Firebrand - Matt Gaetz - Episode 144 LIVE: Are We At War With Iran? (feat. Rep. Cory Mills) – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz

00:00:00.000 Thank you.

00:04:29.000 you That gates the biggest firebrand inside of the House of Representatives is You're not taking Matt Gaetz off the board, okay?

00:04:47.000 Because Matt Gaetz is an American patriot and Matt Gaetz is an American hero.

00:04:52.000 We will not continue to allow the Uniparty to run this town without a fight. 1.00

00:04:57.000 I want to thank you, Matt Gaetz, for holding the line.

00:05:01.000 Matt Gaetz is a courageous man.

00:05:04.000 If we had hundreds of Matt Gaetz in D.C., the country turns around.

00:05:08.000 It's that simple.

00:05:09.000 He's so tough.

00:05:10.000 He's so strong.

00:05:11.000 He's smart and he loves this country.

00:05:13.000 Matt Gaetz.

00:05:15.000 It is the honor of my life to fight alongside each and every one of you.

00:05:20.000 We will save America.

00:05:22.000 It's choose your fighter time.

00:05:24.000 Send in the firebrands. 1.00

00:05:26.000 These troops were conducting a vital mission in the region aimed at helping us work with partners to counter ISIS.

00:05:37.000 And even as the Defense Department gathers more information about the attack, that mission must and will continue.

00:05:44.000 Third, the counter-ISIS mission is separate and distinct.

00:05:47.000 Indeed, it has been long standing and unrelated to our efforts to support Israel and to prevent a wider conflict in the region.

00:05:54.000 We do not seek another war.

00:05:56.000 We do not seek to escalate.

00:05:58.000 But we will absolutely do what is required to protect ourselves, to continue that mission, and to respond appropriately to these attacks.

00:06:10.000 Now, I know the first set of questions I'm going to get are, well, what does that look like?

00:06:15.000 What's appropriate?

00:06:16.000 And what response options is the president considering?

00:06:19.000 I hope you can understand why I'm not going to telegraph any punches here from the podium, nor will I get in front of the president or his decision-making.

00:06:26.000 He's met twice with the national security team yesterday and today.

00:06:30.000 He's weighing the options before him.

00:06:32.000 As he said yesterday, we will respond.

00:06:35.000 We'll do that on our schedule, in our time.

00:06:39.000 And we'll do it in the manner of the president's choosing as commander-in-chief.

00:06:43.000 We'll also do it fully cognizant of the fact that these groups, backed by Tehran, have just taken the lives of American troops.

00:06:53.000 And I think I'll leave it there.

00:06:58.000 Welcome back to Firebrand.

00:07:00.000 We are live broadcasting out of room 2021 in the Rayburn House office building at the Capitol Complex in Washington, D.C. Since I've been with you last, I've been all over the country, Iowa, New Hampshire, back down to Palm Beach, Florida, and then out to Montana.

00:07:12.000 And what I can tell you is I've not entirely thought out yet.

00:07:15.000 There are parts of my body that I think will always be cold after experiencing 30 Below.

00:07:19.000 But thank you to all of our viewers and listeners around the country.

00:07:23.000 I love nothing more than when folks come up and say that they get the real information about what's going on in the United States Congress right here on Firebrand.

00:07:30.000 Make sure you're subscribed.

00:07:31.000 You've got notifications turned on.

00:07:33.000 We have got a big media episode about geopolitics, what's going on in the Middle East and Ukraine.

00:07:39.000 Also, we've got a report on our southern border.

00:07:42.000 We've got joining us the smartest guy in the United States Congress when it comes to what's going on in the Middle East in particular.

00:07:49.000 Corey Mills has served in our military.

00:07:51.000 He has served with a variety of agencies in the federal government that have had keen interest on the Middle East for a long time.

00:07:58.000 He's been one of the principal critics of Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and he joins us now.

00:08:02.000 So, Representative Mills, what is going on right now in Jordan?

00:08:06.000 I want to give you the mic.

00:08:07.000 You know all the players in the region.

00:08:09.000 You know all of the push and pull factors.

00:08:12.000 To someone who is waking up to the news that three Americans are dead, dozens are injured, how would you describe what's going on?

00:08:18.000 I mean, first off, I think we have to go ahead and take a pause just to go ahead and acknowledge the new Gold Star families and the three heroes that just got lost.

00:08:26.000 We also have to acknowledge and hope for a speedy recovery when it comes to the now 34 people who've been injured.

00:08:31.000 So I think that's first and foremost, just to look at our armed services.

00:08:36.000 Looking forward, I mean, we have to go ahead and do the post-blast analysis on this.

00:08:40.000 We have to start looking at identifying exactly what took place, whether or not there was a jammer that somehow prevented us from being able to track this capability.

00:08:47.000 I don't buy off on the fact that they mistake this for being a friendly.

00:08:50.000 We track those things very closely.

00:08:51.000 So I know for a fact in a forward outpost like this, that's not going to be the case.

00:08:55.000 Why did it happen?

00:08:56.000 How would you answer that question?

00:08:57.000 Well, I think there's a culmination of things.

00:08:59.000 Obviously, we know that China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea are all geopolitically aligned.

00:09:04.000 They have for many years now.

00:09:05.000 That's why they continue to advance things, whether it be BRICS, you know, the Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, which now KSA is involved in.

00:09:13.000 That's why they extend the Belt and Road Initiative to take over the Eastern European expansion, Oceania, as well as for Africa to cut off Western Hemisphere supply chain. 0.92

00:09:21.000 That's why they're building military bases and spy bases in Cuba, 90 miles off of our coast, but also using economic coercion around the Panama Canal to cut us off. 0.84

00:09:29.000 The point is that they're all doing this as an effort to try and pull us into a long and prolonged war that even President Trump and many have admitted was really stupid for us to be involved in.

00:09:39.000 Think about Iraq and Afghanistan, for example. 0.90

00:09:41.000 Trillions of dollars, thousands of lives.

00:09:43.000 What did we truly accomplish?

00:09:44.000 Nothing.

00:09:45.000 It increased Iran's capabilities and capacity by eliminating Saddam, who was actually keeping them at bay. 0.92

00:09:50.000 And so there's a lot of arguments to be had, but this is not merely about just Iran or the proxy militias in Iraq wanting to launch an attack.

00:09:58.000 There's a lot of things that are involved in this to try and bring us into it.

00:10:02.000 So you're pitching a theory that, in a way, this is a Venus flytrap.

00:10:07.000 Well, it's weakness and vice-aggression, and they know there's going to be absolutely nothing that's going to happen.

00:10:12.000 Look, you didn't see these types of attacks whenever President Trump was in office because he made it very clear that there would be an absolute decimation of those individuals who actually attack and kill American troops.

00:10:22.000 But before this actually occurred, this is the thing.

00:10:25.000 They have to have the economic means in order to be able to carry these attacks out.

00:10:28.000 They have not had that under President Trump, but under Biden...

00:10:31.000 They had the largest increase in oil exportation and oil revenue.

00:10:35.000 Iran, yes.

00:10:37.000 So all roads sort of lead back to Iran, and it does kind of ripen the principal question of this discussion.

00:10:44.000 Are we at war with Iran right now?

00:10:47.000 I think we've been at war for decades, but Americans haven't yet accustomed themselves to the thing that really has gone on.

00:10:55.000 Warfare is not about kinetics.

00:10:56.000 It's not just bomb-to-bomb, gun-to-gun, bullet-to-bullet as we think of the 1980s where we're stockpiling for the Cold War with munitions.

00:11:03.000 We have been in an economic resource, supply chain, and cyber warfare with China, Russia, Iran, North Korea for quite some time.

00:11:10.000 And we have been losing badly.

00:11:11.000 Even if you talk to those in the military, we know PSYOPs.

00:11:14.000 PSYOPs is a way to try and go ahead and utilize warfare without kinetics.

00:11:17.000 It's an influence operation.

00:11:19.000 That's what's going on right now.

00:11:20.000 Look what just happened with the UAE who is no longer going to use our currency to trade in energy.

00:11:26.000 Why do you think these things are occurring?

00:11:27.000 It's because China has continued to try and spread this notion that the dollar will have no valuation and even developing nations are running away.

00:11:35.000 And with Biden in the office, we're going to continue to weaken ourselves on the world stage and this is going to continue to be propagated.

00:11:40.000 So there's always the fog of war in these moments, and one of the misunderstandings that seems to have emerged is where this attack occurred.

00:11:49.000 And we've gotten conflicting reports out of the Jordanians.

00:11:53.000 Let's go ahead and put up this news report.

00:11:55.000 Three service members killed, 34 injured in drone attack on American forces in Jordan.

00:12:00.000 But then the Jordanian state television is quoting one of their government spokes saying that this happened in Syria.

00:12:08.000 It didn't happen in Jordan.

00:12:11.000 So my assessment here is that Jordan is a powder keg, that you've got a situation with a population there very distraught and upset over the conflict going on between Israel and Gaza, and you've got a European Educated King who often aligns with the West and collaborates with the West there.

00:12:33.000 And so they put out this statement.

00:12:35.000 We've seen him subsequently walk it back.

00:12:37.000 But, you know, we've seen some of the aerial images.

00:12:40.000 We're going to be briefed on the Armed Services Committee hopefully soon.

00:12:43.000 What do you make of that?

00:12:45.000 Well, I think you're exactly right.

00:12:46.000 I think that you saw the intensification of...

00:12:50.000 Those who are rioting, those who are having protests with regards to what was occurring in Gaza.

00:12:54.000 You have the Queen, Queen Rania, who is an amazing lady who is also a Palestinian ethnicity.

00:13:01.000 And so you have people who want to see a stronger, robust approach.

00:13:05.000 And many people think that King Hussein does not actually represent Jordan, that he was a Sandhurst, UK cavalry officer who doesn't really uphold the Hashemite ways.

00:13:16.000 And so you're right with saying it's a powder keg.

00:13:18.000 I think that this was originally a, this happened on Syria, not with us, therefore we can't be held accountable.

00:13:24.000 Because they don't want it to seem as if we're launching attacks out of Jordan against anyone who may they see as an ally by some extent.

00:13:32.000 But, you know, we define our work in Jordan under train and equip authorities.

00:13:38.000 That's right.

00:13:38.000 And so it would be somewhat awkward if we were doing a whole lot of strike as an aligned activity with train and equip.

00:13:47.000 Especially if we didn't actually inform the king or didn't inform the Jordanian, you know, intelligence or any of the military there.

00:13:54.000 I mean, that's an actual violation for what they probably want as regards to like a status of forces agreement to have us there.

00:13:59.000 So, yeah, but from my understanding, though, this outpost Tower 22, which is in Jordan, is not an actual combatant outpost.

00:14:07.000 We do have military bases, which are obviously in Syria.

00:14:10.000 You and I have argued ad nauseum and debated on the floor about the removal and repeal of AUMF 0102, 57 and 91.

00:14:17.000 And so my whole thing is, I don't think, though, what took place in Jordan, I go back to your original premise, which is that I think that they understand it's a powder keg. 0.79

00:14:25.000 They don't want to have a protest and a civil unrest that's occurring in Jordan.

00:14:29.000 And the king was trying to basically go ahead and shadow this out to being a Syrian issue.

00:14:33.000 As we are, you know, contemplating the different strategic choices we have to make to not be in a full-fledged kinetic war with Iran or their proxies as Americans are spilling blood. 0.58

00:14:46.000 We get the not-so-subtle commentary from Lindsey Graham and John Cornington.

00:14:51.000 two members of the Senate.

00:14:53.000 Lindsey Graham saying, Hit Iran now. 0.99

00:14:55.000 Hit them hard. 0.97

00:14:57.000 Senator John Cornyn, target Tehran. 0.95

00:14:59.000 Tucker Carlson had a take on that that was lunacy and shared it on social media.

00:15:05.000 What do you make of some of these neoconservatives in the Senate saying that the appropriate response to what we have encountered should be direct strikes in Iran from the United States?

00:15:17.000 Well, gosh, I'd love to see some of these actually come out and say, Shut the border down now.

00:15:21.000 Let's go ahead and hit the cartels hard.

00:15:23.000 But instead, they're so worried about building up a military-industrial base and flooding the attacks abroad.

00:15:28.000 Look, where were they under the 150-plus other attacks that occurred in Iraq?

00:15:31.000 The 39-plus that was occurring by the Houthis that disrupted 12% of global commerce. 0.95

00:15:36.000 Where are they under these others?

00:15:37.000 Now, all of a sudden, it's hit them hard, hit them hard.

00:15:40.000 Neoconservative, we're going to go into warfare. 0.73

00:15:41.000 You know, we should pass some law for Congress that when you pass an actual, like, You know, a war act, or you try and basically declare war, that you need to throw that uniform on yourself.

00:15:50.000 And let's see how many of these people continue to yell, war, war, war.

00:15:53.000 Because every single person that I hear that is so pro-war give more money to Ukraine.

00:15:58.000 This is the same Lindsey Graham, by the way, that was sitting here saying, it's so great every time we send money and kill Russians.

00:16:03.000 It's like, what exactly is your motive here?

00:16:06.000 Are you getting a little bit of a trade off of this?

00:16:08.000 Because it doesn't make sense that any of these warfares benefit the America First agenda.

00:16:12.000 How is spilling more blood in our treasures somewhere else benefiting America at home?

00:16:17.000 Our borders are number one priority.

00:16:19.000 Every American knows that.

00:16:20.000 Building up our economy is number one priority.

00:16:22.000 Everyone knows that.

00:16:23.000 And playing this tit for tat, where we're basically going ahead and saying, okay, we're going to allow our troops abroad to go ahead and play catch with missiles and drone attacks and And then we're going to do an equal and proportionate response.

00:16:35.000 Why don't we, instead of thinking kinetically, why aren't we going after them economically? 0.58

00:16:38.000 Why aren't we looking at China who's refining the majority of the oil and saying, you're in violation of a sanctioned nation.

00:16:43.000 We're going to do the same to you and start decoupling away.

00:16:46.000 Why are we not looking at things in a smarter way that isn't spilling treasures, but actually keeping them at home and helping to protect American lives?

00:16:53.000 Why are we keeping our troops in these areas to begin with?

00:16:55.000 What U.S. national interests?

00:16:56.000 And you assess that that would work.

00:16:58.000 You believe that there are levers and pressure points To kind of keep Iran and their proxies in a box that doesn't lead to full-fledged war.

00:17:05.000 Now, I would argue that when Trump took out Soleimani, that crippled this network of proxies for quite some time, and now they're starting to flex as a consequence of Biden giving $6 billion to Iran.

00:17:17.000 Well, I would argue that the elimination of Qasem Soleimani and Abu Mehdi al-Muhandis only resulted in the replacement of Ishmael Ghani and Abu Farrak al-Muhammadawi, which the only thing that slowed it down is that Ishmael Ghani, who came in to replace Soleimani, wasn't a linguist.

00:17:30.000 He couldn't speak Arabic.

00:17:31.000 So that's why.

00:17:32.000 What did we actually create?

00:17:33.000 We had the General Secretary of Lebanon, Hassan Nasrallah, who leads Hezbollah, We're good to go. 0.98

00:18:02.000 But we also have to acknowledge what is.

00:18:04.000 We have to reevaluate.

00:18:05.000 What is our role in the Middle East?

00:18:06.000 Why do we feel that we have to play a pertinent role in the Middle East?

00:18:09.000 Why can't we focus on the priorities of supporting allies, pushing things like President Trump did, which was brilliant, which is the Abram Accords, which, by the way, we know that the October 7th incident was also part of Iran's thing because they didn't want Saudi Arabia to sign the Abram Accords normalizing relationship with Israel.

00:18:24.000 Because of what that would have meant for the actual stabilization in the region.

00:18:27.000 Look, Iran is trying their best to their proxies and China is supporting it as well to make this a regional war.

00:18:34.000 They don't want it to just be between Hamas and Israel.

00:18:36.000 They don't want it to just be between our US Navy and the transit corridors with Houthis. 0.96

00:18:41.000 They want this to be a regional conflict and war to point the finger but to drag us in.

00:18:46.000 And that's where things start becoming very aggressive.

00:18:48.000 Well, and that type of a regional war then pits more of these domestic populations against the monarchies that rule them, and in some cases the dictators who rule them, right?

00:18:57.000 Because in a conflict that is Israel and Gaza without spillover, Iran doesn't achieve its objective of avoiding the isolation that the Abraham Accords had set up.

00:19:10.000 And China doesn't achieve their objective, which is continuing to drain down on economic and The U.S. in the event that they attack Taiwan.

00:19:18.000 Okay, so I want to go to another kind of claim that we've seen very recently.

00:19:24.000 Some reporting in the Wall Street Journal indicating this.

00:19:27.000 U.S. failed to stop attack in Jordan after mix-up over drone identity.

00:19:32.000 So the argument in this Wall Street Journal piece is that we thought that the nasty drone that came in was a friendly.

00:19:39.000 That we confused the nasty for the friendly.

00:19:43.000 I'm trying to get briefings soon, and I know you and I will be calling for one in the coming days, if not the coming hours, to really get a clear sense of what did we believe the friendly was that was coming back?

00:19:55.000 How would our systems have confused those?

00:19:57.000 But what's your reaction to this Wall Street Journal report?

00:20:00.000 Well, I absolutely don't buy it, and I'll tell you why.

00:20:02.000 When we send drones out from any base, we track those.

00:20:05.000 If we know that it's actually traveling at a certain speed and pace on a certain flight trajectory, Then we'll know where it's coming in and we'll actually have that highlighted red.

00:20:13.000 The question I have then is, okay, let's just say that it's not a jammer system that's actually blocking communications and that it went dark on us.

00:20:19.000 Then what?

00:20:20.000 Is it because we prioritized over the last few years DEI over meritocracy?

00:20:25.000 Now we're not having, you know, this is almost the airline pilot issue.

00:20:27.000 Do I want the one with the most hours and the most qualified or do I want one who fits into a certain diversity and equity and inclusion bracket?

00:20:34.000 That's what we're starting to have to look at.

00:20:35.000 So you think this was a...

00:20:37.000 And obviously we've got to get the brief.

00:20:38.000 We don't...

00:20:39.000 This is just speculation on what a multitude of different things could be.

00:20:43.000 Could it be there was a jammer and it was a blackout?

00:20:45.000 Could it be that there was a failure in our actual ability to do it?

00:20:48.000 To be clear, we're highlighting potential categories of activity.

00:20:51.000 We need to get that briefing.

00:20:53.000 I would suggest that the Armed Services Committee immediately needs to get a tactical level brief on what is going on.

00:21:00.000 What do you think should be the components of that brief?

00:21:03.000 Well, we definitely want to see post-blast analysis.

00:21:05.000 We want to see what was recovered on site.

00:21:07.000 Whether or not there was a jam or a communication block.

00:21:10.000 Why didn't we track this further out?

00:21:13.000 What was the pace and speed?

00:21:14.000 What was the actual explosive that was utilized?

00:21:16.000 And so I want to see a full detailed analysis because here's the whole thing. 0.96

00:21:21.000 When we talk about the Lindsey Graham's of the world, so the corners world, hit them, hit them, hit them.

00:21:24.000 The question that I ask is what have we done to prevent the retaliation from coming back to us?

00:21:29.000 We can't do this tit-for-tat if we haven't even increased the protection, security, and identified why this happened to begin with.

00:21:35.000 That's just going to enable it to happen again, and we're going to have more dead soldiers.

00:21:38.000 That's not the key here.

00:21:39.000 What we want to do is to prevent the loss of life, to prevent these types of kinetic activities.

00:21:44.000 And so having an immediate reaction, which is emotional, for a proportionate and equal response, that all sounds good, but we've got to get the facts to ensure that we actually can do this in a more methodical and more carried out way.

00:21:55.000 You know and I know that in the Middle East, alliances shift faster than square dancing partners in the American South, and the tribes and groups that can be aligned with a particular leader or political movement or campaign, in one instance, can really shift around like the sands.

00:22:12.000 And there was a report in The Hill that I took note of and want to ask you about, and they talk about the connection Between those who launched this attack that killed Americans and Iraq. 0.61

00:22:24.000 And when Americans think about Iraq, we think, well, we've got so much blood and treasure and time into that country. 0.99

00:22:29.000 We all want to believe that the government in Iraq is at least better than Saddam, or at least less of a threat to the United States with all that we've poured in there. 0.91

00:22:39.000 But in this report from The Hill, it reads, the Department of Defense is investigating how an Iraqi militia's suicide drone struck the U.S. military In a base in Jordan on Saturday night.

00:22:50.000 And I've talked to some folks also familiar with the region that say that this is the Islamic resistance in Iraq entity that falls within the umbrella of the popular mobilization forces in Iraq, which is supported by the government.

00:23:04.000 So you've got the government of Iraq that we still send money to, that we still are collaborating with at a military level, then functioning as an umbrella entity over this popular...

00:23:17.000 Mobilization force, and then the very people that align and associate there are involved in the attacks against Americans.

00:23:26.000 So are we funding and supporting the attacks against our own troops?

00:23:31.000 Well, we have to back it up.

00:23:32.000 In 2005, George W. Bush had this brilliant idea to put in Paul Bremer, who is the absolute worst at foreign policy possible.

00:23:40.000 He was the reason for the sectarian democracy breakdown during the debathification, but what we saw In 2005, under the Iraq Constitution, they had something called Article 76. This created a sectarianism that has only existed in pre-apartheid South Africa and Northern Ireland, where they said that the largest parliamentary bloc, knowing that would be Shia, is allowed to pick the president, which has to be Kurdish, and the Kurdish president... 0.66

00:24:03.000 He has to pick the Prime Minister, but only from the three people the Parliamentary Bloc tells him are approved.

00:24:09.000 So here's what happens.

00:24:10.000 You have Haidi Al-Amri, who runs Better Organization.

00:24:13.000 You have former Prime Minister Norial Maliki, who creates the Dawah. 1.00

00:24:16.000 You have Muqtadr al-Sadr, who creates the Sayyum Bloc. 0.99

00:24:19.000 Between the three of them, they control all of Parliament, which means that now you've got the Shia Iranian-backed militias. 0.95

00:24:25.000 And oh, by the way, Heidi Olamide is one that went over to Iran and fought against Saddam with the Iranians.

00:24:30.000 He's now one of the largest parliamentary blocs.

00:24:32.000 So it doesn't matter whether it was al-Kadimi.

00:24:34.000 It doesn't matter whether it's the current Prime Minister al-Soudani.

00:24:37.000 We set Iraq up for failure when we put this 2005 Iraq Constitution. 0.86

00:24:41.000 Right, I get all that, but my question is more, I guess, visceral.

00:24:44.000 Like, are we going to end up finding out that the people who killed Injured Americans have some link back to the Iraqi government.

00:24:53.000 You're going to find out that it's going to have some type of a political affiliation, whether it be Hadi al-Amri, who already runs proxy militias for Iran, Hashti al-Shabia, Sabi al-Bin Haq.

00:25:01.000 We know that Qais Qazali, who is one of his partners, runs Qatab, Hezbollah, and others who have attacked us.

00:25:06.000 It is not a mystery that over a decade plus now, that these large parliamentary blocs...

00:25:13.000 are actually responsible in supporting the very militias who are attacking our embassies, attacking us, and yet we're still funding them.

00:25:19.000 Just like we funded and trained the, what, eight coup leaders in Africa?

00:25:23.000 Look, we have to start getting our foreign policy right.

00:25:26.000 We have not done it for decades, and this is what's driving us to the point where we are.

00:25:30.000 I am incensed by this.

00:25:32.000 I am incensed that we are literally participating in really a whitewashing of what the Iraqi government is doing and allowing, and Americans are dead as a consequence, We're good to get that foreign policy right. 0.99

00:25:44.000 We do want to turn to the border, though, something Congressman Mills, my colleague from Florida, mentioned earlier.

00:25:49.000 And we've got a hot reaction from Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick regarding the ongoing standoff between state and federal officials.

00:25:56.000 Here's the Lieutenant Governor of Texas.

00:26:00.000 You know, the founders never dreamed we'd have a president like this when it would just open the door to everyone.

00:26:04.000 And they said, well, invasion if an army came.

00:26:08.000 Well, we're facing an army.

00:26:09.000 We're facing an army.

00:26:11.000 And they're well-armed.

00:26:12.000 They're well-coordinated.

00:26:14.000 They're making millions and millions of dollars off of Joe Biden.

00:26:17.000 Don't mess with Texas.

00:26:18.000 We're serious about securing our border.

00:26:19.000 And I'm glad the president stood down on Friday and did not confront us.

00:26:23.000 That would be the wrong thing to do.

00:26:25.000 We don't want a confrontation.

00:26:26.000 And they shouldn't want a confrontation.

00:26:27.000 Well, that's a good point.

00:26:28.000 We're just doing our job.

00:26:29.000 Let us do our job.

00:26:30.000 Because, I mean, what is this going to turn into a civil war?

00:26:32.000 I mean, you've got the Texas rights versus federal rights, both sides with guns.

00:26:38.000 And we believe, constitutionally, we are right.

00:26:40.000 We have a right to defend our citizens.

00:26:42.000 We have a right to defend this country.

00:26:44.000 And we're just doing the job. 0.53

00:26:46.000 This whole idea of Shelby Park, that they would come there, is just ludicrous.

00:26:50.000 Look, these young men and women who serve our National Guard and our DPS, these are the best of the best.

00:26:55.000 Why would he want to send anyone down to confront them?

00:26:58.000 I'm glad they stepped down, but they need to do the job.

00:27:02.000 And the only reason he's paying attention now is because of the election in November.

00:27:07.000 Those Texans are patriots.

00:27:09.000 They are doing a great job.

00:27:10.000 I've had a chance to visit with many of them, and all they want to do is secure this border.

00:27:14.000 We're here live with Congressman Corey Mills, and your reaction to the Lieutenant Governor saying, we don't want a conflict, but at the same time, Texas will not back down.

00:27:23.000 Well, my whole question is, when are we going to acknowledge the 10th Amendment rights for state and individual liberties?

00:27:27.000 Why are we not going to acknowledge Texas' sovereignty?

00:27:30.000 Why are we not going to look at the fact that, you know, these drug cartels, which by the way, Joe Biden is like employee of the month every month for these drug cartels.

00:27:37.000 In 2021, they went from what was $500 million in revenue in 2018 to $1,300.

00:27:44.000 You don't think that this is impacting the people of Texas.

00:27:46.000 You don't see the increase in criminality.

00:27:48.000 You don't hear in the Homeland Security Committee hearings the mothers who are crying over their children who are being murdered and fentanyl overdoses at 70 to 100,000.

00:27:57.000 Yes, Lieutenant Dan Patrick is absolutely correct.

00:28:01.000 Texas has a right to stand and fight for itself.

00:28:03.000 I stand with Texas in their right to their sovereignty.

00:28:05.000 So he makes the argument, Texas isn't backing down, but we get this fresh report this morning in Politico playbook where a Biden administration official is essentially saying that Biden is backing down.

00:28:17.000 Here's the background quote from a Biden admin official.

00:28:20.000 Quote, President Biden is finally admitting that he's given up on his campaign promise to enact more humane immigration policies than Trump.

00:28:28.000 He would rather adopt Trump's border rhetoric than continue the work he started as vice president to fix the border by addressing the root causes of migration.

00:28:38.000 So this is obviously some sort of woke admin official for Joe Biden.

00:28:44.000 And they're mad that Biden.

00:28:46.000 Biden gets that this has been a total failure and they have to take the L and maybe the best way to take that L is to acknowledge that Trump's policies were working.

00:28:57.000 But if you've got these folks in the admin who are like the lib resistance to Joe Biden, what does it even say about their ability to execute on a border strategy?

00:29:07.000 Well, look, you're exactly right when you talk about how he wants to now go back to the Trump policies.

00:29:12.000 Look, Remain in Mexico should have stayed there the entire time.

00:29:15.000 Title 42, maybe it's not directed around COVID, but the emergency health care issue...

00:29:21.000 It's all of those who are coming from South America where they don't have vaccinations for polio.

00:29:25.000 We're seeing polio vaccinations getting, you know, ramped up again here in the United States where we're seeing the fentanyl overdose.

00:29:30.000 We could have used Title 42 to remain in Mexico and all the other policies. 0.70

00:29:33.000 But look, we need to just enforce the laws on the books.

00:29:37.000 At no point in time do we need to continue to worry about passing new things when we know for a fact that the key issue is let's get all the justices down to the borders to process these supposed asylum claims, turn them back around and get them out of our country. 0.69

00:29:49.000 Why are we doing this catch and release?

00:29:50.000 Ten years from now, you can come to us and do your court case.

00:29:54.000 It's not happening.

00:29:55.000 And then we're incentivizing it.

00:29:57.000 Stop the incentivization.

00:29:58.000 If you say, if you try to come to the United States, if you try to apply, look, you just violated one law.

00:30:03.000 Why are we even going to consider you to be An American citizen when we are a rule of law and you've already shown that you can't follow the law.

00:30:11.000 I think that we go ahead and start making things where we get rid of the actual anchor baby situation where one or both parents has to be citizens in order for their child to qualify.

00:30:19.000 I think that we look at trying to make sure that we do the Remain in Mexico agreement.

00:30:22.000 We start looking at working with the South American countries the way Trump did to go ahead and hold them in place and not have them skip four or five.

00:30:28.000 There's a lot of things that we can do that are already existing on the books, but also you've got Executive Order 212 Section F. President Biden can secure the border right now just like this.

00:30:39.000 See, that is the fiction that the Open Borders crew and, frankly, the pro-Ukraine crew is pitching in Washington, D.C., that there has to be some bill to stop this.

00:30:49.000 So there has to be some grand bargain.

00:30:51.000 All he has to do is what Trump did.

00:30:52.000 And Trump didn't have some special bill.

00:30:54.000 He went and utilized the authorities that exist in Title 42 and elsewhere to ensure that we stop the flow of people. 1.00

00:31:00.000 And then that created a sufficient deterrent.

00:31:03.000 He was called a xenophobe, remember?

00:31:04.000 Sure.

00:31:04.000 When he was trying to prevent people from coming in, he was called a xenophobe.

00:31:08.000 And meanwhile, all he was doing is what we all should do is protect America.

00:31:12.000 That's what this admin official who's out backgrounding against the Biden administration is frustrated about, is that there's an acknowledgement that what Trump did worked.

00:31:22.000 Now, we've got this terrible amnesty bill that has emerged in the Senate that Senator Lankford has supported, that you've got the whole crew over there that always seems to want open borders behind.

00:31:34.000 And the reason that that bill is not going to become law is because we will kill it in the House of Representatives.

00:31:41.000 Full stop.

00:31:42.000 But that doesn't stop Gavin Newsom and the folks on MSNBC for blaming Trump.

00:31:46.000 Take a listen.

00:31:49.000 Mitch McConnell, I thought that was shameful, what was reported out.

00:31:52.000 That he's just completely rolling over and capitulating.

00:31:54.000 Don't even get me started with the weakness of the current Speaker of the House.

00:31:58.000 I mean, they don't want a deal.

00:32:00.000 Period.

00:32:00.000 Full stop.

00:32:01.000 They don't want a deal.

00:32:02.000 They don't want to make this a quote-unquote campaign win for Joe Biden.

00:32:05.000 It's just everything you need to know about the fraud that they're perpetuating on the issue of the border.

00:32:10.000 They want to make this a political issue.

00:32:13.000 Consistently, they have wanted to make it.

00:32:15.000 Ever since there were a few brave souls with that gang of eight.

00:32:19.000 If we all remember those black and white movie days.

00:32:21.000 Yeah, I'm old enough to remember that.

00:32:22.000 And ever since there, everyone, they just walk away.

00:32:24.000 They run away.

00:32:25.000 The first day he was in office.

00:32:26.000 Not the next day.

00:32:28.000 The same day, he gets sworn in.

00:32:30.000 He puts out a comprehensive immigration plan.

00:32:33.000 And yet, you didn't have a counter.

00:32:35.000 They had no strategy in terms of the Republican Party even combating that. 0.89

00:32:40.000 They just wanted to kill it.

00:32:41.000 They didn't want to debate it. 0.99

00:32:42.000 They didn't want to engage.

00:32:43.000 $14 billion proposal.

00:32:45.000 $14 billion.

00:32:46.000 That's his latest proposal to address They're a stated issue of border security.

00:32:50.000 2,300 new Border Patrol agents.

00:32:54.000 Another 1,000 in addition to that to deal with fentanyl.

00:32:57.000 Close to another billion dollars.

00:32:59.000 850-plus billion dollars just for new technology.

00:33:02.000 And then address some of the issues of backlog and asylum to address those that are here waiting for asylum claims.

00:33:08.000 They won't touch it.

00:33:09.000 They don't want to solve this problem.

00:33:10.000 They want to use it for political purposes.

00:33:12.000 And again, I say this as a border state governor.

00:33:14.000 No one has to introduce me to this issue.

00:33:16.000 We're the largest port in the Western Hemisphere in the state of California.

00:33:21.000 We live this.

00:33:22.000 And I think it is a disgrace what the Republican Party is doing, what Donald Trump is doing.

00:33:27.000 And this is hidden in plain sight. 0.98

00:33:29.000 He sent out a tweet or some truth, whatever, saying, kill it. 0.96

00:33:35.000 We're back live with Congressman Corey Mills. 1.00

00:33:37.000 You know what we want to kill? 0.56

00:33:38.000 Amnesty. 0.92

00:33:39.000 Because amnesty makes the problem worse.

00:33:42.000 Just moments before we came on the air, I spoke to President Trump about the Senate amnesty bill.

00:33:47.000 And he wants it killed, not because of politics, but because of policy.

00:33:53.000 The Senate amnesty bill will not, like, improve the border a little bit.

00:33:58.000 It will make it far worse.

00:34:00.000 If you tell...

00:34:01.000 The entire world, the first 5,000 people who show up at our border just get waved in, there will be a mass of humanity that will be built up on the other side that will cause tremendous humanitarian carnage, that will cause an overrun of the border.

00:34:20.000 And if you think that that 5,000 number will ever go down if it were in law, That is total.

00:34:26.000 That is illusory.

00:34:27.000 Okay?

00:34:28.000 That number will just continue to rise.

00:34:30.000 This is the authorized invasion. 0.86

00:34:32.000 And the Lankford bill is so bad that any Republican who supports that better never run another campaign ad About how they care about border security.

00:34:42.000 Because it is total surrender.

00:34:44.000 Total amnesty.

00:34:45.000 And you know what?

00:34:45.000 President Trump wants credit for killing the Senate amnesty bill.

00:34:49.000 Not because of politics, but because we want to shut this border down and protect our country.

00:34:54.000 Your reaction to the Langford bill.

00:34:56.000 Well, look, I'll tell you ahead of time, I would absolutely shoot this bill down.

00:34:59.000 I will not support amnesty, and you're saying 5,000 a day, which is polite, but let's put it in a real perspective.

00:35:03.000 It's 1.8 million people a year in our country.

00:35:07.000 And then, for Gavin Newsom to talk about disgrace, I'll tell you what's a disgrace.

00:35:12.000 He talks about being a border town.

00:35:14.000 You mean the fact that you're a border state who liked sanctuary, but now every one of your cities is completely riddled with crime?

00:35:19.000 The ones that have You know, again, as Governor DeSantis put it out, remember the poop map?

00:35:24.000 I mean, he literally brought it out where people are defecating and there's needles all down the sidewalk.

00:35:28.000 I mean, look, this is your state, and you're going to try and point fingers at the rest of the country?

00:35:31.000 And talking about playing politics, you and I just mentioned this.

00:35:34.000 If the president wants to shut and secure the border, he can do it right now under 212 Section F. He can re-implement the Trump policies Remain in Mexico.

00:35:43.000 He can ensure that our CBP and ICE are allowed to do their jobs and enforce the actual legislation and the laws on the books.

00:35:49.000 At no point in time, it's not like you and I are passing this grandiose law where it says violating our sovereignty is something new.

00:35:56.000 That's always been on the books.

00:35:58.000 And so, yes, President Trump is exactly right.

00:36:01.000 We need to kill the amnesty bill.

00:36:02.000 And I can tell you, I'll be right there to kill the rule on this to make sure that it never even gets to a vote.

00:36:07.000 Speaker Mike Johnson indicating that it will not come for a vote in the House because we're not for amnesty.

00:36:12.000 We want to force Joe Biden to do exactly what Congressman Mills and I have been saying.

00:36:16.000 Use his authorities to do what Trump did and stop that flow.

00:36:19.000 Also on the border, breaking news from the Homeland Security Committee.

00:36:24.000 Ali Mayorkas will face two articles of impeachment.

00:36:27.000 The first being the willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law.

00:36:30.000 Secretary Mayorkas has violated his oath to defend the Constitution of the United States by willfully and systemically refusing to comply with federal immigration laws and acting in a manner subversive to the rule of law, despite clear evidence that this willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law has led to unprecedented levels of illegal immigration, the fentanyl crisis, cartel control at the southwest border, and debilitating human and financial costs.

00:36:54.000 Secretary Mayorkas has implemented a catch-and-release scheme violating the detention requirements and misusing parole authority.

00:37:01.000 That's Article 1. Article 2, breach of the public trust.

00:37:04.000 Secretary Mayorkas has breached the public trust by violating his oath to well and faithfully discharge the duties of his office and his statutory duty to control and guard the border of the United States.

00:37:16.000 Secretary Mayorkas willfully failed to replace the enforcement initiatives he had abandoned with viable alternatives that would establish I think

00:37:46.000 that is well laid out by the Homeland Security Committee.

00:37:48.000 The only critique as a lawyer, I believe that obstruction should have been its own count.

00:37:53.000 I've met with the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General, and time and again when they are trying to do the oversight that would inform our policy choices and the changes they need to make at DHS, Mayorkas himself has been directing obstruction of oversight.

00:38:09.000 And so I know that's within the public trust count now, but I would have broken it out as a third count.

00:38:14.000 Impeachment's coming.

00:38:15.000 The real question, will we get all the Republicans to vote for it?

00:38:18.000 No Democrat will vote to impeach Mayorkas. 0.98

00:38:21.000 Do you think we'll have unified Republican support?

00:38:24.000 I don't see how any Republican can vote against the impeachment, seeing that this is a will for dereliction.

00:38:29.000 The same as you and I have pointed out that with Secretary Austin, we actually do have bipartisan support for his removal, but yet that's not even made it to the front yet.

00:38:37.000 Look, I want to go back to one thing that was talked about when they talk about politics.

00:38:41.000 The reason that Biden doesn't shut the border down, the reason that Lankford Schumer likes to do these types of amnesty deals is because they want to ultimately, they know they can shut the border down right now.

00:38:50.000 They know they can stop this insurgence that is just flowing across.

00:38:54.000 But the reality is that they don't want to so they can tether it to things like the Ukrainian funding bills.

00:38:59.000 And the other types of international aid that they know they can't get support for as a singular bill, they want to try and lump this in.

00:39:05.000 When it comes to, you know, kind of this whole thing about the impeachment, there is no question that Mayorkas has failed to uphold his duties.

00:39:13.000 What he swore his oath into office to do.

00:39:17.000 And so I think that we have to come together.

00:39:19.000 We need to impeach Mayorkas. 1.00

00:39:20.000 We need to go after Secretary Austin.

00:39:22.000 And then we continue to try and do our investigation of the Biden crime family with President Biden at the top of that.

00:39:27.000 The live stream is fired up with anger at Mayorkas and what's going on in the border.

00:39:31.000 Laura on X is two boss leaders here and we got feedback from JTutor58. 1.00

00:39:37.000 We do not want illegals coming across our border and a lot of criticism of Gavin Newsom. 0.95

00:39:43.000 Huh.

00:39:44.000 Imagine that.

00:39:45.000 All right, so you mentioned Ukraine.

00:39:47.000 A news piece I want to go over, we're getting this from the AP. Officials stole $40 million meant to buy arms for the war with Russia, Ukraine says.

00:39:56.000 So while we continue to hear folks on the Armed Services Committee and among the defense contractor base say, oh, just send more.

00:40:03.000 Just send more money, send more weapons to Ukraine. 0.90

00:40:06.000 Yet another report, $40 million missing.

00:40:08.000 What confidence do you have in With cash and materiel, that what we send there is getting into the fight?

00:40:15.000 I have no confidence.

00:40:17.000 That is why, even back in December of 2022, Marjorie Taylor Greene put something on the floor, which is an HR inquiry, to do a 100% audit on Ukraine.

00:40:28.000 We said that that was our actual benchmark.

00:40:30.000 Before we talk about any further funding, I want 100% audit of this thing.

00:40:34.000 No one wanted to do it.

00:40:35.000 The reason why?

00:40:36.000 That $40 million, that's a lot of money, but I guarantee that is a thumbnail sketch of what it will actually be when we see the real audit here.

00:40:44.000 When you talk about how many people Zelensky has gotten rid of for corruption, when you start talking about the procurement arms that are civilian and private procurement arms like We have to acknowledge 100 plus billion dollars.

00:41:02.000 Imagine if it's a fraction of that went to our own border.

00:41:05.000 And that's why I am not going to tell the taxpayers if they try to lump these bills in.

00:41:09.000 That you have to spend your money.

00:41:11.000 You have to spend your money to secure another nation's border in order to secure your own. 0.89

00:41:15.000 I won't do it.

00:41:16.000 No more money to Ukraine.

00:41:17.000 No more money to these foreign wars.

00:41:19.000 Secure and put America first.

00:41:21.000 Invest in our industrial base.

00:41:22.000 Start decoupling away from China. 0.98

00:41:24.000 Recognize our adversaries.

00:41:25.000 And let's get Trump back in the White House.

00:41:31.000 To the members of the Ethics Committee that will be investigating me for that occurring on our official...

00:41:35.000 I'll tell you, put it on my tab.

00:41:37.000 So, you know, the Ukraine matter has been galvanizing to a lot of our base because they do see it in terms you just laid out.

00:41:45.000 Continuing to support for Ukraine is viewed by so many Americans as selling out our own country and our own interests for some unknowable gain.

00:41:54.000 And while I know there are many fair criticisms of Mike Johnson as House Speaker, for those looking at the scoreboard, under Kevin McCarthy, we authorized $115 billion to Ukraine.

00:42:06.000 And now you're starting to see that we did that without the adequate controls, without the adequate oversight, and with a willingness to accept blatant violations of our laws regarding how we're supposed to watch this stuff.

00:42:18.000 And under Mike Johnson...

00:42:20.000 Zero.

00:42:21.000 The House of Representatives has authorized zero dollars to Ukraine under House Speaker Mike Johnson.

00:42:27.000 And that I'm happy about.

00:42:28.000 Now that's a temporary status.

00:42:30.000 It may change.

00:42:31.000 But if Kevin McCarthy were still Speaker, we would be filling out the authorizations with no scrutiny, no review, none of the tough questions that Congressman Mills just laid out.

00:42:41.000 So while progress is sometimes slower than we think and will never turn the battleship all at once, I do think it means something that our current House leadership is at least asking the tough questions and not sending more money to Ukraine.

00:42:54.000 Final piece I want to cover.

00:42:56.000 The National Journal had a great review of Podcasts that were coming from members of Congress.

00:43:03.000 The piece is entitled The Sound Clips and the Fury Inside House Republicans Live Streamed Revolt.

00:43:09.000 And the premise of this piece is that the Firebrand podcast, the Firebrand audience, and the audiences of the podcasts from my friend Andy Biggs and others continue to allow us to make a case directly to you, the people.

00:43:23.000 Over 5 million streams.

00:43:25.000 over 25 million views on the clips that we have on social media.

00:43:29.000 And the piece rightly credited our executive producer, my comms director, the man who has powered Firebrand since day one, Joel Valdez, and our entire team, which includes Sasha Tomolchov, Jacob Bliss, John Wilson, also Jim Beely and Derek Miller, and Andrew Kloster from our Ledge team, who regularly contribute and Andrew Kloster from our Ledge team, who regularly contribute to the ideas that we want to be able to present So thank you to everyone.

00:43:51.000 Thank you to our team.

00:43:52.000 And we are going to continue to make Firebrand a great powerhouse in our politics and in the decisions that are made on the Hill.

00:43:58.000 Thank you to my good friend, fellow Firebrand, fellow Florida Congressman Corey Mills.

00:44:02.000 We'll be back soon.

Firebrand - Matt Gaetz - January 29, 2024

Episode 144 LIVE: Are We At War With Iran? (feat. Rep. Cory Mills) – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript