Episode 142 – The Bipartisan Populist Alliance. Did FBI Agents Use Fake Names？ American Companies Listed as Top Plastic Producers.
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Summary
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-GA) joins Laura Ingraham (D-CA) on her show to discuss the need for those on the right and left to join forces to fight against endless wars. The New York Times named the top 3 single-use plastic producers in the world, and more.
Transcript
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Welcome to Hot Takes. I'm Congressman Matt Gaetz. Let's talk about the news. Laura Ingram
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made some news by having my friend from California, Democrat Ro Khanna, on her program to discuss
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the need for those on the right and the left to join together to fight against these endless wars.
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Take a listen to that interview with Laura Ingram and Ro Khanna.
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What do you think about the potential DOD picks that have been floated for a Biden administration?
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I mean, a lot of these folks doesn't look like they're going to be anxious to pull more troops
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out of Afghanistan. Certainly the generals don't seem to want to do that.
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Well, I've expressed concern about Michelle Flournoy. Let's see what she says. But she was for an
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escalation in Afghanistan. She was for Iraq. She was for Syria. These policies have cost us
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trillions of dollars. China hasn't been in a war since 1979. We've been in 40 wars. If you view
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China as our biggest strategic competitor in the 21st century, then these policies aren't what's
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going to allow America to win and compete. So this is Matt Gaetz shares this view. There are people
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on the armed services committee who shares this view. This is really not partisan. It's about making
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sure America leads the 21st century. Now, this sparked tremendous controversy, particularly
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Congressman Khanna referencing his work with me to ensure that we do not overextend our country.
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I had the opportunity to join Laura Ingraham to discuss our alliance and the opportunity
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that we have to join right wing populists and left wing populists to do some stuff that might
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I believe that the coalition will be larger in the next Congress than in the last Congress
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based on the influence that Donald Trump has had on the Republican Party and on the types
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of candidates that he is inspired to run for Congress. Remember, I mean, we are a coalition
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that lost in this last round of national defense authorization discussions because the pro-war Democrats
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worked together with the neoconservative Republicans like Liz Cheney. And while Ro Khanna
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and Tulsi Gabbard and I offered resistance to the endless wars, we did not prevail in that endeavor.
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But I figure, Laura, it took the establishment and both parties to get us in this war
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and in multiple wars. Why not work together across the aisle to get out of them? And I also think
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there's a generational piece here. Young people are weary of these wars. They've been going on
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almost all of our adult lives. And I think that perhaps generationally, we may be able to bridge
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America's brands top the list of the world's worst plastic producers. The New York Post's Hannah
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Sparks has the story. America's top household brands are also the world's most prolific plastic
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producers. Much of the world's lands and our waters and our wilds are impacted by this phenomenon.
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For the third year in a row, the Coca-Cola company, PepsiCo and Nestle, a Swiss company, ranked highest in the
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amount of plastic pollution they create, according to an annual audit by the Free From Plastic campaign.
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Now, we know that in the ocean, 90% of the world's plastics come from 10 rivers. Seven of them are in
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Asia. But that does not absolve these American companies of their potential responsibility.
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Because many of these American companies, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, they operate in Asia, where they don't
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have the same environmental standards, where there are not the same requirements for plastic collection,
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recycling, disposal. And that impacts the whole world. So we hope that these companies will step
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forward. Now, there is a call for them to reduce the number of single-use plastics that they create.
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I don't know how feasible that is. But I do think that there is a reuse and recycling strategy that
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is viable. And these companies could play a leading role in getting it done.
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I wrote a book called Firebrand. And in that book, there's a chapter entitled,
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A Birthright Worth Defending. I make the argument that in America, birthright citizenship is given
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too liberally. It's a provision that is not allowed in most of the developing countries in the world.
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And today we get news from the Eastern District of New York. Six defendants indicted for fraud and money
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laundering scheme that operated seven birth houses in Suffolk County. And this was a scheme that led to more
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than 100 Turkish children obtaining birthright U.S. citizenship and a $2.1 million loss to Medicaid.
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So a lot of these foreign countries will set up birthing suites in the United States where their rich
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elite can pay untold sums of money to have pregnant women come to America, have their children,
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and then have those children enjoy the full benefits of citizenship in our country. You see,
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I think in America, citizenship is so precious that we shouldn't sell it for any price. People in our
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country should get the full complement of our citizenship without seeing it diluted by those who
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would pay money for citizenship by fraud. Check out the indictment, check out the construct, and then join
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me in the movement to limit birthright citizenship and to ensure that we value citizenship in our country
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so much that we wouldn't allow it to be bought or sold by anyone.
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Is government the best entity to run things? Should they run our health care, our economy?
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FIDOT orgs John Miltmore and Dan Sanchez make the argument government can't count ballots. How can it
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possibly manage a pandemic or our health care? And at the end of the day, whether it's the economy or health care
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or election systems or the environment or any number of other challenges that we face,
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ultimately it's the processing of data that we must be proficient at. And if we can't process data in
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an election in a way to inspire confidence in our people, in a way to ensure that information or inputs
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are not lost, how then should we utilize the government as the centralized entity to drive health care
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innovation or education innovation or environmental testing? You see, FIDOT org advances the libertarian
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principle that maybe the best innovation in our country doesn't come from government. Maybe it's those
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outside with a motive driven by markets that they can best provide for our people and ensure that we live
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better lives and can have greater confidence in the information that we're provided. I think it's an interesting
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essay. Check it out and figure if you can't get most of the people in both political parties to trust the
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result of an election. How could you ever ensure that we got the unity in this country around a
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centralized, pre-planned, one-size-fits-all solution to health care or education or the environment or
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any number of other challenges that we must confront? Now, I don't think that we can ignore these challenges.
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I just think they're best managed by those at the lowest level and by those who can benefit most by ensuring
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that they're responsive to markets and people and consumers, not just government bureaucrats.
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I am a big believer in renewable energy, not because I believe that energy prices should be higher so
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that the elites can virtue signal, but because I believe that ultimately, if we embrace renewables,
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if we create the infrastructure that will support them, that energy prices can be lower for
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all Americans, for people all around the world. That's why I am intrigued by the essay from Max
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Roser in ourworldindata.org. Why did renewables become so cheap so fast? And what can we do to use this
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global opportunity for green growth? Now, the world is in a transition now to renewable energy. There's no
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doubt about that. Each and every year, renewables become a larger part of the global energy portfolio.
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And the fundamental driver of this change is that renewable energy technologies follow learning curves,
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which means that they will each see a doubling of their cumulative installed capacity and their price
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declines will exist by the same fraction. Thus, the price of electricity from fossil fuel sources
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will not follow those same learning curves. So we should expect more and more of the energy pie
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to be consumed by renewables. Now, currently, the American Society of Civil Engineers rates our grid
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a D minus, meaning that the renewables that we currently innovate around and generate are not
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even able to realize their full capacity, their full potential for the benefit of our people,
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because the infrastructure to store that energy to manage its capacity just doesn't exist at its
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highest and best use. And that's why I believe there should be massive investment in the grid,
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in the energy storage and transmission capabilities of our country, so that renewables can become
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a bigger part of our lives and a bigger part of our renewable, well, not just our renewable,
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but our overall energy portfolio. So check out the piece. We'll put it out on social media
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and contemplate whether or not renewable energy could be a bigger part of your life at a lower cost.
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Are FBI agents using fake names, aliases, so that they are able to exact their politics
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on their political enemies for sport to advance their careers in the FBI? We get the story from
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dailycaller.com. Chuck Ross writes it. Carter Page says FBI agent used a fake name during interviews,
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now. Carter Page has alleged in a lawsuit that an FBI counterintelligence agent used an alias
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during interviews with him in 2017. A retired FBI official who has worked in undercover operations
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says that an agent using an alias in such a situation would be highly unusual. Page claims in the lawsuit
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that Stephen Soma, a veteran counterintelligence agent, introduced himself as Steve Holt during their
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interviews. And an inspector general's report has criticized Soma in the FBI's crossfire hurricane
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probe. And that, of course, dealt with kind of the origins of all this effort to discredit the incoming
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Trump administration with phony investigations. And I am deeply troubled at any departure from
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procedure or practice that we see in the FBI because we know with certainty that warrants to spy on Carter
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Page were based on bogus information. Information that the FBI and the Department of Justice knew came from
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Christopher Steele, who was a known liar, who was a foreign agent, who was someone hired by ultimately the
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DNC and the Hillary Clinton campaign to try to undermine our elections and our president and the institution of the
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presidency itself. And so when I see news that there's an allegation of even more nefarious activity from the FBI, I'm
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reticent to just discount it. So we'll continue to follow the Carter Page lawsuit. And we will hope that the FBI and the
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Department of Justice are never again used for politics are never again used for politics.
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Are we better off as a consequence of booze or not? The counter dot org's Jessica Fu has the story. Less than half of
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Americans know that alcohol is a carcinogen and big booze wants to keep it that way. The alcohol industry regularly spreads
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misinformation to obscure booze is linked to cancer. Public health groups are demanding label warnings to give
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consumers more clarity. And the piece goes through the efforts by some to ensure that the true impacts from
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throat cancer, liver cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer are acknowledged. That the perspective regarding liver disease,
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heart disease, lung disease is fully exposed. And you know, the comparison to cigarettes is one that is noted.
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The tobacco industry pioneered the manipulation of science on heart cancer, other ailments to the human body.
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And there may have been some in the alcohol industry who learned from this, who saw it. So check out the piece and figure out
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whether or not booze is for you. Thanks for listening to Hot Takes. I'm Congressman Matt Gaetz.
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This podcast is written, produced and directed by a team that includes myself and Luke Ball and Joel Valdez from
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our communications team. Make sure to subscribe, to like, to review on your podcast listening platform of choice.