Firebrand - Matt Gaetz - Episode 92 LIVE: Trump Trials – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz

Ron DeSantis takes a shot at President Trump and calls him a crook for taking a jibe at him at a press conference, and Donald Trump Jr. criticizes him for it. Also, a new FBI headquarters is being built in Washington, D.C., and Joe Biden is facing charges related to an accusation he allegedly conspired to obstruct justice in the Joe Biden v. Joe Biden case. And, of course, we get to the latest on the Trump trial. Firebrand is a conservative political podcast produced by Firebrand Nation and Firebrand Media. Please remember to Like and Subscribe to stay up to date with what's going on in the world of politics, entertainment, and culture! The opinions expressed here are our own, not those of our companies, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of our corporate and financial institutions. If you like what you hear here, please consider becoming a supporter of one of our sponsors. We make sure to rate, review, and subscribe to our other shows on Apple Podcasts, and leave us your thoughts and thoughts on the topics covered in the comments section below. Thank you for listening and supporting the show! Tweet me if you have any thoughts, suggestions, suggestions or suggestions on what we should cover in the future episodes. Timestamps: 1:00:00 - Matt Gaetz 2:30 - What's up with this episode? 3:40 - What do you would you like to see more of this? 4: 5:15 - What are your thoughts on a future episode of Firebrand? 6:20 - How do you're going to do in 2020? 7: What are you looking for? 8:00 9: What's the best way to get rich? 10: What would you want me to do? 11: What do I get rich if you don't get rich, what are you getting rich if I'm not getting rich, or do you don t get it? 13:30 15:00 -- How much money? 16: How much do you get rich enough? 17: What kind of money should I get? 18: What s a good deal? 19:30 -- what would you pay me? 21:40 -- what do you want to run? 22:40 22 :00 -- Is it possible to run for President Trump? 25:00 Is it a good day?

00:00:00.000 Thank you.

00:04:33.000 We'll be right back.

00:04:46.000 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.

00:04:53.000 Matt Gaetz right now, he's a problem for the Democratic Party.

00:04:56.000 He could cause a lot of hiccups in passing applause.

00:04:59.000 So we're going to keep running those stories to keep hurting him.

00:05:03.000 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!

00:05:12.000 You are in the right place!

00:05:13.000 This is the movement for you!

00:05:15.000 You ever watch this guy on television?

00:05:17.000 It's like a machine.

00:05:19.000 Matt Gaetz.

00:05:20.000 I'm a canceled man in some corners of the internet.

00:05:23.000 Many days I'm a marked man in Congress, a wanted man by the deep state.

00:05:28.000 They aren't really coming for me.

00:05:30.000 They're coming for you.

00:05:32.000 I'm just in the way.

00:05:38.000 Okay, we might not see a court proceeding until we are nearer and nearer to the 2024 GOP presidential race.

00:05:44.000 I know you're a fan of both former President Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

00:05:48.000 And though he's not officially said that he's running, there has been a lot of comparisons to the two men.

00:05:54.000 He's now catching flack from Trump backers for seemingly taking a jab at Mr. Trump and all of the details surrounding this, some could say lurid case.

00:06:04.000 What are your thoughts on that?

00:06:06.000 Well, if I were governor of Florida, I would not allow any Floridian to be hauled before some Soros-backed prosecutor in some blue city over politics.

00:06:17.000 And I wouldn't make an exception to not protect the President of the United States.

00:06:21.000 Ron DeSantis should be standing in the breach to stop any sort of extradition of President Trump From the state of Florida, and the fact that he's not doing so puts every Floridian at risk who could be the subject of a false allegation.

00:06:34.000 I know Ron DeSantis well, he's a friend, but he hasn't been the target of false and persistent allegations like President Trump has, and so I don't think he really understands the nature of this fight right now.

00:06:46.000 I think that it was a bit uncouth for him to take a jab at the former president.

00:06:51.000 And there's a role for the governor of Florida here, I think, to stand up for our state, for the rule of law, and to push back against the sorosization of the criminal justice system.

00:07:04.000 Welcome back to Firebrand.

00:07:06.000 We are live.

00:07:07.000 The Soros-ization of our criminal justice system is real.

00:07:11.000 I'm going to get to what's going on with the new FBI headquarters that Nancy Pelosi has planned.

00:07:17.000 We ought to block that as it relates to Washington, D.C. Big news regarding the accuser of Joe Biden and some of his activities when he was in the United States Senate.

00:07:28.000 And, of course, we're going to get to the Trump trials.

00:07:30.000 That was Governor Ron DeSantis' opening salvo, I guess, of attacks, taking a jab at the former president.

00:07:37.000 And I think the governor could do a whole lot of positive work here for the people of Florida if he were to make it very clear that he is going to utilize his authority to make it very difficult for Alvin Bragg to Soros eyes Florida and our citizens and our residents.

00:07:55.000 Thank you to everyone who's joining us today.

00:07:58.000 We've got one of the more international audiences we've ever had, folks from American Samoa, Australia, Ireland, and then, of course, North Carolina, Texas.

00:08:07.000 West Virginia, Ohio, New York, Kansas, here at home.

00:08:13.000 The DeSantis thing is uncomfortable.

00:08:16.000 It's weird.

00:08:17.000 I know there are a lot of conservatives who look to Ron DeSantis as someone who's built out a legacy and a platform in Florida about how conservative governance can work.

00:08:28.000 For people, but at the same time, this jab at former President Trump, I think, has people wondering whether or not there are other forces influencing the governor's behavior as the chief executive of our state and as a political operator.

00:08:44.000 And there was sharp criticism from Donald Trump Jr. on his Rumble show, Triggered.

00:08:51.000 Take a listen.

00:08:54.000 I genuinely had hoped, because I want there to be a strong Republican bench for the future, okay?

00:09:01.000 But I also understand how this works, right?

00:09:04.000 People push other people to run.

00:09:06.000 The consultant class does that, because guess what?

00:09:10.000 They only get paid if you run, because they take a piece of the ad buy, and the commercial buy, and the this buy, and the that buy, and a piece of the fundraising dollars, and they all get rich.

00:09:19.000 But they don't get rich if you don't run.

00:09:24.000 DeSantis' week-long silence, while even rhino never-Trumpers, people who hate Trump, even leftists, stepped up, was him waiting to perhaps make a big statement at his already scheduled press conference.

00:09:41.000 But I was wrong.

00:09:44.000 DeSantis thinks that Democrats weaponizing the law to indict Trump is a, quote, manufactured crisis?

00:09:52.000 It isn't a real issue?

00:09:54.000 Seriously?

00:09:55.000 Has he been watching anything?

00:09:58.000 To me, as I tweeted, it's pure weakness.

00:10:02.000 Now we know, while he was silent all weekend, and totally owned by Paul Ryan and Karl Rove and his donors, That's what it is, guys.

00:10:14.000 He's owned by the billionaire donors.

00:10:17.000 100% controlled opposition.

00:10:19.000 Let's see which way the wind is blowing.

00:10:22.000 Let's see which way they want me to respond, and I will do it.

00:10:25.000 So I was hoping for a strong response, but we got a milquetoast response.

00:10:32.000 And to those who are wondering what the basis is in law for DeSantis to be able to push back, I would cite Chapter 941 Florida Statutes.

00:10:42.000 This is the Extradition Act, and it requires the governor to essentially certify that another state is making an actual allegation of an actual crime here in We have seen Alvin Bragg, the Soros-backed Manhattan district attorney, really convert, through a tortured legal analysis, a misdemeanor into a felony.

00:11:04.000 And so here we have this low-achieving, counterproductive Manhattan DA deciding to charge former President Trump.

00:11:12.000 And the misdemeanor would have had a two-year statute of limitations.

00:11:17.000 but he's elevating it to a felony now to extend that statute of limitations.

00:11:23.000 And there are a lot of people who believe that this would have been long ago forgotten if Donald Trump wasn't a candidate for the presidency again.

00:11:31.000 And that is one of the things that makes this exercise so dangerous.

00:11:34.000 In the rest of the world, America will lose credibility if it looks like our leaders just arrest their predecessors, their future potential rivals.

00:11:46.000 And in this case, they are one in the same.

00:11:48.000 There's a reason America has never gone down this road before.

00:11:52.000 And it is not only dangerous within our country, but it is dangerous to America's standing in the world to pursue this.

00:12:00.000 Alvin Bragg in this case has created a novel untested legal theory that even most liberal attorneys would agree is nonsense.

00:12:08.000 When President Trump is charged, I believe this indictment will be subject to an immediate motion to dismiss as a matter of law.

00:12:17.000 So it's very hard to get indictments dismissed before evidence is introduced, but if you take the position that every fact laid out in the indictment is true but as a matter of law a charge would not stand, That would give the defense attorneys the opportunity to file that motion.

00:12:34.000 And in this case, I believe it should be well received by the courts.

00:12:38.000 Now, no American would ever face this charge if they were not President Trump.

00:12:45.000 That is why it is such an abuse, a weaponization of the criminal justice system.

00:12:50.000 Apparently Alvin Bragg thinks that he can elevate the charge of falsifying business records to a felony because there may be some connection to campaign finance laws.

00:12:59.000 Now keep in mind The Department of Justice rarely, if ever, prosecutes these types of matters, even if there's a technical violation of federal criminal law.

00:13:08.000 And the DOJ, where Trump has very few allies and friends, explicitly declined any sort of criminal process against Trump on the very same facts.

00:13:20.000 Alvin Bragg did not go out and develop some new set of facts to be able to go after Trump.

00:13:25.000 To the contrary, you've got a circumstance here where The case was largely disregarded by DOJ, and now it's being revived as the consequence of an upcoming presidential political contest.

00:13:39.000 And it's a political hit job done by a Soros DA. While campaigning on a platform to prosecute Trump explicitly and bragging the entire time about how he had sued Trump more than 100 times while working in the New York Attorney General's office, Alvin bragged, He managed to attract the attention of a big donor.

00:14:00.000 Over $1 million in Soros money helped elect Alvin Bragg.

00:14:06.000 Over $1 million.

00:14:08.000 He may be the most notorious of the so-called Soros DAs, and there's a network of them.

00:14:15.000 We've been hearing about it all over the country.

00:14:18.000 We even have some in Florida.

00:14:19.000 They do things like refuse to prosecute violent crime while engaging in political targeting of conservatives.

00:14:28.000 George Soros has spent over $40 million to elect 75 left-wing prosecutors over the last decade.

00:14:38.000 Think about that.

00:14:40.000 One in five Americans lives in an area controlled by the Soros prosecutorial tentacles.

00:14:49.000 Soros has funded the campaigns of prosecutors in Seattle, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. How's life going there with rising crime?

00:14:58.000 But we've even seen it in the Virginia suburbs, counties in Mississippi and Wisconsin, Texas, Pennsylvania, Florida, Illinois.

00:15:07.000 Too many to list.

00:15:10.000 Now, it's hard to imagine that there's even a state out there who's escaped the reach of George Soros.

00:15:15.000 Almost every major city in the United States has some connection between the criminal justice decisions made there and the local DA. There's a part of it that makes you almost admire Soros' efficient quest for power.

00:15:31.000 Because while you see tens of millions of dollars spent on one U.S. Senate rate, sometimes tens of millions of dollars spent on one seat in the United States Congress, we can't throw anybody in jail.

00:15:43.000 The people who can decide whether to prosecute or not prosecute, whether to put the dangerous back into our communities, whether to go after political rivals, those people now have, as a principal benefactor in many cases and in many large cities, George Soros.

00:16:01.000 Unbelievable.

00:16:02.000 You'll recognize names such as George Gascon in Los Angeles, Larry Krasner in Philadelphia, Kim Fox in Chicago.

00:16:11.000 Even in Florida, Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren, whom DeSantis removed from office for intentionally abandoning his duties to enforce Florida law, has this Soros connection.

00:16:23.000 Wow, isn't that something?

00:16:24.000 Governor DeSantis was able to use his authority properly, I would argue, in the Andrew Warren matter, In the Trump matter, a little different.

00:16:35.000 Now, Alvin Bragg has reduced the categorization of felonies in Manhattan by 52%.

00:16:44.000 So in 52% of cases where there's an original charge of a felony, it gets reduced to a misdemeanor or an original arrest for a felony.

00:16:52.000 Over half the time, if you get charged with a felony in the Alvin Bragg jurisdiction, you're looking at a downward departure.

00:17:00.000 And under that rule, With reduced penalties, we've seen more armed robberies.

00:17:07.000 We've seen a decision to no longer even prosecute resisting arrest.

00:17:12.000 So think about that.

00:17:13.000 If you're in Manhattan and you resist arrest from a police officer, you're not even going to get prosecuted for that, yet they want to go prosecute Trump for a non-disclosure payment seven years ago.

00:17:24.000 Alvin Bragg has virtually refused to enforce any criminal penalties for shoplifting at all.

00:17:31.000 You want to know why you get so much street crime, so many businesses leaving New York, so many people feeling unsafe when walking around the streets?

00:17:39.000 It's because there's really no enforcement or no penalties for shoplifting, and it degrades quality of life for people.

00:17:45.000 Donald Trump making a nondisclosure payment didn't degrade anyone's quality of life in Manhattan.

00:17:52.000 We've also seen Alvin Bragg join a lot of the other Soros DAs in vowing to eliminate pretrial detention in almost every case.

00:18:02.000 So if you rob someone at gunpoint, you can check into the police station and check out the same day.

00:18:10.000 That totally drains any deterrent value out of a system of arrest and prosecution and corrections.

00:18:19.000 Some violent criminals, such as assault and robbery, have increased 22% since Alvin Bragg took office.

00:18:26.000 So whether or not you get the message, the criminals have gotten the message.

00:18:31.000 And his soft on crime policy has led to an explosion of violent crime, anarchy across New York City.

00:18:38.000 Pharmacies, supermarkets, bodegas are having to lock their merchandise during business hours.

00:18:44.000 But it hasn't been enough to keep citizens safe.

00:18:48.000 Recently, Alvin Bragg went after a bodega owner, Jose Alba, for defending himself against a violent attacker who came behind the counter of his store and attempted to beat him to death.

00:19:00.000 Jose managed to grab a knife and fend off the attacker, but Alvin Bragg decided to send him, the victim, to Rikers Island.

00:19:09.000 I guess Alvin Bragg would rather have people die defending themselves from violent criminals.

00:19:16.000 The very criminals that he refuses to lock up while he engages in a political persecution of President Trump.

00:19:22.000 We got some new Reuters polling showing over half the country sees this as a political prosecution of Trump.

00:19:29.000 That's something hard to get folks agreeing like that on just about anything these days.

00:19:34.000 But even people who don't like Trump and disagree with Trump see that this is a political prosecution.

00:19:40.000 Things are so bad in New York City that when career criminal William Rolland was arrested for threatening a store worker with a knife, he received only a misdemeanor charge from Alvin Bragg.

00:19:52.000 The judge was so appalled at this downward departure, he said that the defendant in the case should feel lucky because of Alvin Bragg's new policies.

00:20:05.000 Alvin Bragg clearly isn't interested in enforcing the law, except when it is the select enforcement of the law.

00:20:13.000 Refusing to charge felonies and then elevating a misdemeanor to a felony speaks for itself, and it is no mystery what is going on here.

00:20:21.000 My colleague on the Judiciary Committee and Select Subcommittee on the Web of Government, Jim Jordan, just co-authored a letter to Alvin Bragg demanding that he produce all communications between his office and the DOJ that refer to Donald Trump in any way.

00:20:38.000 And we also want to know how their office is using federal funds, if at all.

00:20:43.000 Jordan also demanded that Alvin Bragg schedule a transcribed interview before March 23rd with the Judiciary Committee, and you better believe I will be there and I will be asking questions.

00:20:54.000 If they want to fight They will get one.

00:20:57.000 But we will follow the facts and the law, unlike Alvin Bragg.

00:21:02.000 Now, Jordan's letter also lays out the problems with this purported case.

00:21:06.000 Apparently, it relies heavily on testimony from Michael Cohen, who clearly has an axe to grind with the former president.

00:21:14.000 It also mentions that this novel legal theory that Bragg relies on was rejected by the DOJ and only seemed to resurface when Trump announced his candidacy for the presidency again.

00:21:25.000 Jim Jordan brings up an interesting point about special counsels as well.

00:21:29.000 I want to delve into this.

00:21:30.000 We may need a legislative fix to the special counsel statute if special counsel behavior has far exceeded the scope of their authority and if the process has run amok.

00:21:41.000 Now, speaking of special counsels, this is not the first time a special counsel has wildly gone beyond their scope.

00:21:50.000 You may remember the Ken Starr report, which was issued by Special Counsel Ken Starr in relation to Bill and Hillary Clinton's financial dealings with the Whitewater Land Company.

00:22:02.000 Does this ring a bell?

00:22:04.000 How about the Monica Lewinsky affair?

00:22:06.000 Because what started out as an investigation into financial dealings and land became an impeachment for perjury, obstruction of justice, witness tampering, and abuse of power.

00:22:18.000 Ken Starr even investigated Bill Clinton over a lawsuit with Paula Jones.

00:22:23.000 Similarly to Trump and Stormy Daniels, Bill Clinton paid almost $900,000 in hush money to Paula Jones.

00:22:32.000 Far less in the Trump matter.

00:22:35.000 I don't recall any local prosecutor going after President Clinton for this.

00:22:40.000 This type of persecution is reserved for conservatives and their voters.

00:22:45.000 In any case, we may be able to get Bill Clinton to agree that the special counsel statute has actually been abused in some cases.

00:22:53.000 And the double standard is outrageous.

00:22:55.000 But speaking out and protesting isn't enough.

00:22:58.000 We need to put a stop to this behavior and send a message to the Alvin Braggs of the world that they're not going to get away with it.

00:23:06.000 Investigating and stopping these double standards is really important for what we do every day on the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, and we need to do our job to hold bad actors accountable and put a stop to this corruption once and for all.

00:23:21.000 And just for a moment, I want to drill down into the federal nexus here, because the principal critique that we've heard of the Jordan letter that I just described is, well, there's not necessarily a federal nexus to Alvin Bragg charging the former president I actually want to know how we went from Robert Mueller and the accusation that somehow Donald Trump was a Russian agent to the review of a non-disclosure agreement.

00:23:50.000 How does one cause the other?

00:23:52.000 Were there federal assets or agents or employees or contractors out there spurring along some state-based prosecution?

00:24:00.000 Is that really what we want federal taxpayers funding?

00:24:05.000 And I recognize Bill Clinton would probably have a beef with this as well.

00:24:08.000 And so maybe there can be some bipartisan agreement that we need to constrain these special counsels and they shouldn't germinate in a five years later state-based prosecution that was abandoned by the federal government anyway.

00:24:23.000 But President Trump might not be the only person answering questions about prior conduct.

00:24:29.000 There is news regarding Tara Reade.

00:24:32.000 Now, as you may remember, Tara Reid is the former Senate staffer of then-Senator Joe Biden, and she made allegations that he violently sexually assaulted her in the Capitol building while she was trying to physically resist him, that he did very terrible things to her.

00:24:49.000 And so she put out a tweet recently that got some attention.

00:24:52.000 Here's the tweet for those listening.

00:24:54.000 So I'm not a former porn star, nor did I receive hush money.

00:24:59.000 I was a Senate staffer for Joe Biden when he sexually assaulted me in 1993.

00:25:03.000 To date no investigation, only media attacks and trolls aimed at me.

00:25:08.000 I ask again to at MT Green and at Matt Gaetz.

00:25:14.000 When will Joe Biden be investigated?

00:25:16.000 Thanks.

00:25:18.000 Congresswoman Greene saw this tweet and she felt as though we ought to get the answers.

00:25:22.000 Now, no person's allegation should ever be taken at face value.

00:25:26.000 There has to be review.

00:25:27.000 There has to be corroboration.

00:25:29.000 I took particular note in this matter that Tara Reade's mom had actually called into Larry King Live to talk about her daughter's experience as a staffer being sexually assaulted by a powerful man.

00:25:42.000 That seemed to be some real-time Acknowledgement that a bad thing had happened here.

00:25:49.000 And so Congresswoman Greene brought this to me.

00:25:53.000 She brought it to the chair of the Oversight Committee, Jamie Comer.

00:25:58.000 And Chairman Comer told Congresswoman Greene that we would be fully authorized to bring in Tara Reid, To take her transcribed interview to get the facts and to understand what really happened with Joe Biden and this allegation of violent sexual assault against an employee, against a staff member.

00:26:20.000 Marjorie Taylor Greene tweets back, To speak with us.

00:26:39.000 We will be in touch very soon.

00:26:41.000 So there you have it.

00:26:42.000 There you have the news.

00:26:44.000 Tara Reid will be coming in to give a transcribed interview.

00:26:47.000 We will get the facts.

00:26:49.000 That is the plan now.

00:26:51.000 Oversight Chairman Jamie Comer has blessed this to Congresswoman Greene directly, and that is why we are endeavoring to follow the facts.

00:26:58.000 Isn't that a good thing?

00:26:59.000 To actually look at the facts, evaluate the evidence, work to corroborate claims that are made, And ultimately attempt to achieve a just result.

00:27:09.000 That is what we ought to do.

00:27:12.000 There is other news that we want to be able to talk about today.

00:27:15.000 This news about the FBI headquarters and the legislation that I have filed.

00:27:19.000 So I've just introduced legislation, the FBI Washington Field Office House Arrest Act.

00:27:27.000 This legislation only needs to be approved by the House.

00:27:29.000 And it says that we should defund the shiny new FBI headquarters in the D.C. area.

00:27:37.000 Now, Democrats funded this monstrosity with a dead hand during the lame duck legislative session of Congress last year.

00:27:44.000 We should never forget that Senate Republicans helped Nancy Pelosi do this.

00:27:50.000 They were right there the whole time and the FBI was the beneficiary. 0.63

00:27:54.000 Disgusting that Senate Republicans went along with it.

00:27:58.000 Now, the previous rules under the Pelosi majority allowed for woke initiatives and programs to To be bootstrapped onto omnibus spending bills which fund other government programs, programs that people support like at the VA and at the Department of Defense pay for our military.

00:28:17.000 Under Pelosi's direction and blessing, the House voted in one of those omnibus bills to allocate $375 million for a new FBI headquarters in the greater Washington, D.C. area.

00:28:33.000 Keep in mind, The FBI employs less than 2.5% of the total manpower compared to the United States military.

00:28:43.000 Yet the FBI, a domestic law enforcement entity, is set to receive a headquarters in the D.C. area larger than the Pentagon.

00:28:53.000 This is insanity.

00:28:55.000 With the FBI and other intelligence agencies under the scrutiny of the Weaponization of Government Subcommittee, I would argue that funding a new FBI headquarters at this moment is on par with the audacity of Congress to send hundreds of billions of dollars to Ukraine while our own country is in crisis.

00:29:15.000 Are we going to build a $375 million FBI complex?

00:29:19.000 Well, you know what?

00:29:19.000 Maybe we should build it in Ukraine.

00:29:21.000 How about that?

00:29:22.000 That can be their next gift from the United States, an FBI building.

00:29:26.000 If my resolution passes with support from the Republican Conference, we will know that we have the votes during the appropriations process to actually claw back the money from this proposed headquarters.

00:29:40.000 It sets the stage for a big fight on appropriations and a clawback that would serve the American people well.

00:29:47.000 There are still good men and women who work at the FBI. They have a task and a purpose to defend our country in many cases.

00:29:54.000 But the FBI's weaponized Washington field office is rotten to the core.

00:30:01.000 Through our investigations in the Weaponization Subcommittee, we have uncovered extremely disturbing testimony from FBI whistleblowers that the Washington Field Office is targeting Americans who oppose their corrupt political agenda.

00:30:16.000 Doesn't happen everywhere.

00:30:17.000 It is unique to Washington and probably New York.

00:30:20.000 The Washington Field Office pressured agents elsewhere in America to cook the books on cases so it looked like there was more domestic violence extremism.

00:30:31.000 They want to create the illusion that everyone is dangerous and extreme when actually we are mostly good people in this country.

00:30:39.000 The Washington field office targeted anyone in Washington, D.C. on January 6th, even when they had no factual predicate or basis to do so.

00:30:49.000 That is a fact.

00:30:51.000 While Republicans are conducting serious investigations, the Democrats, unsurprisingly, are working overtime to derail our work and threaten our whistleblowers into hiding.

00:31:02.000 That's why at the CPAC event in 2023, I called for Democrats to be removed from all future transcribed interviews within the subcommittee.

00:31:12.000 Take a listen to my call for that action.

00:31:16.000 And so it is no longer time to go back to the old, low-energy, Paul Ryan, Trey Gowdy days of fake oversight.

00:31:27.000 These are the Jim Jordan, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz days.

00:31:33.000 And if the Democrats are going to obstruct our investigation, then I am calling to remove the Democrats from our investigation.

00:31:44.000 They shouldn't be allowed to sit in the depositions and hear the evidence if they are going to use that to try to get in the way of thorough, rigorous oversight.

00:31:55.000 And I don't believe that means hearings where we yell at people.

00:31:58.000 I think that means a fundamental reshaping of this government, a reshaping of this town.

00:32:07.000 There is a lot of love on the live stream right now for deauthorizing, defunding a lot of these three-letter agencies that the American people believe have been weaponized against them.

00:32:18.000 And I understand why the American people have that belief.

00:32:21.000 When we have FBI whistleblowers telling us that the Washington field office is a den of snakes, it is not just Peter Strzok and Lisa Page and the Russia hoax gang.

00:32:32.000 There are multiple components in the J. Edgar Hoover building teaming with partisan leftists who are actively undermining the FBI's true mission to solve crimes.

00:32:45.000 The right answer is not to attack or dox whistleblowers like the Democrats did.

00:32:50.000 The right answer is to put a freeze on FBI expansion and to do the hard work of rooting out the bad actors, getting to the bottom of the issue.

00:33:00.000 That is what my legislation does and what my office and the subcommittee are doing every single day.

00:33:06.000 I'd put the FBI on house arrest.

00:33:08.000 I wouldn't build them a new D.C.-based house.

00:33:12.000 Garrett O. Boyle is a whistleblower who inspires me.

00:33:16.000 He is someone I mentioned in my remarks at CPAC. He's an Iraq war veteran who saw firsthand the malfeasance of the Washington field office.

00:33:27.000 After serving in the military, after serving in law enforcement, he went to work for the FBI because he believed that they were the pinnacle of law enforcement in the world.

00:33:39.000 Bottom line is that O'Boyle is one of a number of former FBI agents who have told Congress about how the Washington field office specifically uses bureaucratic tricks and bookkeeping maneuvers to make it look like domestic violence extremism was rising after the 2020 election.

00:33:59.000 He testified that the abuse of this threat label was used as a basis to justify draconian actions against citizens for exercising their First Amendment rights.

00:34:11.000 Americans shouldn't be tagged or treated differently because they support the Second Amendment or because they say build the wall or stop the steal.

00:34:20.000 These aren't things that are criminal or illegal in any way.

00:34:24.000 And if you don't like the speech, the answer isn't to weaponize the government against the people whose views you don't agree with.

00:34:30.000 The answer is to speak back.

00:34:32.000 That is the American way.

00:34:33.000 That is what the First Amendment allows from all of us.

00:34:37.000 But now when people exercise constitutionally protected speech, the government gets turned against them.

00:34:42.000 But it gets worse.

00:34:43.000 O'Boyle told his bosses that what they were doing was not appropriate and they ignored him.

00:34:50.000 After he was ignored by his supervisors, he reported this improper behavior to Congress using special whistleblower protections.

00:34:59.000 The FBI was made aware that O'Boyle was sharing his complaints externally And so they made him move across the country under the guise of recruitment to a different place.

00:35:11.000 And when he arrived, they fired him.

00:35:13.000 They held his family's belongings hostage and they revoked his security clearances, making him unemployable.

00:35:19.000 They kicked this patriot to the curb.

00:35:22.000 If we don't hold them accountable, Christopher Wray and Merrick Garland never will.

00:35:29.000 Many are not good people at the Washington field office.

00:35:32.000 In fact, some might even say that there are some there who are evil.

00:35:36.000 We hear it more and more every day from the disenfranchised patriots at the FBI. We've heard about the Washington field office breaking protocol and demanding that regional field offices gin up cases to target law-abiding gun owners, innocent pro-lifers.

00:35:54.000 We've heard about the waste and fraud and abuse at the Washington field office.

00:35:59.000 We even had an Inspector General report that talked about the ways that the media in Washington and New York wine and dine, Department of Justice, FBI officials, they give concert tickets, baseball tickets, and then they use them to pursue their goals, even if they're contrary to yours, to America's.

00:36:21.000 The cancer at the Washington field office has metastasized so much that the entire body is in critical condition.

00:36:30.000 Gifting the FBI a new headquarters larger than the Pentagon would condone, reinforce, and enable more nefarious behavior.

00:36:39.000 It could get to levels that we've never seen before.

00:36:43.000 It frankly already has when you look at what's occurring.

00:36:46.000 The Republican members of the House of Representatives should join my effort to halt the funding for this pet project approved by Nancy Pelosi in the lame duck session of Congress.

00:36:59.000 We've got a number of Republicans.

00:37:01.000 Tim Burchett just joined the bill today.

00:37:03.000 We've had Corey Mills on the bill.

00:37:05.000 Harriet Hageman from Wyoming's on the bill.

00:37:08.000 Dan Bishop, Dr. Gosar's on the bill.

00:37:10.000 We got some really great members and we're making the case and so let your members of Congress know They need to be on the FBI house arrest bill.

00:37:19.000 A few other things I want to talk about before we head out.

00:37:22.000 Just breaking news now.

00:37:26.000 Has made their deal with Newsmax.

00:37:28.000 Newsmax will be back on MTV March 23rd.

00:37:32.000 That's certainly something we're looking forward to.

00:37:34.000 But hey, DirecTV, don't forget about OAN. One America News, just like Newsmax, was targeted by DirecTV, AT&T because of the content of their work, not because of their viewership.

00:37:47.000 And I believe that is an abuse of market power, whether it happens to Newsmax or One America News.

00:37:53.000 So I welcome...

00:37:54.000 this positive development as it relates to Newsmax, but I hope that it is a sign of momentum to get One America News back on DirecTV as well.

00:38:05.000 I know the viewers would appreciate it.

00:38:07.000 I've heard from a number of constituents about that matter as well.

00:38:11.000 And there's a headline in today's Politico that touches on some of our discussions on Firebrand.

00:38:17.000 It says, McCarthy's latest task, keeping the House GOP peace on war powers.

00:38:24.000 And the work that we've done to try to reassert Congress's war powers authority is cited in the piece.

00:38:31.000 So go check that out from Politico, how there are some neoconservatives in the Republican Party who don't want to have votes on war powers, who still think we should be in Iraq and Syria and Yemen and Niger and Somalia and Sudan.

00:38:45.000 Countries where America's interests in some cases is certainly poorly defined and which Americans are at jeopardy not really for the protection of our country but for the service of foreign interests abroad and special interests who want the military doing their bidding instead of the patriotic work that so many of our brave service members have signed up for.

00:39:11.000 It's going to be a busy rest of the week here in Washington.

00:39:13.000 Hope we're able to get another episode out to you.

00:39:15.000 But we go live at different times just based on when we have votes and committee hearings.

00:39:20.000 So the only way you will be notified in each circumstance of our programming is if you subscribe and have your notifications turned on.

00:39:28.000 That means if you're watching on YouTube, subscribe and then hit that little bell.

00:39:32.000 It's on Rumble as well, where we get a lot of viewership.

00:39:36.000 And if you're listening on one of the great listening platforms, please give us that five-star rating.

00:39:40.000 Leave a review or a comment regarding what you would like to see me discuss.

00:39:44.000 Thank you so much for joining us.

00:39:46.000 Let's keep fighting.

00:39:47.000 Roll the credits.

Firebrand - Matt Gaetz - March 22, 2023

Episode 92 LIVE: Trump Trials – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz

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