Episode 4： Joe Biden Exposed in Flynn Case, Governor DeSantis Fighting in Florida, Burr's Stock Selloffs
Episode Stats
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Summary
In the wake of Michael Flynn's dismissal from the Russia case, the Hot Takes team takes a look at what went wrong with the prosecution of Michael F. Flynn, the former national security advisor to President Barack Obama, and how the media got it all wrong.
Transcript
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you ever watch this guy on television you all were not telling the truth and you should not
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be trusted congressman matt gates thank you for what you did for your country today be offended
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with the democratic whip not house republicans like a machine matt gates
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welcome to hot takes this is congressman matt gates let's talk about the news and let's
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specifically talk about judge emmett sullivan this is the judge in the michael flynn case
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who you're hearing has done just a spectacularly bizarre thing he has quite literally outsourced
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the prosecution of michael flynn to democrat donors to legal partisans it's like judge emmett sullivan
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is crowdsourcing the prosecution of michael flynn it's i've never seen anything like it but let's go
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back and just get some context for why michael flynn is even in this mess in the first place
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so the obama administration is going out the trump administration is coming in and if you remember
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the obama administration was really trying to do everything possible to provoke russia at this time
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and i think one reason is that donald trump's election was a total shock to the political system
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that the media the democrats and even some republicans like couldn't accept that donald trump won the
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election so it had to be russia russia had to be the reason that everybody got this so wrong that
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you know the media got it wrong the political industrial complex got it wrong so this is
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obviously creating great strain on the relationship flynn has been selected to be the incoming national
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security advisor and so he has a discussion with the russian ambassador to essentially preserve the
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status quo not to allow the outgoing administration to create an escalation that would then limit the
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options that president trump and his team would have you know if you recall at that time north
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korea is a situation where we need russia's help syria is a situation where we have to de-conflict
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with russia uh with what's going on on the border with turkey there was russian involvement and a need to
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have at least productive dialogue and flynn didn't want to see that eroded so he has this discussion
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now the obama administration knew that flynn had this discussion jim comey's fbi was aware of it
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and what the notes that we've only seen disclosed during covid reveal to us is that those fbi agents went
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over there not to investigate flynn for being a traitor to our country but to try to catch him in a
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gotcha moment to try to create circumstances that would require his resignation or his departure
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from the administration because he was somebody that obama didn't like and we know that obama was
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personally involved in that because obama said so to trump that he didn't want to see flynn carry to the
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next administration uh and so we know obama was involved involved to the point of even having a
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discussion with trump about it and uh and and that really raises uh you know raises the question
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uh how involved was biden you know you see biden in the unmasking documents and we'll get that to
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to a moment but it really creates a creates a heck of a circumstance uh for biden so flynn has this
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discussion he gets set up they then threaten his son with prosecution flynn takes a plea
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he then gets sydney powell as his attorney and she has just done a fantastic job laying out the case
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getting the research um and she blows the whole thing open she exposes this as um an insincere
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prosecution as an invalid plea deal and bill barr's department of justice rightly decides that they want
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to drop the case so you've got the government wanting to drop the flynn case and obviously flynn would
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like to see the matter resolved but the judge is now has now appointed retired federal judge gleason
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to come in and argue positions submitted by i i guess anyone who wants to come in and uh and trash
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michael flynn but this is not how we administer criminal law in this country you don't just crowdsource
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a prosecution of someone because your politics don't align with the fact that they were innocent
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all along and judge emmett sullivan has also acted bizarrely toward flynn uh calling him a traitor to
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the country uh and and frankly i think that uh that this is something that would not withstand appellate
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review if it yielded anything other than a total and complete dismissal of michael flynn so we'll keep
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an eye on judge sullivan nothing like i've ever seen before uh and and hopefully we don't live in a
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society where we crowdsource prosecutions and allow mob rule to govern over the discovered facts that
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show how rotten this investigation was at the outset a little bit of news from the state of florida
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governor ron de santis announcing that professional sports will be able to take a hold again in our
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state and those activities can start resuming with team activities training and workouts and i've got
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to say i think governor de santis has done a fantastic job during the coronavirus in following the data and
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not the hysteria and i know at the beginning when de santis wasn't racing with other governors to be the
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first to close down and lock down every element of our economy that the national media piled on him
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and then they really hoped in a lot of ways and in their reporting that florida was going to be the
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next new york that we were going to have all these explosions of cases and people were going to be
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dying in the hospitals with lacks of ventilators and the reality is in the state of florida we've had
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very low community transition relative to other states don't know if that's a function of our population
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density if it's a function of weather but the reality is it has been lower acuity lower transmission
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in florida and so of course nobody wants to give de santis credit in the media they don't want to say
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okay well you know maybe he was uh tuned in and dialed in to what the scientific information was
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showing us instead they're saying well florida you know maybe that's just a place where you know the
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humidity or whatever results in in uh covet not having the same impact and so if that's the case
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hey you know y'all come as we like to say in the south and i am hopeful that uh the renewal of
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professional sports will just help our american spirit a little bit more and um i know that there
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are a lot of us eager to get back to those things because it restores a sense of normalcy and so
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great to see the governor do that i hope it works out he's got my full support and i suspect that
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we'll be seeing and learning about other openings in the state of florida i'm hopeful that the
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governor will open vacation rentals soon in our state so that people can visit and enjoy florida
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i suspect that the governor is layering visitor entry into the state so that we could continue to
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watch the data and he has my support in that and and also um he has my encouragement to get our
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vacation rental industry going because it's such an important part of the economy in northwest florida
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and throughout our great state um more national news i want to talk about biden's name specifically
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being on the unmasking sheet so ambassador rick grinnell we talked about him on a few other episodes
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of the pod he is a real just active guy in the administration he doesn't wait around uh he just
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gets right on the task at hand and it has been just years uh since we have really made these initial
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allegations about the highest levels of the obama administration being involved in the corruption
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and in the targeting of people that they didn't like for their politics or because they had been
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involved with winning campaigns and with uh with the time president-elect trump to see that joe biden
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himself is on the list of people requesting the unmasking of michael flynn really is revealing about
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the sense of revenge that i think uh permeated the top levels of that white house and the resentment
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here was my commentary on the sean hannity i don't know what's worse for joe biden being implicated in
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that potential setup or being so without his faculties that he can't remember the meetings he can't
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remember being there and i think that that also creates sort of a political chinese finger trap
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for biden either he's going to claim he was the super involved vice president and wants credit for
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all the things he thinks thinks america loved about the obama administration but if he does that he has
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to own these scandals these setups and this attempt by the obama administration to undermine our democracy
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bad news for joe biden ahead you know remember michael flynn was a registered democrat
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and in some ways these democrats like they go after their own even more when they flip sides and see
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the light and so you know when you when you see all these folks clapper brennan biden the chief of
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staff to president obama involved in this you know it wasn't a one-off you know it wasn't just
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you know some quirky little thing that went awry this was part of a broader plan to destabilize
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confidence in president trump and it's why we've got to have investigations i mean i'm i really want
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to encourage my good friend lindsey graham to pick up that gavel on the judiciary committee to start
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calling in the witnesses everybody's name who was on that unmasking sheet should be giving public
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testimony as soon as possible regarding why it was that they were so deeply involved in a bogus
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counterintelligence investigation from the white house as they were supposed to be helping and
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transitioning toward president trump not doing everything they can to undermine him that needs
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to happen in the senate lindsey graham has the power to do it and i sure hope he will
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final thing i want to talk about today we saw news breaking late last night that the fbi has seized
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the cell phone of senator richard burr i have been the leading republican critic of senator burr in the
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united states congress it is disgusting to me that senator burr was able to engage in a stock sell-off
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with facts continuing to develop that seemed to increasingly incriminate him you'll remember
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unlike other senators burr put out a statement saying he himself directed these trades you'll remember
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that uh he said on fox news that he uh on their online platform that there was nothing to worry
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about with the coronavirus that our country was prepared that it wouldn't create this great shock
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to the system and then i think the evidence that may really get him is the familial contact after the
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news broke from pro publica that senator burr's brother-in-law also was liquidating stocks the same day
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senator burr was it started to seem that there was something more coordinated so the fbi has seized
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senator burr's cell phone with search warrants here is uh my first commentary i provided on tucker
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carlson tonight regarding senator burr richard burr is a disgrace he should be removed as the intelligence
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chairman immediately as a result of this conduct and as republicans in the trump era we have an
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obligation to say that we do not want corrupt acts to be associated with our tribe and republicans need
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to start stepping up and speaking out because what richard burr did in the senate stock sell-off
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is not something that we want our brand associated with and i didn't let up there i was back on tucker
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soon thereafter and we continue to beat the drum social distancing is not going to be a sufficient
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penalty for senator burr in the united states senate he needs to be removed as the intelligence chairman
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you think about the gang of eight the group of people who review the most select intelligence in
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the world that group now includes adam schiff richard burr and nancy pelosi three of the lowest
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integrity people in the entire united states congress so i think leader mcconnell needs to take action here
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and hey maybe in the next relief bill americans can choose 1200 bucks or stock tips from senator burr and
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senator feinstein you know i don't believe in guilt by accusation but if he did something wrong
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he should face the consequences we should put america and the american people first not our own
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interests as we engage in our public service and in our public acts so thanks so much for listening
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we'll be back tomorrow with another episode of hot takes with matt gates