Mike Johnson is the new Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States of America. He is a brilliant constitutional scholar, a family man, a devout Christian Southern Baptist, a fellow from Louisiana, someone I was elected to Congress alongside, and someone who sits literally next to me in the House Judiciary Committee. I cannot tell you how excited and vindicated I feel that Mike Johnson is now our new Speaker and that we are all going to work together to restore the people s faith in this House, in this great and essential institution, and we are ready to get to work again to solve those problems. I want to thank you all for the trust that you have instilled in me in this historic and unprecedented moment that we re in. The challenge before us is great, but the time for action is now, and I will not let you down. We know that there s a lot going on in our country, domestically and abroad. And we know the challenges you re facing, but we re ready to solve them. I m confident we can put our country back on a path to fiscal responsibility and put our fiscal responsibility back back to work. I hope that you ll join me and the rest of the Firebrands in this effort to do our part to restore our country's faith in our government and restore our faith in the people, and our ability to do the things we need to do in this country. I can t wait to get back to the work that we ve done in Washington, D.C., and I hope you do too. - Matt Gaetz Firebrand - Firebrand Firebrand. Firebrand is a show about the future of our country and our future in America, and the country we re going to do what we re supposed to do, not what we can do, and what we should be doing, and how we re here to do. Thank you for being a firebrand, and thank you for standing up for our country! in this episode of Firebrand! -Matt Gaetz, the Firebrand, the biggest firebrand in Congress. Matt, the firebrand. Firebrand Media, the podcast, the show that keeps on fighting for the country and fighting for what s our country. - Matt, and fighting to protect us, not only for ourselves, but fighting for us, and standing up to the establishment, and not letting the uniparty in this town without a fight for what we deserve to have a voice.
00:05:39.000We're broadcasting live out of Room 2021 of the House Office Rayburn Building at the Capitol Complex in Washington, D.C. This is an exciting and special episode of Firebrand because we've got a Speaker of the House, MAGA Mike Johnson, a brilliant constitutional scholar, a family man, a devout Christian Southern Baptist, a fellow from Louisiana, someone I was elected to Congress alongside Someone who sits literally next to me in the House Judiciary Committee.
00:06:08.000We work together on the Armed Services Committee to make sure that our military is protected, that we are strong, and that we are not overburdened by endless foreign wars without any goal or purpose or vision.
00:06:22.000I cannot tell you how excited and vindicated I feel that Mike Johnson is the Speaker of the House right now.
00:06:30.000I made all of you a promise when we filed the motion to vacate, that we would have a Speaker of the House who was more conservative and more honest.
00:06:38.000And we have checked those boxes thoroughly with electing Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana.
00:06:59.000To my colleagues, I want to thank you all for the trust that you have instilled in me to lead us in this historic and unprecedented moment that we're in.
00:07:09.000The challenge before us is great, but the time for action is now, and I will not let you down.
00:07:16.000I want to say to the American people on behalf of all of us here, we hear you.
00:07:32.000We know that there's a lot going on in our country, domestically and abroad, and we are ready to get to work again to solve those problems, and we will.
00:07:42.000Our mission here is to serve you well, to restore the people's faith in this house, in this great and essential institution.
00:07:53.000We are back live, and I have a high confidence level, and it seems based on the comments, so do you.
00:07:59.000Rosella Jerome on Facebook saying, I love the new speaker.
00:08:03.000We see the great Mike Johnson, a lot of America First energy, and I would agree with our Rumble commenter who said, McCarthy looked pissed.
00:08:15.000We're going to get to all the things that Kevin McCarthy did to try to scuttle this moment and sabotage Mike Johnson and really all of us in just a minute.
00:08:24.000But I want to get to the plan, because it's not just about the man, it's about the plan.
00:08:29.000Today, hot off the presses, we get a letter from House Speaker Mike Johnson regarding the path forward for the Congress.
00:08:36.000Go ahead and put that up on the screen for me, and I'll read you part of this message from the Speaker.
00:08:45.000I would begin by proposing the following immediate steps concerning our unfinished appropriations bills and our schedule for the remainder of this Congress.
00:08:54.000We all understand that our next speaker must be prepared to negotiate from a position of strength with the Democrat-controlled Senate and the White House.
00:09:03.000The only way to secure that position is for the House to have passed all 12 of our appropriations measures.
00:09:11.000I am confident we can work together to accomplish that objective quickly in a manner that delivers on our principled commitments to rein in wasteful spending and put our country back on a path to fiscal responsibility.
00:09:25.000He continues with a detailed calendar description that we will do the energy and water appropriations bills this week.
00:09:33.000We will do interior, environment, transportation, and the legislative branch next week.
00:09:38.000We will do criminal justice thereafter.
00:09:41.000And then in the week of November 13th, we will do the Department of Labor, Department of Health and Human Services, and ag as well.
00:09:51.000This is an actual plan centered around single-subject spending bills.
00:09:56.000It's a plan that doesn't require us to surrender to omnibus legislation or continuing resolutions that lead to more continuing resolutions.
00:10:06.000I had some reporters ask me, oh well, if Mike Johnson needs some sort of bridge government funding bill, will you oust him if he needs that?
00:10:17.000And we will not apply the exact same standard to Mike Johnson that we applied to Kevin McCarthy because Kevin McCarthy was so insincere and duplicitous about what he was doing.
00:10:46.000And in Mike Johnson's memo that I just detailed for you, for the month of August, he says this, Do not break for district work period unless all 12 appropriations bills have passed the House.
00:10:59.000So don't plan on your big vacation in the month of August next year under Mike Johnson if we have not completed the work.
00:11:07.000Nothing could be more invigorating to our team than unity with purpose.
00:11:14.000You've heard Republicans go on all kind of media platforms to say, oh, we just need unity.
00:12:13.000And so Mark Molinaro, a moderate freshman Republican from New York, stands up and makes sort of an obvious but yet still out-of-the-box suggestion after Tom Emmer had withdrawn from the speaker contest yesterday.
00:12:28.000Molinaro said, look, why don't we just take a poll to see where people stand on the guy who came in second to Emmer, who was Mike Johnson, and see if that's someone we could rally behind.
00:12:40.000And to do that, to take that path, we needed unanimous consent from all the members.
00:13:10.000Because as Mike was working to bring together the coalition, as he was gelling our team, McCarthy inspired a write-in campaign to get people to vote for McCarthy.
00:13:37.000And so Johnson, being the total, I think, sophisticated thinker that he is, along with Steve Scalise, said, well, if we've got 43 people still voting for McCarthy, let's have a roll call.
00:13:51.000Let's see if those 43 members will stand up and say they still want McCarthy back and suffer the ridicule that that would have brought down on them, rightfully.
00:14:01.000And those 43 votes, when we went to a roll call, Not a single person voted for Kevin McCarthy publicly, even though they were willing to do it anonymously, in private, in a secret meeting.
00:14:18.000After Mike Johnson was designated, it's typical for the speaker-designate to go out to the microphones and address the media about their plans, their vision, their prevailing in the designation election.
00:14:32.000And Mike was the first one who said, no, I'm not leaving this room and going out in front of the cameras.
00:14:37.000You're all going to stand here with me, and we will invite them in, and we will do this as a team, all united together.
00:14:45.000And he began that press conference in humble and sincere prayer.
00:14:50.000It was so touching to see this man of God with one hand on the Bible, with one hand raised, talking about how we can fulfill America's great vision together.
00:15:54.000You could also check, I don't know anything about the house, or my personal favorite, you could check the box that just says, Mercury was in retrograde.
00:16:02.000So if that's the reason you were mad at me, we will forgive you.
00:16:07.000And it's always amazing to see what the internet will generate.
00:16:11.000One thing that Speaker Mike Johnson has generated has been a lot of intense, rigorous oversight of some of the worst people in the United States federal government.
00:16:24.000The clip I am about to show you is Mike Johnson questioning Attorney General Merrick Garland.
00:16:33.000What you are about to watch is the most effective questioning that any member has engaged in this Congress with any witness.
00:16:43.000And I do not say that lightly because I think I'm pretty good at asking tough questions of people who don't want to give honest answers.
00:16:49.000But there is nothing like what you're about to watch.
00:16:52.000What was going on at the time, you had critical race theory sweeping across school boards and curriculum offices in public education all over the country.
00:17:02.000And then Garland has to deal with the fact that his own son-in-law is making money off of critical race theory.
00:17:11.000While then Garland is going after the parents who are complaining about it.
00:17:24.000Mr. Attorney General, millions of Americans are deeply concerned today that instead of addressing the most pressing issues facing our country, we're watching the Biden-Garland Justice Department be weaponized, that you are using your authorities now to advance far-left policies and attack Republican-led state actions and erode constitutional norms.
00:17:45.000The most recent case in point has been brought up this morning.
00:17:48.000Your memorandum directing the FBI and other Department of Justice officials to get involved in local school board debates.
00:17:54.000It concerns us that it was issued just five days after the National School Board Association sent a letter to President Biden which referred to concerned parents as the equivalent of, quote, domestic terrorists and perpetrators of hate crimes, unquote.
00:18:07.000Given the timing of all this, your memo appears to have been motivated by politics more than any pressing federal law enforcement need.
00:18:14.000This is concerning to us, and it's worthy of investigation.
00:18:17.000It also concerns us that your actions may have been motivated by your family's financial stake in this issue.
00:18:24.000Published reports show that your son-in-law co-founded a company called Panorama Education.
00:18:29.000We now know that that company publishes and sells critical race theory and so-called anti-racism materials to schools across the country.
00:18:37.000And it works with school districts nationwide to obtain and analyze data on students, often without parental consent.
00:18:44.000On its website, the company brags that it's surveyed more than 13 million students in the U.S. It's raised $76 million from powerful investors, including people like Mark Zuckerberg, just since 2017. My first question is this.
00:18:58.000Are you familiar with Title V of the Code of Federal Regulations, which addresses the rules of impartiality for executive branch employees and officials?
00:19:07.000I am very familiar with it and I want to be clear once again that there's nothing in this memorandum which has any effect on the kinds of curriculums that are taught or the ability of parents to complain about the kinds of...
00:19:23.000I understand your position on the free speech of parents.
00:19:28.000The question is, the question is, The thing that is concerned many of those parents that are showing up at these school board meetings, the very basis of their objection and their vigorous debate, as you mentioned earlier, is the curricula, the very curricula that your son-in-law is selling.
00:19:44.000So to millions of Americans, I mean, my constituents, I was home all weekend, I got an earful about this.
00:19:50.000Subpart E of that federal regulation says an employee of the executive branch is discouraged From engaging in conduct that's likely to affect the financial interest of someone close to them.
00:20:02.000Your son-in-law, your daughter, clearly meets that definition.
00:20:07.000And so the question is, did you follow that regulation?
00:20:12.000Did you have the appropriate agency ethic official look into this?
00:20:16.000Did you seek guidance as the federal regulation requires?
00:20:19.000This memorandum is aimed at violence and threats of violence.
00:20:58.000You're not answering my question, Mr. Attorney General.
00:21:00.000With all due respect, will you submit to an ethics review of this matter, yes or no?
00:21:03.000There is no company in America or, hopefully, no law-abiding citizen in America who believes that threats of violence should not be prevented.
00:21:13.000There are no conflicts of interest that anyone could have...
00:21:16.000According to you, but sir, with due respect, that's the purpose of the federal regulation.
00:21:20.000We need objective third parties to review our activities.
00:21:23.000You don't get to make that decision yourself.
00:21:56.000I'm not trying to be disrespectful, but you are not respecting our rules, our constitutional norms, and the federal law that directly applies to your activities.
00:22:06.000This is why people are losing faith in our institutions.
00:22:09.000They're losing faith in this Department of Justice.
00:22:11.000And you and I both know, as constitutional attorneys, that if the people lose their faith in our system of justice, if they lose their faith in the idea that justice is blind, that they're not two standards, that there's one standard of the law, and that there's one standard of the law, and that everybody...
00:22:33.000It is only getting started from the speaker's rostrum.
00:22:36.000I will definitely miss Mike Johnson sitting next to me in the House Judiciary Committee, really leaning into the important work that needs to be done.
00:22:43.000And there is some criticism of me still that I am getting in the way of that work.
00:22:48.000Matrix on Getter says, all Matt Gaetz has done is ensure that there'll be no impeachment hearings and the Biden's walk.
00:22:57.000How were the impeachment hearings going under Kevin McCarthy?
00:23:01.000Because what I saw was one impeachment hearing that began with The best Republican witness saying that he didn't believe our evidence supported impeachment.
00:23:12.000So that's what you get with someone like Kevin McCarthy and his experience trying to guide this when the reality is with a brilliant litigator and lawyer and constitutional scholar like Mike Johnson you're going to see us move at I think a lot more effective pace and with a lot more just proficiency.
00:23:35.000Proficiency that you hadn't seen under Kevin McCarthy.
00:23:38.000So judge us by the work of the Johnson Speakership, if not the reputation and the skill set that you just saw on display as he was skewering Merrick Garland.
00:23:49.000Terry on Facebook says she never doubted me.
00:23:52.000I understand we are having some technical difficulties with the Facebook stream right now.
00:23:55.000You can always watch us on Rumble.com.
00:23:57.000That's our favorite platform for viewing if Facebook is freezing up on you a little bit.
00:24:03.000And Sydney on Facebook says, McCarthy's pants were pulled down.
00:24:08.000It wasn't pretty, but it had to happen.
00:24:11.000Well, thank you for that frightening image, Sydney.
00:24:15.000There was also great discussion during the race for House Speaker and in Speaker Johnson's speech on the floor about the border.
00:24:24.000We have got to get the border under control because when these millions of people come into the country, it becomes unidirectional.
00:24:35.000And frankly, until we get the White House, the Biden administration is able to ameliorate any effort that we put forward to try to secure the border.
00:24:44.000But you got to have somebody who understands the border.
00:24:47.000Not the border between K Street and the Capitol, but the border between the United States and Mexico.
00:24:54.000Mike Johnson showed that in his questioning of Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas, who undeniably deserves censure, impeachment, ending his salary.
00:25:05.000He deserves every consequence that the United States Congress can bring to bear.
00:25:10.000Take a listen to Mike Johnson questioning Secretary Mayorkas.
00:25:16.000Can you define what misinformation is?
00:25:19.000Congressman, misinformation is false information that is disseminated to...
00:25:30.000No, who determines what is false in your agency?
00:25:33.000If you're going to pull something off the internet and collude with a social media platform to make sure Americans don't see it, Who determines what's false?
00:25:49.000We've had people testify under oath that say, and you just defined the term, you're telling me that you don't know who determines what is false?
00:25:56.000Congressman, what we do at CISA, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, is identify the tactics that adverse nation states use To weaponize disinformation.
00:26:49.000The court found specifically it's a finding of fact that is not disputed by the government defendants, the Biden administration, your agency, the FBI, or DHS. Not in the litigation.
00:26:58.000They determined you made, you and all of your cohorts, made no distinction between domestic speech and foreign speech.
00:27:05.000So don't stand there and tell me under oath that you only focused on adversaries around the world, foreign actors.
00:27:27.000Mike Johnson is a bit of a cult figure in Florida's first congressional district because as we have shared our questioning of attorneys general and FBI directors over the years, With Mike Johnson sitting next to me, you always get the best reactions.
00:27:57.000We actually think that unborn life is a child and that there is a liberty interest there that is worthy of our defense and our protection and the values that undergird the American Constitution.
00:28:09.000I don't think that's too unreasonable.
00:28:10.000And by the way, if you use a phrase in this committee...
00:28:17.000We are back live and in just moments I'll be heading to the House floor to vote on the first legislation under Speaker Johnson to express our support for the operations that Israel is conducting on their own behalf to root out terrorism in Gaza and certainly defend themselves from Hezbollah in the north.
00:28:35.000This is a land that's connected to our faith for 4,000 years and we will not allow the Holy Land to be overrun by terror and death and destruction and harm to innocent civilians who have a right to live in Israel in a Jewish state in 2023. Mike Johnson's going to be great.
00:28:57.000We've got to make sure that the war in Israel and the war in Ukraine are separate and dealt with separately.
00:29:04.000And that we are able to take separate votes on those questions because while I'm certainly open-minded to support Israel if there is an actual articulated need that they have that's not being met by the funds we're already sending there on auto-pay pursuant to a memorandum of understanding, I don't believe, I do not believe That the cause for Israel somehow has to carry with it the political anchor that is tens of billions more for Ukraine.
00:29:41.000With us extended in Ukraine, extended in the Middle East, that our deterrence in the Pacific Rim will be so diminished that China would take action against Taiwan or otherwise that they wouldn't If we weren't so overstretched.
00:29:58.000So there'll be more on what we're dealing with around the globe soon.
00:30:02.000There'll be more from Speaker Johnson.