Episode 151 – Mitch McConnell's Warning for Senate Republicans. Woketopian Panel Cancels Abe Lincoln. Lessons From Dippin' Dots on COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution.
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Summary
On yesterday's episode, we discussed China and their plan to infiltrate our government and others. While Americans too often think in terms of news cycles, China thinks in generations. I was joined on Sean Hannity's show last night with former Acting Director of National Intelligence Rick Grinnell. We went into some detail on the China threat.
Transcript
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You all were not telling the truth, and you should not be trusted.
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Congressman Matt Gaetz, thank you for what you did for your country tonight.
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Be offended with the Democratic whip, not House of Republicans.
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Welcome to Hot Takes. I'm Congressman Matt Gaetz.
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On yesterday's episode, we discussed China and their plan to infiltrate our government and others.
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While Americans too often think in terms of news cycles, China thinks in terms of generations.
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I was joined on Sean Hannity's program last night with former acting director of national intelligence Rick Grinnell.
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We went into some detail on the China threat. Take a listen.
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Democrats didn't have double standards. They probably have no standards at all.
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Remember, this is the party that impeached Donald Trump for a perfect call,
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and yet they're unwilling to take any action against a colleague for, at the minimum,
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a rather imperfect relationship with a Chinese intelligence analyst.
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But Rick Grinnell is right. This is the tip of the iceberg.
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The Australian recently had a report of two million names of leaked CCP members,
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and a shocking number of those CCP members had actually worked their way into Western consulates
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in Shanghai for the United States, Great Britain, Australia.
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And it shows that this is an effort by the Chinese that has been undertaken for more than a decade.
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Remember, Eric Swalwell wasn't targeted when he was a member of Congress.
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He was targeted when he was a Dublin city council member.
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That tells us a lot more about China than it does about Congressman Swalwell
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and how determined they are to try to compromise the leaders that should be acting in the best interest of our country.
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Rick Grinnell, if you have a spy from China sleeping with American politicians,
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gets an intern in the office of somebody on the House Intel Committee,
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then you've got the Bidens and listening to your admonition,
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yeah, of course, Russia's a hostile regime, so are the Iranians, so is China.
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China, probably, I think, the biggest security threat of all, my humble opinion.
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Is it likely all of their correspondence, maybe even Hunter's laptop information,
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which I hear is damning, they have all of that?
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Well, one thing that I can say is that it is not true that the Hunter laptop
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is some sort of Russian disinformation campaign,
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which, again, was part of Eric Swalwell and others' look-over-here strategy,
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pretending like something was bigger than what it was.
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Again, I just want to repeat, Russia is a problem.
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No one is trying to say that Russia is not a problem.
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And I believe, Sean, that if the Gang of Eight,
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which are the leaders in Congress to watch over Intel,
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if they are not going to have a classified briefing,
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then we need to start having members of Congress step up,
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go around the Gang of Eight, and ask for this classified briefing.
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No more excuses that what Eric was dealing with
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was classified information so he can't talk about it.
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The intelligence community knows exactly what the problem is.
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And we are having a crisis when it comes to the infiltration of Chinese spies
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You know, Matt, I don't think you really have to go too far
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We don't see any evidence of any experience in private equity.
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A billion five Bank of China, $100,000 shopping spree, Chinese national.
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You got this one spy sleeping with a bunch of politicians.
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And you got Swalwell, you know, seeing Russians everywhere
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And I really want to know if Joe and Hunter are compromised.
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Abraham Lincoln is not safe from the cancel culture.
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And in the San Francisco area, a panel has decided to rename Abraham Lincoln High School
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because the former president did not demonstrate that, quote,
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This woke renaming committee also took aim at Democrat Senator Dianne Feinstein
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If that's not demonstrating that black lives mattered to him,
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I don't know what would have at that period of time.
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Abraham Lincoln was a pioneer, a visionary in thoughts on equality
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and ensuring that we elevated our humanity by treating our fellow humans a lot better.
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Abraham Lincoln believed so strongly in the abolition of slavery
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And now it appears we'll have to go to a different kind of war against the cancel culture
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to be able to preserve American values and ideals and heroes like Abraham Lincoln.
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As trust in governments continues to wane globally, Bitcoin continues to rally and see exponential
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Bitcoin has surpassed 20,000 for the first time.
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It's another milestone in what has been just an eye-popping rally for the controversial digital
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The world's largest cryptocurrency rose as much as 3.8% to $20,154 on Wednesday,
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vindicating forecasts that were scoffed at months ago and leading to even higher prognostications.
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It's a concept of currency that is not manipulatable by government, that cannot be hollowed out or robbed
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by selfish, short-sighted government practices.
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And I expect that Bitcoin will continue to see increases in value as long as it can be utilized
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with, I think, greater frequency and greater ease than other types of currency.
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So the Winklevoss twins have famously said they view Bitcoin like gold, you know, something that
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they'll eventually only be so much of and that will hold its value and that will rise in value
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What COVID vaccine delivery is learning from Dippin' Dots of all places.
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The vaccines created by biotech and Moderna and Pfizer actually require a low temperature
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in order for them to not degrade during transportation.
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And obviously the distribution of this vaccine is something our country really has to nail.
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And so there have been some collaborations with Dippin' Dots regarding cold supply chain
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movement and ensuring that you don't have product that gets below a certain temperature.
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So check out the popsci.com piece and hopefully we are able to totally execute on the delivery
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of this vaccine at the right temperature without it degrading for the benefit of our fellow Americans.
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As Congress reassembles in Washington, D.C. for votes today, we're reminded that the government
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runs out of money toward the end of the week and we need to reauthorize a number of programs.
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And frankly, there are a bunch of programs we probably should not reauthorize.
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But what is driving the negotiation and debate around this government funding vote is coronavirus
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and the need for coronavirus relief and stimulus in various ways in the negotiations around
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a $900 billion package have now exploded the price tag of that because a bipartisan group
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of members of Congress have stepped forward to support a $1,200 individual stimulus check.
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So my fellow Americans will remember there were the Trump bucks that went out toward the beginning
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of the coronavirus pandemic, now a discussion of additional direct stimulus payments.
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And that was in a proposal that was released earlier this week that is likely to continue to
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get fine tuned over the next, you know, 24, 36, 48 hours in preparation for a vote.
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Here's my hot take. There is no stimulus that will ever support Americans the way an open economy will.
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If we're always just sending out stimulus checks to individuals, businesses, you know, Boeing,
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Fortune 100 businesses, and we don't allow the economy to open, we're just buying time and we're not
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even buying it that efficiently. My friend Congressman Thomas Massey continues to point out that
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we've sent stimulus checks to people who live in other countries or citizens of other countries who've
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died long ago. So it's pretty inefficient in my book to try to use monetary policy and spending policy
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as a substitute for a free economy. Give Americans freedom, get the government out of their way,
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and we will provide our families, our communities, our country and the world more stimulus, more
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prosperity than you could ever imagine. We've done it before and we can do it again, but I will not
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support what I've seen so far that I think is wasteful government spending that I think puts our
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status as the global reserve currency at risk and that doesn't do enough to smartly respond to this virus
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by protecting the vulnerable, distributing the vaccine, and then allowing resilient Americans to live free,
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All eyes are on January 6th where the Congress will either accept the Electoral College vote or will
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challenge some of the electors. The rules say that such a challenge has to be in writing and signed by
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both a member of the House of Representatives and a Senator. What I could tell you from my behind
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the scenes discussions with House members is that House members in Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan,
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Pennsylvania are elbowing each other out of the way for an opportunity to challenge these election
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results based on irregularities and the evidence that we've seen in some of these state legislative hearings
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regarding how the voting process deviated from law, how people took action outside of legislative
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purview in changing the rules of the election. Well, we're also hearing word that Mitch McConnell has
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warned Republican senators against joining Mo Brooks or Jody Heiss or Andy Biggs or any other number of House
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members who might make such a challenge and there are rumblings out of that Senate meeting that there was no
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pushback to McConnell. When McConnell said that senators should not join members of the House of
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Representatives, that there was, you know, tacit, I guess, agreement to that. Mo Brooks, who's been really
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leading the advocacy in favor of a challenge, has said that he hopes that's fake news. And again, I haven't
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spoken to senators since this news broke. I'm reporting to you what the scuttlebutt is on Capitol Hill. Here's my hot take.
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A Republican president has not been sworn in without an objection to electors in some form since 1989.
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Meanwhile, I'm not aware of any circumstance since then when a Democrat president being sworn in has had
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to face a challenge to electors. And, you know, when George W. Bush in 2004 was reelected over John Kerry and
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there were questions about the state of Ohio. There was an objection in the House. It was joined,
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I believe, by Senator Barbara Boxer in the Senate. And there were a few hours of debate followed by the
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certification of the Electoral College. If we have debate and discussion about these irregularities,
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if we utilize the Congress to try to actually solve problems regarding election integrity,
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I think the union will hold. I don't think it's some grave attack on democracy to use a constitutional
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process to create an objection, to have a reasonable debate based on the facts before us,
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and to show the country what happened and then let the chips fall where they may. I don't agree
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with Senator McConnell that it's a terrible thing for a senator to join a member of the House with
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concern over election irregularities. Matter of fact, I hope one does. We'll continue to follow the story
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and we'll continue our effort to recruit a senator. The Federal Trade Commission is finally flexing some
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muscle with big tech and I'm here for it. I'm glad it's about time. We get the story from NPR. Amazon,
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TikTok and Facebook, along with other tech platforms are ordered to explain what they do with user data.
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They're demanding that nine social media and tech companies share details on how they harness the
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data and what they do with the information. The companies have 45 days to respond to the Federal
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Trade Commission's order. In a statement to NPR, one representative of a tech company said they take
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user privacy very seriously and they look forward to answering the FTC's questions. Data is the new
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currency in our world and oftentimes we're just giving it to these tech platforms without our consent,
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without understanding how it's going to be used. And for some people there might be a total willingness
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to share data, but it should be done with consent. It should be done with acknowledgement that goes
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beyond the, you know, tiny little terms of service that everybody just scrolls through and accepts.
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So I'm glad to see action from the Federal Trade Commission. We'll see what the answers are from the
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tech companies in 45 days. Thanks for listening to Hot Takes. I'm Congressman Matt Gates. This podcast is
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written, directed and produced by a team that includes myself, Luke Ball and Joel Valdez. Give us a hand,
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subscribe, perhaps give us that five-star rating on iTunes or however you rate your podcasts on your
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listening platform of choice and join us tomorrow for more Hot Takes.