Episode 141 – The Disappointing DOJ. How to Challenge the Electoral College in Congress. Trump's Strongest Move Yet Against Big Tech.
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Summary
Bill Barr says there's no evidence of widespread voter fraud that could have impacted the outcome of the 2020 election. Rep. Matt Gaetz has a hot take about that, and other news out of the Department of Justice, including the appointment of a special counsel to investigate the Trump-Russia investigation.
Transcript
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Welcome to Hot Takes. I'm Congressman Matt Gaetz. Let's talk about the news. A lot of
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news coming out of the United States Department of Justice. Let's start with Durham. You'll
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remember some 18 months ago Bill Barr announced that John Durham would be taking the lead in an
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investigation to review the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation. The potential criminal
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activity associated with trying to frame a president, alter evidence before a secret court,
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continue to renew an application to spy on Americans despite having the knowledge at the
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Department of Justice that the basis, that the underlying reason for that spying was flawed.
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That it was based on the work of Christopher Steele who the FBI knew to be a known liar and
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analysis of Carter Page who was freely working with the FBI, giving them information regarding
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his meetings with Russians. It was all so fake. It was all just an effort to try to frame the
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president, undermine the presidency, and empower the deep state. I think people should go to jail
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for that crime against our country. But despite the many months of investigation, we haven't seen
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anything from John Durham in the nature of indictments or even his scope of work. You'll remember when
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Robert Mueller was appointed special counsel, subpoenas were flying out. Roger Stone was getting
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arrested by an amphibious assault SWAT team. You had Paul Manafort getting drugged before courts because
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of tax crimes that he'd allegedly committed back in the 1980s. And here you have the Durham investigation,
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not resulting here at the conclusion of the president's first term with indictments or even a
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description of what he's been doing, but just a memo from Bill Barr converting him from an investigator
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to a special counsel on this matter. It's a little disappointing for me. I mean, it kind of feels like
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we're ending where they started. I mean, they began the Trump presidency by appointing a special counsel
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to go after Trump, his family, his campaign team, his supporters. And yet here we are, you know,
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potentially at the conclusion of the Trump presidency. And only now we're getting to the point where they
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started. If we couldn't get results and accountability during the Trump presidency regarding the framing of
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Donald Trump, we're very unlikely to get results after the Trump presidency regarding the framing of
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Donald Trump. That's why I'm disappointed in the decision. I would have liked to have seen more. And
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it's shocking really that we find ourselves in this moment where the United States Department of
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Justice spent more time investigating Donald Trump for fake allegations against him than they spent
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investigating the real allegations of voter fraud in this election. And that brings us to the next big
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piece of news out of the Department of Justice, Attorney General Bill Barr saying that he's got no
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evidence of widespread voter fraud that could have impacted the outcome of the 2020 election.
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Here's my hot take. If your house gets robbed because the alarm system malfunctioned, maybe you
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shouldn't exclusively trust the alarm company to catch the thief. That's kind of what happened here.
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And that's not a full indictment of all people associated with the DOJ. There are actually some
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good folks in U.S. attorney offices around the country. There are some good ones here in Florida
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who were really focused on ensuring that in the registration process on the front end, in the ballot
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request process on the front end, in the mail out of ballots, in the management of the retrieval of those
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ballots, that there were not crimes being committed. Because after the fact, it's very hard to put
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humpty dumpty back together again and figure out who committed what crimes, what polluted ballots
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are commingled with legitimate ballots. And so you can show all of the affidavits and all of the claims,
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but it's very difficult to obtain the relief that the Trump campaign is requesting after the fact.
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That's why this was such a failure on the Department of Justice, on the front end,
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not everywhere. You know, we forget in most places in this country, we ran clean elections.
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It was basically in four cities, Milwaukee, Detroit, Atlanta, and Philadelphia. And in those four places,
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there was mechanized ballot fraud, and there was not sufficient attention from the Department of
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Justice on the impact of that fraud, of that ballot laundering. And so lo and behold, after the fact,
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they're unable to reconstruct the elements of this criminal activity and make a finding, I do not
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believe that that is some blessing upon the 2020 election. I do not believe that absolves the fact
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that you had people voting in more than one state, you had dead people voting, you had people voting who
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had already filled out a change of address form. Matt Brainerd is one of the leading minds at the
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Voter Integrity Project. He was on the Lou Dobbs program, and I think laid out the specificity of
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the fraud, the specific voters involved. Take a listen to the interview with Matt Brainerd and Lou Dobbs.
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Tell us what you gave them that you think may be most helpful to them to assure integrity in this election.
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What we're giving them is we're giving to every of our target state's attorney generals,
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the legislatures, governors, and secretaries of state is hard evidence of potentially illegal
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ballots cast in those states. And I'm not sending them charts or line graphs or speculation about
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what may or might not have happened. I send them the names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth,
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and voter record numbers of people who either had ballots cast in their name and said they didn't
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or who did cast ballots they shouldn't have because they didn't meet residency requirements
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or cast ballots in multiple states. And what we found is in several key states,
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specifically Wisconsin, Georgia, and Arizona, the number of these ballots, individual voters
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we've identified who cast early and absentee ballots in these states surpassed the margin of victory,
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which means that we can, nobody can honestly say for certain that Joe Biden actually won the election
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just on the basis of our data alone. Now, other people have done other analyses, which I think has
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some validity, and others have taken our data and projected it to like a larger universe to come up
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with even more substantial numbers. But just on the people we've identified ourselves, we believe that
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that surpasses the margin of victory in enough states to have denied Joe Biden a win in the electoral
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college. Without those three states, this election would have gone to the U.S. House of Representatives
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and President Trump would have been reelected. So we cannot say with confidence that Joe Biden's
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the deserved winner of the election based solely on the data that we've uncovered.
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President Trump has just taken his strongest stance yet against censorship on the Internet.
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We've covered extensively how Section 230 of the Communication Decency Act gives large digital
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platforms the ability to avoid the liabilities that would append to this podcast, that would append to
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cable news station or your local newspaper or local network, a news show. President Trump tweeting,
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Section 230, which is a liability shield gift from the U.S. to big tech, only the companies in America
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that have it, corporate welfare, is a serious threat to our national security and election integrity.
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Our country can never be safe and secure if we allow it to stand. Therefore, if the very dangerous
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and unfair Section 230 is not completely terminated as part of the National Defense Authorization Act,
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I will be forced to unequivocally veto the bill when sent to the very beautiful Resolute Desk.
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Take back America now. Thank you. Here's my hot take. I support the President and his desire to
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repeal Section 230. I think it would be excellent to include that repeal in the National Defense
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Authorization Act that we are sending the President. There's a lot in that National Defense
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Authorization Act that I like. Pay increases for troops, benefits for surviving spouses,
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ensuring that we've got the weapons to vanquish our enemies downrange whenever we need to.
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There's also a lot I don't like. There's a piece in The Intercept that Glenn Greenwald just tweeted out
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about the work that I did with some progressives to try to advance the America First foreign policy
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agenda supported by President Trump. And we faced a lot of resistance from the defense contractor-funded
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Democrats and, of course, Liz Cheney and the Warhawk Republicans. And so the Defense Authorization Act
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now has got good and bad in it. It would definitely be an improved piece of legislation if the President
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gets his way and we can get a repeal of Section 230 in that bill. And that is exactly what I'll be fighting
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for in the Congress. Former President Barack Obama says that liberals lose a substantial portion of
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the country with snappy slogans like defund the police. In an interview with Axios, the former
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president said that progressives should try to accomplish their policy goals without these types
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of slogans that turn off a great deal of the country. Here's my hot take. It's not the slogan,
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defund the police that bothers me. It is the objective to defund the police that bothers me.
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And by the way, with what we see from Democrats, particularly in the House of Representatives,
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that's exactly what they're trying to do. When they strip police of their immunities, when they
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make it harder for police to acquire body protection, personal protection for the incredibly
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difficult jobs they have, they're doing everything they can to keep that police officer in the car
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rather than encouraging proactive policing. So whether it's the slogan or the objective or the policies
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and bills, whether it's the appropriations made or the signals sent, it is very clear to the country
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the Democrats are against the police. The Republicans are for the police. It seems like the only
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law enforcement that the Democrats are for are some of the highly politicized folks who've cycled in and
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out of the FBI and the Department of Justice, who've been criticized roundly by Inspector General's
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reports and who still should face consequences.
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When the Electoral College results are sent to the United States Congress for review by
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a joint session of the Congress, we have the opportunity to object to any state's slate of
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electors. That objection must be in writing. It must be submitted by at least one member of the House
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of Representatives and at least one member of the Senate. And it would result in a two-hour debate
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in each chamber regarding the legitimacy of those electors sent by a particular state. So this doesn't
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mean challenging the entire national election. It doesn't mean challenging every state or every
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circumstance. It means isolating some of those places where we remain concerned about voter
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registration irregularities, the accounting of the ballots cast to the particular number of people
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in a precinct. I had an opportunity to discuss this phenomenon and the potential for an objection in the
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electoral college and the certification process before the Congress on Newsmax last evening with
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Newsmax has still not called this race. We're waiting for the president to exhaust his challenges
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in the states. But I just want to be clear that, I mean, if you look at it objectively, you can say
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that the number of states that have certified their electors favors Joe Biden getting 270. But you have
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been quoted in this story that I saw that I think was fascinating in Politico that says how Trump's Hill
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allies could take one last shot to overturn the election. Nothing is off the table, said Congressman
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Matt Gaetz. I think this is fascinating. Walk me through what you're thinking, what the strategy is, and
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Just today, I've talked to Republicans in the House of Representatives, and I've also talked to Republicans in
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the United States Senate. And there is an interest in looking into these irregularities and presenting
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them to force a debate in the Congress about whether or not to certify these or accept, I should say,
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these states' electors. Every state's electors are individually subject to objection, as you correctly
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pointed out to top off the show. And if we don't see, I think, some explanation for why in places
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there is not a match with the number of people who voted and the people who are on the voter rolls,
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if we see these voter registration anomalies continue, I think it would be worthy of a debate.
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So if it were to be the case that members of the House and a member of the Senate were to
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offer that objection, it would require a two-hour debate about that state's process and about the
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validity of the electors that they have sent. And I think the nation would survive that, Sean.
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I think somehow the union would hold if we took the opportunity to isolate the irregularities
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in Georgia, in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin in particular, and to lay that bare before the
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nation so that at a minimum, we ensure that this type of erosion of election integrity never happens
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again. In Los Angeles County, California, now they even want to ban outdoor dining, gutter dining,
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as I call it. You see, in the state of Florida, we believe that human beings ought to have the choice
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to go inside and enjoy a meal if they exercise that choice. In LA County, first they threw everybody out
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next to the gutters. Now they even want to close that outdoor dining, but they are facing some
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resistance. The Beverly Hills City Council unanimously votes to oppose the LA County dining ban. I guess the
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Woketopians in Beverly Hills have had enough. They want to be able to have their meals. They want to
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be able to have them at restaurants. I just think this is all so crazy. I mean, I look at a lot of
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these outdoor dining setups, and basically you've got a nice, cozy, wonderful restaurant, and then outside
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they'll go set up a tent, put heaters inside of it, stick everybody in the tent, and then convince
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themselves and try to convince you that somehow everything is safer as a consequence. People need
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to eat. They need to have the choice to do it inside. I stand with the City Council of Beverly Hills,
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California, and against the LA County mandate to stop dining of any kind, indoor, outdoor, or otherwise.
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And again, I cannot stress this enough. These lockdowns hurt blue-collar people the most. They
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hurt people that live month to month, paycheck to paycheck, and the worst impacts of this coronavirus
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will undoubtedly come from the government decisions to lock down, to limit choice, and to harm our
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country. There is no lockdown strong enough to hold back the American spirit. That spirit must
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prevail, and it must be enduring. Let us go to eat. Let us do it inside or outside at our choosing.
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This week, marijuana reform is on the agenda in the House of Representatives. The Moore Act will pass
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the House on Friday. It will not even get a hearing in the Senate, so it won't become law. It will largely
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be a messaging bill, a measuring stick for where the marijuana reform movement currently stands,
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particularly in the House of Representatives. If you want to check out the specifics of the Moore Act,
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I've noted that episode 80 of the podcast goes through the substantive provisions of the bill,
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the pros and cons, and some of the committee debate. But if you want further reading on where the
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marijuana reform movement stands, there is a piece in a Bloomberg opinion, can marijuana help Biden
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heal a divided nation? And of course, the piece starts with the premise that Biden is going to be
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the president. It reads, after more states have legalized pot, support at the federal level is what
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is needed to make cannabis investors cheer again. And now it's possible. Now, the piece talks about
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the five states in this last election that approved ballot measures for marijuana reform. They include
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Arizona, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, and South Dakota. So pretty much a cross-section. You get a
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purple state in Arizona, some pretty red states in Mississippi, South Dakota, Montana, and then
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even a blue state in there, New Jersey, modernizing their cannabis programs. And it appears, based on
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the results from the people, that when marijuana initiatives are on the ballot in this country,
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they typically pass. And so whether or not marijuana is that which could help Biden heal a divided nation,
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I think is an outstanding question. But check it out in the Bloomberg opinion piece we will be posting.
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Thanks for listening to Hot Takes. I'm Congressman Matt Gaetz. This podcast is written, produced,
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and directed by a team that includes myself and Luke Ball and Joel Valdez from our communications team.
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