The Anchormen Show with Matt Gaetz - November 09, 2023


Episode 130 LIVE: Congress Backs FBI – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz


Episode Stats

Length

28 minutes

Words per Minute

154.72354

Word Count

4,386

Sentence Count

299

Misogynist Sentences

2

Hate Speech Sentences

6


Summary

In this episode, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-GAZETTE) takes aim at the FBI and his amendment that prevents them from getting a massive new headquarters in Washington, D.C. Rep. Gaetz is joined by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Sen. Cory Booker (D -NJ) to speak against the FBI.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Matt Gaetz, the biggest firebrand inside of the House of Representatives.
00:00:07.520 You're not taking Matt Gaetz off the board, okay?
00:00:09.920 Because Matt Gaetz is an American patriot and Matt Gaetz is an American hero.
00:00:14.660 We will not continue to allow the Uniparty to run this town without a fight.
00:00:20.220 I want to thank you, Matt Gaetz, for holding the line.
00:00:24.340 Matt Gaetz is a courageous man.
00:00:26.360 If we had hundreds of Matt Gaetz in D.C., the country turns around. It's that simple.
00:00:31.940 He's so tough. He's so strong. He's smart, and he loves this country. Matt Gaetz.
00:00:38.040 It is the honor of my life to fight alongside each and every one of you.
00:00:43.240 We will save America. It's choose your fighter time. Send in the firebrands.
00:00:48.640 Welcome back to Firebrand Live.
00:00:57.100 We're broadcasting out of Room 2021 of the Rayburn House Office Building here at the Capitol Complex in Washington, D.C.
00:01:02.460 And a big dispute over the willingness of Republicans to continue to back a corrupt FBI with all of their whims and demands has just brought down a major government funding bill.
00:01:15.240 We've been talking about these single-subject spending bills.
00:01:17.920 The single-subject spending bill that deals with general government appropriations, buildings, facilities, was not brought up today as planned because of a big fight over the FBI.
00:01:27.640 You've heard me go over their abuses, their problems. We're going to revisit some of that now.
00:01:34.040 But wherever you're watching from in the live streams, thank you for tuning in from North Carolina, Wyoming, Florida, Arizona.
00:01:41.920 When I was in Arizona last, I was with Congressman Eli Crane.
00:01:45.020 And in the many stops we made, people consistently were focused on why money and resources continue to flow to DOJ, FBI, ATF.
00:01:56.860 And folks said, use the power of the purse. Stop it.
00:02:00.240 And what Eli Crane and I had to tell those folks at Stop After Stop in Arizona is that when we bring up the amendment just to stop giving the FBI a new headquarters larger than the Pentagon, Republicans will betray us.
00:02:19.520 They will vote against that amendment and they will stand with the FBI.
00:02:24.180 Won't matter how many illegal searches, won't matter how many unjustifiable queries, won't matter what inspector general reports say, won't even matter what whistleblowers say.
00:02:36.480 Republicans will bail on us and they will vote with the FBI.
00:02:40.200 And that is exactly what happened.
00:02:42.140 I bring you now to the floor of the House of Representatives for my amendment to stop the FBI from being able to have a new building, a new headquarters, a new Washington field office.
00:02:52.960 Take a listen to what happens.
00:02:56.440 Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
00:02:57.660 The FBI wants a massive new complex for their Washington, D.C. area-based activities.
00:03:05.280 They want to spend more than $300 million on that complex.
00:03:08.860 Though the FBI has an employee base that's about 2.3% of the United States military.
00:03:16.020 Mr. Speaker, they're literally asking for something that is larger than the Pentagon for the FBI.
00:03:21.180 And so my amendment would disallow any planning, spending, distribution of funds for that purpose.
00:03:27.500 I don't believe that the FBI deserves a massive new headquarters or Washington field office.
00:03:33.220 The activities inside of Washington, the greater Washington metro area, have really driven a lot of the investigative work we have done.
00:03:41.200 It's not bad folks from the FBI out at some field office in middle America or elsewhere in the country.
00:03:47.720 It is the Washington, D.C.-based activities that have pressured other field offices for no good law enforcement reason.
00:03:55.180 It's the D.C.-based entities that have suppressed credible investigative leads into criminal conduct over the objections of other bureaus and offices.
00:04:04.460 And they've initiated investigations into American citizens merely for engaging in constitutionally protected speech.
00:04:10.320 They've attempted to entrap members of the United States Senate by holding false classified briefings.
00:04:15.600 That's testimony we got from Senators Grassley and Senator Johnson.
00:04:19.020 They've also worked hard to censor factual information harmful to their preferred political candidates.
00:04:25.820 Notably, the Hunter Biden laptop story that the FBI, based in the D.C. metro area, were involved in cajoling censorship of.
00:04:34.240 Building a new headquarters would condone, reinforce, and enable the Washington field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's nefarious behavior.
00:04:42.900 We shouldn't do it, and we should adopt this amendment to ensure that's the case.
00:04:45.940 I reserve.
00:04:46.740 Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and my thanks to the minority side for giving me an opportunity to speak.
00:04:53.460 I rise in opposition to the gentleman from Florida's amendment.
00:04:56.380 We're not always going to hate the FBI, but what I do know is that when I toured the FBI headquarters,
00:05:05.760 I saw it in a state of disrepair that is going to need the attention of the owners of that property, and that's us.
00:05:13.500 The fact is, the building is crumbling, and there's going to be a need to do something.
00:05:18.720 What that something is, I'm not an expert on, but I think it would be wrong for us to be taking this action today,
00:05:27.340 pursuant to this amendment, without having at least a hearing and an opportunity for the people responsible for the facilities,
00:05:35.360 FBI, GSA, any other stakeholder, to be able to help us understand what the situation is today and what the needs are of tomorrow.
00:05:44.840 Gentlemen from Wisconsin Reserve, gentlemen from Florida is recognized.
00:05:47.660 Mr. Speaker, it is not my grave concern that the FBI's building is crumbling.
00:05:52.580 It is my grave concern that the civil liberties of Americans are crumbling,
00:05:56.680 and I wish we were more worried about that and less worried about whether or not we got new carpet and wallpaper at the FBI building.
00:06:02.880 My colleague from Arkansas says that the FBI headquarters is in a state of disrepair.
00:06:08.220 Mr. Speaker, it is the FBI itself that is in a state of disrepair.
00:06:12.000 And so while my colleague from Arkansas may be right that we may not always hate the FBI,
00:06:17.020 how about while we are most concerned about the things they are doing, we not go build them a new $300 million building?
00:06:24.120 My colleague says there needs to be a hearing.
00:06:25.940 Well, let me tell you about the hearing that mattered to me, and frankly, many of my Democrat colleagues who are also worried about civil liberties.
00:06:32.340 The hearing where we learned that the FBI has conducted over 278,000 illegal queries on the FISA system.
00:06:40.720 Or the hearing that said that the inspector general found that 38 times an hour these people were violating FISA.
00:06:48.220 The notion that we would stand here and defend them, frankly, is deeply disappointing,
00:06:53.120 and I think those folks deserve to sit in the rat-infested J. Edgar Hoover building
00:06:58.160 until they get their act straight with America's civil liberties, our reserve.
00:07:03.900 We are back live, and the person you heard debating against me wasn't a liberal Democrat.
00:07:10.320 It wasn't a Democrat at all.
00:07:12.180 That was Arkansas Republican Steve Womack.
00:07:16.100 So a Republican was leading the debate against my amendment
00:07:20.560 to not allow these hundreds of millions of dollars to go out the door for a new FBI headquarters.
00:07:26.180 Now, Lisa on Facebook says it's time to dismantle the FBI and start over.
00:07:31.600 I agree.
00:07:32.720 I think if we started with a blank sheet of paper, even with the concept of federal law enforcement,
00:07:37.180 it would look so different than the FBI today,
00:07:39.740 and we would build in, I think, a lot more of the capabilities at the state and local level
00:07:45.460 to be able to solve crimes, and we wouldn't have this intelligence-gathering,
00:07:49.860 political, predictive apparatus at the FBI that's been corrupted.
00:07:53.780 A DEMA on Facebook says they need to move out of Washington, D.C.
00:07:57.800 There actually was a proposal to move them out of the D.C. metro area to Huntsville, Alabama.
00:08:04.880 I don't know how I feel about that.
00:08:07.040 I wonder how my fellow Florida men and women feel about that.
00:08:10.020 I think we should have all of the SEC states as like a buffer.
00:08:14.140 They shouldn't be in any SECs.
00:08:15.340 That's too close to our beloved Florida.
00:08:17.140 I hear Nome, Alaska is lovely, never been myself.
00:08:21.740 Maybe the Mariana Islands or Guam, that'd be a better place for the FBI.
00:08:27.320 And Minnie on Rumble says she wants, Minnie wants names.
00:08:30.900 Who were the 70, 70 Republicans who voted with Steve Womack and against my amendment?
00:08:40.780 These were the 70.
00:08:41.620 I'm going to read you their names right now.
00:08:43.520 Don Bacon, and again, these are all Republicans who voted with the FBI.
00:08:49.700 Don Bacon, Andy Barr, Cliff Bentz, Stephanie Bice, Mike Bost, Vern Buchanan, Ken Buck, Ken Calvert,
00:09:00.520 Mike Carey, John Carter, Lori Chavez de Reamer, Tom Cole, Anthony D'Esposito, Mario Diaz-Balart,
00:09:10.000 John Duarte, Chuck Edwards, Jake Elze, Randy Feenstra, Drew Ferguson, Brian Fitzpatrick, Mike Flood,
00:09:17.000 Andrew Garbarino, Tony Gonzalez, Jennifer Gonzalez-Cologne, Kay Granger, Sam Graves,
00:09:22.500 Brett Guthrie, Ashley Hinson, David Joyce, Tom Keen, Mike Kelly, Kevin Kiley, Young Kim,
00:09:28.340 David Kustoff, Darren LaHood, Nick LaLoda, Doug Landborn, Mike Lawler, Laurel Lee, Julia Letlow,
00:09:34.880 Frank Lucas, Blaine, Luca Meyer, Nicole Malliotakis, Richard McCormick, Patrick McHenry,
00:09:41.100 Daniel Muser, Max Miller, Blake Moore, James Moylan, Greg Murphy, Dan Newhouse,
00:09:46.760 Zach Nunn, Jay Obernolte, Mike Rogers, Hal Rogers, Maria Elvira Salazar, Austin Scott,
00:09:53.100 Pete Sessions, Mike Simpson, Jason Smith, Chris Smith, Lloyd Smucker, Dale Strong,
00:09:59.680 Glenn Thompson, Michael Turner, David Valadeo, Derek Van Orten, Ann Wagner, Brad Wenstrup,
00:10:06.200 and of course, Steve Womack.
00:10:08.280 Those are the people who have not yet been sufficiently convinced that there is corruption
00:10:13.480 in Washington, D.C. that would warrant not giving the FBI hundreds of millions of dollars
00:10:19.440 and additional resources to have a massive headquarters here. Now, is this an indictment
00:10:23.920 of every single person who works for the FBI? No. But what we learned in our investigations
00:10:29.480 is that good people who worked at the FBI and other places, Wichita, Boston, they were getting
00:10:37.120 misinformation, disinformation, bad information, bad instruction, and bad intentions that was all
00:10:44.400 coming out of the rot of the swamp of Washington, D.C., where people here in the FBI actually think
00:10:50.940 that their job is to function as some sort of political enforcement wing, not a law enforcement
00:10:57.480 wing. And you don't have to believe me, as we've showed you before, but it is worth visiting again
00:11:01.840 on the heels of that vote. Here is George Hill, an FBI whistleblower, talking about how the badness
00:11:09.120 comes out of Washington. Take a listen.
00:11:13.780 The SSA in Boston said they were going to a political rally, which is First Amendment
00:11:19.340 protected activity. No, we're not uploading. We're not starting cases on these people.
00:11:24.140 To which they said, well, we're going to call your SAC. And the SSA said, go right ahead. Because
00:11:30.540 when you're pushing back, you know, you want to make sure that you have your six covered. So
00:11:37.800 the SAC and the ASAC were intimately aware of these kinds of exchanges that were going on.
00:11:45.700 And again, to his credit, Joe Bonavallanta said, no, we're not opening up cases on people who went
00:11:51.560 to a rally. And I forgot a key part. The SSA for CT2 said, happy to do it. Show us where they were
00:12:02.280 inside the Capitol. And we'll look into it. To which WFO said, we can't show you those videos
00:12:08.540 unless you can tell us the exact time and place those individuals were inside the Capitol. To
00:12:14.600 which the SSA responded back. And I was privy to these conversations firsthand. Why can't you show us,
00:12:21.920 why can't you just send us, give us access to the 11,000 hours of video that's available?
00:12:27.220 Because there may be, may be UC's undercover officers or CHS's confidential human for confidential
00:12:37.600 human sources on those videos, whose identity we need to protect.
00:12:42.520 Don't you see? We need more George Hills in the FBI. People who just want to get the facts. But you
00:12:52.360 had all kinds of gamesmanship and politics and even seeding the January 6th riot with confidential
00:12:59.240 human sources, perhaps undercover agents. Not perhaps, it's been functionally acknowledged.
00:13:06.140 The problems arise when more of the decision-making in the FBI is made within the beltway, within the
00:13:16.000 influence of DC, not when good patriotic Americans sign up to be part of a premier law enforcement
00:13:20.980 agency and are just trying to do good. We saw that from so many whistleblowers. We also saw systemically
00:13:27.380 how the FBI has just blown through our civil liberties. Used to be Democrats cared about civil
00:13:33.560 liberties. But when I think about the abuses of the FBI, I cannot get past their illegal queries of
00:13:39.980 the FISA system. And again, you don't have to believe me. Listen to the Obama-appointed Inspector
00:13:48.140 General Michael Horowitz talking about how abusive the FBI is to the Constitution and our civil liberties
00:13:55.040 and our laws. Take a listen. I want to get into the 3.4 million backdoor searches that the ranking
00:14:04.940 member pointed out in his opening statement. Mr. Inspector General, how should the public think
00:14:10.600 about those? Well, I think what we've seen in the various public reports, and I'm limited in what I can
00:14:17.840 say about what's public, which I think is one of the issues, by the way, that's worth talking about is
00:14:21.520 transparency here. It's obviously very concerning that there's that volume of searches and particularly
00:14:29.920 concerning the error rate that was reported on in the last two years in the public reporting.
00:14:36.880 And that error rate was what? I believe it was around 30 percent. I think, fellow members, I think it's
00:14:45.220 around 30 percent. Well, 30 percent. I'm a lawyer, not a mathematician, but 3.4 million, about 30
00:14:51.260 percent. You're talking about seven figures of error in terms of these searches. I'm wondering,
00:14:57.020 how many people can perform these backdoor queries? I'm going to defer to board members because you have
00:15:05.580 the review ongoing. I'm afraid I don't have those figures at my fingertips in terms of the number of
00:15:11.180 people that can conduct those types of searches. But I share the concern expressed in the question
00:15:19.580 that we need to have greater safeguards, and I urge Congress to incorporate a requirement for FISA
00:15:26.060 court review of these kinds of searches to protect Americans' Fourth Amendment rights.
00:15:29.980 Yeah, 3.4 million backdoor searches, more than a million of them in error. If I represent to you that
00:15:37.820 we believe there may be north of 10,000 people in the federal government that can perform those queries,
00:15:43.820 would anyone here have a basis to disagree with that assessment? No.
00:15:51.100 10,000 people violating the law 38 times an hour for the period they were reviewed to get your
00:15:57.980 information without a warrant. Sometimes they were searching their neighbors, other families that went
00:16:04.140 went to school with their kids, their exes. It's just devious stuff. So when we had
00:16:12.620 that amendment fail by 70 votes, and you all seem quite worked up about it.
00:16:17.260 Preg Mima on Getter says, Lord, protect George Hill. And I agree with that. But when our amendment went
00:16:23.020 down, we got the conservatives together and said, well, then guess what? We're not going to pass a bill
00:16:29.100 to continue this type of funding. So the entire general government bill did not get voted on today.
00:16:36.220 Not exclusively, but in large part because of the way these guys were treating our conservative
00:16:42.860 amendments. People on this list of 70 continuously vote against the amendments to reduce spending and
00:16:50.220 provide accountability offered by Republicans. And so we're not going to vote for government spending
00:16:55.500 bills that continue the status quo and the problems and that don't showcase that the accountability and
00:17:01.900 oversight work we do has to be lashed to money consequences to these different fiefdoms within
00:17:09.420 our government. That's how it has to happen. So the bill that was planned to be passed off the floor
00:17:15.100 today did not get a vote because it did not have the votes because too many so-called Republicans
00:17:21.580 keep voting against actual Republican conservative amendments. Speaking of so-called Republicans,
00:17:27.980 we're now going to address the curious case of Carlos Jimenez. Carlos Jimenez had quite an interesting
00:17:33.820 reaction from a from a crowd last evening in Miami-Dade County when President Trump mentioned his name. But
00:17:39.740 before we get to that, we have to get to we have to get to the backup. During the speaker contest,
00:17:47.580 there were some people who disliked me so much for whatever reason, they wouldn't vote for Jim
00:17:53.980 Jordan. They wouldn't vote for some other conservative options that we'd put together.
00:17:58.940 And just so that you see how personal this was, take a listen to Carlos Jimenez as we were ousting
00:18:06.380 McCarthy and replacing him.
00:18:10.540 I think it's despicable. I think that Matt Gaetz is looking for clicks. A lot of the things that he said
00:18:15.660 that were wrong were actually going right. Look, I don't think it would, it has to do with Kevin
00:18:19.580 McCarthy. I think it has to do with anybody who was there. This would have happened because Matt
00:18:24.140 Gaetz wants attention. And so Matt Gaetz is Joe Biden's favorite Republican, without a doubt.
00:18:31.420 What this has caused, this is causing damage to the Republican Party.
00:18:35.340 People are telling, are calling me, not calling me, but there's, there are tweets about me that somehow
00:18:40.300 I'm going to vote for Jeffries for, uh, for Speaker of the house. I was one of the guys that voted to
00:18:45.740 keep Kevin McCarthy. All right. The only way that Jeffries can become Speaker of the house is because
00:18:50.380 of the chaos that was caused by Matt Gaetz. And so no, look, I've been very consistent.
00:18:54.700 Uh, Congressman Gaetz tweeted this out. He said that picking up on something that Congressman
00:18:59.260 Ro Khanna put out that they'd raised the, the, the motion to vacate threshold up if they,
00:19:04.220 if there were certain compromises, like a ban on congressional stock trading term limits to 12
00:19:09.420 years ban on political donations from lobbyists, would that be a framework that you would be
00:19:13.420 interested in and raising the threshold to vacate? No, I'm not going to be held hostage to eight
00:19:18.860 people. Sorry. And it's going to happen. So no negotiation in your mind. No, no, no outcome.
00:19:23.180 We can negotiate maybe, but no, this is like, again, a gun being held here and had,
00:19:29.580 Hey, we can create chaos anytime we want. We want these things. Well, let's, let's debate those
00:19:35.100 things inside the conference. Does the conference wants those things just because eight people,
00:19:39.900 four people, five people want that. That is not the American way that's hostage taking
00:19:46.220 and you don't negotiate with us. We're back live. Did you not see Carlos Jimenez? They're
00:19:54.380 shilling to block a ban on congressional stock trading, shilling to block a vote on term limits,
00:20:03.180 shilling to block a vote on a balanced budget amendment. These are substantive policy issues,
00:20:07.900 but you just see in his tone and in his reaction, he's just so personally worked up over his dislike
00:20:13.700 for me that he's unwilling to engage in good faith negotiations to try to change Washington and fix the
00:20:20.200 House of Representatives. So he went on. It's quite something when someone criticizes me for
00:20:25.340 attention seeking and then goes and seeks every opportunity to launch that criticism. But you know
00:20:29.800 what? I think it's okay. I think the marketplace of ideas requires us to put our vision and our
00:20:35.480 viewpoint before the public. And then guess what? We have elections and we have opportunities to see
00:20:41.680 how the public will react to the positions that we take. And we got to see last night how a crowd in
00:20:49.900 my, a Republican MAGA crowd in Miami-Dade County reacted to even the mention of Carlos Jimenez. Take a listen.
00:20:58.380 And your Congressman Carlos Jimenez. Do you know him? Carlos Jimenez. Some people say Carlos Jimenez. Oh,
00:21:11.980 you don't like him? What's going on? Carlos. Come on, Carlos. We got to get that straightened out.
00:21:20.820 Carlos Jimenez. Carlos Jimenez. Really? Wow.
00:21:26.520 Carlos. I don't think President Trump really appreciated how negative that reaction would be
00:21:39.880 with just the mention of Carlos Jimenez. If Carlos Jimenez had been on that stage in Miami-Dade County,
00:21:45.860 he would have been booed off of it. And maybe it's the fact that in 2016, he said that he was voting
00:21:52.440 for Hillary Clinton. And maybe in 2018, it was that he voted for Andrew Gillum. But maybe it was his
00:21:59.380 most recent attacks against our efforts to try to improve the House of Representatives that were met
00:22:05.200 with a righteous ire in lovely Hialeah in Miami-Dade County. Stay strong to Miami-Dade and to our great
00:22:14.060 MAGA friends, and we will continue our work up here to change Washington. One person who seems to have
00:22:20.400 changed his view on Ukraine. This next clip, I don't even know how to introduce it to you because
00:22:25.660 when I first saw it, I thought it might've been an AI deepfake. This is Senator Lindsey Graham
00:22:33.120 talking about his perspective on Ukraine. And this is a real video. Take a listen.
00:22:39.480 This is the same administration that is having more illegal immigrants cross our border illegally
00:22:48.460 than all presidents combined. They don't know what they're doing on the border. They don't know
00:22:54.040 what they're doing when it comes to bad guys. If you had Donald Trump as president, we would secure
00:22:59.000 the border tomorrow. People would listen to him in Mexico and other places because they're afraid of
00:23:05.000 him. If he were president of the United States, this stuff with Iran would end. The only thing
00:23:10.040 that works with bad guys is to be strong. Our border is broken. Our policies don't work. It's a
00:23:15.800 matter of time that a bunch of Americans get killed. I will not vote for one dime for any country,
00:23:21.160 including Israel, until we first secure our own border.
00:23:27.320 We're back live. I never thought I'd hear those words from Lindsey Graham. The prioritization over our
00:23:32.040 border or Ukraine's or Israel's or any other country. It's welcome news. And guess what?
00:23:37.720 This shows that the feedback that people are giving right now to their elected representatives
00:23:43.080 and to their senators is getting through. We are moving the Overton window on all of this unpaid
00:23:49.080 for foreign aid that subjugates our priorities to some sort of secondary status. The people will not
00:23:56.840 take that anymore and we'll see if the things that Senator Graham says on Hannity are actually
00:24:03.880 reflected in how he votes and acts in the Senate. I hope they are and I hope that we're able to get
00:24:09.800 that border legislation up and we should pressure Schumer on it because they're getting hammered in New
00:24:15.000 York. Turns out when you invite all of the third world's problems to New York City, it's no sanctuary.
00:24:21.640 It's a hell hole and the people are living in that hell hole and they should be contacting Senator
00:24:27.160 Schumer and maybe he'll make a pivot or a move like we saw from Senator Graham. One person who's had
00:24:33.960 to make a move is Kevin McCarthy, former speaker. And honestly, I hadn't thought about him in a while,
00:24:39.160 but it seems I'm on his mind. We're just getting this report from CNN. They asked McCarthy if I ought to be
00:24:46.680 thrown out of the Republican conference. And he said that the GOP would be better off tremendously
00:24:55.800 if I were no longer in the party. McCarthy, directly being quoted here, says, quote,
00:25:02.200 he doesn't have a conservative bent in his philosophy, just the nature of what he focuses on.
00:25:07.640 Matt's goal was his goal to be the TV congressman. I think if you go and line up the number of TV
00:25:16.280 interviews I've had with the number that McCarthy's had, he was sort of the TV speaker in the absence
00:25:22.200 of substance. See, this is what they do. When I want to talk about budgets that balance, term limits,
00:25:29.160 releasing the January 6th tapes, real accountability over the deep state, over the Biden family,
00:25:34.040 they want to just say, oh, it's all personal. It's all personal, but they can't address the substance
00:25:40.040 because they would be greeted a lot the way Carlos Jimenez's mention was greeted in Miami-Dade
00:25:48.200 County. And hear McCarthy again on whether or not he thinks the GOP should expel Gates. Here's McCarthy.
00:25:55.640 That's up to the conference. But I mean, I don't believe the conference will ever heal if there's no
00:26:02.200 consequence for the action. Mr. Former Speaker, thoughts and prayers as you're going through all of
00:26:09.320 your stages of grief here. I know that you mocked and made fun of Tim Burchett for praying about his
00:26:15.960 decision to vote to remove you, but you're still in our prayers. And maybe if you didn't mock prayer and
00:26:23.000 engaged in some, you would have better peace and comfort. And at the end of the day, we all expect Kevin
00:26:30.120 McCarthy to go back and return to the people who he's always represented in Congress, on K Street, of
00:26:36.440 course, not in Bakersfield. I don't think you'll be seeing him walking the streets of Bakersfield anytime soon.
00:26:42.360 But the notion that the Republican conference is going to kick me out for doing something that was
00:26:49.800 exceedingly popular seems unlikely.
00:26:55.480 The decision to fire McCarthy and replace him with Mike Johnson has been popular. Popular with
00:27:02.440 Democrats, popular with Republicans, popular with independents. It may be one of the most popular
00:27:07.480 things House Republicans have done. Now, the potential with Mike Johnson is admittedly unfulfilled. I think
00:27:13.480 we've got to give this guy the opportunity to lead. We've got to work with him. Where we disagree, we've got to
00:27:19.240 present our ideas. We've got to demand that we be heard. We've got to seek not just process, but outcomes that
00:27:25.960 advance the American people. And I know that's what Mike Johnson wants. But if what Kevin McCarthy wants is to make a
00:27:34.600 motion to throw me out of the Republican conference, I guess all I can really say is bring the effing motion.
00:27:42.920 We'll be back next week. I'll be on assignment tomorrow. Thanks so much for tuning in. Give us
00:27:48.840 that five-star rating. Make sure you're subscribed, notifications turned on, and roll the credits.
00:28:04.600 We'll see you next week.