Firebrand - Matt Gaetz - Episode 130 LIVE: Congress Backs FBI – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz

On today's Firebrand Live Stream, we are broadcasting from Room 2021 of the Rayburn House Office Building in the Capitol Complex in Washington, D.C. as Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-GAZETTE) is fighting for an amendment that would prevent the FBI from getting a new headquarters larger than the Pentagon for their Washington field office. The FBI wants a massive new complex for their DC-based activities, and they want to spend more than $300 million on that complex. Though the FBI has an employee base that s about 2.3% of the U.S. military, they are asking for something that is larger than The Pentagon for the FBI, and so my amendment would disallow any planning, spending, distribution, or distribution of funds for that purpose. And that's exactly what happens. The House votes against the amendment and the FBI gets what they want, and then the rest of the House votes with the FBI. What's going on in Washington? What's the problem? What are the real problems the FBI is facing? And why does the FBI need a new HQ in the nation's capital? and why should the FBI have one in the first place? And who's to blame for it? The answer may surprise you. It's not the White House, it's the FBI! or the DOJ, and it's not even worse than you think! . Listen to find out who's responsible and who s to blame, and why the FBI should not be allowed to have a new building in the United States. and who should pay for it! Subscribe to our new headquarters! Subscribe to Firebrand Subscribe on Apple Podcasts! Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices! Download MP3 Podcasts Subscribe on Podchasermedial | Subscribe on Spare Card - use the promo code: "firebrand" and leave us a review and review our podcast on iTunes Subscribe on your favorite streaming platform so we can send you reviews and recommendations on what you're listening to us on your favourite streaming platform! Thank you for listening and sharing our podcast! Timestamps: 0:00 - What's your favorite podcast episode? 5:30 - What are you listening to? 6:15 - What do you think of the podcast? 7:40 - What would you like to do? 8:00 - What s your favorite part? 9:10 - Is the FBI a dirty cop? 11:00 | What s the worst thing you've ever heard of the FBI? 12:00 -- What s going to happen next? 13:30 -- What are your favorite place? 15:30 16:40 -- What's a good day? 17:10 -- How do you like the FBI's problem?

00:00:00.000 Thank you.

00:04:36.000 Matt Gaetz, the biggest firebrand inside of the House of Representatives.

00:04:41.000 You're not taking Matt Gaetz off the board, okay?

00:04:44.000 Because Matt Gaetz is an American patriot and Matt Gaetz is an American hero.

00:04:48.000 We will not continue to allow the Uniparty to run this town without a fight. 1.00

00:04:54.000 I want to thank you, Matt Gaetz, for holding the line.

00:04:58.000 Matt Gaetz is a courageous man.

00:05:00.000 If we had hundreds of Matt Gaetz in D.C., the country turns around.

00:05:05.000 It's that simple.

00:05:05.000 He's so tough, he's so strong, he's smart, and he loves this country.

00:05:10.000 Matt Gaetz.

00:05:12.000 It is the honor of my life to fight alongside each and every one of you.

00:05:17.000 We will save America!

00:05:19.000 It's choose your fighter time!

00:05:21.000 I'm sending the Firebrands. - Welcome back to Firebrand Live.

00:05:31.000 We're broadcasting out of Room 2021 of the Rayburn House Office Building here at the Capitol Complex in Washington, D.C.

00:05:36.000 And a big dispute over the willingness of Republicans to continue to back a corrupt FBI with all of their whims and demands has just brought down a major government funding bill.

00:05:49.000 We've been talking about these single-subject spending bills.

00:05:51.000 The single-subject spending bill that deals with general government appropriations, buildings, facilities was not brought up today as planned because of a big fight over the FBI.

00:06:01.000 You've heard me go over their abuses, their problems.

00:06:05.000 We're going to revisit some of that now.

00:06:08.000 Wherever you're watching from, in the live streams, thank you for tuning in from North Carolina, Wyoming, Florida, Arizona.

00:06:15.000 When I was in Arizona last, I was with Congressman Eli Crane.

00:06:19.000 And in the many stops we made, people consistently were focused on why money and resources continue to flow to DOJ, FBI, ATF. And folks said, use the power of the purse.

00:06:33.000 Stop it.

00:06:34.000 And what Eli Crane and I had to tell those folks at Stop After Stop in Arizona is that when we bring up the amendment just to stop giving the FBI a new headquarters larger than the Pentagon, Republicans will betray us.

00:06:53.000 They will vote against that amendment and they will stand with the FBI. Won't matter how many illegal searches.

00:07:02.000 Won't matter how many unjustifiable queries.

00:07:05.000 Won't matter what Inspector General reports say.

00:07:08.000 Won't even matter what whistleblowers say.

00:07:10.000 Republicans will bail on us and they will vote with the FBI. And that is exactly what happened.

00:07:16.000 I bring you now to the floor of the House of Representatives for my amendment to stop the FBI from being able to have a new building, a new headquarters, a new Washington field office.

00:07:27.000 Take a listen to what happens.

00:07:30.000 Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

00:07:31.000 The FBI wants a massive new complex for their Washington, D.C., area-based activities.

00:07:38.000 They want to spend more than $300 million on that complex.

00:07:42.000 Though the FBI has an employee base that's about 2.3 percent of the United States military, Mr. Speaker, they're literally asking for something that is larger than the Pentagon.

00:07:54.000 For the FBI, and so my amendment would disallow any planning, spending, distribution of funds for that purpose.

00:08:01.000 I don't believe that the FBI deserves a massive new headquarters or Washington field office.

00:08:07.000 The activities inside of Washington, the greater Washington metro area, have really driven a lot of the investigative work we have done.

00:08:15.000 It's not bad folks from the FBI out at some field office in middle America or elsewhere in the country.

00:08:22.000 It is the Washington, D.C.-based activities that have pressured other field offices for no good law enforcement reason.

00:08:29.000 It's the D.C.-based entities that have suppressed credible investigative leads into criminal conduct over the objections of other bureaus and offices, and they've initiated investigations into American citizens Merely for engaging in constitutionally protected speech.

00:08:44.000 They've attempted to entrap members of the United States Senate by holding false classified briefings.

00:08:49.000 That's testimony we got from Senators Grassley and Senator Johnson.

00:08:52.000 They've also worked hard to censor factual information harmful to their preferred political candidates, notably the Hunter Biden laptop story that the FBI, based in the DC metro area, were involved in cajoling censorship of.

00:09:08.000 Building a new headquarters would condone, reinforce, and enable the Washington field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's nefarious behavior.

00:09:16.000 We shouldn't do it, and we should adopt this amendment to ensure that's the case.

00:09:20.000 I reserve.

00:09:20.000 Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and my thanks to the minority side for giving me an opportunity to speak.

00:09:27.000 I rise in opposition to the gentleman from Florida's amendment.

00:09:33.000 We're not always going to hate the FBI. But what I do know is that when I toured the FBI headquarters, I saw it in a state of disrepair that is going to need the attention of the owners of that property.

00:09:46.000 And that's us.

00:09:47.000 The fact is, the building is crumbling.

00:09:49.000 And there's going to be a need to do something.

00:09:53.000 What that something is, I'm not an expert on.

00:09:56.000 But I think it would be wrong for us to be taking this action today, pursuant to this amendment, without having at least a hearing and an opportunity for the people responsible for the facilities, FBI, GSA, any other stakeholder, to be able to help us understand what the situation is today and what the needs are of tomorrow.

00:10:22.000 Mr. Speaker, it is not my grave concern that the FBI's building is crumbling.

00:10:26.000 It is my grave concern that the civil liberties of Americans are crumbling, and I wish we were more worried about that and less worried about whether or not we got new carpet and wallpaper at the FBI building.

00:10:36.000 My colleague from Arkansas says that the FBI headquarters is in a state of disrepair.

00:10:42.000 Mr. Speaker, it is the FBI itself that is in a state of disrepair.

00:10:46.000 And so, while my colleague from Arkansas may be right that we may not always hate the FBI, how about, while we are most concerned about the things they are doing, we not go build them a new $300 million building?

00:10:58.000 My colleague says there needs to be a hearing.

00:11:00.000 Well, let me tell you about the hearing that mattered to me, and frankly, many of my Democrat colleagues who were also worried about civil liberties.

00:11:06.000 The hearing where we learned That the FBI has conducted over 278,000 illegal queries on the FISA system.

00:11:14.000 Or the hearing that said that the Inspector General found that 38 times an hour these people were violating FISA. The notion that we would stand here and defend them, frankly, is deeply disappointing.

00:11:27.000 And I think those folks deserve to sit in the rat-infested J. Edgar Hoover building until they get their acts straight with America's civil liberties. 0.80

00:11:35.000 Our reserve.

00:11:38.000 We are back live, and the person you heard debating against me wasn't a liberal Democrat.

00:11:44.000 It wasn't a Democrat at all.

00:11:46.000 That was Arkansas Republican Steve Womack.

00:11:49.000 So a Republican was leading the debate against my amendment to not allow these hundreds of millions of dollars to go out the door for a new FBI headquarters.

00:12:00.000 Now Lisa on Facebook says it's time to dismantle the FBI and start over. 0.94

00:12:05.000 I agree.

00:12:06.000 I think if we started with a blank sheet of paper, even with the concept of federal law enforcement, it would look so different than the FBI today And we would build in, I think, a lot more of the capabilities at the state and local level to be able to solve crimes, and we wouldn't have this intelligence-gathering, political, predictive apparatus at the FBI that's been corrupted.

00:12:28.000 DEMA on Facebook says they need to move out of Washington, D.C. There actually was a proposal to move them out of the D.C. metro area to Huntsville, Alabama.

00:12:39.000 I don't know how I feel about that.

00:12:40.000 I wonder how my fellow Florida men and women feel about that.

00:12:43.000 I think we should have all of the SEC states as like a buffer.

00:12:47.000 They shouldn't be in any SECs.

00:12:49.000 That's too close to our beloved Florida.

00:12:51.000 I hear Nome, Alaska is lovely.

00:12:54.000 Never been myself.

00:12:55.000 Maybe the Mariana Islands or Guam.

00:12:58.000 That'd be a better place for the FBI. And Minnie on Rumble says, Minnie wants names who were the 70 states 70 Republicans who voted with Steve Womack and against my amendment. 0.82

00:13:14.000 These were the 70. I'm going to read you their names right now.

00:13:18.000 Don Bacon.

00:13:19.000 And again, these are all Republicans who voted with the FBI. Don Bacon.

00:13:24.000 Andy Barr.

00:13:26.000 Cliff Bentz.

00:13:28.000 Stephanie Bice.

00:13:29.000 Mike Bost.

00:13:30.000 Vern Buchanan.

00:13:32.000 Ken Buck.

00:13:33.000 Ken Calvert.

00:13:34.000 Mike Carey, John Carter, Lori Chavez-Darimer, Tom Cole, Anthony D'Esposito, Mario Diaz-Balart, John Duarte, Chuck Edwards, Jake Elzey, Randy Feenstra, Drew Ferguson, Brian Fitzpatrick, Mike Flood, Andrew Garbarino, Tony Gonzalez, Brian Fitzpatrick, Mike Flood, Andrew Garbarino, Tony Gonzalez, Jennifer Gonzalez-Cologne, Kay Granger, Sam Graves, Brett Guthrie, Ashley Hinson, David Joyce, Tom Keen, Mike Kelly, Kevin Kiley, Young Kim, David Kustoff, Darren LaHood, Nick Leloda, Doug Landborn, Mike Lawler, Laurel

00:14:03.000 Darren LaHood, Nick Leloda, Doug Landborn, Mike Lawler, Laurel Lee, Julia Letlow, Frank Lucas, Blaine, Luca Meyer, Nicole Malliotakis, Richard McCormick, Patrick McHenry, Daniel Muser, Max Miller, Blake Moore, James Moylan, Greg Murphy, Dan Newhouse, Zach Nunn, James Moylan, Greg Murphy, Dan Newhouse, Zach Nunn, J. Obernolte, Mike Rogers, Hal Rogers, Maria Elvira Salazar, Austin Scott, Pete Sessions, Mike Simpson, Jason Smith, Chris Smith, Lloyd Smucker,

00:14:32.000 Dale Strong, Glenn Thompson, Michael Turner, David Valadeo, Dale Strong, Glenn Thompson, Michael Turner, David Valadeo, Derek Van Orton, Ann Wagner, Brad Wenstrup, and of course, Steve Womack.

00:14:42.000 Those are the people who have not yet been sufficiently convinced that there is corruption in Washington, D.C. that would warrant not giving the FBI hundreds of millions of dollars in additional resources to have a massive headquarters here.

00:14:56.000 Now, is this an indictment of every single person who works for the FBI? No.

00:15:01.000 But what we learned in our investigations is that good people who worked at the FBI and other places, Wichita, Boston, They were getting misinformation, disinformation, bad information, bad instruction, and bad intentions that was all coming out of the rot of the swamp of Washington,

00:15:21.000 D.C., where people here in the FBI actually think that their job is to function as some sort of political enforcement wing, not a law enforcement wing.

00:15:31.000 And you don't have to believe me, as we've showed you before, but it is worth visiting again on the heels of that vote Here's George Hill, an FBI whistleblower, talking about how the badness comes out of Washington.

00:15:45.000 Take a listen.

00:15:47.000 The SSA in Boston said they were going to a political rally, which is First Amendment protected activity.

00:15:54.000 No, we're not uploading.

00:15:56.000 We're not starting cases on these people.

00:15:58.000 To which they said, well, we're going to call your SAC. And the SSA said, go right ahead.

00:16:04.000 Because...

00:16:05.000 When you're pushing back, you want to make sure that you have your six covered. 0.74

00:16:11.000 So the SAC and the ASAC were intimately aware of these kinds of exchanges that were going on.

00:16:19.000 And again, to his credit, Joe Bonavolante said, no, we're not opening up cases on people who went to a rally.

00:16:28.000 And I forgot a key part.

00:16:31.000 The SSA for CT2 said, happy to do it.

00:16:35.000 Show us where they were inside the Capitol and we'll look into it.

00:16:39.000 To which WFO said, we can't show you those videos unless you can tell us the exact time and place those individuals were inside the Capitol.

00:16:48.000 To which the SSA responded back and I was privy to these conversations firsthand.

00:16:53.000 Why can't you show us Why can't you just give us access to the 11,000 hours of video that's available?

00:17:02.000 Because there may be UC's undercover officers or CHS's confidential human sources on those videos whose identity we need to protect.

00:17:19.000 Don't you see?

00:17:20.000 We need more George Hills in the FBI. People who just want to get the facts.

00:17:25.000 But you had all kind of gamesmanship and politics and even seeding the January 6th riot with confidential human sources, perhaps undercover agents.

00:17:36.000 Not perhaps.

00:17:38.000 It's been functionally acknowledged.

00:17:41.000 The problems arise when more of the decision making in the FBI is made within the beltway, within the influence of D.C., not when good patriotic Americans sign up to be part of a premier law enforcement agency and are just trying to do good.

00:17:57.000 We saw that from so many whistleblowers.

00:17:59.000 We also saw systemically how the FBI has just blown through our civil liberties.

00:18:05.000 Used to be Democrats cared about civil liberties. 0.59

00:18:08.000 But when I think about the abuses of the FBI, I cannot get past their illegal queries of the FISA system.

00:18:15.000 And again, you don't have to believe me.

00:18:19.000 Listen to the Obama-appointed Inspector General Michael Horowitz talking about how abusive the FBI is to the Constitution and our civil liberties and our laws.

00:18:29.000 Take a listen.

00:18:32.000 I want to get into the 3.4 million backdoor searches that the ranking member pointed out in his opening statement.

00:18:42.000 Mr. Inspector General, how should the public think about those?

00:18:46.000 Well, I think what we've seen in the various public reports, and I'm limited in what I can say about what's public, which I think is one of the issues, by the way, that's worth talking about is transparency here.

00:18:58.000 It's obviously very concerning that there's that volume of searches, and particularly concerning the error rate that was reported on in the last two years in the public reporting.

00:19:11.000 And that error rate was what?

00:19:13.000 I believe it was around 30 percent.

00:19:16.000 I think, fellow members, I think it's around 30 percent.

00:19:21.000 I'm a lawyer, not a mathematician, but 3.4 million, about 30 percent, you're talking about Seven figures of error in terms of these searches.

00:19:30.000 I'm wondering how many people can perform these backdoor queries?

00:19:36.000 I'm going to defer to board members because you have the review ongoing.

00:19:41.000 I'm afraid I don't have those figures at my fingertips in terms of the number of people that can conduct those types of searches, but I share the concern expressed in the question that we need to Have greater safeguards, and I urge Congress to incorporate a requirement for FISA Court review of these kinds of searches to protect Americans' Fourth Amendment rights.

00:20:04.000 Yeah, 3.4 million backdoor searches, more than a million of them in error.

00:20:09.000 If I represent to you that we believe there may be north of 10,000 people in the federal government that can perform those queries, would anyone here have a basis to disagree with that assessment?

00:20:21.000 No.

00:20:25.000 10,000 people violating the law 38 times an hour for the period they were reviewed to get your information without a warrant.

00:20:34.000 Sometimes they were searching their neighbors, other families that went to school with their kids, their exes.

00:20:40.000 This is devious stuff.

00:20:42.000 So, when we had...

00:20:46.000 That amendment failed by 70 votes, and you all seem quite worked up about it.

00:20:51.000 Preg Mima on Getter says, Lord protect George Hill, and I agree with that.

00:20:55.000 But when our amendment went down, we got the conservatives together and said, well then guess what?

00:21:00.000 We're not going to pass a bill to continue this type of funding.

00:21:04.000 So the entire general government bill did not get voted on today.

00:21:10.000 Not exclusively, but in large part because of the way these guys were treating our conservative amendments.

00:21:17.000 People on this list of 70 continuously vote against the amendments to reduce spending and provide accountability offered by Republicans.

00:21:26.000 And so we're not going to vote for government spending bills that continue the status quo and the problems and that don't showcase that the accountability and oversight work we do has to be lashed to Money consequences to these different fiefdoms within our government.

00:21:44.000 That's how it has to happen.

00:21:45.000 So the bill that was planned to be passed off the floor today did not get a vote because it did not have the votes because too many so-called Republicans keep voting against actual Republican conservative amendments.

00:22:00.000 Speaking of so-called Republicans, we're now going to address the curious case of Carlos Jimenez.

00:22:05.000 Carlos Jimenez had quite an interesting reaction from a From a crowd last evening in Miami-Dade County when President Trump mentioned his name.

00:22:13.000 But before we get to that, we have to get to the backup.

00:22:19.000 During the speaker contest, there were some people who disliked me so much for whatever reason.

00:22:26.000 They wouldn't vote for Jim Jordan.

00:22:28.000 They wouldn't vote for some other conservative options that we'd put together.

00:22:32.000 And just so that you see how personal This was take a listen to Carlos Jimenez as we were ousting McCarthy and replacing him.

00:22:44.000 I think it's despicable.

00:22:46.000 I think that Matt Gaetz is looking for clicks.

00:22:48.000 A lot of the things that he said that were wrong were actually going right.

00:22:51.000 Look, I don't think it has to do with Kevin McCarthy.

00:22:54.000 I think it has to do with anybody who was there.

00:22:56.000 This would have happened because Matt Gaetz wants attention.

00:23:00.000 And so Matt Gaetz is Joe Biden's favorite Republican, without a doubt.

00:23:05.000 What this has caused, this is causing damage to the Republican Party.

00:23:09.000 People are calling me, not calling me, but there are tweets about me that somehow I'm going to vote for Jeffries for Speaker of the House.

00:23:18.000 I was one of the guys that voted to keep Kevin McCarthy, all right?

00:23:21.000 The only way that Jeffries can become Speaker of the House is because of the chaos that was caused by Matt Gaetz.

00:23:26.000 And so, no, look, I've been very consistent.

00:23:29.000 Congressman Gates tweeted this out.

00:23:31.000 He said that picking up on something that Congressman Ro Khanna put out, that they'd raise the motion to vacate threshold up if there were certain compromises like a ban on congressional stock trading, term limits to 12 years, ban on political donations from lobbyists.

00:23:46.000 Would that be a framework that you would be interested in, in raising the threshold to vacate?

00:23:50.000 No.

00:23:51.000 I'm not going to be held hostage to eight people.

00:23:53.000 Sorry.

00:23:54.000 Ain't going to happen.

00:23:55.000 So no negotiation in your mind?

00:23:56.000 No outcome on the strategy?

00:23:58.000 We can negotiate.

00:23:59.000 Maybe.

00:24:00.000 But no, this is like, again, a gun being held here in the head.

00:24:03.000 Hey, we can create chaos anytime we want.

00:24:06.000 We want these things.

00:24:07.000 Well, let's debate those things inside the conference.

00:24:10.000 Does the conference want those things?

00:24:12.000 Just because eight people, four people, five people want that, that is not the American way. 0.83

00:24:18.000 That's hostage-taking, and you don't negotiate with hostage-taking.

00:24:25.000 We're back live.

00:24:26.000 Did you not see Carlos Jimenez?

00:24:28.000 They're shilling to block a ban on congressional stock trading.

00:24:33.000 Shilling to block a vote on term limits.

00:24:37.000 Shilling to block a vote on a balanced budget amendment.

00:24:40.000 These are substantive policy issues, but you just see in his tone and in his reaction, he's just so personally worked up over his dislike for me that he's unwilling to engage in good faith negotiations to try to change Washington.

00:24:53.000 And fix the House of Representatives.

00:24:55.000 So he went on.

00:24:57.000 It's quite something when someone criticizes me for attention-seeking and then goes and seeks every opportunity to launch that criticism.

00:25:03.000 But you know what?

00:25:04.000 I think it's okay.

00:25:04.000 I think the marketplace of ideas requires us to put our vision and our viewpoint Before the public.

00:25:11.000 And then guess what?

00:25:12.000 We have elections and we have opportunities to see how the public will react to the positions that we take.

00:25:19.000 And we got to see last night how a Republican MAGA crowd in Miami-Dade County reacted to even the mention of Carlos Jimenez.

00:25:32.000 Take a listen.

00:25:35.000 And your Congressman Carlos Jimenez.

00:25:39.000 Do you know him?

00:25:41.000 Carlos Jimenez.

00:25:42.000 Some people say Carlos Jimenez.

00:25:46.000 Oh, you don't like him?

00:25:49.000 What's going on?

00:25:51.000 Carlos.

00:25:51.000 Come on, Carlos.

00:25:53.000 We got to get that straightened out.

00:25:56.000 Carlos Jimenez.

00:25:59.000 Really?

00:26:00.000 Wow.

00:26:03.000 Carlos.

00:26:08.000 I don't think President Trump really appreciated how negative that reaction would be with just the mention of Carlos Jimenez.

00:26:16.000 If Carlos Jimenez had been on that stage in Miami-Dade County, he would have been booed off of it.

00:26:22.000 And maybe it's the fact that in 2016 he said that he was voting for Hillary Clinton.

00:26:27.000 And maybe in 2018 it was that he voted for Andrew Gillum.

00:26:32.000 But maybe it was his most recent attacks against our efforts to try to improve the House of Representatives that were met With a righteous ire in lovely Hialeah in Miami-Dade County.

00:26:45.000 Stay strong to Miami-Dade and to our great MAGA friends, and we will continue our work up here to change Washington.

00:26:53.000 One person who seems to have changed his view on Ukraine, this next clip, I don't even know how to introduce it to you because when I first saw it, I thought it might have been an AI deepfake.

00:27:03.000 This is Senator Lindsey Graham Talking about his perspective on Ukraine.

00:27:10.000 And this is a real video.

00:27:12.000 Take a listen.

00:27:16.000 This is the same administration that is having more illegal immigrants cross our border illegally than all presidents combined.

00:27:25.000 They don't know what they're doing on the border.

00:27:27.000 They don't know what they're doing when it comes to bad guys.

00:27:30.000 If you had Donald Trump as president, we would secure the border tomorrow.

00:27:34.000 People would listen to him in Mexico and other places because they're afraid of him.

00:27:39.000 If he were president of the United States, this stuff with Iran would end. 0.84

00:27:43.000 The only thing that works with bad guys is to be strong.

00:27:46.000 Our border is broken.

00:27:48.000 Our policies don't work. 0.99

00:27:49.000 It's a matter of time that a bunch of Americans get killed.

00:27:52.000 I will not vote for one dime for any country, including Israel, until we first secure our own border. 0.93

00:28:01.000 We're back live.

00:28:02.000 I never thought I'd hear those words from Lindsey Graham, the prioritization over our border or Ukraine's or Israel's or any other country.

00:28:10.000 It's welcome news!

00:28:11.000 And guess what?

00:28:12.000 This shows that the feedback that people are giving right now to their elected representatives and to their senators is getting through.

00:28:19.000 We are moving the Overton window on all of this unpaid-for foreign aid that subjugates our priorities to some sort of secondary status.

00:28:29.000 The people will not take that anymore, and we'll see if the things that Senator Graham says on Hannity I hope they are, and I hope that we're able to get that border legislation up, and we should pressure Schumer on it, because they're getting hammered in New York.

00:28:49.000 Turns out when you invite all of the third world's problems to New York City, it's no sanctuary. 1.00

00:28:56.000 It's a hellhole, and the people are living in that hellhole, and they should be contacting Senator Schumer, and maybe he'll make...

00:29:03.000 A pivot or a move like we saw from Senator Graham.

00:29:07.000 One person who's had to make a move is Kevin McCarthy, former speaker.

00:29:11.000 And honestly, I hadn't thought about him in a while, but it seems I'm on his mind.

00:29:15.000 We're just getting this report from CNN. They asked McCarthy if I ought to be thrown out of the Republican conference.

00:29:23.000 And he said that the GOP would be better off tremendously if I were no longer in the party.

00:29:33.000 McCarthy, directly being quoted here, says, He doesn't have a conservative bent in his philosophy, just the nature of what he focuses on.

00:29:41.000 Matt's goal was his goal to be the TV congressman.

00:29:46.000 I think if you go and line up the number of TV interviews I've had with the number that McCarthy's had, he was sort of the TV speaker in the absence of substance.

00:29:57.000 See, this is what they do.

00:29:58.000 When I want to talk about budgets that balance, term limits, releasing the January 6th tapes, real accountability over the deep state, over the Biden family, they want to just say, oh, it's all personal.

00:30:10.000 It's all personal, but they can't address the substance because they would be greeted a lot the way Carlos Jimenez's mention was greeted in Miami-Dade County.

00:30:23.000 And here McCarthy again on whether or not he thinks the GOP should expel Gates.

00:30:28.000 Here's McCarthy.

00:30:29.000 That's up to the conference.

00:30:30.000 But I mean, I don't believe the conference will ever heal if there's no consequence for the action.

00:30:38.000 Mr. Former Speaker, thoughts and prayers as you're going through all of your stages of grief here.

00:30:44.000 I know that you mocked and made fun of Tim Burchett for praying about his decision to vote to remove you, but you're still in our prayers.

00:30:54.000 And maybe if you didn't mock prayer and engaged in some, you would have better peace and comfort.

00:31:02.000 At the end of the day, we all expect Kevin McCarthy to go back and return to the people who he's always represented in Congress.

00:31:09.000 On K Street, of course, not in Bakersfield.

00:31:12.000 I don't think you'll be seeing him walking the streets of Bakersfield anytime soon.

00:31:16.000 But the notion that the Republican conference is going to kick me out for doing something that was exceedingly popular seems unlikely.

00:31:29.000 The decision to fire McCarthy and replace him with Mike Johnson has been popular.

00:31:35.000 Popular with Democrats, popular with Republicans, popular with Independents.

00:31:39.000 It may be one of the most popular things House Republicans have done.

00:31:43.000 Now, the potential with Mike Johnson is admittedly unfulfilled.

00:31:47.000 I think we've got to give this guy the opportunity to lead.

00:31:50.000 We've got to work with him.

00:31:51.000 Where we disagree, we've got to present our ideas.

00:31:54.000 We've got to demand that we be heard.

00:31:56.000 We've got to seek not just process, but outcomes that advance the American people.

00:32:01.000 And I know that's what Mike Johnson wants.

00:32:04.000 But if what Kevin McCarthy wants is to make a motion to throw me out of the Republican conference, I guess all I can really say is bring the effing motion.

00:32:16.000 We'll be back next week.

00:32:19.000 I'll be on assignment tomorrow.

00:32:21.000 Thanks so much for tuning in.

00:32:22.000 Give us that five-star rating.

00:32:24.000 Make sure you're subscribed, notifications turned on, and roll the credits.

Firebrand - Matt Gaetz - November 09, 2023

Episode 130 LIVE: Congress Backs FBI – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz

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