The Anchormen Show with Matt Gaetz - May 22, 2020


Episode 10 - China is the Enemy, Mueller's Biased Team Exposed, Big Tech Tracking COVID


Episode Stats


Length

20 minutes

Words per minute

166.04697

Word count

3,394

Sentence count

181

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged

Hate speech

9

sentences flagged


Summary

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

Max Baucus has been quoted by Chinese state media saying that President Joe Biden will not criticize China as much. Why does this matter? And what does it tell us about our leaders in dealing with China in an era where they truly are a global competitor?

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. Happy Friday. Let's talk about the news. The U.S.-China relationship
00:00:21.440 is the most important thing in the news. It is the most important challenge of our generation.
00:00:27.760 And if you're looking for a place to see the soft, sleazy, corrupt underbelly of that U.S.-China 1.00
00:00:35.980 relationship, you've got to check out the National Pulse. My friends Raheem Kassam and Natalie Winters
00:00:42.120 have explosive reporting today. Obama's China ambassador, Biden's China man, Max Baucus,
00:00:51.080 has recently been quoted in Chinese state media saying, well, Biden won't criticize China as
00:00:59.500 much. So why does this matter? Who is Max Baucus? And what does this inform on regarding the policy
00:01:06.640 choices and legislative choices that we have to make regarding how our leaders will and should
00:01:12.060 interact with China in an era where they truly are the global competitor? I think Steve Bannon 0.78
00:01:17.960 likely said it best, China is not our quirky workplace competitor. They are the enemy. And 1.00
00:01:24.280 if young people are going to continue to lead the world in America, we've got to be ready to meet the 0.99
00:01:30.680 challenge that China presents over the next several years and several decades. So let's get into this 0.91
00:01:35.980 Max Baucus situation. And really, it's emblematic of what author Peter Schweitzer writes about in his
00:01:43.120 fantastic book, Secret Empires, if you've not picked that up. There is a certain business model
00:01:49.560 to how establishment politicians in both parties cash in on the backs of foreign governments,
00:01:57.040 advocating for the interests of foreign governments, at times against the United States of America. And if
00:02:02.520 you accept as the premise that we are not in a cooperative posture with China, we are in a competitive
00:02:07.720 posture with China. Someone getting on on, you know, the payroll of the Chinese Communist Party and
00:02:15.160 their various corporate and government and educational subsidiaries is just not good for our country.
00:02:21.940 You know, it's one of the reasons why Congressman Mike Gallagher and I have introduced legislation to
00:02:27.560 ban members of Congress from being able to go and serve as agents of foreign governments after their
00:02:33.360 time has concluded in public life. I don't think that's too much to ask. I don't think it's too much
00:02:38.120 to ask to say, if you want to have the honor and privilege of serving in the United States House of
00:02:43.480 Representatives of the United States Senate, that means that you are making a life choice to be on
00:02:48.660 Team USA forever. And you don't get to go and then like moonlight for Team Turkey or Team United Arab
00:02:56.780 Emirates or Team Qatar afterwards or Team China, for that matter. But it is it is the way of Washington.
00:03:04.480 It is quite something to see the number of these like, oh, beloved, you know, celebrated members of
00:03:12.280 Congress inside the beltway who then turn around and for money start playing for other countries.
00:03:20.000 And, you know, that's why Congressman Gallagher and I, great guy out of the state of Wisconsin,
00:03:23.820 fellow Armed Services Committee member, why we're working to make that change. But let's get back to
00:03:28.240 Max Baucus because because Baucus really is emblematic of this business model of, you know,
00:03:34.480 developing a brand and influence in the United States of America and then sort of being part of
00:03:39.740 the revolving door in and out of government to be able to cash in on those relationships and then to
00:03:45.620 be able to potentially even be in the government after having been on the payroll of of one of our
00:03:52.700 nations, great competitors. So one of the ways that members of Congress kind of play this game
00:03:57.020 is they set up the the nonprofit. So Max Baucus has got the the Baucus Institute at the University of
00:04:05.200 Montana. And what they then do is take cash from Chinese entities, Chinese companies, sometimes
00:04:12.720 Chinese educational institutions for for these joint ventures, whether it's study abroad,
00:04:19.520 kind of cross mojinating U.S. professors and Chinese professors. And let me just tell you something.
00:04:26.020 This is not for the benefit of our country. Like when the Baucus Institute takes cash from entities
00:04:31.440 that are linked to China, it's not to ensure that America does better. It's to ensure that China does
00:04:39.500 better. And of course, there's, you know, lifestyle benefit that comes with that. So that's one part of
00:04:44.400 the business model. The second part is that a lot of these cats go and serve on corporate boards for
00:04:50.240 companies that they really don't have our nation's interest at heart and oftentimes are appendages
00:04:54.980 of governments that hate us. So Alibaba is a Chinese company, consumer products company.
00:05:02.400 It is very linked to the Chinese Communist Party. And Max Baucus is one of their board members. He is an
00:05:09.820 Alibaba board member. And I'm, I'm just, I was talking to Rahim Kassam, who with Natalie Winters
00:05:14.860 wrote this piece. And it is shocking to me that this is, this is even allowed that he would be able
00:05:20.620 to do that. And then of course, Chambers of Commerce allow folks to give paid speeches and, and really
00:05:27.080 Baucus is able to do these things, get these payments because he was the former ambassador. And
00:05:32.840 then, then what, you know, that's the benefit to him. So what's the deliverable? Well, what China
00:05:39.000 really values is the ability to have like US politicians, US former lawmakers go and trash
00:05:46.860 the United States and Chinese state media. And they then use that as part of their totalitarian 0.78
00:05:52.040 propaganda effort domestically. And they also use it to try to make their case on the world stage.
00:05:58.020 So think about that. They go pay the former members of our team to go in and, you know,
00:06:04.380 neg our own team in their state run media. And that's precisely, you know, what, what some of
00:06:10.260 these folks have done. And, and in Baucus, you see someone who's consistently criticized our country
00:06:17.340 and our response to coronavirus, which is pretty fricking rich when you consider the fact that China 0.86
00:06:23.240 birthed this virus on the world, lied about it, and then went and tried to do everything 0.89
00:06:28.020 they could to shore up PPE as everyone was having to deal with a problem that they either purposefully,
00:06:35.080 or I think more likely negligently allowed to escape from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. And that's the
00:06:40.140 intelligence that Secretary Pompeo has referenced in, in relation to the causation of this great global
00:06:47.500 calamity that we're now dealing with. Now, how does this have to do with the future? You know,
00:06:52.460 so Baucus, bad guy, taking money from these Chinese entities saying, oh, you know, Biden will be soft on
00:06:59.980 China to state run media, running down the US response to Chinese state media. And I just found
00:07:06.440 it interesting and very well sourced in the National Pulse article that in 2013, like it wasn't some other
00:07:14.240 person in the Obama administration that was trying to set up Max Baucus to be the China guy. I mean,
00:07:20.780 it was Joe Biden. And so I think one of these enterprising reporters out there on the campaign
00:07:25.140 trail should ask Joe Biden, like, would you consider Max Baucus to be a potential player in your
00:07:32.760 administration in the future? Would he be someone that that would go back to China, perhaps on behalf of
00:07:39.360 our government after trashing our country and our government in Chinese state run media? These are
00:07:44.760 fair questions, because part of the way that these folks maintain their value to the people paying
00:07:51.100 them and paying their institutes and their institutions and all these things that enhance
00:07:55.080 lifestyle is by kind of rolling in and out of government. So I don't know if Baucus wants to be
00:08:00.960 in the Biden administration or not. But I think it's a fair question, since Biden was the guy who set up
00:08:07.840 Baucus to be the point man in China. And now we see that that's having an America last result for our
00:08:14.840 country. So Max Baucus, you got caught, my good friends at the National Pulse got you. Now we'll see
00:08:21.560 if this continues to be another anchor around Joe Biden. Remember when the national media was telling us
00:08:29.700 all that the Mueller probe was fair, that the people involved were unbiased, these were great patriots that
00:08:36.660 were professionals that were doing their duty to the country. And to the contrary, folks like Jim
00:08:42.820 Jordan and Mark Meadows and myself were out there saying, this is not a group of people that lacks
00:08:47.120 bias. You know, these are folks who absolutely have an agenda, have a bone to pick with the president.
00:08:54.340 Here's some of the commentary that that you heard from our team of warriors on the bias of the Mueller
00:09:00.020 team. That Peter struck, we learned, had all these text messages. We got to read some of them early
00:09:03.900 this morning. Now, as my colleagues have pointed out, some of them are, you know, they show he didn't
00:09:09.600 like Trump. He and Ms. Page are exchanging text messages back and forth, show they don't like
00:09:13.860 the president. But that's nothing new. Everyone on Mueller's team, no one on Mueller's team likes
00:09:18.740 Trump. We already knew that. Most private sector law firms and even in prosecutorial agencies,
00:09:23.420 if you have a bias, you've got to disclose that bias because it's an ethical violation
00:09:28.420 to take a conflict of interest case. So people check that out. These biases are not
00:09:34.620 not inconsequential. If you're giving $30,000 to Democrats, guess what? You're all in.
00:09:40.440 Isn't it weird that Robert Mueller seemed to have a total lack of curiosity regarding the manner in
00:09:46.180 which clear bias could have infected his investigative decisions? I was just baffled by that answer.
00:09:51.120 So now, lo and behold, the Mueller investigation was not successful in impeaching the president. It was
00:09:57.060 sort of the false start to the Ukraine impeachment that they endeavored to go upon. And one of the key
00:10:02.920 moments, obviously, was Mueller's testimony. And I remember sitting there after just like the first
00:10:09.900 few questions from the first few members of Congress to Mueller. And it was very clear the guy like
00:10:15.800 wasn't all there. He wasn't completely with it. So let's roll some of the Mueller testimony. And you
00:10:21.240 tell me if this this sounds more like someone who is in full control of their faculties, if it sounds
00:10:26.980 more like the current incarnation of Joe Biden. Is it also true that you issued over 2,800 subpoenas,
00:10:32.680 executed nearly 500 search warrants, obtained more than 230 orders for communication records and 50
00:10:37.300 pin registers? That went a little fast for me. Okay. Did Attorney General Sessions tell you about
00:10:42.960 that little? I am not certain of the person who originally copied that quote. The name of that firm was
00:10:51.680 Fusion GPS. Is that correct? And you're on page 103? 103. That's correct. Volume 2.
00:11:01.140 When you talk about the firm that produced the steel reporting, the name of the firm that produced
00:11:08.160 that was Fusion GPS. Is that correct? I'm not familiar with that.
00:11:14.180 Well, let me just help you. It was. It's not a trick question. It was Fusion GPS.
00:11:20.800 And so who really was running the Mueller team? And what was their motivation? The answer,
00:11:26.860 Andrew Weissman. And if you want to know who Andrew Weissman is, he was the top deputy for Mueller.
00:11:33.380 He was the guy crying at Hillary Clinton's non-election victory party. He was the person who
00:11:41.100 was sending emails congratulating people in the administration for resisting President Trump's
00:11:47.520 directives as the duly elected leader of our country. And if you really want to get the
00:11:52.680 comprehensive book on Andrew Weissman, it was actually written by Sidney Powell,
00:11:58.680 the brilliant lawyer for General Michael Flynn. It's called License to Lie, and it does really indict
00:12:05.040 the practices of Andrew Weissman. Now, why is this in the news today? Because Weissman has
00:12:10.860 the audacity to serve himself up as the fireside chat special guest for a Joe Biden fundraiser.
00:12:20.420 So for Andrew Weissman, the mission never really stopped, right? The mission was to elect Hillary
00:12:26.060 Clinton. That failed. So he then assembles this team with like, you know, Mueller, obviously,
00:12:32.380 mentally out to lunch. And then now Weissman is engaging as a political actor. You know, maybe he
00:12:38.500 wants to be a politician or some political force. And I mean, like, what do you think that Weissman
00:12:44.160 fireside chat with Biden is going to be about? You think they're going to ask him about his austere
00:12:48.480 legal career? You know, his time going after drug dealers? No, they're going to ask about his efforts
00:12:55.260 to delegitimize Donald Trump after his election. And it is unfortunate that the Biden campaign would
00:13:05.160 entertain this because it continues on the path that Democrats have been on to erode confidence
00:13:11.480 in an independent, fair judiciary. You know, I have repeatedly said I want to build a justice system,
00:13:19.100 a FISA system that works no matter which party is in power, because I think both parties will
00:13:25.180 exchange power during the course of my lifetime. And it just would be nice if there were rules
00:13:30.420 that applied equally and that did not allow the party in power to convert the institutions that
00:13:36.960 we value to tell us the truth and to be honest into their political proxies. And that's what
00:13:42.440 happened in the Obama Biden administration. Andrew Weissman was a key player. And you know what?
00:13:47.840 Maybe he maybe he's out there auditioning, you know, for a role in a potential Biden administration.
00:13:52.220 But this is a sick way to do it. And it vindicates the claims that we made about Weissman and his bias.
00:13:58.380 Big Tech's got a COVID play. There's a great write-up in Bloomberg by Mark Gurman and Garrett DeVinck
00:14:07.020 about the Apple and Google effort to create exposure notification applications on their platforms.
00:14:15.380 Here, users would download apps. And then if users tested positive, they would upload that information.
00:14:23.600 And then the app would notify people who may have come in contact with the person who had uploaded
00:14:30.120 a positive result. So there are some issues here to tweeze through. A lot of governments have actually
00:14:37.000 been pushing for more information in this partnership with Google and Apple. The governments want to know,
00:14:44.120 well, who is it that tested positive? And right now, the platform doesn't allow that. What it does is
00:14:48.960 simply create a system of user notifications where the tech company notifies the users of some potential
00:14:56.520 positive contact. The newly released 13.5 iOS update will have these applications. And it really begs
00:15:05.240 the question, you know, would you do it? Right? Would you download an app that would tell you if you'd
00:15:10.800 come in contact with someone who might have coronavirus? I can just tell you this, you know,
00:15:15.800 my first reaction to this story was, heck no. The last thing I want to do is get into a system where
00:15:23.620 Google and Apple and other big tech companies are aggregating massive amounts of personal health data,
00:15:31.020 my personal health data. I mean, you know, today it's to create a contact tracing system. But do I know
00:15:36.980 that's not going to be something that's sold off into some secondary or tertiary market to sell me ads based
00:15:43.260 on my health? Is that going to be used to notify other people of information? So I don't know. I
00:15:49.380 think there is a slippery slope. And the fact that you already see some changes being made by the tech
00:15:55.580 companies to give public health officials more of an ability to contact even anonymously someone who's
00:16:02.520 tested positive indicates that this is an evolving dynamic that you don't necessarily know, you know,
00:16:08.540 when you upload something, whether or not that is solely going to be used for the stated purpose. So
00:16:14.300 that was my first reaction. But then I got to tell you, I mean, I went back to standing there on Air
00:16:20.160 Force One. The plane is about to take off from Orlando, Florida to go to Washington. And I get a
00:16:27.280 frantic phone call from my chief of staff saying that they had just received information that I
00:16:32.260 am in a picture holding the phone of someone who had coronavirus. And I just thought to myself,
00:16:38.740 like, you know, if I were to become a vector of this disease, to someone who works in the White 0.98
00:16:45.160 House, to the president or a member of his team, to anyone, to a member of my family, I mean, I would
00:16:50.400 never be able to live with myself. And so, you know, as as the president was, was saying, wrap gates and
00:16:56.200 cellophane. I was I was self quarantining. And certainly at that point, I would have done
00:17:03.120 anything to ensure that anyone I'd come in contact with got tested, got every advantage if I was
00:17:13.580 carrying this disease. So, you know, I sort of am still open minded about these tech platforms. I do
00:17:21.240 think that there is substantial risk to privacy. I'm glad that Apple and Google have put out
00:17:25.880 statements on that subject. But frankly, given both of those companies behaviors on issues of
00:17:32.800 privacy, they don't have the most credibility. And so I think it requires a lot of diligence.
00:17:38.440 So think about it. Would you download the app? Would you upload your information?
00:17:42.920 Go read Bloomberg News. Let me know in your reviews and comments.
00:17:48.660 Airplanes are sort of weird these days. You get on, folks are wearing the mask. And ESPN is
00:17:54.920 today reporting that some other weird stuff's been happening on airplanes. The title of the article
00:18:00.120 in lawsuit NFL player says he was sexually harassed, assaulted during United Airlines flight. So an
00:18:06.400 unnamed NFL player is suing United Airlines, alleging that a female passenger who was in his row made a
00:18:14.020 series of unwanted sexual advances, that she pulled down his face mask, that she groped him and that he
00:18:22.560 had repeatedly asked for flight attendants for assistance and that ultimately this NFL player
00:18:28.860 alleges in the lawsuit that he had to move to a different part of the plane and that that the
00:18:33.720 airline provided no assistance in this circumstance. So the lawsuit's been filed in Los Angeles. And I
00:18:40.980 guess we'll see. We'll see how it goes. I'll be watching this. I find it interesting just to see
00:18:44.820 sort of how a few of the legal issues here and PR issues play out. You know, I mean, is there going
00:18:51.260 to be a different standard applied because, you know, the gender roles appear to be reversed here from
00:18:57.020 the typical news coverage around these these harassment events and the fact that it's an NFL player and the
00:19:04.880 fact that that really the airline has to define what their standard of care is for their passengers. I mean,
00:19:11.200 does the airline have an obligation in a circumstance where someone is repeatedly complaining
00:19:16.140 to step in and do something about it? So NFL players on the run from the sexual harassers on 0.84
00:19:22.580 the airplanes. We'll see how it goes. I hope everyone has a safe Memorial Day weekend and take the time
00:19:30.020 to reflect on what a blessing it is to live in this great country, a country that inspires such a sense
00:19:35.920 of service and patriotism that folks go out there and wear the uniform. They prepare at a hair trigger
00:19:41.920 of readiness. They defend our interests and our freedom and our safety and our values. And at times
00:19:47.720 our military force is required to make the ultimate sacrifice. And when we have the opportunity to honor
00:19:55.620 that, to hold it up in the highest esteem, we should do so in every corner, in every town, in every
00:20:01.840 city in this great country. I know we'll be doing that here in Northwest Florida. We pride ourselves
00:20:06.400 on being one of the most military friendly communities and one of the most military friendly
00:20:10.560 states in the country. So get outside a little bit. I hope it's warm air that's zapping that coronavirus
00:20:16.560 so that we can enjoy our families, enjoy our great country and honor those who've made the ultimate
00:20:22.400 sacrifice. Have a great weekend, everyone. We'll be back next week with more hot takes.