The Anchormen Show with Matt Gaetz - May 11, 2020


Episode 1 - 60 Minutes, Trey Gowdy, POTUS Meeting


Episode Stats


Length

21 minutes

Words per minute

173.93108

Word count

3,775

Sentence count

195

Harmful content

Misogyny

2

sentences flagged

Hate speech

10

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

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

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Welcome to Hot Takes. This is Congressman Matt Gaetz. Let's talk about the news.
00:00:21.260 Obamagate. What's the latest? Who will be held accountable? And did the GOP blow it when we had
00:00:25.920 the majority? Also, confronting China. I believe this is the fundamental question. Moving forward, 0.96
00:00:32.320 who's prepared to do it? What's been going on in the Trump administration? And how has the liberal
00:00:37.080 media reacted? And then finally, I'll be giving you the latest update regarding what I would
00:00:42.300 affectionately refer to as President Trump's Congressional War Council. A group of members
00:00:47.740 of the United States Congress I'm honored to be a part of who are doing everything we can
00:00:51.860 to cut through the nonsense that the mainstream media is putting out to give accurate information
00:00:57.220 about the fantastic, exquisite response of this administration to the coronavirus pandemic.
00:01:03.200 But first, let's talk about Obamacate. What we know, you know, it seems with these latest
00:01:08.780 disclosures and declassifications of documents, but it's very clear that from the beginning,
00:01:14.760 from back in 2017, there was always a plan to delegitimize the Trump presidency,
00:01:21.000 both within our country and outside of it. You know, outside of our country, we now know that
00:01:26.740 the sub sources of Christopher Steele's now infamous dossier were actually targets of Russian
00:01:33.640 intelligence. So Russian intelligence was trying to get information into this Steele dossier with the
00:01:39.920 hopes of getting people to somehow not believe in the presidency of Donald Trump. And then similarly,
00:01:46.820 here at home, you know, even on the day that the Electoral College was meeting to count its votes,
00:01:53.740 a typical formality in U.S. democracy, you had Maxine Waters ranting and raving about the need to 0.99
00:02:01.320 not certify the Electoral College. Here's a little bit about what Maxine was saying at that time to
00:02:06.660 give you a flavor of just the anti-Trump sentiment that is now fueling these revelations on Obamagate.
00:02:13.400 To verify the certificates and count the votes of the electors of the several states
00:02:17.380 for president and vice president of the United States.
00:02:20.860 I do not wish to debate. I wish to ask, is there one United States senator who will join me in this
00:02:27.440 letter of objection? There is no debate. There is no debate. The gentlewoman will suspend.
00:02:34.540 The chair has previously ruled a signature from a senator is required. Objection cannot be received.
00:02:41.360 One of the reasons why I think Obamagate is trending on Twitter and a big part of the national
00:02:46.360 discussion now is that we're starting to learn just how early the pollution, you know, of the
00:02:54.600 political discussion occurred when it came to delegitimizing President Trump and the officials
00:03:00.680 who may have been involved. But here's the question I get asked most frequently by my constituents.
00:03:05.880 When is someone going to be held accountable? When is someone going to go to jail? Like,
00:03:09.960 you know, we find out these things about bias and about changing evidence before a secret court.
00:03:18.120 And yet we constantly read reports telling us that, oh, it's, you know, you know, bad conduct.
00:03:26.400 It violates the law, but we don't find any particular criminal intent. And so, you know,
00:03:31.860 maybe that person doesn't get charged with something. Here's my take.
00:03:36.100 The Republicans had the majority. We had the ability to run every lead to ground, to present
00:03:43.520 the evidence before the American people, to make it impossible not to prosecute these criminals
00:03:49.000 who were trying to steal the democracy away from the voters who had selected Donald Trump to be our
00:03:54.360 president. Devin Nunes, I think, will be remembered through history as a patriot during these times.
00:04:00.980 You know, back in 2017, 2018, Devin Nunes knew that the president was essentially being framed
00:04:08.540 through the Russia hoax. He went over and told the president about the surveillance efforts against
00:04:13.940 him and his campaign. And, you know, you saw the Democrats and even some Republicans join
00:04:19.080 in trying to de-platform Nunes from the conversation altogether. But he goes and essentially warns Trump.
00:04:25.220 I think he's the first guy to kind of understand on the Republican side the extent of these problems
00:04:30.880 and the need to get justice. So here's what Nunes does back when Republicans had control in the 115th
00:04:36.240 Congress. He creates the witness list. Names on it like Comey, Clapper, Brennan, Susan Rice,
00:04:45.160 the key Obama people in the White House that would have been involved in an effort to try to rob Donald
00:04:51.260 Trump of the presidency, even though the voters were ultimately going to make the choice to select
00:04:56.240 him. And with that witness list, you know, I think we could have done a lot. But then here's what
00:05:01.620 happens. Paul Ryan essentially takes the investigation away from Devin Nunes and creates the the dual
00:05:10.900 leadership of Trey Gowdy, who's at the time the chairman of the Oversight Committee, and Bob Goodlatte,
00:05:17.120 who's the chairman of the Judiciary Committee. And he says these guys are going to take the witness
00:05:22.200 list from Nunes and go and hold the depositions, request the documents and conduct the investigation.
00:05:28.560 So as a member of the Judiciary Committee, you know, Jim Jordan, myself, Mark Meadows on Oversight,
00:05:34.020 Ron DeSantis on Judiciary. We were initially optimistic that this could actually lead to the
00:05:38.920 justice that our country desires. But you know what happened? We asked for documents and we didn't get
00:05:45.300 them. The FBI, the Department of Justice, they would delay. They would say, oh, well, we just need
00:05:51.580 more time. And then when we got documents, they had redactions that were unjustified. You'll remember
00:05:57.880 the news about how, like, in one of the document productions, they redacted information about Andrew
00:06:03.360 McCabe having a $60,000 desk. Now, that's not because that's some great state secret. It's just
00:06:09.600 embarrassing for them. So if they were willing to redact that information, it makes you wonder what else
00:06:14.620 were they willing to redact? And what did that tell us about their intentions, their bias,
00:06:19.560 and potentially their violations of procedure and law in their corrupt pursuit of Donald Trump and
00:06:25.140 the people around Donald Trump? Because they fundamentally believe that it's their judgment
00:06:29.540 that should matter and not necessarily the judgment of the voters. So that's going on.
00:06:35.540 And we can't get the documents. Now, we keep saying, fine, if they won't produce those documents,
00:06:39.280 at least get the witnesses here and let us ask questions. And Gaudi and Goodlatte and Paul Ryan
00:06:43.500 would say, well, you can't have the witnesses without the documents. Then we couldn't get the
00:06:47.460 documents. And so, you know, Jordan and myself in particular would say, well, why aren't we issuing
00:06:52.940 subpoenas? You know, Meadows was saying the same thing. Why aren't we out there sending subpoenas
00:06:57.560 requiring the documents? And if the documents don't show up, then you hold people in contempt
00:07:02.780 and potentially impeach them. You know, Jordan and Meadows and I were out there saying that the
00:07:08.380 impeachment of Rod Rosenstein should be a real possibility in the Republican House,
00:07:12.440 given the way Rosenstein was obstructing Congress. Here's an exchange between Jim
00:07:17.460 Jordan and Rod Rosenstein from back during that time period, specifically about the obstruction
00:07:22.260 of Congress. Mr. Rosenstein, why are you keeping information from Congress?
00:07:27.520 Congressman, I am not keeping any information from Congress that it's appropriate.
00:07:30.760 In a few minutes, Mr. Rosenstein, I think the House of Representatives is going to say
00:07:33.980 something different. I don't agree with you, Congressman. I don't believe that's what
00:07:37.280 they're going to say. And if they do, they'll be mistaken.
00:07:39.020 I agree. But I think I think in a few minutes, the House of Representatives is going to go on
00:07:43.460 record saying you haven't complied with requests from a separate and equal branch of government
00:07:48.400 that you haven't complied with subpoenas and you got seven days to get your act together.
00:07:53.440 I think that's what's going to happen in a few. And that's just that's not Jim Jordan.
00:07:56.820 I think that's the how I think that's a majority of the House of Representatives.
00:07:59.240 In just a few minutes, I think that's going to happen.
00:08:01.060 So you can see from that exchange with Jim Jordan, this was a time when we needed our
00:08:06.800 best, our brightest, most talented folks on the side pursuing justice, pursuing the corrupt
00:08:13.320 officials who allowed this investigation of the president to occur and then who may have
00:08:17.680 been involved in covering up the illegal conduct that occurred during that investigation, whether
00:08:23.000 it was changing evidence before a secret court, falsely predicating things or any number of
00:08:29.180 the other violations of procedure and law that you saw in Inspector Horowitz's report that came out
00:08:35.280 that really was, I think, the most complete indictment of Jim Comey's leadership that we've
00:08:41.060 seen reduced to paper. So that all happens. And you all know the history. We raise a ruckus
00:08:47.900 despite the fact that when Democrats took control, they sent out hundreds of subpoenas.
00:08:53.200 When Republicans were in control, we did not send out one subpoena. We did not hold anyone in
00:08:57.940 contempt. We did not use impeachment power. And I'm not saying that necessarily we would
00:09:02.020 have had to have used the impeachment power, but there was not even a threat of that when
00:09:05.680 we had control because we were just far too accepting of what these institutions were saying
00:09:10.720 to us. And so that was my lived experience during this kind of 2017, 2018 time period.
00:09:18.520 And Friday night, I was invited to be a guest on the Sean Hannity Show, which I enjoy.
00:09:22.260 And the guest before the panel I was on was a Trey Gowdy, who, again, at the time was not someone
00:09:28.720 who joined with us. He was someone who was arguing against our requests for subpoenas and who never
00:09:35.840 really gave us the subpoena power that I feel like that could have helped us in our investigation.
00:09:40.860 But here's what what Gowdy was saying in his exchange with Sean Hannity.
00:09:44.740 We didn't just say, give us all the evidence of collusion, coordination and conspiracy.
00:09:48.680 I ask every one of them, even if it's hearsay, even if it's something you heard that you didn't
00:09:53.920 believe, even if it's inadmissible in court, tell me everything you've ever heard about Trump,
00:10:00.080 his campaign, or even the groupies and the hangers on in his campaign conspiring with Russia.
00:10:05.340 There was nothing. That was a frustrating thing for me to hear, knowing that we had done so much
00:10:10.720 to try to get the brilliant Trey Gowdy on our side and we had been unsuccessful. And so here was my
00:10:17.200 reaction when I got the chance to make a contribution on The Hannity Show.
00:10:20.600 I'm glad you went through Trey Gowdy's exquisite questions in 2017 to these corrupt officials.
00:10:25.980 I guess my question, Sean, would be why was it then in late May of 2018 that Trey Gowdy went
00:10:31.980 on Martha McCallum's show and said that the FBI did exactly what all of our fellow Americans would
00:10:37.300 have wanted them to do and that it had nothing to do with Donald Trump? Both of those things have
00:10:42.460 now been proven to be not true and it seems that Gowdy's brilliant lawyering back in 2017 that we're
00:10:48.060 only able to see now proves those two statements untrue. The number one question I get asked from
00:10:52.960 Americans is why no one has gone to jail and been held accountable. Unfortunately, 0.97
00:10:57.140 when Nunes and Meadows and Jordan and I wanted subpoena power, it was Paul Ryan and Trey Gowdy that
00:11:02.980 wouldn't give us that subpoena power. Democrats sent out hundreds of subpoenas when we had control and could 0.97
00:11:08.280 have run this to ground in 2017. We didn't send out a single subpoena, not one, and that's a failure
00:11:13.940 of our Republican leadership. So again, I love Trey Gowdy. I think he's a really bright guy. I think
00:11:19.980 that he puts on a five minute performance as good as just about anybody who has served in the United
00:11:24.960 States Congress. But I think it's important for folks to understand what he was saying in 2018 and
00:11:32.300 see if we can reconcile that with now what we know he knew in 2017. I mean, we know now that in 2017,
00:11:40.320 Trey Gowdy asked brilliant questions that revealed from the top officials that there really was no
00:11:45.740 evidence of the Russia collusion allegations, that that was a hoax, that that was not real.
00:11:52.040 And yet in 2018, knowing all that, knowing the questions he asked and the responses provided,
00:11:57.960 here's what Trey Gowdy said in defense of the FBI on Martha McCallum show. I am, I am even more
00:12:04.460 convinced that the FBI did exactly what my fellow citizens would want them to do when they got the
00:12:10.100 information they got and that it has nothing to do with Donald Trump. And it wasn't just Gowdy who was
00:12:15.500 throwing cold water on our investigation. Just a few days later, beginning of June, here's what you
00:12:20.560 heard from Paul Ryan. I think Chairman Gowdy's initial assessment is accurate. I think, but we
00:12:28.020 have some more digging to do. But I have seen no evidence to the contrary of the initial assessment
00:12:32.920 that Chairman Gowdy has made. But I want to make sure that we run every lead down and make sure we
00:12:37.820 get final answers to these questions. And so now here we are in 2020. Unfortunately, we no longer have
00:12:43.640 the tools of the House of Representatives to pursue justice and put this information before the
00:12:48.460 American people. We need Senator Lindsey Graham to be as good in committee, just like we know he can
00:12:55.320 as he is on television, because on television, Senator Graham sharpens these points. I think he
00:13:00.940 very clearly knows what has to happen. We just need to see him raise that gavel up as chairman of the
00:13:06.140 Judiciary Committee and do everything he can to get the job done. And I'm sure hopeful that Senator
00:13:11.120 Graham will in fact do that. And also we're waiting for this Durham report that we hope will reveal the
00:13:18.100 real criminals. And I'm sure we'll be chatting more about that on Hot Takes.
00:13:39.140 Confronting China. This is the ultimate true challenge of our time and of our generation, 1.00
00:13:44.020 whether it's on trade, military modernization, artificial intelligence, 5G technology.
00:13:50.280 China is not our friendly workplace competitor. OK, they're not some, you know, entity that plays 1.00
00:13:58.120 by the rules in a fair fight. China cheats and their cheating and our unwillingness to call them on 0.94
00:14:04.980 their cheating and our tolerance of their cheating has ultimately led to a building up of their economy.
00:14:10.180 And many would say in a lot of parts of America, the diminution of ours of to their benefit.
00:14:15.600 And I think President Trump is the first president in modern American history to fundamentally understand
00:14:21.540 China. He confronts China and I'm grateful that he does it. Now, one area where we need to confront China 0.99
00:14:27.780 in the wake of the Wuhan virus is the area of medical diplomacy. We're now continuing to see reports that
00:14:35.340 China hid the virus, hid the extent of it, hid what they knew about it precisely so that they could go 0.99
00:14:42.860 and shore up all of the PPE that they wanted for their folks in deprivation of the needs of other
00:14:51.400 countries that could potentially be impacted. You know, we also saw that China, instead of doing everything
00:14:56.120 they could to contain the virus, initially allowed the virus to spread to Milan, to New York,
00:15:02.640 to Seattle, to Los Angeles, with all these flights out of Wuhan, because if it was everywhere, then it 0.63
00:15:08.140 would be less likely for them to have to take responsibility for the virus. And that brings us to
00:15:14.080 the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Now, I take some exception to the fact that the U.S. taxpayer is off
00:15:23.080 providing even one dollar to research that's going on in places where we can't necessarily trust the
00:15:29.900 governments to provide us accurate information. So there's this $3.7 million NIH grant, out of which
00:15:37.400 a subcontractor is the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and they receive something in the tune of $800,000.
00:15:45.580 Now, I would expect if someone is in partnership with the U.S. government and the U.S. taxpayer,
00:15:52.060 that that means that at the least, in the time of a pandemic, in the time of an outbreak,
00:15:58.020 that we would be able to count on them to be honest and to be truthful with us.
00:16:02.560 Unfortunately, that is not what occurred. As I point out on the Tucker Carlson show,
00:16:07.200 you see the Wuhan Institute of Virology sequence the virus and then not provide that information
00:16:14.460 to the world in 10 days. Here's what I said on Tucker.
00:16:16.780 Either conspicuously or miraculously, the Wuhan Institute of Virology is able to sequence the virus
00:16:23.800 on January 2nd. But China doesn't admit to the virus existing to January 9th. And then the Wuhan
00:16:30.040 Institute of Virology doesn't release this important scientific information to the world
00:16:34.240 until January 12th. So at best, Americans are funding people who are lying to us. And at worst,
00:16:40.820 we're funding people who we knew had problems handling pathogens who then birthed a monster virus
00:16:47.360 onto the world. So that appearance led to some real positive change. I had a phone conversations
00:16:53.720 with senior leadership at HHS and at the White House. And they said, you know, Matt, we want to
00:16:58.760 be able to protect the good research that may be going on as a part of this overall grant. But we agree
00:17:04.140 with you that given China's concealment, given the way they lied and cheated, the Wuhan Institute of
00:17:10.300 Virology should not get to use our money. And we're going to cancel that grant. And that portion
00:17:16.800 of the grant was in fact canceled. And I'm glad that the U.S. taxpayer is no longer sending money
00:17:22.680 to the Wuhan Institute of Virology that lied to us. Because you know what? In life, I've learned
00:17:27.940 if you let people abuse you and lie to you, they will continue to do it, especially if you're giving
00:17:33.860 them money to do it. So I am proud of that work we did. 60 Minutes yesterday, I guess, does an attack
00:17:41.240 piece on Tucker Carlson and I saying, oh, well, you know, let us tell you the great story of all the
00:17:46.040 good things happen at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. And they highlight a New York company,
00:17:50.480 which, by the way, still can get NIH funding. They just can't then turn around and give that money
00:17:56.020 to countries and entities that don't tell us the truth and lie to us. I think that's a perfectly 0.83
00:18:01.360 reasonable standard. But 60 Minutes does this hit piece that gets folks on the left worked up. And
00:18:07.040 here would be kind of my answer back to them. Like, why is it that it was appropriate for the Wuhan
00:18:13.800 Institute of Virology to wait 10 days after sequencing this virus to share the information?
00:18:19.440 Like, is CBS okay with that? Why is that not the 60 Minutes interview? Why they were able to do that
00:18:24.860 and really, you know, other than the work that President Trump has done, escape a lot of
00:18:29.920 accountability from the rest of the world? How come they didn't cover the recent reports that are
00:18:34.520 out on my Twitter feed, at Rep Matt Gaetz, also at Matt Gaetz, indicating that even German intelligence
00:18:40.680 is now saying that in Wuhan, the government apparatus was a part of concealment and not
00:18:47.100 giving out accurate information. And also they did not detail the 2018 cables from the United States
00:18:54.220 State Department reflecting the serious and legitimate concern about safety at the Wuhan Institute of
00:19:01.420 Virology. I mean, it's a, you know, it's a real thing that folks were raising the red flag
00:19:06.800 and saying that maybe we ought to look at what, at our partnerships here. You know, one U.S. official
00:19:12.500 said in a reporting done by the Washington Post that the cable was a warning shot. They were begging
00:19:18.380 people to pay attention to what was going on. Doesn't sound like a place where I think we need
00:19:23.640 extended U.S. investment. I'm glad President Trump knew what was going on and I'm glad he's the guy to
00:19:29.300 confront China. Also, we got to confront China on this issue of DJI drones. As a consequence of
00:19:36.300 this coronavirus, you have a Chinese drone company that our own Department of Homeland 0.98
00:19:42.000 Security says is collecting intelligence and providing it back to China and then potentially
00:19:47.060 even terrorists. We're allowing that drone company to donate to our police department's
00:19:52.720 technology that then is being flown around our neighborhood. So, I mean, China could literally
00:19:57.420 be conducting a Trojan horse intelligence operation against our country and your local police department
00:20:02.980 could be helping him do it. More on the DJI China drones in another segment upcoming of Hot Takes with
00:20:09.400 Matt Gaines. Final issue I want to talk about, President Trump's Congressional War Council. I don't even
00:20:21.400 know if that's the real name for it. That's just what Mark Meadows calls it when I chat with him. But
00:20:25.520 there are a number of us in Congress so eager to break through the lies in the media about this
00:20:32.460 administration and their response to coronavirus that were teaming up to tell the great stories
00:20:38.180 of medical professionals, of mayors, of cities, of states, of hospitals who are out there really on
00:20:45.340 the front lines and really getting results. You know, if you just watch the mainstream media,
00:20:49.480 you'd think that our country was losing to coronavirus when the reality is we're starting to see
00:20:54.400 the great American revival beginning in places where you've got sound contact tracing, where you've got
00:21:00.140 a good public health officials doing their job, and where we've been able to practice social distancing
00:21:05.640 and hygiene at the highest possible level. So, we had a meeting at the White House last week. Folks, you know,
00:21:13.520 like Jim Jordan and Leader McCarthy and Elise Stefanik and Warren Davidson and Ted Budd and Andy Biggs
00:21:20.820 and a number of other members of Congress, and we're going to do everything we can to be telling
00:21:25.700 the great story of this administration's response and how it has been a mobilized operation and how
00:21:32.600 we're so inspired by the folks who are leading it. So, we'll be getting together more often,
00:21:36.600 and I can't wait to share those stories and even more hot takes. This has been Congressman Matt Gaetz.
00:21:41.380 Thanks for listening.