Episode 26 - Zoom is Not Our Friend. Historic Police Reform. Breaking News on 2A Protections.
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Summary
In this episode of Hot Takes, Congressman Matt Gaetz talks about the coronavirus pandemic and the Florida governor's new plan to fight it. Plus, a report on a Chinese activist's account being shut down, and the dark side of the internet.
Transcript
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Welcome to Hot Takes, this is Congressman Matt Gaetz.
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We're almost at a thousand ratings, so if during this episode you wouldn't mind heading on
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down to your phone, giving us that five-star rating, we'll be at a thousand in no time.
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Let's talk about the news, and the news is coronavirus rising. That's what we see from
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the media. That's what we see from positive test result gross numbers. It's even what we're seeing
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from the positivity rate in the state of Florida, but does that tell the whole story? I was interviewed
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by Charles Payne. Here was my reaction to those questions. Our governor is going on offense against
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this disease. We aren't merely setting up testing sites and having like the field of dreams approach
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that if we build it, they will come. We're going into underserved areas, into the communities that
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support our agriculture industry. We're going into prisons. And so, of course, the more you play
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offense, the higher your positivity rate will be. But then we want to lash that data to what Dr. Birx
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has called the best contact tracing system in America that the Florida Department of Health
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has been able to utilize. Then we can get our contract tracers to actually track these instances
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down. The worst case would be just having these positivity rates go undetected. And so that's why
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I'm very confident in the Florida approach. So really, if you're doing things right as a state,
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if you're going into the areas where they might not come to a drive-through test site,
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they might be in more confined spaces, closer living spaces, higher living density. If you're proactive,
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you'll actually find a higher rate. But with good contact tracing, I'm confident we're not seeing
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a shutdown again in the future of the great sunshine state.
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China is not our friend and Zoom is not our friend. Zoom is a company that is influenced
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substantially by the politics of China and the oppression of China. And following this coronavirus
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pandemic, I feel like every time I turn around, someone's inviting me to another Zoom get-together,
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Zoom conference. And I mean, we are doing everything in our office to try to get away from
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reliance on products and particularly technology products that have dual use and that are influenced
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by China. So there's this report in Axios entitled, Zoom Closed Account of US-Based Chinese Activist
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to comply with local law. And it is the story of a US-based prominent activist and his account
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being closed as a consequence of an event commemorating the 31st anniversary of the June 4th Tiananmen
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Square massacre. I mean, that is really quite something that they would bow to that pressure.
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It shows who Zoom really is, and it should motivate us to develop the platforms and to use American
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platforms that are not susceptible to this type of political pressure. Whether it's from Silicon Valley
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or whether it's from Beijing, I don't think that the four corners of speech should be dictated in this
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country. I think that we have to envision the vindication of the values that underpin our First
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Amendment rights through the lens of an environment where a lot of folks in Silicon Valley want to
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dictate what can be talked about, what's taboo, and then even international forces that own the tech
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that's being utilized want to put their thumb on the scale. We have to love America enough to ensure
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that we can accommodate a robust debate within this country and that we're not subject to interference
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If you thought the mafia, La Cosa Nostra, was bad, wait till you hear what I have to tell you about the internet giant eBay.
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That's right. eBay will cut you. They are serious about terrorizing their critics. There was a couple in Massachusetts
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that were running an online newsletter critical of eBay, and you will not believe what eBay did to them.
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Here's the story. It's coming to us from Reuters. Jonathan Stemple reporting six former eBay employees
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charged with cyber stalking a Massachusetts couple. So if you go and create an effective online newsletter
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criticizing eBay, let me tell you what they've been charged with. A determined, systematic effort
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to emotionally terrorize a couple with anonymous email threats and deliveries such as live cockroaches,
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a bloody Halloween pig mask, a funeral leaf, and a book on surviving the loss of a spouse.
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That is some cold, cold stuff to send to a married couple. A book on surviving the loss of a spouse
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from eBay. I wonder if they even sell that book on eBay. But I mean, so who's sending this? The defendants include
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eBay's former senior director of safety and security, James Baugh, 45, of San Jose, California.
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And former director of global resiliency, resiliency, I'd say, David Harville, 48, of New York. So these
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these like Gen Xers in their 40s are running around sending bloody pig masks and books on surviving the
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loss of a spouse. On one of the emails they wrote following the delivery of the pig mask, they wrote
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in all caps, do I have your attention now? Question mark, question mark, question mark, question mark.
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Everyone's entitled to a fair trial, we're innocent until proven guilty, but if you ever wonder
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like the lengths these tech companies will go to when they get into this this like sorcery mentality that
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everything that they do is justified by the continuation of their own existence, it's pretty dark where they'll take you.
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Some breaking news, there's always a need to vindicate our Second Amendment rights and even in the most pro-Second
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Amendment of governments like President Trump's, there are occasionally folks who try to make it more
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difficult to acquire the things that shooters need and gun owners need for safety and for the unique
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circumstances that an individual may have. I know we worked hard on the Hearing Protection Act so that
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we could have less impact to people's ears and eardrums as they're firing. Unfortunately that became
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something that Democrats in the Senate blocked even when we we had a tremendous amount of support in the
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House of Representatives in the last Congress. But now what we find is that the ATF is actually making it very
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difficult for people to have arm braces. They are changing standards and changing rules and you know my
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mother's in a wheelchair. I'm sensitive to people who might have a disability where an arm brace might
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be helpful and I'm particularly frustrated when our government at the administrative and executive
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level goes beyond their their grant of authority in our Constitution and in our federal statutes.
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Nothing gives anyone at ATF the ability to constrain the use of arm braces for firearms the way that
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they're attempting to do. So the breaking news is this I'll be sending a letter to the Department of
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Justice asking for a review of the decisions made by ATF and asking that ATF stop in this crazy effort
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to limit access to arm braces for people who seek to have them for their firearms use.
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Donald Trump is president today because of the millions of Americans who are stuck in the middle.
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He talks about them as the forgotten Americans, but I think of them as the folks who, you know,
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aren't rich enough to have maybe the job that's got a gold-plated health plan or the ability to just
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pay cash for whatever medical need comes up, but also not poor enough to take advantage of every
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entitlement program that provides free health care. And so they're in that tough middle. You know,
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these are the same Americans who, you know, maybe they can't afford the best private school for their
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children, but they're also, you know, not on the free and reduced lunch program. And so they're making
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college tuition and children in just regular K-12 schooling work with an American family.
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And these are the folks I worry about as I see police reforms that are invariably going to lead to two
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different standards for policing in America. I worry that if we pass reforms that keep police officers
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in their car, keep them out of a proactive mindset, reforms that inhibit the engagement that community
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policing would define, you know, I, I think what will happen is that the folks that have, you know,
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a lot of money, uh, people who can afford their security are going to pay for it. You know,
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it's human nature to lean into Maslow's hierarchy of needs and security is sort of the, the bottom of
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the pyramid in that hierarchy. And so rich people will, will end up with like, you know, imagine the
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types of, of rent a cops that roll around, you know, Nancy Pelosi's neighborhood, uh, the other types of,
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you know, gated communities where we're very wealthy people live. Uh, right now they have
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security that's sort of, you know, low grade. I think you're going to start to see like an echelon
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of security services provided for like your high end homeowners associations, your high net worth
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individuals, your high end condominium associations. And it's going to be like some, you know, former
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military, former, like, you know, high end tactically trained law enforcement. And those people are going
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to be able to provide real physical security to wealthy Americans for real money. And then I think
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that, you know, if you're in, if you're, if you truly have nothing, maybe you have less to worry about
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that your stuff's going to get taken, that your house is going to get broken into. But those folks in
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the middle who, you know, they've got, they've got nice things, you know, they live in places that
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maybe it's not the best neighborhood, but, uh, it, you gotta, you know, uh, a lot of stuff that
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somebody would love to walk off with if they could just catch you in a, in an unguarded moment.
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And it's those Americans and they're white, they're black, they're Asian, they're of every
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background, but they're middle class, they're blue collar. A lot of them live in, you know,
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transitioning neighborhoods and it's just going to be really difficult for folks who, um, feel like
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the policing that taxpayers are funding to support all of us, uh, has been constricted to the point
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that it's no longer useful. And it's that lens through which we have to evaluate these policing
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reforms that are, that are coming forward. And I do believe that we can make reforms to improve
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policing. You know, I'm not going to defend the chokehold. I think that there's some interesting
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technology and better training on various types of vascular lateral pressures that don't constrain
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the windpipe. If there's a better way to do that, I'm all for it. I don't love no knock warrants.
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You know, if someone barged into my home and didn't announce their presence, that would be a threat
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to me. I would, I would, I would feel the need to vindicate my rights under Florida's castle doctrine
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and protect my home. So, uh, you know, I think that, that those are, are useful reforms.
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I don't believe that there's been any adequate defensive lynching provided in the Congress or a
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defense at all. Uh, that should be a federal crime. And if a lynching occurs, that is a crime against
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America. It really is. And I've, I've no problem with that as a reform. I would support that.
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But when, when you start with the efforts to limit the body armor that police could get,
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when the, the immunities that give police the ability to make hair trigger decisions, uh, with,
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you know, the best of information that they have with them in, in a particular context,
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I just don't know if, if we've got to eliminate those immunities. Now, I think we should lash them
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to training. I think we should provide training. I think that, you know, the equities we have to
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balance in training are that, uh, we've got a need to allow innovation at the local level so that
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policing can improve balanced against a platform to share best practices. So I've been encouraged by
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what, uh, some of my Republican and Democrat colleagues have talked about regarding creating
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platforms to share those best practices and allow, uh, various, uh, various reactions.
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Uh, I think that some of these reforms, when it comes to better training, community policing,
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uh, and local execution. And when we, when we think about those things, I think they're well reflected
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in the president's executive order. And here's the president, uh, talking about the executive order
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he's signing today regarding policing. Today is about pursuing common sense and fighting,
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fighting for a cause like we seldom get the chance to fight for.
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We have to find common ground. We need leaders at every level of government who have
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the moral clarity to state these obvious facts. Americans believe we must support the brave men
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and women in blue who police our streets and keep us safe. Americans also believe we must improve
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accountability, increase transparency, and invest more resources in police training, recruiting,
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and community engagement. I think the president made a lot of progress here. Obviously he can't do
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it alone. We need a Congress willing to step forward and seriously evaluate these issues.
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And I'll be doing that tomorrow in the house judiciary committee.
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The black lives matter movement has been defrauded by a 67 year old black music producer in Los Angeles.
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The story being broken by Buzzfeed news, Ryan Mack and Brianna Sachs, the black lives matter foundation
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raised millions. It's not affiliated with the black lives matter movement. So this guy,
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the 67 year old music producer sets up the black lives matter foundation on the GoFundMe platform,
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a group of students get together and donate money to it, believing that they're they're supporting
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the black lives matter political cause. And then employees from Google, Microsoft, let's see what other
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companies. Apple got together and raised millions of dollars for this foundation, which is just this
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one guy in LA. And when he was reached out to asked if he would, you know, turn the money over to the,
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the political protests, he replied that he would not. He said, no one owns the concept adding that.
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And I'm quoting the story as a black man. His life has been tainted by painful experiences with the police,
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including the 2011 death of his wife's ex-husband, allegedly at the hands of the Los Angeles police department.
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So he's saying they killed my wife's ex-husband. He believes that to be the case. And so he is keeping the north of
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four million dollars that has been given to the black lives matter foundation. But I guess the other
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black lives matter folks are, are not happy. They're trying to get the funds frozen and they would like
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them redirected. I remember when this happened in 2010, following the tea party movement, no one really
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owned the tea party. It was a very organic movement of people who were frustrated at a non-responsive
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government. And everyone was trying to, you know, build the best tea party donor list,
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build the best tea party organizing platform. And like every consultant in Washington claim that they
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spoke for the tea party and that they knew all the tea party's leadership. And the reality was there were a lot of
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people who became millionaires just by sort of capitalizing on that branding, selling merchandise and
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building and renting lists. So I suspect the same thing will happen with this, with this black lives matter
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uh, uh, uh, uh, experience that we're going through. And, uh, gosh, what a, what a world. I, uh, I don't know if
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he's, if he's going to get the four million, but he thinks he's entitled to it. Good reporting from BuzzFeed News.
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College football coaches at major programs are even at risk of being canceled by their players as a
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consequence of their politics, maybe even their wardrobe. I don't believe that policing is inherently
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racist, though there likely are people who are racists who are in policing and any other number
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of industries. But there are elements of college football, particularly big program college football.
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I mean, that, that just make you wince. I mean, if you, before we get into the specific case of the specific
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coach and the politics of cancel culture and on college campuses in particular right now, just look at, at the
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organizing principle of college football. You've got predominantly white management at the athletic director
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level in a lot of the athletic offices where people are making these big six figure salaries.
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You've got predominantly management at the coaching level, particularly the head coaches. There's, you
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know, big drop off between what these head coaches are making and what assistance are making, uh, just
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about everywhere other than Clemson and Alabama. And then you have predominantly black labor in terms of the
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high end college football talent. Uh, the fact that all of this wealth and value is generated by the labor
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force transfers to management. And then, you know, the kids aren't getting paid. They're not getting to
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exploit their likeness for profit just seems fundamentally unfair. And the fact that there is a
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substantial racial element to who is creating the value and then who's taking the money off the table
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cannot be ignored. And so I get the fact that there are some tensions in college football, uh, when it
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comes to these issues of racial divide in our country. And it seems to be an area where, uh, where
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you're starting to see more, more politics, uh, more social advocacy. And, uh, you know, we can discuss
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whether that's for the better or for the worse. In this particular case in Oklahoma state, I think it's
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probably for the worse. Let's look at the attempted cancellation. So Mike Gundy, the coach of, uh,
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Oklahoma state has gone fishing in Texoma, Texoma. Uh, and he is wearing a one America news t-shirt.
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Now I've been on one America news. I know a lot of my colleagues will go on that news channel. There
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are good journalists there, uh, like, uh, John Himes, who go out and really try to capture the
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the perspective of the people engaged in lawmaking and share that. There's also some opinion on the
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show that is conservative, just like there's opinion on just about every hour of a lot of
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the mainstream media that is liberal. So OAN leans right. Most of the media leans left. And so
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Chubba Hubbard, upon seeing a photo of Mike Gundy fishing or after his fishing trip or before his
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fishing trip and his OAN shirt tweets, I will not stand for this. This is completely insensitive
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to everything going on in society. And it's unacceptable. I will not be doing anything
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with Oklahoma state until things change, change in all caps. So Chubba Hubbard putting the pressure
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on, and this is not just, you know, uh, any, any old player. He is likely their best player. He was the
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unanimous all American and big 12 offensive player of the year, more than 20 touchdowns,
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rush for about 2000 yards, a big part of what they got going on. And it'll be interesting to see
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like to what extent this might drive some other changes in college football. Uh, I agree with the
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proposals from Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, Gavin Newsom, the governor of California
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to allow these players to benefit from the economic value that they create in developing a brand.
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And you know, I called them kids earlier in the segment, but they're really not kids. I mean,
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they are, they're adults. Like by the time you go to college, you're a freaking adult,
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you're 18 years old, and you ought to be able to get some value out of what you create. So don't
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cancel your coaches, but cash in the checks because it's quite something to see the athletic excellence
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displayed in college football. But let's just not ensure that we have such a constrained view of debate
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that we cancel someone's contributions to athletics because we don't like their fishing.
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More and more, we're seeing police fed up with the demonization of their profession,
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the diminution of the contribution that they make to our safe communities. And they're starting to
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fight back, particularly against the politicians that are not credible when talking about the work that
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we need to do to improve the relationship between law enforcement and those that they serve. So we
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got the Fraternal Order of Police President, John Catanzara, defending Chicago police officers who were
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accused of lounging around while rioters broke into the office of Congressman Bobby Rush. And he's got
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some pretty sharp words for Congressman Rush. Here is FOP President John Catanzara.
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Who's the coward? Bobby Rush still hasn't apologized from three years ago when he accused Chicago police
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officers of racial profiling during a traffic stop, which body can't prove he was an absolute liar.
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He's a piece of garbage. He hates the police. So as we work into policing reform in the Congress,
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I think it is critically important that we get the buy-in from police officers. You know,
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one of the things that really came to the surface in our discussions with the White House leading up
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to the development of the president's executive order being signed today is the need to have law
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enforcement buy-in. The Obama administration had these lofty goals that they would set all these
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guidelines and practices and that police departments would just rush to the embrace of
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the federal government's involvement in local policing and community policing. And the reality is,
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I think there were only like 15 law enforcement agencies out of the tens of thousands around
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the country that were interested in adopting those recommendations. And so I think, again,
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this has got to be something that we do together. And I think the president's executive order is a
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great first start. And I think we can do even more in the Congress to improve policing.
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