On this episode of Firebrand, former Congressman and current CEO of the Trump Media Group, Devin Nunes joins us live from 1721 of the House Office Building in Longworth, D.C. to talk about his time on the Intelligence Committee, his views on the deep state, and much more. Firebrand is a production of the Firebrand Podcast, a conservative political podcast produced and hosted by Matt McConaughey and Matt Knost, and produced in partnership with Firebrand Media Group. Firebrand's mission is to empower and empower conservative Americans to speak their minds and speak out against corporate greed, corruption, and other forms of oppression in order to empower, educate, and empower the next generation of Americans. Subscribe to Firebrand today using our podcast s promo code POWER10 for 10% off your first pack! Subscribe on iTunes and leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and other podcasting platforms! Thank you for listening and share the podcast with your fellow patriots! If you like what you hear, share it on your social media, and spread the word to your friends and family about what we're doing, we'll be sure to make sure you're getting the most out of it! Timestamps: 5:00 - What's the biggest external threat to the United States? 6:30 - What is the greatest external threat? 7:40 - What do you think of the Deep State? 8:15 - Who's the most powerful government agency? 9:00 | Who's your biggest enemy? 11:00 12:30 | What's your favorite piece of advice? 13:30 15: What s your biggest superpower? 16:15 | What is your biggest takeaway from the Deep state? 17:40 | What are you're going to be the most important thing you're looking for? 18: What would you want? 19:20 | What s the biggest threat to you're most likely the most dangerous? 21: How do you want to build the most authentic, most influential? 22: What are your biggest challenge? 25:00 +16:40 26:20 - Who do you need to be a better country? 27: What kind of country you re going to get the most effective? 29:20 32:10 35:10 | How do I have a fair chance to win in 2020?
00:01:15.000Matt 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.
00:01:22.000Matt Gaetz right now, he's a problem in the Democratic Party.
00:01:25.000He could cause a lot of hiccups in passing applause.
00:01:28.000So we're going to keep running those stories to get hurt again.
00:01:32.000Stand for the flag and kneel in prayer.
00:01:35.000If you want to build America up and not burn her to the ground, then welcome, my fellow patriots.
00:02:08.000We are simulcast streaming live from 1721 of the House office building in Longworth in Washington D.C. Democrats are scurrying now to get an assault weapons ban together for a vote before Congress recesses for the month of August.
00:02:24.000I'm going to give you the updates on that, the key arguments.
00:02:26.000But we have a very special guest on Firebrand, Congressman Devin Nunes, former Congressman, I should say, now CEO of the Trump Media Group.
00:02:36.000Devin Nunes won the—I don't know if you won or you get awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom during President Trump's tenure.
00:02:43.000He was chairman of the Intelligence Committee.
00:02:45.000He's got a lot to say about what the future of the Internet, digital interactions, social interactions will look like, and he is helping to shape that future.
00:03:09.000Well, you understand the importance of breaking through the fake news.
00:03:14.000And I think it's just terrific that we have these avenues to be able to do it.
00:03:17.000But you've been a big part of building out that ecosystem.
00:03:20.000You've taken on as your mission in life.
00:03:22.000But before we get to truth and big tech and all the work you're doing, you know, you were chairman of the Intelligence Committee at a critical time.
00:03:30.000And you saw information that, you know, no one else gets to see.
00:03:34.000And you were able to make assessments and share viewpoints on things that really informed how Congress viewed challenges That we face here in our country and abroad.
00:03:43.000And so I wanted to ask you just with all of that experience, all that work you've done, what do you view as the greatest external threat to the United States?
00:03:52.000Well, I think it's actually the Department of Justice.
00:03:59.000And I say that sadly, but it's just become, it's impossible not to Bring up now, Matt.
00:04:07.000Through the Russia hoax, dealing with the Department of Justice, dealing with all the intelligence agencies, I think it was You know, we were just at the tip of the iceberg and it's just gotten worse and worse and worse about how weaponized the entire Department of Justice has become along and then using the intelligence agencies to destroy the United States of America.
00:04:28.000And of course, when I say they're weaponized by the left.
00:04:32.000So, you know, your colleagues, I guarantee you, are working hand in glove with the Department of Justice, coordinating with the executive branch.
00:04:39.000And sadly, it's leaked over to the judicial branch of government also, where Almost anything that has to do with a Republican.
00:04:47.000If it comes to a Democrat-appointed federal judge, almost all the time, it's going to be a very political decision, and the Republicans are going to be treated much differently than the Democrats are being treated.
00:05:02.000So, look, I'll tell you, China is clearly the external threat, but we're rotting from within.
00:05:09.000And as you know, it's why I Why I left Congress is because we couldn't even communicate with one another, much less fight on the battle for ideas and have a fair process in whether it be the legislative branch that you and I served together in for so many years.
00:05:27.000And look, I ultimately came onto this early because I was vilified as some type of Russian agent And, you know, nobody in the government stood up, you know, and said that that was BS, right?
00:05:43.000And you really were the clarion voice in the wilderness.
00:05:48.000I remember the days when you first learned that our own government had been weaponized against the Trump campaign.
00:05:55.000And what establishment Washington wanted you to do, probably what a lot of Republicans wanted you to do, was just sit on that information.
00:06:02.000Allow our political system to be attacked Using our own taxpayer dollars and depriving us of our political freedoms of speech and association.
00:06:11.000And you went and told President Trump that there was this intelligence collection going that was targeting his campaign.
00:06:19.000Now that you've had the benefit of hindsight, now that the debate is over about the Russia hoax, that was always fake from the beginning.
00:06:27.000It lacked a predicate to justify the actions that were taken.
00:06:30.000But as you look back at that moment, when you literally went over to the White House and told President Trump the truth, how did you go through that decision?
00:06:40.000What were the factors you weighed knowing that that would make you a pariah with the media and with a lot of establishment Washington?
00:06:47.000Well, look, there's a lot of moving parts here.
00:06:49.000So on one hand, that only had one aspect to do with what we were investigating at the time.
00:06:53.000And, you know, I knew right from the start that the Russia hoax was a hoax because, number one, I was the one who had been sounding the alarm on Russia all through 2014 and 2015 and 2016. So think about this.
00:07:07.000In the spring of 2016, I go out and say that the biggest intelligence failure Since 9-11 by our intelligence agencies, I'm the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, okay, when this happens.
00:07:18.000So the biggest failure is our inability to understand Putin's plans and intentions, and just to take the viewers and listeners back to that time period.
00:07:28.000This is when Putin was just having his way with Obama and Biden and doing anything he wanted.
00:08:05.000I actually had some interviews on CNN. Because think about that timing.
00:08:10.000That was right when Obama, the DOJ were all cooking up and the Clinton campaign were cooking up the Russia hoax.
00:08:17.000And they were activating all sorts of federal assets and campaign assets all working together to launch and invest a fake and phony investigation.
00:08:26.000And I think had it not been, For me actually saying that at that time, not knowing any of the Russia hoax that was going on, you know, it's clear when I actually called BS on this, they would have targeted me.
00:08:39.000But they couldn't because I was, you know, I had too much in writing.
00:08:41.000I had been too critical to the intelligence agencies.
00:08:44.000I think they really didn't want to touch it.
00:08:46.000I think when I say that, I think because I do think there were a time when even Trump appointed officials were playing games with me during that time.
00:08:55.000And that was only a small sliver because what happened when I went to the White House, that was really about what we knew was illegal.
00:09:03.000And that was, how in the hell did General Flynn's phone calls with the Russian ambassador leak out all across Washington?
00:09:13.000I mean, that's, you know, to me, that was, you know, that was a fire alarm that said, oh, my God, we've just had a major leak.
00:09:19.000And I couldn't figure out why isn't the FBI sending out thousands of agents we just had.
00:09:24.000And then it wasn't shortly after the Flynn leak.
00:09:27.000Then we had the leak of President Trump talking to the Mexican president, President Trump talking to the Australian ambassador.
00:09:34.000So that was just one small issue that I was looking at at that time.
00:09:40.000But they're willing to leak that stuff, Devin, because they actually think that the permanent bureaucratic class, what some people call the deep state, that they ought to run the country and that the people who are elected, they ought to just be actors playing out a script that is designed by them as the central brokers and they ought to just be actors playing out a script that is designed You mentioned something really important I want to pull the thread on.
00:10:03.000You talked about the DOJ, the FBI, and the Clinton campaign together cooking up the Russia hoax.
00:10:09.000Now, I've been very critical of the Durham investigation because Durham seems to cast the FBI and the DOJ as the victim.
00:10:17.000Oh no, it was these people like Michael Sussman, it was the Clinton campaign, lying to us, and we were victimized by those lies, whereas I seem to think that you had them acting in concert, playing different roles in the same conspiracy.
00:10:31.000You had the Clinton campaign working up the political opposition research, the DIRT, and then you had the FBI and the DOJ processing that through authorized leaks so that you would get these These blistering stories in the mainstream media that Trump was a Russian agent, I was Putin's lawyer, you were compromised, all this stuff that was nonsense, but it was part and parcel with an FBI-DOJ strategy.
00:10:54.000Do you think that Durham has been sincere in his prosecution, or is the entire Durham endeavor just something to absolve the FBI and the DOJ of their actions?
00:11:07.000Well, look, I've been very supportive of Durham, and here's why.
00:11:11.000I'm really just going off of kind of instinct and my experience dealing with all these characters.
00:11:18.000And that is that this is the first investigation since even before I came to Washington, paying attention to politics, where there hasn't been one leak.
00:11:27.000And I've always thought that that is very professional.
00:11:30.000And if you look at the things that he's brought out and brought to light, he clearly knows what happened.
00:11:37.000We may not know until the Durham investigation.
00:11:41.000We have a trial coming up with Danchenko, the author, or the guy who's supposedly the Russian agent that supplied the dossier information to Christopher Steele, which then, of course, made it to the papers.
00:11:53.000And the guy was just a tank tank guy living outside of Washington, D.C. This is just my gut, Matt.
00:12:04.000I believe that Durham thought that Sussman would cooperate.
00:12:08.000And, you know, Sussman probably didn't want to end up at the bottom of the Potomac.
00:12:13.000So he rolled the dice and said, well, I think, you know, we're going to go for it.
00:12:18.000We'll get a jury that's 95 percent Trump haters and we'll roll the dice and see if we can get this done.
00:12:24.000And I'm sure if not, he probably would have been pardoned by Biden, you know, had he been prosecuted.
00:12:29.000But I think Durham probably went Thinking that, okay, Sussman's the guy.
00:12:50.000You know, we opened up with, you know, what do I think the biggest problem in the U.S. is?
00:12:55.000You asked external, but I really think it's really internal.
00:12:58.000And that is that it's a sad state of affairs.
00:13:01.000I guarantee you, had you or I been prosecuted in Washington DC for exactly the same thing, The jury would have deliberated, Matt, for about just long enough to sign whatever documentation they would have to sign.
00:13:15.000We could be convicted of abducting the Lindbergh baby.
00:13:19.000We could be convicted of killing Jimmy Hoffa inside of Washington, D.C., and everybody knows it, and that is part of the parlance.
00:13:28.000That is part of the game that the DOJ plays in order to be the enforcement wing of the Democratic Party.
00:13:34.000It is likely that Republicans will take control of the Congress and Following the midterm elections, I believe that Nancy Pelosi will step aside as leader, and I am already watching your former colleague, my current colleague, Adam Schiff, campaign among the Democrats to lead their caucus.
00:13:51.000He certainly wants to be the lead on the Intelligence Committee if that doesn't work out for him.
00:13:56.000How would you deal with Adam Schiff if you were the Republican leader, the Republican speaker?
00:14:01.000Would you allow him to serve on committees?
00:14:03.000And how much of a threat is Adam Schiff to the country?
00:14:07.000Well, the thing that I'm thinking of, Matt, right off the top of my head is that how could they possibly elect...
00:14:17.000At least what I know of, a straight white Jewish guy as their leader.
00:14:24.000I mean, I think part of their doctrine is all the CRT, critical race theory, BLM. Listen, I think that for the power and the ambition, Adam Schiff might transition.
00:14:46.000Some have said he shouldn't be allowed to serve on the Intelligence Committee, given the damage that he did to that committee in politicizing it, in lying, in mischaracterizing intelligence.
00:14:56.000If you were the Republican leader, would you allow Adam Schiff on the Intelligence Committee?
00:15:00.000And I think there's several of those guys that don't belong on there.
00:15:04.000But I think there's a bigger challenge that you guys are going to have.
00:15:08.000And that is that I don't know how you guys can conduct, you and I say the Republicans, would be able to conduct the type of investigation that has to happen Under the current kind of confines of the typical committees,
00:15:27.000Intelligence Committee, Judiciary Committee, we had enough challenges with that over the years with probably one of the only real successful congressional investigations in modern history was the one that I ran, that you participated in.
00:15:41.000I think the type of investigating that has to occur here, you have to look at the Congress in the House, we'll have to look at All this crap that probably started in 2015 from the Russia hoax, to the Ukraine hoax, to the Hunter Biden laptop, to the coordination with the big tech companies, to what happened on January 6th, what happened in Michigan, The entire Department of Justice has to be completely turned upside down and looked into.
00:16:10.000And you guys are going to have to figure out a way on how to conduct that information.
00:16:15.000Does that way mean excluding Democrats from committees?
00:16:19.000Does that way mean the Republican leader appointing the Democrats to the committees?
00:16:23.000What is the tactical move you suggest so that we're able to endeavor on the important work you've called?
00:16:33.000Look, it needs to, at a minimum, be a special committee, I think.
00:16:36.000And now that Pelosi has created unprecedented, in our nearly 250-year history, of deciding what minority members can and cannot serve on a committee.
00:17:27.000Because as you know, with the propaganda machine that they have, they will just turn, Matt, I mean, you know, They can say, I've never seen people so soulless They'll look outside.
00:17:38.000I don't know if it's raining or hot or muggy or what it is in Washington, D.C. right now.
00:17:45.000But they will look outside the window at high noon and they will say, my God, it's the middle of the night.
00:17:53.000And then the news media will say, yes, it's definitely the middle of the night.
00:17:55.000And Matt Gaetz says, well, no, I see the sun out my window.
00:18:08.000So I think, seriously though, you guys are going to have to look at some type of special commission of some kind that basically takes what Pelosi did with the corruption side of it, but actually turn it on its head and do real work.
00:18:30.000And you have to dissect the DOJ, all the intelligence agencies.
00:18:34.000You're gonna have the problems with Merrick Garland and whoever's running that shop over there.
00:18:39.000I mean, the fact that none of us like that, and I've said this from the beginning with Jan 6, Matt, I want the people who broke the windows to be prosecuted.
00:18:49.000I want the people that broke into the Senate chamber to be prosecuted.
00:18:53.000I want the people that planted the pipe bombs to be prosecuted.
00:18:57.000I still don't know who the hell those people are, other than the Viking dude that wasn't even a Republican that got in there that day.
00:19:08.000They're prosecuting people that didn't even enter the Capitol.
00:19:13.000They're redefining laws, terrorism laws and other laws.
00:19:19.000We're in the middle of a dark chapter of American history that started in 15 and 16 with the Russia hoax, and it's continued all the way.
00:19:28.000Look, I just want to know, now that I'm sitting outside and not a member of Congress, and you, since I'm part-time in Florida now, Matt, you're in my congressional delegation, I just want to know who the hell Ray Epps is.
00:19:50.000The undeniable headline of this discussion is Devin Nunes, Presidential Medal of Freedom winner and former Intelligence Chairman, says the Republicans have to turn DOJ on their head and dissect them when we take power and that we're going to have to use Some of the tools that we've seen on display that the Democrats have used, we have to have that in our toolkit, and we have to assemble a way to do it.
00:20:12.000Now, to get the truth out, you know better than just about anyone in the world the headwinds we face from big government, big media, and big tech.
00:20:21.000And so you left Congress to go and endeavor to make the Internet A free, open place for people to exchange ideas without some Woketopian in Silicon Valley shadow banning or muting or just limiting the delivery of data.
00:20:38.000What is the Devin Nunes vision for the future of the internet and social and digital interactions there?
00:20:44.000Yeah, so I left Congress for one reason, one reason only.
00:20:48.000And I knew a lot about the shadow ban.
00:20:50.000I was one of the first guys to be shadow banned by these big tech companies.
00:20:55.000I was the first guy to go on to Rumble.
00:20:58.000And, you know, I watched that and kind of what really was the turning point for me was when in 2020, I saw polls that still showed that over half of America believed that Trump and Republicans had something to do with Russia.
00:21:16.000And I said, how the hell is that possible?
00:21:21.000And of course, you know, we saw the Hunter Biden laptop story that was completely buried.
00:22:25.000I had told people that this was the most important issue at the highest level, which is our inability to even communicate with one another.
00:22:35.000It's basic warfare, whether you're fighting a kinetic war or a propaganda war like we're in right now.
00:22:42.000If you can't communicate with one another, you're dead and you die.
00:22:48.000And if truth wasn't there, I will tell you, the world would be a very, very dark place.
00:22:55.000We have millions of Americans now on the platform.
00:22:57.000We now just opened up in the UK, and we've only been out.
00:23:09.000You can go to truesocial.com and get an account even if you have an Android.
00:23:13.000And folks can follow you at Devin Nunes on Truth.
00:23:16.000They can follow me at rep Matt Gates on Truth.
00:23:19.000And I've really enjoyed the experience.
00:23:22.000A lot of folks that I follow and I want to see what they're reading and talking about and thinking about.
00:23:28.000One thing I've really appreciated about Truth is that if you link to external research, your post isn't discriminated against.
00:23:35.000Like on Twitter, they discriminate against any post that doesn't keep people totally glued and addicted to their platform.
00:23:42.000And I think Truth is more of a jumping off point to being able to look at the clips you want to look at for that day or read the articles you want for that day.
00:23:53.000If someone's not on Truth right now, what are they missing, Devin?
00:23:57.000Look, we're the only place that doesn't censor for political purposes, and we can't be canceled, right?
00:24:03.000So we're operating on the rumble cloud.
00:24:06.000A lot of people compare us to Twitter, but I don't care about Twitter.
00:25:32.000We're always going to have that timeline that's just going to be a timeline that you'll be able to go to that's in real time.
00:25:38.000And then there's other features, like I don't know if you've seen the new feature build out that we launched three weeks ago, Matt, but now we have a scroll at the top where you can actually go in and the people that you follow and interact with the most, they pop up on there.
00:26:43.000You know, there's no way for, you know, we don't have enough money or time in the world to go develop a whole new phone system, operating system.
00:26:50.000And so those two companies have, you know, essentially the entire market.
00:26:55.000So look, the answer is they could approve us Today, if they wanted to.
00:27:01.000We've got a lot of our Rumble listeners talking about how much they enjoy truth.
00:27:30.000And I think it's also dangerous as to, in the long run, the types of algorithms that they can put into there that can actually begin to poison our young people.
00:27:39.000And that's what I'm really worried about.
00:28:02.000And you can imagine, we don't let them be on TikTok, but you can imagine that what's happening to children and how they're being poisoned.
00:28:07.000So it's not just the data, it's really the data that then you can take AI, build algorithms to then carry messages.
00:28:17.000I mean, imagine the damage, if the Chinese really wanted to, that they could inflict on this country by just inundating our young people.
00:28:24.000And they probably are already doing it.
00:28:26.000And look, maybe it's just such a sewer pit, the Chinese don't have to do anything anyway.
00:28:30.000But in the long run, it's a real problem.
00:28:33.000I worry about giving the Chinese Communist Party an intelligence collection vector into every American home, into the life of every American family.
00:28:43.000And I think the American people need to realize what a threat TikTok is.
00:28:47.000Truth Social is a great alternative, a great way to interact with folks.
00:28:51.000Congressman Devin Nunes is the CEO, Presidential Medal of Freedom winner, and the former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
00:28:59.000Devin, thank you so much for joining me here on Firebrand, and we wish you the best of luck in your endeavors.
00:29:06.000I don't know if you know this, but just because it fits the work you do, and you should talk about this, but John Rich, country star, music star.
00:29:29.000So to all the Rumble listeners that are listening now, thank you for the support.
00:29:33.000I think it just goes to show you, even though we're really on our infancy, we really haven't even fully launched, and yet we have carried, we are beating the left at their own game.
00:29:47.000But the fact that that song got banned and isn't being played by anyone, and Matt, I don't know if you've heard the song, but it's not like it's a Joe Biden sucks and Trump is great and Republicans are the best.
00:30:40.000We are here live in the Longworth office building, and right now I want to give everyone a key update regarding what's happening on the House floor.
00:30:49.000We've got H.R. 1808, the assault weapons ban of 2022. Now, this is legislation that was up in the House Judiciary Committee, and one of the things I found most offensive about this assault weapons ban, other than the abject attack on our Constitution that it clearly is, They exempt government federal bureaucrats.
00:31:11.000Now, I guess you could understand the FBI are entities that have real law enforcement needs and capabilities, but this bill preserves assault weapons, weapons of war as the Democrats call them, for the Department of Education, for the IRS, for the Department of Agriculture.
00:31:33.000And it shows that they're actually not really against firearms.
00:31:38.000And a lot of Democrats don't understand the principal value of the Second Amendment to curate a balance between the government and free people that nurtures liberty and that does not allow tyranny.
00:31:51.000And so before the August recess, they're trying to get this bill to the floor.
00:31:56.000We've got folks battling it out to try to get at least some amendments to Into the debate and discussion so that we can show the American people that this version of the Democratic Party is a gun-grabbing party, a freedom-squelching party.
00:32:11.000I had a debate on this subject in the House Judiciary Committee recently.
00:32:33.000They're listing them out in this extensive legislation to try to show people precisely what they ought to be afraid of.
00:32:42.000And there's nothing to fear from Americans who are lawfully and responsibly using firearms.
00:32:51.000Punishing law-abiding gun owners, that is the Democrat agenda today, and we are fighting against it in committee, on the floor, certainly with the vote that we can cast on behalf of the great people of Florida's first congressional district.
00:33:03.000Now, you heard Devin Nunes recently talk about the need to really dissect the corruption that we see in the deep state.
00:33:12.000And he would know, as the former chairman of the Intelligence Committee, Just yesterday, we had the head of the National Security Division of the Department of Justice before the Judiciary Committee.
00:33:23.000I had a series of very thorough questions.
00:33:32.000You won't tell me whether or not our own government was out there trying to operate through a cutout to buy software that spies on Americans illegally and improperly.
00:33:42.000You won't tell me whether or not the legal wing of the Democratic Party was passing you information that was actually opposition research then to be recategorized and repackaged It's national security information, and you won't tell me whether the President of the United States is compromised when we know he's lying.
00:33:59.000I mean, like Joe Biden came out and said repeatedly that he never talked to Hunter Biden about business, and here you have 14 documented meetings.
00:34:08.000It's like, are you guys ever going to investigate this, or is it just going to be what Mr. Tebalt said, what Mr. Grassley said?
00:34:15.000And that is that you guys are basically political shills.
00:34:18.000I mean, look, this is what Mr. Grassley said.
00:34:20.000If these allegations are true and accurate, the Justice Department and FBI are and have been institutionally corrupted to their very core, to the point at which the United States Congress and the American people will have no confidence in the equal application of the law.
00:34:33.000Can't you see that's what your behavior is continuing to just metastasize?
00:34:39.000So we don't conduct our investigations in public.
00:34:57.000And you're just choosing not to investigate it because it's the Bidens.
00:35:02.000We are going to have a lot more information on the podcast in the coming weeks regarding the oversight work that has to happen from the United States Congress and the information we've already pieced together regarding the Biden trips, Joe Biden taking Hunter to China.
00:35:18.000And then lo and behold, one of Hunter's companies gets a Chinese license that had been toiling to get and had been unsuccessful for quite some time.
00:35:47.000The Biden administration has dismantled Trump's China initiative to focus prosecutorial efforts against Chinese influence peddling, against Chinese espionage in the United States of America.
00:36:01.000President Trump knew that we had to have very, very tough policies to stop the Chinese from compromising our politicians and hollowing out our country for their benefit.