The Anchormen Show with Matt Gaetz - Episode 30： Freedom's Frontlines – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz

00:00:01.000 The embattled Congressman Matt Gaetz.

00:00:03.000 Matt Gaetz was one of the very few members in the entire Congress

00:00:06.000 who bothered to stand up against permanent Washington on behalf of his constituents.

00:00:10.000 Matt Gaetz right now, he's a problem for the Democratic Party.

00:00:13.000 He could cause a lot of hiccups in passing applause.

00:00:16.000 So we're going to keep running those stories to keep hurting him.

00:00:20.000 If you stand for the flag and kneel in prayer,

00:00:23.000 if you want to build America up and not burn her to the ground,

00:00:27.000 then welcome, my fellow patriots.

00:00:29.000 You are in the right place. This is the movement for you.

00:00:33.000 You ever watch this guy on television?

00:00:35.000 It's like a machine. Matt Gaetz.

00:00:38.000 I'm a canceled man in some corners of the Internet.

00:00:41.000 Many days I'm a marked man in Congress, a wanted man by the deep state.

00:00:46.000 They aren't really coming for me. They're coming for you.

00:00:49.000 I'm just in the way.

00:00:54.000 Welcome to this week's episode jam-packed.

00:00:57.000 I've got an interview with Congressman Mo Brooks.

00:00:59.000 He and I serve on the Armed Services Committee together.

00:01:02.000 We're going to break down all the latest information that you need to know about Ukraine,

00:01:07.000 how it impacts your life, and the rest of the world.

00:01:10.000 But first, we are indeed on the front lines of freedom,

00:01:14.000 not in some distant land, not in some faraway place, but here in our country.

00:01:18.000 And more and more Americans are coming together to demand that their government be responsive to them.

00:01:25.000 Truckers, convoys have linked up, united, come together.

00:01:29.000 They've seen support all over the country.

00:01:31.000 And they've gathered outside of Washington, D.C. at Dominion Raceway.

00:01:36.000 I wanted to know what they were thinking, so I sent my colleague Chris Chella.

00:01:39.000 Here's his report.

00:01:43.000 This is Chris Chella reporting for Firebrand.

00:01:45.000 We have been at Dominion Raceway all day with the truckers' convoy,

00:01:49.000 talking to our fellow Americans.

00:01:51.000 And the consensus here is that this convoy, this rally, it's all about freedom.

00:01:58.000 Hundreds of truckers have gathered here on their final stop to our nation's capital

00:02:06.000 to protest these mask and vaccine mandates that have crippled our nation's economy and morale.

00:02:13.000 What do you guys think of the whole truck rally that's going on?

00:02:16.000 Oh, I love it.

00:02:17.000 I mean, it's so fun just to watch these truckers who are basically like real heroes.

00:02:22.000 They're ready for their freedom.

00:02:23.000 I'm from Catawba, North Carolina.

00:02:25.000 Okay, and why are you here today?

00:02:27.000 I'm here to, it's about freedom.

00:02:30.000 The big part about today is getting people together.

00:02:33.000 For me, we've been missing that for a very long time.

00:02:37.000 We got people, kids in California.

00:02:39.000 You know, they've been sending us letters, us truck drivers the whole time,

00:02:43.000 pleading for us to end the mask mandates.

00:02:47.000 We got kids in school that still have to wear them.

00:02:50.000 And we just, that's what, I got four kids.

00:02:53.000 It's about my kids is what I'm doing it for.

00:02:56.000 I want the Emergency Powers Act gone.

00:03:00.000 This is my opinion only.

00:03:02.000 I'd like to see that gone.

00:03:04.000 I'd like to let people have their choice of whether or not they want to put something in their body or put a mask on their face.

00:03:10.000 We live in America and we have the Constitution and people should be able to decide what they want to inject into their bodies.

00:03:16.000 And you know, Joe Biden said that he wouldn't, he couldn't force any vaccine mandates months and months and months ago.

00:03:23.000 And we've seen his administration do the exact opposite.

00:03:27.000 Vaccine mandates have no place in a free country.

00:03:29.000 So we're here to stand with all the truckers that have traveled across the entire United States to stand up for our freedom.

00:03:35.000 So for me, I believe that the truckers are one of the most over regulated industries out there.

00:03:42.000 I know there needs to be a lot of changes.

00:03:44.000 And I know that the lawmakers really need to listen to the truck drivers on what's needed and what's required.

00:03:49.000 The hours of service issue is a huge issue and I think they need to keep pushing on that.

00:03:54.000 This whole thing isn't just about the mandates, not to me and not to a whole lot of people.

00:04:00.000 I've just been up in Hagerstown with a whole other crew and everybody up there.

00:04:04.000 It's not just about the mandates, man.

00:04:06.000 What is it?

00:04:07.000 I want my kids' future and my grandkids, man, to have the freedoms of what I grew up with, being able to do this, man.

00:04:14.000 You know what I'm saying? And just be ourselves.

00:04:16.000 Exactly.

00:04:17.000 Not tied down and I want them to stop dividing us.

00:04:20.000 I feel like they put a lot of division and the media puts a lot of fake news and plays one side.

00:04:25.000 You know, I mean, it's not right, man.

00:04:27.000 You know, and I just, you know, hey, peace and love.

00:04:30.000 Right, right.

00:04:31.000 And do you have any faith that President Biden can resolve this issue?

00:04:35.000 I mean, I definitely hope so, man.

00:04:37.000 He's our president.

00:04:38.000 And I mean, we all got to stick together, whoever's our president.

00:04:41.000 But it's going to be fair on either side, man.

00:04:43.000 You know, when it's a Republican, we got to be fair to them.

00:04:46.000 They're our president.

00:04:47.000 So what are you hoping that lawmakers will do as a result of this, you know, this massive convoy that, you know, has never really been seen before in this country?

00:04:56.000 The political community has a systemic way of kind of saying things but not really doing much.

00:05:02.000 Right.

00:05:03.000 I'm an optimist.

00:05:04.000 But, you know, I think being a bit pessimistic is good because it keeps our guards up.

00:05:11.000 So I'm just hoping that, unlike what happened at the Tea Party, it's almost like they sabotaged it by taking ownership of it.

00:05:19.000 I don't think that can happen with truck drivers.

00:05:21.000 They're too grounded.

00:05:23.000 They're too raw.

00:05:24.000 They're too real.

00:05:25.000 And that's just not going to happen.

00:05:26.000 I'm traveling with them right now.

00:05:28.000 My hands have never been so dirty and I love it.

00:05:30.000 Okay.

00:05:31.000 So I'm not going to say anything about Biden.

00:05:33.000 My personal feelings on him does not matter here.

00:05:36.000 Okay.

00:05:37.000 This is about this.

00:05:40.000 These people all coming together and standing together.

00:05:43.000 This isn't left or right.

00:05:45.000 Right.

00:05:46.000 Okay.

00:05:47.000 This isn't black or white.

00:05:48.000 This is the United States of America and Americans standing together.

00:05:51.000 Some of these truckers traveled to Washington, D.C.

00:05:55.000 We held a panel with myself, Congresswoman Marjorie Teller-Green of Georgia, Congressman Thomas Massey of Kentucky.

00:06:01.000 You know them both well.

00:06:03.000 They've both been on firebrand a good amount.

00:06:05.000 Here are some highlights from that discussion.

00:06:07.000 What would be your message specifically to Republicans who would say, well, we're sympathetic against these mandates, but we've got to keep funding the government.

00:06:15.000 I mean, that's our job.

00:06:16.000 The federal government says, oh, we don't have nothing to do with it, but you're funding every state to enforce these things.

00:06:23.000 And it's got to stop.

00:06:25.000 Stop funding any of it.

00:06:27.000 You guys hold the purse strings.

00:06:28.000 They're here to fight for us to stop any entity from forcing bad policies on us.

00:06:35.000 That's what they're supposed to do.

00:06:37.000 Most of these guys in here are independent.

00:06:39.000 You're not even looking at all the company drivers that their companies told them.

00:06:44.000 If you go to this convoy thing, look for another job, you're fired.

00:06:51.000 Tens of thousands of them that wanted to be here are not.

00:06:56.000 The support that we have out there is overwhelming.

00:07:00.000 And I take time to talk to these people.

00:07:02.000 And we'd have people come up with donations.

00:07:05.000 They had little or nothing.

00:07:06.000 I had a lady come up. 1.00

00:07:07.000 All she had in northern Michigan, she raised chickens, and she had 10 dozen eggs to donate.

00:07:14.000 They're putting their trust in a bunch of truck drivers because their politicians are not doing what the hell they're supposed to do for them.

00:07:23.000 What do you think would give people hope?

00:07:26.000 Leadership.

00:07:27.000 They need leadership.

00:07:29.000 They don't need no BS.

00:07:31.000 They need somebody to follow that has a voice, has conviction, will not back down, and has their best interests at heart.

00:07:40.000 I mean, after we're gone, and after the midterms, there's going to be another flare up, I would imagine.

00:07:45.000 What's to keep this from ever happening again?

00:07:48.000 What do you guys have in store and in mind to keep this from ever being re-implemented and us having to come back here again to make this happen?

00:07:57.000 During this time of pandemic, these agencies have developed these exquisite authorities that we would have never guessed.

00:08:04.000 And I do think that part of the legislative agenda for Republicans should be specifically in law, black letter, no room for interpretation,

00:08:12.000 to constrain these elements of government so that even if they only had one dollar, they wouldn't have the legal authority to go and bind people to this tyranny.

00:08:27.000 And now to the interview with Congressman Mo Brooks.

00:08:35.000 I hope you enjoy.

00:08:39.000 MAGA Mo.

00:08:40.000 Mighty Mo.

00:08:41.000 Mo Brooks from the state of Alabama is one of Congress's best fire brands.

00:08:46.000 Someone I admire and look up to a great deal.

00:08:49.000 And Mo Brooks has been my colleague on the Armed Services Committee for the last five years.

00:08:53.000 And we're going to have a very important discussion about what's going on in the world.

00:08:57.000 So, Mo, maybe start just by letting folks know why was the Armed Services Committee an area of focus for you in the Congress?

00:09:04.000 Well, I have the home of Redstone Arsenal in the 5th Congressional District of Alabama, which is the northern part where Huntsville is, the Tennessee Valley.

00:09:13.000 And we are one of the largest military facilities in the United States of America.

00:09:19.000 And if you look at all these gee whiz bang weapons that you see, the things that empower our military personnel to do so much with so little risk of loss of life,

00:09:28.000 to a large degree that is either invented or manufactured or contracted for out of Redstone Arsenal.

00:09:35.000 We have a number of different commands, including the Army Materiel Command.

00:09:39.000 Everything that's purchased for the United States Army from bread to butter to guns to tanks goes through our Redstone Arsenal community in North Alabama.

00:09:48.000 So it seemed like a pretty good fit.

00:09:50.000 Well, your focus on the committee has not just been for those great warfighters in Alabama.

00:09:56.000 You've really been looking at a lot of the issues that go on in the world.

00:09:59.000 And one thing I remember, Mo, is that when we had people like Liz Cheney and others in the Republican and Democrat establishment working against President Trump on the Armed Services Committee,

00:10:10.000 you and I would often have to team up with our friend Scott Desjardins out of Tennessee and actually fight back against what they were doing to, in many ways, support other countries at the expense of our country.

00:10:23.000 And so maybe talk a little bit about what it's like to be on a committee that often favors war when you and I try to do everything possible to build a strong military so that we don't have to have so many wars.

00:10:34.000 Well, that's a very good point to emphasize.

00:10:37.000 That's the second function of being on House Armed Services Committee is making sure from a national level that we have the right armaments our people need in order to win,

00:10:46.000 in order to win, but also to have influence on when we should actually be engaging in conflict and using those armaments.

00:10:53.000 And quite frankly, I'm like a lot of Americans. I'm like you. I'm like President Trump.

00:10:58.000 We don't want these never ending wars. It's a drain on our treasury. It's a cost of human life.

00:11:04.000 Our young men and our young women are sacrificing their lives often and sometimes they're suffering horrendous personal injuries with a loss of a limb or what have you because of the places that we put them in harm's way across the globe.

00:11:19.000 So I only want us going into military conflict if the stakes are high enough to justify it and hopefully it will be part of a multinational effort.

00:11:30.000 I don't want us to be the sole cowboy on the street pulling out their six shooters and blasting away.

00:11:37.000 If it's only us, that suggests to a large degree, not all the times, but to a large degree that perhaps we shouldn't be there.

00:11:44.000 If it is of interest to the entire free world and we have our allies joining with us, then by golly, that certainly increases the probability that we should likewise be involved.

00:11:56.000 And so you and I, we fought against some of, I don't, I don't know if I should call them warmongers or probably better words than that.

00:12:03.000 I'll call them warmongers. Liz Cheney's a warmonger. 0.99

00:12:05.000 But there are people who believe in these forever wars and it's at such cost to the treasury and cost of lies, I can't justify it.

00:12:14.000 Um, and for example, Afghanistan, I agree with president Trump.

00:12:19.000 We should have gotten out.

00:12:20.000 Now we should have gotten out a whole lot better than what you saw with the way Joe Biden so badly mishandled it.

00:12:27.000 But we have people on the armed services committee. We still would be over there.

00:12:30.000 And there's a big reason that I don't think we should still be over there aside from the fact that it's a cost of American lives and it's a cost to our treasury.

00:12:38.000 And that is that I don't believe that the people in Afghanistan truly appreciate the sacrifices we were making on their behalf.

00:12:45.000 And I think that belief has been ratified and confirmed by the debacle that has occurred after we have left.

00:12:52.000 They did not adopt our principles. They did not adopt our belief systems.

00:12:56.000 They have their own belief system. And unfortunately it conflicts with ours.

00:13:00.000 And we needed to realize that in my judgment, if I had been commander in chief and I was not.

00:13:05.000 And of course, in hindsight, it's a whole lot better, clear that crystal ball.

00:13:10.000 We should have left in 2011.

00:13:13.000 That's when the military had punched the Taliban in the nose.

00:13:17.000 That's when the military had toppled that government.

00:13:20.000 And in 2011 is when we had killed Osama bin Laden.

00:13:24.000 The military's mission was successfully accomplished and we won with winning being the definition of achieving our goals.

00:13:32.000 But instead, we had politicians that forced our military to be there under untenable circumstances that over 10 years did not change the ultimate outcome of where we are.

00:13:44.000 I think 80% of Americans would agree with what you just said, that when you accomplish an objective, you have to notice that and you have to behave differently having accomplished the objective rather than allowing the objective to change and metastasize and sort of shift with the sands.

00:14:03.000 Why do you think Washington politicians in both parties are so detached from just the common sense that most Americans, most folks in Alabama and Florida have?

00:14:13.000 I'm at a real loss as to some of the things that transpire.

00:14:16.000 I will say that they think we're crazy, but we think they're crazy a lot of times in this town.

00:14:21.000 Generally speaking, Washington, D.C., if you follow the money, then you know why a lot of the policies are being made.

00:14:27.000 I believe that our military personnel are there to fight wars.

00:14:32.000 I do not believe that they're supposed to be for decades on end police cops on every corner of the world.

00:14:39.000 That's not what they're built for.

00:14:41.000 If we have to engage an enemy, our military personnel are the best in the world at engaging an enemy and doing the destruction that is necessary to accomplish whatever the mission may be.

00:14:52.000 But to have them sitting on every police, excuse me, every corner of the globe, that sets them up for the kind of bushwhackings, the kinds of killings, the kinds of maimings that we've seen all too often at a waste to our treasury and at a waste of human life, American life.

00:15:07.000 So do you believe we stayed longer in Afghanistan and Iraq than we should have so that people could make money off of those wars?

00:15:18.000 That probably was a factor with some individuals.

00:15:22.000 Well, that's corrupt.

00:15:23.000 That lobbying on Capitol Hill.

00:15:25.000 I would hope that that is not the primary motivation of our of a lot of our congressmen and senators.

00:15:32.000 I would hope that our congressmen and senators are not that misguided.

00:15:35.000 But based on what I've seen in Washington, D.C., it wouldn't surprise me if that was also not a motivation for some of these people who believe in these forever wars.

00:15:44.000 After all, they're not the ones going over there and fighting.

00:15:47.000 They're not the ones going over there and risking their lives.

00:15:49.000 And it's not necessarily their money that is being spent in this endeavor.

00:15:53.000 I believe that we need to be much more frugal, not only with our money, but our risk to human life, American human life.

00:15:59.000 And we should only risk that American human life when America's national interests are truly at stake.

00:16:04.000 And for the last decade in Afghanistan, in my view, and I concur with President Trump's view in this regard,

00:16:11.000 over the last decade, the risk to human life, the consumption of our treasury did not justify being there for as long as we were.

00:16:23.000 If you want to know what the America first foreign policy is, that's it in a nutshell.

00:16:28.000 What Congressman Brooks just said, that we put our citizens, our treasury, our service members as the prime objective.

00:16:35.000 And if we do that, I think the decision making flows pretty naturally.

00:16:39.000 But these common sense views that you consistently champion in the Congress are not always popular with the leadership.

00:16:48.000 I am not a deeply popular person with the leadership of my own party, probably in either the House or the Senate.

00:16:54.000 I don't get the sense that you're deeply popular with the leadership in our party in the House or the Senate.

00:16:59.000 Why do you think that is?

00:17:01.000 Well, I think it's because you and I try to do what's in the best interest of America.

00:17:05.000 And we believe that if we do what's in the best interest of America, that is the best way to get reelected.

00:17:10.000 There are others in Washington, D.C. who believe that the best way to get elected is to satisfy the special interest groups and get the money that empowers them to run these commercials that attack their opposition.

00:17:21.000 That's not the way I operate. That's not the way I understand you operate.

00:17:24.000 And I'll give one big example.

00:17:26.000 People may not know this, but, you know, you have to pay money, big money, to be chairman of a major committee, to be on some of the major committees.

00:17:34.000 We've broken down our committees in Congress as A, B, and C.

00:17:38.000 What are the grades based on?

00:17:40.000 Well, if you get on those committees, how much money can you raise from special interest groups?

00:17:44.000 So if you want to be chairman of a committee, by way of example, the initial bid price might be something like a million dollars.

00:17:50.000 Now, think about that.

00:17:51.000 You can't, as a congressman, on a regular basis, get a million dollars from your constituents.

00:17:57.000 Joe and Jane's citizens, they do not have that kind of money.

00:18:00.000 So who do you have to get it from in order to be one of the power players on one of these major committees?

00:18:04.000 You have to get it from the special interest groups.

00:18:06.000 And by definition, what do those special interest groups require?

00:18:09.000 They require a quid pro quo.

00:18:12.000 You've got to do something special that is far too often in conflict with the general interest of the United States of America in order to get their money.

00:18:20.000 And if we've got time, I'll give a really good example that involves Thomas Massey, a congressman from the state of Kentucky.

00:18:27.000 A lobbyist came to Thomas Massey and said, look, I will pay your entrance fee on ways and means, $500,000 if you will support this patent bill.

00:18:36.000 And Thomas said, well, I'll look at your patent bill.

00:18:39.000 And by the way, Thomas Massey of Kentucky, great guy.

00:18:41.000 He's a libertarian Republican.

00:18:42.000 He's a brilliant MIT grad.

00:18:44.000 His wife's an MIT grad, has his own patents himself.

00:18:47.000 He looks at the bill and he says, sorry, this is bad for the small time inventor like myself.

00:18:54.000 It really helps the people with the big cash, but it's not good for America.

00:18:57.000 The people actually come up with the ideas.

00:18:59.000 They should be the ones who are reaping the rewards of those ideas, not somebody else who can perfect a patent simply because they have the power of the money.

00:19:06.000 So he said no.

00:19:07.000 And the lobbyist said, sorry, not going to be able to pay your $500,000 cost to be on the Ways and Means Committee.

00:19:14.000 And that got published on the front page of USA Today.

00:19:16.000 So I saw Thomas said, I'm so glad that you did this.

00:19:19.000 This process that we have established, Republicans and Democrats do it alike.

00:19:23.000 They purchase these things.

00:19:25.000 Those positions are sold for money.

00:19:28.000 And I said, I thought that was a great article.

00:19:30.000 I can't stand the corruption of the public policy debate that we're seeing because of the way in which the House of Representatives is established.

00:19:37.000 And Thomas said, well, Mo, I made one really big mistake in the article.

00:19:41.000 I said, I didn't see a mistake.

00:19:42.000 I thought it was fantastic.

00:19:44.000 So, yeah, I talked about in terms of buying these committee assignments and chairmanships.

00:19:47.000 It's really a rental agreement.

00:19:49.000 You've got to do it every two years.

00:19:50.000 Yeah, right.

00:19:51.000 And that's that's if you want to know why so much bad is being done in Washington, D.C.

00:19:56.000 It's because of this buying and selling of committee assignments and chairmanships that so badly corrupts the public policy debate and favors the special interest groups over the regular American citizen.

00:20:07.000 There might be 12 members of Congress that would lay out in technicolor what you just did.

00:20:13.000 Most would be afraid to do so because they want that system to benefit them.

00:20:18.000 How do we change it when there are so few of us and there are so many people who I think are good people, but who get to Washington and they go to the big embassy parties and they see how the committee chairman gets more staff and a bigger office and it seduces them into this corruption.

00:20:34.000 Well, you need more congressmen and senators who have integrity and will stick with that integrity come hell or high water.

00:20:42.000 But the ones that don't look just like the rest of us, that is the challenge, figuring out who's who.

00:20:47.000 And the downside to all this special interest group money is they run these slick ads and these slick ads are based on polling data that tells the pollster and then tells the candidate what kind of ads to run because the public has already agreed with what you're about to say.

00:21:04.000 And there is no requirement that the candidate actually believe what is in those ads.

00:21:09.000 But if the candidate covets that elected position, the pollster and the consultant are going to tell the candidate that's what you have to say, parrot it back to the voters.

00:21:18.000 And so the challenge for us is to do our best to help the public understand the corruption that is taking place, perhaps legally, in Washington, D.C.

00:21:27.000 And to be mindful of the homework the voters have to do in order to ascertain what the true facts are.

00:21:33.000 Don't be led like sheep, which is what those campaigns are all about.

00:21:36.000 What you described was a system by where the elected representative is essentially an actor in a movie that is written, produced and directed by others.

00:21:44.000 And they don't really believe it.

00:21:46.000 Do you think that groupthink impacts Washington, D.C. more than regular America, where just everybody starts swimming in one direction and folks kind of draft in?

00:21:55.000 Well, you bring up groupthink. That was a college reading book when I was at Duke University of political science and in some other subjects.

00:22:05.000 Yeah, I think that that's probably the case. There's always a go along, get along kind of attitude that a lot of people have.

00:22:14.000 You do want to get along with your fellow people. And if that's what everybody else is doing, where they're selling these votes for the campaign contributions.

00:22:22.000 And that seems to be a rubber stamp of approval. That seems to be a way things are.

00:22:27.000 There are a lot of people who just go ahead and give in.

00:22:29.000 They might crave the political power that you get by getting a chairmanship or getting on an A committee where you can get more money from lobbyists.

00:22:36.000 And so all that put together, it's not good for America, but it does explain a lot about some of the bad legislation that gets passed that the voting public is so angry about

00:22:46.000 and why the voting public is so often now saying a pox on both houses.

00:22:50.000 The key, though, is for the American people to get smarter, to figure out what's going on, and then to vote accordingly.

00:22:56.000 Because after all, what we have in Washington, D.C. is by definition what the people wanted because the people sent them there.

00:23:01.000 I think also just a little bit of political courage can do great damage to the groupthink dynamic here in Washington.

00:23:09.000 I saw that in you. When we saw an election that we had legitimate concerns about, where we saw illegal aliens voting, 0.99

00:23:17.000 where we saw a departure from constitutional standards, from the way elections had been run all of our lives,

00:23:24.000 to this new pandemic justification for all these changes in law, you were the very first person in Congress who said that you intended to offer an objection.

00:23:34.000 Now, everyone makes that out to be some really unprecedented event.

00:23:39.000 We, of course, know that Jim McGovern objected to your state of Alabama in 2017,

00:23:45.000 which I think President Trump won by about 40 points and probably won it even bigger today.

00:23:49.000 But you platformed this objection.

00:23:52.000 And I remember specifically a meeting with you where you laid out your purpose.

00:23:57.000 You gathered Republicans together who had made comments after you initially took this bold position.

00:24:03.000 And really, your purpose was to set the stage for the coming years so that we could fix problems, so that we could make elections better.

00:24:10.000 Do you feel like what you were originally aiming for and what the way you inspired people like me, like Madison Cawthorn,

00:24:18.000 like many others to offer our objection as well, that that's been misinterpreted by the media?

00:24:23.000 Well, of course, the media is basically the propaganda wing of the socialist movement of America.

00:24:28.000 So you can't expect them to tell the truth. I mean, you just can't.

00:24:31.000 It's unfortunate, but the advent of the Internet with the advent or combination with their biases makes them almost wholly and completely unreliable, untruthworthy.

00:24:41.000 And probably you could give them the kind of credibility that you could give the old Pravda coming out of Moscow.

00:24:49.000 So, you know, it is it is a big challenge.

00:24:53.000 But what do you think they get wrong about your goals?

00:24:56.000 Well, I have a different belief system. That's it.

00:25:00.000 They're attacking me based on a belief system.

00:25:03.000 They don't want to analyze whether you and I are right or wrong.

00:25:06.000 They just want to figure out the best way to attack.

00:25:08.000 And if there's not an honest way, then they'll resort to a dishonest way.

00:25:11.000 But when you get into what happened with the elections in 2020, I'll say what I've said many times before.

00:25:17.000 In my judgment, if only lawful votes cast by eligible American citizens were counted, Donald Trump won the Electoral College.

00:25:24.000 To get that out to the public, though, unfortunately, we often have to go through the news media and the news media shuts you down.

00:25:30.000 Big tech.

00:25:31.000 They'll start censoring you if you you've already said enough where I can't post this on YouTube.

00:25:35.000 Well, we'll be on Rumble.

00:25:37.000 But you've already said enough where we can't post this on YouTube.

00:25:40.000 But everybody just needs to do one thing.

00:25:43.000 Go read the 2005 Bipartisan Commission on Federal Election Reform report.

00:25:49.000 And it itemizes the systemic flaws in our election system.

00:25:52.000 This is a group headed up by Jimmy Carter, Democrat, James Baker, Ronald Reagan, White House Chief of Staff.

00:25:58.000 And they examined all the basic flaws, the weaknesses that allow people to steal elections in the United States of America.

00:26:04.000 And what the Democrats did in 2020 was use that as their playbook.

00:26:08.000 And they magnified those flaws and took advantage of them.

00:26:11.000 But read that report and you'll find out what truly is going on with our election system.

00:26:16.000 And I'm pretty sure that, what, 17 years ago, they did not have a bias about Ronald, excuse me, not Ronald Reagan, that's James Baker, about Donald Trump versus Joe Biden in 2020.

00:26:30.000 They didn't have that in their minds when they wrote that 2005 report.

00:26:34.000 And so I think you can take it with some degree of confidence that they really mean what they say.

00:26:39.000 And you had mass mail out of ballots.

00:26:41.000 Don't do it. That's the number one place for voter fraud.

00:26:43.000 You mentioned it earlier.

00:26:44.000 Too many non-citizens are voting in our election. 1.00

00:26:46.000 And my judgment in 2020, Bath I did, is probably in the neighborhood of 900,000 to 1.7 million non-citizens voted in our election.

00:26:53.000 You had specific concerns about Nevada.

00:26:55.000 Yeah.

00:26:56.000 Because what I remember is when we were strategizing for a debate on January 6th, not violence, not harm to our country, but a debate,

00:27:03.000 different members had signed up to present the objections and lay out the affidavits and the evidence and the regression analysis on the data.

00:27:11.000 Marjorie Taylor Greene and I, I know, were working on Michigan.

00:27:14.000 Our colleague Jody Heiss was working on Georgia.

00:27:17.000 I believe that Jim Jordan was working on Pennsylvania.

00:27:20.000 And you said you wanted to volunteer to organize the data for the Nevada election.

00:27:25.000 And you showed us some pretty compelling information about illegal aliens voting in the state of Nevada.

00:27:31.000 Well, it's Nevada, but it's also across the board with almost every state in the union.

00:27:36.000 Okay.

00:27:37.000 And I should add that history is proving us right.

00:27:40.000 Yeah.

00:27:41.000 We've had a multi-judge court order out of Pennsylvania that has found something like 2.6 million ballots that were illegally cast in violation of law.

00:27:52.000 In Wisconsin, we've now had a trial court judge find that there were also a number of legal violations with the way in which the election process was handled there,

00:28:02.000 with an admonishment to, if I recall correctly, the Wisconsin Secretary of State.

00:28:07.000 So history is proving us right.

00:28:09.000 But most importantly, we had mass violation of Article 1, Section 4 of the United States Constitution.

00:28:15.000 That is the election clause for the watchers, the listeners who are unfamiliar with it,

00:28:20.000 or unfamiliar with it, that says that it is up to the legislature and the United States Congress, those two bodies, to determine the, quote, times, places, and manner, end quote, of elections.

00:28:31.000 Not secretaries of state, not Pennsylvania Supreme Court judges or any other judges, but those two bodies.

00:28:38.000 And Article 1, Section 4 was violated en masse across the United States of America in 2020.

00:28:45.000 And I could also add that another big violation dealt with the United States Code section that sets our election day.

00:28:53.000 It's the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

00:28:56.000 We did not set an election week or an election month or an election season.

00:29:01.000 You're supposed to vote on that election day under the United States Code,

00:29:05.000 and there are specific exceptions where you can vote absentee ballot under the United States Code,

00:29:10.000 and the Democrats just threw that all out the window.

00:29:12.000 Who tells us that's racist, that if you don't have early voting and vote by mail, if you just have an election day, that that has a discriminatory effect?

00:29:22.000 What would be your response to that?

00:29:24.000 Well, the racist premise of that argument is that somehow minorities lack the ability to do what everybody else can do.

00:29:29.000 Exactly.

00:29:30.000 That premise.

00:29:31.000 All of us are being treated absolutely equal under the law and to suggest that someone is inferior in some way and cannot get it done when everybody else can.

00:29:41.000 That's the racism.

00:29:42.000 Well, you really were the one that I think brought the Congress into focus on these issues of election integrity.

00:29:49.000 It's clear you haven't stopped fighting for election integrity.

00:29:52.000 Do you think that Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy understand the fight we're in with Democrats trying to steal elections?

00:29:59.000 Or do you think that they would prefer this issue be left to the side?

00:30:03.000 And I ask you that because in a lot of these polls commissioned by the leadership,

00:30:06.000 they don't even put election integrity on the list of things for people to express their concern about.

00:30:12.000 Kevin McCarthy may have some.

00:30:16.000 I've not really had a discussion with him.

00:30:18.000 I'm pretty much persuaded that Mitch McConnell has no concern about voter fraud and election theft activity.

00:30:23.000 You've seen his comments post-January 6th and, for that matter, on January 6th and before January 6th.

00:30:29.000 He just discounted the possibility of this massive voter fraud and election theft activity that was taking place

00:30:35.000 where you're violating the recommendations of the Commission on Federal Election Reform

00:30:41.000 and you're violating the United States Constitution Article 1, Section 4.

00:30:44.000 You are violating the United States Code Section that sets a 24-hour window on the calendar,

00:30:50.000 that one day on the calendar, as the day in which we're supposed to vote.

00:30:53.000 There are violations all over the place, and you have to ask yourself,

00:30:56.000 well, why are the Democrats doing this if not to steal votes?

00:30:59.000 So Mitch McConnell has punished Josh Hawley for making these points.

00:31:02.000 He's said negative things about Ted Cruz for making these points.

00:31:07.000 How tenable is it to have one of the ostensible leaders of our party

00:31:12.000 take positions that are so divorced from where our voters are?

00:31:17.000 Well, the unfortunate part of all this is, again, Mitch McConnell controls a lot of money.

00:31:23.000 It's so corrupt. It's just sickeningly corrupt. 0.96

00:31:27.000 It's why Washington is in the mess that it's in.

00:31:29.000 You're totally right about that. You're totally right about that.

00:31:32.000 It is so much about the financial desire for people to be able to keep these jobs or move up.

00:31:38.000 And then whether it's the forever wars or whether it's protecting people's votes,

00:31:43.000 the elected representatives won't go to battle for the people.

00:31:46.000 And the few who do then get targeted, get maligned,

00:31:50.000 and they try to distract us away from this important work to save the country.

00:31:55.000 I would be remiss if I didn't ask you about the ongoing activities in Ukraine.

00:31:59.000 Again, I know that as members of the Armed Services Committee,

00:32:02.000 we're getting briefed more regularly than most members of Congress.

00:32:05.000 I'd love your perspective on how you think this is going to resolve.

00:32:08.000 I'm very proud that the free world has stepped up to the plate, at least with materials and supplies,

00:32:13.000 weaponry, humanitarian relief for the Ukraine nation.

00:32:18.000 Hopefully it will be enough and hopefully it will be done quickly so that it can be used to maximum effect.

00:32:25.000 I am troubled that we are not using economic sanctions to the degree that we should.

00:32:31.000 I'm one of those who believes a war of Vietnam lesson was war is hell.

00:32:38.000 You don't get in unless you're going to win it.

00:32:41.000 If you're not willing to do what's necessary to win it, then don't get in.

00:32:44.000 So do everything you can or do nothing.

00:32:47.000 There are two extremes.

00:32:48.000 And with economic sanctions, we are not all in.

00:32:52.000 And if we're not going to be all in, we should be all out.

00:32:55.000 I recommend that we be all in so that we actually prevail in the economic battle that you see.

00:33:00.000 Do you support an reply zone over Ukraine?

00:33:02.000 I will support with respect to Ukraine, by and large, whatever the European nations support,

00:33:10.000 but the European nations have to take the lead.

00:33:13.000 It has to matter more to Europe than it does to us, right?

00:33:15.000 That's correct. It has to.

00:33:16.000 And whatever the American people are willing to support with respect to the investment of our treasury and the risk of our lives.

00:33:27.000 But as a bedrock principle, we should not send American troops or aircraft in or over the Ukraine.

00:33:37.000 We should be in a position to consider that if our European allies have first taken the lead role and the majority substantive role,

00:33:47.000 in which case we should be in a position to consider supporting our allies in their endeavor.

00:33:53.000 But if they're not willing to risk their own people, their own economies, their own equipment, then that should tell us that if it's not worth it to them, it's not worth it to the United States of America.

00:34:07.000 But if it is worth it to them, then I am more than happy to consider what request that they may make of us to insist them to ensure that it is a successful endeavor.

00:34:17.000 And I say that in this context, I'm mindful of what happened in World War Two.

00:34:21.000 Adolf Hitler and dictatorial socialist Germany, they took land, they took land, they took land, they took land, they took land about five different times and maybe more in five different nations. 0.67

00:34:35.000 And finally, they took Poland, which precipitated World War Two with the UK and the French declaring war.

00:34:42.000 But you had this appeasement for a long period of time and that appeasement empowered and emboldened Adolf Hitler and dictatorial socialist Germany to do what they did. 0.76

00:34:51.000 Do you think we're in an era of appeasement now with Putin?

00:34:53.000 To some degree we are. We certainly have been.

00:34:56.000 The Ukraine was first invaded in 2014 with the Crimea. What did the world do? Little did nothing. 0.84

00:35:02.000 Yeah, but I mean, Ukraine and Russia were in the same country when like I was 10.

00:35:05.000 At one point in 1991 they split up.

00:35:07.000 It's like the biggest thing in the world. I mean, I, you know, I agree with you that Europe ought to be in the lead and this has to matter more to Europe more than it does to us or anything we do wouldn't be successful anyway.

00:35:18.000 Now, you and I again have been have gotten the benefit of a lot of briefings where we have seen Europe doing a little more than than even frankly I expected at the outset.

00:35:27.000 We can't get into too many details obviously in this format because some of that information is classified, but it is not as if Europe has withdrawn from what is going on in Russia, Ukraine, which is comforting because they ought to be in the lead.

00:35:40.000 I don't know that I would be as accommodating to any requests for a no-fly zone because we have to recognize that Russia is a nuclear power, right?

00:35:47.000 And, you know, Germany and World War II wasn't and so it was more about land than about some of these strategic features.

00:35:53.000 Well, I think the real question is where do you think Russia will stop?

00:35:56.000 Because at one point in time, the old Soviet Union also had control over various parts of Poland, the Balkans, go down the list of nations.

00:36:07.000 So are they going to have a similar claim to a right to invade and conquest of each of those other nations, some of which are members of NATO now?

00:36:14.000 Well, and you could tell you're obviously closely watching Putin's rhetoric that would gaslight that very proposition, right?

00:36:20.000 I mean, when you look at what Putin's saying, his ambitions seem to go beyond Ukraine, don't they?

00:36:26.000 They do, and I would emphasize that I don't want Ukraine to be in a conflict with Russia for many, many years.

00:36:33.000 But one of the nice things about what happened with Afghanistan and Russia when the United States, you may have seen the movie Charlie Wilson's War.

00:36:41.000 I have.

00:36:42.000 Where the United States began supplying weaponry to the Afghan people.

00:36:48.000 That tied down the Soviet Union forces and that also to some degree, with a lot of other things going on, to some degree,

00:36:55.000 helped bring about the breakup of the Soviet Union so that we had one less major problem area on the planet. 0.76

00:37:02.000 We've got Russia under Putin trying, in effect, to recreate a dictatorial landmass called Russia out of the old pieces of the Soviet Union.

00:37:14.000 And you put that many more people, that many more natural resources, that many more of everything into a larger aggressor nation,

00:37:21.000 and then you have a real problem.

00:37:23.000 Don't get me wrong.

00:37:24.000 Russia's a real problem now. 0.99

00:37:26.000 But if it's a bigger Russia, it's a bigger problem until such time as they're able to replace Putin with a liberty-loving, a freedom-loving governance.

00:37:35.000 Should that happen?

00:37:36.000 Should the people of Russia be thinking about regime change?

00:37:38.000 Absolutely.

00:37:39.000 I said that in a speech on the House floor this week, that the Russian people, I hope, will learn from history.

00:37:45.000 We in America, we had our Revolutionary War heroes with George Washington, Patrick Henry.

00:37:51.000 We had our battles at Saratoga, Cowpens, Kings Mountain, of course Yorktown at the end, go down the list.

00:37:58.000 And to have liberty and freedom, sometimes you have to fight for it, hopefully.

00:38:01.000 I think always you do, right?

00:38:03.000 I mean, my proposition is, freedom cannot be won for a group of people by a foreign force. 1.00

00:38:08.000 They have to fight for it, they have to develop the heroes, just like you're saying,

00:38:12.000 so that there's a sense of nationalism where they protect that freedom from any strongman in the future.

00:38:17.000 Well, I would hope that the Russian people would be able to topple the current Russian government without loss of life.

00:38:24.000 But if they want liberty and freedom, they're going to have to do what it takes.

00:38:27.000 They can't even protest in the streets without loss of life right now.

00:38:30.000 I mean, it's pretty brutal over there.

00:38:32.000 Thousands are being imprisoned simply because they engage in no war protests.

00:38:36.000 And we might not see all of those people back in their families and in their communities again, which would be a real shame.

00:38:42.000 You know, we come from the land of the lower creeks, Mo, in Alabama and in Florida.

00:38:48.000 And in those Native American communities, there was always someone designated as the firekeeper,

00:38:53.000 the person who ensured that values and beliefs were maintained and that there was that sense of culture.

00:39:00.000 And you really are the MAGA America first firekeeper for our movement in the Congress.

00:39:06.000 You were espousing these beliefs and fighting these battles, I would suggest, even before Donald Trump was elected president.

00:39:12.000 And I know that for some of the newer members of Congress, like myself, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Madison Cawthorn,

00:39:19.000 Madison Cawthorn, we really look up to you and we sit together on the floor.

00:39:23.000 Folks may not know that, but we sit a few seats away from each other.

00:39:26.000 And I know how much I benefit from the experience you bring, but also your willingness to buck this corrupt place when necessary.

00:39:34.000 And I want to thank you for doing that.

00:39:36.000 Thank you for being a great firebrand.

00:39:38.000 And we wish you the best of luck in all your endeavors.

00:39:40.000 Thank you so much, Matt.

00:39:41.000 I very much appreciate the opportunity to be with you today.

00:39:43.000 Thank you.

00:39:46.000 Thanks so much for listening.

00:39:48.000 We want you to be subscribed to those notifications turned on.

00:39:51.000 And if you're listening on Apple, we're closing in on 4000 ratings.

00:39:55.000 So just give us that five star denotation.

00:39:58.000 We appreciate the help and we hope you'll join us next week for more firebrand.

The Anchormen Show with Matt Gaetz - March 10, 2022

Episode 30： Freedom's Frontlines – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz

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