Firebrand - Matt Gaetz - Episode 52 LIVE: Made In America Coups – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz

The MAGA Gang is here, and pretty soon, they may be in control of the Republican Party. That's the thesis of a new piece by Time Magazine's Molly Ball on the growing influence of the so-called "firebrand" conservative wing of the pro-Trump congressional faction known as the " MAGA Squad." And as the primary season heats up across the country, they're looking to pad their numbers by recruiting likeminded firebrands in red districts, endorsing and campaigning for fellow insurgents in intraparty contests, and even running against their own colleagues. And if that doesn't do the job, they'll have a problem on their hands, because the Democratic Party is going to have a hard time keeping them out of power in the midterms. Today's After Show is hosted by Rep. Steve Israel (R-ID) and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), both of whom are joined by CNN's Senior Political Commentator and Senior Congressional Correspondent Alex Castellanos (D - NY) to discuss all of this and much, much more. In this episode, we talk about: - The rise of the "Firebrand" faction in Congress - what it means for the future of the party - and why it matters - and what it can do for the country - and how to deal with it. - and its impact on the mid-term elections - and the upcoming midterms - and beyond. - Part 2 of this episode will air on CNN's "After Show with Adam Schiff and Adam Schiff on Tuesday Night with Alex Blumbergerts. Subscribe to the After Show to get the latest news and analysis on all things going on Capitol Hill and the rest of the political world - including who's winning and who's losing the midterm elections and what's going to win in 2020! Subscribe on Apple Podcasts! Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Rate/subscribe on Podchances and become a supporter of our new show! Subscribe for exclusive VIP access to our upcoming episodes! and much more! Learn more at The FiveThirtyEight's newest podcast, FiveThirtyeight's New Year's Eve special featuring the world's most listened to podcast, Six Sigma's New York Times bestselling author, John Rocha! - Subscribe to our new music and more! Subscribe to FiveThirtynine's newest music video series, Six Degrees of Greatness? Subscribe and review our newest episode on the Fourcast!

00:00:00.000 Thank you.

00:04:49.000 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.

00:04:56.000 Matt Gaetz right now, he's a problem in the Democratic Party.

00:04:59.000 He can cause a lot of hiccups in passing applause.

00:05:02.000 So we're going to keep running those stories to get hurt again.

00:05:06.000 If you stand for the flag and kneel in prayer, if you want to build America up and not burn her to the ground, then welcome, my fellow patriots!

00:05:15.000 You are in the right place!

00:05:16.000 This is the movement for you!

00:05:18.000 You ever watch this guy on television?

00:05:21.000 It's like a machine.

00:05:22.000 Matt Gaetz.

00:05:23.000 I'm a canceled man in some corners of the internet.

00:05:26.000 Many days I'm a marked man in Congress, a wanted man by the deep state.

00:05:31.000 They aren't really coming for me.

00:05:33.000 They're coming for you.

00:05:35.000 I'm just in the way.

00:05:41.000 If I hear one of my MAGA friends once again talk about debt and deficits, I'm going to be good.

00:05:50.000 Look, this is not your father's Republican Party.

00:05:53.000 This is a different deal.

00:05:55.000 It really is.

00:05:56.000 I've worked with a lot of honorable Republicans, very conservative Republicans over the year when I was a senator.

00:06:01.000 But this is the MAGA gang.

00:06:03.000 This is the MAGA crowd.

00:06:04.000 I really mean it.

00:06:05.000 They have a fundamentally different view of the role of the government and who should pay what.

00:06:14.000 The MAGA gang is right here, and you are welcome to join.

00:06:18.000 Allow me to extend the invitation.

00:06:19.000 We're broadcasting live from the Longworth House Office building in my congressional office on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. And the MAGA gang that Joe Biden talks about We are in charge of the Republican Party.

00:06:33.000 That is the thesis in a huge piece just published by Time Magazine this morning.

00:06:40.000 Molly Ball has the byline, How the MAGA Squad is Building Power to Control the Next Congress.

00:06:47.000 The piece features the role of this very show, Firebrand, in driving policy and perception on Capitol Hill.

00:06:55.000 And I'm quoting from the piece now.

00:06:57.000 Torching the news cycle is what Gates and Green love to do.

00:07:01.000 Gates and Green are the ringleaders of the GOP's most hardcore pro-Trump congressional faction.

00:07:07.000 The MAGA squad, as you might call them, is not a formal caucus, but its numbers are growing.

00:07:14.000 There have long been rabble-rousing right-wingers in Congress, but this group makes the Freedom Caucus seem tame.

00:07:21.000 Democrats and many Republicans deride the group as gadflies, irrelevant to the serious business of lawmaking.

00:07:28.000 But in fact, the MAGA squad has been cannily building leverage and clout in the halls of Congress.

00:07:36.000 Now with the primary season in full swing across the country, they're looking to pad their numbers Recruit like-minded firebrands in red districts, endorsing and campaigning for fellow insurgents in intraparty contests, and even in some cases, campaigning against their own colleagues.

00:07:55.000 The MAGA squad.

00:07:56.000 They're here, they're weird, and pretty soon, they may be in control of the GOP Congress, if they aren't already.

00:08:06.000 It's an interesting piece.

00:08:07.000 You should check it out.

00:08:08.000 It's Time Magazine, so of course there's going to be stuff there that's editorialized and not particularly true.

00:08:14.000 But nonetheless, I think the central thesis is one that is controlling We are those who are carrying the torch of the America First policy agenda.

00:08:26.000 And if there's anything that Molly Ball's piece, I think, underserves, it's those very policy objectives, those goals, to ensure that we have focused, effective foreign policy, that we aren't dithering all over the world in forever wars, that we actually have trade and economic nationalism values, In our country and trade policies that build up the American worker instead of building up the economies of other countries.

00:08:53.000 And we believe in restricted immigration.

00:08:56.000 I wish that would have been more central.

00:08:58.000 But these are the issues that are animating people all over the campaign trail.

00:09:03.000 That ultimately informs who gets to Congress and what drives the agenda.

00:09:07.000 And it is true, I expect Republicans to be in control, and I'm doing everything I can to make sure that we are worthy of the trust that our constituents place in us.

00:09:18.000 I don't want to win this thing by default.

00:09:21.000 We're going to go over in the show today a number of Joe Biden failures at home, abroad, where he's missing the mark on the economy and the utilization of American force in other countries.

00:09:32.000 But I don't want to just win this election because he is just in this precipitous decline and bringing our country into decline.

00:09:40.000 I want to have a mandate to actually govern around the ideas and the policies that led to an economic boom for our country and pride around the world.

00:09:51.000 And if that means the MAGA squad has to be the tiller in the water for the Republican caucus, so be it.

00:09:59.000 I'm ready to serve and I look forward to getting more backup and adding to our growing ranks.

00:10:05.000 So Joe Biden understands that right now the American economy is failing.

00:10:10.000 It's failed on a number of fronts and he sees how this is a drag on Democrats.

00:10:15.000 The White House knows that Joe Biden has to look at least engaged or informed on some sort of domestic economic agenda.

00:10:25.000 Seems like lately when you see Joe Biden talking it's about China or about his global trips or about Ukraine and Russia.

00:10:34.000 And the American people, rather reasonably, are feeling like we're not even a priority to the American president.

00:10:41.000 And so he makes this big trip out to Long Beach, California, the port of Long Beach that I personally observed backed up for miles with an utter failure of the American economy while he was subsidizing people to stay at home and not work.

00:10:57.000 But now he gives this big speech.

00:11:00.000 He's going to lay out the domestic economic Biden agenda.

00:11:03.000 He's going to do the reset.

00:11:04.000 He's going to reclaim the mantle, use the presidential bully pulpit.

00:11:08.000 And the first point he makes is that maybe you're at fault because you don't understand the supply chain enough.

00:11:16.000 Take a listen.

00:11:18.000 When I first started talking about the supply chain when I came here well over a year ago, the American people understand and we wondered, supply chain, that's not a usual part of their jargon every day.

00:11:29.000 But they understand it fully now.

00:11:31.000 They understand it.

00:11:35.000 So it wasn't that Joe Biden didn't understand how his policies of printing a ton of money and providing a bunch of stuff for free, like, that caused inflation.

00:11:44.000 He doesn't get that.

00:11:46.000 He thinks that because you don't understand the supply chain, because it wasn't part of your jargon, that, you know, this was something that was just unavoidable.

00:11:54.000 Another point.

00:11:55.000 When making a major domestic economic speech, of course, any American president would have to spend about half the time blaming, guess who?

00:12:06.000 Vladimir Putin.

00:12:08.000 That's right, it's the Putin tax that you just didn't know you were paying.

00:12:12.000 Take a listen.

00:12:15.000 But we've never seen anything like Putin's tax on both food and gas.

00:12:20.000 Today's inflation report confirmed what Americans already know.

00:12:25.000 Putin's price hike is hitting America hard.

00:12:27.000 I'm doing everything in my power to blunt Putin's price hike and bring down the cost of gas and food.

00:12:37.000 Bass Reeves joining in the conversation on Facebook saying he's a joke.

00:12:41.000 Brandon couldn't fix a sandwich, let alone any of the stuff that he's creating.

00:12:48.000 I had to edit a little bit of that for language.

00:12:51.000 But we don't want the explicit tag.

00:12:54.000 What is the Putin tax?

00:12:56.000 Like, what is he talking about?

00:12:59.000 A lot of these issues relate to supply chains that don't run through Russia.

00:13:03.000 Look around your house.

00:13:04.000 How many times do you see on stuff in your house made in Russia?

00:13:09.000 But of course, the sanctions that Joe Biden championed, without any backup plan, without any real understanding how different elements of the economy would be impacted, did impact the price of the food you buy and the energy that you use for your home and the fuel that you put in your car.

00:13:27.000 We covered that when we had, you know, the great episode that looked at the war on America's farmers.

00:13:34.000 We actually went out and talked to folks in northwest Florida Working on those razor-thin margins, and they wish Joe Biden actually had a plan to deal with Putin, but the Putin plan is a politics plan.

00:13:45.000 So when things go wrong in Joe Biden's economy, when his own Secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellen, says, gosh, I really blew that inflation call, well now they reframe that and say, it's the Putin tax.

00:13:58.000 But when Joe Biden's not blaming Putin, you know who he's blaming.

00:14:02.000 That's right, MAGA. Take a listen.

00:14:08.000 If I hear one of my MAGA friends once again talk about debt and deficits, I'm going to be good.

00:14:16.000 Look, this is not your father's Republican Party.

00:14:20.000 This is a different deal.

00:14:21.000 It really is.

00:14:22.000 I've worked with a lot of honorable Republicans, very conservative Republicans over the year when I was a senator.

00:14:28.000 But this is the MAGA gang.

00:14:30.000 This is the MAGA crowd.

00:14:31.000 I really mean it.

00:14:32.000 They have a fundamentally different view of the role of the government and who should pay what.

00:14:40.000 Well, under Joe Biden's view of the government, you should just all pay more.

00:14:45.000 Like, that's the problem with this argument.

00:14:47.000 It is nonsensical to suggest that the MAGA wing of the Republican Party is trying to shift the burden to low- and middle-income people.

00:14:57.000 You know how low- and middle-income people are hurt?

00:15:00.000 Inflation!

00:15:01.000 Because inflation is excessively regressive.

00:15:04.000 In the way that it impacts the American economy.

00:15:07.000 Gary on Facebook says their plan is to put us under their control.

00:15:12.000 And in a lot of ways, this failing Biden economy makes the American people more susceptible to that control, to the false promises of socialism that have failed in so many other lands.

00:15:27.000 Maybe we should blame the America Last policies of the establishment for these failures rather than MAGA. You know, the policies that offshored making things that we need in our country.

00:15:39.000 Of course, the elites grifted off of that.

00:15:42.000 They financially benefited off of that globalist system.

00:15:45.000 But it was members of both parties.

00:15:48.000 Not MAGA, who led to this offshoring and to a lot of these bad trade policies that mean that the American people are at risk because so much of what we need is made elsewhere.

00:16:01.000 Joe Biden himself said the quiet part out loud in Long Beach.

00:16:07.000 People at home trying to make it, you know, paycheck to paycheck are wondering, like, what in God's name do nine, understand, nine shipping companies have to do with it?

00:16:17.000 Well, almost everything you're doing, everything from what you're eating to what you're having to drive to what you're, what you need in your home, it relates to supply chains and what's coming from abroad.

00:16:33.000 We are back broadcasting live out of the House office building, room 1721 in Longworth in Washington, D.C. And there you have it.

00:16:43.000 Joe Biden saying, well, gosh, everything that you need is somewhere else.

00:16:47.000 So when things go wrong, that's really tough and he feels your pain.

00:16:53.000 Look.

00:16:54.000 Our vision for economic nationalism ensures that we are more resilient against the fragility of a supply chain that seems to put the American people under the thumb of the Chinese Communist Party. 0.86

00:17:07.000 Who do you think runs all these transit enterprises that have privileges at Chinese ports?

00:17:14.000 You think those are the good folks in China? 1.00

00:17:16.000 Those are the people with government connections because government is fused with business in that economic system.

00:17:23.000 And frankly, that's increasingly what the left wants to see in our country.

00:17:27.000 What they don't want to see...

00:17:30.000 is American independence, whether it's the stuff we make or the energy we use.

00:17:36.000 Joe Biden doesn't at all understand how the energy economy works and how rising energy prices create compounding inflation at different levels of the economy.

00:17:47.000 What he thinks is that American companies just need to drill more despite the things that Joe Biden himself has said.

00:17:55.000 Take a look.

00:17:58.000 By the way, one thing I want to say about the oil companies.

00:18:01.000 They talk about how they have 9,000 permits to drill.

00:18:07.000 They're not drilling.

00:18:09.000 Why aren't they drilling?

00:18:10.000 Would you close down the oil industry?

00:18:12.000 I would transition from the oil industry, yes.

00:18:14.000 Oh, that's a big statement.

00:18:16.000 It is a big statement.

00:18:18.000 Why would you do that?

00:18:20.000 Because the oil industry pollutes significantly.

00:18:24.000 Here's the deal.

00:18:25.000 That's a big statement.

00:18:26.000 Well, if you let me finish the statement, because it has to be replaced by renewable energy over time.

00:18:35.000 So Joe Biden says he's going to put the oil and gas industry out of business.

00:18:40.000 He's going to completely replace them.

00:18:42.000 And then he's mad.

00:18:44.000 Why aren't they drilling?

00:18:45.000 He goes to Long Beach and asks the question.

00:18:47.000 He answered the question.

00:18:48.000 You cannot...

00:18:50.000 As a candidate, say that you want to put people out of business, and then when your president and your policies put the country in a jam, become exasperated that they're not willing to make the capital investment.

00:19:00.000 So he's done this.

00:19:02.000 Don't buy into the Putin tax.

00:19:04.000 Don't buy into this notion that all of this is just happening globally and there's nothing that America can do to escape a dim fate.

00:19:13.000 They did this to us, and that's why MAGA exists in Congress, to ensure that they're unable to continue to do so if you give us the power of oversight.

00:19:24.000 One specter of policy where the Biden administration is utterly failing is foreign policy.

00:19:32.000 So let's look at a global perspective.

00:19:34.000 Under this disoriented foreign policy of Joe Biden and the just ghoulish establishment experts that he's assembled, America is pursuing many of the neoconservative interventionist policies abroad that failed our country during the George W. Bush era.

00:19:51.000 And I say that as a Republican.

00:19:53.000 Many of those policies are continuing to fail today under Joe Biden.

00:19:57.000 We spent 20 years in Iraq and Afghanistan, despite President Trump's attempt to disentangle America from these foreign failures.

00:20:04.000 But now, Joe Biden has sent our troops right back into the fray, increasing American troop presence in the paradises of Syria, Somalia, and of course, and most notably, Ukraine.

00:20:21.000 And like the $40 billion we sent to Ukraine, we support all these endeavors with your tax dollars.

00:20:28.000 What do we get out of these massive shipments of U.S. materiel and cash and personnel overseas?

00:20:36.000 Nobody really knows.

00:20:39.000 When pressed, most of the regime's apologists just ramble on about protecting democracy abroad or countering some obscure Islamist organization that, like when we destroy it, ultimately fractures into a hundred more different cells.

00:20:53.000 In Syria and Libya and Iraq... 0.73

00:20:58.000 We go topple these strong men and then we plunge their countries into civil war and sectarian violence.

00:21:04.000 You're welcome for all the liberty and freedom.

00:21:06.000 Look at what's happening in Iraq right now.

00:21:09.000 There was a very interesting piece that came out where Muqtad al-Sadr is actually withdrawing many of his political representatives and the people in his political coalition and his party from the parliament in Iraq.

00:21:25.000 Now do you think Muqtad al-Sadr Stopped caring about politics?

00:21:29.000 No, he's given up on the parliamentary political system in Iraq.

00:21:34.000 So, trust me, mark my words, things are about to get a lot worse in Iraq as they fail to be able to use the scaffolding of a fledgling democracy to stop blood from spilling in their streets.

00:21:48.000 The Wall Street Journal recently published a searing critique of U.S. interventionist policies in Africa.

00:21:56.000 In Africa. 0.56

00:21:58.000 We, with your money, with your neighbors, train primitive armies from assembled tribes that we call countries. 0.79

00:22:06.000 But like, are they really?

00:22:08.000 Are these African nations really like nation states the way we would think about them?

00:22:13.000 But we go do all these train and equip missions and seldom does it end well.

00:22:18.000 In Mali and Burkina Faso and Guinea and Sudan and in many more places, there are armies that we've worked with Who've decided that they don't like their civilian governments anymore and they overthrow them.

00:22:33.000 Sometimes with bloodshed.

00:22:35.000 Sometimes it's a bloodless coup.

00:22:37.000 Often the officers and soldiers we train are engaged in the very animation of that violence and that work.

00:22:46.000 Are there better uses for the US military than like training the next generation of African warlords to become more capable in executing their coup d'etat?

00:22:54.000 It's not like this was an impossible outcome to predict.

00:22:57.000 Third world generals, or warlords, they get training, funding, and weapons, and then they decide to seize power.

00:23:06.000 Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and General Milley have admitted that they don't have the ability to assess another military's will to fight.

00:23:17.000 Here's that clip.

00:23:20.000 Secretary Austin, are you capable of assessing whether another has the will to fight?

00:23:30.000 No, we're not.

00:23:31.000 And that's the point that the chairman made earlier.

00:23:37.000 So, they can't gauge the will to fight.

00:23:39.000 And I guess they can't gauge the will of some of these folks we train to, like, not overthrow their civilian leadership as well.

00:23:47.000 Maybe we can't really gauge loyalty.

00:23:51.000 It is really unwise for us to be training future African coup leaders, sometimes even at West Point.

00:23:59.000 And it's probably more going on than you even know about.

00:24:04.000 Many of the American patriots who spend time away from their families training Africans in Africa are actually my constituents stationed at Eglin and Hurlburt Air Force bases specifically.

00:24:15.000 Rear Admiral Jamie Sands, commander of U.S. Special Operations in Africa, said, quote, There's no one more surprised or disappointed when partners that we're working with or have been working with for a while in some cases decide to overthrow their government.

00:24:34.000 Yeah, I would say that would probably be surprising and disappointing.

00:24:37.000 Is it really surprising anymore, though?

00:24:39.000 But as the Wall Street Journal piece points out, when it happens over and over, Maybe we shouldn't be so surprised.

00:24:46.000 If the guy in charge of training African militaries doesn't and can't tell when our African counterparts are planning to overthrow their government, then who can?

00:24:57.000 What a mess.

00:24:59.000 Now, all of this alone is enough cause for concern.

00:25:03.000 But when we have been distracted abroad, training African warlords to be coup-proficient, trouble is brewing here in our own backyard.

00:25:14.000 Russia and China and Iran are taking serious provocative steps in our geopolitical neighborhood.

00:25:21.000 We are so busy mowing the grass of the folks down the street.

00:25:25.000 We forgot to pull the weeds in our own backyard.

00:25:28.000 Recently, the Washington Post has reported that Nicaragua has authorized the entry of Russian troops, planes, and ships into its territory for the purpose of training and law enforcement and emergency response.

00:25:41.000 Russia being in the region seems to be the freaking emergency. 0.96

00:25:45.000 You might also remember that President Ortega of Nicaragua spent days as the president of the Marxist Sandinista Junta of the National Reconstruction.

00:25:56.000 But that's not all.

00:25:58.000 Venezuela just signed a 20-year cooperation plan with Iran.

00:26:03.000 The plan includes oil cooperation, petrochemicals, defense, agriculture, tourism, and culture.

00:26:10.000 It even includes the repair of Venezuelan refineries.

00:26:15.000 It seems that our sanctions have actually driven Venezuela right into the hands of our enemies.

00:26:22.000 Do we even have a long-term plan here?

00:26:25.000 Surely strengthening the bonds between our enemies was not, like, top of the list for foreign policy objectives, but it's exactly what we have allowed to have happen in Nicaragua and Venezuela.

00:26:34.000 And the big winners are Russia and Iran!

00:26:38.000 Well, we gotta spend $40 billion in Ukraine to counter Russia.

00:26:44.000 There's more.

00:26:45.000 Reuters has published a great piece about China's domination of South America.

00:26:50.000 Under President Biden's watch, and with the exception of Mexico, our largest trading partner, China has overtaken the United States in Latin America, and the gap is widening every day.

00:27:02.000 Proust's former ambassador to China, Juan Carlos Cupanye, has admitted to Reuters that China is, quote, the most important commercial, economic, and technological partner with Latin America.

00:27:14.000 With economic dependency comes political reliance and domination.

00:27:20.000 Chinese investment through its Belt and Road Initiative has exposed the endgame for China.

00:27:26.000 Through trade and investment capital and infrastructure projects, China will expand until entire continents are under its control. 0.96

00:27:36.000 And while the United States piddles around in Somalia and Ukraine, China is setting the stage for the creation of puppet regimes just a few hours from our southern border, a short boat ride away in Venezuela's case. 0.65

00:27:52.000 A serious nation would confront the bears and dragons at our doorstep.

00:27:59.000 Instead, Joe Biden would have America treed by the world's chihuahuas.

00:28:07.000 The United States now more than ever desperately needs a new foreign policy aimed at securing our interests at home and protecting our neighbors and allies from Chinese expansionism. 0.96

00:28:19.000 This is our neck of the woods, and we can't afford to tolerate another Cold War in South America.

00:28:25.000 Sometimes modern problems require tested and tried solutions.

00:28:30.000 If we want to win the future, we need a new Monroe Doctrine.

00:28:34.000 It's time to get serious before it's too late.

00:28:37.000 It's time to protect our geopolitical home court.

00:28:41.000 That would be a responsible behavior from a real superpower.

00:28:47.000 But no, instead, on Capitol Hill, we're not focused on combating Russia and China and the Western Hemisphere. 0.55

00:28:53.000 We've got the January 6th hearings going on.

00:28:56.000 And let me just provide context here.

00:28:58.000 I don't watch all these hearings.

00:28:59.000 I don't think you should watch all these hearings.

00:29:02.000 They are largely contrived performances.

00:29:05.000 And so I'm not going to break down every allegation made.

00:29:09.000 I think that's what the left and their Republican puppets want.

00:29:13.000 I think they want all of us so focused on, you know, tweezing through their lies and distortions in these hearings that we're not out there actually talking about the real things going on that can impact American quality of life.

00:29:26.000 So in these J6 hearings, there are all these performances.

00:29:29.000 And one thing that just caught me They are engaged in a process that would never be allowed in a court of law.

00:29:38.000 It's like hearsay on hearsay.

00:29:40.000 And nothing demonstrates that more than when they have hired staff out there performing the narrative of the committee.

00:29:48.000 Take a listen.

00:29:52.000 My name is Marcus Childress, and I'm an investigative counsel for the select committee to investigate the January 6th attack on the United States Capitol.

00:29:59.000 On December 19th, President Trump tweeted about the January 6th rally and told attendees, be there, we'll be wild.

00:30:07.000 Many of the witnesses that we interviewed were inspired by the president's call and came to D.C. for January 6th.

00:30:15.000 So think about what you're watching there.

00:30:17.000 A hired staff member reading off of a teleprompter, In a committee room, edited by an ABC producer, played on primetime.

00:30:28.000 Did they even hire the investigators because of their investigation skills?

00:30:32.000 Or did they hire these people based on how well they would read a teleprompter and perform?

00:30:38.000 Did you have to try out to be a staffer on the January 6th committee by seeing how good your teleprompter skills were?

00:30:45.000 How good you were on camera retelling other people's stories?

00:30:49.000 So this wasn't direct evidence.

00:30:51.000 And there's a reason why courts don't allow this type of hearsay, because it's unreliable.

00:30:56.000 It necessarily flows through the biases and the lens of the person telling the story, not the person who actually witnessed direct events or can offer specific evidence regarding a specific allegation.

00:31:11.000 So I just was deeply, deeply struck by that and how There's another element of these hearings that just demands a debunking.

00:31:25.000 The obsession with linking Donald Trump to the Proud Boys.

00:31:30.000 Take a listen.

00:31:34.000 We learned that this comment during the presidential debate actually led to an increase in membership from the Proud Boys.

00:31:39.000 Would you say that Proud Boys numbers increased after the stand-back, stand-by comment?

00:31:45.000 Exponentially.

00:31:46.000 I'd say tripled, probably.

00:31:48.000 With the potential for a lot more eventually.

00:31:53.000 So the argument here is that Donald Trump was out there purposefully dog-whistling to the Proud Boys in a presidential debate in order to swell their numbers so that they would have a force that could overtake the Capitol Police and the Capitol and keep Trump in power.

00:32:08.000 Craziness.

00:32:09.000 Like, the predicate for this argument is that Trump somehow had the intent to invoke the Proud Boys by name to help their membership.

00:32:20.000 The problem is, that isn't what happened at all.

00:32:23.000 In fact, it was Chris Wallace in the presidential debate, formerly a famed CNN Plus, who brought up the Proud Boys.

00:32:33.000 I'm not entirely sure Donald Trump knew what the Proud Boys were before this moment where it was brought up by Chris Wallace.

00:32:39.000 Take a listen.

00:32:42.000 Are you willing tonight to condemn white supremacists and militia groups and to say that they need to stand down and not add to the violence in a number of these cities as we saw in Kenosha and as we've seen in Portland?

00:32:57.000 Sure, I'm willing to do that.

00:32:57.000 Are you prepared to specifically...

00:32:58.000 Do it.

00:32:59.000 Well, go ahead, sir.

00:33:00.000 I would say almost everything I see is from the left wing, not from the right wing.

00:33:04.000 So what are you saying?

00:33:06.000 I'm willing to do anything.

00:33:07.000 I want to see peace.

00:33:08.000 Then do it, sir.

00:33:09.000 Say it.

00:33:09.000 Do it.

00:33:10.000 Say it.

00:33:11.000 Do you want to call them?

00:33:12.000 What do you want to call them?

00:33:13.000 Give me a name.

00:33:14.000 Give me a name. 1.00

00:33:14.000 White supremacists and white supremacists. 1.00

00:33:15.000 Who would you like me to condemn? 1.00

00:33:16.000 White supremacists and white supremacists. 0.99

00:33:18.000 Proud boys, stand back and stand by. 0.98

00:33:23.000 So you can clearly see there that Chris Wallace is trying to bait Trump and bait the Proud Boys.

00:33:29.000 And it in fact was Chris Wallace invoking them that likely led to a rise in their membership.

00:33:34.000 Of course, when an organization gets mentioned on a nationally televised, internationally televised presidential debate, They're going to get more attention.

00:33:42.000 More people would take a look at them.

00:33:44.000 But that is not at the feet of Donald Trump as the committee would have you believe.

00:33:49.000 We are broadcasting live out of the United States Capitol Complex.

00:33:53.000 Tim on Facebook says the whole purpose of the January 6th committee is to stop President Trump's 2024 run.

00:34:01.000 A lot of people are talking about that and that very well may be the objective.

00:34:06.000 I think the American people see what's happening with great clarity.

00:34:11.000 We also have some breaking news about Twitter.

00:34:13.000 They hate conservatives.

00:34:15.000 We all know this because of the constant gaslighting that they engage in.

00:34:20.000 So here's some material for your next argument.

00:34:24.000 Look at this screenshot of Twitter employees discussing how they, quote, successfully deplatformed Trump.

00:34:32.000 But banning libs of TikTok may not be in line with their, quote, fiduciary interests.

00:34:39.000 They even admit banning libs of TikTok might erode trust given that users already think that they are irredeemably biased against conservatives.

00:34:49.000 Twitter suffers from the same disease as the federal government.

00:34:53.000 Thousands of people working in the HR wokeism sector.

00:34:57.000 It's a bloated mess.

00:35:00.000 And as we can see, the Twitter employees spend their time conspiring to undermine conservatives, probably because they aren't doing anything else particularly helpful to improve the platform.

00:35:14.000 Idle hands may be the devil's workshop.

00:35:17.000 Nevertheless, this is very telling.

00:35:19.000 Libs of TikTok has become public enemy number one to the left.

00:35:23.000 Why is that?

00:35:24.000 Well, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the account, it reposts videos of leftists saying absurd things on their TikTok accounts.

00:35:32.000 That's right, it reposts videos that the leftists are posting themselves.

00:35:36.000 It's literally a mirror.

00:35:38.000 And the account has gained a million followers.

00:35:42.000 So, to recap, one of the most popular and hated accounts on Twitter just reposts videos of liberals being themselves.

00:35:51.000 And it turns out that simply exposing the insanity of your average leftist may be the most effective strategy at winning the culture war.

00:35:59.000 Don't believe us?

00:36:00.000 We'll just take a look at their content conveniently located for your viewing pleasure at Libs of TikTok.

00:36:07.000 Thanks so much everyone for joining us.

00:36:09.000 We're going to have a lot of reports coming your way this week as the left continues their advance against freedom.

00:36:15.000 We have major reports on our work to protect the Second Amendment, to oppose the gun control that I think too many Republicans are willing to sign up for.

00:36:25.000 So we'll have a lot more on that tomorrow.

00:36:27.000 We'll be kicking off around noon Eastern, 11 o'clock Central.

00:36:31.000 Make sure you subscribe, that you've got your notifications turned on, and that you'll join us soon for more Firebrand.

Firebrand - Matt Gaetz - June 14, 2022

Episode 52 LIVE: Made In America Coups – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript