The Anchormen Show with Matt Gaetz - Episode 114 LIVE： Lost And Broken (feat. Rep. Adam Smith) – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz

00:00:00.000 Matt Gaetz was one of the very few members in the entire Congress who bothered to stand

00:00:07.560 up against permanent Washington on behalf of his constituents.

00:00:10.880 Matt Gaetz right now, he's a problem for the Democratic Party.

00:00:13.700 And he can cause a lot of hiccups in passing the laws.

00:00:16.720 So we're going to keep running those stories to keep hurting him.

00:00:19.920 If you stand for the flag and kneel in prayer, if you want to build America up and not burn

00:00:26.020 her to the ground, then welcome, my fellow patriots.

00:00:29.340 You are in the right place.

00:00:31.020 This is the movement for you.

00:00:33.140 You ever watch this guy on television?

00:00:35.280 Like a machine, Matt Gaetz.

00:00:37.880 I'm a canceled man in some corners of the Internet.

00:00:41.040 Many days I'm a marked man in Congress, a wanted man by the deep state.

00:00:45.840 They aren't really coming for me.

00:00:47.700 They're coming for you.

00:00:49.680 I'm just in the way.

00:00:50.940 Welcome back to Firebrand.

00:00:56.400 We are live broadcasting out of the Rayburn House Office Building Room 2021, the Capitol

00:01:01.700 Complex in Washington, D.C.

00:01:03.380 I'm told we're on a new platform now, KICK.

00:01:06.900 So if you're a kicker, follow us on KICK.

00:01:09.580 We're there.

00:01:10.440 Thanks for tuning in.

00:01:11.260 We've got folks from Nevada, Oklahoma, Michigan, Arizona, Hawaii, Arkansas, Florida, and Washington

00:01:16.860 State.

00:01:17.380 If you're the Washington State viewers, you're going to want to stick around because at the

00:01:23.100 end of this episode, I've got a terrific interview with a Democrat member of Congress

00:01:28.160 I have sparred with frequently, but it's an interview that I think will give you great

00:01:32.540 insights into the pressures of this job and governing and frankly just existing in this

00:01:38.440 world and how some people are dealing with it.

00:01:41.020 Congressman Adam Smith will be joining us.

00:01:43.140 He's got a new book out called Lost and Broken.

00:01:45.400 And it seems that a great deal is lost and broken these days.

00:01:49.780 Also going to give you an inside look at the debate we just had on Syria on the floor,

00:01:55.620 a hearing with our military personnel subcommittee.

00:01:59.480 It was one of the most uncomfortable moments for a general in front of the Armed Services

00:02:04.040 Committee in a long time.

00:02:05.520 We're going to have that clip.

00:02:06.560 But first, the big news on Capitol Hill today, the IRS whistleblowers.

00:02:11.640 This whistleblower X, we now know as Joseph Ziegler, they are laying out the case that in

00:02:18.360 similar circumstances, anyone other than Hunter Biden would have seen a felony charge and that

00:02:23.580 people were directly involved in suppressing the investigatory work with very large sums of

00:02:28.980 money, tax monies owed, not paid.

00:02:32.400 Hunter Biden getting special treatment.

00:02:34.420 And you remember what they did to the FBI whistleblowers, right?

00:02:39.040 Garrett O'Boyle, Steve Friend, Marcus Allen. 0.70

00:02:41.980 They made them all out to be white supremacists, dangerous conservatives.

00:02:47.580 You know, those people that President Obama complained about clinging to guns and Bibles.

00:02:54.040 Well, you're not going to be able to make that case against the IRS whistleblowers.

00:02:57.780 You're not going to be able to smear them just because, I don't know, they're unvaccinated 1.00

00:03:03.860 or conservative or they're evangelical Christians.

00:03:09.160 You're dealing with people who might otherwise be regularly counted among the Biden supporters,

00:03:17.080 but they saw the injustice and they stepped forward.

00:03:20.560 Let's go right to Joseph Ziegler in the House Oversight Committee giving whistleblower testimony.

00:03:25.660 Take a listen.

00:03:27.780 I've recently discovered that people are saying that I must be more credible because I'm a

00:03:32.540 Democrat who happens to be married to a man.

00:03:34.920 I'm no more credible than this man sitting next to me due to my sexual orientation or my

00:03:42.540 political beliefs.

00:03:43.780 The truth is, my credibility comes today from my job experience with the IRS and my intimate

00:03:50.340 knowledge of the agency's standard and procedures.

00:03:53.100 In early August of 2022, federal prosecutors from the Department of Justice Tax Division

00:03:58.740 drafted a 99-page memorandum.

00:04:02.460 In so, they were recommending for approval felony and misdemeanor charges for the 2017, 18, and

00:04:09.720 19 tax years.

00:04:11.260 That did not happen here, and I am not sure why.

00:04:13.980 I think we're all pretty sure why.

00:04:18.900 It's because there's a protection racket that exists for the benefit of the Bidens at the expense of the rest of us.

00:04:25.580 And really, when you're talking about Hunter Biden's tax evasion, it's the least of the Biden family's worries because,

00:04:31.620 increasingly, the money laundering is coming forward.

00:04:34.740 The connections to the Chinese, some shady businessmen in Eastern Europe, was plowing cash in exchange for favors from the Bidens. 0.91

00:04:43.560 And it's all coming out.

00:04:45.140 Unfortunately, we have a Department of Justice far more interested in going after conservatives, targeting them, sending the FBI to big tech companies to censor our speech, 0.81

00:04:54.660 than to actually follow up on these true crimes.

00:04:59.760 I want to also give you an important update regarding work that occurred in the House Armed Services Committee today.

00:05:06.860 As I've said many times, the greatest perk of being a member of Congress, above all else,

00:05:13.560 the opportunity to nominate our young patriots for military academies.

00:05:18.560 West Point, the Naval Academy, Air Force Academy, Merchant Marines, you typically get to see the best of the best.

00:05:23.780 And on days when even you're a little down about the country or the state of affairs,

00:05:28.980 when you see these brave young patriots step up to express their love of country through service in our military academies,

00:05:35.520 it is revitalizing.

00:05:38.360 Well, increasingly, we have learned that at these military academies, there's been an invasion of wokeness.

00:05:44.700 And it's the radical race ideology.

00:05:47.260 It's the radical gender ideology. 1.00

00:05:49.040 You'll recall some of the slides that were being presented to students.

00:05:53.780 Asked them not to say boyfriend or girlfriend.

00:05:56.720 You had to say partner.

00:05:58.040 Not mom or dad.

00:05:59.520 You had to say parent.

00:06:01.220 You have to say y'all instead of you guys.

00:06:04.340 Guess I don't much mind y'all coming from where I come from.

00:06:08.220 But nonetheless, the lack of oversight, the lack of institutional respect for the norms and values of the country,

00:06:15.780 seemed to have gone away.

00:06:17.780 And we should investigate why.

00:06:19.380 So we had all of the service academy superintendents of their various areas before the Congress.

00:06:27.420 And we were asking them questions.

00:06:28.760 Now, you're about to see me question General Clark.

00:06:32.980 General Clark is the leader of the Air Force Academy.

00:06:37.340 And at the Air Force Academy, it seems as though some of this stuff has gone most sideways.

00:06:44.040 And so I'm asking him about a scholarship program that they allow to advertise and solicit on their base.

00:06:53.400 And he can't even define the basic terms of eligibility drawn from radical gender ideology.

00:07:03.600 Take a listen.

00:07:04.460 A diverse and inclusive force is a war fighting imperative.

00:07:11.520 This is on a slide at the Air Force Academy.

00:07:14.580 General Clark, do you agree with that statement?

00:07:19.000 I do agree with that statement, sir.

00:07:21.160 So, I mean, were the Mongols diverse?

00:07:25.300 Well, sir, I'm not really as versed on Mongol war fighting as I am on U.S. war fighting.

00:07:32.100 Were the Vikings diverse?

00:07:34.460 Again, sir, I'm looking at our country, the most diverse country in the world.

00:07:39.320 Sure, sure.

00:07:39.960 But this is about a war fighting imperative.

00:07:41.580 How about the force in Ukraine?

00:07:43.560 Are the Ukrainians fighting the Russians a diverse force?

00:07:47.960 Sir, once again, my concern is the people that I'm charged to build into leaders.

00:07:53.660 Right, but you would acknowledge that throughout history, including present history, that statement hasn't borne true in every example, right?

00:08:01.380 Sir, what I would say is that those countries have to rely on the full force of their population to build a war fighting force, to win our wars.

00:08:09.560 And that's why it's important for us to be diverse.

00:08:12.220 Sure, so let's look at the population that actually makes up the fighting force frequently.

00:08:18.000 Now, we have more men than women, right? 0.99

00:08:20.740 70, 30-ish?

00:08:22.580 That's correct.

00:08:23.200 And of the men we have, most of them are not transgender men.

00:08:27.320 Most of them are cisgender men, right?

00:08:29.320 Yes, sir.

00:08:32.340 But yet, at our academies, we push something called the Brooke Owens Fellowship.

00:08:37.060 Are you familiar with that?

00:08:38.020 I am, yes, sir.

00:08:39.060 And in that fellowship, it specifically says, if you are a cisgender man, this program isn't for you.

00:08:47.280 So, you just said that your answer on why we do such this full hug of these diversity concepts is because it's all about the fighting force that we draw from.

00:08:58.460 But you're literally pushing a program in the academies that says, if you're a cisgender woman, a transgender woman, a non-binary, agender, bigender, two-spirit, demigender, what's demigender?

00:09:13.140 Sir, that's a term of the people that are eligible for that particular scholarship that is available to, it's a person who looks at their gender in a different way than I do, sir.

00:09:27.900 Well, sure, that's all of these people.

00:09:29.420 You're a cisgender man.

00:09:30.320 You don't even get to apply.

00:09:31.700 Well.

00:09:32.140 Do you know what demigender really means?

00:09:34.820 I'm not really sure, sir.

00:09:36.360 Right.

00:09:36.760 So, do you know what agender means?

00:09:40.320 All one word, not a-space-gender, but agender.

00:09:45.180 Sir, I don't.

00:09:46.240 Right.

00:09:46.580 So, here we are pushing a fellowship, calling for people that you don't even know what the words mean, and the number one group of people, the cisgender men, are excluded.

00:10:01.220 Now, in the name of diversity, equity, and inclusion, should we be pushing programs that we can't define that exclude the largest group of service members?

00:10:11.240 Well, sir, first, that program is not an Air Force Academy program.

00:10:15.560 It's a program open to our entire country.

00:10:18.480 Right.

00:10:18.700 But you guys advocate for it within the academy.

00:10:21.180 We allow our cadets to apply for it.

00:10:22.920 Why are you allowing your cadets to apply for a program when you cannot define the basic terms of eligibility?

00:10:29.460 Because it's an opportunity for us to develop them as warfighters, and we look for every opportunity that we can.

00:10:35.500 But you don't even know what the words mean.

00:10:36.100 How can you use this as a way to develop the warfighters if you don't know what it means?

00:10:39.480 Well, some of those terms may not be applicable to us at the Air Force Academy, but some are.

00:10:45.960 But, well, if you don't know what they mean, it's hard to tell if they're applicable or not.

00:10:49.980 So I think one of the reasons why some of this stuff has gotten into the academies is because we don't have the same oversight from the Board of Visitors.

00:10:58.420 And, Mr. Chairman, I seek unanimous consent to enter into the record an article from the Washington Examiner entitled,

00:11:04.180 To Push Wokey Ideology, Biden Illegally Gutted Military Academy Oversight Boards.

00:11:09.700 And so in this piece, it goes through a timeline where on September 8, 2021, all of President Trump's appointees were fired.

00:11:16.940 On September 17, Secretary Austin created Board of Visitors subcommittees, and then he populated those subcommittees with people who weren't on the Board of Visitors.

00:11:25.780 Have you ever seen that happen before?

00:11:28.300 Sir, our Board of Visitors is populated and supports us in great fashion.

00:11:32.760 Right.

00:11:32.940 What about the subcommittees?

00:11:33.880 Are there people on the Board of Visitors subcommittees who are not on the Board of Visitors?

00:11:37.900 I can't answer that, sir.

00:11:41.360 Seems like something we ought to know.

00:11:43.500 Yes, sir.

00:11:44.640 I'm not sure.

00:11:45.120 Right, but that would be odd, right?

00:11:46.520 I mean, here, let me ask the question this way.

00:11:48.660 You don't have any basis to disagree with the reporting here in the Washington Examiner that literally we have people who are not on the Board of Visitors who are serving on these subcommittees.

00:11:57.540 You have no basis to disagree with that, do you?

00:11:59.080 Sir, I'm not exactly sure of the question you're asking, so I'll have to take that for record so I can understand exactly what you're asking.

00:12:10.180 Thank you, Mr. Representative Escobar.

00:12:13.780 We are back live.

00:12:15.260 Selena on YouTube says it's crazy that I even have to ask these questions, and I'll be straight with you.

00:12:21.540 I still don't know what demigender means, and I don't know what agender means,

00:12:25.340 and I'm not entirely sure we need to know these things to grow warfighters, right?

00:12:29.980 Like, the point I was making in that hearing that I continue to make is that our military should be focused on lethality, capability, survivability,

00:12:39.120 and having to worry about whether or not we've got the right number of demigender people in a scholarship fellowship program is a distraction from that mission, 0.52

00:12:49.740 and oftentimes it's divisive and harmful to the very sense of unity that we're trying to create in the military.

00:12:56.060 So I know I play you a lot of these clips of me asking tough questions of these generals,

00:12:59.940 and it is weird, Selena, that I have to keep doing it, but we have to shine a light on this,

00:13:04.360 and that's a point that many of you have made as well.

00:13:07.460 But it's not just here in our country where our military is engaged in far-flung misadventures.

00:13:12.540 I've consistently made the argument that the United States should not be entangled in major power competition in Syria.

00:13:19.920 But one of the statutory things that allows the Syrian conflict to go on with continued U.S. entanglement

00:13:27.620 is the power we have vested in the executive to declare a national emergency.

00:13:33.180 So in 2004, nearly 20 years ago, we declared a national emergency in Syria.

00:13:41.280 And the Congress is supposed to vote on those national emergencies, their propriety, every six months.

00:13:50.480 But we don't do that.

00:13:52.140 It allows for massive slush funds, endless wars, and a real risk of accident or escalation.

00:13:59.720 So I filed legislation to end the national emergency in Syria,

00:14:04.960 believing sincerely that the United States of America is more likely to be the cause of a national emergency in Syria

00:14:11.200 than the solution.

00:14:14.440 Only, I think it was like 25 or 26 people out of the 435 in Congress voted with me.

00:14:21.220 Over 300 voted the other way.

00:14:24.940 So I got killed in this vote.

00:14:28.080 But I think we won the debate, and I want you to see it.

00:14:31.080 Take a listen.

00:14:31.520 I brought a war powers resolution to the floor of this Congress to get U.S. troops out of Syria,

00:14:39.540 arguing that the United States being excessively entangled in great power competition in Syria

00:14:47.180 wasn't making life better for Syrians,

00:14:50.480 it wasn't playing out to our benefit in the sphere of great power competition,

00:14:54.200 and that it left U.S. service members and contractors as sitting ducks.

00:14:59.600 And following that vote, which I lost overwhelmingly on a bipartisan fashion,

00:15:04.640 sadly, there were casualties.

00:15:07.160 There was the death of an American,

00:15:09.520 because we have now become the neighborhood crime watch of certain areas in Syria where there are oil rigs.

00:15:18.240 And that's what it's all about.

00:15:19.480 So I now come to the floor with this resolution to repeal a 2004 emergency vis-a-vis Syria.

00:15:29.100 2004.

00:15:30.340 Now, it's supposed to be voted on by Congress every six months thereafter,

00:15:35.640 but we have been derelict in our duty in doing so.

00:15:38.920 And so I'm glad that today we're bringing forward a number of these emergency resolutions

00:15:42.480 that have just been dormant slush funds,

00:15:44.720 spending untold sums of money with no transparency as to how much is going into the Syrian emergency.

00:15:51.880 But how about this rule for how about the House thinks about emergencies?

00:15:55.680 Nothing's allowed to be an emergency for 20 years.

00:15:58.920 Because if it were really an emergency,

00:16:00.860 there probably would have been some cataclysmic event of biblical proportion before the 20 years.

00:16:06.680 And if it's still an emergency 20 years later,

00:16:08.720 it's a chronic condition and the United States cannot be the world's policeman and we cannot be the world's piggy bank.

00:16:16.200 Now, if the principal argument against my resolution is that my resolution is soft on Assad,

00:16:22.780 well, the logic that undergirds that is that somehow the 2004 resolution was this great anti-Assad tool

00:16:30.680 that we must have, that we must maintain to beat Assad.

00:16:34.000 Well, look around.

00:16:35.160 Mr. Speaker, Assad's never been stronger.

00:16:37.120 So if this 2004 resolution was Assad kryptonite, 0.58

00:16:42.040 it's been the worst Assad kryptonite you could ever imagine. 0.96

00:16:44.680 It's malfunctioned.

00:16:46.380 So I think we ought to repeal this emergency.

00:16:50.180 We have sought transparency to see how much money has been going pursuant to it.

00:16:54.040 We don't know the answer to that question.

00:16:56.100 And to the extent that there are sanctions that we still want to maintain,

00:17:00.400 whether there are the other national emergencies that exist targeted at terrorism generally,

00:17:07.420 at Russia, at Iran, the Magnitsky Act, there are all kinds of other authorities for the president,

00:17:14.820 the secretary of the treasury, secretary of the Department of Commerce,

00:17:17.320 even the DOD weighs in, state regarding sanctions regimes.

00:17:21.180 So this is not a vote to lift sanctions and then just hope for the best with some pretty gnarly Syrians. 1.00

00:17:28.020 In fact, it's us standing up to do our job, and that's what we should do in repealing this 2004 resolution.

00:17:34.020 I reserve.

00:17:34.420 I can't think of a more effective way to insult the president of Israel

00:17:40.280 when he stands on that podium and addresses us tomorrow.

00:17:44.300 Well, I would observe, Mr. Speaker, to the gentleman,

00:17:47.580 that if he is looking for a more effective way to insult the president of Israel,

00:17:52.500 he need look no further than the remarks of some of his own colleagues in the recent days,

00:17:57.220 which I would deem far more insulting than this policy debate about how to have an effective sanctions regime.

00:18:04.420 No one here is arguing for sanctions relief vis-à-vis these individuals.

00:18:08.820 What we're saying is that the National Emergencies Act is a very ineffective,

00:18:13.800 inefficient way to administer a sanctions regime.

00:18:17.800 We do have specific authorities with the Magnitsky Act,

00:18:21.220 with the national emergencies vis-à-vis counterterrorism.

00:18:25.100 Treasury has these authorities.

00:18:26.740 State has these authorities.

00:18:28.440 And most importantly, Congress has the authority to impose sanctions.

00:18:31.820 If you believe that there are people who should be the subject of sanctions by the United States government,

00:18:36.800 we are the board of directors of the most powerful country on the planet Earth.

00:18:39.840 We can introduce those bills, we can vote for them, and we can fulfill our constitutional authority.

00:18:44.500 What I'm asking the Congress to do is to repeal a 2004 emergency vis-à-vis Syria,

00:18:51.320 when Syria doesn't look anything like it even did in 2004.

00:18:54.580 And to my Republican colleagues, if you vote to allow this national emergency to continue,

00:18:59.720 what you're doing is you're gaslighting unaccountable spending by the Biden administration

00:19:04.300 because they never have to make requisite report regarding the outlays on these matters.

00:19:09.100 And the money just moves around.

00:19:11.020 We never quite see the efficacy of it.

00:19:13.000 And we are all strong supporters of Israel on this side of the aisle, certainly.

00:19:18.800 And I would observe that U.S. policy in Syria has not particularly helped Israel.

00:19:23.080 Matter of fact, when you had terrorist groups setting up camps in Syria directed at Israel,

00:19:27.880 you know what the Israelis did? 0.97

00:19:29.520 They took them out.

00:19:30.520 They blew them up.

00:19:31.540 That sent a message to Iran. 0.92

00:19:33.520 The balance of power was restored,

00:19:35.560 and it did not involve the United States of America becoming the bloc captain of Syria

00:19:40.340 or anywhere else in the Middle East.

00:19:41.800 And if we want to do that, it should be through a war powers resolution 0.99

00:19:44.840 with Congress affirmatively voting to do it,

00:19:47.180 not just having rolling national emergencies.

00:19:49.640 When the law contemplates a requisite obligation for us to vote to reauthorize these things,

00:19:54.960 we never do it.

00:19:55.980 We don't do our job.

00:19:57.340 Then the money goes out the door,

00:19:59.060 and we don't see a safer Israel, a safer Middle East, or a safer Syria.

00:20:03.140 All we see is an empowered Assad. 0.81

00:20:05.520 So if this is the great tool we had against Assad,

00:20:08.280 we better be thinking of some different ones

00:20:09.760 because it hasn't exactly worked out as the proponents of this national emergency

00:20:13.120 would seemingly indicate.

00:20:14.420 I yield back.

00:20:17.340 If I don't mind saying so myself, I think we won that debate overwhelmingly.

00:20:22.020 Burrell on Facebook agrees, says he wants to see a vote every six months,

00:20:26.120 or this should be void.

00:20:28.340 Marla says that it is super bad that I only got 25, 26 of my colleagues to vote with me.

00:20:34.420 I would agree, but we have to smoke them out.

00:20:36.900 We have to show who's voting with the people of this country

00:20:39.640 and who is voting to be the Syria block captain.

00:20:44.540 And we also have Alan observe that the GOP is a little top-heavy with rhinos. 0.94

00:20:51.120 Quite the observation, Alan.

00:20:53.200 Moving now from the GOP to an interview I'm very excited about.

00:20:57.700 Congressman Adam Smith wrote a book called Lost and Broken.

00:21:00.720 This may be one of the least political policy interviews that we've done on Firebrand,

00:21:06.520 but we have human beings who serve in this Congress,

00:21:09.940 who are policymakers, who have the frailties and foibles and follies of regular folks.

00:21:15.840 And when those are confronted in the crucible of this place,

00:21:19.120 it oftentimes can lead to lessons that maybe our Firebrand viewers would enjoy

00:21:23.820 and could use to help others.

00:21:25.300 So please enjoy my extended interview with Democrat Congressman Adam Smith.

00:21:33.380 Get ready for a very different kind of interview.

00:21:36.620 Firebrand viewers will be familiar with Congressman Adam Smith.

00:21:40.100 He hails from the state of Washington, a beautiful part of our country.

00:21:44.140 He's the former chairman of the House Armed Services Committee,

00:21:46.600 and he is currently the lead Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee.

00:21:50.520 Now, we've had many spirited debates about military policy

00:21:53.860 and our beloved service members.

00:21:55.740 And we usually play those debates right here on Firebrand and discuss them.

00:21:59.600 And you can clearly see that Representative Adam Smith is very sharp,

00:22:04.240 very quick rhetorically, and if I don't mind saying so,

00:22:07.320 a very worthy debating adversary when we disagree.

00:22:10.660 And I think it's a good thing for the country to see lawmakers disagree on substance

00:22:15.120 while actually addressing the substance

00:22:18.120 and not just trying to cancel one another.

00:22:20.640 There have certainly been times in my seven years here

00:22:23.080 when Congressman Smith has convinced me to change my view on matters.

00:22:27.860 Specifically, he's often effectively pointed out

00:22:30.600 when we're making expensive military systems that are not useful to the warfighter.

00:22:36.220 The littoral combat ships come to mind.

00:22:38.780 I don't know if I've ever convinced Congressman Smith to hold my point of view on something,

00:22:42.560 and I certainly won't force him to make an admission of that here today.

00:22:46.400 But here's some advice to every viewer of this program.

00:22:48.800 At least a few times a year, read a book from an author

00:22:53.680 that you might fervently disagree with on something.

00:22:57.260 I do this quite frequently.

00:22:58.500 It's how I came to read the essential text of critical race theory,

00:23:01.620 which we highlighted on this show years ago.

00:23:04.300 So Congressman Smith has recently written a book

00:23:07.260 that I highly recommend fitting within this portfolio

00:23:11.620 of observing and understanding and flushing the issues out on.

00:23:15.440 And that's true even if you don't agree with Adam on a variety of other things.

00:23:20.520 Now, it's not particularly a book about Congress or policy or politics,

00:23:24.780 though there are juicy insights on all of those things.

00:23:28.220 The book, Lost and Broken, is about pain, anxiety,

00:23:33.120 and the overall state of the human condition.

00:23:36.340 Representative Smith has endured an incredible personal journey.

00:23:40.240 And I've been reading books by members of Congress for more than a decade,

00:23:43.780 and I can honestly tell you I have never seen a book

00:23:47.140 where a member of Congress currently elected

00:23:49.960 was more personally vulnerable and honest

00:23:53.280 about crippling challenges with focus and strength

00:23:57.100 and a number of matters that we're going to discuss.

00:23:59.980 So we hope Lost and Broken no more.

00:24:02.600 My colleague Adam Smith joins us now.

00:24:04.680 And Adam, maybe start with just letting people know the journey you've been on.

00:24:09.180 Sure. And first of all, thank you for having me on.

00:24:10.640 I completely agree with everything you just said.

00:24:12.680 And you have at least convinced me on the medical marijuana issue

00:24:16.480 and on the need for allowing service members to test

00:24:19.940 whether or not drugs can help them with their PTSD issues.

00:24:22.740 So there are issues, and I agree with you. 0.89

00:24:24.240 We should have those debates.

00:24:25.740 Now, the issue is I had a severe anxiety and chronic pain problem.

00:24:29.980 And my book actually starts in 2016 after my third hip surgery,

00:24:34.700 which I was not getting better from.

00:24:37.100 And the anxiety really hit me in 2013.

00:24:40.060 Chronic pain hit me in 2014.

00:24:42.640 By 2016, I thought I was never going to solve the problem, bottom line.

00:24:46.080 I had tried all kinds of doctors and psychiatrists

00:24:48.740 and all kinds of different things, and I was in worse shape than ever.

00:24:51.580 So then I sort of figured it out.

00:24:53.400 I eventually did find people who could help me.

00:24:55.500 So what the book does is it talks about how I got there

00:24:57.760 because pain and anxiety rarely just sort of pop up.

00:25:01.580 I really had to go back into my full history as a person.

00:25:04.620 And then most importantly, how I got out.

00:25:06.620 And if I have one big message on this, you can get better.

00:25:10.100 There are treatments for both mental health and chronic pain,

00:25:12.880 and I hope I can help people find that path.

00:25:15.360 As you've been talking about it, you know,

00:25:16.940 we say anxiety and chronic pain almost as one continuum.

00:25:20.980 But talk about how those two conditions inform on one another.

00:25:24.580 Yeah, no, it's really interesting, and we don't fully understand, to tell you the truth.

00:25:28.360 But it is absolutely true that mental health conditions like anxiety or depression

00:25:32.580 can trigger pain in your body.

00:25:35.540 Now, in my case, I had two separate sets of problems, all right?

00:25:38.900 The pain certainly contributed to the anxiety and vice versa,

00:25:42.440 but I had a knee surgery when I was a kid.

00:25:44.580 I never properly rehabbed from it.

00:25:46.280 My body, after 30 years, eventually broke down.

00:25:49.460 And mental health-wise, I had a problematic childhood.

00:25:52.280 Hard to explain.

00:25:52.960 I was adopted.

00:25:53.900 There was all kinds of issues involved there that I never truly dealt with,

00:25:57.380 which really triggered the anxiety.

00:25:59.680 But they can definitely feed off of each other.

00:26:02.820 And the anxiety was first for you.

00:26:04.780 What do you think that people get wrong most about the challenge of confronting anxiety

00:26:11.420 and working through it?

00:26:12.860 Wow.

00:26:13.160 A lot of answers occur to me, but I'll go with two.

00:26:16.860 Number one, I think, certainly for me,

00:26:18.900 one of my challenges when the anxiety hit me was,

00:26:21.980 there's no way to fix this.

00:26:24.180 Okay, I mean, what is a doctor going to say to me?

00:26:26.940 I mean, I understand, okay, if my knee hurts,

00:26:29.600 okay, maybe I need surgery, maybe I need physical therapy,

00:26:32.380 but I think all the time.

00:26:34.480 How am I going to change the way I think to stop having anxiety come?

00:26:38.840 And that's a fundamental misunderstanding.

00:26:40.740 You can, in fact, change the way that you think.

00:26:42.860 You can teach your brain to better deal with the stresses and strains that you face in life.

00:26:47.440 The second thing I really didn't understand was this concept that's going to sound a little loopy,

00:26:52.140 but the basic idea, you have to have a sense of your own self-worth.

00:26:56.460 And if you don't, you are going to have a lot of problems.

00:26:59.620 And it's a lot harder to have than you think it is.

00:27:02.620 That basic, well, the Buddhists would refer to it as the concept that we are all worthy of love.

00:27:08.100 If you don't understand that about yourself, you're in a bad place.

00:27:11.920 And it took me a long time to grasp that.

00:27:13.660 It doesn't seem like an easy place to arrive if that is a challenge that presents.

00:27:20.000 We're joined by Congressman Adam Smith.

00:27:21.480 The book is lost and broken.

00:27:23.280 He's describing it.

00:27:24.400 And it couldn't have been an easy decision to write this book

00:27:27.260 because in politics, we always want to present the toughest, most impenetrable version of ourselves

00:27:34.540 in campaigns and in legislative debate.

00:27:38.940 Did you have to go through a process to be so fulsome in describing the experiences you've had?

00:27:44.800 Well, yeah, but I think the process I went through was those six years.

00:27:48.520 I can't remember what it was, but I was getting some surgery or something.

00:27:52.380 And, you know, you're in an embarrassing position and everything.

00:27:55.040 And the nurses and the doctors are like, now, are you okay with this?

00:27:57.460 And I'm like, at this point, okay, yes.

00:28:00.800 I mean, I've been through, you know, three surgeries, psychiatrists, everything.

00:28:04.480 I had just been, I had felt already so exposed to the broader world

00:28:08.940 that I guess I felt more comfortable sharing it more broadly.

00:28:12.860 And also, second big lesson after the self-worth thing is,

00:28:17.160 if you're going to get to a proper place in terms of mental health,

00:28:20.260 you have to be honest with yourself.

00:28:22.440 Because a lot of what drives us to anxiety is that you are suppressing things.

00:28:27.680 Maybe you're angry about something that you're hiding.

00:28:30.540 You know, you're in a relationship or in a job that you know you have to keep

00:28:33.700 so you kid yourself about whether or not you really like it.

00:28:36.440 Or things from your childhood that you're either angry about or feel guilty about.

00:28:40.440 So good mental health, being honest with yourself.

00:28:43.780 You can lie to other people, all right?

00:28:45.540 You may have to to get through the day, but you have to be honest with yourself.

00:28:48.880 And I felt this was one of the best ways, A, for me to do that,

00:28:52.360 and B, to show people that this is one of the paths to getting better.

00:28:56.160 I want to understand techniques that you use.

00:28:59.420 Some people are big into meditation.

00:29:03.180 You know, others, I know you're a big go-on-walks guy.

00:29:06.560 If you stand in one place in Washington, D.C. long enough,

00:29:10.280 you'll see Adam Smith walk by at one point or another

00:29:13.440 because you're sort of always on the move.

00:29:15.560 But talk, if someone's going through anxiety

00:29:18.320 and they don't know that they have access to exquisite tools,

00:29:23.260 what's some of the advice you would give?

00:29:25.060 Meditation is one big thing.

00:29:26.620 And I was really intimidated by meditation

00:29:29.140 because, well, I used to joke that I'm really stressed out

00:29:31.900 because I don't have enough time to meditate,

00:29:33.920 which seems like counterintuitive.

00:29:35.680 And then also when I do meditation,

00:29:37.400 the idea is, you know, clear your mind, right?

00:29:39.640 And I'd be sitting there and I'd get,

00:29:41.560 oh, I thought of something, you know, so I've failed.

00:29:43.460 That's not what meditation is.

00:29:45.340 What meditation can teach you to do

00:29:47.200 is not to chase after every thought.

00:29:50.260 You have to give your mind space

00:29:52.340 to not try to process everything,

00:29:55.120 to just experience what's going on around you.

00:29:57.780 So a couple minutes a day,

00:29:59.220 whether I'm on a walk or brushing my teeth,

00:30:01.380 I'll just say, okay,

00:30:02.200 I'm not going to try to solve any problems right now, all right?

00:30:04.640 Thoughts are going to occur to me.

00:30:05.800 I'm going to hear things.

00:30:06.780 I'm going to notice them and let them go.

00:30:09.400 And when you train your mind to do that,

00:30:11.380 that's the other thing I do on my walks.

00:30:12.640 I don't take my phone with me, okay?

00:30:14.680 Which drives my staff crazy occasionally.

00:30:16.680 Yeah, I bet they love that.

00:30:17.760 But it's like you have to give yourself some space

00:30:20.920 where you're not constantly reacting

00:30:23.100 to everything around you.

00:30:25.380 And the biggest lesson that this taught me was

00:30:27.620 you don't have to solve every problem.

00:30:29.520 In fact, we get the question all the time.

00:30:31.200 I'm sure you get it.

00:30:31.900 What keeps you up at night

00:30:32.920 as a member of the Armed Services Committee?

00:30:34.780 And I always have the same answer now.

00:30:36.440 Nothing keeps me up at night

00:30:37.960 because that's not going to solve anything.

00:30:40.240 Okay, me staying up for an extra two or three hours,

00:30:42.240 I'm not going to somehow solve the problem.

00:30:44.500 And I didn't used to know that.

00:30:45.900 I used to think, okay,

00:30:46.800 if there's something out there in the universe

00:30:48.160 that's unsettling to me,

00:30:49.580 I have to solve it.

00:30:50.980 I have to deal with it before I can relax.

00:30:53.580 And I'm like, you're not going to solve every problem.

00:30:55.620 They'll be there in the morning when you get up.

00:30:57.680 Deal with them then.

00:30:59.080 Just like every person's physical health

00:31:01.720 oscillates throughout their life,

00:31:03.240 there are times when you're a little more healthy

00:31:04.600 or a little less healthy.

00:31:05.860 I would presume mental health 1.00

00:31:07.380 probably doesn't follow the same linear track.

00:31:09.760 I know in my life, it certainly hasn't.

00:31:12.120 And in low points, I lean on my spouse.

00:31:16.680 I lean on faith.

00:31:18.340 You've got a very successful marriage.

00:31:20.660 What were some of the places

00:31:22.240 that you always knew you could go in tough times

00:31:25.580 to ensure that you were able to reset the course?

00:31:29.720 Well, I'm a little bit more introverted.

00:31:31.300 And certainly there are people

00:31:32.580 that are good to be around and good to talk to.

00:31:35.340 But I would say it's three things.

00:31:37.900 Sports, exercise, and humor.

00:31:40.720 Those are the three things that I lean on.

00:31:42.880 I love working out one kind or another.

00:31:45.100 And I will spend an enormous amount of time

00:31:47.320 thinking about what the Mariners should do

00:31:48.820 at the trade deadline, which helps me go.

00:31:51.540 And also, if something strikes me funny,

00:31:53.280 which by the way, is part of the reason

00:31:54.460 why I like engaging with you.

00:31:56.520 You are a clever, intelligent person.

00:31:59.040 All right.

00:31:59.260 I don't agree with you on a lot of things,

00:32:01.400 but I totally agree.

00:32:02.380 We have a good back and forth.

00:32:04.220 Those things seem to give me space

00:32:07.400 to let the problems go.

00:32:09.560 You know, it's interesting you mentioned sports

00:32:11.360 because for me, thinking about

00:32:13.820 Florida State University football

00:32:15.700 or thinking about various sports activities,

00:32:19.780 it is sort of a way to let your mind train

00:32:22.260 on something that isn't the highest acuity pressure point.

00:32:26.520 And we have to find, I think, more of those places to go.

00:32:30.780 You know, when I was growing up,

00:32:31.800 whether you were a Seminole or a Gator, 0.99

00:32:33.620 it mattered a lot more about who you could be friends with

00:32:36.320 than whether you were a Republican or a Democrat.

00:32:38.700 And I wonder if there are assemblies of people,

00:32:42.940 whether it's churches or otherwise,

00:32:44.880 that give us more of a platform

00:32:46.480 to be able to escape kind of the anxieties

00:32:49.080 that drive, no matter what your life is

00:32:50.880 and your profession is.

00:32:52.060 Yeah, I agree.

00:32:52.400 I think it's going to be different for different people,

00:32:54.100 but you do have to find those things

00:32:55.600 that just bring you simple joy.

00:32:58.080 And I think it can be really stressful,

00:32:59.540 particularly in our profession.

00:33:00.880 You know, and I think you and I are very similar

00:33:02.740 in the think that we think a lot about,

00:33:04.980 okay, I'm trying to get something done.

00:33:06.620 What's the right answer?

00:33:07.600 How do I solve this?

00:33:08.440 How do I do that?

00:33:09.920 You can really get yourself on a treadmill there

00:33:13.580 that never stops if you don't take a step off

00:33:15.880 and think about something like sports

00:33:17.220 that ultimately doesn't matter.

00:33:18.800 Right.

00:33:19.000 It's fun.

00:33:19.720 Okay.

00:33:20.260 It is.

00:33:20.740 It brings me joy.

00:33:22.020 So why not focus on it?

00:33:23.700 I'd love to know, you know, you're a leader

00:33:26.280 among House progressives,

00:33:27.800 you're a leader in the national security entities.

00:33:31.100 How have colleagues of yours reacted

00:33:32.800 to really just such an honest and bearing

00:33:36.340 of the journey you've been on?

00:33:39.340 Well, very positively.

00:33:41.300 Yeah, I think that the best thing one member

00:33:43.100 just said to me just last week,

00:33:44.820 he had been struggling with anxiety.

00:33:46.600 He didn't think he could address it.

00:33:48.320 Reading my book made him think, yes,

00:33:50.160 and he said he had the best week of his life

00:33:52.020 because he actually started to address it.

00:33:54.640 They've told me stories about family members

00:33:57.040 many times themselves as well.

00:33:59.140 The other way is a number of members have come up to me

00:34:00.720 and said, hey, I had no idea you were going through that.

00:34:03.780 You know, and some have apologized that they,

00:34:05.780 which is completely unnecessary.

00:34:07.400 You can't know everything that's going on around you,

00:34:10.020 number one.

00:34:10.500 And number two, I will tell you that professionally,

00:34:13.440 like Mac Thornberry, former chair of the committee,

00:34:16.560 who was chair right before I was,

00:34:18.000 contacted me about this.

00:34:19.200 And that committee and the staff

00:34:22.000 and all members, Republican and Democrat alike,

00:34:24.840 in fact, I quote Michael Turner in the book at one point,

00:34:27.640 were incredibly supportive to me throughout this process.

00:34:31.280 And I really appreciate that.

00:34:33.320 Yeah, I mean, you know,

00:34:34.420 we see even during committee at times

00:34:37.000 when there'll be a debate or discussion,

00:34:39.560 you'll stand up, take a few walks around the room

00:34:41.680 and sit down.

00:34:42.260 And I wonder sometimes whether that's physically

00:34:45.280 you wanting to get the muscle movement going

00:34:47.400 or whether or not there's actually a mental health component

00:34:50.220 of getting up and moving around.

00:34:51.780 And I found walking around a little bit more frequently

00:34:55.040 improves my mental health.

00:34:56.280 So the walking around has a dual benefit.

00:34:59.760 Well, the good news at this point is

00:35:01.520 I'm doing it just because I like to move.

00:35:03.780 There was a number of years there.

00:35:05.360 Gosh, there were times when I had to like lay down

00:35:06.920 on the floor in the other room

00:35:07.980 because my back was killing me, you know,

00:35:10.140 from, like I said, from like 2014 to 2018,

00:35:13.360 it was because I can't sit here.

00:35:16.240 I've got too much pain.

00:35:17.240 I got to get up and move.

00:35:18.740 But now it's just, it's just a thing that I do.

00:35:22.860 Lost and Broken is the book.

00:35:24.660 Adam Smith is the congressman.

00:35:26.200 And, you know, final note I want to end on.

00:35:28.440 We're really entering an era where there's a lot more,

00:35:31.080 I think, diagnosis on the mental health front,

00:35:33.580 a lot of recognition.

00:35:34.520 But to be candid, it's not your generation.

00:35:38.340 It's this Zoomer generation 1.00

00:35:39.600 that seems more self-aware on these matters,

00:35:42.500 whereas the Gen Xers and the Boomers 0.78

00:35:45.100 were probably dealing with these things

00:35:47.620 without some of the tools and resources

00:35:49.500 that we now know to be available.

00:35:52.460 You know, I worry at times about the overindulgence of that,

00:35:55.960 that if we, you know, we want to still ensure

00:36:00.300 that people confront their challenges and deal with them

00:36:03.140 and don't just cloak it in a sense of,

00:36:04.820 well, I'm mentally unhealthy.

00:36:07.000 What's the most encouraging thing you could say

00:36:08.960 to someone who's aware that they are going through

00:36:11.760 chronic pain or anxiety

00:36:13.340 and they want to know that there's a better way ahead?

00:36:17.580 Well, as with most things in life, it's about balance.

00:36:20.180 And I would say generationally, you're absolutely right.

00:36:22.560 One of the big positives is newer, younger generations

00:36:25.520 are now willing to talk about these things.

00:36:28.000 There was an older ethos that was,

00:36:29.740 now keep it to yourself, don't talk about it,

00:36:31.500 don't engage in it, but that has to be headed somewhere.

00:36:36.020 And I do worry, as you said,

00:36:37.520 the younger generation in some extent,

00:36:39.080 I don't want to just talk about it.

00:36:40.640 I don't want a solid excuse for why my life's miserable.

00:36:43.780 I want a path to a solution.

00:36:45.980 There has to be a resiliency here,

00:36:47.800 not just, you know, as you said, an overindulgence,

00:36:50.800 but okay, what's going on with me?

00:36:52.220 How can I get better so that I can lead a healthier

00:36:55.200 and more productive life and be a more responsible person?

00:36:58.980 So I would say the most optimistic thing,

00:37:01.580 just, gosh, since I wrote the book,

00:37:02.920 I wrote it in 2020 during the pandemic,

00:37:05.000 I think there has been an opening

00:37:06.780 in which a lot more people are speaking openly

00:37:09.340 about mental health, which is step one,

00:37:11.880 but you got to get to step two,

00:37:13.200 which is how do you get better?

00:37:14.960 How do you find those treatments that can help you?

00:37:17.380 I sincerely hope that the readers of this book

00:37:19.520 are able to access that critically important step

00:37:23.240 to a more constructive way to think about these things.

00:37:26.400 The book is lost and broken.

00:37:28.000 The congressman is Adam Smith

00:37:29.940 from the great state of Washington.

00:37:32.280 And I feel smarter having conducted this interview,

00:37:34.780 and I'm sure that folks will feel smarter

00:37:36.580 if they get the chance to read your book.

00:37:38.320 Thanks for joining me.

00:37:39.300 Thanks, Matt.

00:37:39.720 Appreciate the chance.

00:37:40.320 Thanks.

00:37:40.420 Thank you.

00:37:41.320 Thank you.

00:38:01.340 We'll be right back.

The Anchormen Show with Matt Gaetz - July 19, 2023

Episode 114 LIVE： Lost And Broken (feat. Rep. Adam Smith) – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz

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