Firebrand - Matt Gaetz - Episode 17: Stand Your Ground (feat. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene) – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz

00:00:01.000 The embattled Congressman Matt Gaetz.

00:00:03.000 Matt Gaetz was one of the very few members in the entire Congress who bothered to stand up against permanent Washington on behalf of his constituents.

00:00:10.000 Matt Gaetz right now, he's a problem in the Democratic Party.

00:00:13.000 He could cause a lot of hiccups in passing applause.

00:00:16.000 So we're going to keep running those stories to keep working.

00:00:22.000 If you want to build America up and not burn her to the ground, then welcome, my fellow patriots!

00:00:29.000 You are in the right place!

00:00:30.000 This is the movement for you!

00:00:32.000 You ever watch this guy on television?

00:00:35.000 Like a machine.

00:00:36.000 Matt Gaetz.

00:00:37.000 I'm a cancelled man in some corners of the internet.

00:00:41.000 Many days I'm a marked man in Congress, a wanted man by the deep state.

00:00:45.000 They aren't really coming for me.

00:00:47.000 They're coming for you.

00:00:49.000 I'm just in the way.

00:00:53.000 Do you feel the threats?

00:00:55.000 I do.

00:00:56.000 I see some of the threats.

00:00:57.000 Some of the things people say, it's absolutely sickening.

00:01:02.000 Are you confident that the government will protect you from these threats?

00:01:05.000 Because that's of course the government's job.

00:01:07.000 I hope so, but we all know how the FBI works.

00:01:13.000 Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

00:01:14.000 We've got a jam-packed episode.

00:01:16.000 You can have it playing while you're cooking up the turkey, making those side dishes, maybe even mute the football game so that you can get the jam-packed episode that we have planned for you.

00:01:26.000 We've got MTG on the show today, a very spicy interview, and she's calling people out, Republicans especially.

00:01:33.000 You don't want to miss it.

00:01:34.000 Plus, self-defense in the era of Rittenhouse.

00:01:38.000 I've got a major legislative announcement coming up regarding the Stand Your Ground law.

00:01:42.000 But first, take a listen to commentator Crystal Ball point out my lack of Washington DC friends.

00:01:50.000 I'll try to keep it together.

00:01:52.000 He's not loved.

00:01:53.000 He's not going to find any sort of safe harbor where people are going to say, this is totally nonsense and we believe you, Matt.

00:01:59.000 And so I think that's a little bit of what you're seeing here with Matt Gaetz, where the overwhelming majority of Republicans are happy to just let him twist in the wind and see where this all goes and would be, I think, just as happy to see him gone without them having to lift a single finger.

00:02:16.000 This is the reporting from Crystal Ball on the Hill's show Rising back in April.

00:02:20.000 No friends in Washington, no fun dinner parties with the Beltway elite.

00:02:25.000 Miss Ball was weighing my claims of extortion against the false claims being made about me seven months ago.

00:02:32.000 On Monday, this man, Stephen Alford, pled guilty to wire fraud for trying to extort my family.

00:02:38.000 I'll have my reaction and context for how we should think about the Alford guilty plea in a few moments.

00:02:45.000 It may surprise you, but there is a very clear pattern to identify.

00:02:51.000 While much of Crystal Ball's reporting about me has been poorly sourced and dependent on now-debunked rumors, on the question of Washington friendship, I cannot quarrel with her take.

00:03:02.000 This is what I had to say about D.C. friends in my book, Firebrand.

00:03:06.000 Quote, Once you're in a position of prominence and power, there are always parties you can attend where you'll rub elbows with movers and shakers from various industries and pressure groups.

00:03:17.000 But I don't know that I'd call those parties themselves much of a temptation for me.

00:03:23.000 More like a very awkward and phony speed dating session, tedious and boring for most people, these events become the great aspiration for certain Washingtonians.

00:03:35.000 I hold that view even more stridently today.

00:03:38.000 I do have some friends.

00:03:41.000 You've actually heard them here.

00:03:42.000 Jim Jordan, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Andy Biggs, Mark Meadows.

00:03:46.000 But I will confess, I don't have many friends, so you'll see some repeat guests.

00:03:52.000 Based on the hundreds of thousands of you who've downloaded and watched these episodes, I suspect you won't mind hearing from the firebrands frequently.

00:04:01.000 Now, the Washington Post recently reported on My Friend Group, quote, MAGA squad of loyalists see its influence rise, reads the major Sunday headline.

00:04:13.000 The Washington Post is uncharacteristically correct about this.

00:04:18.000 WAPO profiles three dynamic freshmen, two lawmakers expelled from committees, and one guy, unfairly smeared by the Department of Justice, leaks and lies, as the ascendant force among congressional Republicans and the political right.

00:04:33.000 Here's WAPO's take.

00:04:36.000 Quote, Traitor Republicans, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia declared, Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado tweeted, It was time to take names and hold these fake Republicans accountable.

00:05:02.000 And this past week, Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida told a pro-Trump podcast that there was never a situation where the infrastructure debate should result in Republicans working with Democrats.

00:05:12.000 They were going to win it all, or we were going to win it all.

00:05:16.000 The continuing turmoil in the House GOP conference over how and whether to punish members who back anything supported by Democrats shows how an emboldened group of far-right House members is gaining influence over the Republican Party in Congress.

00:05:31.000 These representatives are positioning themselves to further purify the House GOP conference as a branch of Trump's Make America Great Again movement.

00:05:42.000 Well, they're right about that.

00:05:44.000 Terrific representatives, I say.

00:05:45.000 Lauren Boebert, Madison Cawthorn, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Paul Gosar.

00:05:49.000 These are the firebrands, and I am proud to fight alongside them.

00:05:54.000 I'm glad the Washington Post notices.

00:05:56.000 We are neither the pawns nor the favorites of legislative leadership.

00:06:01.000 We aren't the group that Democrats praise as good people, even if we disagree.

00:06:07.000 We don't lead lawmakers in renaming post offices or creating nonsense federal task forces for phony election time talking points.

00:06:17.000 No.

00:06:19.000 Instead, we attack this job with advocacy, inspiration, and as Steve Bannon would say, action, action, action.

00:06:29.000 You can check out my Under Fire episode for a deep dive into how we are being hunted by Pelosi and the Cheneistas on the January 6th committee. 0.94

00:06:38.000 Make no mistake, we are the ones they hate most, target most, fear most.

00:06:45.000 We are a fortress fighting for our constituents who elected us.

00:06:51.000 Unlike the hundreds of former members of Congress who now get paid to influence the federal government, as lobbyists, we actually fight for the people.

00:07:00.000 From the previous 116th Congress alone, I found 28 members of Congress who retired and then went right to work for lobbying firms already, just from the last Congress.

00:07:11.000 Some were Democrats, others were Republicans.

00:07:13.000 Now, they're all members of the same K Street Uniparty.

00:07:19.000 Michael Capuano, Democrat from Massachusetts.

00:07:23.000 Barbara Comstock, Republican from Virginia, if you could ever call Barbara Comstock a Republican.

00:07:28.000 Joseph Crowley, the one AOC beat, from New York, now a very well-paid lobbyist on K Street.

00:07:35.000 The Washington Post isn't dedicating time to the MAGA influence in their signature Sunday edition because the lobbyists love us.

00:07:45.000 Most refuse to donate to any of our campaigns and I've refused lobbyist and PAC checks as a matter of policy for years.

00:07:53.000 The MAGA Squad, that's what they call us.

00:07:55.000 We aren't rising because we have the friends in Washington that Crystal Ball would value.

00:08:02.000 As Marjorie Taylor Greene put it in the WAPO piece, I think I have the support nationally and it's because I speak what regular people say.

00:08:12.000 I speak what Republicans say at home and, you know, at dinner.

00:08:16.000 I'm saying what they say in their breakfast meetings before work.

00:08:19.000 I'm saying what they're saying at church and saying what they're saying in their Bible studies.

00:08:24.000 I'm saying what these parents are saying when they go to the school boards.

00:08:29.000 Earlier I spoke to the great firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene about our plan to operationalize our rising role in the Republican conference.

00:08:39.000 Take a listen.

00:08:42.000 Here we are huddled up in the judiciary library and you have been taking the action right to the minority leader on some of these critical issues that define how the Republicans fight.

00:08:54.000 Give everybody an update on the expectations that you have laid out for leader McCarthy and how he's reacted to that.

00:09:02.000 Well, thank you, Matt.

00:09:03.000 And you've done such a good job pointing out the things, the failures that we've seen in leadership.

00:09:08.000 Number one, everyone saw me get stripped of committees as a brand new member of Congress, robbing my district of the ability to have representation working on committees.

00:09:17.000 There was no action taken, as a matter of fact.

00:09:20.000 Our leader did nothing to defend me, did nothing to stop it.

00:09:24.000 Then we saw today Paul Gosar censured, and then we saw him lose a committee.

00:09:29.000 And this is another failure.

00:09:30.000 But what do we see happening?

00:09:32.000 13 traitor Republicans helped Joe Biden pass his agenda, handing their voting card over to Nancy Pelosi, and nothing happens to them.

00:09:40.000 So here's what we have to have.

00:09:41.000 I think we feel confident that in 22, we're going to take back the House, but we have to take back the House with Republicans with a plan that are actually going to put it into action instead of talk about it on Fox News.

00:09:53.000 And that is what I want to see happen.

00:09:55.000 So here's what leadership is going to have to do.

00:09:58.000 Right now, we know that Kevin McCarthy has a problem in our conference.

00:10:01.000 He doesn't have the full support to be speaker.

00:10:04.000 He doesn't have the votes that are there because there's many of us that are very unhappy Do you think that what happened to Paul Gosar happened because there wasn't a strong enough Republican rebuke of the way they treated you?

00:10:30.000 Absolutely.

00:10:31.000 Well, let's get real and let's talk about it.

00:10:33.000 So here we have Adam Kinzinger and we have Liz Cheney taking a committee assignment from Nancy Pelosi, the whole fake January 6th committee.

00:10:43.000 It is such a failure of our leadership to hold them off of that.

00:10:48.000 But they're traitors and they went over there to Nancy Pelosi and they're going on their We Hate Trump mission. 0.99

00:10:53.000 And we want to destroy Trump Republicans like you and I, right? 0.99

00:10:57.000 Here's what I was told.

00:10:58.000 Let me tell you, when I said, I've demanded it, I want Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney kicked out of the GOP conference.

00:11:05.000 Do you know the excuse that I was given of why we can't remove them from the conference?

00:11:10.000 Oh, but Marjorie will lose committee seats. 1.00

00:11:13.000 Our conference will lose committee seats.

00:11:15.000 Well, guess what?

00:11:16.000 I lost two committee seats.

00:11:18.000 And then Paul Gosar lost one committee seat.

00:11:22.000 So I don't see any reason why we can't kick off these two Republicans kick them out of our conference because what happened in Wyoming?

00:11:30.000 Well, you're right.

00:11:31.000 Liz Cheney was essentially stripped of her membership in the Republican Party because Republicans in Wyoming are so offended that she would even have the nerve to call herself a Republican. 0.98

00:11:42.000 So we're in this bizarre circumstance where in the district Liz Cheney represents, she's not a Republican, but in the district in which she actually lives here in Northern Virginia, in the Washington DC area, she's deemed a Republican.

00:11:56.000 And I think that The majority that a lot of people are anticipating for Republicans is dependent on a lot of the decisions that we are making now.

00:12:06.000 And you are making things uncomfortable for the leadership because you are being very public about what your expectations are.

00:12:13.000 What is your expectation regarding the treatment of John Katko after he voted for the abandoned contempt measure?

00:12:20.000 He voted to strip you from committees.

00:12:22.000 He voted for impeachment.

00:12:24.000 He voted for the Biden socialism legislation, and he voted for a January 6th committee that he negotiated stabbing Republicans in the back.

00:12:34.000 How would you treat Katko?

00:12:35.000 What's your demand of the leadership?

00:12:37.000 Well, Katko's not a Republican.

00:12:39.000 He's a Democrat.

00:12:41.000 And our conference and the NRCC needs to stop playing this majority maker game.

00:12:47.000 The majority makers, this is what they say over and over again.

00:12:50.000 Oh, we have to help these very moderates.

00:12:52.000 We have to help them hold these districts.

00:12:55.000 But here's what they actually do with them.

00:12:56.000 We see it, right?

00:12:57.000 They put them on these big committee assignments.

00:13:00.000 They make them ranking members.

00:13:02.000 They actually reward them and they move them on the steering committee where they're involved in all kinds of decision making, all kinds of roles and leadership.

00:13:12.000 But they're not actually Republicans.

00:13:14.000 They're actually Democrats.

00:13:16.000 And John Katko has showed us that over and over and over again.

00:13:19.000 What we need to do is we need to hold to our conservative values.

00:13:22.000 We need to actually give Americans something to vote for.

00:13:25.000 Because I know a lot of Republicans, they're Republican in their heart, they're Republican in their thinking, but they don't even vote because all they see is a bunch of politicians that never actually do the job.

00:13:37.000 People want action.

00:13:38.000 They're tired of words and they're tired of the lies.

00:13:40.000 I don't think there's any constituency waiting to be inspired by weakness.

00:13:45.000 It is strength that our fellow Americans need right now while inflation is crushing them.

00:13:52.000 Gas prices are making life unaffordable.

00:13:54.000 They are subject to these mandates and these draconian procedures, and they see far too few who are here and willing to fight.

00:14:01.000 Now, there's one reaction from the leadership I've gotten regarding these 13 Republican turncoats.

00:14:06.000 Well, Matt, a bunch of them are going to retire and become lobbyists.

00:14:10.000 And so we in the leadership have no real leverage over them because their leverage now exists with the lobby corps, not us.

00:14:17.000 So you can't expect us to punish them.

00:14:20.000 And here's my reaction to that.

00:14:22.000 I'm dying for yours.

00:14:23.000 One, immediately they should be stripped of any positions of leadership that they hold on any committees where they serve as a consequence of our conference.

00:14:33.000 And that's something you could do right now.

00:14:34.000 And guess what?

00:14:35.000 That would make them far less attractive as lobbyists one day.

00:14:38.000 Second thing, we should have an ethic around here That selling out our team, selling out our country, our economy, our constituents means that you don't get to come back making millions of dollars as lobbyists and enjoy the privileges of former membership and floor privileges and coming to people's offices and having meetings to promote an agenda that they're paid to promote.

00:15:01.000 How would you treat the retiring members who are already picking out their offices on K Street and have already forgotten about their districts?

00:15:08.000 Well, all I can think about is when you told me that, that's all about writing checks, isn't it?

00:15:14.000 Totally.

00:15:14.000 And you and I are two members that we don't take those checks.

00:15:17.000 Nope.

00:15:17.000 We're the only two who don't take political action corporate checks.

00:15:21.000 And I think that's a liberating thing, just as a matter of policy.

00:15:26.000 Yeah.

00:15:26.000 So here they are.

00:15:27.000 They're making this apology for these members who, once they retire and are going to become lobbyists, they don't want to hurt their feelings because they really want their checks.

00:15:37.000 That's really what that's all about, Matt.

00:15:38.000 And they want the money from the companies and the people that these members now but future lobbyists will bring to them.

00:15:46.000 It's all about money.

00:15:47.000 It always is.

00:15:48.000 It's the money that brings the power.

00:15:50.000 But you can't stop the American people.

00:15:52.000 Matt, you and I have had a lot of fun.

00:15:54.000 We've gone all over and done rallies and talked to so many people.

00:15:57.000 And so I feel like the two of us honestly know what the American people want.

00:16:02.000 We understand our Republican voters because we go and talk to them.

00:16:06.000 And we listen to them.

00:16:07.000 And we know that they're so tired of being lied to.

00:16:10.000 And they're so sick and tired of this town.

00:16:13.000 They're fed up with it.

00:16:14.000 I mean, right now, the gas prices are going up.

00:16:17.000 Grocery prices are going up.

00:16:18.000 They don't know if they're going to be able to buy certain things for Christmas.

00:16:22.000 Here's what I'm really ticked off about.

00:16:24.000 GMC just announced that they're not going to be putting seat heaters in cars anymore because they can't get the microchips from China.

00:16:30.000 So we're already losing, like, luxury items. 0.67

00:16:33.000 And, you know, It's ridiculous.

00:16:36.000 Republicans can fix this. 0.84

00:16:38.000 And it happens with leadership.

00:16:40.000 And here's what I have to say about it.

00:16:42.000 Respect is earned.

00:16:44.000 It's earned.

00:16:46.000 It's not given.

00:16:47.000 Do you respect the Republican leadership right now?

00:16:49.000 No.

00:16:49.000 No, I don't respect them at all.

00:16:50.000 I can't respect leadership that doesn't hold people accountable, but yet allows people like me and Paul Gosar to be constantly trampled and abused, and then will throw us under the bus at the first given chance.

00:17:03.000 I'm really sick of it.

00:17:04.000 If you had to guess right now, is Kevin McCarthy ever going to be Speaker of the House?

00:17:08.000 Right now, from the people I've talked to, he doesn't have the votes right now.

00:17:13.000 I think that there's a door open for a challenger, so we'll see what happens.

00:17:18.000 Our people want to be inspired.

00:17:20.000 They want to believe that there are folks here who will fight for them.

00:17:24.000 What hope would you give people that if we get the majority back, that we'll use it to advance their interests?

00:17:30.000 I think we give them hope because we keep speaking out, doing this like you do constantly every single week.

00:17:37.000 Us going out and telling the truth and telling here's what's happening behind the scenes.

00:17:41.000 I mean, here we are sitting in the Judiciary Law Library where we know Kevin McCarthy could go walking by at any moment or even stop in the room, but we're willing to tell the truth and we really don't care.

00:17:52.000 We're willing to sit on the House floor and call it out and we really don't care because here's something you and I both know and I'm hoping to spread this message and we can bring new people here that we're supporting, you know, new members that will be fearless and we'll see the Capitol as what it really is and it's a glass castle and glass castles can be shattered and I believe that we can do that and we can change it.

00:18:15.000 The fearless Marjorie Taylor Greene.

00:18:17.000 Great to be here.

00:18:18.000 Thanks for being in the fight.

00:18:20.000 Let's keep these folks really under our thumb and under our watchful eye.

00:18:27.000 Self-defense.

00:18:29.000 You have the right to meet force with force.

00:18:32.000 It's a right anchored in the Constitution.

00:18:35.000 Life, liberty, happiness.

00:18:36.000 To preserve these things, we must be willing to defend them if someone tries to take them away from us.

00:18:42.000 The Constitution isn't self-affecting.

00:18:45.000 We must act in accordance with it for it to have meaning in our lives.

00:18:50.000 When we repel an assault with force, the law should be on our side.

00:18:54.000 The Kyle Rittenhouse verdict reaffirms the commitment of the American jury system to the doctrine and principles of self-defense.

00:19:02.000 But attacks on self-defense as a concept have been amplified from the actual courtroom to the courtroom of public opinion on Twitter.

00:19:12.000 Others like NBA woke mobster LeBron James also mocked Kyle Rittenhouse.

00:19:19.000 LeBron has many bad takes, but this might be his worst.

00:19:23.000 It's worth mentioning that LeBron is anti-Kyle Rittenhouse, probably because he's pro-rioter.

00:19:29.000 But the insane irony here is that LeBron loves China and apologizes for anyone in the NBA who dares to stand up to the Chinese Communist Party.

00:19:39.000 I don't want to get into a word or sentence feud with Darryl Moret, but I believe he wasn't educated on the situation at hand.

00:19:51.000 And he spoke.

00:19:53.000 And so many people could have been harmed.

00:19:57.000 Not only financially, but physically, emotionally, spiritually.

00:20:00.000 So, just be careful what we tweet and we say and what we do, even though, yes, we do have freedom of speech, but there can be a lot of negative that comes with that, too.

00:20:10.000 Does LeBron realize that if anybody protests in China, they get killed?

00:20:16.000 While LeBron remains busy kneeling for Xi Jinping, stuffing his pockets at the expense of slave labor, elbowing people in the face and getting ejected from NBA games, some people living out here in reality face circumstances where we must defend our livelihood.

00:20:35.000 Not from millionaires' elbows and fists in the Little Caesars arena, but from guns and weapons in dangerous and lawless riots.

00:20:45.000 By the way, what are the odds that the people attacking Kyle were otherwise criminals?

00:20:51.000 What does it say about the people rioting in the streets in the name of BLM or social justice and equality?

00:20:58.000 The left would have you believe that people in the streets are just ordinary citizens protesting or even rioting genuinely in the name of social justice.

00:21:09.000 The truth is that the people menacing our communities in these riots are the same people that have always menaced communities. 0.85

00:21:18.000 But now they have a free pass, an endorsement from every leftist institution, from the media to even local and federal governments. 0.75

00:21:28.000 The reality is these rioters are nothing more than criminals and anarchists. 0.92

00:21:34.000 And the Rittenhouse case proves it.

00:21:36.000 The same guy who robs you on the street is a looting target with the endorsement and permission of the left.

00:21:43.000 I wouldn't say I'm surprised.

00:21:46.000 Capitalism bad, broken windows good, right?

00:21:49.000 If you're wondering where the politically motivated prosecutor lost the jury in the Rittenhouse case, I'm guessing it was probably here.

00:21:57.000 When the defendant provokes the incident, he loses the right to self-defense.

00:22:02.000 You cannot claim self-defense against the danger you create.

00:22:08.000 That's critical right here.

00:22:10.000 If you're the one who is threatening others, you lose the right to claim self-defense.

00:22:16.000 You cannot hide behind self-defense if you provoked the incident.

00:22:21.000 If you created the danger, you forfeit the right to self-defense.

00:22:26.000 He doesn't get a pass by pulling the trigger fast.

00:22:30.000 So if Joseph Rosenbaum is running at him, Joseph Rosenbaum is no threat to his life.

00:22:37.000 And not only is the defendant expected to run, he's expected to yell, push, shove that ragdoll around, run back for help, call 911, call for help, do all sorts of other things besides just turn and fire. 1.00

00:22:52.000 Nobody has to take a beating in America.

00:22:55.000 The government doesn't get to presume us guilty because we exercise our Second Amendment rights.

00:23:00.000 It's scary to think that some prosecutors would actually observe otherwise.

00:23:06.000 Wokeness shouldn't append indictment authority with prosecutors at any level. 1.00

00:23:11.000 The prosecution in the Rittenhouse case was not acting in good faith.

00:23:16.000 And of course, neither is the mainstream media.

00:23:19.000 The mainstream media has repeatedly called Kyle a white supremacist.

00:23:23.000 I hope he gets Nick Sandman money in all of the lawsuits he's going to likely be filing.

00:23:28.000 Joe Biden even called him a white supremacist on Twitter.

00:23:31.000 Talk about defamation.

00:23:33.000 There's absolutely zero evidence of the sort.

00:23:36.000 The woke media, well, they've run out of cards to play and so they just have to call and label everyone a white supremacist.

00:23:43.000 Last year, when Kyle had to post a $2 million bail for his release, it was nearly impossible to crowdfund for him.

00:23:50.000 Not only was the mainstream media doxing people who tried to fund his legitimate defense ultimately a successful defense, but big tech was also deplatforming any attempt to do so.

00:24:03.000 Never forget that the media doxed, vilified and got people fired from their jobs just for donating to the legal defense of an innocent teenager.

00:24:14.000 Meanwhile, the Soros-funded district attorneys in major cities across the United States dropped charge after charge.

00:24:22.000 Kamala Harris, Democrat politicians, celebrities, they all advertised and donated to bail funds for rioters.

00:24:29.000 These violent criminals ended up back on our streets.

00:24:33.000 Streets where some committed even more violent crimes.

00:24:38.000 It's despicable.

00:24:40.000 Another interesting irony in this whole case is that Democrats want self-styled smart justice reforms to our criminal justice system, but only sometimes when it benefits their politics and conforms to their narrative.

00:24:54.000 As Glenn Greenwald of Substack put it so eloquently, Democrats are profoundly committed to criminal justice reform.

00:25:02.000 For everyone but their enemies.

00:25:04.000 Principles of rehabilitative justice, reform of the incarceration state and liberalized criminal justice evaporate when Democrats demand harsh prison for their political adversaries. 0.95

00:25:19.000 If you think Kyle was guilty, you're either willfully ignorant or politically motivated.

00:25:24.000 If this is not self-defense, then nothing is self-defense. 0.57

00:25:28.000 This case shouldn't even have been brought to trial.

00:25:31.000 This shouldn't have been a charge in the first place.

00:25:32.000 It was done solely for optics and to send a message.

00:25:37.000 Not only does this leftist government want you to remain powerless to stop the mob from burning your cities to the ground, destroying your businesses, but it wants you to know that you aren't allowed to defend yourself if that happens either.

00:25:51.000 Even if you're justified, they want you afraid, knowing that they could ruin your life if you don't play for what they designate as the right team.

00:26:01.000 The left has sent their message.

00:26:03.000 So let's let Kyle's acquittal serve as ours.

00:26:07.000 Acquitted and equipped by the law and our choices to fortify the defense of our families and communities.

00:26:16.000 Thinking beyond Rittenhouse, what should trigger the doctrine of self-defense?

00:26:21.000 And should law-abiding people have different legal duties depending on where they are attacked?

00:26:29.000 Now, according to Alexander Shloshkin in his favorite book known as Gulag Archipelago, which exposed the atrocities and absurdities of the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union system went so far as to criminalize self-defense.

00:26:44.000 Spinelessness even became a national characteristic.

00:26:48.000 The Soviet Criminal Code of 1926, Article 139, stated that you only had the right to unsheathe your knife when the criminal's knife was already hovering over you.

00:26:59.000 They then tell the story of a Red Army soldier named Alexander Zakrov.

00:27:05.000 He was assaulted outside a club by a criminal.

00:27:09.000 Alexander eventually pulled out a folding pen knife and he killed his assailant.

00:27:15.000 He was promptly charged with murder and received 10 years in prison.

00:27:20.000 When he asked the prosecutor, and what was I supposed to do?

00:27:23.000 The prosecutor replied, quote, you should have fled.

00:27:29.000 Is this really the reality that you want to live in?

00:27:32.000 Not in the Soviet Union, but in the United States of America?

00:27:35.000 There's a reason our ideas won out over theirs.

00:27:39.000 Well, you may be surprised to find out that this Soviet system isn't far away from what some states observe in the present in our country.

00:27:50.000 Different states have different perspectives concerning self-defense, while nearly every state has adopted a form of the Castle Doctrine, which gives homeowners the presumption of self-defense when inside their home.

00:28:03.000 Fifteen states like New York, Massachusetts, and Hawaii impose a legal duty on the person who is attacked to retreat when they're not in their home, when they're out in public.

00:28:16.000 Recently in Hawaii, there was the case of Lu Zhang.

00:28:20.000 He was confronted by a burglar with a knife trespassing on his property.

00:28:25.000 When the burglar didn't drop the knife, Lu shot him.

00:28:28.000 He was then promptly arrested.

00:28:32.000 See, he was outside the threshold of his house on his property and thus didn't have the protection of any castle doctrine or stand your ground law. 0.64

00:28:41.000 So the castle doctrine presumes that our home is our castle and that if someone enters the home with the intent to commit a felony against us, we can shoot to kill.

00:28:52.000 No duty to retreat from your own home.

00:28:55.000 Aim for the center of mass.

00:28:58.000 The law will protect you.

00:29:00.000 There's no reason protections for a victim should end at the threshold or the doorstep.

00:29:06.000 Law-abiding people shouldn't have the duty to retreat from anywhere that they are legally allowed to be if someone is trying to commit a felony against them.

00:29:16.000 Why should the home be different than the public park or the beach or even the grocery store?

00:29:22.000 If a reasonable person would believe someone is about to kill or violently beat or rape them, the victim should be able to respond with lethal force.

00:29:32.000 It's called the Stand Your Ground law.

00:29:35.000 It takes the legal principles of the Castle Doctrine that protects you and your home, and it allows those to travel with you during your law-abiding activities, regardless of where you are.

00:29:46.000 Florida has adopted the Stand Your Ground law.

00:29:49.000 And after the 2012 killing of Trayvon Martin, many wanted to repeal it.

00:29:55.000 Like the earlier struggles, the battle to change Stand Your Ground, Sharpton said, is a civil rights issue.

00:30:00.000 The history of the civil rights movement has been state law versus national federal law.

00:30:07.000 Trayvon Martin had the federal right to go home.

00:30:12.000 Jordan Davis had the right under federal law to drive with his friends.

00:30:18.000 Representative Matt Gaetz, a Republican and chairman of the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee, said rallies don't accomplish much.

00:30:25.000 Well, I think that the votes tell us a lot more than the rallies do.

00:30:28.000 We had a vote in the Criminal Justice Subcommittee on whether or not to repeal the Stand Your Ground law.

00:30:33.000 Every Republican voted against repeal, and a majority of Democrats on the Criminal Justice Subcommittee voted against repealing the law.

00:30:40.000 And I think that that illustrates the fact that most Floridians support the Stand Your Ground law.

00:30:44.000 Gates says he'll fight any efforts to water down the law, including a bill currently being considered in Florida's Senate.

00:30:51.000 See, Al Sharpton didn't like me before I came to Congress and it did improve from there.

00:30:56.000 Here I questioned him before the House Judiciary Committee. 0.78

00:30:59.000 When you call Greek homos, when you talk about white crackers, those are bigoted states. 1.00

00:31:04.000 I think I made it clear that I was quoting what somebody said. 0.98

00:31:08.000 Yelling and getting upset is beneath your office.

00:31:11.000 You should calm down.

00:31:12.000 You're welcome to answer them.

00:31:14.000 How about- Well, then let me answer, sir.

00:31:16.000 Let me answer, because I'm enjoying this.

00:31:18.000 I think that you have- If you're in a committee about policing- Don't get upset.

00:31:25.000 Calm down.

00:31:26.000 You're yelling.

00:31:27.000 Calm down.

00:31:29.000 I think that I'm trying to answer your last question.

00:31:32.000 The gentleman will be permitted.

00:31:34.000 The time of the gentleman has expired.

00:31:36.000 The witness may answer the question.

00:31:37.000 What about offing the pigs?

00:31:38.000 Answer that one. 0.96

00:31:39.000 If I appeared loaded for bear for Al Sharpton, I was.

00:31:44.000 It was deeply offensive to me and to my constituents that Al Sharpton was invited by House Democrats as an expert witness on the matter of policing.

00:31:57.000 Of all things, given what this guy said about cops.

00:32:00.000 It was like an SNL episode had come to life.

00:32:03.000 Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, see many others of their ilk, they wanted Stand Your Ground repealed in Florida.

00:32:10.000 It was the cause du jour for all the race baiters. 1.00

00:32:14.000 But I didn't let that happen.

00:32:16.000 I was chairman of the Florida House Criminal Justice Subcommittee, and my constituents demanded strong self-defense laws.

00:32:25.000 I do not believe in imposing on Americans a duty to retreat when someone else attempts to commit a felony against a victim.

00:32:34.000 Here's the argument I made in 2013 as chairman of the subcommittee.

00:32:39.000 We've been here a long time.

00:32:42.000 It's dark outside.

00:32:44.000 And as certain as we are here, Right now, there's a young woman on a college campus, at night, walking home from the library to her college dormitory.

00:32:58.000 She's probably looking down, checking Facebook as she's doing it.

00:33:02.000 As we're here today, there's also probably a senior in our state, in a parking lot, in a Walmart or a Publix.

00:33:10.000 She's probably in her pocketbook, saving a receipt.

00:33:15.000 Neither are breaking the law, And we're here to answer one question.

00:33:20.000 If either are surprised by an attack, should they have a legal duty to turn their back and run and hope that they won't be overcome and raped or killed?

00:33:35.000 And when they have to make that split-second decision, should the government come in behind them and second-guess them and say, you should have chosen flight over fight?

00:33:48.000 Stand Your Ground simply says that if you're not breaking the law and you have a right to be where you are, you don't have a duty to turn your back and run.

00:33:58.000 The sponsor of this bill has agreed and committed that he doesn't believe that when you're in your home you should have to run.

00:34:06.000 And so I'm left with the question, when you walk out of your home onto your street corner, why should you have less rights?

00:34:15.000 Why should you all of a sudden have a duty to turn your back and run?

00:34:19.000 I still believe these things today.

00:34:22.000 And that's why I'm announcing that I will be introducing a national Stand Your Ground law.

00:34:29.000 You have the right to defend your life from an attacker.

00:34:32.000 And that shouldn't change whether you're at home, at a friend's home, or on a stroll.

00:34:37.000 It shouldn't change whether you're in Florida or California or Virginia.

00:34:43.000 The gun-hating left believed the Rittenhouse prosecution would advance their societal goals of having us all locked down and unarmed, afraid in our homes while they let MS-13 cross the border and live next door.

00:34:57.000 And it clearly backfired.

00:34:59.000 The American jury system reaffirmed what most Americans believe.

00:35:04.000 If someone tries to kill you or beat you or dismember you, return fire and preserve your life.

00:35:12.000 So let's take advantage of what this jury and the American people are telling us.

00:35:17.000 Let's reaffirm in law what exists in our Constitution and in the hearts of our fellow Americans.

00:35:24.000 Stand your ground for America.

00:35:28.000 Abolish the legal duty of retreat everywhere.

00:35:32.000 I've had enough retreat.

00:35:34.000 No more.

00:35:37.000 I've spent five years overseeing the operations of the FBI and DOJ as a member of the House Judiciary Committee.

00:35:43.000 There is a paradigm that has aided me in this work.

00:35:47.000 Pattern recognition.

00:35:50.000 Follow this pattern.

00:35:52.000 Step one, create a deep state lie. 0.99

00:35:54.000 Step two, inspire someone else to tell that lie, seed it in a willing host.

00:36:01.000 Step three, use the publication of the lie as a predicate to do what the deep state wouldn't otherwise be able to do.

00:36:10.000 This technique, this pattern has been used over and over again.

00:36:15.000 Case study number one, the Russia hoax. 0.76

00:36:18.000 Special counsel John Durham was appointed to investigate the origins of the Russia hoax.

00:36:23.000 Go check out my Where's Durham episode to get the deep dive on his work or lack thereof.

00:36:31.000 Now, we do have Durham indictments though.

00:36:35.000 A Russian was even indicted for lying to the FBI. According to Durham, these Russians, they lied to the FBI. The FBI was the victim. 0.57

00:36:45.000 The FBI was just trying to make sure Donald Trump wasn't breaking any law, colluding with Russians.

00:36:50.000 And now, lo and behold, the Russians were not telling the truth. 0.86

00:36:55.000 That frame that we see in the Durham indictments is nonsense.

00:37:00.000 The FBI and DOJ weren't victimized by the lies of the Russians. 0.92

00:37:04.000 They started the lie of the Russia hoax and then they got these rubes to repeat them to Christopher Steele. 0.96

00:37:11.000 That was then the basis of this dossier and the continuation of the absurd investigation into President Trump.

00:37:20.000 The whole time, the FBI knew Christopher Steele, the dossier's author, was a known liar with a political axe to grind, a foreign intelligence officer at that.

00:37:31.000 The lie was the Russia hoax. 0.63

00:37:33.000 The willing hosts to repeat the lie were in the foreign intelligence apparatus, from Christopher Steele to the very Russians getting indicted now.

00:37:44.000 The goal was to get the predicate to spy on Carter Page in a secret FISA court and to ensnare President Trump in a process crime like obstruction of justice.

00:37:56.000 As if.

00:37:58.000 Case study number two.

00:38:00.000 The school board parents and the domestic terrorism tags we're reading about in the news now.

00:38:06.000 Step one.

00:38:06.000 The lie is that parents are somehow a domestic terrorism threat.

00:38:13.000 We know now that the White House was seeding this lie in the National School Boards Association, in this now infamous and debunked letter that the National School Board Association sent to the Biden regime.

00:38:26.000 We must designate terrorism as the threat emerging from parents who hate critical race theory and love their kids.

00:38:33.000 So the story went.

00:38:35.000 Step two is getting someone else to repeat the lie, and the National School Board Association was willing to oblige, at least at first.

00:38:45.000 Step three is the threat tag that we now know the DOJ placed on parents.

00:38:51.000 Here's what I had to say about it in the House Judiciary Committee.

00:38:55.000 But we must address a searing matter before the Judiciary Committee and before the country.

00:39:02.000 To label parents Domestic terrorists for showing up at school board meetings and caring about their kids is abhorrent, unpatriotic, and un-American.

00:39:16.000 But to lie about doing so is even worse.

00:39:20.000 And somebody knew, as the Attorney General was testifying before this committee saying he couldn't imagine ever appending a label to a parent of domestic terrorism Someone was watching at the FBI and they understood that that was dishonest, that that did not paint a clear picture of what was actually happening because there were threat labels that were being put on folks who loved their kids and who showed up.

00:39:46.000 So here's my question.

00:39:48.000 How many?

00:39:49.000 How many Americans right now?

00:39:52.000 That went to a school board meeting, that emailed a parent, that confronted a principal, that reached out to their school board members, that ran into a superintendent at the supermarket and expressed their view.

00:40:03.000 How many of those Americans right now are carrying a threat label with them?

00:40:07.000 What's next?

00:40:08.000 Can't fly on airplanes?

00:40:10.000 Can't access the U.S. financial system?

00:40:13.000 Get doxxed at their job?

00:40:14.000 Get deplatformed online?

00:40:17.000 The Department of Justice has been politicized.

00:40:21.000 Weaponized and turned against our fellow Americans. 0.77

00:40:25.000 The DOJ used the lie that parents were domestic terrorists to justify their otherwise repugnant plan, to tag and trace people they fear.

00:40:37.000 Not because of violence, but because of politics.

00:40:40.000 These folks were organizing.

00:40:42.000 They were effective.

00:40:44.000 So DOJ wanted to tag and trace them.

00:40:47.000 Monday one of the people who tried to extort me and my family on a pile of lies, Stephen Alford, pled guilty to that very scheme.

00:40:56.000 Pattern recognition.

00:40:58.000 They came up with the lie that I was some sort of monster. 1.00

00:41:02.000 They got Alford, the useful idiot, to repeat that lie. 0.98

00:41:06.000 Alford conspired with former intelligence official Bob Kent, who's like the Christopher Steele archetype in my story, and former DOJ official David McGee to destroy me on falsehoods. 0.99

00:41:18.000 You can revisit that in our first episode, Open Gates.

00:41:23.000 Now, they've used these false and salacious allegations to justify what they really want, trying to take me out of the national fight.

00:41:32.000 I'm glad Stephen Alford is now deemed guilty of crimes against my family.

00:41:37.000 But he was not acting alone, any more than the National School Boards Association was acting alone.

00:41:43.000 Russians didn't victimize the very FBI that was feeding them lies to tell in the Russia hoax. 0.53

00:41:49.000 The Russians Durham has charged weren't the masterminds of the Russia hoax.

00:41:53.000 That was the DNC, Hillary, the folks that were engaging with the deep state.

00:41:59.000 Stephen Alford, similarly, is a guilty criminal, but he is no mastermind.

00:42:05.000 He's the rube who got used.

00:42:08.000 Former DOJ official David Magee, former intelligence official Bob Kent, current Israeli consulate official Jake Novak, they were all involved.

00:42:19.000 Why are they being protected?

00:42:22.000 Now that Alford is convicted, I renew my demand that the Department of Justice release the tapes wherein Alford implicates a number of other very powerful people.

00:42:35.000 The truth shall set us free.

00:42:39.000 And so will those tapes.

00:42:42.000 Pew Research tells us that among the world's 35 most developed economies, the United States in math ranks 30th.

00:42:51.000 In my community, hardworking students and teachers are trying to change that.

00:42:55.000 Northwest Florida punches above our weight in the classroom.

00:42:59.000 Not so much in the newsroom, which is reserved for some of Northwest Florida's dimmest minds.

00:43:06.000 This is John Rapolo.

00:43:08.000 He's not a product of our school system, and we're rather proud of that.

00:43:12.000 He's a reporter at WAR3 in Pensacola, my district.

00:43:18.000 Punching above our weight here would require a lot more punching and a lot more math.

00:43:21.000 I'll explain.

00:43:23.000 On Grant Stinchfield's Primetime Newsmax program, I addressed the political targeting of conservatives by prosecutors at every level.

00:43:31.000 From detainees from January 6th to the Trumps and Steve Bannon, the struggle is real.

00:43:38.000 And while the jury was deliberating in the Rittenhouse matter, the mainstream media wanted a conviction so bad, so they made Kyle out to be some sort of monster.

00:43:49.000 I know what it feels like to have the media falsely paint you as a monster.

00:43:54.000 Even President Biden called Kyle a white supremacist.

00:43:58.000 I wanted him to feel better, to feel valued.

00:44:00.000 So I said this through a smile.

00:44:03.000 Thank you for your advocacy for Kyle Rittenhouse.

00:44:06.000 He is not guilty.

00:44:07.000 He deserves a not guilty verdict and I sure hope he gets it because you know what?

00:44:11.000 Kyle Rittenhouse would probably make a pretty good congressional intern.

00:44:14.000 We may reach out to him and see if he'd be interested in helping the country in additional ways.

00:44:20.000 Of course the mainstream media lost it.

00:44:23.000 In turn, insurrection!

00:44:24.000 CNN is drafting the docu-series as we speak.

00:44:27.000 Now, I expect this from the national media.

00:44:31.000 They're over-soyed and easily triggered. 0.98

00:44:34.000 But the dumbest, most poorly sourced, mathematically inverted take came from WEAR's John Rapolo. 0.83

00:44:43.000 Before we explore the way two-digit numbers torture John Rapolo's reporting, it's important to note he doesn't get to anchor much. 0.92

00:44:52.000 Well, hello everyone.

00:44:53.000 John Rapolo here.

00:44:54.000 I'll be anchoring with you tonight in just about seven minutes.

00:44:58.000 Really looking forward to it.

00:44:59.000 Don't really get to do this much.

00:45:01.000 So, I'm gonna enjoy it.

00:45:03.000 So, we'll see you in a little bit.

00:45:05.000 But he had this to say about me.

00:45:09.000 Yeah.

00:45:09.000 Hi, Bob.

00:45:10.000 You know, the majority of people that we talked to earlier tonight in downtown Pensacola said the congressman's comments were inappropriate.

00:45:19.000 We have a poll on Twitter about the congressman's remarks.

00:45:22.000 Three-quarters of the people who have weighed in so far as of right now do not support the congressman comments he made in that live television interview earlier this week.

00:45:34.000 WEAR was going to prove the point.

00:45:37.000 John Rapolo would be armed with the unassailable force of a Twitter poll.

00:45:43.000 128 initial responses conformed with the media's narrative.

00:45:47.000 My comments were inappropriate.

00:45:49.000 Tsk, tsk, Congressman.

00:45:50.000 The people were upset with me.

00:45:52.000 So the story went.

00:45:54.000 Quite frankly, I'm surprised another censure didn't come out of the House Democrat caucus.

00:45:58.000 This appears to be the new obligation that they owe their constituents.

00:46:03.000 The fake news story was published before the social media poll that WEAR commissioned had even concluded.

00:46:12.000 So not after 128 responses, but after 3,831 people participated in WEAR's survey, the results were of course lopsided in my favor.

00:46:26.000 And humiliating for John Rapolo.

00:46:29.000 A whopping 84% of my constituents agree with me and support me.

00:46:35.000 84%.

00:46:36.000 Look, I know my relationship with the media is complicated, complex, oftentimes even combative.

00:46:45.000 Frankly, I wouldn't have it any other way.

00:46:48.000 I don't expect to get the close calls.

00:46:51.000 I don't expect to get the pitches on the corner of the strike zone.

00:46:57.000 84%.

00:46:57.000 The highroads of journalistic ethics are left vacant by the likes of John Rapolo.

00:47:04.000 We pointed this out and of course have called on WEAR to issue a correction acknowledging the falsity of their initial reporting.

00:47:13.000 They have not as of the filming of this episode.

00:47:17.000 I don't know if it's laziness or recalcitrance, but it sure looks pathetic for WEAR to not go back on air and acknowledge that they essentially lied to their viewers.

00:47:28.000 So if you go to WEAR's digital story, it says, I'm not making this up, you couldn't make this up, quote, around three-fourths of the votes say they do not stand with Gates's statement.

00:47:42.000 It says this directly below the embedded tweet containing the results of their survey showing 84% support for my remarks.

00:47:51.000 When it comes to an 84% approval...

00:47:55.000 I don't really get to do this much. 0.99

00:47:56.000 ...but when I do, it would be nice for the feelings and thoughts of my constituents not to be totally reversed by fools like this. 0.97

00:48:06.000 It seems Kyle Rittenhouse has other ambitions beyond Congress. 0.98

00:48:10.000 Good for him.

00:48:10.000 He deserves a great life like all law-abiding American citizens.

Firebrand - Matt Gaetz - November 25, 2021

Episode 17: Stand Your Ground (feat. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene) – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz

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