm really proud of Speaker Designate Jordan for winning over people who might not have originally been all that receptive to his message.

00:29:42.000 There's still a number of Floridians that I pray and hope I've come to the conclusion that Jim Jordan is the right choice.

00:29:49.000 Currently, Carlos Jimenez of Florida, John Rutherford of Florida, Vern Buchanan of Florida, Mario Diaz-Billard of Florida, all people I respect greatly.

00:29:58.000 They're not there yet, and we hope that they get there.

00:30:01.000 And that's why, right now, I know that Speaker-Designate Jordan is having those conversations, listening to people's concerns, And I think it's important for the American people to also continue to be enthusiastic about the Republican speaker-designate who can bring us all together.

00:30:18.000 We also hope that my friend Steve Womack, who's out there in Arkansas, a guy I know well, a guy who's helped me with a number of matters in the Congress, we hope that Congressman Womack comes on board.

00:30:29.000 And certainly the Rules Chairman, Tom Cole.

00:30:32.000 We want to see Chairman Cole right there as one of the very respected and senior members of the House of Representatives come onto the team, support Jim Jordan.

00:30:42.000 Tom Cole's always been a team player in the past, so we hope he's a team player now that the captain of the team Is a guy like Jim, a virtuous man, a godly man, someone I don't agree with on every subject, someone I've had very spirited disagreements with, but someone who I firmly believe can take the house in a better direction, and an inspired direction, frankly.

00:31:03.000 He's got that kind of capability.

00:31:05.000 Some of the concerns that people have about the speaker contest right now are about the rules and the rules that we negotiated heavily for in January.

00:31:15.000 Some people want to renegotiate or change or modify and I'm negotiable to a point because when we designed those rules, it was the first time anything like that had really been constructed.

00:31:30.000 And there are some other things that I'm fighting for that I think might provide just as much accountability or even more accountability.

00:31:38.000 One of those things is to ban members of Congress from trading individual stocks.

00:31:45.000 If we want to have a stock ban in the United States Congress, we don't need a bill.

00:31:49.000 We don't need a law.

00:31:50.000 We just need to put it in our House rules.

00:31:52.000 That doesn't require Joe Biden to agree.

00:31:55.000 It doesn't require the United States Senate to agree.

00:31:57.000 We could set rules that ban our individual members from trading stocks.

00:32:02.000 And I am negotiable to other rules changes in order to achieve that objective.

00:32:07.000 It was the subject discussed on the Hills Program Rising recently.

00:32:12.000 With particular mention for one member of Congress who had been trading some of these war stocks.

00:32:18.000 Take a listen.

00:32:21.000 According to Unusual Wales Politics, which keeps tabs on congressional trades, lawmakers on Capitol Hill have been purchasing war stocks.

00:32:28.000 Both Republicans and Democrats bought General Dynamics stocks.

00:32:31.000 And while Republicans bought more on the energy and oil front, Democrats poured their money into cybersecurity stocks.

00:32:39.000 The heavy wartime stock buying didn't just happen following the onset of the war in Ukraine, but there was a surge that hasn't receded.

00:32:46.000 In August, Mississippi Congressman Michael Guest purchased about $15,000 worth of ExxonMobil stock, currently up and trading at $109.

00:32:54.000 Per unusual whales, numerous politicians from both sides of the aisle are tailoring their investment portfolios based on these defense contractors and energy companies, all of which lobby Capitol Hill heavily.

00:33:08.000 It's just another reason we really got to ban members of Congress from stock trading, or else how can we trust that their foreign policy decision-making, to the extent Congress exerts any influence or oversight over the foreign policy perspective to begin with, but they might be making decisions that are not in the best interest of U.S. foreign policy or the safety of Americans, but are lining their own pockets.

00:33:36.000 Lining their own pockets, not something we should see from members of Congress trading individual stocks.

00:33:41.000 Michael Guest is a Mississippi congressman identified in that report from The Hills The Rising.

00:33:46.000 And get this, he's the chairman of the House Ethics Committee.

00:33:51.000 So the very person who was buying the individual stock referenced in that report critically that wouldn't be allowed if my rules changes were adopted is literally the chairman of the Ethics Committee.

00:34:04.000 Think about that.

00:34:05.000 It's quite something.

00:34:06.000 But if we're going to get this done, if we're going to take on the swamp for major ethics reforms, we have to do it in a bipartisan way.

00:34:13.000 And I'm working with California Democrat Ro Khanna, who disagrees with me on a whole host of subjects, but I'm working with him on these ethics reforms.

00:34:22.000 Rising had commentary on that as well.

00:34:24.000 Take a listen.

00:34:27.000 The truth is that it's still a narrow slice of electeds, people like Matt Gaetz, Ro Khanna, who has often been out of step with his own party on these issues as well, who are willing to go here and actually do something about it, despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of Americans do not want their Congress members to be profiting off of stocks that have serious implications for both foreign and domestic policy.

00:34:49.000 And look how Matt Gaetz is being treated by the mainstream commentariat, even some conservative commentators, as in the way, as inconvenient, as crazy that he's done something totally insane and unprecedented.

00:35:03.000 In order to advance policies, Some of the policy...

00:35:06.000 I don't agree with every policy he's probably trying to get achieved everywhere, but mostly he's making a stand about funding for Ukraine that is clearly popular.

00:35:15.000 That's what Republicans actually want.

00:35:17.000 It's what they want their leaders to do, is to rein in some of this spending for every other nation on Earth.

00:35:22.000 And he took a stand on that, and he wants to stop on the stock front, something that you could poll Americans.

00:35:29.000 It's just overwhelmingly popular.

00:35:31.000 That's what they want.

00:35:32.000 And he's being treated like he's a...

00:35:35.000 I'm a procedurally crazy person for trying to get those policies.

00:35:40.000 They totally get me, Unrising.

00:35:43.000 I am being perceived as procedurally crazy because I'm fighting for things that I think the American people want.

00:35:48.000 Banning members of Congress from becoming lobbyists, banning lobbyists and special interest money from congressional campaigns, and not allowing members of Congress to trade these individual stocks.

00:36:00.000 I think that that could restore so much confidence in the institution.

00:36:03.000 For all the criticism I get for being an anti-institutionalist, I actually think that this would advance the interests of the institution and the American people.

00:36:13.000 And guess what?

00:36:14.000 Then the things that matter to you would actually get addressed faster than whatever PAC could shuttle whatever amount of money into some powerful chairman or subcommittee Members' campaign account and leadership account.

00:36:28.000 It's just not the way we should govern anymore, and it's truly what we are fighting against.

00:36:34.000 Just got breaking news.

00:36:36.000 As we've been in this program, Florida Congressman Verne Buchanan publicly announces his support for Jim Jordan.

00:36:44.000 So that's outstanding.

00:36:46.000 Verne Buchanan, great guy.

00:36:48.000 Super generous guy.

00:36:49.000 Just one of the warmest hearts you could ever hope to encounter.

00:36:53.000 Now supporting Jim Jordan.

00:36:55.000 Let's hope that the dam breaks with some of my other Florida colleagues who still aren't there yet.

00:37:01.000 Again, we want to encourage them in the most respectful and thoughtful way because we want to see Jim Jordan get that gavel, assume the speakership, and unite this Republican caucus one step closer, just as we've been talking with Vern Buchanan.

00:37:15.000 There's other breaking news that I want to discuss regarding the legal...

00:37:21.000 Lawfare, tortured pursuit of President Trump.

00:37:25.000 There's now a gag order that was issued by Judge Chutkin in the matter that is before the DC courts.

00:37:33.000 And in that gag order, she seems to separate things that President Trump can say that constitute protected First Amendment activity and then anything to do with this particular matter.

00:37:44.000 And the line she seems to have drawn is that any mention of any person In any way involved in the fact pattern of January 6th is now somehow off limits for President Trump, whereas he can still categorize the prosecution as politically motivated and he can make critique generally of the prosecution.

00:38:09.000 One of the people that President Trump is, I guess, limited in talking about is Mike Pence, who's running against President Trump for the presidential nomination.

00:38:18.000 So this gag order is, to date, the most severe effort at election interference that we've observed.

00:38:27.000 I mean, even the indictments themselves didn't stop President Trump from talking.

00:38:31.000 But think about this.

00:38:31.000 They want to weaponize the U.S. justice system against this man because he is the leading contender for president of the United States.

00:38:41.000 And then when he wants to go defend himself and talk about these matters, they're doing everything they can to ratchet a gag order on him.

00:38:51.000 So part of the government's request here was denied in an oral ruling from the bench.

00:38:55.000 Part of it was affirmed.

00:38:59.000 We're going to break it down.

00:39:01.000 I'm sure there'll be a lot more on it.

00:39:02.000 I'll probably want to bring in one of my colleagues from the Judiciary Committee or get some perspective on how a gag order like this interfaces with the U.S. election system and what equities the Congress has to protect federal elections and stop judges from limiting the speech of candidates for federal office.

00:39:22.000 I am certain Congress has equities there, and if we don't defend them, they're going to be eviscerated by Judge Chutkin, someone who I think is well beyond the guardrails of a jurist and is actually engaging in political activity from the bench that we should not tolerate, as the Article I branch of government vested with a lot of Thank you guys so much.

00:39:48.000 Make sure that you are subscribed, that you've got your notifications turned on.

00:39:51.000 We always love it when you leave us a five-star review.

00:39:54.000 Special thanks to Kurt Mills, contributing editor at the American Conservative, for joining us.

00:39:59.000 There'll be a lot more going on this week.

00:40:01.000 Can't wait to check back in with you.

00:40:03.000 Roll the credits.

Firebrand - Matt Gaetz - October 16, 2023

Episode 121 LIVE: What Is Happening In The Middle East? (feat. Curt Mills) – Firebrand with Matt …

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