The Anchormen Show with Matt Gaetz - May 29, 2020


Episode 14 - Big Tech Latest, Disagreeing with Republicans, Me on Cardi B


Episode Stats

Length

17 minutes

Words per Minute

167.01201

Word Count

2,848

Sentence Count

165

Hate Speech Sentences

6


Summary

In light of President Trump's executive order, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-GA) files a complaint with the Federal Election Commission against Big Tech companies that he says are trying to interfere in the 2020 election. He also explains why he thinks they should be subject to the same campaign finance laws as traditional political parties.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Welcome to Hot Takes. This is Congressman Matt Gaetz. Let's talk about the news. And you knew
00:00:21.440 the news in advance. Yesterday, if you listened to our podcast, we previewed a lot of the elements
00:00:25.960 of the president's executive order. Tucker Carlson and I had an interview on it last night.
00:00:31.420 Here's Tucker and my responses. The Communications Decency Act of 1996 is at the center of this. It's
00:00:37.820 the reason that big tech is as powerful as it now is. Section 230 of that act holds that we're
00:00:43.820 quoting now. No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher
00:00:49.640 or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider. What does that mean?
00:00:54.340 It means that the big tech companies, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, are not considered responsible
00:01:00.540 for the content that appears on them. And that actually makes sense. We're in favor of that
00:01:05.200 if they remain neutral platforms. But they are not neutral platforms. They are publishers,
00:01:11.580 the most powerful publishers in the world. Big tech buys off Congress so as to maintain
00:01:16.420 special privileges that local newspapers and television stations don't enjoy. That's why
00:01:22.020 the president's executive order today is one very important next step. Because if we just
00:01:27.000 wait around, big tech will steal this election from Donald Trump and from the American people.
00:01:32.460 In 2016, we won three Rust Belt states by a point each. And that was when nobody thought
00:01:37.340 Donald Trump could win. In 2020, we've lost the element of surprise. And so we have to be
00:01:43.100 as aggressive as they are. That means bills like Senator Hawley and I have filed to change
00:01:49.260 Section 230 so as to out these entities as publishers and not the unbiased platforms they
00:01:54.720 are. It means an executive order like the president has issued. But it also means getting the other
00:01:59.380 elements of government to enforce existing law. The Federal Election Commission needs to get off their
00:02:04.880 duff. Twitter is interfering with an election. I heard Democrats say for three years that Russia
00:02:10.100 was interfering with an election. That was a hoax. We have domestic election interference going on
00:02:15.020 right now. I'll be filing a complaint with the Federal Election Commission tomorrow because of
00:02:19.720 what they have done to President Trump. And as a voter, I have the standing to do it. And President
00:02:24.160 Trump should call for a decision on the Federal Election Commission questions that are before them
00:02:29.140 so that these tech companies get flushed out of the bushes. That's right. I'll be filing a complaint
00:02:33.580 with the Federal Election Commission today. And it's about time. The Federal Election Commission
00:02:38.500 and the FCC as well took action against these digital platforms that are trying to engage in
00:02:45.340 election interference and who I think are violating existing law. I mean, we do need to clean up the
00:02:51.280 laws we have, but I'm always a fan of starting with enforcing existing law. So let me break down
00:02:56.700 first my FEC complaint. If Twitter were not a technology company, if they were a billboard company
00:03:03.680 and they wanted to put up billboards fact checking every claim I made as a congressman and candidate
00:03:10.220 for federal office. Well, of course, the FEC would say if you if you put up a billboard saying
00:03:15.420 Matt Gaetz is a liar, Matt Gaetz is a bad guy, that would inure to the benefit of my opponent and that
00:03:21.040 would be a contribution to my opponent's campaign. Matter of fact, people have put up billboards that
00:03:26.520 attack me in my district and they are required to comply with campaign finance laws. And I think that's
00:03:32.640 great. I think that people ought to be able to express themselves and have free speech, but you
00:03:37.040 got to do it according to the law. Now, Twitter as a corporation is not expressing free speech.
00:03:43.060 They're acting as a publisher. And I would say they're acting through political advocacy when they
00:03:49.440 choose to characterize the president's comments often inaccurately. They've had unchecked power to
00:03:56.260 censor, restrict, edit, shape, hide, alter virtually any form of communication between private citizens
00:04:03.300 or large public audiences. There's no precedent in American history for so small a number of
00:04:09.280 corporations to control so large a sphere of human interaction. And that includes individual people
00:04:16.120 controlling vast amounts of territory. And we can't allow that to happen, especially when they go
00:04:22.580 about doing what they're doing because they're doing things incorrectly. They have points of view.
00:04:27.840 And if we go by that, it's actually amazing that there was a success in 2016, but we can't let this
00:04:34.700 continue to happen. It's very, very unfair. And so if they want to make a contribution, they should have
00:04:39.400 to follow the same laws anyone else would have to follow. And I believe they are outside of the law,
00:04:44.560 which is why I filed that first element of my complaint. And the second is that if these editorial
00:04:50.160 comments are in fact donations on a platform, then they would undeniably exceed the federal limits for
00:04:56.860 donations, which is the second count of my complaint. But it won't just be getting the FEC and FCC
00:05:02.620 engaged. It will also be the review of the experiences so many Americans have had on social media. And in the
00:05:09.180 president's executive order, what I really appreciate is the focus on how these digital
00:05:15.540 platforms have shaped the user experience. Have they deplatformed people? Have they canceled people?
00:05:21.840 Have they suppressed speech? Have they elevated speech on the other side? That's just as bad when
00:05:26.520 they're trying to put their thumb on the scale and interfere with an election. So under the current
00:05:31.880 executive order, there will actually be a focused review on those experiences and on those concerns at the
00:05:40.120 Department of Justice. And then it's my hope that that can migrate into some real enforcement action from the
00:05:47.560 antitrust division at the Department of Justice. We have antitrust laws for a reason in every other industry.
00:05:54.300 Companies have to follow those laws for the benefit of our people. And if technology companies are escaping that,
00:06:00.680 well, that's not really fair. And I hope that we'll see more action from the Department of Justice enforcing
00:06:06.440 antitrust law, running down these concerns that Americans have about their experience with digital
00:06:13.420 platforms. And I sure hope that it won't take months or years for the Federal Election Commission
00:06:19.920 to actually step up and defend our elections from this type of interference from digital platforms like
00:06:26.400 Twitter. Hopefully that'll help. Hopefully that'll create fair debate, because if there is fair debate,
00:06:31.940 I think the ideas and values that we see the president animating and that we see throughout
00:06:37.620 the America First agenda will be successful with the great people of our country.
00:06:44.180 This next story is just too good to talk about. Again, from our friends at the National Pulse,
00:06:49.940 reporting from Sofia Carbone, Twitter hires Chinese Communist Party linked AI expert who wants to hide
00:06:57.080 secret weapons contract. So a very loaded article. I suggest you check it out. But hey,
00:07:02.880 if it's talking about China and Twitter, you know, we're talking about it on Hot Takes with Matt Gaetz.
00:07:07.640 So this is the story of Dr. Fifi Lee, a Stanford professor, former Google vice president. And what
00:07:17.180 she has been caught doing by our friends at the National Pulse and also the folks over at Radio Free Asia
00:07:23.700 is participating in these conferences and talent exchanges that are really propped up by the Chinese
00:07:32.040 Communist Party. So Fifi Lee had to resign from her position as vice president of Google following this
00:07:38.400 leak of an email where she was condemning the fact that Google was working with our Pentagon. Imagine that.
00:07:44.960 And so she gets canned from Google. This link comes out about her animosity towards our defense
00:07:52.020 department. She participates in multiple conferences that Radio Free Asia expose as the assembly of
00:08:00.520 talent for the benefit of the CCP. And then lo and behold, right on the heels of President Trump
00:08:07.020 getting this offensive, you know, coming over at him from Twitter, you see this CCP linked individual
00:08:14.520 getting a job with Twitter. It's something we'll continue to follow. And I'm glad the National
00:08:19.240 Pulse is exposing the relationship between the CCP and far too many of the corporate entities in the
00:08:25.480 United States of America. I hate having to report on this next movement in the Congress because it
00:08:34.020 negatively implicates a number of my friends and people I've worked with closely on issues with this
00:08:40.480 administration and with this president. But nearly 40 Republicans in the Congress have signed a letter
00:08:46.840 to President Trump asking him not to impose any further restrictions on the H-2B visa seasonal guest
00:08:54.460 worker class. Oh, I mean, in the letter, they say they're doing this for small businesses, but
00:09:00.920 it's not. I mean, there are some small businesses that use this program, but primarily the H-2B visa
00:09:06.700 program is used by larger businesses. And it's just not reflective of an America first policy when
00:09:14.400 you've got tens of millions of Americans unemployed working to get re-onboarded onto their jobs to be
00:09:21.760 waving the flag of the America last crowd that would bring in cheap foreign labor. And just to be honest
00:09:28.940 with you, that's what big business wants a lot of time. They want cheap foreign labor. They want it now.
00:09:34.580 And it does not inure to our country's benefit. So there is the economic reason why this letter is
00:09:40.960 really poorly suited. And then there is just the public health reason. I mean, if we are going to
00:09:46.340 have people coming in through the H-2B visa program, I would like to see a lot more testing required.
00:09:53.700 I would like to see a lot more participation from these businesses that are bringing these workers in
00:09:58.120 to ensure that wherever they were, where public health might not have been at the same high standard
00:10:04.440 that we have in the United States, where access to water, where density of living conditions are
00:10:08.600 different, that we are not inviting into our country the potential for some coronavirus hotspots.
00:10:15.640 And if you look at some of the slaughterhouses and packing houses that use these programs, we have
00:10:21.960 seen some pops in the coronavirus positive test result percentage in those places among those
00:10:30.660 populations. And finally, this is a bad idea because it's just not the time to be popping President Trump
00:10:37.520 on immigration, especially from Republicans. President Trump's views on how the flow of people
00:10:44.900 impact the spread of this virus were prophetic. He was right to restrict travel from China. He's right
00:10:51.300 now to be looking at places where we've got to evaluate travel restrictions, especially from
00:10:56.720 Latin America. I mean, Latin America is sort of becoming the new Europe in this virus. And I am not
00:11:03.000 optimistic that some of the tools that were used in Europe are going to be as effective in Latin America
00:11:07.880 for the reasons I just mentioned. And so I am not a big fan of this H-2B visa program being
00:11:14.920 overutilized during this time. I think the president has put the right restrictions on it. I stand with
00:11:20.820 President Trump. And I'm disappointed by my Republican colleagues who signed this letter. We'll throw it up on
00:11:26.740 our official social media so that you can take a look at it when we post the podcast. But come on, guys and
00:11:32.020 gals, let's put our country, our workers, our people first, especially in this time of crisis.
00:11:40.240 No truth for you. Yesterday, the Truth Act failed on the floor of the House of Representatives.
00:11:45.820 More members of Congress actually voted for it than voted against it. But under the suspension rules
00:11:52.120 that we were working under yesterday, only that legislation which receives a two-thirds majority
00:11:57.720 vote becomes law. This did not reach that threshold because of the 147 Republicans who voted against it.
00:12:05.980 Only Republicans voted against the Truth Act. And I was not among them.
00:12:10.200 I voted yes. And here's why. So the Truth Act says that if you're a business and you got more than
00:12:16.380 two million bucks in the Paycheck Protection Program or through various other facilities set up by the
00:12:23.460 Fed, that that information can become public, that you got that money. And there is an attestation to
00:12:31.200 the SBA as a part of the Paycheck Protection Program that that money went to employees, that it was
00:12:37.620 accounted for according to the law and that there wasn't fraud, waste or abuse, or frankly, misappropriated
00:12:43.980 utilization. And, you know, the Republicans who voted against the bill took the position that, well, you
00:12:50.380 know, at a time when businesses are struggling, what's sort of one more thing that they have to do? But I mean,
00:12:55.460 the thing that they have to do is tied to the fact that they got two million bucks or more from our country,
00:13:00.280 from the Treasury or from the Fed. And so I don't think it's too much to ask so long as it's not an
00:13:07.620 overly burdensome requirement. And in this case, I didn't find that it was. I do also believe that
00:13:14.220 having some sense of nexus between the need for these funds and their appropriation and delivery
00:13:22.500 is pretty damn important. You know, there are businesses in my district that were illegal for
00:13:29.760 many weeks and were unable to bring in any revenue and they desperately needed that money. Some of those
00:13:36.080 small businesses in my district were incredibly frustrated that the money would get deployed and spent and
00:13:43.300 absorbed very quickly before they could assemble the documentation that they would need to show their
00:13:48.740 eligibility. And similarly, I know businesses in my district and in districts all over this great country where
00:13:55.960 companies did not see one diminution in revenue. Some even saw increases in revenue as a consequence of
00:14:02.160 the changes in our life from coronavirus. But because they deemed themselves eligible, they would
00:14:07.940 go and apply for this program. Now, I think Secretary Mnuchin did a really good job putting out guidance that
00:14:14.020 said that there was a limited amnesty period that if you didn't really need the money, you could turn it back
00:14:19.160 in and there wouldn't be a problem. But in the event that that didn't happen, there needs to be
00:14:24.400 enforcement. And the way to guide that enforcement is transparency. And I think the best disinfectant is
00:14:32.200 always a little bit of sunshine. That's why I voted with the bipartisan majority for the Truth Act
00:14:36.780 so that there can be more thorough review. After all, I'm a Floridian. We think sunshine is the best disinfectant.
00:14:42.840 International music sensation and occasional social commentator Cardi B has entered the discussion
00:14:52.720 about what's going on in Minnesota and those tragic events.
00:14:57.080 They looting in Minnesota. And as much as I don't like this type of violence, it is what it is.
00:15:05.260 Too much peaceful marches, too much trending hashtags, and no solutions in all caps.
00:15:11.020 The people are left with no choice in all caps. Well, you know what, Cardi? There is a choice. I mean,
00:15:18.500 just like there was a choice you had when you bragged about meeting men in strip clubs,
00:15:25.900 offering them sex, drugging them, and robbing them. Like, you had a choice to do that or to do
00:15:31.540 different things, and you chose that. And so these folks who may have very legitimate grievance and
00:15:37.800 call for reform have a choice to not rob and loot and destroy. You know, the people that built these
00:15:45.600 small businesses in Minnesota, you know, the workers who are unable to now go feed their families
00:15:51.340 because of the disruption going on in society, they're the ones that have no choice when there
00:15:57.300 is a mob riot instead of, I think, an adult discussion. And we need to have an adult discussion
00:16:02.860 about the ways in which law enforcement interacts with communities who have every right to feel as
00:16:10.100 safe as the rest of us. But I guess Cardi can kind of be full of contradictions. I mean, she writes the
00:16:15.760 song, Be Careful With Me. But then after making the music video Motorsport with Nicki Minaj, I think
00:16:23.040 she like threw a shoe at her and got some sort of arrest or charge as a consequence. So not super
00:16:29.200 careful, Cardi. And I mean, she's got this great lyric in one song. He says he really wants to see
00:16:34.500 me more. We should have a date where at the Lamborghini store. Great song, great rhyme. But
00:16:41.340 they're looting and rioting at the Lamborghini store, Cardi. So I tell you what, people do have a
00:16:46.260 choice. People don't have to go out and destroy the lives and dreams and investments and property of
00:16:52.160 others. And I'm with you, Cardi, for finding the solutions, but certainly not excusing this type of
00:16:58.660 violence. Have a great weekend, everyone. We'll be back next week with more Hot Takes.