On this week's episode of Firebrand Live, we have a special guest on the show, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She's back from a trip to the border with Joe Biden and joins us to talk about her trip. We also have the latest on the latest in Rep. Matt Gaetz's case against the Deep State and why he should be allowed to run for re-election in his Florida district. And we have an update on what's going on with Marjorie Taylor Greene.
00:04:03.940And ICE gives them not an ankle bracelet, Matt, but a free cell phone courtesy of Joe Biden.
00:04:09.220Barack Obama gave out cell phones for votes.
00:04:12.080Well, we got Joe Biden gives you a cell phone when you invade our country illegally.
00:04:16.140Well, we are going to cover a great deal more of that in the coming week.
00:04:18.980Alexander Mayorkas has a number of appearances before Congress.
00:04:24.000We're going to be bringing folks the clips from that, the highlights, frankly, a lot of the lowlights.
00:04:29.180One lowlight for the republic occurred during this last congressional work period where a bizarre administrative process in Georgia had you giving testimony for like five hours on whether or not you're an insurrectionist.
00:04:44.120And what I really appreciated kind of looking back on it and having been there to observe it is that this is like a lot of kind of the anti-MTG attacks.
00:04:52.860They think that if they treat you worse than everyone else and subject you to unspeakable things that no one else has to go through, that that will weaken you.
00:05:02.020And what they never expect is that it will make you stronger.
00:05:05.180They did that when they stripped you from committees.
00:05:07.760Then you got oversight on all committees.
00:05:31.420You know, no one wants to talk about in the media and the mainstream news, you know, on CNN and Sunday shows and the New York Times, et cetera.
00:05:38.800They don't want to talk about how my district actually feels about it.
00:06:08.120In Georgia, there's a lot going on right now that would lend some people to believe that their vote is not precious.
00:06:13.420Because you have a secretary of state and you have an election administration system in Fulton County that dilutes the votes with fraudulent activity.
00:06:23.700And then their vote isn't even precious enough for them to be able to give it to you, according to some group of people, I bet, largely funded outside the state of Georgia.
00:07:06.680One of them happens to be the Democrat chairwoman for our district.
00:07:10.880So if everyone knows what's going on here, you know, at the end of the Civil War, there was a concern that former Confederate officers would run for Congress and be elected and then take action that wasn't in service of the Union or reconciliation or reunification of our country, but instead would continue to be in service of the Confederacy.
00:07:31.380So these novel features of state law have laid dormant since the era after the Civil War.
00:07:38.980And now you have partisan, well-funded groups doing everything they can to try to exercise these novel elements of state law, particularly against Madison Cawthorne, Andy Biggs, Paul Gosar, and you.
00:07:52.720And here's the thing, in the matter of Biggs and Gosar in Arizona, in the matter of Cawthorne in North Carolina, federal courts stepped in and they issued injunctions against that bizarre state process.
00:08:07.400But in your case, didn't the federal judge have some, like, weird nexus to the mainstream media?
00:08:13.640Well, it happened to be related to a certain person that works for NPR, her sister.
00:08:26.060But you can have somebody, you know, with this familial relationship with NPR, who I'm sure they've said some pretty nasty things about you, not a problem at all, and then ruling on this case.
00:08:36.100But what I thought was really one of the most bizarre things I'd ever seen in a courtroom in my life was when they tried to accuse you of calling for bloodshed and violence by referencing the year 1776.
00:09:25.840I don't know how the court could possibly rule that a reference to 1776 was coded insurrection, while 1776 is literally hanging over the judge's head in the courtroom.
00:09:40.480Interesting thing about that lawyer questioning you, he had a tremendous amount of cat hair on his suit, which was my favorite thing about him.
00:09:47.340But what do we know about the folks that are funding that nonsense?
00:09:50.740Well, I know they're not from Georgia, that's for sure, because they don't quite understand how we feel about 1776, that we're proud of our freedoms and our country's founding, so much so that we have it on our state seal.
00:10:03.320And by his definition and the way he was framing everything or trying to frame and lie about me, that very courtroom would be guilty of trying to wage an insurrection because the seal is hanging on the wall behind the judge and it says 1776.
00:10:17.740I just wonder if that irony smacked him in the face as he was staring at the seal with 1776.
00:10:23.880There are moments, like, as a lawyer in a courtroom where you know this is not going well, and that was particularly a courtroom riddled with those moments from the petitioner.
00:10:33.020Any word on when we expect a decision?
00:11:09.840They don't care about my district's vote.
00:11:11.420They don't care about free speech as a matter of...
00:11:13.180They're trying to silence my district's speech by ripping me off the ballot, taking away my district's ability to vote for me when I've done absolutely nothing wrong.
00:11:20.660They're funded by a lot of groups, you know, groups like Cloud Mountain Foundation, Kohlberg Foundation, Overlook Foundation.
00:11:38.800The views that they hold, the policies that they want, the laws that they want in place in our country are things like they want illegals to vote.
00:12:07.040It has nothing to do with what happened on January 6th because we all know, and they know, and everyone knows, all we did was object.
00:12:15.440But this has everything to do with pursuing the radical left's policy and pushing their policies, and they have to remove people like me, people like you, the strongest fighters in Congress, to do it.
00:12:27.000Well, I know how proud your district was of you, and certainly as your colleague, I was proud of you because you handled that effort with, I think, a tremendous amount of grace, and I would not have been so graceful.
00:12:40.560So I give you all the credit in the world, and a lot of folks right now giving credit to Elon Musk for putting his money where his mouth is on Twitter.
00:12:49.960Elon, restore Trump, restore the Babylon Bee, and restore the account of my colleague Marjorie Taylor Greene.
00:13:18.100As you know, as members of Congress, we have rules about what we can and can't say on our congressional social media platforms where we have our free speech on our personal accounts.
00:13:31.900And so my personal account is permanently banned for what Twitter said was COVID misinformation, but there was not misinformation there.
00:13:40.520It was my opinion, free speech, and then quoted information.
00:13:43.240You were telling people that they would be more resilient against COVID if they lived healthier lives and lost weight and went to the gym, which, you know, started as misinformation and then ended up being medical doctrine.
00:13:58.000If you are not reinstated, what does that tell us about the mascara of Twitter?
00:14:03.520If my personal account is not reinstated, which I can't imagine it not being reinstated.
00:14:09.620Dr. Robert Malone, I saw he had his account back today, and he was taken off permanently banned for COVID misinformation.
00:14:17.640I've noticed an uptick in, like, the last 48 hours.
00:14:20.880I think the shadow ban, like, clasp may be coming off.
00:17:29.940He's still not quitting on behalf of the American people and the changes we need.
00:17:34.660And there's always a problem when you ever have leadership express a viewpoint that is wildly out of touch with where the majority of the conference is.
00:17:42.500And I could tell you there was never a moment where you had a critical mass of Republicans believing that Donald Trump either would or should resign.
00:17:50.980But the second problem is that you have McCarthy making this very specific denial followed by audio that seems to contradict that denial.
00:18:01.780And so that then doesn't become like about the truth of the matter asserted.
00:18:05.860It comes to bear around whether or not someone's statements are reliable in the future going forward.
00:18:14.120We heard this from Kevin McCarthy when pressed on that specific subject in the last several days.
00:18:22.700Congressman, have you spoken with President Trump recently?
00:20:24.600The people were, I mean, still are solidly behind President Trump.
00:20:30.240And I remember we were boldly saying that and there were, you know, folks here that were just falling apart because they were being pressed by the media.
00:21:14.260And I am concerned, and we haven't had any tapes on this, I am concerned of reports that Leader McCarthy would say that people like Lauren Boebert need to be removed from Twitter.
00:21:23.600I worry about that greatly, but I don't just believe anything written in the New York Times.
00:21:29.740So on the issue of whether or not he called for other people to be removed from Twitter, if he says that didn't happen, you know, it's his word against the New York Times, and I don't believe the New York Times.
00:21:41.420I will very seriously say I would hope that no one in leadership in our party or in our party period would call for another member of Congress to be removed from social media.
00:21:52.640What would be the consequences if that's true?
00:21:54.580That is a complete violation of our freedom of speech.
00:21:58.560Would it be disqualifying for a leader of our conference?
00:22:00.240Well, I'll tell you why I have a particular concern.
00:22:01.960I hope that none of that is true because I lost my Twitter account, and I don't think it was COVID misinformation, Matt.
00:22:09.840Well, I think it's that it was probably too much truth you were saying that some people didn't like.
00:22:16.140Some people didn't like it, but I sure don't want to think that anybody here in this place has anything to do with anyone losing their social media accounts because our job is to protect the First Amendment.
00:22:29.280I don't even want the Democrats to lose their social media accounts.
00:22:35.480Yeah, I mean, I just think that, like, I am not afraid that a tweet is some dangerous thing.
00:22:40.620Or maybe one day we'll all come together and actually work for the people of this country and protect our country, and maybe we'll all agree one day.
00:23:31.460He needs Trump in order to become Speaker of the House.
00:23:34.740And he's afraid of turning off his base.
00:23:38.240I think the real part of that conversation that came out this week that we should all be talking about is what he said about his members.
00:23:45.580He said they should be taken off social media.
00:23:48.000Now, I don't know what the prosecutor will say about that, but I can tell you what the partisan political person will say about that.
00:23:53.700Tell me that, you know, Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert and others are not upset that Kevin McCarthy insinuated that they should be, you know, taken off Twitter and Facebook.
00:24:05.920And right after that, Chris Christie reflected that, well, he didn't need our votes anyway.
00:24:12.940Do you think that there's a coalition that can lead a Republican conference and a Republican majority that is able to just ignore and cast aside those of us who are a little more outspoken on things?
00:24:25.340No. I want to tell you about Karl Rove.
00:24:28.700Karl Rove's wing of the party is the failure part of our party.
00:24:33.600They're very much the operating component that led us into never-ending foreign wars, that killed American soldiers, brought them home missing limbs, gave them PTSD,
00:24:46.560gave them addiction to narcotics and medications that led to addiction to meth, that led to addiction to heroin, that just destroyed people's lives.
00:24:57.520Their wing of the party led us to this massive debt the American people are in.
00:25:02.020Their wing of the party sent our jobs overseas.
00:25:04.780Their wing of the party is the complete failure that exists here in this town, Matt, and nobody cares what Karl Rove has to say.
00:25:11.580Everyone cares about what you have to say.
00:25:35.380And shame on Fox News for constantly having him on there.
00:25:37.760Well, I do not believe that there is a single Republican running in a single primary in America that would rather stand on stage with Karl Rove or Chris Christie than Marjorie Teller Green and Matt Gaetz.
00:26:14.120Well, and I think more importantly, the shaping of our party is not just a difference in style.
00:26:21.520And I think that the Chris Christie's and Karl Rove would say, well, because we have stylistic differences than the traditional ways of Washington.
00:26:30.720But the reality is on the policies that you just laid out, with a more focused foreign policy, with a view of the American worker that is an ambitious one and a supportive one, the border, gun rights.
00:26:43.860I mean, we are in a position that a lot of these rhinos are not.
00:26:48.040And I think that the energy is with us.
00:26:50.860There might be more of them inside the beltway of Washington, D.C., but there's more of them that are like us, that are going to be voting in these primaries that run from now through September.
00:27:00.140So the proof will be in the pudding, and it's my expectation that we'll continue to have a great way to shape that discussion.
00:27:05.900One discussion that you led, you were the first one, was on the Fire Fauci Act.
00:27:10.700And I was struck by a recent statement from The Little Fascist.
00:27:18.520It was perfectly logical for the CDC to say, wait a minute.
00:27:23.600We were planning on ending this mandate on a certain date.
00:27:28.140Let's wait a period of time until May 3rd, which was a very sound public health decision.
00:27:35.060So for a court to come in and interfere in that is really unfortunate.
00:27:40.420It's unfortunate because it's against public health principles, number one.
00:27:44.320And number two is because that's no place for the courts to do that.
00:27:47.880This is a CDC decision, and that's very bad precedent when you have courts making a decision and looking at what the basis of the decision was.
00:27:58.800So it goes Fauci, God, and then somewhere below that, the courts.
00:28:03.720I mean, so we live in a world where they're trying to use the courts to kick you off the ballot and not allow your voters the opportunity to choose you or to choose a different candidate.
00:28:13.940And yet they think that the courts have no role in reviewing something so long as the great wizards of public health decide that that's what the control is that they want to have over us.
00:28:25.920I mean, shouldn't Americans be more worried about someone with this much power just blatantly expressing a view that is neo-fascist?
00:28:33.420Everyone is worried, and that's why they hate him.
00:28:36.420You know, he talks about a court intervening.
00:28:39.740You know who intervened and ruined people's lives?
00:28:43.620Our government intervened with their tyrannical shutdowns that ruined our children's education for two years, that killed our grandparents in nursing homes, caused people to die alone without their family, caused my father not to go to the doctor and get a cancer diagnosis because he and my mom were afraid to go out of the house.
00:29:01.080You know, Dr. Fauci has a lot of nerve saying something like that right there, especially after he led the effort that shut down small businesses, that pushed people at home into depression and suicide by themselves, that still has people running around, perfectly young people.
00:29:25.000I mean, I see them all the time, healthy young people, but they're still wearing a mask because they've been brainwashed by the stupid television and Dr. Fauci and everyone else that they have to wear masks and, oh, and that masking is caring.
00:29:38.100Masking is, this is, that is insanity.
00:29:40.480All of this insanity came from Dr. Fauci's power trip that he absolutely doesn't want to let go of.
00:29:47.760Well, and, and the hypocrisy is, we will, through the course of this week, hear Democrats try to craft a narrative in committees that, you know, we are authoritarians and that they need things like the January 6th committee to stop our future insurrections.
00:30:03.940Saving democracy while they're trying to destroy democracy by taking my name off the ballot with a lie.
00:30:08.920Right, so, I mean, these people who want to cast us in the role of these, like, dangerous authoritarians are trying to throw you off the ballot despite the wishes of your voters and they're trying to say that Anthony Fauci somehow rests in some place above the U.S. judicial system so long as there's a public health nexus to the government's desire to, to, to get power.
00:30:53.220Also, my website is green, with an E on the end, dot house, dot gov.
00:30:58.680You can see a lot of my bills there, a lot of my work.
00:31:01.620You can also read the report that is on my website about the January 6th pre-trial defendants.
00:31:09.880And it is still shocking, and we are still working on getting a date, waiting on Mayor Muriel Bowser, Matt, to give us a date to go take our trip back to the D.C. jail and go check on conditions there and the pre-trial January 6th defendants that are rotting away.
00:31:24.960While Antifa BLM rioters enjoy freedom and, you know, still enjoy that fact that Kamala Harris and Ilhan Omar bailed them out of jail by sharing the Minnesota Freedom Fund link.