In this episode, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-GAZETTE) talks about being targeted by the Deep State, and how the deep state is trying to destroy his political career. Rep. Gaetz is a conservative congressman from Florida who represents a district that has long been a hotbed of anti-Trump sentiment. He is a member of the House Armed Services Committee, the Judiciary Committee, and the House Intelligence Committee.
00:00:57.000Bet you won't see that on the mainstream media, but it very well may be true.
00:01:02.000Justthenews.com is an entity that has breaking news, investigative reporting,
00:01:07.000and its publisher, John Solomon, is on the show today.
00:01:11.000Spoke with him earlier regarding their really illuminating reporting regarding Benny Thompson,
00:01:17.000the guy who's leading the January 6th committee and his prior associations with an insurrectionist group known as the Republic of New Africa.
00:01:38.000Chris Cuomo suspended indefinitely by CNN for his role in advising his brother and then governor Andrew Cuomo during his sexual harassment scandal.
00:01:49.000The details from documents that the New York Attorney General released just yesterday.
00:01:53.000They showed how Chris Cuomo would use his press connections to prepare the then governor's team as accusers started to come forward.
00:02:19.000Some of these lies may have been criminal under oath taken during the investigation into Cuomo's brother.
00:02:26.000Just to get a sense of how the CNN propaganda machine works, listen to what a CNN technical director said on a Project Veritas secret recording.
00:02:37.000He's discussing the network's coverage of now debunked allegations against me.
00:02:42.000If the agenda, say, is to, like, get, like, Matt Gaetz right now, isn't he?
00:02:49.000Like, he's a problem for the Democratic Party because he's so conservative, right?
00:02:54.000And he could cause a lot of hiccups in passing of laws.
00:02:57.000So it's, it would be great for the Democratic Party to get around.
00:03:03.000So we're going to keep running those stories to get hurt again and make it so that it can't be buried and, like, just, you know, settled outside of court.
00:03:12.000And it's like, you know, if we keep pushing that, it's helping us.
00:03:21.000One way CNN kept running these stories to hurt me was through their flagship primetime program, Cuomo Primetime.
00:03:30.000At the time, I was alleging that the lies about me were rooted in a criminal extortion plot.
00:03:36.000To refute my allegations, Chris Cuomo gave one of my extortionists, former intelligence officer Bob Kent, the opportunity to explain that this was no crime.
00:03:51.000One of the guys who you were working with on this and approaching the gates has a criminal record for being a fraudster.
00:04:00.000Why would you be associating with somebody like that?
00:04:03.000So I was contacted by David McGee in October, and he asked me to meet with somebody, with Stephen Alford, because Alford wanted to help with Levinson and believe that he can get him out.
00:04:19.000Now, after the rescue attempt fell apart in July, I had no contact with Dave after that.
00:04:27.000He wished me, you know, best of luck in my future endeavors.
00:04:29.000And then when he contacted me in October, he asked me, is it possible to rescue?
00:04:34.000Is Levinson still alive and is it possible to rescue him?
00:04:37.000So I went back to the network and I asked a question.
00:04:40.000And they said, yes, we think he may be alive, but can't do it the way he did it last time.
00:04:44.000You have to go from the top down this time.
00:04:47.000So, and when Dave vouched for Stephen, that was good enough for me.
00:04:51.000Bob Kent paints the picture of at least three people working together to try to get my family to give them $25 million or else.
00:05:02.000Kent is the former intelligence officer.
00:05:05.000He was working with former Department of Justice official David McGee, who is identified as Attorney A in the indictment of the third man they were working with, Stephen Alford.
00:05:17.000After the airing of this interview that I just showed you a part of, Chris Cuomo declared my claims of extortion fugazi.
00:05:33.000And the misdirection play by Matt Gates, I think blew up on this show tonight.
00:05:39.000I think Bob Kent is credible and I don't see anything in his suggestions to the father that would qualify under any legal reckoning of extortion.
00:06:50.000Recently released documents from the New York Attorney General's investigation into now disgraced former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo show that CNN brother Chris was not
00:07:02.000quote, most often peripheral to the crisis communications strategy.
00:07:09.000Lying on TV may be your job, but lying under oath is a crime, Fredo.
00:07:15.000Here's what Chris Cuomo told us when he was originally busted, abandoning journalistic ethics to protect his brother.
00:07:24.000I never made calls to the press about my brother's situation.
00:07:27.000I never influenced or attempted to control CNN's coverage of my family.
00:07:32.000And as you know, back in May, when I was told to no longer communicate with my brother's aides in any group meetings, I acknowledged it was a mistake.
00:07:40.000I apologized to my colleagues and I stopped and I meant it.
00:07:44.000It was a unique situation being a brother to a politician in a scandal and being part of the media.
00:07:50.000I tried to do the right thing, and I just want you all to know that.
00:07:55.000This is also what Chris Cuomo said under oath to investigators, this according to Politico New York.
00:08:02.000Quote, Chris told investigators during his sworn testimony that his media knowledge brought a unique perspective, but characterized his role as most often a peripheral figure.
00:08:14.000Testimony from others painted this attempt to be significantly involved in the crisis management effort.
00:08:27.000And of course, that somebody is Chris Cuomo.
00:08:31.000Just look at the documentary evidence that was developed during the investigation run by the New York Attorney General.
00:08:37.000One series of March 2021 text messages between Chris Cuomo and Melissa DeRosa, a top aide to then-Governor Andrew Cuomo, revealed that there was an absolute dynamic of collusion between CNN and those affiliated with Governor Cuomo.
00:08:54.000At a time when sexual allegations against Governor Cuomo were fomenting, his little brother asked Melissa DeRosa to quote,
00:09:07.000A news organization, at least what purports to be a news organization, communicating and strategizing with the office of the governor of the state of New York before a story went public.
00:09:19.000Cuomo even tapped his network of journalism sources to put his brother in better position to respond to reports that Ronan Farrow was developing regarding Governor Cuomo's ties to an event where he allegedly forced a woman or tried to force a woman named Lindsay Boylan to kiss him at a wedding.
00:09:37.000I don't know if any of this is true or not, but what we do know is that Chris Cuomo was directly involved.
00:10:11.000We are making a lot of mistakes we can't afford.
00:10:16.000I can't say I'm surprised by this, but even Alec Baldwin gets a supporting role in this wicked saga.
00:10:23.000Cuomo of CNN apparently was coordinating an effort through a friend to get Alec Baldwin to put up a rant on Instagram against cancel culture as a frame for the allegations against then Governor Andrew Cuomo.
00:10:38.000As for the notion that Chris Cuomo is some truth telling journalist or that CNN is an actual news organization.
00:10:48.000And now, our interview with John Solomon, publisher of Just the News, regarding January 6th committee chairman and possible insurrectionist, Benny Thompson.
00:12:24.000The FBI considered them a terrorism group at the time.
00:12:28.000And this was a group that Benny Thompson, as a young alderman before he joined Congress, was trying to defend, blame the police for picking on.
00:12:37.000And we learned about this because some old FBI agents, retired FBI agents, saw that Benny Thompson on television with the January 6th committee said,
00:12:45.000I wonder if that's the guy that used to defend the RNA.
00:12:48.000And they gave me a call, and I went and got the records under the FBI's FOIA site and some other places and literally got to tell the story of his support of an insurrectionist group, a violent group,
00:13:00.000long before he was suddenly for cops and against insurrection with this current set of hearings.
00:13:07.000It's pretty remarkable that he was on both sides of insurrection over the course of his career.
00:13:12.000Well, we really get a sense of this group by analyzing their goals.
00:13:17.000And like you say, the goal of the Republic of New Africa was essentially to take the SEC states, make a different country,
00:13:25.000and then use that country to wage war on the rest of the United States.
00:13:30.000Some of the FBI documentation that you're citing in your piece on justthenews.com
00:13:35.000talks about the assembly of weaponry and other equipment that someone would use in guerrilla warfare.
00:13:42.000How did you get a hold of that information?
00:13:44.000And what does it tell you about the means that this group that Benny Thompson had had some association with was willing to go to?
00:13:52.000Well, listen, they had a stockpile of weapons, and that was one of the tragic incidents that occurred in the summer of 70, I believe it was.
00:14:01.000A combination task force of the FBI and the local Jackson, Mississippi police went to arrest some people at one of their compound houses in Jackson.
00:14:10.000And as they were coming out of their cars, they were ambushed.
00:14:13.000This group opened up fire on them with all sorts of weaponry.
00:14:17.000The sheriff talks about all the weapons they found, a huge arsenal of weapons.
00:14:22.000And tragically, a police officer was killed.
00:14:26.000I was able to locate the police officer's son, who later went into law enforcement himself and then became a judge in Jackson.
00:14:34.000And he has very painful memories, had forgotten a little bit that Benny Thompson, the man now on stage at the January 6 riots,
00:14:41.000was the same guy that defended his father's group.
00:14:45.000And one of the amazing things, a week after that tragic episode where a police officer loses his life, he is ambushed.
00:14:52.000There's not any doubt about that. Eight to nine people went to prison for the shootout that occurred that day.
00:14:58.000Benny Thompson joins a bunch of activists and holds a news conference.
00:15:03.000And during that news conference, these activists blame the cop for getting shot, saying they should have just left this group alone.
00:15:09.000They got what they deserve because they dared to enforce a lawful warrant that had been issued by a court.
00:15:15.000That's the sort of Benny Thompson that people don't know.
00:15:18.000They see this affable old man, you know, who's on the stage there now.
00:15:22.000He looks like he's very experienced, very wise.
00:15:24.000But that is the same Benny Thompson that 40, 50 years ago was advocating for a group that the FBI considered a major threat in the 1970s to national security.
00:15:34.000One question that arose after I read your piece on just the news dot com is the association between Benny Thompson, the chairman and this group that initially doesn't seem to have much of a geographic nexus to his area of public service.
00:15:50.000He's an alderman in the small town of Bolton, Mississippi, and the Republic of New Africa gets its origins in Detroit of all places.
00:16:00.000And yet this young, ambitious politician is giving this type of advocacy for an ethno-nationalist secessionist group with roots far away.
00:16:12.000But then I guess the Republic of New Africa makes the decision to move from Detroit to Bolton, Mississippi, of all places.
00:16:21.000What does that tell us about about really the early and pervasive connection that seems to exist between Benny Thompson and these insurrectionists?
00:16:30.000Well, all throughout Benny Thompson's career, he has remained close to some people.
00:16:35.000One of the former members, I think he was the vice president of this group because they treated themselves like they were a separate nation, later goes on to run for mayor.
00:16:45.000This is Congressman Benny Thompson endorsing Jackson mayoral candidate attorney Chokwe Lumumba.
00:16:51.000When I see Republicans from Rankin and Madison County supporting the other so-called Democrat in this race, I know that something is fishy.
00:16:59.000He stayed in contact with a lot of the people associated with his group, particularly that former vice president.
00:17:04.000But they came to his backyard in the summer of 1970.
00:17:08.000They wanted to make the capital of the new republic in Benny Thompson's hometown in the shadows of Jackson, Mississippi.
00:17:16.000So, yeah, they started in the Malcolm X movement down in Detroit or up in Detroit,
00:17:21.000but very quickly thought that the place to set up their headquarters just happened to be the place where Benny Thompson was a young alderman.
00:17:27.000And then he carries out these friendships.
00:17:30.000He keeps these friendships throughout his whole life.
00:17:32.000And it's really never gotten the attention that it deserves.
00:17:35.000When you talk to that now retired judge and how painful the memory as a young child seeing his father killed that day.
00:17:42.000And then watching a week later, he said, I remember the news conference where they were smearing my dad's reputation,
00:17:47.000saying he deserved to be killed. He should have left that group alone.
00:17:50.000He was just doing his job. He was executing a warrant.
00:17:53.000And it's a very different Benny Thompson in 1970 than the guy that seemed to express some sympathy for the Capitol Police on January 6th.
00:18:04.000I think everyone has sympathy for the officers that day and what happened.
00:18:07.000But Benny Thompson has not always been pro-policing.
00:18:10.000He's not always been anti-insurrection.
00:18:12.000Earlier in his career, he was on the opposite side of both issues.
00:18:15.000And I think that's why this story is so important.
00:18:17.000Yeah, maybe whether or not Benny Thompson is for an insurrection relates to the politics of the alleged insurrectionists more than the act of insurrection.
00:18:27.000So we know from your reporting that this was a violent group.
00:18:30.000We know from your reporting that the FBI deemed it a terrorist group.
00:18:34.000We knew that their goal was to create this division from the federal government.
00:18:39.000But what I don't get the answer to definitively in your reporting, are you able to confirm whether or not Benny Thompson was a member of this group?
00:18:49.000Or was he just someone who advocated on their behalf and against police when they were trying to accomplish their political goals,
00:18:57.000which were buttressed by, it sounds like, a great deal of violence and bloodshed?
00:19:02.000So the story that Benny Thompson crafted throughout his career is that he wasn't a member of the group, though they were in his community,
00:19:09.000and he had this nexus and he was defending them.
00:19:11.000He was someone who sympathized with them, felt that they were getting an unfair shake,
00:19:15.000despite what many of us would consider in America a hideous thing to secede from America and maybe take land by force,
00:19:22.000which is what some of their documents are called.
00:19:24.000Certainly they killed some police officers.
00:19:26.000That's something that all of us reject.
00:19:28.000But we're doing some additional records work.
00:19:31.000We have heard from some FBI officials who worked undercover at that time in these groups that there may be more to this story
00:19:38.000and even more to Benny Thompson's connection to the events just before that fatal shooting of Jackson.
00:19:44.000Now, again, we haven't found those records.
00:19:57.000If that changes, we're going to let the American people know right away.
00:20:00.000And they just so happened to move their headquarters from Detroit to his little town in Mississippi as this advocacy is developing.
00:20:09.000And a key thread as well is that it didn't end in the 1970s.
00:20:13.000This isn't something where somebody can say, oh, gosh, this was all the way back in the 70s.
00:20:17.000I've developed, I mean, your reporting suggests as recently as 2013, he was out there really creating additional political ties to people who were at the highest levels of this organization.
00:20:29.000Any suspicion that, you know, Benny Thompson's staff, consultants, people that have been around him politically, others he's endorsed or supported have the same sympathies or membership in this insurrectionist domestic terrorist organization?
00:20:46.000Listen, his rhetoric over the years, he's not always been very pro police.
00:20:49.000He's often been harsh and critical of police, not just in the 70s, but in the 80s and the 90s and the 2000s.
00:20:55.000So this role that he finds him in now as reaching out and feeling terrible for those officers that went through that terrible day, January 6th, is a different sounding Benny Thompson, even a few years ago.
00:21:07.000He is much more in the Black Lives Matter sort of suspicion of police power and the relationship between police and the black community.
00:21:36.000We found video footage in the Mississippi State Archives and we put it out there and you can literally see him advocating for this group.
00:21:42.000In the case of the Republic of New Africa, they are charged with obstructing justice.
00:21:48.000This, I believe, is an attempt on part of law enforcement officials to stop the Republic from building its community.
00:21:57.000I think the real question comes down to what else don't we know?
00:22:00.000And so what we're asking for are the intelligence files of the Jackson Police Department because they had 1970s intelligence files on extremist groups in Jackson and some more FBI documents.
00:22:13.000And then we've asked the family of the officer who was shot and tragically and killed.
00:22:18.000They got a lot of information in discovery.
00:22:20.000And so there has Benny Thompson replied to your inquiries.
00:22:39.000And we made multiple calls, multiple emails.
00:22:41.000We've even tried to stake them out at events.
00:22:43.000And, you know, eventually we'll be able to have a conversation with him.
00:22:46.000But meanwhile, we're going to track those records because, you know, the great thing about 30, 40, 50 year old documents, they're frozen in time.
00:22:53.000They capture what police knew at that moment.
00:22:55.000Hopefully we'll get some more documents and try to get you answers to these questions.
00:22:58.000You know, John, one of the allegations that Benny Thompson makes against police and law enforcement is that they're ginning up obstruction of justice charges against the Republic of New Africa for politics.
00:23:14.000You and I were all over the Russia hoax and the way that the lack of a foundation really for the underlying allegation that Donald Trump was a Russian agent then morphed into this politically motivated obstruction of justice allegation.
00:23:30.000Did you find hypocrisy in that? I found that particularly rich that here's a guy who is overseeing an entity, you know, that that seems to be trying to create process crimes around people like Steve Bannon or Mark Meadows.
00:23:45.000And yet that's what he was accusing law enforcement of back in the 70s.
00:23:49.000Well, it is. There is an irony to that. And this story actually originally broke before the ban in contempt citation.
00:23:56.000But think about it even from take Benny Thompson even out of it for a second. Take a look at our Justice Department.
00:24:02.000This is the same Justice Department that refused to find Eric Holder in contempt of Congress 10 years ago when he refused to provide evidence in the Fast and Furious investigation where a Border Patrol agent was killed,
00:24:16.000where guns were illegally crossing the border at the Obama-Biden ATF's own direction.
00:24:23.000Our own government was trafficking in guns. And it wasn't important enough for that Justice Department then to compel Eric Holder.
00:24:30.000They let him off the hook. They wouldn't take that contempt citation to court.
00:24:33.000So Congress had to do it. Now, all of a sudden, the same Justice Department finds the vigor and the speed to do it against Steve Bannon.
00:24:40.000I think the story of hypocrisy and double standards, which we saw all throughout the Russia case, right?
00:24:47.000Look at the difference between Mike Flynn and Andy McCabe.
00:24:51.000This idea that there are two systems of justice only gets solidified more and more with every story that occurs,
00:24:58.000whether it's Steve Bannon in contempt versus Eric Holder being getting off the hook,
00:25:03.000or Benny Thompson being able to advocate for an insurrectionist group and now be against it.
00:25:08.000I think the American public are keen. They have figured out that there's a double standard in Washington
00:25:13.000and it pervades everything from the Justice Department to the politics in Congress.
00:25:17.000And they're smart enough to see through it now.
00:25:19.000Now, there may be a double standard at the DOJ, but there is only one set of facts.