A report on Military Wokeness, an exclusive report from the Wall Street Journal on Ukraine, and a report from CNN's Fareed Zakaria on the Biden administration's failure to deliver on foreign policy goals under President Joe Biden, and why we should all be worried about the coming mid-term elections and the possible resurgence of the pro-Russia wing of the party of the deep state. All this and much more on today's Firebrand. Subscribe to our new show on Apple Podcasts! Subscribe, Like, and Share for exclusive lessons on how to be, become, and live as a Firebrand, and take control of your future. Firebrand is a conservative political commentary podcast produced by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and the Firebrand Project, a group dedicated to taking on permanent Washington, D.C. and all the things it stands for. Subscribe today using our podcast s promo code: "WEAPONS" to receive 20% off your first month with discount code "FIREbrand" at checkout. To find a list of our sponsors and show-related promo codes, go to gimlet.fm/OurAdvertisers. Use the discount code: CRIMINALS at checkout to receive $10 off your purchase of $50 or more, and receive 10% off of your total bill plus free shipping, plus a free copy of the latest issue of Firebrand's new book, Firebrand will be available on Amazon Prime and Vimeo. Thank you for supporting our new ad-free version of our new book "The Firebrand Guide to help you get the most firebranding your best listening experience. and access all of the best deals in the best listening and social media tools, including the most powerful podcast spots in the most affordable places in the world. You won't want to miss it! and we'll get a discount on our newest episode on the best vlogs, too! and more! FREE shipping throughout the U.S. listening experience, coming soon! Thanks for listening and sharing it anywhere you get a chance to watch us on Audible, subscribe to our social media platforms, and share it on your favorite podcasting platform, and most importantly, we'll be spreading the word out there! You'll get access to our newest episodes, too get the best of our best posts, the most authentic and the most influential podcasting opportunities throughout the world, and more.
00:04:43.000Matt 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.
00:04:50.000Matt Gaetz right now, he's a problem for the Democratic Party.
00:04:53.000He can cause a lot of hiccups in passing the laws.
00:04:56.000So we're going to keep running for a story is to keep hurting him.
00:05:00.000If you want to stand for the flag and kneel in prayer and you want to build America up and not burn her to the ground, then welcome, my fellow patriots!
00:05:35.000Usually we do these episodes out of our congressional office in Washington, D.C. But we are on location today in the beautiful Sunshine State in Pensacola, Florida.
00:05:46.000We've got a report on military wokeness.
00:05:49.000We've got stunning admissions from members of the Biden administration, even a former member of the Obama administration, about the total failures of these policies and the ascendancy of America first as a consequence of what our country has been going through under the presidency of Joe Biden.
00:06:06.000A report on this crazy agreement with the World Health Organization to surrender American sovereignty.
00:06:16.000I've been telling the American people that the regime is just so thirsty for direct kinetic conflict with Russia, war with Russia.
00:06:25.000We even heard Majority Leader Steny Hoyer talk about the fact that we are at war with Russia.
00:06:31.000Well now, an exclusive report from the Wall Street Journal.
00:06:35.000Pentagon weighs deploying special forces to guard Kiev embassy.
00:06:41.000You'd think that they would have learned their lesson from Afghanistan that having a small force of marines trying to protect an impossible diplomatic mission in the middle of a hot war zone that we have no control over is insane and it already cost American lives but here Here we see it.
00:07:00.000Quoting now directly from the Wall Street Journal article, quote, Some U.S. military officials would like to return to Ukraine the special forces and other troops that were conducting train and advise operations for the Ukrainian military.
00:07:16.000It always starts with the train and equip missions, the train and advise missions.
00:07:21.000Remember, the United States' involvement in the civil war in Syria began when Obama decided he wanted 40 advisors.
00:07:30.000But as we know, it can get far more deadly, it can get a lot more bloody going beyond that.
00:07:36.000Back to the Wall Street Journal article, quote, On May 8, Kristina Kievan, the senior diplomat in the U.S. mission to Ukraine and a small group of U.S. diplomats, temporarily based in Poland, returned to the U.S. embassy complex in Kiev to commemorate Victory in Europe Day with Ukrainian officials.
00:07:58.000They were escorted by U.S. Special Forces assigned from the Joint Special Operations Command in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, who provided for their security.
00:08:08.000The first known instance in which American forces entered the country since invasion.
00:08:15.000But that date, May 8th, really calls into question whether or not these special forces were also providing security for the Pelosi visit, for the Mitch McConnell visit.
00:08:27.000Are we really at a point where photo op foreign policy risks the lives of American service members, risks starting World War III? We are now in a circumstance where people in Washington, D.C. are advocating directly for a reinsertion of U.S. troops into the conflict in Ukraine.
00:08:48.000And they were lying to you when they told you they didn't want boots on the ground.
00:08:52.000How many times did we hear from Joe Biden?
00:08:54.000Oh, we're not going to put, you know, boots on the ground.
00:09:14.000Are doing everything they can right now to plow U.S. arms, materiel, and cash into Ukraine.
00:09:23.000And the reason they are rushing to do it now is because they believe following the midterm elections, there will be more America first voices that inform on U.S. foreign policy.
00:09:36.000And we know this Because a member of the foreign policy elite told us.
00:09:41.000Just this past Sunday, Charles Kupchan, former NSC official for European affairs under the Obama administration, he gave an interview on Fareed Zakaria's program on CNN, and this is what he said about the America First movement.
00:09:58.000I'm very worried that as we head to the midterms, the America First wing of the Republican Party is going to get stronger and stronger.
00:10:06.000We've seen primary candidates, J.D. Vance in Ohio.
00:10:21.000We are the movement winning elections, and we will be putting people in the government to assure that we do not just spoil American blood or American treasure everywhere in the world, that there happens to be a conflict that the war lobby and the defense industrial complex want to be able to profit off of.
00:10:41.000They're going to do very well as a result of this $40 billion package, but it is not a good thing for the American people.
00:10:49.000Just this past week I had a telephone town hall meeting among Northwest Floridians and we talked about this $40 billion aid package and like 75% somewhere around that range of the people in my district on this call were opposed to that.
00:11:05.000I mean, this is a very conservative part of the country.
00:11:07.000This is an area with a lot of military and veterans, and gun control was actually more popular than the $40 billion to Ukraine.
00:11:17.000So I know that's not a scientific survey, but it is reflective of where the people are who will join a congressional telephone town hall.
00:11:26.000It is reflective of where I think a majority of the people are who are paying attention.
00:11:31.000It is not for your benefit that they want to send America's bravest and America's dollars to a place that is not prepared to deal with it.
00:11:40.000And this could potentially extend a conflict that I know all of us want to end, and we want the conflict to end on Ukraine's terms, but continuing to plow cash and arms into this particular conflict.
00:11:55.000The American people see it, and the blowback Will be an ascendancy of America first in the Congress.
00:12:02.000That's what the national security apparatus is telling you.
00:12:04.000And if our military is not making poor decisions regarding the conflict in Ukraine, they are advancing a level of wokeness that is completely crazy.
00:12:29.000Now we do have policies to provide for family members.
00:12:33.000Gosh, if we had a member of our military who could have a family member that could only receive a certain type of medical treatment at a specific place, we would do everything we could to accommodate them.
00:12:43.000And our military has policies to do that.
00:12:46.000But we have now heard reports that those compassionate care policies are being tortured and perverted into a basis to not have military service members in states like Florida and Texas that have sensible laws reflecting the values of our communities.
00:13:05.000Everybody in the national media went crazy over what they called the Florida don't say gay law.
00:13:10.000Matter of fact, the law didn't say that at all.
00:13:13.000Nonetheless, the publicity, the narrative formation could potentially lead to service members saying, well, I have a trans family member.
00:13:23.000I have a gay service member, so I don't want to go to the state of Florida.
00:13:27.000I don't want to serve at one of those installations.
00:13:30.000Maybe someone doesn't want to go to Texas because they're offended that they believe that they don't like Texas' view on abortion rights.
00:13:39.000And I asked the Secretary of the Air Force, Frank Kendall, about whether these policies were affecting our military, whether they were being used in this way.
00:13:51.000That if a service member has a transsexual family member, or a family member who might one day want to become a transsexual person, that the Air Force might not send that service member to a state like Florida or a state like Texas based on our laws?
00:14:12.000What we do, and we've been doing this for a very long time, is whenever anybody comes up for assignment, they go through a questionnaire about their family and their medical needs and special education, things like that.
00:14:22.000And based on that questionnaire, we examine whether in the region they might be assigned to, there might be some issue with providing them with what they need.
00:14:31.000And then if that's the case, we don't assign them there.
00:14:33.000We find something else someplace else where then we go.
00:14:36.000There are about 35,000 servicemen that are under that program right now and about 55,000 people that are affected by it.
00:14:43.000So it has a lot of broad applicability.
00:14:45.000But usually we would think about this exceptional family member program like, If a service member had a child with a specific heart disease and they could only get treatment at Johns Hopkins, you might not send them to a place where they wouldn't be able to access that treatment.
00:14:58.000What I think is new is that you're now applying that to transsexuals and people who might want to be transsexuals.
00:15:03.000So again, I want to ask the question very directly.
00:15:06.000Is it the position of the Air Force That if someone has a transsexual family member and they don't want to go to a state like Florida or Texas, that you will accommodate their request to not go to Florida or Texas based on the gender issues of a family member.
00:15:21.000If a service member is under treatment for a recognized medical condition, such as gender dysphoria, and they cannot get that treatment in the state to which they might be assigned, then they could be assigned to another state.
00:15:33.000And it's not just if they're under treatment.
00:15:36.000Captain Donna Donsworth told the Washington Post, family members receiving gender-affirming treatment, or likely to receive such treatment, So, isn't it true?
00:16:21.000There would have to be a medical need that needs to be met.
00:16:24.000Just that decision by itself probably wouldn't be enough, but I don't know.
00:16:27.000And I'm concerned that it's going beyond medical needs in some of the statements of some of the folks who work for you.
00:16:32.000I'm now quoting from Under Secretary Gina Ortiz, who said, we are closely tracking state laws and legislation to ensure we're prepared to mitigate effects to our airmen, guardsmen, and families.
00:16:43.000And again, this is dealing with the A transsexual issue with the Exceptional Family Member Program.
00:16:47.000So which state laws and local laws are you particularly concerned about?
00:16:53.000We have people in our major installations who track local conditions, including state laws, all the time.
00:17:16.000U.S. Army considering letting soldiers change base if local laws offend their choice of gender.
00:17:24.000I mean, this is explicitly a way to punish the military mission in Florida, punish the military mission in Texas, and it's going to hurt readiness.
00:17:34.000This is quoting from the Daily Wire piece, quote, And they are citing a report from Military.com.
00:17:56.000This is going to hurt America's readiness and it also is going to deprive us of access to key investments that we've made for our military capabilities.
00:18:05.000I mean, if we now live in a world where DOD has gone so woke that they want to punish the military mission in Florida, in Texas, in Oklahoma, in Arizona and other states, well then, The investments we made in the Gulf test range, in other weapon systems, in our supply chain and where we build things to be able to ensure that our military is capable of victory.
00:18:29.000All of that will take second fiddle to wokeism coming out of the Pentagon.
00:18:43.000We'll fight for a military that is prepared, that is capable, that is lethal, that is survivable, and that is unwoke.
00:18:53.000Because that is what the patriotism of our service members and that is what the security of our country demands.
00:19:03.000The crisis on our border continues to escalate and get worse.
00:19:08.000I know there's been a lot of news about Title 42 and a judge recently ruling that the Biden administration couldn't revoke it under our current conditions.
00:19:17.000But the reality is that Title 42 is already long gone in the practical procedures being deployed on our border.
00:19:27.000Border agents, border patrol, they need to get ahead of the wave, they tell us.
00:19:31.000And so they're already cycling people into the country and not deporting them as a consequence of Title 42 or really any other law like Remain in Mexico, like Save Third Country.
00:19:42.000These laws that the Trump administration put in place to protect us are not being used by the Biden administration and it's on purpose.
00:19:53.000Joe Biden has appointed five new immigration judges, one of whom is Romy L. Leonard, and she was on the board of a total left-wing anti-borders group called the Detention Watch Network.
00:20:07.000And the stated purpose of the organization that the latest Joe Biden appointee to one of these judgeships held was to stop deportations.
00:20:19.000Not limit them, not focus them on criminals, not ensure that it's the worst of the worst that we deport to stop them, to just straight up stop deportations.
00:20:28.000Now, how fair is that for our country, for our fellow Americans, to have the person that is supposed to adjudicate asylum claims holding the view and associating with the position that no one should be deported at all?
00:20:43.000You see, they're trying to rush all this through as fast as they can to get people across our border, To erode voter ID and then ultimately to have these illegal aliens voting in our elections and reshaping our country unfairly and undemocratically.
00:20:58.000And they say we are the threat to American democracy.
00:21:01.000This is the threat to American democracy.
00:21:04.000An open border and elections that are unsecure.
00:21:08.000And this Romy Leonard appointment is certainly an example of that.
00:21:13.000And of course we see the immigration crisis accelerating under the failed leadership of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Ali Mayorkas, who really is a sociopathic liar.
00:23:23.000The bottom line is that U.S. borders are not open.
00:23:27.000Dr. Jason Furman is a former economic advisor to President Obama and Now he's a professor at Harvard and he was on Face the Nation to discuss the state of the economy and how it's affecting people.
00:23:49.000Look, I'd put some perspective on what we're going through right now.
00:23:52.000The market is not the same as the economy.
00:23:55.000When you look at the economy, you see a 3.6% unemployment rate.
00:23:59.000You see 500,000 jobs being created a month.
00:24:03.000You see consumer spending quite strongly.
00:24:07.000Our economy is heading to darker times right now because you have far too many dollars chasing far too few goods.
00:24:16.000Part of that is a consequence of Joe Biden's failures with the supply chain.
00:24:20.000But of course, what has exacerbated this dynamic the most is expansionist Fed policy and massive government spending.
00:24:28.000Those two things always were going to create an inflationary cycle, and now it's a cycle that people are getting absolutely crushed in.
00:24:37.000The American Rescue Plan was to be the signature legislative achievement of the Biden era.
00:24:42.000It would be almost the only thing Democrats would be able to run on.
00:24:46.000But even Jason Furman acknowledges that the American Rescue Plan exacerbated the problems that really are driving the concerns of many Americans today.
00:24:59.000Look, in March of 2021, the president signed the American Rescue Plan into law.
00:25:06.000That's part of why the United States has had a faster recovery than any other economy, but it's also part of why we have incredibly high inflation.
00:25:14.000I wished at the time that he did something smaller.
00:25:17.000I think it was larger than it needed to be, but it's good that something happened.
00:25:23.000Even Liberal Vox acknowledges in their May 12th article that in fact Biden's American Rescue Plan worsened inflation.
00:25:33.000So this is the connection people have to make.
00:25:36.000Inflation isn't occurring because of Vladimir Putin.
00:25:40.000It's not occurring because of some uncontrollable foreign dynamic in the global economy that we can have No effect on or no say in.
00:25:48.000The reality is it's the policies of Joe Biden that have created this inflation and that are projected to continue to do so.
00:25:55.000I mean, we are not going to see 2% inflation for a while.
00:25:59.000Next year, best case scenario, perhaps 3% inflation.
00:26:02.000But that still, year over year, will be something that will be of tremendous concern to many families throughout our country and to many family budgets.
00:26:14.000Many Americans have expressed concern to our office regarding Joe Biden's attempt to surrender American sovereignty and American decision making to the World Health Organization.
00:26:25.000So I wanted to go into this issue with more detail.
00:26:27.000The WHO is seeking a new instrument to be able to rapidly effectuate change in the member states to an agreement that they would oversee, that they would staff and that would limit our flexibility to have decisions like we saw in the that they would staff and that would limit our flexibility to have decisions like we saw in the state of Florida They are seeking international health regulations and take a listen to how they want to do it.
00:26:55.000They want an emergency committee to assess health threats and outbreaks and recommend responses.
00:27:02.000They want a country review mechanism and they want to expand the power of the WHO to declare really almost anything An outbreak or a pandemic.
00:27:13.000This would go well beyond just a respiratory virus.
00:27:17.000It would give them vast sweeping powers over American life.
00:27:21.000They would have a regional group of directors that would potentially have the ability to constrain the United States to like the views of Latin America.
00:28:13.000I do not believe in the WHO to not just be a continued tool of the Chinese Communist Party.
00:28:20.000The WHO blew it in the coronavirus pandemic.
00:28:23.000They are the last people we should be turning to for future decision making.
00:28:27.000And I believe that the left right now understands that they're going to have less control after the next elections.
00:28:34.000After the midterms, the House, the Senate, potentially both, out of the hands of the Democrats.
00:28:39.000And so they are trying to surrender as much of your power and your liberty and your decision making to this global entity as they can before they lose the opportunity to do so.
00:28:52.000We need massive communication to people who are in the decision making in the United States Senate.
00:28:58.000We need to reach out to Republicans, Democrats, all lawmakers to oppose this surrender of American sovereignty.
00:29:04.000It's as serious as it gets and it will not end at true health pandemics.
00:29:09.000They'll declare climate change a pandemic.
00:29:11.000They'll declare gun violence a pandemic.
00:29:14.000They'll declare anything that will give them the power to institute these lockdowns with greater frequency.
00:29:20.000They will speak that into World Health Organization speak and pandemic speak, and we must be extremely resistant to that on all fronts.
00:29:32.000Pegasus is a spying technology developed by Israel.
00:29:36.000We told you about its capabilities and threats in a prior episode.
00:31:02.000We questioned the FBI cyber chief about the FBI's interest in Pegasus, its use, how it intended to apply the license that it had acquired for $5 million.
00:31:13.000Here's the FBI cyber chief on March 29th giving his explanation for the FBI's interaction with the software.
00:31:22.000Are you aware of a piece of software named Pegasus that's provided by NSO Group, Israeli software company?
00:32:11.000Have you detected the use of this software domestically?
00:32:16.000Sir, there's reporting in the media about Apple filing a lawsuit against NSO and there's a lot of information in that article.
00:32:25.000I can't comment further on your question truly due to classification, but if that is of interest to you we could consider a background briefing.
00:32:34.000Does the FBI itself exploit the SF7 flaw to access cell phone contents?
00:32:42.000Sir, I'm not in a position to answer that question.
00:33:02.000I mean it's very important for me personally as a representative for the cyber program at the FBI to keep that as an open invitation in both directions between all of you and me and from me to all of you that whatever information that you would want access to we would try to facilitate that.
00:33:19.000But now, we are getting information reported by the New York Times that seems to suggest that the FBI had a far more thorough interest in Pegasus than merely looking under the hood.
00:33:32.000Remember, in that March 29th briefing, the FBI cyber chief wants you to believe that the US taxpayer paid $5 million for Pegasus just to see what its capabilities were.
00:33:44.000No real interest in ever using it as part of operations or investigations.
00:33:50.000Here's the headline from the New York Times.
00:33:53.000FBI told Israel it wanted Pegasus hacking tool for investigations.
00:34:00.000The FBI informed the Israeli government in a 2018 letter that it had purchased Pegasus, the notorious hacking tool to collect data from mobile phones to aid in ongoing investigations.
00:34:15.000Still on the FBI story from the New York Times.
00:34:18.000Quote, the FBI's description of its intended use of Pegasus came in a letter from a top FBI official to Israel's Ministry of Defense.
00:34:28.000It continues, the 2018 letter written by an official in the FBI's operational technology division stated that the bureau intended to use Pegasus, quote, for the collection of data Right there.
00:34:51.000So was the FBI lying to Congress or was the FBI lying to the government of Israel?
00:34:58.000My guess is they're probably far more willing to lie to Congress than the government of Israel.
00:35:02.000Like, why would we go to the lengths in 2018 Telling the government of Israel, not that we had acquired a limited look, but that we had in fact purchased Pegasus and that we were intending to use it in investigations.
00:35:18.000Now, on that March 29th date, we had the hearing that resulted in a commitment from the FBI Cyber Chief to give members of Congress a classified briefing on the use of Pegasus.
00:35:41.000And to this date, the FBI has been recalcitrant in agreeing To the hearing, to the briefing that they had promised Congressman Ted Lieu of California, a Democrat who doesn't like me very much, and Thomas Massey, a Republican of Kentucky.
00:35:56.000So we need to have that understanding.