Episode 30 - BLM’s Political Motives. FCC vs. Big Tech. Impeach AG Barr？
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
163.75316
Summary
A new piece by David Creighton exposes the ideological origins of Black Lives Matter. President Trump's hot takes at a rally in Tulsa, Okla. FCC Commissioner Mike O'Reilly says the agency should be involved in regulating online platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
Welcome to Hot Takes. This is Congressman Matt Gaetz. Let's talk about the news. President
00:00:21.020
Trump had some pretty hot takes at his recent rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Here were a few
00:00:25.700
of my favorite highlights. I stand before you today to declare the silent majority is stronger
00:00:32.320
than ever before. Five months from now, we're going to defeat sleepy Joe Biden. When rioting and looting
00:00:48.460
broke out in our nation's capital, I very quickly deployed the National Guard. I said, get him in.
00:00:55.700
After watching for an evening or two, we stopped the violence and restored peace and order. The
00:01:03.980
radical fake news. They never talk about COVID. They don't talk about when you see 25,000 people
00:01:13.540
walking down Fifth Avenue or walking down a street of a Democrat-run city, you never hear them saying
00:01:20.720
they're not wearing their mask. David Creighton in Human Events has a great piece out. It's political
00:01:29.480
power that really matters to black lives matter. And it chronicles the origin of this organization,
00:01:37.420
not just in modern events, but ideologically its origin with some of the more separatist movements
00:01:44.000
that we saw in the 1960s, where people sought different treatment for different Americans based
00:01:50.760
on race. And when you look at the Black Lives Matter ideology, it's one that is not really akin to
00:01:58.900
healing and bringing people together and unifying the nation. It's a grievance movement that I think
00:02:08.660
this piece by David Creighton really exposes. It exposes the fact that they have had members that
00:02:17.480
they haven't in any way disclaimed or criticized that were cheering on the killing of police in Dallas,
00:02:24.620
that Black Lives Matter organizers have referred to cops as pigs in different chants that they've led
00:02:32.600
as people have been engaged in protest. And again, people ought to be able to protest and speak
00:02:37.640
however they want. But I believe that our leaders have to see this movement clearly. And I see it
00:02:45.080
clearly as something that's intended to be very destructive to the unity and the equality that all
00:02:52.940
Americans should deserve. It doesn't matter what their race or background or country of origin is. So
00:02:58.740
check out David Creighton's piece. It also just one final note on it. It quotes the Seattle mayor
00:03:04.980
saying that what's going on there with the autonomous zone isn't really, you know, a rejection of
00:03:11.160
order. It's more like a block party. That's right. The mayor of Seattle said what's going on in the
00:03:16.020
autonomous zone now is more like a block party than a revolution. And that's, of course, false. You know,
00:03:23.200
there is no block party that intentionally bars the police or emergency responders from being able to
00:03:30.380
care for constituents. There is no block party that declares its functional independence from the
00:03:37.360
country and from the order that we've established. And if anything, this autonomous zone is the
00:03:42.460
manifestation of the policy agenda of Black Lives Matter. And that's something that should frighten all
00:03:49.520
of us. And it's something we should fight against. Digital media platforms stealing this election from
00:03:58.600
Donald Trump and the voters who support him is a very real possibility in the upcoming election.
00:04:06.160
It's one of the reasons why in a podcast last week, I called on Attorney General Barr and the
00:04:12.020
antitrust division at the Department of Justice to be far more aggressive on litigation. Instead,
00:04:18.160
the Trump administration's strategy seems to be putting pressure on the FCC to take some action.
00:04:24.740
And while I think that's good, and while I support the president's executive order,
00:04:29.020
it is clearly necessary, but not sufficient. FCC Commissioner Mike O'Reilly gave a C-SPAN interview
00:04:38.440
Do you believe that the FCC should be involved or regulating or defining what online platforms like
00:04:46.120
Facebook and Twitter do when it comes to moderating their content?
00:04:49.320
Well, in general, I believe that Section 230 has functioned as intended and therefore has been
00:04:53.560
incredibly beneficial. But could Congress or could the FCC put some guardrails on it and narrow it
00:04:59.200
to make it more functional and therefore not provide some of the wide-open opportunity and some of the
00:05:03.420
abuses we may be seeing in the marketplace? Like I said, it may be seeing.
00:05:06.440
That's certainly something to explore. And that's something, you know, what you expect
00:05:10.980
from a wide-open debate we're about to have. And so I think that there's both parts. It has been
00:05:17.160
very beneficial. Could it be improved? You know, I think there are some certainty sound arguments for
00:05:21.740
that. Is it my responsibilities or Congress's or some other agencies? Those debates will all have
00:05:26.580
to be had in the coming months. Sean Moran with Breitbart does a write-up on this interview,
00:05:31.300
which essentially concludes, somewhat correctly, I think, that if O'Reilly doesn't believe that
00:05:38.220
230 action or clarity can be provided by the FCC, then it's very unlikely to happen, just given the
00:05:45.240
votes and given the Republican-Democrat split and the fact that these folks have staggered terms.
00:05:51.620
So we're going to need more than a committee vote. We're going to need more than a discussion
00:05:57.600
or a tweet or a criticism of social media platforms. We're going to need action and
00:06:03.020
litigation. I strongly suggest you go check out my episode last week, calling on Attorney General
00:06:08.940
Barr to do more, to get involved, and to start filing lawsuits to enforce the antitrust provisions
00:06:15.840
of law against these social media platforms that claim to be unbiased, that claim to not be
00:06:21.860
aggregators or curators, but simply platforms, when the reality is they're going to do everything
00:06:27.240
possible to stop the voters of this country from electing Donald Trump president. It is unfair.
00:06:34.100
It should be considered unfair, no matter what your political affiliation is, because right now,
00:06:39.220
it's liberals, you know, who have developed these platforms who are hurting conservatives,
00:06:43.880
but what if it were the other way around? You know, I think we've got to ensure that we have
00:06:47.940
fair, free debate in this country, and that it is not constrained by Silicon Valley.
00:06:53.660
Eskimo pies are canceled. No Eskimo pies for you. The New York Post's Ben Fern third reporting that
00:07:04.000
Eskimo prize will drop the derogatory name. The company saying we are committed to being a part of
00:07:09.620
the solution on racial equality and recognize the term is derogatory. The move is part of a larger
00:07:15.880
review to ensure our company and brands reflect our people values. Okay, whatever that means,
00:07:23.100
the move comes after Aunt Jemima was canceled, after Uncle Ben was canceled. Cream of Wheat had a black
00:07:30.740
chef on the front of their box. They're taking that off. If I guess you can't have any person of color on
00:07:40.080
your marketing, if you can't have an Eskimo on your marketing, I guess you certainly couldn't have
00:07:46.200
like just white people or Caucasians or I don't know. So like, what is it going to be? Are we going
00:07:52.360
to end up where all of the endorsers for all of our products have to be like raceless, genderless
00:07:59.980
cyborgs of some kind? I don't know. I didn't think Eskimo pies were offensive.
00:08:06.040
I did think they were delicious and I will miss them.
00:08:12.280
The United States military has successfully stolen some of Russia's Africa toys. There is a fantastic
00:08:20.360
report in the Washington Examiner by Tom Rogan entitled, U.S. Seizes Advanced Russian Military
00:08:26.980
System in Libya. Tom has some excellent sourcing here on a Khrushka 4 electronic warfare system
00:08:34.900
that potentially was seized by the U.S. in Libya. Here's what's going on in Libya. There's the
00:08:41.480
government of national accord, to the extent that it even is a government, that is backed by the U.S.
00:08:47.700
Then there is Khalif Haftar and his militant group that is essentially being backed by Russia. And the
00:08:55.440
way that Russia does this is they have their mercenaries, also known as the Wagner Group,
00:09:00.420
out there providing intelligence, providing electronic warfare support, providing I think
00:09:07.160
some logistics and command and control assistance in the effort to try to get their guy in control
00:09:14.380
of Libya. And what's happened apparently is that the U.S. got a hold of one of these systems,
00:09:19.680
is currently exploiting it and analyzing it. And the reason this matters is that Russia has
00:09:25.840
one of the more sophisticated air defense systems in this part of the world. It is really the crown
00:09:32.400
jewel of their military, their electronic warfare, and their ability to deny battle space where they're
00:09:38.480
able to deploy this asset. So the fact that we have it, we can train against it, we can work against it,
00:09:44.540
means that they may be less successful at denying U.S. access to airspace, not just in Libya,
00:09:50.900
where frankly, I think we should be less involved, not more involved, but in other areas where we
00:09:55.820
could see great power competition. So big win for the U.S. military. Let's hope they exploit the hell
00:10:00.920
out of this Russian system so that it never beats the U.S. and so that we are prepared to win every
00:10:06.620
fight that we absolutely are required to be in.
00:10:09.080
John Bolton has his new book out. White House advisor Peter Navarro was asked about it by Jake
00:10:19.100
Here's the thing about Bolton. Here's what's so interesting about him. I think what we need to
00:10:23.400
do is take a serious read of the book. Everything that John Bolton was pushing here, right over there
00:10:29.000
in the White House, would have made this country less peaceful and less prosperous. He wanted to bomb
00:10:34.420
North Korea. He wanted to bomb Iran. He wanted to keep troops in Afghanistan. I mean, towards the end,
00:10:40.260
you have to understand this, Jake, for months towards the end of his tenure, before he got fired,
00:10:45.160
the president would openly joke about, hey, John wants to bomb everything, okay? This is a guy
00:10:50.940
who's like a 1950s throwback to Dr. Strangelove, okay? He just, and then, by the way, he talks about
00:10:59.360
patterns of behavior in the book. Guess what? When he was with Bush, right, what did he do?
00:11:04.420
He quit, and then he dumped, wrote a book, wrote a tell-all, kiss-all, dumped all over George W.
00:11:09.880
I think Peter Navarro pretty much gets it right here. John Bolton was not a member of the
00:11:14.860
administration because his opinion was particularly valued. He was not a member of the administration
00:11:20.240
because the president shared his worldview. He wasn't a member of the administration, certainly,
00:11:26.120
like to give advice that would ultimately be taken. John Bolton was a mascot in the Trump
00:11:33.640
administration. The president liked the fact that having John Bolton around seemed to trigger
00:11:39.220
different people in the world, and so when he wanted to, you know, motivate Iran or Venezuela
00:11:45.520
or any of these other countries that we don't have good relationships with but certainly don't want to
00:11:50.520
start some new forever war with, when he wanted to motivate them, he would trot out Bolton, but he
00:11:56.000
never really believed in the Bolton worldview or ideology, and so Bolton eventually comes to realize
00:12:02.940
this when none of his advice is taken and when the president clearly doesn't respect how he perceives
00:12:08.280
the events happening, and so he resents it, and he leaves the administration, and he pretty much does
00:12:14.840
the same thing that he did when he left the Bush administration. I mean, John Bolton is a guy who comes
00:12:18.940
in, supports, you know, 10 out of the last three wars, leaves, and then trashes his former boss
00:12:25.280
with misinformation, out-of-context information, and information that I think is largely motivated
00:12:31.200
by the fact that John Bolton's case for American military intervention all over the planet Earth
00:12:39.100
has been rejected by the voters and rejected by President Trump, and hopefully the Bolton view
00:12:44.780
will continue to be rejected in administrations that come forward in the future, whether they be
00:12:49.660
Republican or Democrat. I know President Trump has done a tremendous amount to reset American priorities
00:12:56.720
on the American people, putting America first, putting our citizens first, and that's something
00:13:03.120
that I think we can be very proud of as a country, and the president has my full support.
00:13:07.600
Major League Baseball is going to look very different in the 2020 season. I'm going to break
00:13:15.880
out down the changes, the ones I like, the ones I hate. Let's start with a change that's not so bad.
00:13:22.220
There's going to be 16 teams allowed in the postseason for baseball in the 2020 season.
00:13:27.720
With fewer regular season games, I think it's reasonable to assume that there is a higher variability
00:13:33.680
in just the regular season producing the best teams for the postseason, and so I get it. Allow more
00:13:40.400
teams in, that way you're absolutely certain that when it really matters in the postseason, you've got
00:13:45.960
the right teams, and you're going to have great competition. So no real problem with that. It seems
00:13:50.440
to make sense with a season with fewer games. Also, any player who wants to opt out of the season
00:13:57.120
and still get paid can do so with their full salary if they can prove that they are high risk
00:14:05.780
with someone they are cohabitating with. So like if you're cohabitating with, you know, a parent that
00:14:11.700
has a certain type of medical frailty, but what an interesting one is a pregnant wife. So if a player
00:14:18.380
has a pregnant wife, they can opt out of the system, get their whole salary. If you don't have such a
00:14:23.640
cohabitation, you don't get that same benefit. But two of the biggest stars in the entire league,
00:14:29.940
Mike Trout and Garrett Cole, both have pregnant wives, and it'll be interesting to see whether or
00:14:35.820
not some of the biggest stars of the game choose to play or choose to get paid and not play. It'd be
00:14:42.080
two very, very interesting guys to watch as these decisions start to roll out regarding the eligibility
00:14:47.700
of players to be deemed high risk and participate in that program. So those changes, I understand,
00:14:53.420
for player benefit, for competitive benefit, but there are some other changes that I absolutely
00:14:59.120
hate. There is a universal designated hitter rule that will be applied for the 2020 and 2021 season.
00:15:06.580
Now why we're making changes for the 2021 season, I do not know. This reduces the strategic element of
00:15:13.680
the game in the National League with the DH being able to be plugged in for the pitcher and not having that,
00:15:22.180
you know, higher likelihood of an out and then managing and coaching around it. It's really the
00:15:26.240
main reason I like the National League more than the American League, the strategy of not having the
00:15:30.560
DH. Now it appears the National League will have the DH as well. Another change is that in the extra
00:15:36.500
innings, there will be a player that will start on second base and starting in the 10th inning,
00:15:40.820
it'll be the last player that got out in the prior inning. Now they've had this rule in the minor league
00:15:44.660
since 2018, bringing it to the majors. Now it will reduce the length of games. I don't think you'll
00:15:51.500
get those like 15, 16 inning games. Like we saw with some frequency, actually last season,
00:15:56.520
the players really negotiated for this one. I don't like it. I don't think pitchers probably
00:16:02.420
are going to like it. I think that, you know, good old fashioned baseball is good old fashioned
00:16:07.040
baseball. And when you're starting with a player on second base, you know, now you're,
00:16:12.040
the pitcher's got to come out of the stretch. Uh, now, you know, it changes the way the middle
00:16:16.580
infield has to operate to hold the runner. Uh, and, and also now, you know, that run is far more
00:16:23.000
likely to get manufactured with some sort of bunt and, and you really don't have to earn the run
00:16:28.740
in the same way, obviously, as if, uh, you weren't spotted that runner on second. So I don't like the
00:16:33.840
changes in the rules. I can't wait for baseball. Let's hope it's the same baseball we've all known
00:16:39.360
and all loved for so long. And then at least this is something that can get back to normal soon.
00:16:46.940
The Democrats seem to have impeachment fever and there's no therapeutic. There's no cure.
00:16:53.000
There's no vaccine. They are at the more cowbell stage of impeachment. Even now discussing the
00:17:00.700
impeachment of bill bar, kind of here is an interview that house judiciary chairman, Jerry
00:17:06.220
Nadler gave with Jake Tapper over the weekend. And the issue of impeaching bill bar potentially is
00:17:11.840
raised. Here's the clip. Some congressional Democrats, including Senator Elizabeth Warren
00:17:15.420
have said that this is it. This is the last straw attorney general bill bar needs to be impeached.
00:17:21.800
Do you think calls for his impeachment are premature? No, I don't think calls for his impeachment
00:17:25.880
are premature, uh, are premature any more than calls for the president's impeachment were premature,
00:17:30.740
but they are a waste of time at this point because we know that we have a corrupt, uh, Republican
00:17:37.080
majority in the Senate, which will not consider, uh, an impeachment no matter what the evidence
00:17:41.640
and no matter what the facts. So, uh, we're gonna, we're, we're instead going to, uh, uh, do what we
00:17:48.240
have to do without that, uh, and including, uh, uh, uh, uh, barring, uh, 50, 50 million dollars
00:17:56.180
from his own personal, uh, budget. So maybe not an actual impeachment of bar, but impeachment in drag
00:18:02.940
impeachment in all other ways. This week, there are these disgruntled department of justice officials
00:18:10.460
and, uh, potentially former officials who are coming forward to say, Oh, you know, we felt like
00:18:16.220
the attorney general was getting involved in our cases. Well, you know what, based on the politics
00:18:21.660
and the corruption that we saw at senior levels of the department of justice, I'm glad attorney
00:18:27.600
general bar is making some personnel changes. I'm glad attorney general bar is actually getting
00:18:34.240
involved in the cases. Hell, we wanted attorney general sessions to get involved and actually
00:18:38.660
lead the department of justice. And he was too weak to do it. So a strong, effective attorney general
00:18:44.500
serving the administration is proactive about ensuring that the work of the administration
00:18:50.340
is reflected in the priorities of the department of justice. And when Nadler calls the Republican
00:18:56.860
senators who voted against impeachment corrupt, I guess he made a lot of news with that. But the
00:19:03.020
reality is the investigation was corrupt. The Russia hoax was corrupt. The more we see the extent to
00:19:10.740
which evidence was changed, suppressed, withheld, doctored. We see that this entire endeavor to impeach
00:19:19.780
Donald Trump has centered around the inability to beat him in a fair election or a fair debate
00:19:24.380
and his desire to marginalize him instead of working with him on the policy issues that we should all
00:19:31.360
be able to agree on. So as we move now into the election, they've sort of, you know, shot their best
00:19:37.640
shot in going after Trump with impeachment. That was a miserable failure that didn't seem to help
00:19:42.840
Democrats at all. Certainly didn't help the country. But now needing something to do, having no real
00:19:51.000
policy priorities to help the American people having no agenda for the country. Now they want to start
00:19:57.300
impeachment again. But I guess now as it relates to Bill Barr, but not actual impeachment, just hearings
00:20:04.420
to try to embarrass the attorney general and to try to give people a grievance opportunity that they
00:20:09.980
actually got led by an attorney general willing to show that leadership. So on Wednesday, the House
00:20:14.760
Judiciary Committee will be a hot environment and I'll be there with my hot takes. Thanks for listening
00:20:21.040
to Hot Takes, everybody. Tomorrow I'll be in Phoenix, Arizona for a Turning Point USA speaking event. The
00:20:28.900
president will be there. My good friend Congressman Andy Biggs will be there. So I can't wait to bring you
00:20:33.740
updates from Phoenix, Arizona. I'm looking forward to the president giving us an update on the
00:20:38.060
construction of the wall. And I'm looking forward to firing up that next generation of great leaders
00:20:43.900
and great conservatives at Turning Point. Leave us a five star rating or review. Make sure you subscribe