Episode 134 – Republican Fireworks in Wayne County, MI. Florida Democrats in A Post-Election Meltdown! Harvard University Petition to Ban Trump Officials on Campus.
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Summary
What s the point of institutions like Harvard if they're unable to confront ideas they may not agree with? Congressman Matt Gaetz responds to a petition calling for the return of members of the Trump administration to Harvard University. Wayne County, Michigan has become a wild political scene, and it's up to the GOP to fix it.
Transcript
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You ever watch this guy on television, you all were not telling the truth and you should
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not be trusted. Congressman Matt Gaetz, thank you for what you did for your country today.
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Be offended with the Democratic whip, not House Republicans. Like a machine, Matt Gaetz.
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Welcome to Hot Takes. I'm Congressman Matt Gaetz. There are so many more of you listening
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to the podcast based on the social listening services that we're subscribing to and each
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and every day. Americans ask me, what can I do to help the America First agenda, to help
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the president and his supporters like you? And just one small thing folks can do is make
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sure that they give us a five star rating or review on their podcast platform of choice
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that gives us the opportunity to spread our message with the most proficiency. And we need
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folks to hear the truth, to hear through the fake news. So let's talk about the news. Harvard
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University is now seeing a petition shared around the campus to limit the ability of members
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of the Trump administration to ever serve as lecturers or teachers or frankly, to ever be
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allowed on their campus again. Here's my hot take. What's the point of institutions like
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Harvard that are supposed to train our best minds if they're unable to confront ideas that
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they may not agree with? I think universities ought to be cathedrals of learning. But for
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that to take place, you have to have diversity of ideas. I think that liberals and conservatives
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and free market capitalists and even socialists ought to have the opportunity to speak on our
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college campuses. And then in that great conflict of intellect and curiosity and brainstorming,
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the best ideas will emerge. And I'm confident that the ideas advanced by this president and
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many of those who've worked with this president are the ideas that can win the future, ensuring
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that we have trade deals that support the workers of our country, that we have immigration policy that
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supports the values of our country, and that we have a foreign policy that is focused to put our
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country and our people first. You see, President Trump, his ideas and his administration
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will add value to our nation well beyond their time in office. We've always known that because
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we are in a time of political realignment in America. The Republicans are becoming the party of
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the working class. And while that may be threatening and challenging for some of these great tenured
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minds at Harvard, it doesn't mean that we ever limit the ability of young people and all people
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to be able to assess the arguments and ideas and information that exist in our world and to be
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able to make decisions on their own. You see, for all the elite has done for America, really their
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desire is to try to control and constrain that which is consumed by regular Americans so that they
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can maintain their power. Harvard is a very powerful place. And I think if they truly have confidence
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in the minds they're developing, they'll be willing to let people with a vast array of concepts and
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ideologies contribute to a discussion that should enhance quality of life and existence and being
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and pedagogy and learning for all of us. Wayne County, Michigan has become a wild political scene.
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We pick up the story from John Solomon's Just the News. In dramatic reversal, Wayne County Election
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Board Republicans rescind votes certifying election results. In affidavits, GOP canvassing board members
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claim they were bullied and say there are too many irregularities in Detroit to justify accepting the
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election results. And it's just a remarkable turnaround that you've got these two Republican members of
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the canvassing group in Wayne County, Monica Palmer and William Hartman filling out affidavits
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to rescind their votes from a day earlier that brought into question how Michigan was counting
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the votes in the presidential election. And really what's at issue in these irregularities is the lack
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of matching the number of votes to the number of voters, which would seemingly be one of the first
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things that you would want to do in an audit. And in these affidavits, the bullying, the threats,
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the misleading information that they received from staff, all informs on their desire to undo
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this certification in Wayne County. Something's rotten in Denmark over there in Wayne County,
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One of our favorite congressmen, Thomas Massey of Kentucky, had a hot take regarding some of the
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recent coronavirus restrictions being implemented in that state. Quote, our governor just announced
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he's indefinitely banning all dine in restaurant service, but establishments can apply for $10,000
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to compensate for their losses. Does he realize that won't cover one night's receipts for some of
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these establishments? He will bankrupt many of them. And what I don't think the governor of Kentucky
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fully realizes is that there is a cascading economic effect that we see when in-person
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dining is limited. It's not just the restaurants that are impacted. It's not just their employees
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impacted, but it's the landlord. It's the shopping center. It's the inflow and outflow of people that
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can contribute to other tenants in a particular area that can all see a negative impact from these
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lockdowns. Dining has become one of the real areas of discussion and conflict and disagreement.
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And here's my hot take. If you've got good spacing, if you've got good sanitation, if you have good
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protocols in the kitchen, if you have frequent testing, if you have tools like temp checks, people
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ought to be able to engage in the in-person inside dining experience. There's no evidence that in
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circumstances where protocols are followed, where procedures are adhered to, where spacing is
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accommodated, that in-person dining is some like unique super spreader risk. And so I hope that the
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governor of Kentucky will reconsider. And as usual, I find myself on the same side as the gentleman from
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Kentucky in the United States Congress, the great Thomas Massey.
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Robotic canines will be patrolling Tyndall Air Force Base. We pick up the story from WEAR-3 in
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Northwest Florida. And it appears that the robot dogs known as Ghost Robotics Q-UGVs will be used for
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security and patrol. And the quote from the Department of Defense says, using onboard computers,
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cameras and other detection devices, the electronic canines can scout for threats before human exposure
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to potential dangers, or allow human defenders to take care of more pressing matters. And you should
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take a look at these things. They're like four legged, and they kind of look like a hunched over kangaroo.
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But it is always a benefit to the men and women who serve in our military, when we're able to
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automate more of the functions and tasks that could put people at risk. And so I'm all for it. If the
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robot canines can keep our best and our bravest safe as they're preparing and training for their
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missions, all the better. A compelling and true peace in the Financial Times, the kids aren't all
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right, how Generation COVID is losing out. A global Financial Times survey shows resentment is brewing
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among the under 30s as unemployment and restrictions bite. And the peace chronicles circumstances where
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young people are unable to fulfill their dreams, unable to engage in normal recreation. And, you know,
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the the tolerance for this is really diminishing. When you look at the lockdowns and the restrictions,
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and then the subsequent impacts that that has on the economy, young people are just sick of it.
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They want to get to the lives that they've seen their parents and grandparents lead. And as
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these, you know, days of enhanced restriction continue to persist, people start to lose hope
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that there's a light at the end of the tunnel. I'm old enough to remember when we were told this
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was going to be 14 days to slow the spread. And now we're looking at months upon months. And
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increasingly, corporations are coming out and telling us that the impacts of Coronavirus and the
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changes in policy will extend not just to the beginning of 2021, but potentially to the end of it.
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My hope is that the great work of the Trump administration through Operation Warp Speed to
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develop not one but two vaccines will certainly ease the negative impact on young people that
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we see in this Financial Times story. And I'm grateful that we've been able to beat expectations
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regarding those vaccines. Dr. Fauci and pharmaceutical executives told us that it would be 18 months at a
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minimum. And here we found the virus in January, we were only able to get it sequenced from the Chinese
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in some period of time after that. And in less than a year, we have not one but two vaccines ready to
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share with the country ready to share with the world. And my hope is that the opportunity brought by
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these vaccines will allow the young people in this country who've seen such a devastating impact on their
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development, be able to rebound and adapt and adhere to the circumstances that we find in the world,
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in a way that allows them to embrace prosperity and more opportunity, because certainly that's been
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lacking these last few months, we need to do better.
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In many places in America, Democrats are celebrating the result of the 2020 election, but
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not in the Sunshine State, not in Florida. Politico's Matt Dixon and Gary Fineout have the story of
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a meltdown in the Florida Democratic Party, with some of its figures like State Representative
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Eskamani saying that the party needs to become more progressive, more reliant on small dollar and
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non-institutional donors, that they need to embrace the woke-topia to a greater extent.
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And then you've got centrists like Florida Congresswoman, I should say former Florida
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Congresswoman Gwen Graham, saying Florida is essentially a center-right state, and the moves
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that Democrats made towards socialism were particularly damaging with the Hispanic community, which is
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a substantial amount of vote in the state of Florida. And I think this tells us a story about
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the country more broadly, and the state of the political movement on the left. Do they believe that
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this election was an endorsement of some of the most far-left-reaching policy goals that
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socialists have had for quite some time? Or was this election maybe something different? Was it
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something that ought to cause Democrats to move to a more moderate position? What I can tell you in
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Washington is that there is not a whole lot of moderation up here. You've got the squad and their
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followers in both the Congress and the media, hoping that in the upcoming congressional term,
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there'll be a push for greater redistribution of wealth. And I do believe that those moves,
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whether they're made at the national level or the state level, will harm the Hispanic outreach that
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the Democratic Party has attempted. We saw just a tremendous amount of Hispanic enthusiasm for the
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president in Florida. We saw a lot of the areas in Texas where Democrats have been hoping to make gains
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not fulfill their expectations because of that Hispanic support for Republicans and that
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rejection of socialism. I mean, Michael Bloomberg spent $130 million just in Texas and Florida with
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this great effort to try to flip state legislatures in those two states. And in fact, and in Texas and
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Florida, Republicans gained seats in the House of Representatives. So we'll see which direction
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they go and we'll be ready for it. A shout out to Delta Airlines. Their slogan is we love to fly and it
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shows. And if you're flying with Delta, it looks like you're not going to be sitting directly next to
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somebody. They are suspending the middle seat bookings throughout 2021 as a result of coronavirus.
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Now, this gives us an opportunity for a little bit of a hot takes flashback.
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We discussed the medical implications, the transmission implications of the middle seat or not the
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middle seat. And American Airlines, you know, they just put out a statement that said, look,
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they can't make money if they don't book the middle seat. And so they're going to. We talked about it on
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episode 63 of the podcast. Take a listen to the flashback. And there's an opinion by Faye Flom in
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Bloomberg opinion entitled, The Odds of Catching COVID on a Flight are Slim. And it chronicles an MIT study
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that goes into the types of air filters that are on planes, the sanitation that's being used. And the
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analysis suggests that you've got about a one in 4,300 chance of getting COVID on a full two-hour flight.
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And if an airline leaves the middle seat unoccupied, that actually drops to about one in 7,700.
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So thank you to those airlines who are actually leaving the middle seat empty. It has a huge impact
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on transmission rates. So it's great to see Delta Airlines following the data, keeping their flyers and
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customers safe. And we look forward to even more innovations in the airline industry and elsewhere
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to ensure that we're all safe to move about the country.
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Last night, Jim Jordan and I joined Sean Hannity to discuss our fight for election integrity. Take a listen.
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The fundamental question, Sean, on your latter point is why? Why don't Democrats want to get to the bottom of all
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the irregularities, all the problems we saw in the 2020 election? I mean, for goodness sake, Georgia just found
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three counties where they hadn't even counted thousands of votes. And it's 16 days after the
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election. So ranking member Comer and I today, first call for an investigation. We sent a letter
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to Mr. Natter and Chairwoman Maloney. Why don't you guys investigate? The committees aren't even meeting
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this week. Why not? Why not look into this? So that to me is the fundamental question.
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These same Democrats who told us that the rioters and the looters all summer long were peaceful
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protesters are now the same ones telling us we can trust the vote. When everything shows all the
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problems, Kayleigh just went through them all. Let's look at all that information. And when it comes
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to Tony Bobulinski and the Hunter Biden story, Bill Barsha, name a special counsel. It's that simple.
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Name a special counsel to look into that situation. Yeah, I would suggest that the president isn't fighting
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for his own political fortunes in these legal battles. He's fighting for the rest of us. We all deserve
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elections where we don't have people voting in more than one state. We don't have people voting after
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they've changed their address. And the scale is now reaching some significance. In Georgia,
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these mistakes aren't in the tens or hundreds of votes. They're in the thousands of votes. Maybe
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we ought to put the people who ran Operation Warp Speed in charge of counting the ballots in Georgia,
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and they'd be able to get us a result by now. But here's the thing, Sean, if we can flip Georgia by
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showing that there was not accurate counting there, then I think it pulls back the whole veneer that
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the media and others have tried to put on these on these mail-in ballots.
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One of the issues Congress regularly deals with is gambling, the legality and permissibility of
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interstate commerce that deals with the wagering on sports and other endeavors. And of course,
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the Internet has allowed gambling to be scaled to the moon. And so it's always interesting to see
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what important corporations are either betting for or against gambling. For example, in my home state
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of Florida, Walt Disney World typically opposes the expansion of gambling in our state because they
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know that with more gambling comes reduced hotel room rates. And they don't want to see that because
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they, of course, want folks to pay that premium to spend that hotel room night with the mouse,
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Mickey Mouse. But there is one major communications corporation that is making a bet on gaming.
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That would be Sinclair Media. They are going to rebrand their entire sports networking,
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Bally's Sports. And of course, Bally's is one of the longstanding gaming establishments in Las
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Vegas, Nevada. Bally's making the deal with Sinclair to allow a number of major professional sports
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leagues, local programming shows and games to be broadcast under their banner. And we'll see if
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this is the new normal. We've seen the major professional sports leagues in some ways tilt
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away from gaming. But the trajectory on that has been, I think, a little bit different in recent
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years. I mean, you see the NFL expanding to Las Vegas. That would have been unheard of a decade ago.
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And now Sinclair Media working with Bally's Casino. And I am guessing that if you're seeing these hockey
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and Major League Baseball games played under that banner, there will be plenty of co-advertising
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for wagering. I'm all for the freedom. I think that if Americans want to choose to spend their
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disposable income on a game or a wager, that's not up to the government to dictate. It's up for people to
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make their own choices. And that appears to be the current modus operandi, the current trajectory.
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Does America have zombie companies? Bloomberg writes a piece about how some of America's
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greatest brands and names are now in quite a precarious financial situation. They were once
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corporate titans, beloved household names, case studies and success. But now they're increasingly
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looking like something else. Zombies. And their numbers are swelling. From Boeing to Carnival to
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Exxon and Macy's, many of our nation's most iconic companies are really having to cover their
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expenses during this coronavirus time. And experts are now calling it zombie status, given the just
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enormous amount of debt that a lot of these companies have racked up. 1.4 trillion, according to
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the Bloomberg analysis. Almost 200 corporations have joined the ranks of so-called zombie firms
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since the onset of the pandemic. And that's going toward like 3,000 of the country's largest publicly
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traded companies kind of in that danger zone of becoming zombies themselves. In fact, zombies now
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account for nearly 20% of those firms. Even more stark, they've added a trillion dollars in debt to
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their balance sheets during this time span, bringing total obligations to 1.36 trillion.
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That's more than double the roughly 500 billion zombie companies owed at the peak of the financial
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crisis. We'll continue to follow it. But here's my hot take. Sure, the pandemic is going to be
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devastating for a lot of businesses, even large businesses. But it will also create opportunities.
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When you look at the innovations and adjustments and changes that we've needed for financial success,
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for interaction, for connectivity, I think that the American innovator will be resilient and
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responsive. And we have to understand that, of course, these major companies are big-time job
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creators. And if there's a way for us to help bridge the gap as a country, we need to do that. But we
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also shouldn't be so gloomy as to throw in the towel on the notion of continued progress and evolution
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and change for the better. Thanks for listening to Hot Takes. I'm Congressman Matt Gaetz. Make sure to
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subscribe, leave us a five-star rating if you listen on iTunes, and join us tomorrow for more Hot Takes.