Firebrand - Matt Gaetz - Episode 153 LIVE: Nathan Wade Nuked In Court (feat. Rep. Bob Good) – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz

In this episode, Rep. Bob Goode (R-VA) speaks at a press conference in support of Rep. Matt Gaetz's efforts to protect Americans' Fourth Amendment rights from deep state agencies like the FBI and the NSA. Rep. Goode is a member of the Freedom Caucus, a conservative group in the House of Representatives, and the leader of the Commonwealth of Virginia's conservative Freedom Caucus. He is also the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, which is on the verge of reauthorizing one of the most abused surveillance programs that exists in the federal government, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Congressman Goode joins me to talk about the importance of the Fourth Amendment and the need for reform of the FISA Act. He also talks about the need to protect the privacy rights of American citizens, including the right to keep and bear arms, and why the Deep State should not be allowed to spy on American citizens without a warrant, no matter how much data they collect from their phones, computers, and Wi-Fi hotspots. Join us in the conversation by using the hashtag and on social media and other social media, and be sure to subscribe to our new podcast, to stay up to date with the latest episodes of the show! Subscribe, rate, and review the show wherever you get your favorite streaming service! Subscribe to our newest podcast, and remember that you get the best streaming service wherever you consume your favorite podcast! You get notified when new episodes are available. You can also become a supporter of our new episodes of The Best Damn Podcast wherever you listen to the show. Subscribe and review our newest episode of the podcast, The Bestest Podcasts Subscribe! Get notified when we post a review, review, and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, subscribe on iTunes, wherever you re listening to the latest episode of The Good Morning America podcast? You re getting the best podcast in the podcast? Subscribe to my podcast, Best Podcasts? Subscribe on iTunes Connected by clicking here Learn more about your ad choices? Leave us a review and share the podcast with your thoughts on the podcast by becoming a fellow podcasting platform? I am listening to our podcast, rating and reviewing our podcasting greatsomewhere else? , and we re giving you a review on social listening to us Thanks for listening to The Best Podcasting v=AIM_ Subscribe_

00:00:00.000 Thank you.

00:01:59.000 You're not taking Matt Gaetz off the board, okay?

00:02:01.000 Because Matt Gaetz is an American patriot and Matt Gaetz is an American hero.

00:02:06.000 We will not continue to allow the Uniparty to run this town without a fight. 1.00

00:02:11.000 I want to thank you, Matt Gaetz, for holding the line.

00:02:15.000 Matt Gaetz is a courageous man.

00:02:18.000 If we had hundreds of Matt Gaetz in D.C., the country turns around.

00:02:22.000 It's that simple.

00:02:23.000 He's so tough, he's so strong, he's smart, and he loves this country.

00:02:27.000 Matt Gaetz.

00:02:30.000 It is the honor of my life to fight alongside each and every one of you.

00:02:34.000 We will save America!

00:02:37.000 It's choose your fighter time!

00:02:38.000 I'm sending the firebrands. 1.00

00:02:40.000 Thank you for being here today for this important press conference addressing a critical issue that's facing the House.

00:02:52.000 We're privileged here in this country to live in a country where the Constitution, our founding document, our highest law of the land, places a limit on government, particularly the federal government, and protects our citizens.

00:03:08.000 Our Constitution tells the government what it can and cannot do.

00:03:14.000 Our Bill of Rights, those first ten amendments, were put in place to further protect the citizens of the United States, to protect the rights that are given to us by God, but thankfully enshrined to us in our Constitution.

00:03:27.000 But every day in America, you'll often hear someone joke about the government spying on us.

00:03:35.000 But sadly, that is true.

00:03:37.000 That's true in our country today.

00:03:39.000 Current law allows the U.S. government to collect data on you.

00:03:43.000 It's Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. But House Republicans, under the leadership of Speaker Johnson, are on the verge of reauthorizing FISA. This is the same law that the FBI used and abused, mind you, to spy on President Trump's campaign, providing the impetus for this shameless, false, ridiculous Russian collusion scandal.

00:04:07.000 To prevent such a tragedy from happening to other Americans, conservatives have worked in good faith throughout the reauthorization process to protect Americans' Fourth Amendment rights from deep state agencies like the FBI and the NSA. Unfortunately, the House Intelligence Committee and the DC Swamp are working overtime to make sure that FISA is reauthorized in a secret way As secretly as possible and putting the constitutional rights of millions of Americans, instead of up front, on the back burner.

00:04:35.000 During this debate today with my colleagues who are assembled here, you're going to hear, or not during this from my colleagues, but during the larger debate, you'll hear false narratives about this bill.

00:04:44.000 Supposedly restricting law enforcement from doing their job and hampering our ability to keep the country safe.

00:04:50.000 And those claims, frankly, are false.

00:04:52.000 Simply put, anonymous bureaucrats have abused this tool that was intended for foreign surveillance of threats to spy on American citizens.

00:05:01.000 But conservatives are fighting for strict reforms to this law.

00:05:05.000 FISA was reauthorized in 2018. Since then, the world has changed from both a national security standpoint and a technologically advanced standpoint that has resulted in more of your data being in the hands of the tech companies.

00:05:18.000 We need to find that balance between keeping the nation safe while protecting you from big government.

00:05:24.000 And prominently has to be the rights of US citizens, the constitutional freedoms that are protected to us by this country.

00:05:31.000 The judiciary bill was overwhelmingly approved on a bipartisan basis.

00:05:35.000 It turns out Democrats don't want to be spied on by their government either.

00:05:39.000 At the end of the day, we've got to make sure that our government can't keep spying on its citizens without a warrant, that we can't keep buying data that would otherwise require a warrant, that the federal government cannot expand the spying to cover local private Wi-Fi hotspots, And that we can't allow the government, this Congress, to allow more ways for the federal government to spy on us.

00:06:03.000 That is Congressman Bob Goode of the Commonwealth of Virginia leading the conservatives in fighting for our constitutional principles and rights as folks in the deep state, the intelligence community, and the Intelligence Committee try to reauthorize one of the most abused programs that exists in the federal government.

00:06:19.000 Congressman Goode is my guest today and we are live Simulcast streaming out of the Rumble studios in Washington, D.C. Remember that the best way to consume Firebrand, you want to download the Rumble app, make sure you've got notifications turned on that time.

00:06:33.000 Every way we go live, you get the notice, you get brought into the conversation.

00:06:37.000 So I'm joined now by Congressman Goode.

00:06:39.000 Bob, you are the Leader of the Freedom Caucus in the House of Representatives.

00:06:44.000 A lot of people associate the Freedom Caucus as the more conservative grouping of members.

00:06:50.000 But talk a little bit about the Freedom Caucus that you lead, the organizing principles of the group, and where you think the group impacts outcomes here in D.C. One thing I often say, Matt, thanks for having me.

00:07:01.000 Great to be with you, my friend.

00:07:02.000 I often will say there's two reasons why members of the Republican Conference aren't in the Freedom Caucus.

00:07:07.000 Either they're not really conservative, or they just don't have the courage.

00:07:11.000 And I always have to correct myself and say Matt Gaetz is the glaring exception to that, because Matt is obviously a rock-solid conservative who loves the country.

00:07:19.000 Well, we got a lot of sympathizers and admirers, Massey and some others, you know?

00:07:23.000 And Matt has the courage that's unmatched in Congress.

00:07:26.000 Well, thank you.

00:07:26.000 But the Freedom Caucus exists to be the conservative anchor, the conservative conscience, the tip of the spear on the issues and the policy, to try to hold the party accountable, to be who we say we are, to do what we say we will do, to validate the trust that's placed in us when the American people give us the majority to do the things that we campaign on.

00:07:43.000 Secondly, the Freedom Caucus exists to hold leadership accountable.

00:07:46.000 And to be willing to confront our own team when we're wrong, when we're off course, when we're not living up to the standards that we claim to hold as Republicans.

00:07:55.000 And sadly and unfortunately, as you know, because you're right there alongside us, often leading the way, we spend most of our time battling those who are supposed to be our own team members who are fighting us on the issue that press conferences related.

00:08:10.000 We're fighting Republicans on reforming FISA in a way that puts the constitutional freedoms of Americans first.

00:08:15.000 I'm going to get to FIIs in a moment, but broadly, this Freedom Caucus brand has really proliferated around the country.

00:08:23.000 We're starting to see Freedom Caucus groups set up in state legislatures.

00:08:28.000 Talk a little bit about how the goals that the Freedom Caucus has are served by this vertical integration strategy where you're getting people in state government aligned with these principles.

00:08:38.000 Yeah, really excited.

00:08:39.000 We've got 11 or 12 state legislatures where we've started Freedom Caucus chapters, if you will.

00:08:47.000 And we want to do it in all 50 states, plan to do it in all 50 states.

00:08:49.000 Obviously, some states are tougher than others, but you're looking, again, for courageous conservative warriors who will fight and take the risks.

00:08:56.000 And once you get that target on your back, and the state legislatures, some places are worse than it is in Washington.

00:09:01.000 Some of our chapters, those members have been kicked out of the Republican Party, stripped of their committee assignments, stripped of their parking privileges.

00:09:08.000 There's already been retaliation against them, so they're showing real courage.

00:09:11.000 But we did it for two reasons.

00:09:12.000 One, we want to win on the state level, too.

00:09:14.000 We want the Republican Party to be on the state level.

00:09:17.000 What we're trying to...

00:09:18.000 Make the Republican Party be on the national level.

00:09:21.000 And then also, we want to have sort of a farm team, if you will, that we could have those who are fighting the good fight on the state level that we could look to to support that, hey, if you're going to take all the risks on the state level, it's no different, then you'd be the kind of candidate that we'd want to support trying to bring to Washington.

00:09:35.000 So it's not only the work they're doing now, but it's really building that farm system for leaders at even higher levels.

00:09:42.000 What better indication of how they'll fight here than having them take the arrows, take the heat, and fight for the right things with all the risks that come with that.

00:09:51.000 When I got here, people told me, don't join the Freedom Caucus because it will reduce the amount of special interest money that you can raise.

00:09:59.000 That lobbyists and PACs that sometimes give to both Republicans and Democrats, they have no problem giving to Republicans and Democrats, but they have a problem when donating to someone in the Freedom Caucus who might stand up and fight on some of these things.

00:10:14.000 Is that something that still exists today?

00:10:17.000 I think there's absolute truth to that, and you would know it because it's really about, and again, while you're not officially a member of the Freedom Caucus yet, but the stances that you take and the courage that you show and the loyalty to the country, to the Constitution, to doing what's right irrespective of party and what's in it for you politically, that's the reason why it's tough to get special interest money, K Street support, Wall Street support, and so forth.

00:10:43.000 And that's true.

00:10:44.000 The Freedom Caucus as a unit and as a brand suffers in that same weight.

00:10:48.000 And part of it also is it's tougher to get on those committees where the money tends to flow.

00:10:53.000 They call it A committees.

00:10:55.000 And they don't measure, and you know this better than I do, but they don't measure what's an A committee or a B committee based on how important it is for the country.

00:11:01.000 It's about how much money you tend to raise because you're on that committee.

00:11:04.000 So, you know, financial services, energy and Commerce, ways and means, appropriations, those kind of things where the high-dollar donors want to influence what's happening.

00:11:14.000 You tend not to be able to get on those committees very easily if you're in the Freedom Caucus.

00:11:17.000 And it does seem like a fork in the road for a lot of people in how they behave here in Washington because there's the group of people that say, as long as I'm getting the money, I'm willing to take bad votes.

00:11:29.000 I'll have the money to explain away anything where maybe my constituents are critical.

00:11:34.000 And then there are people who say, I can't do that.

00:11:37.000 I'll take the more righteous path from a policy standpoint and I'll just live with less on kind of the campaign side.

00:11:45.000 I think it says a lot about people kind of which of those paths they take.

00:11:49.000 But I do want to get to this FISA press conference that you led.

00:11:52.000 This is very hot.

00:11:54.000 It's upcoming in the next several weeks.

00:11:57.000 You assembled a group of Republican conservatives who are in a lot of ways civil libertarians, people who believe in the Constitution.

00:12:05.000 Just define the battle space on FISA for my viewers.

00:12:08.000 Who's fighting for what?

00:12:10.000 What do you think the key flashpoints are?

00:12:13.000 As you know, you had two competing bills.

00:12:16.000 Judiciary has jurisdiction over this issue, and you had a bill come out of Judiciary, which was a good bill.

00:12:22.000 You had a bill come out of the Intelligence Committee, which is not a good bill, and didn't sufficiently put the premium or the priority on protecting Americans' constitutional liberties.

00:12:31.000 What they're putting the premium on is allowing the deep state to be able to do whatever they want to do in the name of keeping us safe.

00:12:37.000 And so it ought to be the Judiciary Committee that has priority here, and it should be the Judiciary Bill.

00:12:42.000 There's two competing bills.

00:12:44.000 But instead, unfortunately, there was compromise made, and the Intelligence Committee bill is the main text bill.

00:12:49.000 But then we're supposed to be having four good amendments from the Judiciary Committee to try to make that bill as good as it can be.

00:12:57.000 And we're in a battle right now in the conference because we were supposed to be voting on that bill today with those amendments.

00:13:03.000 But the bottom line is, the Intelligence Committee, led by the Speaker—I'm sorry, the Chairman Mike Turner, essentially told the Speaker, hey, we're not going to vote—we're going to kill the rule and not allow the bill to come to the floor if you have votes on these amendments, these good amendments that would require a warrant.

00:13:21.000 So even though the base bill is what the people who are pro-spying want, there's the pro-spying bill and the anti-spying bill.

00:13:28.000 So the pro-spying bill is the basis, but the group that you led in this press conference, I was proud to be a participant, we're saying at least give us good amendments on a warrant, on not expanding to searching anywhere in public Wi-Fi, to not allowing an end run around the Fourth Amendment by purchasing What websites you've gone to or what emails you've sent from a data broker, those types of things.

00:13:50.000 And if those amendments were adopted, I would think I could vote for the base bill.

00:13:54.000 That's right.

00:13:55.000 And what they're saying is even if they're considered, they won't allow us to proceed onto the bill.

00:14:01.000 And the reason is probably the Democrats will vote with us on some of those, won't they?

00:14:04.000 I think it's two things.

00:14:05.000 They're afraid they'll pass and they'll restrict the ability of the deep state to continue to spy on Americans and expand that capacity, which is what their bill does.

00:14:12.000 And then secondly, they don't want it to pass, but they also don't want to have to vote against it.

00:14:17.000 Turns out when you want to do bad stuff in Congress, you don't want American people to know what you want to do or what you intend to do.

00:14:22.000 And I know you relate to this.

00:14:24.000 I often say, if you don't want people to know how you vote, then vote differently.

00:14:27.000 If you can't defend your vote, then vote differently because we don't care.

00:14:31.000 We don't care if the American people know how we vote because we're doing what we believe is right.

00:14:34.000 We can defend it.

00:14:35.000 The American people are behind it. 0.86

00:14:37.000 But they want to hide who they are and what they're trying to do.

00:14:40.000 And they were even trying to, as you know, to go into secret session where they wouldn't have to operate out in the open for the American people to see.

00:14:46.000 It hasn't happened in many years.

00:14:48.000 It has rarely happened in Congress.

00:14:49.000 And it speaks to sincerity because what I get a sense of is that people will forgive a disagreement on an issue if they think you sincerely hold that view and that's well reasoned and thoughtful and they'll move to areas where they might agree with you to define how they think about you as a representative.

00:15:09.000 But when you're not taking the votes and you're just playing this game, then I think people get really sensitive to like, well, where does my person even stand and are they telling me something different than what's going on?

00:15:20.000 Let's get to this Punchbowl report.

00:15:22.000 What is going on in Republican House leadership?

00:15:25.000 This report from Jake Sherman at Punchbowl News notes a number of things that they say are calamitous.

00:15:32.000 The legislation on dissalt tax deduction was not one we proceeded on to because the rule to allow that did not pass.

00:15:40.000 The FISA bill, where we're describing some of these concerns, was pulled because it hasn't been worked out.

00:15:47.000 The chairman of our Homeland Security Committee, Mark Green, is not seeking re-election.

00:15:51.000 And we're not doing...

00:15:54.000 Foreign aid without offsets, and we're not doing the Ukraine money and the big national security package.

00:16:01.000 So at Punchbowl News, they say this is the sign of a House of Representatives and chaos.

00:16:05.000 But sometimes I actually measure our wins, not based on what we advance, but what we stop. 0.85

00:16:10.000 If there's bad tax policy, bad foreign policy, bad spending policy, sometimes it's a good week to kill it.

00:16:16.000 So what's your assessment?

00:16:17.000 I mean, do you view the events of these last couple weeks as calamitous for the Republican leadership?

00:16:22.000 You know, we get asked that question a lot.

00:16:24.000 Oh, this is the most unproductive Congress ever.

00:16:26.000 We've done less harm to the American people than other Congresses have done.

00:16:29.000 Isn't that awful?

00:16:30.000 But less is more, as you know.

00:16:32.000 Now, a year from now, we hope, Lord willing, to be here with President Trump, a majority in the Senate, an expanded majority in the House.

00:16:38.000 And then if we're not doing things for the American people, shame on us.

00:16:41.000 But when reporters will ask me that, hey, you guys haven't passed much legislation, you haven't gotten much done, I say, okay, what would you like me to get done or us to get done that Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden would agree to?

00:16:51.000 So your definition of getting things done is doing what Democrats want, to show we can govern no matter how poorly we govern, to show we can get things done no matter how harmful to the American people.

00:17:00.000 So while we don't have a lot of victories with one house of one branch that we can have, look what we accomplish in terms of putting points on the board, if we slowed things down and we did less harm and we stopped the Democrats from advancing the ball in the wrong direction, we've done better than most Congresses.

00:17:17.000 And too often the Republicans are willing to advance Democrat priorities just for the sake of motion, if not progress.

00:17:23.000 They confuse motion and progress because sometimes you're moving in the wrong direction.

00:17:27.000 That's exactly right.

00:17:28.000 Let's join hands with the Democrats, show we can get things done, show we can govern, show we can compromise, and the American people lose.

00:17:35.000 And by the way, we're not saying we're allergic to working with Democrats.

00:17:38.000 Matter of fact, the very things that you were talking about, I think, were views that actually are held by some Democrats who don't want to see just warrantless searches occurring at people.

00:17:48.000 So we're not against working with Democrats.

00:17:49.000 We're against obfuscating liberal policy with the veneer of Republican support.

00:17:55.000 Which happens too often.

00:17:56.000 So there is some breaking news from CNN Manu Raju reporting that there is a new skinny Ukraine measure being negotiated.

00:18:04.000 Brian Fitzpatrick and Don Bacon, two Republicans who are definitely more on the other side of the conference than we are.

00:18:11.000 And they believe that we could lash about $20 billion in Ukraine munitions to a remain in Mexico policy on the border.

00:18:20.000 They think they can go middle out on that, getting some Democrats.

00:18:24.000 $20 billion for Ukraine, we get remain in Mexico.

00:18:29.000 My initial sense of that, having not reviewed the legislation because it hasn't been put out, is that that's probably a bad deal for our country.

00:18:36.000 That if we're going to be in some escalatory environment with Russia, Just to be able to reinstitute a policy that Joe Biden could with the stroke of a pen is really concerning.

00:18:46.000 I know you haven't seen the bill either because it doesn't yet exist, but just the concept of taking Remain in Mexico in exchange for tens of billions more for Ukraine, how do you think the Freedom Caucus is going to absorb that?

00:18:58.000 Well, I'm sure this is the last $20 billion that Don Bacon and the others are going to ask for their campaign-donating defense contract.

00:19:05.000 I mean, their Ukraine friends.

00:19:07.000 I'm sure this is the last $20 billion they'll ask for.

00:19:09.000 No, I'm not for any supplemental that's not paid for.

00:19:12.000 Okay, so any country, any place in the world, we have to find offsets to pay for it.

00:19:16.000 Yes, when you've got $34 trillion national debt, a $200 billion monthly deficit, at some point that's got to matter.

00:19:21.000 The days of spending without consequence are over with 40-year high inflation, 20-year high interest rates, our credit being downgraded, the American people suffering under the inflation and the interest rates.

00:19:32.000 Those days where it was just an abstract concept for the economists with the green visors on and the banker's lamp.

00:19:39.000 So, yeah, it's got to start somewhere.

00:19:41.000 Even Israel's funding, and I think we both voted the same way on that, love Israel.

00:19:45.000 They're, I think, our number one most important ally on the world stage.

00:19:48.000 But we shouldn't be borrowing from the kids and the grandkids when we can cut climate funding, we can cut the UN, we can cut the IRS expansion.

00:19:54.000 There's lots of low-hanging fruit of spending that's harmful to the country, not only just wasteful.

00:19:58.000 So I'm for offsets because we've got to turn the page and stop doing unpaid supplementals.

00:20:04.000 That said, I think I share your view that I don't support funding for Ukraine anyway, and I certainly wouldn't give money to this administration in the name of them pretending to do something they're not going to do.

00:20:15.000 You know, I think you could make a case, I'll sound a little soft here, if we had a true border security bill, HR2, where we had enforcement mechanisms, where we meted out a little bit of money to essentially buy that border security for the country, and they didn't get the money until they performed, and it was paid for with offsets too.

00:20:35.000 Not for Ukraine, but for our country, right?

00:20:37.000 Yes.

00:20:37.000 Yeah, that it's performance-based funding and that performance is measured by border crossings.

00:20:42.000 Exactly, exactly.

00:20:43.000 You could make an argument if you paid for it with offsets and it was performance-based on they had to actually execute the policy that ended the border invasion, you could make an argument for negotiating that.

00:20:55.000 Yeah, I think only in Washington do we combine our border issue and Ukraine's border.

00:21:02.000 We've done town halls together.

00:21:04.000 I know you've got a lot of people that you serve as chairman of the Freedom Caucus from around the country, and I don't know if there's anywhere in America where people are sitting down, concerned about our border crisis, and then immediately think, well, if only there was a way to do this in Ukraine at the same time. 0.58

00:21:20.000 Now, there are people who feel very passionately about Ukraine, But even I don't think they view it as linked to our border.

00:21:26.000 And so it's this uniquely Washington concept.

00:21:29.000 And I think it's largely driven by the fact that it's an open secret that Mitch McConnell views the Ukraine matter as central to his legacy, even more so than the court.

00:21:38.000 And I do believe, as an evangelical Christian, Mike Johnson really wants to get the Israel aid done.

00:21:44.000 I do so.

00:21:45.000 And I think that that's not politics for him.

00:21:47.000 I think that that's a place with a 4,000-year connection to our faith.

00:21:50.000 That's right.

00:21:51.000 You don't want to see it overrun.

00:21:53.000 That's a totally understandable perspective for someone to have.

00:21:57.000 But when you find out what the presiding officers want, then sometimes that becomes the feature of a deal.

00:22:04.000 I look back at our appropriations process as probably the most productive way to endeavor upon funding the government.

00:22:12.000 We got criticized because we kept people here late at night taking hundreds more votes than they were used to.

00:22:18.000 Even when we lose those votes, do you view that as existentially bad for us?

00:22:25.000 Because even when we lose votes, we're forcing people to take votes.

00:22:28.000 That's right.

00:22:29.000 So your perspective on that?

00:22:30.000 It'd be nice if we could make other people vote the way we want to, but we can't do that.

00:22:34.000 And so short of that, what you want is the opportunity to have the debate, to have the fight, to have the votes held, to get people on record.

00:22:41.000 And it's a shame, because to your point, we had hundreds of amendment votes to cut specific spending, and almost all of those failed.

00:22:50.000 It's really a shame that they did in a Republican conference.

00:22:53.000 But at least we're exposing who the Republican Party is, who's with the American people, who's with cutting spending, who's with limiting government, who's for the Constitution.

00:23:03.000 And I'd like to think that might help in some primaries this year.

00:23:06.000 Yeah, and by the way, that's not a threat.

00:23:08.000 It's just democracy.

00:23:09.000 People see how folks vote, then they choose who their elected leaders are.

00:23:14.000 Final question I want to ask you.

00:23:16.000 As you lead the Freedom Caucus through these next several months and beyond, How are you going to gauge success?

00:23:25.000 How are you going to look at the Freedom Caucus and say, we really achieved our objective here versus yet another kind of entity in Washington that flummoxes around this crazy place?

00:23:39.000 Well, it's difficult for us looking at past history and looking at the lay land to predict, you know, significant, measurable success markers, if you will.

00:23:51.000 We can predict lots of reasons why we think that failure and surrender is in our future because that's what has happened with our conference.

00:23:58.000 But I look at last week where the Ukraine funding bill, combined with an amnesty bill, masquerading as a phony border security bill, was killed.

00:24:09.000 And the Freedom Caucus and our conservative fighting allies like yourself were at the forefront of killing that, the messaging, making it too painful, too uncomfortable, just untenable for enough Republican senators to vote for it, and it fell apart.

00:24:24.000 Conservative nation rose up, the American people rose up, our friends in the movement rose up.

00:24:29.000 That was a win.

00:24:30.000 It's not time to stop and spike the football and celebrate because we knew the supplemental would come back, just minus pretending to have border security in it.

00:24:37.000 Although, as we both know, that would have made it actually worse because it would have given political cover to those who are perpetrating the invasion and make it look like they were doing something to stop the invasion while not doing anything to stop it.

00:24:46.000 So that was a win.

00:24:48.000 Winning on FISA would be huge, because we will live with that for years to come, and it has a tremendous impact on the American people, especially under this administration.

00:24:58.000 And God willing, we're only going to suffer another 10 months or so under this administration.

00:25:04.000 But we're fighting an administration that we know is willing to do anything, not even pretending anymore.

00:25:08.000 They're going for broke because they know their goose is cooked if President Trump wins and we have House and Senate majorities.

00:25:14.000 So I think FISA would be one trying to battle, to try to get border security somehow in the equation.

00:25:23.000 It was supposed to be part of the supplemental, is what the Speaker said.

00:25:26.000 That wasn't the play I wanted.

00:25:27.000 I wanted to tie it to appropriations.

00:25:29.000 I don't think we're probably going to win that fight.

00:25:32.000 But to reduce the harm done in the spending battles is probably about the best we can do.

00:25:37.000 I'd love to see it be at the FRA levels, at least.

00:25:39.000 That was last year, which I voted against that.

00:25:42.000 It's too high, but that was...

00:25:43.000 It's crazy that, like, even when you've...

00:25:45.000 You can almost pick any point in time and say, like, here I thought the spending was too much, and it just always goes up.

00:25:51.000 Yeah.

00:25:52.000 And Warren Davidson, our friend, likes to say, you got to fight the battle you're in, not the battle that you wish you in.

00:25:56.000 And sometimes you have to recalibrate and say, okay, what could success, the best semblance of success look like now?

00:26:03.000 And sometimes you just have to, again, recalibrate that and do what you think is most right strategically to try to effectuate the best outcome.

00:26:11.000 The other thing I'd like us to do is to help, again, as members and what we're doing here, but to try to influence conservative wins in those primaries, to get more reinforcements, to expose, again, who the Republican Party is, who's with us, who's not with us, in terms of fighting for the things we tell the American people we will do if they give us the majority, so that we can have a better-looking conference ideologically, hopefully numerically.

00:26:32.000 I want it to be larger, but I want it to be larger with the right number of people.

00:26:35.000 No, it's so key.

00:26:36.000 Well, how can folks follow the work of your congressional office and the work of the House Freedom Caucus?

00:26:40.000 Well, they can follow me at good.house.gov or at repbobgood.

00:26:46.000 Am I allowed to say support me?

00:26:48.000 This is a congressional podcast.

00:26:50.000 Okay, I cannot say that.

00:26:51.000 Yeah, we'll keep it on the official side.

00:26:53.000 But yeah, at repbobgood and good.house.gov.

00:26:56.000 Awesome.

00:26:56.000 Well, thank you so much.

00:26:57.000 Thanks for your terrific leadership.

00:26:59.000 Thanks for being my friend here in the United States Congress.

00:27:01.000 Bob Good of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

00:27:03.000 We're proud of him.

00:27:04.000 He's a terrific firebrand.

00:27:06.000 We did have a—we're going to let Congressman Good go, but we'll leave you for a moment with a little snippet of a song from our friends at the Article III Project.

00:27:15.000 Take a listen.

00:27:16.000 Pulled into Atlanta Was feeling up my lady friend Just need a court Where Trump has to defend Say, Fanny, can you hire me?

00:27:44.000 It won't be a kickback scheme I'll take my money, leave my wife And fought her for this meme Time the contract, Fannie Set the dollars free. 1.00

00:28:01.000 Sign the contract then.

00:28:07.000 Sail the seas, you and me.

00:28:11.000 All action has been in the Georgia courtrooms today as Fonnie Willis and Nathan Wade have taken the stand to describe their love.

00:28:26.000 And on the week of Valentine's Day, how could you not want to celebrate love?

00:28:30.000 So we're going to celebrate a little of Nathan Wade's testimony right now.

00:28:34.000 Take a listen.

00:28:35.000 When did your romantic relationship with Ms. Willis begin?

00:28:39.000 2022. When?

00:28:41.000 In 2022. Early 2022. So you were appointed in November of 2021?

00:28:49.000 Yes, ma'am.

00:28:50.000 And your relationship started early.

00:28:51.000 What's early?

00:28:52.000 January?

00:28:52.000 February?

00:28:54.000 Around March.

00:28:55.000 Around March.

00:28:56.000 So in 2023, December, you said you didn't have any receipts?

00:29:01.000 I do not have any receipts.

00:29:03.000 I did not have any receipts.

00:29:05.000 But you did travel with Ms. Willis in 2023, correct?

00:29:09.000 I did.

00:29:09.000 And you traveled with her in 2022, correct?

00:29:11.000 I did.

00:29:12.000 And you traveled with her in 2021, correct?

00:29:15.000 No.

00:29:16.000 So you only traveled with her in 2022 and 2023?

00:29:20.000 2022 and 2023 is what I recall.

00:29:23.000 That's what you recall?

00:29:24.000 Yes.

00:29:25.000 Okay.

00:29:25.000 So this roughly sharing travel, you're saying she reimbursed you?

00:29:28.000 She did.

00:29:29.000 And where did you deposit the money she reimbursed you?

00:29:33.000 Oh, it was cash.

00:29:34.000 She didn't give me any checks.

00:29:35.000 So she paid you cash for her share of all these vacations?

00:29:38.000 Mr. Schaefer, you'll step out if you do that again.

00:29:40.000 Yes, ma'am.

00:29:41.000 Okay.

00:29:42.000 And so all of the vacations that she took, she paid you cash for?

00:29:47.000 Yes ma'am.

00:29:48.000 And you purchased all of these vacations on your business credit card, correct?

00:29:52.000 Yes ma'am.

00:29:53.000 You did have sexual relationships with someone other than your spouse during the course of the marriage and during the period of separation, which included up to May the 30th of 2023. Isn't that correct, sir?

00:30:07.000 My answer to this interrogatory is none, is no.

00:30:12.000 So you're saying that you did not have sexual relationships with anyone outside of your marriage and the period of separation is during the period and you're answering the question to this interrogatory, correct sir?

00:30:25.000 I'm saying during the course of my marriage I did not have sexual relations to anyone and this answer is no.

00:30:31.000 Well, again, Your Honor...

00:30:33.000 I understand.

00:30:33.000 You can proceed, Mr. Geek.

00:30:34.000 We need a yes or no.

00:30:36.000 Let's just get down to it.

00:30:39.000 Did you or did you not, by May the 30th, 2023, have had sexual relations with Ms. Willis, yes or no?

00:30:47.000 Yes or no?

00:30:48.000 Yes.

00:30:48.000 Okay.

00:30:50.000 Now, what you did is you answered no to that question, didn't you?

00:30:54.000 Or none, correct?

00:30:54.000 I didn't answer no to the question you just asked.

00:30:57.000 I answered no to the interrogatory question.

00:30:59.000 And the interrogatory stands that you answered as a pleading in a civil proceeding your divorce case, right?

00:31:09.000 Yes.

00:31:11.000 That was some of the most incredible testimony from Nathan Wade.

00:31:15.000 In his divorce litigation, he said he had not had sexual relations with anyone other than his wife, and now he's admitting that during that time he was having sexual relations with Fonny Willis, and he is choosing in the questioning in live court to parse the distinction between those two as to his relationship with Fonny Willis.

00:31:34.000 Like, well, were you having relations with anybody?

00:31:36.000 No.

00:31:37.000 Were you having relations with Fonny Willis?

00:31:39.000 Yes.

00:31:40.000 Well, those are two different questions.

00:31:42.000 It's really remarkable.

00:31:44.000 And these folks thought they were going to get Trump.

00:31:47.000 There they were going on their little romantic junkets, probably planning for the moment that they'd get some big job in the Biden administration or some job on CNN or MSNBC. Well, you're on TV now, taking the stand, answering the questions.

00:32:03.000 And here's what we know.

00:32:04.000 Somebody is lying.

00:32:06.000 Wade's lying.

00:32:08.000 Willis is lying.

00:32:09.000 They could both be lying.

00:32:10.000 But with this testimony, I don't think we have the clip, but even the folks on MSNBC are melting down over this, saying it's over.

00:32:22.000 Willis and Wade have misrepresented themselves to the court.

00:32:25.000 Maybe to multiple courts based on whatever Nathan Wade had cooking in his divorce.

00:32:30.000 But man, the hubris.

00:32:31.000 The hubris to think that they could get away with it.

00:32:34.000 We understand now Fannie Willis is exploding on the stand and I'm sure we'll have plenty to say about what that means for oversight.

00:32:43.000 When it comes to the House Judiciary Committee and the grant programs and all the corruption and lies they got cooking up in Fulton County.

00:32:51.000 We'll be here to cover it.

00:32:52.000 Thank you so much for participating.

00:32:54.000 We would only ask that you help share this episode and the work that we're doing so that more of our fellow Americans can be informed and engaged and on the front line of the fight.

00:33:03.000 Thanks for being here.

00:33:05.000 Roll the credits.

Firebrand - Matt Gaetz - February 15, 2024

Episode 153 LIVE: Nathan Wade Nuked In Court (feat. Rep. Bob Good) – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz

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