On today's show, I'm joined by my good friend and long-time supporter, Matt Gaetz. We talk about the deep state, the Deep State, and why Joe Biden is losing Ukraine. We also talk about how Putin is playing a game that no other country has ever done before.
00:01:33.000That is, reinforce NATO territory, reassure our allies on the eastern flank, and deter Russia from any action against NATO allies to whom we have a sacred Article 5 commitment to defend.
00:01:47.000We will defend every inch of NATO territory, every inch of Article 5 territory, and Russia, we think, fully understands that message.
00:01:56.000Well, Russia isn't loading up forces on the borders of NATO countries.
00:02:00.000They're doing so on the border of Ukraine, a non-NATO country.
00:02:04.000When we are so explicit and specific about what we will defend, then by definition, we are similarly clear to Putin about what he can do without drawing the responses that he fears most.
00:02:17.000This is functionally Biden gaslighting an invasion of Ukraine because their administration is saying they won't defend it.
00:02:24.000I certainly wouldn't send American troops to defend Ukraine either.
00:02:29.000But what Donald Trump understood was the value of not being so predictable.
00:02:35.000When we've met in the past and we've talked, you say things like, I'm going to bomb the expletive out of them very quickly.
00:02:42.000And when people like me press you for details, like that gentleman just said, on what your plan is, you very often say, I'm not going to give you the details because I want to be unpredictable.
00:02:53.000Absolutely, the word is unpredictable.
00:02:55.000If I win, I don't want to broadcast to the enemy exactly what my plan is.
00:02:59.000And let me tell you, if I like maybe a combination of my plan and the general's plan or the general's plan, if I like their plan, Matt, I'm not going to call you up and say, Matt, we have a great plan.
00:03:53.000He may invade Ukraine under Biden, not so under Trump.
00:03:57.000And yet for years, they said Donald Trump was a Russian agent.
00:04:02.000Why does President-elect Trump again and again and again take it upon himself to be Vladimir Putin's defense lawyer rather than listening to and respecting the intelligence professionals of the United States?
00:04:16.000Almost as if he's Vladimir Putin's lawyer defending him before a jury, President Trump again recites the Russian president's talking points.
00:04:54.000They called me Putin's lawyer and worse.
00:04:58.000But if you believe the Durham indictments, we were the ones who were right all along.
00:05:04.000It was the Hillary Clinton campaign sending people into the FBI with lies about Trump and Russia.
00:05:11.000All funded by the Democrats, of course.
00:05:13.000It was the Hillary Clinton campaign seeding the Russians with lies and using people like Bruce Ohr working at the Department of Justice to proliferate those lies through DOJ leaks.
00:06:45.000And I guess start with just the podcast project.
00:06:48.000You know, your place in journalism, the echelons you've achieved, certainly secure.
00:06:54.000But there must have been something in conservative media that you thought still needed an additional voice.
00:06:59.000So what hole are you plugging in the media with this great new project of yours?
00:07:04.000Well, I'd like to take credit, Matt, for having the prescience to have reached out to do a podcast.
00:07:11.000But frankly, Fox sort of helped me along in that regard.
00:07:16.000When they canceled my show, I started looking for other ways in which to, you know, to bring a message to the public arena.
00:07:24.000And podcasting has been beautiful, as you know, before me, how much fun it is and how effective it is and what a terrific medium it is.
00:07:34.000And one of the reasons that I'm having so much fun on our show is because you do join us from time to time and I appreciate that.
00:07:41.000Well, I went on your show on Fox as much for the advice as the exposure because, you know, you presented a different Republican voice.
00:07:50.000You still do. Then we typically hear out of the establishment, the neoconservatives, kind of the Wall Street, big business Republicans.
00:07:59.000You know, as you look at the conservative movement now, are we becoming more populist, more nationalist in our economics?
00:08:09.000Or do you fear a reversion to the establishment mean?
00:08:14.000Yeah, I think a reversion to, as you call it, the establishment mean if we're talking about the country as a whole, because the Democrats are decidedly moving us in a direction that is, frankly, it's neo-Marxist, what they're doing.
00:08:29.100There is an authoritarian strain to everything that the Democrats are touching.
00:08:36.100He cannot move things to Congress, so he, as Obama famously put it, he has a phone and a pen.
00:08:44.100I haven't seen him use the phone except to talk with President Xi, but he uses the pen for an executive order at every opportunity.
00:08:51.100No matter how many times the courts rebuff him, rebuke him and reverse him, he continues to plow ahead as if we were not a federalist system of government.
00:09:03.100And as if the courts had very little meaning in American life, when obviously the inverse is the case.
00:09:10.100Our courts are desperately needed as a check and balance.
00:09:14.100You know, the Biden regime is wielding an excessive amount of power through that unchecked force, and increasingly they're getting the help of Republicans in doing so.
00:09:27.100What Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger have done on the January 6th committee to target Americans, to target colleagues in Congress, to have these secret investigations and then leaking things out of context to try to smear a political movement.
00:09:41.100It's disgraceful, and recently, Mitch McConnell, as well as more than a dozen Republicans in the Senate, actually rebuked the RNC's censure of Cheney and Kinzinger.
00:09:52.100How should the base of our movement think about these Republicans who seem to be embracing the tactics and style and substance of the Cheneistas and the Kinzingerites?
00:10:04.100Yeah, which is a little bit like Che Guevara and Soviet era show trials.
00:10:11.100The fact of the matter is, Kinzinger and Cheney should not even be in the Republican Party.
00:10:16.100I personally was disappointed that the Republican leadership didn't have the guts to throw them out.
00:10:21.100Voting against the president, participating in the January 6th committee, which is outrageous, and as President Trump himself said, there would have been no need of any kind of system of inquiry, if that's what they can call it, if only Nancy Pelosi had listened and, as he had requested, put 10,000 National Guard troops on the Hill to help maintain order.
00:10:51.100And the fact of the matter is, they didn't.
00:10:54.100The Democrats didn't want those National Guard troops there.
00:10:57.100And I personally suspect, and this is only my opinion, but it's because they had other ideas for the activists that they had on the Hill who were there to incite and to cause great, great mischief on that day.
00:11:13.100In criticizing the RNC for their censure of Cheney and Kinzinger, a Republican leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, said it's not the place of the RNC to be critical of members.
00:11:27.100How should we think about Mitch McConnell's statement that the people who constitute our party's activists really shouldn't have a say or a viewpoint regarding the activities of their lawmakers?
00:11:39.100Well, I think that what that was was a cry for absolute autonomy on the part of Mitch McConnell.
00:11:47.100He apparently wants to extend it to the House of Representatives as well and the broader party beyond.
00:11:53.100You know, it was a silly and inane and unempirical remark by the good Senate minority leader.
00:12:04.100He he's out of place, as he usually is.
00:12:08.100He is on the side of rhinos, as he always is.
00:12:11.100And it's a shame that he is in that position, just as it's a shame, in my opinion, that Kevin McCarthy wants to be speaker when the Republicans win in November.
00:12:52.100I think you should be in there as well.
00:12:54.100I really believe that the the brightest, hardest working conservative leaders we have in the House should be leading the House.
00:13:03.100And I believe most of the members would agree with me on that.
00:13:06.100To get some of our firebrands on the front lines, we would need to dispense with seniority as one of the organizing principles for picking leaders.
00:13:16.100You know, do you think seniority has served the Republican conference well in your observation of its deployment or or has it done more harm than good?
00:13:25.100Well, I think this the seniority system has done an excellent job in creating seniority for a few.
00:13:34.100But what we want is for the entire conference to be reelected year after year, serving the needs of the people and setting a vision that can be agreed upon beyond the Potomac.
00:13:48.100I mean, this is a big old country and we need a Republican Party and leadership in the House that whose vision and whose purpose resonates with the American people, a populist nationalist America first make America great party.
00:14:07.100That party seems to find a lot of unity when we actually stand up and fight for the border and against these immigration policies that have hollowed out our nation under Speaker Ryan and then Majority Leader McConnell.
00:14:22.100We seem to be willing to fight for just about everything except securing the border.
00:14:27.100There are some of us now taking the position that if we hold the majority, we would be willing to shut down the government if we do not get not only the reimposition of the Trump border policies, but even stronger policies on internal enforcement.
00:14:41.100Do you think that border immigration issues are worth the Republicans drawing a line in the sand on to shut down the government?
00:14:49.100And if so, why do Republicans always lose shutdowns?
00:14:52.100Well, I think the simplest answer to that is that there isn't a unanimity of view amongst the Republicans in the Senate and the House on what is the value of a dollar and what is the value of a trillion dollars and what is the value of sovereignty?
00:15:09.100They can't seem to align those issues.
00:15:12.100And when Mitch McConnell can move just ahead three and a half trillion dollars, let's raise the national debt ceiling again.
00:15:20.100There should be a clear statement by the Republicans about how much debt is acceptable because we're in we're in a range that is completely unchartered, unexplored and inadvisable.
00:15:32.100We're looking at a national debt that is now greater than our economy.
00:15:38.100It is a danger to every American Democrat, independent Republican.
00:15:43.100This is not this is a party that has to find what is most important.
00:15:49.100You're suggesting one of the most important, in my opinion, and that is a government whose fiscal policy is responsible and targeted for the for the needs of the American people.
00:16:03.100We are right now running behind not one, but two competing economic and military powers, China and Russia in hypersonic missiles.
00:16:12.100But we were the ones who developed hypersonic missiles first in the 1990s.
00:16:18.100And we put them on the shelf and somebody stole, I believe, something off that shelf because they now have advanced programs and hypersonic missiles.
00:16:51.100They have gone to places unimaginable.
00:16:54.100And for me, a place that the the the American people would never want to go.
00:16:59.100Which policies that the Democrats are pushing scare you most?
00:17:03.100I mean, you've got the perspective of covering American politics and finance and industry for quite some time.
00:17:08.100But we're seeing a lot of new stuff that we've really never seen out of our government before regarding deprivations of liberty and the like.
00:17:16.100And so, you know, as you look at the landscape, which policy do you identify and say this is what we got to extinguish?
00:17:22.100Well, we have to extinguish first and foremost a party that is so committed to a lack of sovereignty.
00:17:34.100They want a they want a communist system of government.
00:17:37.100AOC is driving the Democratic Party now.
00:17:41.100She may not be leading it, but she is driving it.
00:17:44.100And she is picking up alliances and allies across the spectrum of the Democratic Party, which is now in in total move to the left.
00:17:54.100There was a time that the party had left wing fringe Marxist and a time when they actually had like in the days of Scoop Jackson middle of the road conservative members who were moderate Democrats.
00:18:13.100These people are committed to changing our system of government, changing the way in which we live.
00:18:19.100And it is a society that they seek that would be authoritarian.
00:18:23.100It would not be egalitarian whatsoever because the result would be disastrous for the people who need a vibrant, healthy capitalist economy.
00:18:33.100They mean to turn this thing into not a socialist part.
00:18:37.100Let's let's get rid of the silly words.
00:18:41.100They're talking about government in charge of every aspect of our economy and the way in which they are acting now.
00:18:49.100The Democratic Party is is exercising a liberal fascism, if you will, and calling it progressive.
00:18:57.100It's mindless. And they have the aid of the corporate national media, the corporate owned media, concentrated, oligarchical and absolutely supportive of those left wing mandates, initiatives, impulses, executive orders.
00:19:15.100You name it. That's the direction that the corporate system, the establishment wants to go.
00:19:21.100And that's what the Republicans have to fight.
00:19:24.100Well, and it's not going to be good for those establishment institutions, because it seems like what you're describing is not one policy or one vector, but a total reordering and reset of American society.
00:19:34.100And, you know, I don't know if these multinational corporations are going to come out in that as well as they might think.
00:19:39.100Now, when we take the majority again, Lou, I believe there is sufficient evidence and basis to immediately begin impeachment proceedings regarding the border and Joe Biden.
00:19:50.100I don't believe people should be impeached for incompetence.
00:19:52.100I don't believe people should be impeached because they miss things.
00:19:55.100But when you purposefully are taking action to destroy the country, I think impeachment is justified.
00:20:01.100Republicans like those we've been talking about, the McConnellites will say, no, no, no, we need to start with the issues where we can agree with the Biden administration and work for there.
00:20:11.100How would you respond to that strategy and paradigm?
00:20:14.100First of all, if there is an issue upon which there is agreement between the radical left neo-Marxist Democratic Party and the Republican Party, the home of conservatism, economic nationalism, if you prefer, and populism, then there shouldn't be any doubt at all.
00:20:40.100But don't fall in line because that's how we got to where we are right now.
00:20:44.100The alliance between corporate America, traditionally conservative, that now has moved far left, endorsing, supporting and financing in some cases, Black Lives Matter, critical race theory, EID.
00:20:57.100I mean, you go beyond this mad indoctrination initiative on the part of the left in our universities, our schools that's moved to corporate America and to government itself.
00:21:10.100We've got to stop that in our schools.
00:21:13.100We've got to move back to education, not indoctrination.
00:21:16.100We have got to remember who we are and defend it unapologetically.
00:21:25.100And we are committed to freedom and liberty for the individual with responsibility.
00:21:31.100And we have fallen so far from that that it is it is both disgusting and terribly concerning.
00:21:38.100I think the most Americans are the real question is, are we up for that fight?
00:21:43.100Because I got a lot of Americans who feel like their vote was not treated with respect.
00:21:48.100They viewed their vote as precious and they didn't see officials treated with respect in the election process.
00:21:53.100And they see a Republican Party that they don't feel fights for them enough.
00:21:56.100And so, you know, do you think that there's enough energy still out there for us to marshal up and get this thing on the right on the right side?
00:22:07.100There was a time I would have said to you it's a question that is answered every day in American society because we are a nation that is vigorous.
00:22:19.100And I can't say that now with the same breath that I once could have and as inclusive a breath because we have right now too many people who have been attacked by their government.
00:22:32.100We have political prisoners right now as a result of what happened on January 6th and the effort of the left to rewrite history and try to use that as a political lever.
00:22:43.100Just as they tried to twice impeach a sitting president with baseless charges carried out a special counsel fraud against him.
00:22:54.100Again, they are doing the same thing to ordinary citizens when the Attorney General of the United States says that parents who are concerned about their children and the education they're receiving and the response of those public schools, which is the great equalizer in our society.
00:23:08.100When they when the Attorney General can say those parents who are so concerned and so active and participating in their school board meetings and sometimes perhaps even unruly and outspoken that they're domestic terrorists, then we're in a hell of a spot.
00:23:23.100And I think most Americans are paying attention will be willing and ready to fight like hell to restore those rights.
00:23:31.100Hey, the the always outspoken, occasionally unruly Lou Dobbs, a great American host of the Great America podcast, which we highly recommend the one thing Lou that America misses is seeing you react to the news of the day.
00:23:47.540And so while we get to hear it on the podcast, I'm going to give you every encouragement to have a video element because it is a different experience for all of us when we get to we get to see you sort of bubble up in your in your desire for this country to be the best version of ourself and your insistence that we do so.
00:24:05.720I appreciate the mentorship that you've given so many of us in Congress just through our nightly sessions that all of America used to enjoy on Fox Business.
00:24:13.280And now we get the great podcasting platform to pioneer as well.
00:24:16.540Well, thank you very much for those kind words.
00:24:19.040And I will follow your counsel and I will indeed add a video components worth with.
00:24:37.520Thanks so much for joining us on Firebrand.
00:24:39.460We've got big new developments coming for the show in the next couple of weeks.
00:24:44.000And to get full advantage of the advances that we're going to be bringing to the audience, make sure you are subscribed on your viewing or listening platform of choice with that bell linked with those notifications turned on so that you'll be with us each and every time for each and every iteration of Firebrand.