On this episode of Firebrand, we cover: - Rep. Matt Gaetz's take on the Deep State's attempt to delegitimize his campaign - and why it's a good thing he's not running for re-election. - The Democratic charge that the House will raise the debt ceiling, but also do so with corresponding cuts that harm veterans - is a false charge? - Congresswoman Luna's response to that - and much more! - Tucker Carlson's new gig, and why he's an important voice in our ideology, in our nation, and in our culture. - And, of course, we talk about the January 6th defendants.
00:00:00.000Matt Gaetz was one of the very few members in the entire Congress who bothered to stand up against permanent Washington on behalf of his constituents.
00:00:10.000Matt Gaetz right now, he's a problem for the Democratic Party.
00:00:13.000He could cause a lot of hiccups in passing applause.
00:00:16.000So we're going to keep running those stories to keep hurting him.
00:00:19.000If 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.
00:00:29.000You are in the right place. This is the movement for you.
00:00:33.000You ever watch this guy on television? Like a machine. Matt Gaetz.
00:00:38.000I'm a canceled man in some corners of the Internet.
00:00:41.000Many days I'm a marked man in Congress, a wanted man by the deep state.
00:00:46.000They aren't really coming for me. They're coming for you.
00:00:55.000Welcome back to Firebrand. We are live broadcasting out of room twenty twenty one of the Rayburn House office building in dreary, rainy, disgusting Washington, D.C. on this Friday afternoon.
00:01:08.000The House of Representatives has taken their final vote of the day.
00:01:11.000That was on a key measure to institute tariffs against some of the entities that have stolen our solar intellectual property.
00:01:20.000I'm going to show you the debate pro and con on that measure final measure of the week.
00:01:25.000Also, we've got reaction to the Democrat charge that the House plan to raise the debt limit, but also do so with corresponding spending cuts that that harms veterans.
00:01:37.000That is a false charge. We've got reaction to that from Congresswoman Luna.
00:01:41.000Also, I had legislation before the House of Representatives regarding Ukraine and whether or not we would have an inquiry to the Biden administration with troop levels, where personnel are, what equipment is being used, all the information they had regarding strategy and future plans.
00:02:02.000That legislation moved through the House foreign affairs committee.
00:02:05.000I'm going to show you the debate on that. It should be ready for the House floor.
00:02:09.000Something my constituents clearly want is accountability when it comes to the assistance that's been provided to Ukraine.
00:02:16.000We did something a little different today to start the show.
00:02:19.000It is Friday. I asked folks on Twitter what they wanted me to address at the top, and I got some interesting ones.
00:02:26.000So I'm going to go through those first before we get to those main issues in the show.
00:02:31.000First was Joe who said he wanted to know what information I had on the next Tucker gig.
00:02:39.000And here's the thing, Joe. Your question presupposes that it is a gig or a job working for someone else.
00:02:49.000And here's what I do know. Tucker Carlson is not done.
00:02:54.000Tucker Carlson will be an important voice in our ideology, in our nation.
00:03:01.000He's more than a talk show host. He's a cultural figure, a phenomenon.
00:03:06.000Someone I spoke to regularly about matters of war and peace, trade issues, immigration issues,
00:03:12.000how America interacted with countries through weapons sales and other intense diplomatic endeavors and negotiations.
00:03:21.000Tucker Carlson is a brilliant person, and he has inspired many folks who work on Capitol Hill today,
00:03:27.000who make up the ranks of our activists all across the country.
00:03:32.000And I don't think it'll be a gig, Joe. I think it'll be something else.
00:03:37.000But I'm certainly going to let Tucker break his own news.
00:03:40.000Another thing folks are concerned about, and with good reason, the congressional oversight on what's happening with the January 6th defendants.
00:03:47.000You saw the trip that the oversight committee took to the D.C. jail.
00:03:52.000You've seen the correspondence we've sent regarding deprivations of certain civil rights and really human rights,
00:03:59.000regarding the care and confinement and, at times, even solitary confinement that J6 defendants have had to endure.
00:04:08.000And we are working alongside the oversight committee. Many members of the oversight committee are taking an appropriate lead on this issue.
00:04:15.000But I think you're going to see some hearings coming up there in that committee.
00:04:19.000And we may also be doing some field hearings that we'll be able to announce and certainly cover here on Firebrand.
00:04:25.000We are interested in this. We have not let this go.
00:04:28.000And we know that the American people are interested in it as well for the sake of our trust in our justice system.
00:04:37.000Was it weaponized? Was information withheld?
00:04:41.000Was there a recasting of events with a diminution in focus on some of the potential involvement with federal undercovers, confidential informants?
00:04:53.000That's the stuff that really unlocks the truth about January 6th.
00:04:57.000Some of the episodes of Firebrand that have been best watched.
00:05:01.000I would encourage you to check those out and ensure you're fully up to date as to some of those facts that I think give rise to legitimate concern.
00:05:08.000Another piece of big news that got sent to me at the start of the show when I sent out that tweet.
00:05:14.000Mandatory E-Verify passing the Florida legislature.
00:05:21.000I know on the live stream we got a lot of folks watching from Florida.
00:05:24.000But E-Verify is essential to ensuring that we have a fair and legal workforce.
00:05:30.000And if we can get it done in Florida, in Arizona, places with massive agriculture industry, then certainly we can do it nationally.
00:05:39.000And there should be a national standard for E-Verify.
00:05:42.000If there is such an obvious interweaving of E-Verify and interstate commerce, I believe there ought to be action from the Congress on this question.
00:05:51.000And we passed E-Verify out of the House Judiciary Committee.
00:05:54.000It should be ready for a floor vote in May.
00:05:58.000Next month I expect a floor vote on E-Verify, asylum reform, remain in Mexico, how to ensure that people do not just get paroled into our country with the joke of an immigration system that Joe Biden and Mayorkas are currently overseeing.
00:06:15.000We are going to have a vote on that in May and there is big time momentum for this legislation.
00:06:21.000And Florida passing mandatory E-Verify only accelerates that momentum.
00:06:26.000I am proud of my Florida colleagues and I'm excited to see what that means for our workforce in the Sunshine State.
00:06:33.000Another thing folks want to know when the trans manifesto is coming out on the Tennessee shooter, the answer is, I don't know.
00:06:47.000You know, if this was a manifesto that espoused a vile form of white supremacy that we would certainly criticize and condemn.
00:06:57.000I mean, the FBI would have had that out within moments.
00:07:01.000But if it's radical gender ideology, and let me be clear, I don't know what is in this thing.
00:07:06.000But if that is indeed what it is, then does the FBI see any tension in the disparate treatment of some of these writings based on the radicalized, condemnable ideologies of the shooter, of the killer?
00:07:26.000Can they really say it impairs an ongoing investigation?
00:07:29.000Are there other suspects in the Tennessee shooting case?
00:07:33.000They obviously have the person who committed this act.
00:07:38.000And if there's information that I think the public would gather something from, draw conclusions from, if you would release it under one context, why would you not another?
00:08:04.000I want to get now to this charge Democrats are making in media interviews and in social media that the Republican plan somehow harms veterans on the debt limit.
00:08:15.000And let me be clear, I didn't vote for the Republican plan because I could not in good conscience gaslight $49 trillion in national debt on a bill where the final changes were being made at 2 o'clock the very morning of the vote.
00:08:31.000That's not what regular order looks like to me, but on the pure merits and substance, this Democrat claim is totally false addressed recently by veteran Florida woman Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna.
00:08:48.000Hey guys, the White House just put out a statement claiming that House Republicans apparently in our budget proposal are trying to go after VA and cut funding, which is completely not true.
00:09:00.000In fact, I'm looking at the limit on federal spending, the discretionary, the limits, right?
00:09:10.000What the administration likes to do, what Democrats like to do is they like to use veterans just like they did in the PAC Act, where they use burn pit victims, veterans, and put $400 billion in pork spending into a bill that didn't even go to vets.
00:09:23.000OK, so this is personal for me, obviously, being a veteran, but don't be a part of the problem and circulate false information because clearly we would not do that.
00:09:32.000But the fact that they're even trying to imply it because we actually came up with a proposed budget of which they wanted nothing to do with.
00:09:39.000I mean, that is exactly the problem in politics.
00:09:52.000C. Spelnitz on Instagram tells me to stop gaslighting.
00:09:57.000Well, Ms. Spelnitz, I think it's actually the Democrats that are gaslighting.
00:10:01.000Here's the argument they're trying to make on the VA.
00:10:04.000That if we simply take overall budget growth and cap that, that somehow that would treat every agency the same.
00:10:13.000You see, I don't believe in horizontal cuts across every agency regardless of which are performing their functions.
00:10:21.000What I believe in are deep vertical cuts at places like the Department of Education and the Department of Labor and the Department of Energy and the EPA.
00:11:00.000We'll get to the point soon where we're paying more on interest on the national debt than we do for our military.
00:11:05.000And so I think to be honest and fulsome about the care that we have for people who do rely on government programs like seniors and veterans and the elderly and the disabled.
00:11:17.000We have to ensure that everyone isn't just getting fat and happy off of federal budgets to continue to explode.
00:11:36.000It's what I think the voters in Northwest Florida sent me here for.
00:11:39.000Okay, I want to get now to the debate on a Ukraine resolution that I introduced.
00:11:45.000It moved out of the House Foreign Affairs Committee this week, and I'll read from it directly.
00:11:50.000It requires the DOD, the White House, to provide documents to the Congress,
00:11:56.000quote, indicating any plans for current or future military assistance to Ukraine
00:12:01.000and documents indicating whether any United States Armed Forces, including Special Operations Forces, are currently deployed in Ukraine.
00:12:10.000So we've seen conflicting news reports about this.
00:12:14.000We've seen news reports that have not paired neatly with the explanations that we've gotten out of John Kirby and other White House officials.
00:12:23.000And so I want it specifically as a required communication from the administration to the Congress.
00:12:30.000And if that were to be dishonest, it would be impeachable.
00:12:35.000But I want the truth, and I want to give the administration the opportunity to give us the truth.
00:12:41.000That debate went on in the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and you're about to hear from some of my colleagues,
00:12:47.000Kathy Manning, Jerry Connolly, Corey Mills, and Daryl Issa.
00:12:53.000Those are the members of Congress you're about to hear from if you are listening.
00:12:57.000And you know what? If you're listening, this is a good time to go ahead and give us a five-star rating.
00:13:01.000But this was the debate on the Ukraine resolution of inquiry. Take a listen.
00:13:06.000I now call up House Resolution 300, a resolution of inquiry requesting that the President
00:13:14.000and directing the Secretary of Defense to transmit respectively to the House of Representatives
00:13:20.000copies of all documents indicating any plans for current or future military assistance to Ukraine
00:13:27.000and documents indicating whether any United States forces, including special operation forces, are currently in Ukraine.
00:13:36.000This political measure from the lead author of the Ukraine fatigue resolution is unnecessarily divisive
00:13:44.000and plays directly into Vladimir Putin's hands.
00:13:48.000By seeking to force the disclosure of all current and future U.S. military plans
00:13:54.000and documents related to U.S. support to Ukraine, including sensitive details on the presence of U.S. personnel in Ukraine,
00:14:02.000the sponsors of this measure played directly into Putin's hands
00:14:06.000and jeopardized the very lives of those with whom we are standing.
00:14:11.000Let me read to you what Mr. Gates has said.
00:14:15.000We must suspend all foreign aid for the war in Ukraine
00:14:20.000and demand that all combatants in this conflict reach a peace agreement immediately.
00:14:26.000Apparently, Mr. Gates has decided for the Ukrainians what is in their best interest.
00:14:33.000And that means that the intent behind this motion is that.
00:14:39.000All this is simply saying is, is that they're requesting information
00:14:43.000if we were to use any type of military force in Ukraine, current or future.
00:15:29.000This is simply an inquiry for oversight by the president, or I should say request by Congress,
00:15:37.000for the president and the secretary of defense to provide a line of questioning
00:15:41.000or a reasonable amount of information on if we're deploying currently or in the future military forces.
00:15:47.000This oversight is vital and must continue.
00:15:50.000This committee is dedicated to the constant both public and private oversight of our monitoring of every single dollar and every weapon system.
00:16:02.000U.S. support is enduring, but it is not without the strings of accountability.
00:16:08.000The resolution of inquiry requests the administration to transmit relevant documents related to U.S. security assistance for Ukraine,
00:16:16.000as well as United States Armed Forces in country.
00:16:19.000The American taxpayer deserves to know how U.S. assistance is being spent.
00:16:25.000I move that the committee report House Resolution 300 to the House with a favorable recommendation.
00:16:34.000We are back live and that favorable recommendation was adopted.
00:16:39.000That was Congressman Darrell Issa of California.
00:16:42.000And even though Darrell and I probably don't share precisely the same view on Ukraine
00:16:47.000and the extent to which the U.S. should be involved at all,
00:16:50.000I'm glad that he sees the importance for the taxpayer to get the answers to these questions about the planning and the cost and the strategy and the troops.
00:20:13.000The legislation before us today, House Joint Resolution 39 Congressional Review Act legislation on solar tariffs,
00:20:22.000will stop President Biden's proclamation that has given a free pass for two years to unfair solar imports from China that circumvent our trade laws.
00:20:33.000The United States must maintain crucial protections for American workers and our economy as a whole.
00:20:40.000We cannot surrender to China or any other country and put American workers at a disadvantage.
00:20:48.000I ask for unanimous consent to submit for the record a statement from the Uyghur Human Rights Project in support of H.J. Res. 39.
00:20:57.000The statement highlights the close connection between the CCP's solar industry and the ongoing human rights abuses
00:21:06.000and forced labor being perpetrated against the Uyghurs.
00:21:10.000This is bipartisan consensus that these practices are unacceptable and must be stopped.
00:21:19.000In pursuit of everything green, the Biden administration has given a free pass for Chinese solar imports to flow into this country,
00:21:26.000by all means using an emergency proclamation.
00:21:31.000The last time a president used an emergency proclamation was for lumber in 1946 when American World War II veterans were returning home and they needed homes.
00:21:41.000But today, President Biden, or whoever's running the White House, is using it to waive tariffs on Chinese solar panels coming from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam for two years.
00:21:53.000Helping war heroes is an emergency, but speeding up total dependence on our greatest adversary is another.
00:22:02.000President Biden's irresponsible proclamation is a slap in the face to American manufacturers.
00:22:07.000It allows Chinese solar companies to flood our market with their products tariff-free, hurting American jobs.
00:22:14.000It is the Green New Deal agenda at work.
00:22:17.000President Biden's proclamation also sends the message to trade cheats everywhere that U.S. trade laws don't matter.
00:22:25.000This invites even more cheating, and this is only the tip of the spear of the dangerous Green New Deal agenda.
00:27:27.000Can you hear in their voices, just sometimes, how compromised they are?
00:27:33.000When they talk about the need to reorient the supply chain, but slowly, not too quickly, not in a way that would disrupt anything.
00:27:40.000Just enough time, I guess, for China to come and buy our farmland and our factories.
00:27:45.000Oh, and by the way, they're controlling the rare earth minerals that go into the production of so many of the things we need, especially battery technology, which is the essential feature of a solar system that allows you to actually use the energy in a reliable way.
00:28:00.000Yeah, that's coming from a series of minds all over the world that China is controlling.
00:28:09.000So, Sarah on Facebook says we've got to stop China from eating our lunch.
00:28:13.000And yeah, when you let someone steal your stuff, and then replicate it for cheap, and then go and drive you out, that's the definition of eating our lunch at the global economic trade table.
00:28:25.000Olga on Facebook says she's worried that we are starting to have a communist government.
00:28:32.000We know how that ends, and it's very ugly.
00:28:34.000James on Getter says, Representative Gates, stand up for the Second Amendment.
00:28:39.000James, my advice to you, go back and watch our last episode where we took the ATF director to task, and we are working on legislation right now to really go after the ATF.
00:28:51.000I think they should be entirely abolished, but we're going to start targeting the specific bureaucrats who have exceeded their lawful authority and have weaponized this agency against gun owners.
00:29:02.000Thank you for having an interest in it.
00:29:04.000It is something we work on each and every day.
00:29:06.000Thanks to everyone who participated in the live stream in today's show.
00:29:10.000Thank you for your questions, thoughts, and suggestions.
00:29:14.000This is our congressional newsletter that we offer to you, but the way you can help advance the cause, advance the message, share our episodes with someone who may find the content interesting, and make sure you are subscribed.