On this episode of Firebrand, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-GA) speaks out against the deep state. Rep. Gaetz was one of the few in the entire Congress who bothered to stand up against permanent Washington on behalf of his constituents.
00:02:00.000Federal debt explodes by $1 trillion in five weeks since the deal suspending the debt limit became law.
00:02:08.000So in five weeks, we blew through a trillion dollars.
00:02:12.000You heard myself, Congressman Roy, Dan Bishop on this very podcast talking about what a foolish piece of legislation this was
00:02:20.000that House Republicans joined with Democrats and Joe Biden to put into law.
00:02:25.000And one of the things we insisted on, have a dollar amount or a date.
00:02:31.000That way, if the Biden administration puts out too much cash against the law,
00:02:36.000against the authority that they've been given by the Constitution or the Congress,
00:02:40.000like they did on the student loan cancellation, that there is some backstop to that,
00:02:45.000that there is some mechanism to put downward pressure on spending.
00:02:49.000But instead, the Uniparty worked together and totally suspended the debt limit.
00:02:55.000I came on this program frequently and talked about the $4 trillion that had been gaslit.
00:03:01.000They have approved this thing through January 2025.
00:03:07.000And we're in the first five weeks and we've blown through a trillion dollars.
00:03:11.000We've increased the debt by a trillion dollars in that period of time.
00:03:17.000So the failure to say either or with a time period or a dollar amount, the failure to make that strategic choice,
00:03:24.000now is costing us the strength of the dollar, the American economy.
00:03:29.000It is a driver of inflation, all because Republicans wouldn't fight.
00:03:35.000And we're seeing the consequences of it now.
00:03:38.000It's why the upcoming appropriations process is so critical that we not go into just a policy that continues all or almost all of the Biden era spending.
00:03:49.000We have to take a meat cleaver to this federal budget.
00:03:53.000And we should start with the woke and weaponized programs that are harming our people.
00:03:57.000And you know what? A good place for us to start is the ATF.
00:04:02.000The ATF should be defunded. The ATF should be totally ended in its current form because they have lost their way.
00:04:11.000Now, we had a field hearing in Northwest Florida with Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene recently.
00:04:17.000And I'm going to walk you through in this program the evidence that we developed directly from people engaged in advocacy for gun owners, firearms licensees.
00:04:27.000You won't believe it. The first story I'm going to show you.
00:04:30.000This guy's Mr. Shuler. He ran a firearms business.
00:04:41.000He relied on others and he was punished as a consequence viciously by the FBI.
00:04:47.000I'm sorry, by the ATF. Take a listen to Mr. Shuler.
00:04:51.000Two years ago, while I was in the process of selling a firearm to a customer, I completed the background check using the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Purpose Program.
00:05:02.000The background check was uneventful and FDLE rendered an approval number.
00:05:08.000Some months later, during an ATF audit, I was told the background check was now a non-approval.
00:05:17.000I am a hands-on business owner and do all background checks myself.
00:05:23.000This background check came back as an approval.
00:05:26.000I was never notified in any way during the months before the audit that the approval was changed to a non-approval.
00:05:33.000When I was told that the approval changed, it was their opinion that I purposely unwillfully used the incorrect finding from the FDLE.
00:05:45.000Even though FDLE made the error, it was on my paperwork.
00:06:07.000But the ATF has revoked my license and ended my career and livelihood.
00:06:11.000They ended his career. They ended his livelihood.
00:06:17.000And he isn't even the one who made the mistake.
00:06:20.000Now, how is the ATF able to do this? What are the tools that they use to trap people like Mr. Shuler?
00:06:26.000Well, as Brandon Herrera will describe, they change the definitions.
00:06:32.000And it's all just so that they can shut people down. Take a listen to Brandon Herrera.
00:06:37.000The modern tactic that the ATF is exercising is expanding definitions of previously passed laws to include new things not covered in certain laws.
00:06:49.000You see, the ATF is not a legislative body. It is not Congress, and it cannot make new laws.
00:06:55.000But a changing or expanding definition of laws are passed by Congress that are essentially legislating.
00:07:02.000You see, even though Congress recently tried to reverse the ATF's ban on stabilizing pistol braces, a bill that failed,
00:07:08.000the ATF did not need any such bill to implement the ban on them in the first place.
00:07:13.000They simply made a decision to redefine them as SPRs, or short barrel rifles, and therefore regulated by the NFA,
00:07:20.000violations of which are punishable by 10 years in prison.
00:07:25.000How the hell can repealing a ban on something require a literal act of Congress,
00:07:30.000yet the ban itself did not require a bill to go before Congress in the first place?
00:07:36.000It's a fair question that Mr. Herrera asks, and it showcases how the ATF is trying to use regulatory authority
00:07:45.000to render potentially tens of millions of people felons when they have no intent to violate the law.
00:07:52.000Like, I thought the ATF, I thought the whole federal government was supposed to protect the people who wanted to be law-abiding.
00:07:57.000But here you see something very different, and it's often their systems that fail.
00:08:02.000And sometimes they fail our best patriots.
00:08:05.000Now, in Northwest Florida, we have a lot of firearms retailers who sell to members of our military.
00:08:12.000We have a lot of active duty military in our community.
00:08:14.000Active duty military enjoy using firearms for protection, for safety,
00:08:20.000for whatever constitutionally approved reason they want to use them for, actually.
00:09:12.000FDLE then puts that information into the NICS system where it either comes back a non-approval, an approval, or we need to do more research.
00:09:22.000An instant approval, great, we go through, no problems there.
00:09:27.000If it needs to do more research, it then comes back to the FDLE system.
00:09:31.000And FDLE has to do the research themselves since they've opted to take that on themselves.
00:09:38.000We've seen these false positives over and over.
00:09:42.000Recently, I just had a Navy pilot in my store that had purchased two firearms in the last six months when he came in and purchased another firearm.
00:09:55.000Navy pilot, you know, had full orders, everything in the store.
00:10:00.000So I have a contact at FDLE, luckily, after a lot of politicking because I think they just kind of want to keep me quiet at this point.
00:10:09.000And I reached out to him and he said, let me check into it.
00:10:13.000I gave him all the information, the transaction number and everything.
00:10:16.000And he asked me to speak to the Navy pilot that was in the store.
00:10:21.000I put him on the phone and five minutes later came back with an approval.
00:10:26.000So what had happened is he explained to me that the pilot's information, he had the same name as a gentleman out of New York, but the birth dates were different.
00:10:40.000Well, he had put his social security number on the form and they could not get the social security number of the gentleman out of New York that had been arrested.
00:10:52.000So since they couldn't confirm that he wasn't this person, they just denied his form.
00:10:59.000This is a military, you know, a military Navy pilot and they just just denied his form.
00:11:05.000If I had not had the contact that I have at FDLE, then this gentleman just wouldn't have been able to buy.
00:11:12.000He would have had to go through an appeal process that can take up to six months just to exercise his Second Amendment rights.
00:11:18.000That's right, Mr. Smith, and he would have had to pay for the attorneys and spend his time doing that.
00:11:23.000It's a good thing you as a business owner have so much time on your hands.
00:11:27.000To get yourself involved in these endeavors to protect people's Second Amendment.
00:11:31.000We are back live and you see how tedious and pedantic the ATF acts when dealing with some of our small businesses.
00:11:43.000Some of these are multi-generational family businesses, oftentimes mom and pop.
00:11:48.000And then if you do well, if you start to be one of the more successful gun retailers in your area, well, then they really crack down on you.
00:11:55.000I was recently in the Pacific Northwest where states have instituted very draconian gun policies and they said, you know, the ATF doesn't bother us so much.
00:12:04.000Because when we have to endure the even worse standards in Washington State and Oregon and California, well, the ATF knows that they can then go focus on the red states.
00:12:17.000They can go focus on people in Florida and Alabama and South Carolina and Texas, places where our state governments actually want to vindicate our rights, not chip away at them.
00:12:29.000Now, the ATF also has a real problem living up to their own standard.
00:12:35.000This was a point brilliantly made by the head of the American Firearms Association, Patrick Parsons, at our hearing. Take a listen.
00:12:44.000Congress has called the ATF, quote, a largely duplicative scandal-ridden agency that lacks a clear mission.
00:12:52.000It is plagued by backlogs, funding gaps, hiring challenges, and a lack of leadership.
00:12:57.000For decades, it has been branded by high-profile failures.
00:13:01.000Earlier this year, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel reported to the Biden Administration that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives for years illegally overpaid up to $20 million to agents and investigators who work in non-law enforcement positions by misclassifying them as law enforcement posts.
00:13:20.000Regarding the recent pistol brace rule, in his Judiciary Committee testimony, Director Dettelbach said, quote,
00:13:27.000We wrote the rule to make it easy to comply with. If somebody just at their home detaches the weapon from the brace and keeps them apart, they don't have to register anything.
00:13:38.000They can keep the brace and they can keep the business end of the gun.
00:13:42.000But the written rule says to comply in this manner, the owner must permanently remove and dispose of or alter the stabilizing brace such that it cannot be reattached, thereby removing the weapon from regulation as a firearm under the NFA.
00:13:58.000This inconsistency from Mr. Dettelbach, in my opinion, is a scandal.
00:14:02.000His unfamiliarity with his own regulatory policy will undoubtedly lead to confusion among tens of millions of pistol brace owners.
00:14:10.000On the surface alone, as I said, this is a scandal.
00:14:12.000The director of the ATF under oath publicly at odds with his own regulation.
00:14:20.000We are back live. Not a lot of love for the ATF on the live stream.
00:14:24.000Tiger Don's 1971 on Rumble says defund the ATF.
00:14:28.000You cannot create a department whose sole purpose is circumventing the Constitution, disarming the people.
00:14:37.000We've got legislation to do just that.
00:14:39.000But it's not just in Washington where we can take action in order to vindicate gun rights.
00:14:45.000We have a lot of opportunities in the state legislature.
00:14:49.000A very strong pro-Second Amendment state representative for Florida comes from my congressional district, Dr. Joel Rudman.
00:14:57.000Dr. Rudman laid out legislation that he's pursuing in Florida to ensure that delays with national systems don't stop Floridians from being able to access firearms.
00:15:08.000Here's Dr. Rudman's testimony regarding that important legislation.
00:15:14.000A lot of the issues we have with these delayed background checks, it's actually not the state of Florida.
00:15:20.000It's when people move to Florida from other states.
00:15:24.000So a good example would be California.
00:15:27.000They specifically told me that there were names on the list who had moved here from California.
00:15:33.000And in FDLE's opinion, they said California is the hardest state to get background check information from.
00:15:41.000Apparently, whoever does things in California, they answer 100 phone calls a day.
00:15:47.000So if you're caller number 101, they hang up on you.
00:15:52.000But again, to answer your question, should FDLE be running this?
00:15:57.000Should the feds be running this? Reciprocity?
00:15:59.000You can imagine if I'm calling from Tallahassee needing some information and I'm calling Sacramento, do you think they're going to be in a rush to give that information to Tallahassee?
00:16:10.000Or if the FBI were calling, who do you think is going to get their phone call returned first?
00:16:16.000So that's the incentive for my bill for next session.
00:16:19.000We're going to put a shot clock on FDLE.
00:16:22.000We're going to give them as much money as they need to do their job properly.
00:16:27.000But if they can't do it, worst case scenario, if we decide to use the NICS system,
00:16:32.000whatever we need to do to not restrict people's Second Amendment rights,
00:16:37.000whatever we need to do to get that background check done in a reasonable amount of time, not two years, three days.
00:16:45.000Thank you, Dr. Rudman, for ensuring that Florida is doing everything possible for gun owners and for our gun rights.
00:16:54.000This evidence is very important for the fight that is upcoming in the halls of Congress regarding whether or not to defund the salary of the ATF director,
00:17:02.000the entire agency, whether to repeal the legislation or not even the legislation, the rules that the ATF has put in place to try to make law abiding people criminals.
00:17:12.000So thank you to our witnesses. Thank you to everyone who participated.
00:17:16.000Much more to come in our fight against the ATF.
00:17:19.000But now I want to tell you a little bit about a visit that my wife, Ginger,
00:17:24.000and my Washington-based congressional staff made yesterday.
00:17:28.000Now, it's with great reverence and solemnity that we visited the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier,
00:17:34.000and we laid a wreath on behalf of Florida's first congressional district.
00:17:37.000Nestled in the heart of Arlington National Cemetery,
00:17:40.000the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, it's so much more than a monument.
00:17:44.000It is a tribute to the unnamed heroes who laid down their lives in service of our country.
00:17:50.000The identities of many who fought for our country, who've died in foreign lands, will forever be veiled in mystery.
00:17:58.000But their courage and their dedication will be forever etched into our hearts.
00:18:04.000The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was established on March 4th, 1921,
00:18:10.000and the tomb holds the remains of an unidentified American soldier from World War I,
00:18:15.000representing all of those who paid the ultimate price for our freedom.
00:18:19.000And a lot of them, well, we'll never know their names.
00:18:22.000This monument is a striking edifice with white marble.
00:20:39.000Hi, my name is Tara Dublin, and I am a contributor at Hillreporter.com,
00:20:45.000and I am in Clark County, Washington, where I am a resident, where Matt Gates traveled to yesterday in support of Joe Kent,
00:20:52.000the local Republican challenger to Jamie Herrera-Butler, and I had an interview with Joe Kent.
00:20:57.000Matt Gates was supposed to sit in until Matt Gates found out I was the person conducting the interview, and then he canceled.
00:21:03.000And we were led on a wild goose chase to a private fundraiser where we weren't going to be led in.
00:21:08.000And then we went to the rally where Matt Gates' private security detail and Joe Kent's private security detail were incredibly aggressive towards us and intimidating.
00:21:17.000Matt Gates refused to speak to me, but he had no problem retweeting a tweet of mine with a video where I'm speaking.
00:21:25.000And now Matt Gates' followers are swarming me and trolling me and insulting my appearance
00:21:31.000and calling me butch and a dyke and saying terrible things and frightening me because Matt Gates' virtue signaled his followers on me,
00:21:38.000which is a violation of Twitter terms of service.
00:21:40.000So what I am asking for on this date, September 7th, where I live in Washington State, it is 2.41 in the afternoon.
00:21:49.000I know he's not going to apologize because he doesn't apologize for anything, but I do want him to delete that tweet that is going after me like that, going after a private citizen.
00:22:33.000That's obviously a totally stable individual.
00:22:38.000Of course, we did not delete any tweets and were not sued because, well, you're allowed to say true things about people if you'd like.
00:22:45.000So whatever you do, don't swarm Tara Dublin.
00:22:48.000She can't take it when my supporters swarm her.
00:22:51.000So we're not asking you to do that, but if someone didn't want to be swarmed or criticized or attacked, would they do something like I'm about to show you?
00:23:02.000I don't even know how to set this clip up because it's so bizarre, but the voicemail you just listened to was from several years ago, and then this clip was posted yesterday.
00:25:14.000Now, they call me a thread to democracy while saying that the only just result is that they have one party rule in the United States Congress without a single Republican.
00:25:26.000Now, does that sound like a democracy to you?
00:25:29.000Or does that sound more like the Duma or the Politburo?
00:25:42.000And they want revolution and reparations.
00:25:45.000And while they march to expand the Supreme Court, to pack the court, to cheat to achieve these objectives, they're willing to call you and me and anyone who fights for our country and our freedom and our values and our language and our culture a threat.
00:26:03.000If you want to harm America, I guess we are threats because we stand each and every day for the Constitution.
00:26:09.000And I am exceedingly grateful for the support that all of you have offered me during this time in Congress.
00:26:15.000Now, many of you on the live chat have suggested that I seek the speakership and maybe replace the current occupant.
00:26:22.000I can assure you of this, despite the kindness and support all of you show me, there would be somewhere between no support for me to be Speaker of the House and very, very insufficient support to be able to hold that position.
00:26:37.000But we will certainly hold the line each and every day.
00:26:40.000And so that you are informed about these matters and what is coming before the Congress and the evidence we're developing, make sure you're subscribed to this podcast, turn your notifications on, and tune in soon for more Firebrand.