Firebrand - Matt Gaetz - Episode 170 LIVE: Kamalanomics (feat. Rep. Andy Biggs) – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz

00:00:00.000 Thank you.

00:02:17.000 Matt Gaetz, the biggest firebrand inside of the House of Representatives.

00:02:22.000 You're not taking Matt Gaetz off the board, okay?

00:02:24.000 Because Matt Gaetz is an American patriot and Matt Gaetz is an American hero.

00:02:29.000 We will not continue to allow the Uniparty to run this town without a fight. 1.00

00:02:34.000 I want to thank you, Matt Gaetz, for holding the line.

00:02:38.000 Matt Gaetz is a courageous man.

00:02:41.000 If we had hundreds of Matt Gaetz in D.C., the country turns around.

00:02:45.000 It's that simple.

00:02:46.000 He's so tough, he's so strong, he's smart, and he loves this country.

00:02:50.000 Matt Gaetz.

00:02:53.000 It is the honor of my life to fight alongside each and every one of you.

00:02:57.000 We will save America.

00:03:00.000 It's choose your fighter time.

00:03:01.000 I'm sending the firebrands. - All the talk in Washington is about whether we'll have this flavor of a continuing resolution for government funding or that flavor of a continuing resolution.

00:03:19.000 And what that does is it presents the entire funding of the United States government as an up or down vote, an up or down proposition.

00:03:26.000 And that is precisely the reason we're nearly 38 trillion dollars in debt.

00:03:31.000 We have to break the fever dream of governing by omnibus spending bill and continuing resolution and we have to get to single subject spending bills where these agencies have to defend their budget and its programmatic review.

00:03:44.000 And the reason that doesn't happen is because the lobbyists and the special interests who run this town and who own the leaders on both sides, they want it that way.

00:03:53.000 They don't want any itemized review.

00:03:55.000 And so we have to get back to those single subject bills or we will continue this path we're on We're adding a trillion dollars in debt to the national debt every hundred days.

00:04:03.000 The American people don't want it.

00:04:05.000 Only the folks in Washington want it.

00:04:07.000 And I'm going to keep demanding a change in the way we think, breaking the fever dream, and getting back to single-subject bills.

00:04:13.000 I'll vote against these continuing resolutions.

00:04:15.000 I yield back, Mr. Speaker.

00:04:19.000 Welcome back to Firebrand.

00:04:20.000 We are live.

00:04:21.000 Hope everyone had a great August.

00:04:23.000 We were moving around the country.

00:04:24.000 And it's important, even if Firebrand isn't at the top of your podcast feed, that you are subscribed to the Gates Network.

00:04:31.000 That's where all the discussions we're having about what's going on in the world, in Washington, in Florida, available to our great constituents.

00:04:38.000 So today is Thursday, September 12, 2024.

00:04:41.000 Kamala Harris is still the worst vice president in the history of the United States. 0.99

00:04:44.000 And you can find out exactly why by taking a quick peek inside your wallet.

00:04:48.000 Not a single American citizen is doing better under this failed story of an administration, unless, in fact, you were a part of that administration or one of their preferred buddies or groups.

00:04:57.000 In the last 12 months alone, over 1.2 native-born Americans lost their jobs through Kamala-nomics. 1.00

00:05:05.000 Now, that could have something to do with the fact that 1.3 million foreign workers have gained jobs during that same period.

00:05:14.000 So you're going to hear a lot of discussion from Biden and Harris about all these jobs they've created, all the good job numbers.

00:05:21.000 The reality is Americans are losing those jobs to foreign-born workers. 0.65

00:05:26.000 And While we're at it, prices are out of control.

00:05:29.000 See, these continuing resolutions I was just talking about on the floor, they lead to the debt, they lead to the rise in interest rates, they lead to the constrained supply, the high demand that leads to inflation.

00:05:40.000 Gasoline prices have skyrocketed by nearly 50% since Kamala Harris took office.

00:05:46.000 And if you think you can avoid it by taking an Uber or a Lyft, think again because rideshare prices have gone up by almost 40% as well.

00:05:54.000 Now if you decide to drive, you better be paying attention to the road because you'll be paying about 30% more for any repairs that your vehicle may need.

00:06:01.000 And that's on top of your insurance, which has gone up by almost 55%.

00:06:05.000 So if Kamala Harris becomes president, you might as well kiss your freedoms goodbye because you'll be stuck in your house for the next four years.

00:06:11.000 If you cannot afford to leave your house, your house is a prison.

00:06:16.000 And with these prices, that's what's happening.

00:06:18.000 Inflation under Kamala Harris has risen by 20.2%.

00:06:23.000 And it's not only affecting transportation.

00:06:25.000 Eggs, up 46.8%.

00:06:27.000 Poultry, up 24.4%.

00:06:30.000 Ground beef, up 26.3%.

00:06:32.000 Bread, up 24.3%.

00:06:34.000 Flour, up 37%.

00:06:37.000 Sugar, up more than 31%.

00:06:40.000 There's really no limit on what Kamalanomics is impacting. 0.93

00:06:44.000 And she's even taking away Frosted Flakes and Cheerios.

00:06:47.000 That's right.

00:06:47.000 Breakfast cereal is up 22.3%.

00:06:50.000 This is why they've been trying to convince us all to eat the bugs.

00:06:54.000 They're cheaper.

00:06:54.000 If you just eat the grasshoppers and the crickets, all your problems will go away.

00:06:59.000 Maybe next they'll endorse chasing around cats and dogs for your meals.

00:07:02.000 More on that later.

00:07:03.000 And as I said before, there is no outcome too far-fetched when it comes to Kamala-nomics.

00:07:09.000 So joining me to talk about the interface between the very liberal tax and spend agenda of Biden-Harris and what we see in the House of Representatives, a great firebrand, former head of the House Freedom Caucus, Congressman from Arizona, Andy Biggs.

00:07:23.000 Thanks for joining me, Andy.

00:07:25.000 As we look at these rising prices, which I know you're hearing about in Arizona, I hear about in Florida, who do you blame?

00:07:32.000 Well, I blame Congress and the policies of this administration.

00:07:38.000 The reason you blame Congress is because we've done nothing to effectively stop the ridiculous spending levels that are being imposed on us even more by this administration.

00:07:48.000 And when you talk about inflation, inflation has two drivers right now.

00:07:52.000 Higher prices has two drivers.

00:07:53.000 Number one, high energy costs.

00:07:55.000 So when you pay more at the pump, everything goes up because even if it's trained in, Or boat it in, whatever.

00:08:04.000 The last mile goes to gas, brother.

00:08:06.000 And the other one is when you devalue your currency by just loading it with national debt like we do, well, you know, that's inflation.

00:08:15.000 That's the classical definition of inflation.

00:08:17.000 I'm wondering how this is going to play out specifically in Arizona.

00:08:20.000 When I'm in Arizona, there's a lot of driving.

00:08:23.000 A lot of people do have to come into the suburban centers or the urban centers that live out in more rural places.

00:08:31.000 The average drive in Arizona is probably longer for a worker than the average drive in Massachusetts or Connecticut.

00:08:39.000 And I wonder if that's going to be a voting issue.

00:08:41.000 And then also, when I've been with you in some of these areas along the border in Arizona, there's talk of, well, when there's all this increase in price on the US side, people go over to the Mexican side to get their dental services, to get auto repairs, for all types of things.

00:08:57.000 And when we see this type of inflation in the US... Does it hurt the small businesses in Arizona when they're losing customers to Mexico?

00:09:06.000 And could that cause some of them to vote Republican if maybe they weren't otherwise inclined?

00:09:12.000 Yeah, I mean, so if you're in Nogales or Douglas or if you're in Yuma or even Tucson, which is about 45 miles north of the border, it's fairly easy to go across and go shopping there.

00:09:25.000 You're a little nervous because of the cartels right now, but I mean, you can go find anything.

00:09:30.000 So I know people who go to Tijuana for big surgeries.

00:09:35.000 They don't stay in the States. 0.94

00:09:36.000 They will go to Tijuana for...

00:09:38.000 You name it.

00:09:39.000 A cosmetic surgery of some kind.

00:09:41.000 Maybe it's a lap band surgery.

00:09:43.000 They will go to Tijuana.

00:09:45.000 I cannot tell you how many people...

00:09:45.000 If someone told me they got a Tijuana lap band, I wouldn't even think it was a surgery.

00:09:49.000 I would assume it was something else.

00:09:51.000 You know what?

00:09:51.000 I knew that was coming from you.

00:09:53.000 All right.

00:09:54.000 So that impacts them.

00:09:57.000 The long drive impacts them.

00:09:59.000 And you get to what we're going to do about it here in Congress.

00:10:02.000 Now, we've been in the bowels of the Capitol, in meetings with our leadership, in meetings with our colleagues.

00:10:08.000 And what they want is a continuing resolution and just kind of share your reaction to that and what your concerns are.

00:10:16.000 Well, I'm opposed to that because as you said in your monologue, or your tape, that dates me, of the video of you on the floor, it's a monolithic vote to keep a massive bloated spend.

00:10:30.000 You're not changing any policies.

00:10:32.000 So think about it this way.

00:10:34.000 You will add, by the time they get back to correcting that, $1.5 trillion in national debt.

00:10:39.000 That's what they're proposing.

00:10:41.000 That's what you're buying.

00:10:42.000 That's what you're buying.

00:10:43.000 And do you think our colleagues get that there's a connection between green lighting, that additional trillion plus in debt, and these high prices on poultry, on eggs, on ground beef, on auto repairs, on insurance?

00:10:58.000 It's just so obvious to me, but...

00:11:01.000 I think we work with people who believe they can continue spending in Washington and that the Wizard of Oz is off somewhere else turning dials on inflation.

00:11:11.000 Maybe it's the Fed or Janet Yellen.

00:11:13.000 But in reality, we are culpable too.

00:11:16.000 Yeah, that's exactly right.

00:11:17.000 So there's at least two groups in Congress that don't get it.

00:11:23.000 First of all is the Democrats who are largely modern monetary theorists.

00:11:26.000 So we'll leave that aside because they're never coming around because they don't get it.

00:11:30.000 But we have this other group, which is our team.

00:11:33.000 And many on our team, they do stuff like this.

00:11:35.000 They say...

00:11:36.000 Oh, man, we've got to cut spending.

00:11:38.000 We've got to watch the spending.

00:11:39.000 But, you know, I introduced over 500 bills last year that would have reduced a million here, a hundred million there.

00:11:46.000 We never got a look-see.

00:11:49.000 And so I did a bunch more this year.

00:11:51.000 Not one.

00:11:52.000 We actually got some of those on the floor.

00:11:54.000 And you know how many passed out?

00:11:55.000 I think it was like 40 spending cuts.

00:11:58.000 One.

00:11:58.000 One passed for like $4 million.

00:12:00.000 They don't get it, Matt.

00:12:02.000 They don't get it.

00:12:03.000 Well, the fiscal hawk has become the latest endangered species in Washington, D.C. You know, after 2010, you saw a lot of the Tea Party folks come in and say they really were going to wrestle federal spending.

00:12:15.000 And in large part, we've seen spending grow since.

00:12:17.000 And a lot of those folks have abandoned the mission and have returned to other features of life.

00:12:23.000 And here we are.

00:12:25.000 At times a small group trying to get back to single subject bills because we actually think individual review of spending is what drives it down.

00:12:34.000 But all the talk now in the digital world and in the talking headspace is about a strategy to fund the government with a requirement that the Senate take up and pass the SAVE Act and that the President sign it.

00:12:46.000 We're big supporters of the SAVE Act.

00:12:48.000 We're co-sponsors of the SAVE Act.

00:12:50.000 The SAVE Act would be helpful in future elections to stop illegal immigrants. 1.00

00:12:56.000 But why, like, give the answer to maybe the critic online that would say, well, Andy, government funding's going to happen anyway.

00:13:03.000 Why wouldn't you at least pick the SAVE Act as a ripe fight, a ripe battle to undertake?

00:13:09.000 For multiple reasons.

00:13:10.000 First of all, people are kind of misleading the public, like it's going to cure the problems that we have with election transparency, right, and fairness.

00:13:19.000 That's not going to happen in 2024. This bill only applies to federal ballots, and there's only one state that bifurcates exclusively like we do in Arizona.

00:13:28.000 We are it.

00:13:30.000 But you have a Democrat governor, a Democrat attorney general, and a Democrat secretary of state.

00:13:34.000 So the news you're breaking to the Firebrand audience is, upon the passage of the SAVE Act, there won't be this instant lurch toward election integrity in the state of Arizona.

00:13:46.000 That's exactly right.

00:13:47.000 Or anywhere, because what will happen is you're going to get these secretaries of state saying, well, to find this out, we're going to have to litigate this.

00:13:55.000 So there's going to be litigation.

00:13:56.000 And then following the litigation, There's going to be this long period of time saying, well, we don't have the technology to do it, so we need to up the technology.

00:14:05.000 So in the long run, which is what you alluded to, it's going to work out fine, and we need to do it.

00:14:11.000 But are you willing to spend and keep...

00:14:16.000 The Green New Deal in place for something that won't kick in for two and a half, three years.

00:14:22.000 And I'm not.

00:14:23.000 I look at it and say, okay, you're going to keep Green New Deal?

00:14:26.000 We're subsidizing these private businesses.

00:14:30.000 You're going to keep funding Planned Parenthood?

00:14:33.000 That was always a big one for you.

00:14:35.000 Yeah.

00:14:36.000 Whenever you raise the issue of Planned Parenthood funding in the continuing resolutions, and all these folks who put on their mailers that they would never support funding Planned Parenthood, they were going to defund Planned Parenthood.

00:14:46.000 I don't recall even having a vote on stripping the Planned Parenthood funding out of the continuing resolutions.

00:14:53.000 Well, they won't let you.

00:14:54.000 In the past, I've introduced an amendment here and there, and they killed the amendment in the Rules Committee.

00:15:00.000 I offered 10 amendments to actually reduce spending.

00:15:03.000 One of mine, by the way, I had actually two amendments that did this, would have defunded Jack Smith's prosecution and other prosecutions of this, I should say the former president, but our president, President Trump.

00:15:16.000 You know who killed it?

00:15:17.000 It wasn't the Democrats.

00:15:19.000 It was the Republicans on the Rules Committee.

00:15:21.000 Okay, so I think people are going to watch and wonder, why is it that the Republicans won't fight on these questions?

00:15:27.000 Present each one of them, force votes, and then hold our ground when negotiating with the Senate.

00:15:33.000 And by the way, if we picked a bunch of these things, the border, Planned Parenthood, the Green New Deal, a lot of the spending priorities that we find wasteful that are targeted in your 500-plus pieces of legislation, we wouldn't win them all.

00:15:46.000 But we also, if we were willing to fight, we wouldn't lose all of them.

00:15:50.000 And when you don't even go through the legislative process to put your cuts forward, you are certain to lose.

00:15:57.000 You're guaranteed to lose.

00:15:59.000 And there's a part about lying to the public that we will not do.

00:16:03.000 We'll tell you the truth, and the truth is ugly in the case of these high prices and the connection to federal spending.

00:16:09.000 But what I think some Republicans want to tell you is, well, we're going to act as though this is a big fight we're going to pick on the SAVE Act.

00:16:16.000 We're going to send that bill over to the Senate.

00:16:17.000 But you and I know they've already pre-choreographed their surrender.

00:16:23.000 Where even the SAVE Act, which you've said is frail in protecting the integrity of the upcoming election, even that will be thrown over the gunnels just to continue perpetuating the spending.

00:16:36.000 And you know, you are...

00:16:38.000 Probably the most knowledgeable congressman on the border.

00:16:41.000 You bring multiple members of Congress to the border.

00:16:43.000 Do you think it is going to demoralize Republicans and conservatives, and frankly just any American who cares about the border, if we go and say you must have the SAVE Act to fund the government, and then we've already pre-negotiated surrendering on the SAVE Act?

00:16:56.000 What will that do to the psychology of people who care about your central issue?

00:17:00.000 Well, if they have any exuberance left, it's going to come out like a beach ball, not just through the little nozzle, and you're a Florida dude, you're playing with a beach ball, but it's got a big knife gash through it.

00:17:16.000 That's the enthusiasm level.

00:17:17.000 It's going to go down.

00:17:18.000 And that's part of the problem, Matt.

00:17:21.000 When you start looking at this and you say, we're going to negotiate away.

00:17:26.000 So, I mean, I can't remember whether yesterday when we were meeting with leadership, you used to, whether the generals already negotiated the terms of surrender.

00:17:33.000 Right.

00:17:33.000 You know, and so we're basically just cogs in the wheel at some point because we know...

00:17:40.000 He gave away leverage when he said, we'll never shut the government down.

00:17:43.000 And you know what?

00:17:45.000 And nobody wants to advocate for that.

00:17:47.000 I actually gave him some options so he wouldn't have to.

00:17:50.000 Because I've got folks who watch this program who are pro-shutdown.

00:17:55.000 They actually think that is the landing spot.

00:17:58.000 I am not a cheerleader for shutdowns.

00:18:00.000 I actually think that a responsible governing methodology that we see play out in almost every state in the country is one that would be apropos for the Congress.

00:18:09.000 But walk through what you think would be a preferable path forward given the reality of where we are.

00:18:15.000 I know you and I would probably love to go back to June, July and hammer through these single subject bills.

00:18:20.000 But given where we are, we are in the middle of an election.

00:18:23.000 People are voting.

00:18:25.000 What would the house optimal path be?

00:18:27.000 So there's two paths that I gave to Johnson.

00:18:30.000 Number one is my least favorite, and that is, you know, if you're afraid of a shutdown, go ahead and pass legislation that would fund veterans, military, the contractors, so you can keep building your stuff, and CBP, TSA, FAA, and kind of leave it at that.

00:18:48.000 And then try to negotiate through the other 12 spending bills that were required.

00:18:53.000 Or another option would be you take the five bills we've passed.

00:18:57.000 Ladies and gentlemen, we are required by law, the 1974 Budget Control and Impound Act, to pass those 12 appropriations bills by June 30th every year.

00:19:08.000 Hasn't been done since 1976, but we did five.

00:19:12.000 We're on a roll.

00:19:13.000 We're on a roll.

00:19:14.000 Why stop it now?

00:19:16.000 We've done five spending bills, appropriations bills.

00:19:19.000 Single, you know, these are on the...

00:19:20.000 Single subject.

00:19:21.000 Yeah, what we would consider single subject specific areas.

00:19:24.000 Yeah.

00:19:24.000 And we won some fights and we lost some on those.

00:19:26.000 Yeah, but we got a whole lot of good stuff in there.

00:19:29.000 A lot of good policy.

00:19:30.000 Get rid of DI and woke stuff and stop Planned Parenthood funding and that. 0.84

00:19:34.000 You take those five and you say, okay...

00:19:37.000 The rest of the CR because there's no time because they don't want to shut down.

00:19:43.000 They've already negotiated no shutdown.

00:19:45.000 So I'm trying to help him avoid the shutdown.

00:19:47.000 So you say, we will CR the rest of the budget.

00:19:52.000 For whatever it is, 90 days, while we finish out the other seven spending bills.

00:19:58.000 How about that?

00:19:59.000 That would be more progress toward responsible budgeting than we've seen in our seven years here.

00:20:05.000 Yeah.

00:20:05.000 Probably than has existed since 1974. Yeah.

00:20:09.000 Well, I think that's an excellent option, and I also think it is appropriate in those bills we're addressing to have the focus on the border, and that's really where I want to take our discussion.

00:20:19.000 Sasha, throw up our illegal immigration kind of a trend chart there for the audience. 0.99

00:20:23.000 And here you see the impact of the Biden-Harris administration and their border policies.

00:20:28.000 And Andy, one of the arguments we've heard from Secretary Mayorkas and the administration is that, well, actually now border crossings are down.

00:20:35.000 We're encountering fewer people at the border now than we did during some of the peaks of the Trump presidency.

00:20:42.000 You and I know why.

00:20:43.000 It's because the illegals no longer have to even make the trek to the border.

00:20:48.000 We built them an app, gave it to the cartels, allowed them to scale it to the moon, and now there is a CBP1 app that has planes full of migrants flying into the heartland of the country, all over the country, and they don't even have to make an encounter at the border.

00:21:05.000 They have created a yellow brick road for illegal immigration. 0.78

00:21:09.000 That doesn't even go through the border physically.

00:21:11.000 It just lands on an aircraft somewhere in your community.

00:21:15.000 But debunk that myth that they're advancing.

00:21:18.000 Well, when they say that the numbers are down, you can screw around with statistics any way you want.

00:21:24.000 And that's what they've done.

00:21:25.000 So they've said, they're not even going to count the CBP1 app folks coming in at all.

00:21:29.000 They don't count them.

00:21:30.000 They're bypassing the border.

00:21:32.000 So we're not going to count those people.

00:21:34.000 And those people, by the way, are probably $40,000 to $50,000 a month minimum, okay?

00:21:40.000 Just think about that.

00:21:42.000 Then they're not going to count people who show up at the port of entry.

00:21:50.000 So they show up at the port of entry.

00:21:51.000 They're not counting those people.

00:21:53.000 So when the numbers you're seeing, they're really between the ports of entry.

00:21:58.000 And those remain high.

00:21:59.000 So, like, I was in San Diego at the border last week, and we just showed up, just rolled up.

00:22:04.000 We've got a big caravan.

00:22:05.000 I've told you this before.

00:22:06.000 You show up with a big caravan, nobody's going to come across the border.

00:22:09.000 Well, what happened?

00:22:10.000 Some people came across the border.

00:22:11.000 And where are you from?

00:22:12.000 I'm from India.

00:22:13.000 I'm from Guatemala.

00:22:13.000 I'm from Colombia.

00:22:15.000 Well, you know what?

00:22:16.000 Have you heard of CBP1 app?

00:22:18.000 No, we never heard of CBP1 app.

00:22:20.000 So, they're either coming in on CBP1 app, or they're coming through the cartel.

00:22:25.000 And all five of those people Had been put together in that little group of five.

00:22:30.000 By the coyote the night before.

00:22:32.000 They all paid five grand apiece.

00:22:34.000 I mean, we ask them this stuff, and they respond.

00:22:36.000 And the numbers don't lie.

00:22:40.000 It's just kind of like them saying, well, you know, we've seized more fentanyl than ever, and we get 90% of it at the port of entry.

00:22:48.000 Well, you know why?

00:22:49.000 Because you aren't able to catch the people between the ports of entry.

00:22:52.000 And that's really the problem.

00:22:54.000 It's a lying bunch of people from, you know, 1984. I think that there's real risk in that because they're asking people to believe what they're saying rather than their own lying eyes.

00:23:07.000 If you're watching this program, You look around your own community.

00:23:11.000 You look at the schools.

00:23:12.000 You look at the hospitals.

00:23:14.000 You look at the jails.

00:23:16.000 And you see the impact of illegal immigration everywhere now.

00:23:19.000 So then to tell people that it's not really happening while they observe it, it risks the government not having credibility, which even when Democrats are in charge, is actually a pretty dangerous thing for America.

00:23:32.000 because they always criticize us for being anti-institutional, but when they make the institutions so incredulous, then you get this very bizarre outcome.

00:23:43.000 I want to go to this New York Post headline, Cookie and his Monsters.

00:23:47.000 This is some of the information.

00:23:49.000 Cookie, I guess, is one of these Venezuelan gangsters. 1.00

00:23:52.000 They're invading the suburbs.

00:23:54.000 They're invading housing units.

00:23:56.000 And meet your new landlord.

00:23:58.000 The long gun-toting Venezuelan gangs roving around and extorting people and robbing people This is another matter where our colleague Jason Crow of Colorado and Governor Polis of Colorado said this is not really happening.

00:24:15.000 This is something that's just being blown up by conservative media.

00:24:19.000 How do you think the country is reacting to these scary and stark images?

00:24:25.000 They're putting the lie to the people who are lying.

00:24:28.000 And so when these guys are out there saying, I mean, we served with Polis before he became governor.

00:24:33.000 When he's out there saying, this is just all in somebody's imagination.

00:24:38.000 Well, tell that to the lady who's there and there's an AR-15 pointed at your door and people are actually using pry bars to get into your apartment to boot you out.

00:24:48.000 Explain that to this Aurora City Council that's now having to condemn those buildings because they're being run down and taken over.

00:24:58.000 How about in Chicago?

00:24:59.000 Same thing.

00:25:00.000 New York City?

00:25:01.000 Same thing.

00:25:02.000 This is going on around the country.

00:25:04.000 And again, it's like, well, you know, hey, you guys didn't vote for that bill.

00:25:08.000 The bill that would have guaranteed 7,500 people a day, Matt, could come into this country illegally. 0.79

00:25:14.000 And then on top of that, anybody above that, if you fit into one of 40 categories, they would have let you in with impunity.

00:25:21.000 And then, so explain those types of lies to the average person who's watching this.

00:25:29.000 It's a scary thing, and we've talked about migrant crime as this new category, but you just identified the category of migrant blight, where when gangs of migrants come in, throw out the Americans, extort the businesses, convert things to their uses, leave it in a state of disrepair, that we're going to have areas of the country, not just in New York City. 0.73

00:25:51.000 I mean, this is out in the burbs.

00:25:53.000 Yeah.

00:25:54.000 And you're going to see a blight and a degradation of America that Biden and Harris are willing to tolerate because they ultimately want to convert them to voters.

00:26:03.000 Isn't that the end goal for them?

00:26:05.000 That is the very end goal.

00:26:07.000 They sometimes slip it out and accidentally say it, you know, that we want to increase the voters.

00:26:13.000 But the bottom line, Matt, is...

00:26:16.000 The average American who sees this feels the inflation they give you, feel the danger and insecurity in their cities, and they watch what's happening on the border, and these guys won't stop it?

00:26:26.000 They're losing voters.

00:26:28.000 So let's go to Springfield, Ohio.

00:26:30.000 This has gotten a lot of attention.

00:26:32.000 Sasha, go ahead and throw up our Springfield, Ohio. 1.00

00:26:35.000 He looks very pleasant.

00:26:37.000 Now this post comes from the Springfield, Ohio Crime Watch Facebook group, and the gentleman there carrying the dead goose does not appear to be the head of the Springfield, Ohio Crime Watch Facebook group.

00:26:51.000 I don't think he's being elected as the new block captain of the Crime Watch, but There's the photo.

00:26:56.000 Here's what the post reads.

00:26:57.000 And again, this is from Springfield, Ohio.

00:27:00.000 We found this on Facebook.

00:27:02.000 Warning to all of our beloved pets and those around us.

00:27:05.000 My neighbor informed me that her daughter's friend had lost her cat.

00:27:10.000 She checked pages, kennels, ass around.

00:27:13.000 No one...

00:27:14.000 One day she came home from work and as soon as she stepped out of her car and looked toward her neighbor's house where Haitians live, she saw her cat hanging from a branch like you do to a deer for butchering and they were carving it up to eat. 1.00

00:27:28.000 I've been told they do this to dogs and have been doing it at Snyder Park with the ducks and geese.

00:27:34.000 I was told the last bit by the rangers and police.

00:27:38.000 Please keep a close eye on these animals.

00:27:41.000 So that is the post from Springfield, Ohio.

00:27:44.000 This is like the new defined hoax.

00:27:48.000 That guy clearly has a goose, and the goose does appear to be on the menu, I think, at the end.

00:27:54.000 Geese can be pets.

00:27:55.000 You ever known anybody who's had a goose as a pet?

00:27:56.000 We actually did, believe it or not.

00:27:58.000 You had a goose as a pet.

00:27:59.000 So the people claiming that this is not pets being killed because geese cannot be pets, you can defy that argument.

00:28:06.000 Yeah, we had...

00:28:08.000 A couple of geese.

00:28:09.000 I mean, we kept a little, you know, kids waiting pool out there.

00:28:11.000 Was it a gaggle or just a couple?

00:28:13.000 It was not a gaggle.

00:28:15.000 Three or more make a gaggle?

00:28:17.000 Yeah, I think we were two.

00:28:18.000 And one of them became infatuated with my wife and followed her around.

00:28:22.000 I mean, really, truly followed her around whenever she's in the yard.

00:28:27.000 Honey, what are you going to do about that goose?

00:28:28.000 I don't know.

00:28:28.000 I got to leave.

00:28:29.000 And the goose wouldn't let her leave.

00:28:31.000 He loved her.

00:28:32.000 You loved her.

00:28:33.000 It was the male goose?

00:28:34.000 I don't know, but whatever it was, it was a pet goose, and we had a couple of pet geese.

00:28:40.000 And apparently they can form an attachment.

00:28:42.000 Yes, they can.

00:28:43.000 They can, sure.

00:28:45.000 Zooming out from this and what it really means, when you invite the third world, you get the third world. 1.00

00:28:51.000 Honestly, I mean, I don't know that you really can blame these Haitians.

00:28:55.000 They don't know any better.

00:28:57.000 In Haiti, if you see an animal and you're starving, you capture that animal and you eat it.

00:29:03.000 It's not a good place.

00:29:04.000 And it's because they've been victimized by a lot of corruption and a lot of bad government.

00:29:08.000 And frankly, the negative impacts of globalism have played out catastrophically in Haiti.

00:29:14.000 But I blame us.

00:29:16.000 And I just worry that more of these third-world behaviors, the defecating in the farms of the Yuma farmers that we went and talked to, they talked about the ways a lot of these Haitian migrants, even using running water in some cases, or when there would be grace extended to try to create food opportunities or sanitation opportunities, the level of desperation is so deep. 0.94

00:29:37.000 These are the people who will eat the ducks out of the neighborhood pond and then will string up and gut the cat.

00:29:43.000 Yeah, you have to acknowledge that the U.S. has a rather unique culture, and we are an affluent country, a very affluent country.

00:29:54.000 You're bringing in people, literally by the millions, who have no sense of who we are, and we have no sense of who they are, really.

00:30:06.000 And so you have a culture clash going on.

00:30:08.000 And it's not just from one country.

00:30:10.000 Because we have over 170 countries where people have come in in the last year.

00:30:15.000 And since they're coming in by the millions, It really actually is going to have an impact on wherever they gather because you're just going to have a cultural impact.

00:30:28.000 And that's not to say that we can't try to understand it, but the problem is at the same time you're allowing millions of illegal aliens to come in, you have over a million legal in migration as well.

00:30:45.000 More than all other countries combined in the world And still somehow we're expected to open up when people who don't have any intention to assimilate.

00:30:55.000 I mean, there's no intention for them to assimilate.

00:30:58.000 And the Biden-Harris program specifically includes exclusion from those numbers we were talking about of Haitians, Cubans, Venezuelans, and Nicaraguans.

00:31:12.000 And now why is it?

00:31:13.000 They'll tell you, well, we have no compact with them to send them back.

00:31:17.000 Yeah, but you aren't just sending them back.

00:31:19.000 You're recruiting them.

00:31:20.000 Right.

00:31:21.000 And that's the problem.

00:31:23.000 And our own NGOs that are funded by our own government are doing the enticing of the very groups that we're seeing impact, those overall immigration numbers, but in a clandestine way because it's not being accurately reported.

00:31:35.000 One more thing I want you to help me set up before we go.

00:31:38.000 You are the chairman of our crime subcommittee on the House Judiciary Committee.

00:31:41.000 You held a hearing today.

00:31:43.000 about violent crime, about the way that these soft on crime policies are impacting Americans at a time of this great immigration wave. 0.98

00:31:50.000 Just give a quick update to the audience about why you held the hearing today and what your big takeaways.

00:31:55.000 Well, we held the hearing for the purpose of kind of exposing Some of these soft on crimes, it just so happened that we were talking about California, Minnesota, where you have had probably some of the worst soft on crime policies, and I will just tell you, when you listen to the victims of these crimes, and then the guy who was head of the business organization And you see it, and by the way, your questioning was brilliant.

00:32:21.000 It was wonderful stuff with the gentleman restaurateur.

00:32:24.000 And I talked to him some more after the hearing.

00:32:26.000 I said, so tell me what else is going on.

00:32:28.000 He said, he owns four or five restaurants.

00:32:30.000 I can't remember the number, but he said, all of them are thriving in the suburbs.

00:32:35.000 Where the law is enforced.

00:32:36.000 But in the area where the law is not being enforced, our sales have plummeted because it's not safe.

00:32:42.000 Nobody wants to come into a restaurant and be looking over your shoulder because he's been burgled 13 times under Governor Walz.

00:32:51.000 Geez, it's demoral.

00:32:54.000 I don't even know how you have the gumption to stay in business when you're constantly under that threat and you don't even have your own government on your side.

00:33:02.000 They're on the side of the criminals.

00:33:04.000 Andy, how can folks follow you, stay up with all of your information and social media accounts?

00:33:09.000 Well, just go to biggs.house.gov or you can find me on any social media site at RepAndyBiggs.

00:33:16.000 Well, thanks so much for joining me.

00:33:18.000 I do want to get to the audience to some of that hearing that we had, but thanks for being here.

00:33:22.000 This is Congressman Kevin Kiley.

00:33:24.000 He was really laying the lumber down on some of these soft on crime policies.

00:33:28.000 Take a listen.

00:33:31.000 Thank you, Mr. Chair.

00:33:33.000 Just a couple weeks ago, the Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, referred to California's crime policies as a national model.

00:33:40.000 And Vice President Harris, of course herself from California, has said that California is a, quote, role model for what can be done around the country.

00:33:49.000 So I think that this hearing, looking specifically at California's crime situation, is a timely opportunity to evaluate that thesis as to what kind of a national model California provides.

00:34:03.000 When it comes to its approach to crime, and that approach consists of three main elements.

00:34:07.000 The first is a systematic effort to defund police departments in cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Oakland.

00:34:14.000 Second, a systematic effort to not enforce criminal laws with the election of so-called progressive prosecutors like George Gascon, Kamala Harris, and Chase Abodee in San Francisco, Gascon again in L.A., Pamela Price in Oakland.

00:34:32.000 And then thirdly is just taking a hatchet to the criminal code with laws like Prop 47, for example, which passed in 2014 and effectively legalized retail theft, spawning this crisis of retail theft and smash-and-grabs across spawning this crisis of retail theft and smash-and-grabs across California.

00:34:51.000 Prop 47 also effectively legalized drug possession, even for Class A drugs, even for fentanyl.

00:34:58.000 And what that has done is made it impossible for us to get folks who have drug addiction the help that they need, so that you have them just living on our streets and tragically all too often dying on our streets in these open-air drug markets that you have to walk through, wade through, in many of our major cities.

00:35:15.000 Two years after Prop 47 came Prop 57, which made tens of thousands of very serious, heinous criminals eligible for early release.

00:35:24.000 Now, of course, California voters would never have passed such a thing if it were properly described to them, but unfortunately, the initiative was described on the ballot as only applying to non-violent offenders.

00:35:36.000 It was described as such by the then Attorney General Kamala Harris.

00:35:40.000 In reality, it made criminals eligible for early release who had committed crimes like rape, human trafficking with minors, assault with a deadly weapon, drive-by shootings.

00:35:51.000 All of this was described as nonviolent activity by the Attorney General.

00:35:56.000 And so with the passage of these measures, Prop 47, Prop 57, the defunding of police, The so-called progressive prosecutor movement.

00:36:05.000 We have seen crime go up in California.

00:36:07.000 The results speak for themselves.

00:36:09.000 Just over the last five years, violent crime has gone up 15.1%.

00:36:13.000 Aggravated assault, 30.6%.

00:36:15.000 Homicide, 9.1%.

00:36:17.000 Aggravated assault with a firearm, 62.9%.

00:36:20.000 The violent crime rate in California is 31% higher than the rest of the country.

00:36:25.000 But those statistics don't even tell the full story.

00:36:28.000 If you look at San Francisco, for example, businesses are closing left and right in just a short span of time in the last year.

00:36:34.000 You had the closure of Nordstrom, Whole Foods, T-Mobile, Anthropologie, Saks, the iconic toy store that this movie Toy Story was based on had to close In-N-Out, had to close its first restaurant ever, citing the danger to customers and to their workers.

00:36:49.000 Or if you just walk into many of our major cities, if you want to go to the grocery store, you have to dodge needles, you have to wade through encampments.

00:36:59.000 And when you go into the store, if you want to buy basic goods like frozen foods or shampoo or conditioner, You have to go get a clerk to open up the cabinet to get it for you because everything is under lock and key.

00:37:12.000 In Los Angeles, the police has specifically told people, warned people, that you shouldn't go outside when you are wearing jewelry.

00:37:18.000 This is the reality of life in many parts of California following this dangerous decriminalization experiment.

00:37:30.000 But the good news is this, that while Gavin Newsom says this is a national model, while Kamala Harris says it's a role model for the rest of the country, the people of California are rendering a very different verdict.

00:37:43.000 Those cities that defunded their police have now refunded their police.

00:37:48.000 Several of these so-called progressive prosecutors have been recalled or are currently being recalled or being removed from office.

00:37:55.000 And there is a bipartisan initiative right now to largely reverse Prop 47 and end the Prop 47 experiment in California.

00:38:05.000 And it has received broad bipartisan support.

00:38:08.000 I was just on a bipartisan panel supporting it with our colleague Ami Barra.

00:38:11.000 The mayors of San Jose, San Diego, San Francisco are supporting this initiative.

00:38:16.000 Even though the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, has continued to stand by Prop 47 and fought our reform effort every step of the way.

00:38:24.000 So, Mr. Chairman, while there are some who will point to California's crime policies as a national model, I would encourage folks across the country to listen to the people of California themselves, who are saying very clearly, this is not a model for the nation, it is a warning to the nation.

00:38:39.000 I yield back.

00:38:43.000 We are back live and we do not want America to become California.

00:38:47.000 And it was a land of great bounty and beauty, the most temperate climate in the hemisphere.

00:38:52.000 And as a consequence of these soft on crime policies and other policies, people are leaving.

00:38:57.000 And they're leaving for like the deserts of Arizona.

00:39:00.000 Glad we let Mr. Biggs go before making that derogatory reference.

00:39:03.000 But no, Arizona is beautiful as well.

00:39:05.000 I had some thoughts as well and some questioning of these witnesses in the crime hearing.

00:39:09.000 take a listen.

00:39:10.000 Chair recognizes the gentleman from Florida, Mr. Gates.

00:39:14.000 Yeah, I had questions for Mr. Ingram, but that was a remarkable presentation from Congressman Kiley about how things have gone in California.

00:39:21.000 And when I heard that they had to close an In-N-Out and a Whole Foods, that is a broad swath of the constituency in California.

00:39:30.000 When you get both of those establishments having to close, it's remarkable.

00:39:34.000 Mr. Ingram, so we have this dynamic now that Mr. Kiley just laid out perfectly, where you're seeing more and more crimes not really being counted as crimes.

00:39:44.000 And you're seeing more and more criminals just being let out and not really deemed part of the criminal justice system for any meaningful period of time.

00:39:52.000 And so I want you to bring, like, the average American who's heard the presentation, oh, the crime rates are down, we're safer now under these policies that don't really punish people for things like theft.

00:40:05.000 What does that actually mean on the streets of America?

00:40:09.000 What would you say to an American that encountered that information but it didn't jive with how they felt?

00:40:15.000 What I would equate it to is we see it every day in our city where we sit right now.

00:40:22.000 It's mind-boggling on how we talk about crime.

00:40:26.000 For us, again, somebody that has been in Minnesota since 2012, the five years kind of we had one burglary.

00:40:33.000 Now we've had 12, 13. Every time I get a thing from our district attorney, it says we've reduced the charges to under $1,000.

00:40:42.000 Even though it may have cost me $20,000 to repair the building, a safe they rolled down three flights of stairs, ripped out walls, ripped out staircases, we reduced it down to under $1,000.

00:40:55.000 And the person is back on the streets, and he robs us again, and we reduce it down, and he robs us again, and we reduce it down.

00:41:05.000 To me, that is the madness of it.

00:41:07.000 Recently, our breakfast restaurant called Hope Somebody broke into it, busted out the garage door, went into the space, and then we get a letter saying we've reduced the crime down to under a thousand dollars, where the glass on the garage door costs more than that.

00:41:24.000 To me, it's when we have these, again, this isn't a political thing for me.

00:41:29.000 It's real life.

00:41:30.000 This is real humans.

00:41:31.000 These are real businesses.

00:41:32.000 We're having businesses closed every single day.

00:41:35.000 We're having people murdered.

00:41:38.000 We have a drug dealer.

00:41:41.000 That provided laced drugs with fentanyl to my partner's son.

00:41:46.000 He died.

00:41:47.000 He texted him.

00:41:48.000 Something is wrong.

00:41:49.000 He said, you'll be fine.

00:41:51.000 We had his address.

00:41:53.000 That drug dealer, to my knowledge, is still on the streets to this day.

00:41:58.000 Mr. Ingram, Vice President Harris filled out a questionnaire for the ACLU when she was running for president back in 2019, and she advocated for the position of decriminalizing fentanyl.

00:42:09.000 Making it where that wasn't something where people would interface with the criminal justice system but would have a different path.

00:42:15.000 Do you think that would make your streets safer?

00:42:18.000 I don't believe that will make our streets safer.

00:42:20.000 People, you must be held accountable for your actions.

00:42:24.000 Words don't really matter.

00:42:26.000 Actions matter.

00:42:26.000 We can all say, I can sit here, say whatever I want to say, any of us can say.

00:42:31.000 Actions are what matter. 0.98

00:42:32.000 What is happening every single day is what matters, and that's really what we need is common sense to take over.

00:42:39.000 If you've been arrested 50 times in three years, you shouldn't be out to do it again.

00:42:45.000 Here's what I want to get, Mr. Ingram.

00:42:48.000 I've never been a prosecutor, but why would you want to become a prosecutor to then not prosecute the criminals?

00:42:54.000 That'd be like opening restaurants and not wanting to make food.

00:42:58.000 That'd be like opening a bar and not wanting to make drinks.

00:43:02.000 Like, do you ever get to talk to some of these folks in your community and say, hey, like, I just sort of assumed that me being the restaurateur, I would run a restaurant and you being the prosecutors, you would prosecute the criminals.

00:43:13.000 Is that too much to ask?

00:43:15.000 Unfortunately, I just get to speak to our first responders that show up on site, and I see the look in their eyes, how defeated they are, because they've arrested.

00:43:23.000 They know them by name.

00:43:24.000 We show them the picture, and they tell us their name.

00:43:28.000 They know where they live.

00:43:30.000 And they're so demoralized and defeated, it's insanity.

00:43:35.000 We don't live like this in Florida.

00:43:37.000 You don't have to live like this.

00:43:38.000 Florida's ready when you are, as a matter of fact.

00:43:40.000 But I do worry that these bad ideas that we've seen emerge in some of our Democrat-run cities could spread to other parts of the country.

00:43:49.000 In our last few seconds, what would be your warning to a community thinking about adopting these policies that reduce theft thresholds and allow this type of conduct?

00:43:59.000 My biggest thing would say love people, and love is hard.

00:44:03.000 My dad had to discipline me because I made mistakes.

00:44:07.000 Discipline sucks, but it has to happen.

00:44:10.000 Love people, and that includes discipline.

00:44:13.000 That's terrific advice.

00:44:14.000 I very much appreciate you being here, and I see my time's expired.

00:44:17.000 I yield back.

00:44:20.000 We thank Mr. Ingram for his work as an entrepreneur in our country.

00:44:24.000 You should be able to do that with the law and the government on your side, not on the side of the people who are trying to victimize you.

00:44:32.000 Thank you all so much for joining us today on Firebrand.

00:44:34.000 The best way to stay up to date on all of our content.

00:44:36.000 Is to subscribe, turn notifications on, and remember, 24-7, anytime you want to know what's going on in the Congress, what we've been talking about, who we've been talking to, you can go to the Gates Network and we'll be keeping you very well informed.

00:44:49.000 Thank you all so much.

00:44:50.000 We'll see you soon.

00:44:51.000 Roll the credits.

Firebrand - Matt Gaetz - September 12, 2024

Episode 170 LIVE: Kamalanomics (feat. Rep. Andy Biggs) – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz

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