Episode 1 - 60 Minutes, Trey Gowdy, POTUS Meeting
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Summary
Matt Gaffetz talks about the latest in Obamagate and the latest update from the President's Congressional War Council. He also takes a look at why the White House is under fire from the liberal media, and why they should be worried.
Transcript
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Welcome to Hot Takes. This is Congressman Matt Gaetz. Let's talk about the news.
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Obamagate. What's the latest? Who will be held accountable? And did the GOP blow it when we had
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the majority? Also, confronting China. I believe this is the fundamental question. Moving forward,
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who's prepared to do it? What's been going on in the Trump administration? And how has the liberal
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media reacted? And then finally, I'll be giving you the latest update regarding what I would
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affectionately refer to as President Trump's Congressional War Council. A group of members
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of the United States Congress I'm honored to be a part of who are doing everything we can
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to cut through the nonsense that the mainstream media is putting out to give accurate information
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about the fantastic, exquisite response of this administration to the coronavirus pandemic.
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But first, let's talk about Obamacate. What we know, you know, it seems with these latest
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disclosures and declassifications of documents, but it's very clear that from the beginning,
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from back in 2017, there was always a plan to delegitimize the Trump presidency,
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both within our country and outside of it. You know, outside of our country, we now know that
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the sub sources of Christopher Steele's now infamous dossier were actually targets of Russian
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intelligence. So Russian intelligence was trying to get information into this Steele dossier with the
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hopes of getting people to somehow not believe in the presidency of Donald Trump. And then similarly,
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here at home, you know, even on the day that the Electoral College was meeting to count its votes,
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a typical formality in U.S. democracy, you had Maxine Waters ranting and raving about the need to
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not certify the Electoral College. Here's a little bit about what Maxine was saying at that time to
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give you a flavor of just the anti-Trump sentiment that is now fueling these revelations on Obamagate.
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To verify the certificates and count the votes of the electors of the several states
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for president and vice president of the United States.
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I do not wish to debate. I wish to ask, is there one United States senator who will join me in this
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letter of objection? There is no debate. There is no debate. The gentlewoman will suspend.
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The chair has previously ruled a signature from a senator is required. Objection cannot be received.
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One of the reasons why I think Obamagate is trending on Twitter and a big part of the national
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discussion now is that we're starting to learn just how early the pollution, you know, of the
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political discussion occurred when it came to delegitimizing President Trump and the officials
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who may have been involved. But here's the question I get asked most frequently by my constituents.
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When is someone going to be held accountable? When is someone going to go to jail? Like,
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you know, we find out these things about bias and about changing evidence before a secret court.
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And yet we constantly read reports telling us that, oh, it's, you know, you know, bad conduct.
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It violates the law, but we don't find any particular criminal intent. And so, you know,
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maybe that person doesn't get charged with something. Here's my take.
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The Republicans had the majority. We had the ability to run every lead to ground, to present
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the evidence before the American people, to make it impossible not to prosecute these criminals
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who were trying to steal the democracy away from the voters who had selected Donald Trump to be our
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president. Devin Nunes, I think, will be remembered through history as a patriot during these times.
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You know, back in 2017, 2018, Devin Nunes knew that the president was essentially being framed
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through the Russia hoax. He went over and told the president about the surveillance efforts against
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him and his campaign. And, you know, you saw the Democrats and even some Republicans join
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in trying to de-platform Nunes from the conversation altogether. But he goes and essentially warns Trump.
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I think he's the first guy to kind of understand on the Republican side the extent of these problems
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and the need to get justice. So here's what Nunes does back when Republicans had control in the 115th
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Congress. He creates the witness list. Names on it like Comey, Clapper, Brennan, Susan Rice,
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the key Obama people in the White House that would have been involved in an effort to try to rob Donald
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Trump of the presidency, even though the voters were ultimately going to make the choice to select
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him. And with that witness list, you know, I think we could have done a lot. But then here's what
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happens. Paul Ryan essentially takes the investigation away from Devin Nunes and creates the the dual
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leadership of Trey Gowdy, who's at the time the chairman of the Oversight Committee, and Bob Goodlatte,
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who's the chairman of the Judiciary Committee. And he says these guys are going to take the witness
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list from Nunes and go and hold the depositions, request the documents and conduct the investigation.
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So as a member of the Judiciary Committee, you know, Jim Jordan, myself, Mark Meadows on Oversight,
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Ron DeSantis on Judiciary. We were initially optimistic that this could actually lead to the
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justice that our country desires. But you know what happened? We asked for documents and we didn't get
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them. The FBI, the Department of Justice, they would delay. They would say, oh, well, we just need
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more time. And then when we got documents, they had redactions that were unjustified. You'll remember
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the news about how, like, in one of the document productions, they redacted information about Andrew
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McCabe having a $60,000 desk. Now, that's not because that's some great state secret. It's just
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embarrassing for them. So if they were willing to redact that information, it makes you wonder what else
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were they willing to redact? And what did that tell us about their intentions, their bias,
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and potentially their violations of procedure and law in their corrupt pursuit of Donald Trump and
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the people around Donald Trump? Because they fundamentally believe that it's their judgment
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that should matter and not necessarily the judgment of the voters. So that's going on.
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And we can't get the documents. Now, we keep saying, fine, if they won't produce those documents,
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at least get the witnesses here and let us ask questions. And Gaudi and Goodlatte and Paul Ryan
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would say, well, you can't have the witnesses without the documents. Then we couldn't get the
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documents. And so, you know, Jordan and myself in particular would say, well, why aren't we issuing
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subpoenas? You know, Meadows was saying the same thing. Why aren't we out there sending subpoenas
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requiring the documents? And if the documents don't show up, then you hold people in contempt
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and potentially impeach them. You know, Jordan and Meadows and I were out there saying that the
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impeachment of Rod Rosenstein should be a real possibility in the Republican House,
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given the way Rosenstein was obstructing Congress. Here's an exchange between Jim
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Jordan and Rod Rosenstein from back during that time period, specifically about the obstruction
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of Congress. Mr. Rosenstein, why are you keeping information from Congress?
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Congressman, I am not keeping any information from Congress that it's appropriate.
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In a few minutes, Mr. Rosenstein, I think the House of Representatives is going to say
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something different. I don't agree with you, Congressman. I don't believe that's what
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they're going to say. And if they do, they'll be mistaken.
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I agree. But I think I think in a few minutes, the House of Representatives is going to go on
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record saying you haven't complied with requests from a separate and equal branch of government
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that you haven't complied with subpoenas and you got seven days to get your act together.
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I think that's what's going to happen in a few. And that's just that's not Jim Jordan.
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I think that's the how I think that's a majority of the House of Representatives.
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In just a few minutes, I think that's going to happen.
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So you can see from that exchange with Jim Jordan, this was a time when we needed our
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best, our brightest, most talented folks on the side pursuing justice, pursuing the corrupt
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officials who allowed this investigation of the president to occur and then who may have
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been involved in covering up the illegal conduct that occurred during that investigation, whether
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it was changing evidence before a secret court, falsely predicating things or any number of
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the other violations of procedure and law that you saw in Inspector Horowitz's report that came out
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that really was, I think, the most complete indictment of Jim Comey's leadership that we've
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seen reduced to paper. So that all happens. And you all know the history. We raise a ruckus
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despite the fact that when Democrats took control, they sent out hundreds of subpoenas.
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When Republicans were in control, we did not send out one subpoena. We did not hold anyone in
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contempt. We did not use impeachment power. And I'm not saying that necessarily we would
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have had to have used the impeachment power, but there was not even a threat of that when
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we had control because we were just far too accepting of what these institutions were saying
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to us. And so that was my lived experience during this kind of 2017, 2018 time period.
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And Friday night, I was invited to be a guest on the Sean Hannity Show, which I enjoy.
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And the guest before the panel I was on was a Trey Gowdy, who, again, at the time was not someone
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who joined with us. He was someone who was arguing against our requests for subpoenas and who never
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really gave us the subpoena power that I feel like that could have helped us in our investigation.
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But here's what what Gowdy was saying in his exchange with Sean Hannity.
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We didn't just say, give us all the evidence of collusion, coordination and conspiracy.
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I ask every one of them, even if it's hearsay, even if it's something you heard that you didn't
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believe, even if it's inadmissible in court, tell me everything you've ever heard about Trump,
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his campaign, or even the groupies and the hangers on in his campaign conspiring with Russia.
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There was nothing. That was a frustrating thing for me to hear, knowing that we had done so much
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to try to get the brilliant Trey Gowdy on our side and we had been unsuccessful. And so here was my
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reaction when I got the chance to make a contribution on The Hannity Show.
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I'm glad you went through Trey Gowdy's exquisite questions in 2017 to these corrupt officials.
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I guess my question, Sean, would be why was it then in late May of 2018 that Trey Gowdy went
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on Martha McCallum's show and said that the FBI did exactly what all of our fellow Americans would
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have wanted them to do and that it had nothing to do with Donald Trump? Both of those things have
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now been proven to be not true and it seems that Gowdy's brilliant lawyering back in 2017 that we're
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only able to see now proves those two statements untrue. The number one question I get asked from
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Americans is why no one has gone to jail and been held accountable. Unfortunately,
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when Nunes and Meadows and Jordan and I wanted subpoena power, it was Paul Ryan and Trey Gowdy that
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wouldn't give us that subpoena power. Democrats sent out hundreds of subpoenas when we had control and could
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have run this to ground in 2017. We didn't send out a single subpoena, not one, and that's a failure
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of our Republican leadership. So again, I love Trey Gowdy. I think he's a really bright guy. I think
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that he puts on a five minute performance as good as just about anybody who has served in the United
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States Congress. But I think it's important for folks to understand what he was saying in 2018 and
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see if we can reconcile that with now what we know he knew in 2017. I mean, we know now that in 2017,
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Trey Gowdy asked brilliant questions that revealed from the top officials that there really was no
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evidence of the Russia collusion allegations, that that was a hoax, that that was not real.
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And yet in 2018, knowing all that, knowing the questions he asked and the responses provided,
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here's what Trey Gowdy said in defense of the FBI on Martha McCallum show. I am, I am even more
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convinced that the FBI did exactly what my fellow citizens would want them to do when they got the
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information they got and that it has nothing to do with Donald Trump. And it wasn't just Gowdy who was
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throwing cold water on our investigation. Just a few days later, beginning of June, here's what you
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heard from Paul Ryan. I think Chairman Gowdy's initial assessment is accurate. I think, but we
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have some more digging to do. But I have seen no evidence to the contrary of the initial assessment
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that Chairman Gowdy has made. But I want to make sure that we run every lead down and make sure we
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get final answers to these questions. And so now here we are in 2020. Unfortunately, we no longer have
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the tools of the House of Representatives to pursue justice and put this information before the
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American people. We need Senator Lindsey Graham to be as good in committee, just like we know he can
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as he is on television, because on television, Senator Graham sharpens these points. I think he
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very clearly knows what has to happen. We just need to see him raise that gavel up as chairman of the
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Judiciary Committee and do everything he can to get the job done. And I'm sure hopeful that Senator
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Graham will in fact do that. And also we're waiting for this Durham report that we hope will reveal the
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real criminals. And I'm sure we'll be chatting more about that on Hot Takes.
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Confronting China. This is the ultimate true challenge of our time and of our generation,
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whether it's on trade, military modernization, artificial intelligence, 5G technology.
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China is not our friendly workplace competitor. OK, they're not some, you know, entity that plays
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by the rules in a fair fight. China cheats and their cheating and our unwillingness to call them on
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their cheating and our tolerance of their cheating has ultimately led to a building up of their economy.
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And many would say in a lot of parts of America, the diminution of ours of to their benefit.
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And I think President Trump is the first president in modern American history to fundamentally understand
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China. He confronts China and I'm grateful that he does it. Now, one area where we need to confront China
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in the wake of the Wuhan virus is the area of medical diplomacy. We're now continuing to see reports that
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China hid the virus, hid the extent of it, hid what they knew about it precisely so that they could go
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and shore up all of the PPE that they wanted for their folks in deprivation of the needs of other
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countries that could potentially be impacted. You know, we also saw that China, instead of doing everything
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they could to contain the virus, initially allowed the virus to spread to Milan, to New York,
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to Seattle, to Los Angeles, with all these flights out of Wuhan, because if it was everywhere, then it
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would be less likely for them to have to take responsibility for the virus. And that brings us to
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the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Now, I take some exception to the fact that the U.S. taxpayer is off
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providing even one dollar to research that's going on in places where we can't necessarily trust the
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governments to provide us accurate information. So there's this $3.7 million NIH grant, out of which
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a subcontractor is the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and they receive something in the tune of $800,000.
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Now, I would expect if someone is in partnership with the U.S. government and the U.S. taxpayer,
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that that means that at the least, in the time of a pandemic, in the time of an outbreak,
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that we would be able to count on them to be honest and to be truthful with us.
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Unfortunately, that is not what occurred. As I point out on the Tucker Carlson show,
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you see the Wuhan Institute of Virology sequence the virus and then not provide that information
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to the world in 10 days. Here's what I said on Tucker.
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Either conspicuously or miraculously, the Wuhan Institute of Virology is able to sequence the virus
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on January 2nd. But China doesn't admit to the virus existing to January 9th. And then the Wuhan
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Institute of Virology doesn't release this important scientific information to the world
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until January 12th. So at best, Americans are funding people who are lying to us. And at worst,
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we're funding people who we knew had problems handling pathogens who then birthed a monster virus
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onto the world. So that appearance led to some real positive change. I had a phone conversations
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with senior leadership at HHS and at the White House. And they said, you know, Matt, we want to
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be able to protect the good research that may be going on as a part of this overall grant. But we agree
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with you that given China's concealment, given the way they lied and cheated, the Wuhan Institute of
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Virology should not get to use our money. And we're going to cancel that grant. And that portion
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of the grant was in fact canceled. And I'm glad that the U.S. taxpayer is no longer sending money
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to the Wuhan Institute of Virology that lied to us. Because you know what? In life, I've learned
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if you let people abuse you and lie to you, they will continue to do it, especially if you're giving
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them money to do it. So I am proud of that work we did. 60 Minutes yesterday, I guess, does an attack
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piece on Tucker Carlson and I saying, oh, well, you know, let us tell you the great story of all the
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good things happen at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. And they highlight a New York company,
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which, by the way, still can get NIH funding. They just can't then turn around and give that money
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to countries and entities that don't tell us the truth and lie to us. I think that's a perfectly
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reasonable standard. But 60 Minutes does this hit piece that gets folks on the left worked up. And
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here would be kind of my answer back to them. Like, why is it that it was appropriate for the Wuhan
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Institute of Virology to wait 10 days after sequencing this virus to share the information?
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Like, is CBS okay with that? Why is that not the 60 Minutes interview? Why they were able to do that
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and really, you know, other than the work that President Trump has done, escape a lot of
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accountability from the rest of the world? How come they didn't cover the recent reports that are
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out on my Twitter feed, at Rep Matt Gaetz, also at Matt Gaetz, indicating that even German intelligence
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is now saying that in Wuhan, the government apparatus was a part of concealment and not
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giving out accurate information. And also they did not detail the 2018 cables from the United States
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State Department reflecting the serious and legitimate concern about safety at the Wuhan Institute of
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Virology. I mean, it's a, you know, it's a real thing that folks were raising the red flag
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and saying that maybe we ought to look at what, at our partnerships here. You know, one U.S. official
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said in a reporting done by the Washington Post that the cable was a warning shot. They were begging
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people to pay attention to what was going on. Doesn't sound like a place where I think we need
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extended U.S. investment. I'm glad President Trump knew what was going on and I'm glad he's the guy to
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confront China. Also, we got to confront China on this issue of DJI drones. As a consequence of
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this coronavirus, you have a Chinese drone company that our own Department of Homeland
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Security says is collecting intelligence and providing it back to China and then potentially
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even terrorists. We're allowing that drone company to donate to our police department's
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technology that then is being flown around our neighborhood. So, I mean, China could literally
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be conducting a Trojan horse intelligence operation against our country and your local police department
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could be helping him do it. More on the DJI China drones in another segment upcoming of Hot Takes with
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Matt Gaines. Final issue I want to talk about, President Trump's Congressional War Council. I don't even
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know if that's the real name for it. That's just what Mark Meadows calls it when I chat with him. But
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there are a number of us in Congress so eager to break through the lies in the media about this
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administration and their response to coronavirus that were teaming up to tell the great stories
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of medical professionals, of mayors, of cities, of states, of hospitals who are out there really on
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the front lines and really getting results. You know, if you just watch the mainstream media,
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you'd think that our country was losing to coronavirus when the reality is we're starting to see
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the great American revival beginning in places where you've got sound contact tracing, where you've got
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a good public health officials doing their job, and where we've been able to practice social distancing
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and hygiene at the highest possible level. So, we had a meeting at the White House last week. Folks, you know,
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like Jim Jordan and Leader McCarthy and Elise Stefanik and Warren Davidson and Ted Budd and Andy Biggs
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and a number of other members of Congress, and we're going to do everything we can to be telling
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the great story of this administration's response and how it has been a mobilized operation and how
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we're so inspired by the folks who are leading it. So, we'll be getting together more often,
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and I can't wait to share those stories and even more hot takes. This has been Congressman Matt Gaetz.