Firebrand - Matt Gaetz - Episode 137 LIVE: Seminole Snub (feat. Mark Kaye) – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz

In this episode of Firebrand, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-GA) and I discuss the College Football Playoff selection committee's decision to leave the undefeated Florida State Seminoles out of the CFP, and why that s a travesty. We also discuss why Joe Biden should not be allowed to run for re-election in 2020 and why he should be replaced by someone who s actually good at what he does. And we talk about why Florida State should have been given a shot at the CollegeFootball Playoff. Firebrand is a production of Native Creative Podcasts. Our theme song is Come Alone by Suneaters, courtesy of Lotuspool Records. Music by PSOVOD and tyops. Words and Music by Zapsplat and the Vigilante Crew. All rights reserved. Used by permission. No commercial use, unless otherwise stated. We do not own the rights to any music used in this episode. This episode was produced, produced, and distributed under license from any other artists, websites or other works. If you or someone else owns the rights, we are not compensated for any of the music used, we do not in any way. Thank you for the use of any of our music, music, or any other services provided. It was produced or provided to us by our patrons. The opinions expressed is solely those of our patrons and partners in any other third parties. . We are not responsible for their own distribution of music, credit and distribution of any other music, other than that of any third parties or services provided by any other than those of their respective record labels, including those of which we have been compensated for their fair use. Thanks to our patrons, we have no obligation to provide any other compensation. or other compensation or compensation, except where credit given to any third party services, other such considerations. , etc., etc., other such compensation is not required, etc., except where appropriate, etc. etc., we are solely responsible for our patrons choose to be compensated for such compensation. Thank you. Tweet us out of our own use of our work or service provided by the public relations services, etc.. we have received in any such as a third party or other such as or any such service provided. We thank you for your support or support is being compensated for our work. - Thank you, you can be reached out to us.

00:00:00.000 Thank you.

00:04:35.000 Thank you. .

00:04:43.000 Matt Gaetz, the biggest firebrand inside of the House of Representatives.

00:04:52.000 You're not taking Matt Gaetz off the board, okay?

00:04:55.000 Because Matt Gaetz is an American patriot and Matt Gaetz is an American hero.

00:05:00.000 We will not continue to allow the Uniparty to run this town without a fight. 1.00

00:05:05.000 I want to thank you, Matt Gaetz, for holding the line.

00:05:09.000 Matt Gaetz is a courageous man.

00:05:12.000 If we had hundreds of Matt Gaetz in D.C., the country turns around.

00:05:16.000 It's that simple.

00:05:17.000 He's so tough, he's so strong, he's smart, and he loves this country.

00:05:21.000 Matt Gaetz.

00:05:23.000 It is the honor of my life to fight alongside each and every one of you.

00:05:28.000 We will save America.

00:05:30.000 It's choose your fighter time.

00:05:32.000 and send in the Firebrands. - Welcome back to Firebrand.

00:05:42.000 We are live broadcasting out of room 2021 of the Rayburn House Office Building here on the Capitol Complex in Washington, D.C. We've got new evidence regarding impeachment and Joe Biden directly benefiting from the Hunter Biden shell companies that were moving funds from a lot of corrupt foreigners into the family members of...

00:06:00.000 In fact, Joe Biden and Joe Biden himself.

00:06:03.000 We've also got more evidence about Bidenomics continuing to fail, showing economic decline and becoming a bit of a political albatross.

00:06:12.000 House Democrats indicating that they might not even be campaigning on the Bidenomics brand, designating it as tone deaf, of course, as stuff continues to cost more and the American people continue to have lower and lower prospects of their economic future.

00:06:26.000 Running on Bidenomics is a bad idea and acting it into policy an even worse idea.

00:06:33.000 But I have to start with the story that's got everyone in the Sunshine State fuming.

00:06:38.000 The Florida State Seminoles undefeated ACC conference champions left out of the college football playoff.

00:06:45.000 This committee of oracles sit together and they were able to determine that the four teams that would compete for the national championship would include two teams, Alabama and Texas, who had indeed lost a game when the Knowles had gone undefeated.

00:07:01.000 The College Football Playoff Committee asserted that the reason?

00:07:04.000 An injury to FSU star quarterback Jordan Travis in the North Alabama game several weeks ago showcased a different style of Seminoles offense.

00:07:15.000 Well, you know what?

00:07:16.000 I believe that because Florida State showed diversity in their capability of winning, they ought to have been rewarded, not punished by the college football playoff committee.

00:07:25.000 They won games scoring over 40 points, like in the first game of the season against LSU. They continued to have a dominant offense.

00:07:33.000 Of course, the quarterback, Jordan Travis, being central to that.

00:07:36.000 But even after his injury, the Noles showed they were able to win with a backup quarterback.

00:07:43.000 In Gainesville, a hostile environment.

00:07:45.000 Our friends down there in Hogtown, not always too hospitable to the Knolls.

00:07:50.000 But then also with defense.

00:07:52.000 They say defense wins championships, but I guess it couldn't get you into the championship game if you're the Knolls.

00:07:58.000 They held a Louisville team with a pretty sophisticated offensive scheme.

00:08:04.000 A good quarterback and plumber held them to just field goals.

00:08:09.000 Showed championship caliber defense defense.

00:08:12.000 But not allowed to play.

00:08:14.000 Show different ways to win.

00:08:15.000 Not allowed to play.

00:08:17.000 Instead, people get to play for the championship.

00:08:19.000 Lost games.

00:08:21.000 And is it just me or does this signal a societal turn away from merit and winning towards sophistry?

00:08:31.000 It was a point made by ESPN's Berger McFarlane.

00:08:34.000 He was a dissenting voice.

00:08:37.000 A voice in the wilderness.

00:08:38.000 But take a listen right now.

00:08:40.000 This is a travesty to the sport because we go out there on the field and we play the game.

00:08:47.000 And regardless of whether it looks good at the quarterback position, regardless whether we win with offense, whether we win with defense, the name of the game is to win.

00:08:54.000 And that's a reason never before has this not been done.

00:08:57.000 Winning a power five conference, going undefeated and not getting into the playoff.

00:09:02.000 So I understand we want to look at style points and who are we going to get for the best matchups.

00:09:07.000 But that's not what this is about.

00:09:08.000 This is about understanding to get the four best teams.

00:09:11.000 One team has a loss and that's Alabama.

00:09:14.000 One team doesn't in Florida State.

00:09:16.000 And the fact that this committee could take a power five conference champion that's undefeated.

00:09:21.000 Those kids have went out there and busted their behind and not get into the playoff based on the eye test.

00:09:25.000 Mind you, this is the same Alabama team who needed a prayer in Jordan-Hare to beat an Auburn team that lost to New Mexico State.

00:09:32.000 So that's really what has me bothered right now.

00:09:34.000 That was Booger McFarlane standing up for the prospect of merit and winning.

00:09:41.000 And this has gotten the attention of Florida Senator Rick Scott, who sent a letter to Mr. Boo Corrigan, the chairman of the College Football Selection Committee.

00:09:50.000 And in his letter, Senator Scott notes that in the 10-year history of the college football playoff, they have never excluded the undefeated champion of a Power Five conference.

00:10:01.000 And he continues to write, Indeed,

00:10:21.000 there is that financial impact, and so Senator Scott has sent a list of 10 things that he wants from the college football playoffs, including their listing step and their ranking step votes, any notes or recordings or reports detailing their deliberations, emails and text messages, including those back and forth with ESPN Disney among the members, among anyone else, and he demands these things.

00:10:50.000 Quite promptly.

00:10:51.000 So we'll see if Senator Scott is able to get an answer to those questions.

00:10:55.000 We'll be eager to see if it turns up any malfeasance or misfeasance.

00:11:01.000 President Trump weighed in as well, putting out on Truth Social the statement, Florida State was treated very badly by the committee.

00:11:08.000 They became the first Power Five team to be left out of the college football playoffs.

00:11:13.000 Really bad lobbying effort.

00:11:15.000 Let's blame DeSanctimonious.

00:11:17.000 Says with a little tongue-in-cheek there.

00:11:19.000 I don't know if I blame our governor for that.

00:11:21.000 I blame the College Football Selection Committee.

00:11:24.000 We've got also important information on impeachment that I want to bring to your attention.

00:11:31.000 Committee Chairman James Comer leads our oversight effort.

00:11:34.000 He now has evidence that Awoska, one of the Shell Company's That was run by Hunter Biden has made direct payments to Joe Biden.

00:11:43.000 Now keep in mind, we call these business entities companies, but they made no product, provided no service.

00:11:51.000 They were merely pass-throughs to get foreign money into the bank accounts of the Biden family.

00:11:57.000 Here's the oversight chairman, James Comer.

00:12:01.000 Today, the House Oversight Committee is releasing subpoenaed bank records that show Hunter Biden's business entity, a Wasco PC, made direct monthly payments to Joe Biden.

00:12:12.000 This wasn't a payment from Hunter Biden's personal account, but an account for his corporation that received payments from China and other shady corners of the world.

00:12:21.000 At this moment, Hunter Biden is under an investigation by the Department of Justice for using a WASCO PC for tax evasion and other serious crimes.

00:12:30.000 And based on whistleblower testimony, we know the Justice Department made a concerted effort to prevent investigators from asking questions about Joe Biden.

00:12:39.000 I wonder why.

00:12:41.000 The more we learn, it appears the Justice Department was trying to cover up for the Bidens.

00:12:47.000 Until Brave IRS whistleblowers came forward and a federal judge rejected the sweetheart plea deal.

00:12:53.000 Payments from Hunter's business entity to Joe Biden are now part of a pattern revealing Joe Biden knew about, participated in, and benefited from his family's influence peddling schemes.

00:13:07.000 When Joe Biden was vice president, he spoke by phone, attended dinners, and had coffee with his son's foreign business associates.

00:13:14.000 He allowed his son to catch a ride on Air Force Two at least a dozen times to sell the Biden brand around the world.

00:13:22.000 Hunter Biden requested office keys to be made for his office mate, Joe Biden, in space he planned to share with a Chinese energy company.

00:13:31.000 We've revealed how Joe Biden received checks from his family that were funded by the Biden's influence peddling schemes with China, no less.

00:13:39.000 The House Oversight Committee continues to investigate Joe Biden's involvement in his family's domestic and international business schemes at a rapid pace.

00:13:48.000 We will continue to uncover the facts and provide transparency about the findings of our investigation.

00:13:54.000 President Biden and his family must be held accountable for this blatant corruption.

00:13:59.000 The American people expect no less.

00:14:05.000 That was Oversight Chairman James Comer signaling a new level of intensity in this effort.

00:14:11.000 Keep in mind, Hunter Biden and Frank Biden hadn't even gotten a subpoena when Kevin McCarthy was Speaker.

00:14:18.000 Mike Johnson becoming Speaker seems to have accelerated at least some of the oversight efforts.

00:14:23.000 And we get this report out of NBC News' Christina Zhao.

00:14:27.000 Speaker Mike Johnson says he thinks he has the votes to authorize a Biden impeachment inquiry.

00:14:33.000 That investigation being led by Judiciary Oversight in Ways and Means.

00:14:37.000 And you see from Mike Johnson in this piece, quote, they're preventing at least two or three DOJ witnesses from coming forward and withheld thousands of pages of evidence that as a basis to continue this effort.

00:14:51.000 Mike Johnson spoke about this with House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik recently on Fox& Friends.

00:14:57.000 Take a listen.

00:15:00.000 All right, let's get to another topic that will require holding the entire Republican conference together as well, and that would be the concept of actually formally declaring an impeachment inquiry.

00:15:12.000 Thus far, it has been just that, an inquiry.

00:15:15.000 Based on what's been found, do you as the speaker with that power plan on bringing an actual vote on impeachment?

00:15:22.000 It's become a necessary step.

00:15:23.000 Elise and I both served on the impeachment defense team of Donald Trump twice when the Democrats used it for brazen partisan political purposes.

00:15:32.000 We decried that use of it.

00:15:33.000 This is very different.

00:15:34.000 Remember, we are the rule of law team.

00:15:36.000 We have to do it very methodically.

00:15:38.000 Our three committees of jurisdiction, Judiciary, Oversight, Ways and Means, have been doing an extraordinary job following the evidence where it leads.

00:15:45.000 But now we're being stonewalled by the White House because they're preventing at least two to three DOJ witnesses from coming forward, a former White House counsel, the National Archives, the White House has withheld thousands of pages of evidence.

00:15:55.000 So a formal impeachment inquiry vote on the floor will allow us to take it to the next necessary step.

00:16:01.000 And I think it's something we have to do at this juncture.

00:16:06.000 We have to do it.

00:16:07.000 That's the House Speaker indicating that the heat is getting turned up on the Bidens.

00:16:11.000 And as that's happening, it's not like they're getting good news on the economic front.

00:16:16.000 Today, Breitbart News reported that data from the Commerce Department indicated that core capital goods orders have fallen to the smallest annual gain since 2020. From US-made capital goods, a key measure of business spending fell three-tenths of a percentage point in October after experts originally estimated That there would only be a decline of about a tenth of a percentage point.

00:16:43.000 So it was three times worse than expected.

00:16:46.000 This report went on to say that capital goods orders are up 0.3% compared to a year ago, but that is, quote, the smallest 12-month gain since September of 2020. Now, the most interesting part of this is an Axios report from yesterday, the day before the data from the Commerce Department came out, titled House Democrats Ditch Bidenomics messaging.

00:17:11.000 Now here Axios notes that House Democrats have rejected the Biden White House's months-long attempt to try to embrace and own and sell this term Bidenomics.

00:17:23.000 And it shows that there is a real divide between Democrats who will be on the ballot and the messaging that the White House wants to lean into for the coming year.

00:17:33.000 The Biden White House has attempted to use this term to Axios' source says the use of the term Bidenomics was, quote, tone deaf to people economically struggling and that it took Now,

00:17:54.000 according to the report, House Democrat leadership, including their campaign groups and big super PACs, have not used the term Bidenomics in months and have been avoiding the term on social media since polling has shown that the term is ineffective.

00:18:10.000 And absolutely not breaking through.

00:18:12.000 So massive fail on the Bidenomics front.

00:18:15.000 And it's not as if the administration can turn to what's going on in the world as any sort of stability.

00:18:21.000 Remember, Joe Biden ran to be the calming, peaceful influence on the world, but we are now seeing just conflict erupt in just about every continent on the planet Earth.

00:18:34.000 Here is John Kirby hitting the Sunday show circuit, talking about how the U.S. missed intelligence in the Middle East today.

00:18:41.000 Take a listen.

00:18:44.000 John, I have to ask you about this New York Times reporting, which found that Israeli officials received Hamas' specific attack plan over a year ago.

00:18:53.000 Was the United States aware of this intelligence?

00:18:55.000 And if not, why not?

00:18:56.000 The intelligence community has indicated that they did not have access to this document.

00:19:04.000 There's no indications at this time that they had any access to this document beforehand.

00:19:08.000 Should they have given how closely U.S. and Israeli intelligence officials coordinate or are supposed to coordinate?

00:19:14.000 Intelligence is a mosaic.

00:19:16.000 And sometimes, you know, you can fashion things together and get a pretty good picture.

00:19:19.000 Other times, you know, there's pieces of the puzzle that are missing.

00:19:23.000 As I said, our own intelligence community said that they've looked at this.

00:19:26.000 They have no indications at this time that they had any advance warning of this document or any knowledge of it.

00:19:31.000 John, very quickly, was this a failure on the part of Israeli intelligence and U.S. intelligence?

00:19:36.000 I think there's going to be a time and a place for Israel to do that sort of forensic work. 0.50

00:19:41.000 I mean, Prime Minister Netanyahu has already spoken pretty candidly about this and calling it a failure on their part.

00:19:47.000 They'll take a look at this at the right time.

00:19:49.000 They need to do that.

00:19:50.000 Right now, though, the focus has got to be on making sure that they can eliminate this truly genocidal threat to the Israeli people. 1.00

00:19:59.000 Must be tough.

00:20:00.000 Continuing to have to explain away failures in intelligence and tactics and capabilities, but that is increasingly what the Biden White House has had to do.

00:20:09.000 President Trump gave us peace through strength.

00:20:11.000 They give us war without winning.

00:20:14.000 I also want to bring your attention to a story I saw on The Federalist that's concerning about how these efforts to try to take people's law license away has been increasingly weaponized.

00:20:25.000 The Federalist gives us this headline, Feds withhold election docs, key to Jeff Clark's D.C. bar defense.

00:20:33.000 Jeff Clark, of course, the Department of Justice official who's been scapegoated by Jack Smith, scapegoated by the January 6th committee.

00:20:40.000 He was concerned about very real efforts to try to undermine our election policy.

00:20:45.000 through malign influence and he wanted to investigate any sort of claim of fraud or challenge and he was disrupted in his efforts to do so and now they're trying to take his law license away so he wants to get the predicate information from the Department of Justice and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and according to this piece in the Federalist both the Office of DNI and the DOJ have refused to hand over several key election integrity documents That would aid Trump-era DOJ official Jeff Clark's

00:21:15.000 defense against the DC bar, which seeks to discipline him for Noting inconsistencies in the 2020 election, Clark requested several key pieces of evidence related to the election issues from the ODNI and the DOJ to prepare for his upcoming defense in the D.C. Barr case.

00:21:32.000 His attempt to secure due process, however, was hampered by stonewalling from both ODNI and DOJ. Jeff Clark truly standing in the breach.

00:21:43.000 Before we go, I wanted to bring you into a conversation I was able to have recently with Mark Kay.

00:21:48.000 Mark Kay is one of our great conservative media personalities in Sunshine State.

00:21:54.000 He wrote a book about maybe some of the features of the Christmas story you're not entirely aware of.

00:22:00.000 So get in the season and get ready for this discussion with Mark Kay.

00:22:04.000 Take a listen.

00:22:07.000 We're joined now by Mark Kay, who's the host of The Mark Kay Show, which you can find at 104.5 in Jacksonville, WKOB, and syndicated throughout the country.

00:22:17.000 Mark, I want to get to the book you wrote about Christmas, but before that, just your reaction to kind of the news that has rocked Washington, George Santos being expelled, the Republican majority reduced.

00:22:31.000 Your take.

00:22:32.000 Well, you know, I always, whenever something like this happens, I run right to the congressional record and I look to see who voted which way, because that's important.

00:22:39.000 I think a lot of people, they forget that the reason these things happen is because their political leaders, who they voted for and elected locally, go up there and make these decisions.

00:22:48.000 And lo and behold, there he was, District 5 in Florida, John Rutherford, my very own representative, voting to house George Santos, along with another, you know, couple of surprising names on the docket.

00:22:59.000 But My reaction was a reaction that a lot of my audience members had, and that is, look, we know the guy had some questionable behavior.

00:23:06.000 We know he maybe didn't run the best campaign and he maybe spent money on stuff he shouldn't have, but he's not guilty of anything yet.

00:23:11.000 He hasn't been convicted of anything yet, and isn't that the precedent that's been set in the House of Representatives for expelling members?

00:23:18.000 That's what it was with Traficant and everyone else. 0.99

00:23:20.000 So, yeah, it seems like another win for the Democrat Party and another self-inflicted loss for the Republicans, and that's got all of us scratching our heads.

00:23:29.000 Yeah, when we're not able to do the budgetary work that we need to do, the border work that we need to do because we're short this vote, I wonder how much moral self-preening some of my Republican colleagues will do on this point.

00:23:44.000 One thing that really got me marked was that we had four members of Congress Who stood in the way of impeachment and accountability for Mayorkas and then voted to expel Santos?

00:23:55.000 That's Congresswoman Virginia Fox, Congressman Ken Buck, Congressman Cliff Benz, and Congressman Duarte of California.

00:24:02.000 How do you square being a Republican, voting to expel Santos, but then frustrating the effort to impeach Mayorkas?

00:24:11.000 You know, it's interesting because we were chatting with your buddy, Congressman Aaron Bean, the other day, and I said to him, doesn't anybody ever just run into the room and say, look, the Democrats all vote together.

00:24:22.000 They don't like each other either, but at least they hate us more.

00:24:25.000 Can we do the same thing?

00:24:26.000 And he said, yeah, you know, there's a lot of folks from from blue states.

00:24:30.000 There's a lot of, you know, you got these California Republicans, as you mentioned, you've got Ken Buck, who's basically out the door.

00:24:35.000 He's just trying to, I believe, burn the place down on his way out.

00:24:38.000 So it's it's difficult from us outside looking in.

00:24:41.000 To think to ourselves constantly, you've got red state Democrats, but they don't care what happens.

00:24:47.000 They always vote with the blue state Democrats.

00:24:49.000 For whatever reason, the blue state Republicans, many of whom you just mentioned, they don't vote for the Republicans.

00:24:55.000 And I guess they've just got their local media.

00:24:57.000 Maybe they're way too worried that they're going to get primaried because they don't have a strong enough GOP backing them back home.

00:25:03.000 Who knows the reason?

00:25:04.000 But the Democrats have really put fear in all of those blue state congressmen on the Republican side, and it's working.

00:25:10.000 Red state or blue state, I wouldn't want to have to make the case to my voters that I was hyper-principled vis-a-vis Santos, but then not so much on Mayorkas.

00:25:22.000 I want to get to this great Christmas book that you wrote, The Untold Story of Christmas.

00:25:28.000 And here we go.

00:25:29.000 I'm going to get a good shot of the cover.

00:25:30.000 Oh, look at that.

00:25:31.000 Look at that beautiful thing.

00:25:32.000 So what do you think people need to know about Christmas that they don't know?

00:25:36.000 Well, you know, this is the story that we started telling a couple years ago.

00:25:40.000 A lot of people know that I slid into Rush Limbaugh's spot after he passed on all of our network radio stations.

00:25:48.000 And he, every Thanksgiving, would tell the true story of Thanksgiving, which is an important moment in our American society that has been totally bastardized and totally rewritten by the left.

00:25:57.000 They've tried to take the Thanksgiving story and turn it from what it was, a turning point in American And so Rush took the time every year to make sure that people knew the truth.

00:26:09.000 And, you know, people would call my show and they'd say, look, will you tell that story?

00:26:13.000 And I said, absolutely not.

00:26:13.000 That was Rush's story.

00:26:14.000 You can hear him on YouTube or where else read that.

00:26:18.000 But at Christmas time, I did decide to start my own tradition by sharing one of my own stories.

00:26:22.000 And it's a story basically of the birth of Jesus as seen though from the side of Caesar Augustus who a lot of people don't know is the guy who wanted to tax the citizens of Rome and in doing so called a census because before you tax people you got to count them and that was what led Mary and Joseph out of Judea into Bethlehem where Jesus was born and there's a real interesting foil between the life of Caesar and the life of Jesus and I've woven them together into what I think is a really truly inspirational story that's going to It really

00:26:52.000 helped reinstill those Christian values in your kids and your family and whoever you share it with.

00:26:56.000 And we share it on our radio show every year, and now, because it's in printed form, you can share it with your family whenever you want.

00:27:02.000 Everyone knows Julius Caesar as the Caesar, but it was in fact Caesar Augustus who built the great cathedrals and did so much to bring Rome to a point of great splendor.

00:27:15.000 Is it just that he didn't reach as tragic an end and so thus the tragedy draws our attention to that history more?

00:27:23.000 Well, you know, it's interesting because Caesar Augustus, the reason he wanted all of these cathedrals built and all of these altars and all of these golden marble statues in his image is because his own Senate told him he was a god.

00:27:34.000 He thought he was a god.

00:27:35.000 He wanted to be revered and remembered as a god.

00:27:38.000 And that's why he needed the money.

00:27:40.000 That's why Mary and Joseph and everyone else in Judea was getting taxed.

00:27:43.000 And in the end, years later, yes, we know who Caesar Augustus is, but it's not him.

00:27:48.000 It's the poor Child, the son of a carpenter, born in a manger, who is actually revered as a god, who actually is remembered, and who has cathedrals and marble statues and gold statues and altars built in his memory, not by himself, but by those of us who love him and worship him for years and years and years.

00:28:07.000 The book is The Untold Story of Christmas.

00:28:10.000 The author is Mark Kay, the host of The Mark Kay Show, my good friend and fellow Florida man.

00:28:14.000 And Mark, as people understand better the intersection of what was going on from a faith standpoint, from a Messiah standpoint, and then also this, I guess, the true machinations of government, right?

00:28:27.000 The census, the taxing.

00:28:29.000 Weaving those together, how do you think that can enrich people's understanding of Christmas?

00:28:34.000 You know, it's really interesting that you bring that up because the more I study the Bible, the more I study history, the more I just open up the, you know, go to the Drudge Report, you see that these whole things, it's happening over and over and over again.

00:28:45.000 The excessive taxing for things that the people don't actually need, but that the elite want, It's happening today in our very own society.

00:28:53.000 And the more you study what's going on in America and the world, you'll notice, hey, that was happening back in the time of Christ.

00:29:00.000 These histories and these stories continue to repeat.

00:29:03.000 When you look at what happened with Jesus and Mary as parents, The things that they faced are things that parents today are facing.

00:29:10.000 And of course, the attacks on our morality too.

00:29:12.000 So when you look at the study of the Messiah or the birth of Jesus and the life and times, you'll see that they always say those who don't study are doomed to repeat it.

00:29:20.000 And it seems like even today we are repeating that message.

00:29:24.000 I mean, Joe Biden claims to be a Catholic, but if you really understood what Catholicism was, you'd see that that's probably not the case.

00:29:32.000 So as I read the book and you present these scenes and images of Judea and Samaria and this trip to Bethlehem and my heart couldn't help but go to the people in Israel now and what's happening in this great conflict.

00:29:48.000 What's your perspective on how all that ends?

00:29:51.000 You know, it's really interesting because you bring up a fantastic point.

00:29:54.000 We're listening to the battles of the Jews and the Muslims, Jews and the Muslims, Palestine and Israel.

00:29:59.000 But what we're talking about is the place where Jesus was born and where Christianity was born.

00:30:04.000 And Jerusalem and all the, you know, from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.

00:30:09.000 They're talking about a place that is of historical significance to Christians as well.

00:30:14.000 And that gets lost in the shuffle.

00:30:16.000 The big difference there is that Christianity is not a government.

00:30:19.000 You know, Israel is a government and Gaza is a government and Hamas is, well, they're a terrorist organization pretending to be a government.

00:30:26.000 So in the mix of it all, Christians, I think, are torn between a place in this world that is holy to them as well and two governments that they are unfamiliar with and are kind of not bound to.

00:30:36.000 However, when you look at who's right and who's wrong, I think it's pretty clear one side is right and the other side is Hamas. 0.94

00:30:44.000 So I think, you know, from a Christian standpoint, it's pretty clear to see which side we should choose and anyone who chooses otherwise really should probably reflect on their Christian morality and, you know, maybe do some soul searching.

00:30:57.000 Right now we're at this real interesting time where this concept of the separation of church and state is interfacing with new jurisprudence that we've gotten out of the Trump Supreme Court.

00:31:08.000 There was that case where the high school football coach was punished because after the game they went to the 50-yard line and prayed and the Trump court Overturned that, said, no, you can't punish a coach for praying at the 50-yard line.

00:31:25.000 I wonder what frontiers that opens up, kind of in light of the themes in your book, to say, look, religion and government, even from the beginning of the Christian faith, there is an intertwining.

00:31:38.000 There is a causal relationship.

00:31:41.000 When government does certain things, It has this cascading effect on how faith evolves and develops, and then certainly the founders of our country hoped that our faith would inspire us to build a better government than it had ever been built before.

00:31:56.000 How do you think we strike this balance?

00:31:59.000 How should lawmakers and Americans think about the way to have the best society in our country?

00:32:06.000 Well, you know, I'm very hands-off.

00:32:09.000 You know, the United States of America, small government is the only good government there is.

00:32:13.000 So the less that there's interference, I believe, of course, the better.

00:32:16.000 Being here in the state of Florida, we all believe that school is for writing, reading, arithmetic.

00:32:21.000 You know, all those other great—the civics would be nice if we threw that back into our educational system.

00:32:25.000 And that everyone else can just, you know, live by the tenets of the First Amendment, freedom of religion, freedom of speech.

00:32:32.000 The problem is when people get offended, either really offended or fake offended, at somebody else's beliefs and somebody else's religion and somebody else's practices.

00:32:41.000 I've been to— I've seen tons of places where people have prayed and I just would look at them and say, oh, that's nice and think nothing of it.

00:32:48.000 They believe one thing.

00:32:49.000 I've seen people from other religions who I don't understand what they're doing, but I appreciate their right and their desire to do it.

00:32:56.000 If we can all get back to kind of minding our own business and realizing that the less government overreach we have, I think that that's something that could really instill some more of that religious freedom that doesn't overstep the separation of church and state.

00:33:11.000 Although, as you pointed out, without the church, we wouldn't have a state.

00:33:14.000 Yeah, when you look at, obviously, the founding of the country and this hope that free exercise of religion, not the establishment of a national religion, But certainly a nation built on Judeo-Christian values would be one that would be inclusive and accommodating to people of all faiths.

00:33:33.000 There are times I wonder whether or not we've really achieved that.

00:33:37.000 It's going to be interesting moving forward.

00:33:39.000 I'm really...

00:33:41.000 Questioning this whole debate in the United States of America between Israel and Palestine or Israel and Hamas.

00:33:48.000 And I think what that shows is that there is a basic lack of understanding fundamentally the two faiths.

00:33:54.000 Because really, if you look at it, what the people who are pro-Hamas, the people that came into your office building and sat down in the vestibule and started screaming and had to be removed by the police, what those folks are doing is they're attacking the Jewish religion when really their qualm is with the Jewish state, the government, the IDF. And that's something that I think is troubling.

00:34:13.000 Whereas I notice a lot of the Jewish citizens here in the United States and in Israel, they are attacking Hamas.

00:34:19.000 They don't attack Muslims, per se.

00:34:21.000 They attack the organization that is put in place to govern the Muslim body in Palestine and in Gaza.

00:34:27.000 So they're able to separate and differentiate.

00:34:30.000 But when it comes to the Jewish state in Israel, people just look at Jews, whether it's a religious sect, Or a government body or a group of individuals as the same thing.

00:34:39.000 And that's really troubling.

00:34:40.000 And that's where I think we're going to get into danger here in the United States.

00:34:42.000 It's such an essential distinction.

00:34:44.000 And as we come up on the Christmas season, you know, you can't help but notice That there's more and more an effort to try to have, you know, Christmas light, right?

00:34:59.000 Yeah.

00:35:01.000 What does it say about the commercialization of this faith-based holiday that it's sort of moved away from some of these historical and religious roots that you write about in the book?

00:35:17.000 Well, you know, what we're starting to see, kind of from a capitalist standpoint, and I think we saw it with Bob Iger and his announcement that Disney is going to drop the woke stuff because it just doesn't sell anymore and they're going to get back to their basic tenet of entertaining families, which here in Florida was what we always thought they were doing all along.

00:35:35.000 I think people are starting to realize that the minority, this loud and vocal woke minority, is destroying more companies than it is helping.

00:35:44.000 And before you had the LGBTQ issue, before you had the trans agenda, before you had all that other stuff, you had the anti-Christian or the anti-Christmas agenda.

00:35:52.000 And that is something that permeates still today.

00:35:55.000 But my hope is as we see this parallel economy, you see these places popping up, Rumble and Newsmax, where I host my show, as you see, you know, Public Square and Elon Musk.

00:36:05.000 Who gets up on stage and tells the advertisers, well, we all know what he told the advertisers to do.

00:36:09.000 I think we're starting to see that the parallel economies are growing and that the Christian, conservative, fundamental American economy has a big, strong voice.

00:36:20.000 And that a lot of that Christianity is going to be returning to Christmas. 0.90

00:36:24.000 And that is another concept that I hope to...

00:36:26.000 I want people to know, yes, it's okay to celebrate Christmas, to say Merry Christmas, and to read Christmas stories.

00:36:32.000 Because no matter what you're celebrating this time of year, I mean, you can say Happy Holidays, but the holiday that we're all talking about is Christmas.

00:36:38.000 And there is, I think, a real virtue in understanding the history so that people can lash that appreciation of Christmas with what went on and what created this remarkable moment in the entire human existence.

00:36:54.000 Again, the book is The Untold Story of Christmas.

00:36:58.000 Mark Kaye is the author.

00:36:59.000 Mark, how do folks pick up the book?

00:37:01.000 It's available, of course, anywhere books are sold.

00:37:04.000 But if you go to theuntoldstoryofchristmas.com, theuntoldstoryofchristmas.com, you can get a copy.

00:37:10.000 You can even order an autographed copy by me, the author, and we'll get it out to you right away.

00:37:14.000 And how can folks follow you on social media and keep up with all of your great commentary on news and politics, culture, everything that's going on?

00:37:22.000 Well, the best thing to do is just put Mark K, that's M-A-R-K-K-A-Y-E, into your search engine.

00:37:27.000 We're on Facebook, Rumble, Getter, Truth Social.

00:37:30.000 I mean, it's harder to avoid me than it is to find me.

00:37:33.000 And of course, you can see our great interviews because, as you know, Congressman Gates has been a guest on my show, and we've had some fantastic moments, and I can't wait to have you back.

00:37:41.000 Yeah, I know.

00:37:42.000 This has been fun.

00:37:43.000 Usually you're the one asking me the questions.

00:37:44.000 I know.

00:37:45.000 I've enjoyed this.

00:37:46.000 It's, you know, the student gets to become the teacher for a little bit here, and I get to put the questions to you.

00:37:52.000 Well, hey, thanks for joining me.

00:37:54.000 Thanks for being a firebrand.

00:37:55.000 Thanks for all you do to get the truth out, to get history out, and to celebrate our shared faith.

00:38:00.000 Merry Christmas.

00:38:01.000 Merry Christmas.

Firebrand - Matt Gaetz - December 04, 2023

Episode 137 LIVE: Seminole Snub (feat. Mark Kaye) – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz

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