On this episode of Firebrand, we discuss Mitch McConnell's departure from the Senate, his farewell speech to the nation, and why he should not have been chosen as the next Republican leader in the Senate. We also hear from Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-GAetz, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
00:02:36.440Many Republicans are quick to preach Mitch McConnell into heaven, citing his procedural victories like confirming Trump's judicial nominees and passing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
00:02:56.160I think that's doing the bare minimum as a Republican leader.
00:02:59.220Mitch McConnell's real legacy is that he was missing in action when we needed him most and spent a lot of his time in the Senate putting special interests above American interests.
00:03:09.860Real good at sloshing that special interest money around.
00:03:12.720Totally different question leading us to the policy choices that are necessary.
00:03:16.720Now, McConnell spared no expense, reaming through billions and billions of dollars for Ukraine without so much as a plan of action or a definition of victory.
00:03:25.360Seems to be for a lot of the wars in the absence of some clear, definable objective.
00:03:30.580So where was Mitch McConnell when our own borders were being overrun?
00:03:35.560Last time we saw him work on a legislative product, it was the Langford amnesty bill that was backstabbing to the people who want a secure border.
00:03:46.160Now, McConnell justifies Ukraine aid in perpetuity because the vast majority of the money is going to American defense contractors, according to his argument.
00:03:57.620Now, I don't even know if that's true, but how unmasking regarding the influence the military-industrial complex has, particularly over the legislative leadership.
00:04:07.000Where was Mitch McConnell when American patriots were being rounded up by a corrupt FBI for petty misdemeanors involving January 6th protests?
00:04:16.560He was criticizing President Trump, actually.
00:04:19.640And he was pointing the finger at Republican voters.
00:04:23.180Now, we are lucky enough that Father Time isn't the only entity opposing Mitch McConnell.
00:04:28.460Republican voters and America first senators and representatives, we've all been fighting him when he abandons Republican principles.
00:04:36.740And without that work, Mitch McConnell would have probably been okay impeaching Donald Trump,
00:04:41.540and he'd still be working to defend Ukraine's borders at the expense of our own.
00:06:32.160There were a number of interesting moments, but perhaps none more interesting than when Hunter Biden told us that he joined the Burisma board to counter Russian aggression.
00:06:41.960I hadn't heard that one before, that thank goodness we had Hunter Biden on the Burisma board because that was central to his strategy to stand up to Vladimir Putin.
00:07:00.540We've asked those questions, and there is an illusory value.
00:07:04.820It is a mirage to believe that Hunter Biden was engaged in international business.
00:07:09.900This was a bribe masquerading as an international business transaction.
00:07:15.460Have you seen evidence that the president was involved in his business dealings, Jeff?
00:07:19.160I believe that you can actually bribe someone by paying their family members.
00:07:22.700Like, I don't get this construct that unless Joe Biden himself received cash, that he somehow wasn't involved in the bribery operation.
00:07:30.680Joe Biden was doing the bidding of Burisma.
00:07:33.860He was doing the bidding of Chinese communists, and his family was getting enriched as a consequence.
00:07:38.800To me, that's a pretty strong case for bribery.
00:07:42.860We're back live, and I'm going through my notes from the Hunter Biden deposition, and let me distill all of it for you.
00:07:49.340So, if Hunter Biden was getting paid, right, if there were wire transfers coming in from foreign oligarchs, foreign companies, corrupt foreign businesses,
00:08:03.000well, that money was coming to him because he is a brilliant lawyer and a financial wizard and a connector, man about town in Washington,
00:08:13.160and was just a high-performing, awesome guy who deserved every bid of the millions from China,
00:08:20.820the million bucks a year to serve on the Burisma board, he was earning that money due to his merit, competence, diligence, and focus.
00:08:28.840But if he was asking for money, and remember, when he was asking for money, that's when you saw the threats, the shakedowns, the references to his father.
00:08:42.940That's when you saw the money laundering.
00:08:45.920If he was asking for money, he was just a drug-addled fool.
00:08:49.620So, getting paid, highly competent, effective, trying to get paid, well, you know, that was the crack talking.
00:08:56.080And so, I asked Hunter Biden, and you'll see the transcript released either tonight or pretty soon tomorrow,
00:09:02.720like, when are we supposed to know in these messages that you're sending and in these correspondence that you're engaged in,
00:09:30.800And while I don't believe this is going to manifest in some sort of impeachment of Joe Biden on these bribery charges in the House of Representatives,
00:09:38.620that is because there is a difference of opinion among some Republicans as to what constitutes a bribe.
00:09:45.260Again, to me, as I just said in that clip, if you want to influence some guy in their, like, 70s or 80s,
00:09:52.600giving them the cash isn't necessarily the best way to even bribe them.
00:09:58.100In a lot of cases, they're thinking that a lot of that money is going to end up going to the government in some sort of estate tax.
00:10:03.540And so the movement of money to people's family members and children to try to shape their actions in government is, like, clearly a bribe to me.
00:10:41.920Or we may without an impeachment because we have some Republicans who, if the money isn't going directly to Joe, they're not going to be there on the vote.
00:10:49.540So I'm telling you the truth, he deserves impeachment.
00:10:53.220These were bribes, but they were bribes through family members.
00:10:57.000And that threshold is going to be insufficient for some of my Republican colleagues.
00:11:01.700And we will, of course, get no Democrat votes on these questions.
00:11:05.980Today in the House Armed Services Committee, we had Secretary Lloyd Austin.
00:11:09.360Now, you'll remember some time ago, Lloyd Austin just went AWOL and didn't tell the President of the United States or really even the broader national security apparatus of his incapacitation
00:11:23.800because some cancer treatment that he had received had gone poorly.
00:11:30.900His military aides around him, with no civilian oversight, transfer his authorities to the deputy.
00:11:37.500He wasn't even involved in that decision.
00:11:40.480And we had him before the House Armed Services Committee today to answer questions.
00:11:44.000Here's Armed Services Chairman Mike Rogers framing up the issue quite nicely.
00:11:50.240Mr. Secretary, the reason we've asked you here today is not to discuss your health.
00:11:55.620We're here today to determine why the President was not immediately informed of your incapacitation.
00:12:03.640The timeline, as we understand it, is this.
00:12:07.500On the evening of January 1st, Secretary Austin was transported to the hospital via ambulance for complications stemming from a surgical procedure he had on December 22nd.
00:12:18.000On the afternoon of January 2nd, the Secretary's authorities were transferred to Deputy Secretary Hicks without her even being informed as to why.
00:12:29.580On January 4th, three days after the Secretary's hospitalization, Deputy Secretary Hicks and the President were first informed that Secretary Austin was in the hospital.
00:12:40.080On January 5th, Congress was informed of the Secretary's hospitalization.
00:12:45.380It's totally unacceptable that it took three days to inform the President of the United States that the Secretary of Defense was in the hospital and not in control of the Pentagon.
00:12:57.740Wars were raging in Ukraine and Israel, our ships were under fire in the Red Sea, and our bases were bracing for attack in Syria and Iraq.
00:13:10.980But the Commander-in-Chief did not know that his Secretary of Defense was out of action.
00:13:16.260Even the Deputy Secretary, the person to whom your powers were transferred, didn't know that you were in the hospital.
00:13:25.700Our forces conducted a pre-authorized strike on the Iranian-backed militia in Iraq during this period.
00:13:32.000Had something gone wrong with the strike, or worse, if there was an attack on the United States, precious time would have been wasted while the President sought in vain to find his Secretary of Defense.
00:13:44.980The chain of command doesn't work when the Commander-in-Chief doesn't know who to call.
00:13:52.160That's why we want to know who made the decision to withhold that information from the President.
00:14:00.940And although you publicly stated you are solely responsible, you've also informed this committee that it wasn't you who decided to withhold the information from the President.
00:14:14.980We were led to believe your 30-day internal review would shed light on that matter, but it includes no explanation of why the President and his staff were left in the dark.
00:14:30.760It makes no recommendations to improve communication with the White House, and unsurprisingly, it holds nobody accountable.
00:14:41.160We appreciate your desire to protect your subordinates, but it's important in democracy that public officials are held accountable when mistakes are made.
00:14:50.360This administration has gone to great lengths to avoid accountability whenever possible.
00:14:56.880But this is a matter of national security, and someone needs to be held accountable.
00:15:03.140Furthermore, I find it very concerning that the Secretary could be hospitalized for three days without anyone else in the administration even noticing.
00:15:15.040That suggests Secretary Austin's advice is not salt or heated in the White House, even while military operations were ongoing in the Middle East.
00:15:25.900It also implies that the White House politicals, not seasoned defense professionals, are in the driver's seat on matters of national security, which is very disturbing.
00:15:37.600Finally, beyond the immediate need to inform the President, Congress also has a right to know of secretarial absence or transfer of authority.
00:15:49.960Ironically enough, none of this would have come to the attention if the White House hadn't demanded that the Department come clean to Congress and the public.
00:15:59.100So, ultimately, our goal today is to understand how and why this happened so we can ensure it never happens again.
00:16:41.840And so, while I hope Lloyd Austin is successful in his battle against cancer, and I'm not overly nosy about people's private health circumstances,
00:17:06.980there was a hypocrisy here regarding Lloyd Austin's actions that have destroyed lives, careers, families, marriages, in my community in Florida 1.
00:17:18.340There was a hypocrisy that I had to point out.
00:17:23.880You didn't tell the president that you had cancer, that you were being treated for cancer,
00:17:28.640or that the treatment for that cancer had gone wrong, because you saw it as personal and medical.
00:17:35.160And I think a lot of us have empathy for you in that regard.
00:17:37.980But now that you see how personal medical decisions are,
00:17:43.160will you call for the re-recruitment, restoration of full rank and back pay for the 8,600 service members who were vax mandated out of the military?
00:17:57.340So, on March 4th, 2021, you authored a memo.
00:18:02.200It was entitled, Message to the Force.
00:18:04.000And in that memo, you said that there would be clear and swift accountability for anyone who didn't meet the highest standards of the Department of Defense.
00:18:13.240Now, however this worked out, we all acknowledge that what you did here didn't meet the highest standards, right?
00:18:39.580Okay, so you come here seeking some grace and some forgiveness.
00:18:45.360And I want you to know that one of the service members, who you've ax mandated out of the military, sent me the parable of the unforgiving debtor.
00:18:53.560And it's in the book of Matthew, verses 21 to 35.
00:18:58.860The man fell down before his king and begged him, please be patient with me, and I will pay all the debt.
00:19:04.960Then his master, filled with pity for him, released him, and forgave him of his debt.
00:19:12.600But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars.
00:19:17.480He grabbed him by the throat and demanded payment.
00:19:20.740His fellow servant sat down and begged him for a little more time.
00:19:23.660Be patient with me, and I will pay it, he pleaded.
00:21:42.180I know that the entire ecosystem that the corrupt swamp thrives off of demands that we just take one up or down vote on extending the funding of government or not.
00:21:54.880And that's why we put things in the rules, like 72-hour provision to review single subject.
00:24:13.220We won that debate but lost the vote overwhelmingly.
00:24:15.900I don't even think we got 100 Republicans voting against it, which, you know, when you got 200 plus,
00:24:22.580you have to start by getting a majority of the majority.
00:24:25.140And today, a majority of the majority voted for yet another continuing resolution,
00:24:30.460continuing the Pelosi-Biden spending levels, the Pelosi-Biden policy choices.
00:24:36.720People worked hard for this House majority, and we are not utilizing the leverage sufficient to meet the needs
00:24:43.880and to stop some of the march to perdition that the Pelosi-Biden plan will take us down.
00:24:51.440There's been much discussion all over the country regarding the tragic death of Lakin Riley.
00:24:56.200This is someone who was murdered by an illegal immigrant who never should have been in this country.
00:25:02.440I was moved when I saw the vigil today for Lakin Riley and the outpouring of support from folks who understand that this loss of life is absolutely preventable.
00:25:14.700It's preventable if we stop the illegal immigration.
00:26:03.320I've received many calls, many emails, many queries from the press in recent days about this notion of a sanctuary city,
00:26:10.800and so I want to lay some things to rest here today.
00:26:13.820This term, sanctuary city, doesn't have a sole legal or procedural definition.
00:26:19.540You can look in Georgia statute, and you can find a clear definition for a unified government.
00:26:24.600You can look in contractual language, and you can find out exactly what it means to be an SEC institution.
00:26:30.060Sanctuary city doesn't track with either of those.
00:26:33.840And so that term means different things to different people depending on the context of the discussion.
00:26:38.300Many, many of the elements, many of the elements, we are here to listen, we are here to listen, there will be time for questions.
00:26:51.960You are guilty and got blood on your head for this murder, sir.
00:26:56.880Many of the aspects that are ascribed to sanctuary cities are things that are disallowed by Georgia law.
00:27:07.140And we contribute a document every year to the Georgia Department of Audits indicating that we do not correspond to these definitions under state law.
00:27:33.940Yeah, it turns out people don't like it when you adopt sanctuary policies in drag.
00:27:41.800You had this mayor defending some of the worst impulses of local governments to put their own citizens at risk, and he got an earful from some of those very citizens.
00:27:52.360I want to give you an update now regarding some really bad stuff going on at the FCC.
00:27:56.360Now, you might not think daily about the Federal Communications Commission, but they have a really important role regulating America's airwaves and the entire information battle space that is so critical to get good decisions to the forefront in a representative republic.
00:28:11.880And we took note of a recent action by the FCC and the strong dissent from a conservative FCC commissioner, Brendan Carr.
00:28:20.800So, Brendan Carr is objecting to this rule that the FCC has repeatedly tried to put into place that takes DEI policies to a dangerous extreme.
00:28:33.360And I'm reading now from the dissent of Commissioner Carr on the adoption of this rule.
00:28:38.060Today's FCC order takes two separate actions.
00:28:40.560First, it reinstates the federal requirement that broadcasters file a document every year with the FCC that lists the race and gender of their employees.
00:28:51.780In particular, the second part of today's order, the FCC decides that it will take this form with demographic data and publish it on a station-by-station basis,
00:29:01.440meaning that the FCC will now post a race and gender scorecard for every TV and radio broadcast station in the country.
00:29:09.260In doing so, the FCC caves to the demands of activist groups that have worked for years across different industries to persuade the federal government to obtain this data and publish it.
00:29:23.260This type of data about individual businesses truly does not belong on the Internet.
00:29:28.700And it's there as a precursor to the Chinese social credit score.
00:29:33.280They want to give the corporate social credit score to every TV broadcast station and every radio broadcast station and make them list the race and gender of their employees?
00:29:46.500This is not the public purpose of our airwaves, and we are incredibly proud of this dissent.
00:29:51.320The courts have struck down this attempted rule repeatedly, and we would encourage them to do so.
00:29:56.480So, again, it's unconstitutional, un-American, and certainly deprives many Americans of equal protection if they're running these broadcast stations
00:30:07.440and then being treated differently as a consequence of racial or gender-based makeup.
00:30:12.980The vice president of the United States is always prone for some embarrassing comments that seem untethered from reality.
00:30:20.420We heard one such comment regarding students being paid to engage in politics by the government.
00:30:27.980Under the federal work-study program, now allows students to get paid through federal work-study to register people and to be nonpartisan poll workers.
00:30:43.500As we know, this is important for a number of reasons.
00:30:46.120One, to engage our young leaders in this process and activate them.
00:30:52.200You know, it always worries me when people in the government are paying folks to, I don't know, I just get the sense this is the modern incarnation of ACORN.
00:31:06.560You remember ACORN, when they went and used a bunch of public money, ran it through a bunch of private entities,
00:31:13.260and then they were trying to achieve a political outcome on the other end.
00:31:16.880And it's just got that kind of flavor of it to me.
00:36:02.040And that is what is most important to me, is really exposing the people that aren't on your side that act like they are.
00:36:09.400Actually, this is the season for that.
00:36:11.200And first of all, thank you for the Pensacola love.
00:36:14.420Nothing matters more to me than the viewpoint of my true and actual bosses, the people I work for, the people who pay taxes here and pay my salary.
00:36:32.620Also, the best way to get notification regarding our Firebrand updates, download the Rumble app, turn the notifications on, allow that push notification to come through.